What's your favorite thing about homesteading??

I dearly love knowing I can deal with things that people in towns are in a panic about......ice storm = no eledtric for 16 days, OK, I've got water in the creek, so I can wash, cook and flush. Wood stove, so I'm warm, oil lamps, candles, so it's not dark and I can really enjoy the quiet that comes with no motors running. I do have a generator, so that I can keep the freezer frozen and the fridge cold, but only turn it on for a few hours each day. We have beef to eat, eggs in the henhouse, good food that I've grown my self and canned for the winter, good dogs to wallk with me and horses to nicker when they hear me come out of the house...............thanks for giving me a chance to reflect on how much I do love this life.
P.J.

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given the oppurtunity, a cow will always take the wrong gate...Baxter Black
www.newdaydexters.com
Irish Dexter Cattle for sale..............

Gardening is the most peaceful, but gleaning at sundown on a warm Summer evening with my daughters is a close second. Then there's those mason jars filled with the fruits of my labor.

The freedoms that it affords me.
Financial freedom - when I was a single parent the homesteading lifestyle allowed me to work part time, be a homeowner, own a car. Enjoy my children.
Independence from government assistance and the power grid to a certain extent.
Freedom of healthy food choices.
Deep feeling of accomplishment.


~~ pelenaka ~~

Dito!

I also love country life. I am a simple soul.

D

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Dying is no solution, nor living either.
But, who tells you there is a solution?
The mind is its own place, and of itself,
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.

A flock of free range hens with a few ducks thrown in is more entertaining than anything on TV.

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Flaming Xtian
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
Mahatma Gandhi


Libertarindependent

The smell of fresh tilled dirt.
The sight of the first tomato plant springing out of the seed tray.
The day the yard turns 'green' in the spring.
The sight of the first bee.
The sound of the tree frogs. Oh I love the tree frogs!
Canning tomatoes.
Opening a jar of tomatoes, in January, and it smells, like summer.

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I am sure of two things: There is a God, and I am not Him.
The movie Rudy

when I was milking cows full time, I loved not having to commute to a job

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Professional Tool. 1220 Woodmere Ave,Traverse City, MI. 49686. 231-941-8003. http://professionaltool.com/

Just like Bo Sefus says "A country girl can survive" Knowing that I am able to stay at home, not rush to the grocery store, when they are calling for bad weather. Puttin up the food for my family, and just knowin that almost everything we eat - we either made or grew ourselves. A little country common sense, elbow grease, okay - hard work, and pleasure of raising it ourselves without medicines or chemicals. It's definitely worth it, specially when I see the GD heading out to the chicken coop with the egg basket or the GS hoppin on the tractor with Pipaw to mow. I only wish I had this blessing when my kids were small so they would have had the experience. Take care, Reb

Playing by my own rules....I'd never make it in a city or suburbs where the other residents get to decide how and when you do stuff to your yard and home. If I want to put a garbage can under a downspout and collect rain water, I can. If I want to experiment with grow bags in the front yard, no one knows because it can't be seen from the road. I can shower outdoors and wear only a smile when I mow....who's to know!

This may sound flip but I don't mean it that way ... the thing I like best about homesteading is being able to *not* live in the city. I don't like traffic noise, I don't like people noise ... I like space I like quiet, I enjoy the animals ...

Hard to put in words. I guess mainly its a sense of doing something worthwhile - being a good steward of the land & animals, working with something that will last longer than I will (what will last longer than the land?) and trying to leave it in better shape than I got it.

I Love having the different animals we raise, rather for meat, pets, or eggs...They give us a reason to go out & do chores no matter what the weather is like.

Growing, raising, hunting or raising most of our food. Then preserving it the best way for each thing.

The peace when I look out our windows & know all this space is ours & how beautiful & Lucky we both are to be doing what we love & enjoy even on days.

All the things We've learned since moving to the country & knowing we can do most anything if we need too.

Wouldn't change my life for anything in the worls!

Hi Katie!

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Professional Tool. 1220 Woodmere Ave,Traverse City, MI. 49686. 231-941-8003. http://professionaltool.com/

The sight of a little fuzzy head sticking out from under a hen. And right up with this, the pleasure of sharing my bounty with friends.

Being about to do dang near ANYTHING I want to.

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Remember, when seconds count. . .
the police are just MINUTES away!

Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. . .Davy Crockett

That is a lot of it for me as well.
Being able to respond to my own observations of a situation in my own way.
The rest: the good food, the taste of a tomato warmed by the sun, a good roast chicken that I raised, strawberry jam in the middle of winter, chasing chickens out of the garden fence etc.. is all icing on the freedom cake.

Ooh.. thought of another important one.

Being able to always look forward to something. Seed starting, spring planting, first blossoms, first new baby tomato on the vine, first ripe tomato, the first 'ping' on the first canning jar, first cool breeze, the hustle of prepping for the winter, the first fire in the woodstove!!, the first storm, the first seed catalog etc..
I don't know how other, non homesteading folks, mark the passage of time. I don't know what gets them through. What is it that they look forward to??

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the farm blog
http://thehennerytraditionals.blogspot.com/ -
the herbal blog + shop

We call it "farm tv"..

I love the interaction with the animals, especially the dairy goats and pigs.

I love the feeling of satisfaction that I get when serving a homecooked meal to my family (or others) and knowing that most if not all was raised by us on our farm.

I love the process of making things from scratch. Homemade breads, desserts, cheese and yogurt etc etc.. Even popcorn that doesnt go in the microwave and mac and cheese that is not from a box..

Oh, goodness, it all sounds nice.

It brings back memories and I'm so glad we did have that with our children.

Every holiday when my kids were home, one of them would say, 'We raised everything on our table'.

I'm so happy for all of you -

I think it would have to be raising our own food, milk is my favorite because I just love milk animals (we have goats and cows). We also have a wood lot. There is something I think deep inside, when you look at cords of wood stacked up for winter and a pantry full of food, that just says "peace" to me, a peace within.

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Idleness is leisure gone to seed

What everyone has already said, plus a whole lot more that I don't know how to put into words, but you all know.

Hank

http://www.doublemfarmandchuckwagon.webs.com