Adventures in Homesteading

I feel like my life has turned around 180 degrees since we moved here.  I love it!  I was living in a town home with no yard of my own and an association that I had to answer to.  Now I'm living on my own tiny piece of land.  It's my land!  I can do anything I want.  It's an amazing feeling to have a little piece of the Earth that belongs to me.  I understand the American Dream.  It's not about the house, it's about having a place that's your own.  I never felt like that in my town home, nothing was mine really.  Sure I had a shelter that I could put my contents in but life isn't about the contents, it's about something more.  Contents can be lost in the blink of an eye but creating a lifestyle is different.
So here I am, starting a new adventure.  I feel like this is the life I was meant to live.  A simpler life, a more self sufficient life, a less materialist life.
We have only lived here 5 months so I haven't had much time to figure things out and set much up but I have done a few things.  At the end of the summer I bought local produce from a farm not far from me and made my own strawberry jam and canned about 8 jars of that.  I also made 3 large jars of apple sauce, 3 jars of salsa, 6 jars of pickles, and 4 jars of cranberry sauce (which I shared with the neighbors for Thanksgiving).  I've started making more food from scratch and getting away from the chemicals and preservatives that bombard convince foods and I've started buying more things local.  When I can help out the little guy as opposed to the chain grocery store that makes me feel like I'm doing my part to help my community.
About a month ago we bought a chicken coop and a local farmer now has chicks ready so I'm going to give him a call and see about getting a few chicks, then come summer (or fall) I should start having fresh eggs of my own.
This spring I'm going to plant a garden and grow some of my own fruits and vegetables.  I also need to set up rain barrels.  We are on a well out here and I don't want to waste my water to water my garden when I can get rain for free.
I'm new to all of this but I'm going to have fun figuring this all out and I'll try to update as I go along.