What does Homesteading mean to you?
 

I'm just reading a lot of threads and realizing that there are lots of views of what homesteading is. What is yours? How much land do you need or can you homestead in an apartment? What are your goals?

I want this to remain a sharing of your ideas, NOT bashing or any derrogatory comments about anyone's posting!! Realize that everyone has their own opinions that are right for them, but don't critisize it. Please tell us what it means to you but keep your comments about your ideas and nobody else's.

As for us, homesteading means a simple lifestyle, making a living, putting food on the table and a roof over our heads by doing what we love doing instead of working for someone else. We love farming both crops and animals, having a dairy and working with our fiber arts. Our goal is to have a self-sustaining lifestyle; being able to grow most of our own food; being able to meet our needs without relying much on the outside world.

Thanks for keeping this nice!! -Catherine

Homesteading to me is choosing to live deliberately. It is living simply and staying connected to God, nature and the food chain needed for life. It means when the job fails that provided money we will continue to live as our needs are basic. It is finding happiness and contentment where we are, with who we are with and with what we are doing and sharing what we have learned with others.

This question comes up quite regularly.

What it boils down to is that Homesteading means different things to different people in different stages of their life and circumstances.

:cowboy:

I dont like to call what I am doing homesteading because it isn't, however my homeplace reliancy combined with my other income streams I built during my career and little projects along the way ensure that in my leisurely midlife retirement I always have my next meal to eat , some money in my pocket regardless if the markets are up or down and if I feel like taking off on a trip or just goofing off for a day or two, I have no customers or bosses complaining to me. Being single I don't have to worry about a wife complaining if I choose to sleep until noon either and my girlfriend doesn't ever expect to see me before 6 p.m.

Homeplace reliancy for me is just one of the facets I incorporate to help provide the security my parents provided for me in my youth within the 20 to 30 hours a week I have chosen to allot to maintaining it now. When I wake in the morning and go to sleep at night I know that I have a roof over my head and my daily chores or income generating projects to do the next day around my play time.

Homesteading to me means having only mother nature as boss!

By using hydroponics and aeroponics in my attached greenhouse I don't even let mother nature boss me :D

To me is means living a simple life on a farm out in the middle of no where. It means trying new/old ways of doing things around the home without running to buy things from a store. It means letting go of materialism and finding peace and joy right where I'm at. :)

There are 7 replies. Homesteading to me is a little of all these things. I am not retired yet. I have a full time job but I choose to work 3 days a week right now because of the economy. This is a way to see how things go when I do retire. I live at the end of the road, any further west and you have to go to the ocean and come back 40 miles and then only on logging roads. I have 1 acre and use the adjoining timber lands. I generate my own power and live off the land. I only buy what won't grow here, staples like salt, pepper, baking powder and baking soda. And whole goods like wheat, oats, beans and corn....James

I think its trying to live today and tomorrow like they did years ago.That is until it gets toooo rough,then we scratch through that part,like we didn't mean to be a fanatic.:nana:

I guess to me it is all about sustainability. I really believe we are fast approaching a point where resources are going to start decreasing. So we are trying to live as lightly and responsibly as possible and provide as much for ourselves as we can and teaching others about it too. We really hope to be able to expand the teaching part, we hope to have people stay for the weekend and run classes on gardening organically and cooking and other stuff like that.

I still find "homesteading" an odd word to use, because it brings to mind the historical meaning of pre-empting unoccupied (except by the Natives) crown land. However, the meaning that brought me to this site was on the title of the front page: "getting back-to-the-land practicing sustainable, agricultural, ecologically sound, energy efficient, self-sufficient lifestyles".

For me it's doing as much as you can to be independent. This could mean living in an apartment with a few plants on your balcony and walking/riding your paid for bike everywhere...or it could mean farming a piece of ground off the grid...and anything in between. Like I say, for my family, it's working to be as independent as possible. I also believe it's always a work in progress. We are blessed enough to have 5 acres and raise most of our own food, we are working toward an alternative power source.

