Is homesteading new to you?

[grandma12703]

I was talking to my DH the other night about some of the things I read on this forum and how many seem to think it is something new. My DH and I have always been paid once a month and never worried like so many of our friends about snow storms or other things happening that would cause us to be stranded in our home for a few weeks. We have always been prepared to some extent at least for probably a few months. I admit I have began adding to it all so that if we were in need we could survive much longer. I remember being stuck at home (we lived 30 mi. from town) for several weeks due to an ice storm and everyone kept calling to check on us. We thought it was funny in some ways. We were cozy in our basement with our wood stove, lots of food, water, candles, and oil lamps. It was actually kind of fun for our family (kids and I). DH worked as a boss for the highway dept. so he was out the whole time.
There was a time a few years ago that money got very tight. If you were to ask the kids they wouldn't even had noticed. We had chickens, eggs, deer meat, goat milk, lots of the prior summer's garden produce canned and stored, and more. It was not that different for us in how we lived.


Spending an afternoon riding horses, fishing, having a wieny roast, or just enjoying the family were an awesome form of entertainment.

On the other side, I have many friends who grocery shop daily for their daily meals. That would drive me crazy! First, I really don't enjoy shopping at all. Second, I know buying in bulk saves me a lot of money if I do it right. Third, why? I guess I am just an old farm girl.

I'm not judging anyone for the way they choose to do things, I just think that is why I like this forum so much. It just makes sense to me in a world where so many things don't!! BTW I work in an office as a day job and I enjoy it but I seriously spend my days excited about getting back to cabin with my DH (kids are all grown and living on their own now) and seriously longing for the weekends!

[SFM in KY]

Originally Posted by grandma12703

I was talking to my DH the other night about some of the things I read on this forum and how many seem to think it is something new.

Well, I'm certainly of an older generation, but was actually raised 'homesteading' ... my grandparents actually did homestead the original 640 acres of the ranch in MT where I was raised. We were 60 miles from the nearest town, on gravel roads, pre-4 x 4 and with the MT winters, we often did not go to town more than once every 2 or 3 months at most.

Didn't get electricity until I was about 12, didn't have indoor plumbing until after I was grown and gone. Raised and canned (then froze) most of what we ate, had chickens, a couple of beef cross cows for family milk cows, most of our meat was chickens or deer ... beef was our 'cash crop' so we didn't eat our cash crop.

As an adult, when I worked in town and lived closer to town, I shopped quite a lot differently, didn't do as much garden or livestock but after I retired, pretty much went back to 'homesteading style' living like I grew up with and certainly haven't found it to be a problem.

[Alice In TX/MO]

I think I was a born homesteader.

[Backfourty,MI.]

My Grandparents always lived & worked a farm of some type until they were too old to take care of it. They raised a lot of children that way & most of them still farm, garden, hunt, or all of those.
Even when we had to move to the city when I was little because my day got a job in a factory my mom would rent garden lots that back then people would rent out for the city folks.

Until Dh & I bought our 40 acres in farm country half my back yard was garden & all I dreamed of was the time we could move out where there weren't so many people & grow, raise & do what we like(well mostly what we like).

I'm like Alice I think I was born that way & it's in my blood.

[Sonshine]

I was raised in the city, but have been a homesteader at heart all my life.

[viggie]

I was raised in the country but didn't discover homesteading or learn any of the related skills until I got my first little place of my own in the city I do wish I'd been lucky enough to have been handed all that knowledge in my youth, but I can't help that.

And I actually did think it was easier to budget at my last job where I got paid monthly. I had arranged all the bills to arrive at the beginning of the month and they all got paid right away and it was over with.

[honeyrobber]

My father worked for CAT in Peoria IL for 32 years. I am the youngest of 6 children. When I was 11yro we moved to his hometown in TN. We were the weird people in IL. a house burned across the road from our house and dad bought it to have a garden spot before I was born. Then he purchased the house house across the street on the other corner where I grew up. He ended up owning all 4 of the corner lots. One was a store front that they ran an auto part store. The state decided to reroute the highway and the store front property was destroyed. So part of that lot was turned into more growing space. We got into growing creeping phlox as a side income. Being that McMinnville is the nursery capital dad had done some nursery work. He had purchased the farm he lives on in 1954 while laid off from Cat. His parents lived on that farm my whole life. Grandma had raised 15 children with my dad being the second oldest. She always had a large garden and canned every year. So when we visited TN it was just like being at home working in the garden except for the chickens and hogs. When we moved south as dad had always planned to do I became grandmas helper. My cousin had lived with her for several years while he was in high school after his parents divorced. So I took his place plus had to work the nursery feilds. So waht is new to me is the word homesteading. It is just called country living.

