New guy wants to know. What is homesteading?

This is just my definition, but I feel there are "homesteads" and "homebases", regardless of the size of the property you're on or area you're in.

If you view your property as a place to keep your stuff, and where you, sleep, get ready for work, come home and get ready to go out, and where you return after you've gone out for fun, it's a homebase.

If you work to create a beautiful atmosphere, one that feels like sanctuary, one that shows real pride in ownership, and home is the place you can't wait to spend your time, you have a homestead.

I know it can be far more elaborate than that. Just my opinion.

Well if you can enjoy the company of like minded people here then you're probably a homesteader.

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kaitala
This is just my definition, but I feel there are "homesteads" and "homebases", regardless of the size of the property you're on or area you're in.

If you view your property as a place to keep your stuff, and where you, sleep, get ready for work, come home and get ready to go out, and where you return after you've gone out for fun, it's a homebase.

If you work to create a beautiful atmosphere, one that feels like sanctuary, one that shows real pride in ownership, and home is the place you can't wait to spend your time, you have a homestead.


This is a perfect description ~Vickie

martenfisher,

This little piece of Michigan property, a mere five acre strip, is the final parcel of the original land granted by the United States of America, to Joseph E. Royce and Williamson Mason in 1839. Whenever I get to feeling down or discouraged, I pull out the now yellowed and fragile Abstract of Deed and leaf through all the pages of history it contains, and wonder about the previous owners' stories--and there were many. Some transferred this place to sons or daughters, some greedily sold it off as a split of the original land grant, some, tragically, gave it up by order of the Sheriff or a divorce court judge. One such tragedy happened, a foreclosure, of one Henry Weber, who had tried desperately and unsuccessfully, to hang on, through one foreclosure redemption, through a complex dummy transfer to a tennant, but finally bowing to fate in the year 1929. I have his picture taken in 1927, with all his children sitting on the front porch step of the house. His then 11 year old daughter, Helen, still visits her own daughter who lives just down the street. Last summer she made it nearly to my driveway(notice I said my driveway) using her walker and supported by her son, who is nearly as old as I am. Tearfully, she told me, "Now you take good care of this place....", and I promised her that I would so do.

When the County finally paved the road--which had been gravel from my property line to a point about a mile and a half around the lake--it was necessary to take down the aged white pine trees out in front, both a hundred feet tall. I counted the rings, about 115 of them at closest count, and came back to those familiar tattered pages, which told the story of Albert Harrison, who died in 1895, leaving this property for his wife and his daughter, adopted from an orphan's home. They must have planted the pine trees, perhaps in memory of him, that year. But they abruptly sold out in 1904, abandoning them to others. I have a dozen boards from those trees in my garage, awaiting some sort of fitting project, to remember them and those who planted them.

And so the stories go. Mainly brief stories, since there have been so many owners. In fact, I am the longest "owner" of record, having lived here since 1983--a pretty long time, but brief compared to 1839, and but a speck in the fourteen thousand years or so since the great glacier melted, leaving mostly a pile of sand and gravel on "my homestead", and a small pothole lake out the front door. In the original sense of the word, this place has failed miserably as a “homestead”, since so many have tried it and left the place to others. I firmly believe that this sand has been the demise of many of the original owners, who had nothing else to do for their living but to “farm” the land as the tradition dictated. A few cycles of plowing and planting quickly left the soil--if you could call lakeshore sand that--emptied of any soil life and nutrition that was built up over a period of fourteen thousand years. They did not know the secret that organic decaying matter equals life. And especially so on sand.

I bought this place in 1983, as my idea of a modified homestead. I was transferred by a large industrial corporation (which went bankrupt recently), so I had a viable income to help pay for it--had I been forced to rely on this place as my sole means of support, my fate would have been shortly no better than all the previous owners in this place’s long history. I looked in vain, in Indiana, for a similar place for nearly a dozen years, so I must give credit to my Maker, who must have guided me here--and to the nine kitty cats, three for each floor of the house, who deterred all other casual lookers as soon as they entered the door--or my lack of nasal acuity, perhaps.

