The choice to start small is a great way to get your feet wet without struggling to keep your head above water. You’ve probably heard it said before. You don’t have to dive in. Just start small. It makes a lot of sense if you think about it and can make all the difference when you make a decision!
It happens to all of us. We see what someone else is doing and are proud of them but don’t think we could ever do it. A given skill would be good to learn, but it seems too daunting. We want to know more about a subject, but we don’t have time to get to it. It may or may not be daunting, hard or take lots of time, but that doesn’t have to scare us away from a good thing. Hard work never hurt anybody. Easier said than done, but it’s true.
Taking The Plunge
When my family and I moved to the country almost 15 years ago, we came from suburbia where we knew nothing of farming, gardening, milking cows, canning, mechanics and so much more. I was just a little tot in those days but made some awesome memories with my little siblings as we benefited from our parents’ ambitious decision to move us onto some land. Those were the days where our imaginations ran wild. We had a blast acting out stories, building play houses and bottle feeding baby animals. Sometimes starting small isn’t as small as it seemed to be in the first place. My parents started small in that they moved us out to the country before they knew all the skills, but taking the plunge into a new way of life was a big thing in itself. The rewards, however, were well worth it.
Gardening – Start Small
If you look at our garden today, your eyes might widen at the size of it. It’s pretty big, and we’re always seeking to improve it and make it better. But it didn’t start out like that. Far from it! When we first moved to the country, my parents built four, square raised beds and involved their little kids in the processes of preparing and planting. That garden plot seemed plenty big at the time, and our little family of six didn’t need much more than that. Every year since then, we have learned more and sought to make our garden better. A couple years after our first little garden, we moved to a larger property. Papa built lots of raised beds and fenced in a larger garden. It started small, however, all those years ago.
Raising Animals
I’ve lived most of my life with animals running around on the farm. Chickens, goats, sheep, rabbits, pigs and cows have all been a part of our farm at one time or another. But my parents didn’t grow up that way. It is funny to hear them reminisce about how they used to be scared of raising chickens. Now after many years of having chickens, we know that they are the easiest animals to raise. Sometimes you just have to start. We laugh fondly when we hear the stories of when Papa bought our first animals. It was more than a small jump into farming in those days. Within a couple months, he added a milk cow, pigs, chickens, and a few sheep and goats to our brand new farm.
Preserving Food
I’m so proud of my mama and all she has learned when it comes to being a good homemaker. One of those skills is canning and preserving food. When we started gardening all those years ago, she taught herself how to can tomatoes, green beans, pickles, peaches and jam. A neighbor kindly let Mama join her for a canning session so she could see how it was done. Mama has since taught some of us how to can, passing on the skill. She loves to tell the story of when she was first learning how to can green beans in the pressure canner. After hearing the warning stories of how the pressure canner could explode if you let the temperature get too high, she was terrified! Thankfully, she faced her fears and all turned out well.
Herbal Products
Learning about health and natural remedies has been an interest of ours for quite awhile. Mama has been diligent to consistently read health articles for years, and Lauren and I became interested, especially in herbs, when we read Be Your Own Doctor and Be Your Own Doctor 2 by Rachel Weaver in high school. It was through those books that we were introduced to helpful herbal products which we used with good success. We were inspired to start making some of these salves, tinctures and powders ourselves and eventually decided to start our herbal products business. We didn’t start learning about and using herbs with a business in mind, but since we liked and used them so much, we thought “why not?” A lot of big things start small.
Wide Open Spaces
There’s nothing like the outdoors and wide open spaces for a kid to run and play. Not only is it healthy to get outside in the fresh air and sunshine, but it helps kids use their imagination and learn about the world. There is a place for school books and science tests, but a big part of learning science comes through being outside. There’s so much a kid can learn by taking care of animals, helping grow a garden, observing the weather and raising their own food. I am so thankful that I got to be one of those kids!
Teaching Kids
I am grateful that my parents have included me and my siblings as they’ve learned skills over the years. They have told us again and again that by learning at an early age what they had to learn as adults, we will have an advantage and won’t have to struggle to learn the things they did. The Bible rings true when it says in Proverbs 22, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
Gratefully,
Hannah
