Are you a "homestead-prepper"?

[theoutlands]

This is kind of a rather loosely-defined question, partially because there's no real good (to me) concise definition of what a "homesteader" *is*! However, in light of so many of the "Weekly Prep Thread" responses and some other scattered expressions, I thought it might be interesting (to me, at least) to see how many were/are/will-be/would-like-to-be/can't-stand-the-thought-to-be homesteaders. So, with that in mind, I figured I'd whip out a roughly functional definition of a Homesteader - and hey, we can even discuss the parameters of the definition here.

Essentially, a Homesteader, for this poll, "maintains land through ownership or lease for the purpose of agricultural production in order to provide for personal needs and to trade with others." To that end, someone who lives in town and grows a veggie garden every year for their own eating and for selling or swapping with neighbors for the stuff they don't have room to grow counts, an apartment-dweller who buys #2 peaches by the pick-up load and makes jellies (arguably) counts, and a suburbanite who raises a backyard full of meat rabbits counts - they all count just as much as the person out in "the sticks" who raises their own crops year-round for seasonal eating, livestock for milk and meat, poultry for eggs and meat, grains for livestock feed, beehives for honey, and a woodlot for firewood.

NO - I don't think the future is bleak enough to require that level of personal sacrifice.
NO - but the idea is intriguing, so can I come visit your farm?
Not anymore - Tried it and that just is NOT the way of life for me at ALL!
Not anymore - due to personal reasons I can't control (health, really good job, spouse, etc)
Not at the moment - current situation has all my energies tied up in non-agricultural pursuit, but that could change in a hurry (inc. people starting to seriously look into it as a way of life)
Working towards it - have made the decision, now I gotta find the land or fill it w/ growing things
Bugout Homesteader - once TSHTF, my bugout place is a homestead
Living it right now - remember, this is in any degree as previously stated, from Todd and Charlie's "zen prep" living on down to certain ppl's canning in the suburbs!

 

[barb43]

I'm somewhere in between "living it right now" (because i at least can during the growing season) and "not at the moment" because in the past have had many gardens and then canning even more. We want to move toward growing more, but at the moment, it's not very practical.

 

[Freeholder]

This is my lifestyle, and always has been, since birth, I think! I'm not set up as well as I'd like to be (who is?), but keep plugging away doing a little bit more each year. I can't imagine NOT living this way!

Kathleen

 

[Knoxville's Joker]

Homesteading

The first problem to homesteading is preparing a plot suitable for a garden. In my case I have to flatten a hill to do so. The tennessee clay is not very willing to move especially with the limestone seam running through the property so we get rocks in every scoop with some that require great effort to budge.

I hope to have 1 or 2 acres worth of garden area in a couple of years.

I have my own fireplace and cut split and burn all of my own wood. Enough to keep me and my father in shape all by its own.

I hope to have my mobile home rebuilt with some additions including a safe room doubling as a bunker. In addition to genny and solar power backups.

The biggest key to homesteading is self sufficiency. The ability to survive with no outside help.

Once I get the garage built I can setup the metal lathe and build some things from designs found on rexresearch.com and up my fuel economy by 1000% with any luck. Go from 15mpg to 300mpg. Water engines and the constantino transmission along with the aerosolizer for a carbeurated engine are what I was looking at.

When I started on this property you couldn't see the road, now you can see 100 yards easy and I even have couple acres grass to cut down on the dust and critter problems.

Grand ideas but doable with time and money.

 

[cleobc]

A year and a half into this house and a two-acre lot full of sagebrush and pinon trees, we have added a horse pen and shed to the existing ones and added another horse, cut lots of firewood, gotten ducks and a batch of mail order chicks growing now, and I'm clearing a garden. Only had tomatoes in pots and a little corn last year. Hope to get a few sheep this year. Water is our greatest vulnerability, community system. Also, no pasture to speak of. Hope to move to a place with grass some day. We're somewhere between suburban and homestead.

 

[FloridaGirl]

We have a home in the city and a home in the country about thirty-five miles from the city home. My husband is retired so he stays in the country most of the time while I stay here in the city close to my job. He "visits' me for a couple of days of the week and I "visit" him on the weekends. Hey! It works for us.