I don’t raise sheep, goats, cows, pigs, chickens, or rabbits, I did all that as a kid on an Indiana farmstead--except for goats and sheep. (Although I scared up a wild Mallard yesterday, who had made a nest in the wild raspberry patch--with a clutch of seven eggs.) But I could, if times ever get tougher than today……There’s space for that. I could also shoot a deer or rabbit or squirrel for food, if need be……. I do eat lots of bluegills and put their carcasses in the compost pile, instead of manure……And thanks to my garden, my extended family and I eat well……. We have a walking trail through the woods, and lots of cherry wood for the fireplaces each winter, and for lakeside bonfires in summer. And I have a leaf dump, for worms and summer mulch for the garden. I have space to run my 9N Ford around, reliving my Indiana boyhood....And I have space, critical to make an organic legume rotation to keep the biomass coming for this Michigan sand--and my survival. I learned the secret…….

I don’t plan to leave here, ever. I make my stand here--my stead. It is my home.

My homestead.

geo

I think "homesteading today" is more about a mind set then number of acres, size of garden or quantity of animals. It is about the spirit of independence and wanting to do for oneself and ones family.

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"The Constitution says to promote the general welfare, not to provide welfare!" ~ Lt. Col Allen West

Some have brought up hobby farming. Based on how that term was used where I grew up, I have a specific thing that comes to mind from that phrase. It does not equal homesteading.

To me, hobby farmers work an outside job. Typically, they are middle or upper class and want to live a city life in the country. They want a few acres and want to "play" at farming. It isn't critical to their existence in any way. It's approached like some people approach photography or knitting. Money from the job gets dropped into the farm and rarely do they make enough to even meet expenses -- or if they do, any profit made is not substantial. The products from the farm are often not substantial to the family, either. These people might have a horse or two and ride in ways that annoy farmers who are out trying to drive the country roads to get some work done. They might have some goats, sheep, or llama (just a handful, really) because they like how it looks or sounds, or because it brings some sort of farm "feel" to their place. The fencing it took and the housing is far more expensive than the products they'll EVER gain from these animals. Cost profit ratio is not a big concern here. These are the folks who will also complain about the noise or smell from the REAL farm next door...

Homesteaders tend to approach the whole endeavor differently. A homesteader may be of any income class, but probably fewer are high income. While a homesteader may sink outside income into their ventures, there is a definite desire to produce something that has a cost profit ratio that evens out -- though the profit may not be in cash, but in harvest quantity or in healthy food, instead of pesticide laced food. In other words, it's not all about play. A homesteader DOES want to benefit from activities.

By the way, a homesteader may have some things they do on their homestead that are more "hobby" than anything else. However, the bulk of their operation will be about doing what they can with what they have, and seeking ways to do more with less.

Most homesteaders aren't going to spend $10,000 on a fence and shed to keep a couple of goats and a couple of sheep. A hobby farmer might. Most homesteaders aren't going to spend $2500 building fancy raised garden beds to produce their vegetable gardens. A hobby farmer might.

A homesteader might have 1/8 of an acre, but use it to the max and produce MORE food (and other items) on it than a hobby farmer who has 10, or even 20 acres.

Homesteading also differs from hobby gardening, in pretty much the same way. While the hobby gardener might enjoy gardening, and the line between the two might be blurry, the mindset plays a big role, too. (Plus, even the smallest acreage homesteader usually does more than just garden...)

Edited to add:
A hobby farmer might shop at the mall to buy the denim and flannel they are wearing out in the field. The homesteader is probably shopping at the local thrift shop. We know just how many vegetables we'd need to grow to even out that $120 difference.

The hobby farmer might buy the $50 blue jeans at Tractor Supply, and the stereotypical "country-western" shirts they sell. The homesteader probably picked up their flannel shirt from the hobby farmer's yard sale after a side seam split or a button fell off, or after they gained 30 pounds and couldn't wear it anymore...

my opinion is living off the land.

There are many varying degrees of homesteaders here.

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It is my dream the American economy can be a homesteading type of economy. People helping people and living off of what we have. Not stealing, lieing or cheating to get somewhere. I wish horticulture could be a part of every school system to some extent.

Geo in MI- I think that might be the most eloquent description I've ever heard for what we do and who we are.

I live in town, but work 400 acres of crops, 300 odd livestock, will finish 2,000 birds this year, and an acre of intensive gardens. I'm a homesteader because I've got a dehydrator full of chicken livers going to sell at farmers' market. I think being a homesteader means seeing how much you can do with what you have, finding new uses for things you would otherwise trash, being more interested in doing it yourself than paying someone else to do it.

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www.ladiesfarmjournal.blogspot.com

What do you do with dehydrated chicken livers?

I agree but what gets me is I see alot trying to be self sustaining and in the long run spending more then they would going by Traditional Means.

big rockpile

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