It’s frustrating. I get it. You finally have your piece of land – a place you’ve wanted for a big garden and to raise animals for as long as you could remember. You want to jump in with both feet to get your dream homestead rolling along.

WAIT! Just breathe. Rushing in to plant a garden and fruit trees, and throw up a cattle panel “barn” (with real, live cattle) could set you for a world of hurt in the first year or 3 on your place.

The question was asked in a Facebook group on homesteading about what everyone found as regrettable mistakes they made with their homestead adventures. Here’s a short list (well, maybe not that short). Hope you find it helpful.

Homesteading Regrets

1. Getting animals too soon, before adequate infrastructure is set up.
2. Putting up cheap shelters with tarps.
3. Putting up cheap fencing.
4. Building animal housing in low spots that get wet.
5. Buying large animals too quickly (cattle and horses).
6. Thinking that all-wood fencing is better.
7. Not having well water tested before buying a property.
8. Not asking neighbors what depth their wells are at (for best water).
9. Commuting to a job a long ways away.
10. Trying to convince a life partner to come on your homestead journey.
11. Putting too much money into off-grid solar and wind power too soon.
12. Spending too much on college.
13. Building a house too soon.
14. Buying too many of the wrong kind of animal.
15. Spending too much on one enterprise.
16. Too many varieties of veggies.
17. Too many chickens (aka. chicken math).
18. Being overly cheap with tools, materials, etc.
19. Using heat lamps.
20. Trying to garden with the native soil without improvements.
21. Horses.
22. Long driveways.
23. Quail.
24. Not thinking about sun exposure in summer vs. winter.

What else? If you have any other ideas that could be added to this list just drop me a line. This seems like a pretty good list, though. At least it’ll give you some pause before jumping in on these projects.