Our home in the country is pretty self sufficient and I have started moving a lot of my food supplies up there because that is where the family will congregate when the time comes. I could vote that we live there, because really, we do. Hubby has planted a fruit tree orchard and grape vines plus a garden. I am looking forward to canning the fruit and vegetables this summer. We also have a very large pond on our property, stocked with lots of fish.

Of course, we never know what will happen and I have tried to prepare for different possibilities, but a strong storm can wipe it all away. None of us can be completely prepared for what is to come.

 

[HeliumAvid]

As always there are not enough options

I voted No but want to visit your farm.

I am a city/town homesteader. I think even if things really go down hill there will be cities (bad) and small towns just as there are in some of the War torn areas today. I will have something to trade. I can fix most anything but microelectronics and surface mount stuff, (I can build that stuff too but I do not think the fabs will be open), But I have lots of tools, seeds for local gardens, I might be able to get my hands on a fire arm , trailers, wagons, and what ever to live and trade in any thing but maybe a Seriavo type siege.

I think a lot will not make it and many cities will become towns, but folks will need stuff fixed. And I am darned good at stripping computer controls off of stuff and making it work with manual controls and gauges. I have straddled both worlds. I designed and built a fair amount of manual stuff, and I designed and oversaw the manufacture of a whole lot of computer controled stuff. Heck I still have tube TV's that work and know folks with the tools to build the tubes.

I understand motors, polyphase electricity, tube transmitters and recievers, even crystal radios...and even if my hands can not be steady enough to do the work I have learned how to show those young whipper snappers how to do it, and they learn.

So my fall back is the handyman in a semiurban environment. I will have gardens but will probably trade for most of my needs.

HeliumAvid

 

[WalknTrot]

I'm a homesteader by birth and inclination. We've traced the family tree back as far as possible and my line has always done for themselves. Grow a garden, fruit trees, hay and grain, preserve the harvest, raise some stock, hunt, fish and gather.

 

[cryhavoc]

With not quite an acre, we managed to have a well, a large garden plot, (mostly...) stacked firewood - 4 cords, some fruit trees, with the raw materials for a chicken coop and rabbit hutch coming soon.
The big project this year will be digging a root cellar and a grape arbor. Our situation is by no means "turn key disaster ready", but we are working toward it as much as we can all the time. We are learning some valuable lessons 'this side of midnight'.
Sarajevo is a good recent example of I think we might expect. The Web has some good reading on the subject. Here we might see some pockets of moderninity, and pockets of a Road Warrior existance.

cryhavoc

 

[momof23goats]

yes, we live on a self reliant homestead right now.

 

[tangent]

I don't have enough of my property cultivated to provide for those that live here.

I would have a very hard time growing enough crops on the land I have to do that.

We do SUPPLEMENT stores and bought goods through our gardesn(s)

but basically - it's an investment property, planned to be sold for more land and the ability to do that at some later point.

I'm personally a bit worried. Fantastic location, suburban, mega close to schools, highways, shopping... and too many home sales right now (rare!) - even one that DROPPED their price...

I am NOT liking that! (unless it [price] was completely unrealistic...)

We could probably survive on what's grown on this property - if fully developed, but it would be a lean existence. 3-4 ppl, 1/4 acher(sp?) - with stored food, maybe 6mo to a year... just the land - well, we would be in trouble!

-t

 

[Caplock50]

I think a 'homesteader' can also be someone who 'steads' a 'home', but mostly does something like blacksmithing for a living. If you choose to add that definition to your list, then I can say yes. But, if you choose not to, then I'd have to say no. I have the land, the water, and the tools to grow stuff. It just won't grow. Everything I try to cultivate dies. Toss the seeds out on the ground and forget about them and they grow; plant and tend them and they die. My notorious 'brown thumb', ya know. So, I haven't voted yet.

