What is Helping Homestead?
Do you have a hobby farm and no one help take care of things if you need to travel? Do you love all things homestead but don’t have enough land to start your own? Check out Helping Homestead. Our mission is to make homesteading and hobby farming accessible to anyone.” It works two ways: by offering active farmers and homesteaders access to helping hands and providing the change for those who are interested in helping or starting their own hobby farms a platform to do so. If you belong to either or both of these groups, you can make a profile here!
Who Can Join Helping Homestead?
Creating a Homesteader Profile
Someone looking to post job
- Chickens, ducks, other backyard animals
- Goats, cows, sheep, horses, etc.
- Gardening and crop care
- Can include domestic pets
- Help pass on homesteading skills to the community
- Joining is free!
Creating a Helper Profile
Individuals with or without experience looking for jobs
- Find jobs near you
- Overnight or daily pop-in care
- Filtered search for type of job and care needed
- Learn on the job before starting your own hobby farm
- Joining is free!
You can also do both! If you have a hobby farm but want to extend a helping hand in your community, you can create a profile as both a homesteader and a helper.
Building on the theme of accessibility, anyone can join. Some homesteaders may prefer helpers with experience, but many are willing to interview helpers at the property and go over some basic training as to what is needed for the job.
How Helping Homestead got its Start
Coming up with the idea for Helping Homestead did not happen overnight. My family and I were interested in getting some backyard chickens. We live in a suburb and don’t have a huge lot, but I did all the research and learned we could legally have four hens, yay!
I got as far as registering my future hens with the Department of Agriculture, and then it hit me - what are we going to do when we travel? We do not have that go-to neighbor to water plants for us, let alone check on our chickens every day. We looked into automatic coop doors, feeders, and waterers, but we ultimately decided that we were not in a place in our lives that we wanted to be tied down because of our theoretical chickens.
I was sad when we came to this conclusion, and then I thought - surely, there is something out there for this. I scoured the internet: Nothing. Unless all you need is someone to walk your dog, there wasn’t a specific platform out there, but my research didn’t stop there.
What I found next was inspiration, hardworking entrepreneurs and small business owners. These are very qualified people offering services to farm sit, take care of farm animals, and help with gardens and crops. The missing component was an all-encompassing platform to market these services to those who need them.
My “ah-ha” moment was still yet to come. My family was visiting a farm out East that allowed the public to come view their animals for no fee, donations only. It was a beautiful, well-cared for spot that my kids LOVED. What I heard next broke my heart.
The owner was set to travel and had their go-to caretaker planned to tend to dozens of animals while they were gone for a week. However, her help had fallen through, and she was begging their handyman to help them out. He was hesitant as he did not typically provide any animal care nor did he have the knowledge to care for this large variety of animals for such an extended period of time.
That was that. I realized there was a huge population that could benefit from this service, not to mention me and my fantasy backyard chickens. I knew nothing about web development, but picked up some books, talked to some developers and started building this dream. My vision is for farmers, homesteaders, and small hobby farmers like me to have reliable help at their fingertips.
Join our Community
Whether you have a homestead/hobby farm of your own or are thinking about starting one, I hope Helping Homestead makes it more accessible to you. You can make a profile describing your property’s needs and add to it as you add to your hobby farm. If you want to help others with these homesteads whether you have experience or not, you’ll find a welcoming community that fosters farming skills whether it’s plants, animals or both! We can’t wait to have you as a member of the Helping Homestead Community.
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Click here to join and make a profile. New blogs are posted regularly and are also shared to our social media pages on instagram and facebook. Stay tuned for posts about starting homesteads, user content, and more.
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