Homesteading in town?

[hmsteader71]

I posted this question earlier in the week, but I think it got lost. Have any of you guys started homesteading in town until you could move to the country? I read some of the replies but it crashed before I could read them all. Thanks for any input.

[CountryGoalie]

Hey, I'll re-post the link that I had posted in the original thread.

You should check out the Path to Freedom Journal at pathtofreedom.com. They have a lot of good anecdotes on living self-sufficiently in town, or in their case, "in city", as it were. They are located in the middle of Pasadena, CA, and yet still manage to make a go of it. Of course, there are certain restrictions on livestock, but they do have a handful of layers and quite a set up in reference to "gardening".

Some of the things they speak of in reference to philosophy seem to lean a bit toward cosmic humanism, but if you can see past those remarks (or, if they just plain don't bother you), you should be all set. They tend to post links to various other helpful articles and sites as well, so they're quite a "catch-all" at times. I wish you well in your aspirations to begin homesteading.

My problem isn't lack of land, it's lack of being the person in charge of the property, as my parents own the land, but I'm the aspiring agrarian, so it's little by little, inch by inch trying to get them to go along with my plans.

God bless!

[Yvonne's hubby]

Originally Posted by messianic5

I posted this question earlier in the week, but I think it got lost. Have any of you guys started homesteading in town until you could move to the country? I read some of the replies but it crashed before I could read them all. Thanks for any input.

It may pose some problems if you live in an apt but if you have some yard space theres lots of "homesteading" things you can do in the city. Gardening skills can be learned quite easily in very small areas, small animals will get past a lot of ordinances even as long as they are not disruptive to neighbors. Rabbits come to mind, producing meat for the table and building up those organics for your flowerbeds that just happen to be loading up with veggies. Its never to soon to start stocking up with home canning either. Do all you can whereever you can until you can get that acreage out in the country. The knowlege you put away now will be invaluable when you get out there in the world.

[Ann-NWIowa]

Use this time as a good opportunity to learn to live debt free. Learn to manage every dollar so as to reach your goals. Start a savings account earmarked for your homestead and put something in each payday even if its just a couple dollars. Read the Tightwad Gazette books. Books/tapes by Dave Ramsey. Once you have your finances under control and are debt free, you have a big head start on accomplishing whatever you want in life.

Take advantage of city shopping opportunites to buy secondhand items you'll need when you do get to your homestead. Learn to cook from scratch, bake bread, sew, quilt, make soap, garden and whatever else catches your fancy. Make good use of your public library and learn everything you can. I have taught myself to can, sew, knit, crochet, use a computer and numerous other skills from books. Even if you cannot practice the skills at present, having them stored away in your head will help you later. I initially read books from the library and when I find a book I know I need, I buy it asap - secondhand of course. Don't buy a lot of "stuff". Do buy tools. Its almost impossible to have too many canning jars. Knicknacks however are a waste of money and cleaning time. Use the KISS principle for your life and your possessions.

[kathy H]

I did it for a long time tell we got land. Had two dogs, a pygora goat, a nigerian goat four rabbits and four chickens. Also had eight dwarf fruit trees and one huge orange tree, and four raised beds.

[crystalniche]

We did that for several years before we moved out to the country. Then the "new" neighbors moved in next door. We had trouble with those neighbors stealing our eggs and veggies while we were at work. Also their kids had "grape fights" using our grapes they stole off our grape arbor. Those kids picked it nearly clean in a day with their grape fights and their parents said "Not MY kids" Yah, right. So why is your yard covered with grapes? We fenced in the yard but they found a way in and stold all the veggies. They were poor and hungry but they should have done for themselves not stolen all my hard work. They were doing that to everyone's gardens on the street so we were not the only ones but still----. They would also go around the neighborhood asking for lunch because they didn't have anything in the house to eat~~~while their Mom sat on the porch smoking. I gave my then 2 yr old son a slice of watermelon and sat him on the side porch to eat it. A minute later I heard voices, looked out the door and saw the neighbor's 8 yr old trying to take it away from my son! He was threatening him with a stick if he didn't give it to him and as you know 2 yr olds don't give up anything that they believe is theirs. It took me screaming at him to make him leave my son alone. If he'd have asked I would have given him a piece of watermelon too. Other neighbors' kids asked and got one but those neighbors preferred to either steal it or take it away. We moved the next Summer so we could eat our own veggies not supply those lazy neighbors. Many more reasons for the move but that figured into it. I much prefer country life.

[InHisName]

These are great ideas that work! We have been in town for 8 years- have garden, fruit trees, rabbits. Even when hubby went to city for Bible College- we took our chain saw, canning equiptment and such and started stockpiling then. (Some friends thought we were crazy!) If you have a plan to get out of town, and have an in town house, you can do a lot in preparation. If you live in town, you can still have a great garden and preserve food. I have found that where ever we have lived there was always an agricultural product to be had. In Southern Cal it was avacados and oranges, never did can or dry them! (the dumpster diving, curb crawling, and garage sales were great though) Read the book This Organic Life, Confessions of an Urban Homesteader- a great book on eating what you grow- in town. Ann said take advantage of the shopping opportunities in town- that is so true- because once you are out, it is much harder to get needed tools and equiptment 2nd hand- the supply and demand is much greater. I think if I was in town (our town is 900 people) again- I would look for classes that support homesteading on skills I wish I could do- as they are not offered here. (Sewing, , grafting, pruning, lots of workshop things) - I did take the Master food preservation course 20 years ago that the extention offered- what a blessing! So, I would make a list of #1. Books needed eg. animal husbandry, gardening, etc.- #2 tools needed- canning equiptment, good dehydrator, gardening tools and supplies, storage containers, fencing tools, etc. and start praying as you go to yard sales and such- God will lead you and supply. (Ask, and ye shall receive!)
Read Countryside magazine- it will give you lots of ideas.
Have fun in the journey! - Teri

[Marcia in MT]

Also look for "The Integral Urban House," for (city) homesteading ideas.

[Quint]

We lived in town for a while when I was growing up and we had a fairly large yard. We had a large garden, apple and pear trees , walnut and butternut trees and various berry bushes and some grapes. We grew nearly all of our own vegetables, my mother canned dozen upon dozens of quarts of vegetables enough so that we never used them all from year to year. We made applesauce from the apple trees and grape jelly from the grape vines. We got a good deal of meat from hunting. We would have liked to have raised chickens but you couldn't get away with that in our neighborhood. We did buy live ones and butcher them though. We probably did more homesteading in town than many people that live in the country do. It's much easier to do in the country and infinitely more satisfying to do in the country. There are things you simply can't do in town such as raise livestock. Living in town sucks. Even in a small town is just a miserable existence for those of us that like our space. I simply can't stand it.