 

[tangent]

> And I am darned good at stripping computer controls off of stuff and making it work with manual controls and gauges. I have straddled both worlds.

my strong point is information. how to build wells, boats, surgery, languages, working wood, metal casting, shelters, growing crops, textiles - hell - basically anything basic! - I've got info on how to DO IT! - from scratch...

that's my main advantage...

that and specialist supplies - like in chem and electronics. Parts to REPAIR stuff - can buy a lot - as well as knowledge on hoew to use it! I have the materials to make IV solutions from scratch (to an extent) - bottles and tubing - yes, sterilizations, yes - what's in the fluids - to a point...

but IV fluids only buy you so much - in general time... and then you need to get in front of a doc - that's where it breaks down. I have most of the tools, but someone that knows how to use them effectively... anatamy and pathology... well...

Rx drugs are another point of failure - being controlled in this country. mayby you can get some, but...

vet supply only has some.

I don't know - this is a hard area.

seeds are a big area. Are all yours "terminator" genes" - ie: won't produce seeds that will sprout in the name of profit? THAT is a PROBLEM! (and a business strategy!)

-t

 

[Zen]

How is "homesteader defined? No one is totally as self-sufficient as they believe! I'd say my wife and I are homesteaders. We've got 52 rural acres (pastureland and woods near a large creek) with a view in SW Missouri (inexpensive real estate), heat with wood with a backup heat pump, backup generator for well pump, solar panels for a few DC backup circuits in the house, a backup propane refrigerator, a fair sized garden for the two of us, a dozen chickens for eggs, three useless miniature donkeys, and three dogs for entertainment. A years supply of dehydrated food in the shop for ourselves, and the kids.

We live modestly, but in "elegant simplicity", with three vehicles, the combined value of which is $1000 according to the Kelly bluebook. A 91 Mazda pickup (very easy on the gas), an 87 Dodge we "inherited" if we need to carry a few more people or give the dogs a ride (smile), and an 87 Chevy Van (gas eater) that we put about 250 miles on each year to haul hay, wood, and equipment and supplies to art classes we teach every other month. Then there's a trusty mid 60's Massey Ferguson tractor that I use occasionally for whatever, and the trusty Husqvarna chainsaw.

We're prepped about as much as one can, in an area where people are pretty self-reliant and friendly. The nearest (very) small town and traffic light is 17 miles away.

Most people would find life here boring. We don't! There's always something to do, and usually nothing very pressing. We get to Sam's club 60 miles away about once a month for good but inexpensive dry dogfood and New York Pizza next door. We eat out, preferring Italian or Chinese about once a week, with an occasional Mexican meal thrown in, and a movie maybe once a month.

The Dish network (satellite TV keeps me in touch with the world), as does the internet.

Peace! Zen

 

[theoutlands]

As always there are not enough options

I voted No but want to visit your farm.

Oh, puh-LEEEEZE!!! I gave you EIGHT!!!! Oh, and LdyH is amenable to hosting a DoomStock in Dixie in the future, if that land next door falls our way, so you might just get that chance...

So my fall back is the handyman in a semiurban environment. I will have gardens but will probably trade for most of my needs.

That would (arguably) put you in the "Bugout Homesteader" category, I'd say.

 

[Kimber]

"Bugout Homesteader - once TSHTF, my bugout place is a homestead"

ISO same. Please send picture of truck.

David

 

[hrspwr]

Prepper-homesteader seems so city like, I am just a hillbilly dirt farmer.

 

[tangent]

OK - MEGA ENVY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gotta shed ya wanna rent out?

-t

How is "homesteader defined? No one is totally as self-sufficient as they believe! I'd say my wife and I are homesteaders. We've got 52 rural acres (pastureland and woods near a large creek) with a view in SW Missouri (inexpensive real estate), heat with wood with a backup heat pump, backup generator for well pump, solar panels for a few DC backup circuits in the house, a backup propane refrigerator, a fair sized garden for the two of us, a dozen chickens for eggs, three useless miniature donkeys, and three dogs for entertainment. A years supply of dehydrated food in the shop for ourselves, and the kids.

We live modestly, but in "elegant simplicity", with three vehicles, the combined value of which is $1000 according to the Kelly bluebook. A 91 Mazda pickup (very easy on the gas), an 87 Dodge we "inherited" if we need to carry a few more people or give the dogs a ride (smile), and an 87 Chevy Van (gas eater) that we put about 250 miles on each year to haul hay, wood, and equipment and supplies to art classes we teach every other month. Then there's a trusty mid 60's Massey Ferguson tractor that I use occasionally for whatever, and the trusty Husqvarna chainsaw.