Now what I am here for is to learn how to live off the grid. My idea of homesteading was more off grid than how I see the word being used. I want electric and running water and ofcourse my internet but I have done without cable for years and even without tv. I thought I wanted to mix homesteading with country life and it seems that is now being called homesteading.

[nostawmama]

Homesteading is new to me, not the concept but the desire to be a homesteader. I grew up in an odd mix of beachy, tourist town and rural, farm country and always lived in town. Never really gave much thought about where I would live when I was young but since getting married and having my first child 4 1/2 years ago I have had a steadily increasing desire to get "back to the land" even though I had never been there! What appealed to me first was my impression of the type of people that I believed farmer/homesteaders to be- morally responsible, upstanding individual- of course more thought on that brought about the conclusion that there are all types of people in all types of situations Still I had some shiny pictures on a pedestal in my mind of the glorious farm life and raising my children in the "real world". This pushed me to do some real research on the matter, brought things down off the pedestal and sure rubbed some dirt on the shiny but actually made the idea of our own piece of land with some animals and a big garden so much more appealing. Hubby, the kids and I are working towards getting some land and making some dreams come true (hopefully this year) and this forum has certainly let me live a little vicariously. Just wish the price of land wasn't so darned expensive! (Due to that beachy-tourism area just a stones throw away.)

[ronbre]

we have always been well prepared here as well, but even the best prepared people can have some weather related snafoos that just drive you batty.

we have a propane furnace and fireplace and a wood outdoor hot water furnace..and a generator..

however..our generator wouldn't start when the power went off (hole in supply line ..fixed but too late)..

we lost our $12,000 outdoor wood furnace to a steam pressure problem..thank god for house insurance.

waiting on estimate now.

luckily we managed to use the fireplace (but house still got to 62 degrees..we got the generator working but the propane furnace quit cause the roof vent was plugged, unplugged and got it going and heat back up to 65 before power came on in a few days..

so...even well prepared people can have some serious problems due to unforseen things..

[grandma12703]

That is true.

[Sanza]

Born and raised on a farm in a family of 9 kids, and lived without power, gas, running water and phone. My mom always had a garden and canned everything. What I didn't learn from her I learnt from my oldest sister (RIP). I grew up needing to start a fire in a wood stove to cook, and to split wood, pump water etc the old fashioned way.

[ErinP]

Originally Posted by grandma12703

My DH and I have always been paid once a month and never worried like so many of our friends about snow storms or other things happening that would cause us to be stranded in our home for a few weeks. We have always been prepared to some extent at least for probably a few months.

I started adulthood this way, too. DH worked on ranches up until a few weeks ago. And most ranches pay once a month and are well off the beaten path so far as access to the local grocery store.
Consequently, I too, got in the habit of buying for several weeks at a time.

And I learned skills like sewing, gardening, canning, etc. from my mom. It's just what we did.

[Blue Yonder]

Was raised on a homestead, off grid and lived in a two room log cabin. Worked hard to grow and preserve our food, heat our cabin, pump and haul the water...lived a mile from the hard road. You could say that homesteading is not new for me either.

Still doing it but have utilities now, still have the old backups of an outhouse, oil lamps, canned foods, water source, etc. When the rest of the country is feeling like it's a disaster when the utilities go down or there are huge snow storms..we just kick back by the wood stove and eat our homemade bread and homegrown foods and read our books. Like every day.

Homesteading is not a state of mind, it is a state of being. You can think like a homesteader all you want, but when the lights go out, can you still live normally~ or is it a big difference and inconvenience?

[Ravenlost]

Raised on a 56 acre farm. House heated with wood (no air conditioning), water came from a well, food cooked on a wood cookstove in the winter, clothes were all homemade (even undies), grew all our own food.

No, not new to homesteading, just new to calling it homesteading.

I reckon I do pretty good at being prepared. Was just out of town for three weeks and hubby didn't have to buy anything while I was gone.

[thequeensblessing]

I was born on a small homestead in Alaska, in a one room log cabin with no running water and no electricity.

