Homesteading With Allergies: 10 Solutions

You’re ready to start relying only on yourself and prep for an SHTF scenario. Or, you want to rise at dawn to work in the greenhouse and could never see yourself doing a desk job. Having your own homestead is your ultimate goal. There’s only one problem — you’re allergic to the outdoors.

What do you do when sneezing and watery eyes thwart all your attempts to enjoy gardening or provide for your family? Can you ever own a milk goat or was that just a reckless fantasy? The good news is, you don’t have to relegate yourself to the indoors — probably.

Common Allergens on a Homestead

Because living on a homestead usually involves embracing an outdoor lifestyle, your immune system will be constantly exposed to foreign materials. That might sound scary, but odds are you won’t react to most of them. Considering how many species of insects, mites, plants and bacteria are outside, it’s astounding how well your body handles the constant influx of particles you interact with daily.

However, sometimes your immune system treats these foreign substances as invaders and that’s what causes an allergic reaction. Common offenders on the homestead include:

Sheep, goats, pigs, cattle and horses
Chickens and ducks
Dairy products
Hay, straw, trees, plants and grass, including their pollen
Fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides
Dust, mold and mildew
Bees and wasps

To manage your allergies, the first step is to identify what’s causing them.

Determine What You’re Allergic To

Before embarking on your homesteading adventure, get an allergy test from a professional allergist. This will safely determine your allergy triggers and help you avoid a severe reaction. Inform the doctor that you want testing for different animal, plant and other outdoor allergens, such as mold and dust mites. You should also tell them about any known allergies you have.

The test works by injecting tiny droplets of allergen-containing liquid under your skin. The doctor usually does this on your back or forearm. They will then watch for any signs of a reaction, which will hopefully reveal what’s been causing your runny nose and itchy eyes.

For example, if you develop immediate, large hives when injected with the ragweed serum, you probably have a severe ragweed allergy. If you don’t get a welt when injected with the dog allergen, you’re most likely in the clear to keep cuddling with your puppy.

Having a definitive and medically verified list of allergies and their severities will help you decide which animals and plants you can raise, if any. If the test reveals dire allergies, you should take it seriously. In other words, don’t keep chickens if you’re badly allergic to bird dander, even if they’re outdoors.

Anaphylaxis is a dangerous allergic reaction that can cause itching, rashes, vomiting, a sense of impending doom, low blood pressure and death. It often involves the eyes, lips and tongue swelling up. Your allergy test should reveal if any triggers put you at risk of anaphylaxis and you’ll need to carry an epi-pen if you’ve had this type of reaction.

Alternatives to Common Allergy Triggers

If you were diagnosed with severe allergies to most animals or plants but your heart is set on homesteading, you still have options. There are many ways to enjoy a farming or gardening lifestyle that don’t involve a perpetual cough. Here are a few ideas:

Start a worm farm instead of keeping bees. If you’re allergic to bee stings, you can still raise invertebrates that earn their keep. Worms create compost — which is solid — and worm tea — which is liquid — that both fertilize plants. Many gardeners will pay top dollar for these products. You can even turn a profit by selling extra worms to fishermen or reptile keepers.
Grow mushrooms instead of plants. Even if you’re allergic to all things green, you can still have a garden. Fungiculture is the art of growing mushrooms and although it’s possible to be allergic to the spores, take a chance and see if gardening fungi would be easier on your lungs. You can produce delicious bundles of white caps, pearl oysters or portobellos at home to sell at the farmers market.
Create an aquaponics setup instead of inhaling dust. If dust is your biggest trigger, traditional gardening might be out of the question. But aquaponics involves growing plants directly in a water tank that contains fish, which you can also raise for food or fun. The plants and fish have a symbiotic relationship that allows them to live happily in the same space. Another bonus — fish don’t shed.
Work indoors instead of out. Homesteading involves more than pulling weeds or tending to livestock. You can also learn to make your own soap, throw pottery, knit clothes or get into woodworking. You could start a business selling homemade candles or cheese or spin wool that someone else sheared for you. The possibilities are endless.

Solutions to Mild Allergies

If you have severe allergies to an animal or plant — such as an anaphylactic reaction where your throat closes up — then it’s best to avoid keeping it entirely. It’s not worth risking your life to raise rabbits. But if your allergies are milder, you have options that may let you fulfill your homesteading dream while maintaining your health.

1. Take Allergy Medicine

There are several allergy medications like Zyrtec or Claritin that are meant for daily use. Others like Benadryl are intended only for short-term use. Visit your doctor and see if they recommend regularly taking allergy pills. They may also prescribe an inhaler or preventative asthma medication if you have respiratory symptoms.