We're prepped about as much as one can, in an area where people are pretty self-reliant and friendly. The nearest (very) small town and traffic light is 17 miles away.

Most people would find life here boring. We don't! There's always something to do, and usually nothing very pressing. We get to Sam's club 60 miles away about once a month for good but inexpensive dry dogfood and New York Pizza next door. We eat out, preferring Italian or Chinese about once a week, with an occasional Mexican meal thrown in, and a movie maybe once a month.

The Dish network (satellite TV keeps me in touch with the world), as does the internet.

Peace! Zen

 

[Inkywon]

Said Living it right now. Cause that is where I am at now. Still have home in city.
We are working and living at bugout 5 days a week still not where we want to be.Still have many needs.
1. need our own well, on a water system shared thus dependent on it.
2. clear more land for future food. Have garden 25'by 80 ft. but feel we need more.
3. have plenty of deer, dove, quail, rabbit, however want livestock.
4. Need More security alerts around property.
5. Have generator but want to go solar
6. Root cellar working on that.

 

[Samson]

Homesteader?!?. I am trying to see how having a Farm, Garden, or anything that is food out in the open would be a good thing.

If TSHTF the only people that will survive will be people that fly under the radar.

The last thing I would want to rely on would be food from an exposed plot of land.

Do you think that starving people from the cities are not going to come for your open market?

I do not care how many fences or guns you have. DEAD MEAT!

 

[timbo]

Samson, you going to grow food in a basement?
I suppose you could if you have the grow lights and then you need the power for the lights.

Several here and other threads have spoken to having very isolated sites and they may never even been found.

I guess in my mind that there isnt going to be a giant locust horde of people walking along in line eating anything that is in front of them.

A lot of people arent going to make it at all out of the large urban areas.

The ones that do are going to move on major arteries even if they are just walking.
What I picture is the hordes of people that moved along in Europe and Asia during WWII rather than walking zombies trudging across the landscape in ever widening circles from the city.

Cannibalism. IMO, that will be a factor way before the hordes even leave the city.
Thanks to our breakdown in morality through our media (think Hannibal the cannibal) entertainment, cannibalism could become a reality.

I know many places (been there) that a body of 1000 people couldnt find the site in a 100 years. And if they are that hungry they arent going to slow down to find a site that they dont even know exists.

 

[The Flying Dutchman]

Samson, you going to grow food in a basement?
I suppose you could if you have the grow lights and then you need the power for the lights.

Several here and other threads have spoken to having very isolated sites and they may never even been found.

I guess in my mind that there isnt going to be a giant locust horde of people walking along in line eating anything that is in front of them.

A lot of people arent going to make it at all out of the large urban areas.

The ones that do are going to move on major arteries even if they are just walking.
What I picture is the hordes of people that moved along in Europe and Asia during WWII rather than walking zombies trudging across the landscape in ever widening circles from the city.

Cannibalism. IMO, that will be a factor way before the hordes even leave the city.
Thanks to our breakdown in morality through our media (think Hannibal the cannibal) entertainment, cannibalism could become a reality.

I know many places (been there) that a body of 1000 people couldnt find the site in a 100 years. And if they are that hungry they arent going to slow down to find a site that they dont even know exists.

Timbo;

in regards to using enclosed (caves, basements etc) for growing plants - (gardens for you dirty minded sorts). You may want to goole solor for this task.

It seems one CAN ,funnel. sunlight into an underground enviroment.

By using firbe optics!

You can literally 'pipe' sun shine into your underground abode. And it has worked for at least 1 commercial highrise in Toyko Japan! And in several other locations here inside the US.

The needed materials - old fibre optic cable from your phone company's 'bone yard' will work! And next some glue and clear plastic bowls + glue....

"Pipe" your own sunshine into your home - no power bills, no gasoline bills...

 

[timbo]

Granted Dutch, but I doubt if I could lay my hands on the needed materials.

I guess I would rather be isolated anyway.

