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You might have noticed the blog (and videos) have been on a hiatus. The last blog post was from March of 2017! And the last video was nearly 9 months (from this posting) ago! They say don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Ooops.
A lot of factors went into this break. Back in October of 2016, just shortly after moving to the homestead, I was laid off. Additionally, that same month, I was laid up in the hospital for a week (transferred from our town hospital to Houston) with an inflamed gallbladder. Thankfully, when my job let me go, they kept my insurance for those 30 days on the month; so the hospital stay wasn’t terribly burdensome. They also ended up keeping me on as a contractor.
Honestly, that was one of the best things that happened to our family (getting laid off, not gallbladder surgery). Getting laid off forced me to reevaluate how I do business, namely freelance would become a full-time business! Since then, I started my own web design and marketing company – Ariel Digital. It’s been a fun ride so far! That’s also one of the reasons the videos slowed down and then stopped. I was SO busy with work. Referrals and word-of-mouth were a huge blessing and kept us going for the first few months. Now, with recurring revenue and steady project work, we’re able to sustain our lives here and not skip a beat.
But losing my job, and subsequently starting my own business wasn’t the only factor. Motivation played a big role too. Honest moment here – I started making videos for the WRONG reason. To compete in a space that was already HEAVILY saturated and make a name for myself in that space. I did all the classic wrong things – push for viewership, stress about low visibility, constantly posting on Facebook about all my awesome videos. Sure, there’s an audience built up and we’ve done some really high-performing videos, but the motivation to keep going, without the 1000s of views I’d hoped for, drained quickly. Trying to come up with relevant, meaningful content was more of a chore than a pleasure. Putting out content weekly was starting to take its toll.
Let’s just say, I quit vlogging before it was cool 😉
So why now? Why start up again? I’m glad you asked! Well, honestly, the motivation is back! Not to be the Casey Neistat of Homesteading, but to just share our story; honestly and at my own pace. This year off has provided me enough content to fill the next few months for you guys! I hope you’ll stick around.
Publishing content never really stopped though. I’ve kept posting stories, videos, photos on our Instagram account – the newly rebranded @barefootacrestx. Follow us there for (mostly) daily updates on what’s going around the homestead.
This year has seen a lot of changes to the homestead; mostly animal additions. It’s true what they, chickens ARE the gateway drug/animal in homesteading. Since November of 2016, we’ve added: turkeys, geese, quail, meat birds, and of course GOATS! There’s SO much fun stuff to share with you. Honestly, taking a year off was more like educating myself and the family before even attempting to educate others. Sure, you can watch our journey and the mistakes we made, but who wants to see that? 😉 There were plenty of mistakes, I’ll tell you that much. But “Failure is the key to success; each mistake teaches us something”. In learning from these mistakes, we hope to share our journey and the things we’ve done to have a successful flock. Of course, there will be more failures along the way, but that’s life, eh?
With so many homesteaders out there, I’m grateful you stopped by our little neck of the woods. If you haven’t already, please subscribe to our YouTube channel and look through our first year at the homestead. From finding the new homestead to bringing goats home! There’s more to come! We have plans to share more stories and as the homestead grows, we’ll be offering products like goats milk soap, lip balms, and if you’re in the neighborhood, come get some fresh chicken eggs!