I was raised in New Hampshire on a small homestead where we raised everything from dairy products, our own meats, eggs, a huge garden, fruit orchards and berry patches, and herbs. We also heated our home and our water with wood, and we were taught at a young age about woodland and swamp foraging. We fished, trapped, and hunted (even though it was just us girls, no boys other than my dad). Mom taught us to make bread, cheeses, soaps, how to sew, crochet and knit, and how to can, freeze, and dehydrate as well as how to cook it all. My favorite magazine growing up was called "Harrowsmith". Even back then, the "back to the land" movement was called "Homesteading", so I was raised using that word. Our farm, growing up, was called Natures Acres Homestead. This was all back in the 60's and 70's.
We had electricity, county water, and phone.
Even today, we live this basic life, while still enjoying the benefits of living in the 21st century. If I had to do without the luxuries of life, I could easily, but I don't have to, so I enjoy them!

[tinknal]

Not new to me but there is always something to learn. We raised beef, pork, and a big garden but Dad, (Bless his soul) was not a chicken, dairy, or goat guy. I've noticed that farmers either love or hate birds. There is no middle ground LOL! Even if you are raised in it there are ways that you don't know and can benefit from learning.

[Scout25411]

I commute to work at a large company and everyone I work with thinks I'm crazy with my garden chicken honey bee goat and mushroom books. I was not raised homesteading but I did start dreaminng of it early. when I was little I'd tell my mom I was going to never drive a car but ride a horse to town when I needed something. My hubby and I bought a small 1800's log cabin and lived with no electric or running water for years we do have them now and have expanded our living area. we work hard clearing the land building a chicken coop and learning through trial and error. we learn most everything from books and forums and although there have been some snag we hope to one day leave the 9 to 5 circus for a dawn to dusk homesteading life. I want eveyone who posts here to know that by sharing your knowlage and live with us you instill and keep going a passion within my family. I dont post much because I am a novice but to those that do post thank you thankyou from our heart and home to yours

[Whisperwindkat]

My grandparents were farmers, along with the generations before them. My parents ran from the farm for the good life of the city. More money and less hard work. I got my desire from my grandfather. I remember sitting on the fence while the cows were being brought in for tagging. Then when I got older riding along to bring the cows up from pasture. Every year my grandparents planted a large garden and canned all that they could. Things that they didn't grow they would head out to a you pick farm and we would spend the day picking and then come home and put it all up the next day. My grandmothers both cooked from scratch and always had food on hand. My mom was the every day after work grocery store person. I can tell you that homesteading did not come from my parents. However, my grandaddy said that it was in my blood and we couldn't get away from it for long. He was right, I tried the career woman city life thing and couldn't get away fast enough. I thank God everyday for my grandparents and the things that they taught me and the path that they showed me.

[cygknit]

It seems like the homesteading sensibility is new to me, but not the actual doing of it. Let me explain: I'm in my late 30s. My mom was raised on a farm off and on (military step-father), and although my dad was not, his father still kept a small farm for his weekends and summers off as a school principal. My parents, raised in the 50s, viewed the farm and homesteading as something from the past, and did not aspire to have us take that up. My mom discouraged us, even, on the times we'd visit family still on the farm.

I look at my peers now, and it seems like the idea of self-sufficiency and reliance are coming back into fashion. Maybe just recognized as smart ideas? Although I've wanted to homestead for 15 years, I've only just started seeing people accepting of my habits of canning, bread making, knitting, spinning and the like. I agree with Whisperwindkat's talk of people fleeing the farm for the presumably easy life of the city. I wonder how much of this is like 1st generation immigrant's tendency to "assimilate" into US culture, then 2nd and 3rd generations' desire to find the balance between the two?

[jwal10]

I grew up on a small dairy farm that grew all its feed. Ground the grain, everything. We had a big garden and canned and froze everything needed to get through. I left at 12 and moved to a 14 acre property that had no house. I lived in the chicken coop for 2 years while going to school, farming 80 acres of crops and taking care of 60 sheep, their lambs and 20 cows. Because of health problems I have always raised most of the food I have eaten. I farmed 1000 acres using modern methods but kept my family life very organic and close to the earth. I stretch the seasons as much as possible without heating a greenhouse except a few very cold days. I have an off grid property that I hope to get back to and live very lightly on the earth....James