 

[sparkky]

Couldn't vote, kind of a "tweener" I guess. We have a 40 acre place at the DEAD END of a PRIVATE road. It is liveable now (2 BDRM trailer) but about half done building a home there. Good springs for water, access to critters and plenty of room for gardens. Forty acres of oak and hickory for firewood. Both of us were born and raised on farms. We could pull the pin and go today if we had/wanted to. Still things we want to do first that requires me to stay here and make FRNs. But we COULD if we had to.

 

[Karnie]

Right now, I've got the land, and am working on getting a place to live, gardens, etc. set up.

Kimber, I don't show pics of my truck this early in a relationship.

 

[Fred]

I'm a suburb-livin' optimistic DGI sheeple who thinks the world isn't coming to an end any time soon, so I voted 'No'.

 

[Windy Ridge]

I've got a semi-finished home on 40 acres, the start of a garden and the hope of gaining control of 156 acres of dry farmland in 18 months. I need a well, more garden fencing, a tractor and implements, time to finish my latest building project (which has to be completed before finishing my home) and a few hundred minor things. When I get control of my farmland I will be able to cut about 100-150 tones of dryland hay and still raise enough grain for myself and a few critters. Any Ravening Hordes moving north from Billings on foot would either freeze to death (in winter & parts of spring & fall), fall off of a cliff, or die of thirst. There is almost no potable (even with boiling and filtration) open water in this area between the Yellowstone and Musselshell rivers. Actually I expect very few would leave the Yellowstone valley. A very large percentage of them are totally ignorant of anything outside of a few towns and the interstate connecting them. I have repeatedly told my co-workers that I DO NOT live in town A OR town B but fully half of them (including the former district manager) are not able to comprehend that people can live outside of towns.

Windy Ridge

 

[Jarhead]

Voted yes.
We recently moved from Florida to rural Alabama and bought an old plantation with 53+ acres.

The main house has 10 foot ceilings and 3 wood burning fireplaces. There are 2 hunting cabins (2/1) on the land and a 3/2 guest house and barn.

There are two springs on the property and a old fashioned well (powered by Armstrong). There are black walnut, pecan, oak and sugar maples along with a 5acre garden and orchard with cherry, apple, pear, plum, peach and mulberry trees.
There is 20 acres in hay and 10 in woods. There rest is in pasture for the horses and cattle.

Just finished cross fencing and purchases a 35 HP diesel tractor with bush hog, front end loader and disk and plow. We have a two hundred gallon diesel tank set-up.

Throw in about a years supply of friezed dried foods, 12 cases of MRE's, cases of ball mason jars, lids and seals, about 100 lbs of seed (most heirloom), generators (i propane and on gas), 500 gallon propane tank (heat and hot water heater) and propane refrigerator, a dozen or so chickens, 14 dogs and 4 cats, a parrot (yellow nape) and my 4 year old grandson.

Yea, I think you could say we are homesteading.

Either that, or we've lost our minds.

Jarhead

 

[nharrold]

My situation is somewhat like Caplocks, in that it's nearly impossible to grow anything on my 12 acres (not all of which is useable). The soil is mostly decomposed granite and clay, and won't support anything much except blackberries and poison oak. We tried the garden thing, but it was a waste of time. On the other hand, my nearest neighbor (1/2 mile distant) has soil that is mostly black loam, so he can grow most anything that he wants...but then he has to keep his cows away from it.

Anyway, it just depends on your local soil conditions, sun exposure, temperature ranges, etc. Can't just assume that because it's "country", one can grow all of one's own food on the property.

 

[Caplock50]

So is setting up a smithy shop or some other kind of shop also considered 'homesteading'? I need to know so I can vote.

 

[thunderlight]

Couldn't complete the poll because there is no option for "NO, because a lone homesteader, even with a family, doesn't stand a snowflake's chance in a blast furnace getting through what is coming by themselves!"

Having an on-hand supply of prep items is OKAY for today and tomorrow ... BUT ... at some point they WILL run out; IF they are not taken away (whether by the hand of man, by an act of nature, or, as some may see it, the hand of God) first. When that happens, there are only 3 preps that are truly valid over the long term ... knowledge, skills, and Faith.

In this day and age, very few families have all of the necessary and essential knowledge and skills for true self-sufficiency on a scale as was common 200 yrs ago .... or even on as simple a level as was common 50 yrs ago.