To me it is more of an ideal or a goal to work towards. DH and I both have full time jobs in the city and that ain't changing anytime soon. But, my garden provides about 75% of our produce (and expanding every day), by next spring the goats should be supplying enough milk for us to drink and to make butter/cheese, and hens for eggs are in the long range plans. I don't ever plan to sell anything I produce (except maybe a baby goat or two), it is all for our groceries. I may never be the true definition of a homesteader, but I am taking steps to reduce our reliance on the food industry and to decrease our consumption of highly processed foods. I hope y'all don't mind me hanging around, at any rate ;)

i have a very broad view of homesteading. to me it's an attitude. if, when confronted with a problem, your first instinct is to write a check, then you're not a homesteader. if your first instinct is to roll up your sleeves and build a solution to your problem, then you're a homesteader.

of course, no one can 'build their own' in every facet of life. so, some people will build their own house, but buy all their food. someone else might buy a grow/raise their own food, but buy their house. Some begin by cooking from scratch, while others start by doing their own car repairs. my view is, they're all homesteaders.

over time, most people seem to add more activities and knowledge, expanding the cooking into cheese- or wine-making, or the garden into animal raising. while at the same time dropping a task or two as they decide they'd rather spend the time elsewhere, or as age creeps up on them.

there was a lively thread once about homesteaders having maids. a reasonable number of people did have maids. some hated housework. some could make more money with their other endeavors such it was worth their time to hire the maid. quite a few people seemed to think a maid disqualifies your homesteading membership, but i see no conflict, using my own definition, with them being a homesteader at all.

i extend my definition to other areas not usually associated with homesteading. eg, making your own investment decision vs hiring an advisor, or traveling independently vs joining a tour group. as lmrose says: "Homesteading to me is choosing to live deliberately." i think that's an important part of it too.

overall, i don't get caught up in precise definitions too much. using my definition, i find kindred spirits on these forums -- which is why i keep coming here -- even if i don't do the exact same activities as any particular person.

--sgl

For us it, is being self-reliant. As much as possible where ever you are, whoever you are. City, suburban or country.


When I read about old homesteaders, they mostly manufactured as many of their needs at "home" as possible. Food, clothing, some tools. It was probably necessary for them. But voluntary for us, the reasons may be different but the process of relying on yourself to fulfill your needs, as much as possible.

The John Seymour book " The Fat Of The Land" he says that he would imagine all the things that were manufactured and wonder about the lives of it's makers.

That was enough for me to try to make my own, or buy from local crafts people which keeps us trying to be more and more self-reliant.

I became interested in Homesteading 3 years ago because of a story about the Dervaes family. My concept of Homesteading is...Less is more.

To me homesteading means if the cars and electricity all died tomorrow, we will have had enough foresight to be mostly ok.

We wouldn't starve to death. We'd still have access to water. We could stay warm in the winter.

I don't personally think someone has to Do it all to be homesteading.. to me it's a journey more than a destination. Baby stepping down the path. Some of us will find the perfect spot to sit and enjoy the view, without feeling like they have to go all the way. Some will soldier or dance or meander along toward their goals.

Yes, I think you can homestead in an apartment.. if you've thought your plan through. I don't think it needs a specific amount of land (and besides, what I can grow and raise on my acreage isn't the same as what one can grow in more arid, or more tropical, or more sandy, or colder areas.). I agree with the person who said it's an attitude more than an action.

For me it means that my Mother and I live on the land that my GGG Grandfather bought and REALLY homesteaded on 1868, he was the first person other than native people to live on this land.

We have two large veggie gardens, raise chickens and other livestock and live fairly simply. We both have jobs in town, because it takes more than market gardening and selling eggs to pay the taxes.

Emmy

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." - Theodore Roosevelt

I like your answer: simple, straitforward, to the heart of the matter.
I wish you and your Mom years of success and happiness...and enough income to make it all work!

hugs,

stef

I was raised on a homestead, the real kind that you cleared the land and got tiitle to the 160 acres for clearing and planting and developing land. This was back when Alaska was still a territority. I have seen the term used many ways to include just about every form of self reliant living but I look at developing the land as the defining point. Clearing land, building a home, driving a well, that sort of thing I define as homesteading but after it has been developed I would call farming or self reliance. I think the term was originally defined by the homesteading act and anything else would be something that comes close to it these days. I'm no english major so don't really know for sure, but with the term used so loosely I figure I can define it that way until I actually look it up in the dictionary.