For many people, this is enough to address their allergies. You can also get some over-the-counter allergy eye drops, nasal spray and topical skin cream to minimize your symptoms.

2. Wash Your Clothes Immediately

After working outdoors, don’t track allergens into the house with you. Have a spare set of clothes in the front bathroom, mudroom or garage, then change into them as soon as you get inside. Take your used clothes directly to the washing machine or put them in a laundry basket with a tight lid. Keep this laundry basket in a low-traffic area.

Although you just changed clothes, it’s ideal to shower immediately upon entering the house. To really minimize your allergen exposure, change into another set of clean clothes after showering. This might seem like a hassle — and, admittedly, it can be — but this technique can make a massive difference for allergy sufferers.

Another solution that would also make a practical homesteading project is building an outdoor shower. That way, you could rinse off outside and change into clean clothes before even setting foot in the house. Plus, it’s amazing to shower under the stars on a warm summer night.

3. Wear a Dust Mask

Wear a cloth or paper mask over your mouth and nose when raking hay, digging in the soil or shearing sheep. Make sure it’s tightly fitted so small particles don’t get in. It might be helpful to double up, so consider wearing a paper mask with a thin cloth mask on top for extra protection. You can use a bandana or neck buff if you don’t have a mask handy.

4. Hire Someone to Help You

It’s OK to delegate tasks that would bother your allergies to other people. Are you allergic to grass, pollen, mold or dust mites? Hire a friend or neighbor to mow your lawn and stay inside while they work. Wait a few hours for the dust to settle before going outside. You can also hire someone to groom your horses, pull weeds or fertilize the garden if any of those things bother your allergies.

5. Use an Air Purifier

Use a purifier in your house to scrub small particles from the air. The filter can pick up dust, pollen or animal dander that might otherwise float around and trigger an allergy attack. This is great for people who react to airborne allergens, which can trigger asthma, wheezing, a runny nose or itchy eyes.

6. Ditch the Carpets and Window Blinds

If you have allergies, hard floors are your best friend. Carpeting tends to trap allergens in its folds and vacuuming can stir these particles up even more. Solid floors allow you to mop with hot water and floor cleaner.

If you have the means to remove the carpeting in your house, do it and your immune system will thank you. Curtains can also trap tiny particles, but they’re far more accessible to clean than window blinds — just throw them in the wash regularly.

Leather or faux leather couches are also easier to clean than those with soft upholstery. You can simply spray them down and wipe them with a damp cloth. If your upholstery is made of fabric, invest in some couch covers you can wash in hot water.

7. Keep Animals Outdoors

If you’re raising animals on your homestead, you might be tempted to take them inside from time to time. After all, who wants to bottlefeed an orphaned baby goat in the cold? Wouldn’t bringing her into the kitchen be OK?

If you’re allergic to your pets or livestock, keeping them out of the house is the best solution for your health. Of course, you’ll still need to provide shelter and perhaps even heat for them, depending on where you live and which types of animals you’re keeping. But resist the urge to bring those potbelly piglets into the house, no matter how cute they are. You want your home to be an allergy-free zone you can retreat to when necessary.

8. Choose Allergy-Friendly Plants

If you had an allergy test, you should have an idea of which plants you’re allergic to. But allergists don’t test for everything under the sun. Certain plants are generally better for allergy sufferers because they produce less pollen or because few people are sensitive to them.

Flowers like roses, tulips and daffodils tend to be safer bets when it comes to allergies. The same goes for pear trees, crepe myrtles and female trees of any dioecious species. A dioecious species means there are male and female plants, with only the males producing pollen. Examples include ash trees, silver maples, poplars, ginkgos and fir trees.

9. Watch the Forecast

Keep an eye on the outlook for the week not for the weather, but for the pollen. Depending on where you live, reports might indicate the daily pollen count in the air, allowing you to stay inside on days with lower air quality. For allergy sufferers who react to plants, staying indoors during a heavy pollen event — where several trees release pollen simultaneously and create a hazy cloud — is a wise choice.

10. Get Allergy Shots

Allergy shots — also known as allergen immunotherapy — work by slowly desensitizing people to their triggers over a long period. The idea is to calm the immune system down by introducing it to small amounts of allergens. You usually have to do the therapy for years, but it treats the underlying cause of your reaction and decreases your need to take oral allergy medicine.

The shots don’t work for every type of reaction. For example, food and bee venom allergies don’t respond to immunotherapy. Also, they can be expensive and usually won’t make your allergies disappear entirely, but they can take the edge off your suffering. Immunotherapy might benefit you if you have seasonal outdoor allergies or are allergic to animals, dust or mold.