It's gonna take a community of dedicated people who are highly knowledgeable and skilled in an extremely wide range of arts, crafts, and 'applied technical fields' and who commited to working together in accordance with the Old Ways.


ThunderLight

 

[theoutlands]

Cap - sorry for not replying before now. I'm primarily asking about agricultural-related activities. I'm not dismissing the necessity of a blacksmith, by any means! But, for purposes of *this* poll, I'm sticking to folks pursuing agriculture.

TL - "Lone Wolf" vs. "Community" hasn't even entered into this yet. I am just asking how many people are "looking to the land" as part of their preps rather than relying on a stack of Mountain House cans in the closet. That's a topic of a follow-on poll, once I figure out how to phrase the choices adequately.

 

[horse and hammer]

We live like we do because we like this kind of life, but sometimes our home is more work than work. We make choices.

Horse and I never heard of this preparedness thing before last year, never read those books or saw those movies. We are just living the life we chose to live.

Mary

 

[Jim in MO]

“NO - I don't think the future is bleak enough to require that level of personal sacrifice.”

For some reason this option surprised me. We have been living on the homestead for years and have never considered it a sacrifice at all. For us it is living our dream. As someone stated earlier I feel it’s impossible for anyone to be completely self sufficient. We do a good job of raising “most” of our food but with only 30 useable acres I can’t raise enough grains to provide all of our needs.

What we do have is a very extensive orchard (apple, pear, peach, plum, and cherry) roughly 1.5 acre garden; I cut my own hay for the stock as well as some corn and oats for their feed as well. We have a milk cow, several beef cows, dairy goats (5 does and 1 buck) chickens, turkeys, rabbits, and pigs (1 boar and three sows). Our well has tested clean, we have a propane backup generator with a 1000 gal tank, I have a 250 gal tank for diesel to keep the tractor going, and we heat with wood and have an additional 20 acres that is heavily wooded to keep us supplied for the rest of our lives.

But even with this we still have to buy things to get buy. I feel that we have a good start but we are still looking for ways to be less dependent on the commercial world.

What I feel is our biggest positive is how remote we live. We are 60 miles from a major city 15 miles from the small town that we do our shopping and what few neighbors we have are solid country folks and we know each other real well.

 

[thunderlight]

TL - "Lone Wolf" vs. "Community" hasn't even entered into this yet. I am just asking how many people are "looking to the land" as part of their preps rather than relying on a stack of Mountain House cans in the closet. That's a topic of a follow-on poll, once I figure out how to phrase the choices adequately.

Outlands,

Please bear in mind that one of the primary focuses of my ministry program is the design and implementation of sustainable, self-sufficiency programs for tribes all over Canda, the US, and parts of Mexico. By most measures, I believe I know a great deal about this topic. I can not emphasize enough that homesteading does not factor into my work in any shape, form or fashion.

The definition of 'homesteading' can be manipulated and played with, but it does have a fairly well agreed upon definition.

From: http://www.daycreek.com/dc/html/DC_whatishomesteading.htm

"It's not a single idea, but many ideas and attitudes, including a reverence for nature and a preference for country life; a desire for maximum personal self-reliance and creative leisure; a concern for family nurture and community cohesion; a certain hostility toward luxury; a belief that the primary reward of work should be well-being rather than money; a certain nostalgia for the supposed simplicities of the past and an anxiety about the technological and bureaucratic complexities of the present and the future; and a taste for the plain and functional." --- JD Belanger, Countryside Magazine

"Over the last hundred years or so, the term "homesteading" has evolved to a new meaning, and there are about as many interpretations as there are homesteaders. To us, the modern homesteader is someone who strives for autonomy; to become as self-sufficient and self-confident as possible. We don't mean by this that all folks calling themselves homesteaders are automatically enrolled in some sort of worldwide self-sufficiency contest, either. Each person has to decide just how far he or she wishes to take self-sufficiency...To us, "homesteader" might be the antithesis to "consumer." Even the term "consumer" implies that one only consumes: continually buys, uses up, and buys more. A true consumer gives nothing back to the planet in return. A homesteader, on the other hand, creates, nourishes, and nurtures. A homesteader is a worthy steward to the Earth." --- Skip Thomsen and Cat Freshwater, The Modern Homestead Manual

"Homesteading has more than one meaning. It used to mean qualifying for free government land because you lived on it, built a house on it, and so on. Now it means living on the land and trying for at least some degree of home production of your needs, especially food. When people who were raised in cities try to accomplish that, I believe it can be every bit as much of a challenge for them as crossing the plains was for our pioneer ancestors. People go to all kinds of places to do their homesteading: the suburbs of their city, the mountains of Appalachia or the western United States, the northeastern United States, the Midwest, northern California, Alaska, Canada, Mexico. No matter where you are or go -- if you can grow a garden and raise some animals, you're a homesteader. And a fortunate human being!" --- Carla Emery, The Encyclopedia of Country Living​

Another article that anyone and everyone reading this thread should read can be found at:
http://www.ibiblio.org/london/rural-skills/homesteading/homesteading-defined

From that article:

Thus, the definition of alternative homesteading is: Sustainable, cautious and somewhat self-reliant livestyle which borrows heavly from currently technlogy and the enviornmental movement.​

Considering that almost all definitions of homesteading include such key words as self-reliant, autonomous, etc, the reality is:

Homesteading = Single Individual or Family = Lone Wolf​

I mentioned at the begining of this posting that "homesteading does not factor into my work in any shape, form or fashion." One of MANY reasons is that, being a holistic systems approach towards independent living, any actual implementation of modern homesteading DOES REQUIRE heavy reliance on modern technology. If ANY level of that technology breaks down, there is an inevitable cascade of failures throughout the homestead environment. A more complete look at the causes, results and ramifications of just that one issue is FAR beyond the scope of this thread.


ThunderLight

 

[oops]

welllllllllll doc...u've had me debatin myself on how to answer this...so here goes ...

none of the above...

from what I remember of how my family lived not that many yrs ago...the set up I have doesn't come close to a true homestead...35 yrs ago...we were 100% self sufficient...but not in the way folks take it to mean today...some of the skills I can remember family doing are mindboggling to me now...most of us that think we are homesteaders ...are more like "weekend warriors"...the back up stuff is still there/available...we just have to run to "town" to get it... the homesteading I remember as a kid was the type if it broke u knew how to make ur own replacement or u did a work around or simply did w/o it...one family couldn't keep up with what needed done on a normal everyday basis that's why there was several generations all living and working the same area...maybe the easiest way to explain what I mean is to list some of the things I remember my grandparents n great grandparents doing...

woodworking
logging/milling
construction
veterinary work
animal husbandry
horticulture/gardening
farrier and blacksmithing
metal working
spinning/weaving/quilting/sewing etc
food perservation without canners
candle/soap making etc
herbalists/wildcrafting
hunters/trappers/fishing
tanning/leathercrafts


that's just a short list of what I remember them ALL being experts in...so ...even as well off as I am...I dont consider myself to be a true homesteader ...simply because hubby n I may have a lot of the skills we need to do it...and knowledge of other skills...we're sorely lacking in still other vital skills...

oops

 

[okie medicvet]

Working on it. Planted my first bulbs of garlic that max gave me a while back.

And I got a bunch of tires..now I need to get some money somehow to get the potting soil and seeds and get started. I know that time is running out, for the spring anyways, and hopefully if I don't get any money before then that May won't be too late to plant.

 

[theoutlands]

"It's not a single idea, but many ideas and attitudes, including a reverence for nature and a preference for country life; a desire for maximum personal self-reliance and creative leisure; a concern for family nurture and community cohesion; a certain hostility toward luxury; a belief that the primary reward of work should be well-being rather than money; a certain nostalgia for the supposed simplicities of the past and an anxiety about the technological and bureaucratic complexities of the present and the future; and a taste for the plain and functional." --- JD Belanger, Countryside Magazine

"Over the last hundred years or so, the term "homesteading" has evolved to a new meaning, and there are about as many interpretations as there are homesteaders. To us, the modern homesteader is someone who strives for autonomy; to become as self-sufficient and self-confident as possible. We don't mean by this that all folks calling themselves homesteaders are automatically enrolled in some sort of worldwide self-sufficiency contest, either. Each person has to decide just how far he or she wishes to take self-sufficiency...To us, "homesteader" might be the antithesis to "consumer." Even the term "consumer" implies that one only consumes: continually buys, uses up, and buys more. A true consumer gives nothing back to the planet in return. A homesteader, on the other hand, creates, nourishes, and nurtures. A homesteader is a worthy steward to the Earth." --- Skip Thomsen and Cat Freshwater, The Modern Homestead Manual

"Homesteading has more than one meaning. It used to mean qualifying for free government land because you lived on it, built a house on it, and so on. Now it means living on the land and trying for at least some degree of home production of your needs, especially food. When people who were raised in cities try to accomplish that, I believe it can be every bit as much of a challenge for them as crossing the plains was for our pioneer ancestors. People go to all kinds of places to do their homesteading: the suburbs of their city, the mountains of Appalachia or the western United States, the northeastern United States, the Midwest, northern California, Alaska, Canada, Mexico. No matter where you are or go -- if you can grow a garden and raise some animals, you're a homesteader. And a fortunate human being!" --- Carla Emery, The Encyclopedia of Country Living​

Considering that almost all definitions of homesteading include such key words as self-reliant, autonomous, etc, the reality is:

Homesteading = Single Individual or Family = Lone Wolf​

Except that Belanger specifically pointed out "family nurture and community cohesion" in his opinion.

Carla's quote that I bolded said best what I was trying to get at:

Now it means living on the land and trying for at least some degree of home production of your needs, especially food.

That's all I was trying to ask people - who here is trying for at least some degree of home production of your food needs?

oops - based on my parameters of intent, you score in the "Living It" category.

TL - you fit into the "not at the moment, all my energies are dedicated to other projects" category.


And for folks who think pioneer families were really all that self-sufficient - read the "Little House on the Prairie" books... Being able to take care of the animals you have "on-site" doesn't make you a vet, either, btw - that's just "basic skills" imo.

 

[thunderlight]

Except that Belanger specifically pointed out "family nurture and community cohesion" in his opinion.

Carla's quote that I bolded said best what I was trying to get at:


That's all I was trying to ask people - who here is trying for at least some degree of home production of your food needs?

oops - based on my parameters of intent, you score in the "Living It" category.

TL - you fit into the "not at the moment, all my energies are dedicated to other projects" category.


And for folks who think pioneer families were really all that self-sufficient - read the "Little House on the Prairie" books... Being able to take care of the animals you have "on-site" doesn't make you a vet, either, btw - that's just "basic skills" imo.

Actually, by any measure of the definition of Modern Homesteading is the family that happens to have a garden that they take care themselves rather than hiring a yard care company to do it for them; a few fancy technological gee-whiz gizmos that let them in whole or part bypass the usual utility companies; and most importantly, the illusion and/or delusion of self-sufficiency.

Homesteading got modified in recent years by the back-to-nature yuppies that really didn't want to rough it but project the appearance they are. THAT was the point of those definitions I posted Doc. They constitute a self-delusion intended to project an illusion.

IF you wanna try 'traditional homesteading' - what part of total, complete sustainable self-sufficiency with no outside help (beyond those living in your home) and no outside resources beyond what you can gather, grow, make do you NOT get?

Frankly, I'm not into either. Never have been, never will be. I'm so far beyond homesteading of any form - reverting to it for me would be like stepping from Post-Doctoral Studies back into Pre-Kindergarten.

It's about a unified, cohesive community operating as a interdependent whole.

As for the pioneers -- you're right. They never understood the concept either. Try reading "Beyond Geography" by Fredrick Turner. You might learn something.

ThunderLight

 

[oops]

oops - based on my parameters of intent, you score in the "Living It" category



hummm...nope doc... cant say that...given what I know homesteading and being prepped actually means... I wont call the way I live something that it isn't to make anyone else comfortable...it is what it is... yes I live fairly independant and self reliant/sufficient...but I am by no means capable of doing what the term implies and no amt of redefining it can change that (u DID say we might have to look at the def in the thread) ...sad to say... but even with what we have and our skills, I can't agree with ya on this one...

oops