What is homesteading? Really?
 

On different sites, and on this forum, homesteading seems to go from every. Thing from someone with a garden to full blown off the grid lifestyle. Some family's are almost totally self sufficiant. On 300 acre homesteads to someone with 2 acres and a few chickens and a garden. Thanks Benny

What is homesteading? Really?
 

On different sites, and on this forum, homesteading seems to go from every. Thing from someone with a garden to full blown off the grid lifestyle. Some family's are almost totally self sufficiant. On 300 acre homesteads to someone with 2 acres and a few chickens and a garden. Thanks Benny

Depends who you ask I guess. Pretty much anyone trying to do something for themselves, trying to be just a little more self reliant. You will find everything from off the grid livers to people in apartments growing lettuce in a window box!

There's a little Australian song that I sing to myself every time I feel I'm really 'homesteading'. May I?

:whistlin:
I've been around the world
A couple of times or maybe more
I've seen the sights, I've had delights
On every foreign shore
But when my mates all ask me
The place that I adore
I tell them right away Give me a home among the gumtrees
With lots of plum trees
A sheep or two, a k-kangaroo
A clothesline out the back
Verandah out the front
And an old rocking chair
You can see me in the kitchen
Cooking up a roast
Or Vegemite on toast
Just you and me, a cup of tea
And later on, we'll settle down
And go out on the porch
And watch the possums play
Give me a home among the gumtrees
With lots of plum trees
A sheep or two, a k-kangaroo
A clothesline out the back
Verandah out the front
And an old rocking chair
There's a Safeways up the corner
And a Woolies down the street
And a brand new place they've opened up
Where they regulate the heat
But I'd trade them all tomorrow
For a little bush retreat
Where the kookaburras call
Give me a home among the gumtrees
With lots of plum trees
A sheep or two, a k-kangaroo
A clothesline out the back
Verandah out the front
And an old rocking chair

Some people like their houses
With fences all around
Others live in mansions
And some beneath the ground
But me I like the bush you know
With rabbits running round
And a pumpkin vine out the back Give me a home among the gumtrees
With lots of plum trees
A sheep or two, a k-kangaroo
A clothesline out the back
Verandah out the front
And an old rocking chair
Give me a home among the gumtrees
With lots of plum trees
A sheep or two, a k-kangaroo
A clothesline out the back
Verandah out the front
And an old rocking chair
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/ima...s/whistlin.gif

We revisit this question about every 3 months. I don't think we've come to any solid conclusions yet and doubt we ever will. Homesteading is a more trendy word than hobby farm or backyard garden. Pick your own definition.

Homesteading is having stuff, and doing stuff you aren't allowed to do in the city. It's, location, location, location..

Benny b; We have lived a 99% self- sufficient life style for almost 35 years acquiring our homestead 28 1/2 years ago. That said; homesteading to me involves having a home whether owned or rented and providing as much as you can for yourself same as our fore fathers did. But self-sufficiency is also a state of mind. People in cities and towns can also have a "do all I can for myself" attitude also. It really doesn't matter what term is used for most folks. Their common goal is to be as independent as they possiby can in their own circumstances. More power to everyone who tries to help themselves live more independently!

I dont call us homesteading or really even farming...Dh was raised here all his life, then I come along and one day I decided we needed horses(we already had chickens)...so we bred and raised horses(we have 6)..then I decided we needed a garden, then it just kept getting bigger and bigger and it is still growing..lol Then I decided we needed a heifer to raise for milk...DH came home one day with two bottle calf Jersey's a heifer and a bull...now we have a 18 month heifer and a 18 month steer(the heifer will bred this year and the steer is going to FC)....then I decided we needed to plant an orchard...we have 21 fruit trees that wont be ready for another year or two....then I decided we needed rabbits...just had first two litters last fall..some has already been put in the freezer...7 ready to go next month.

This all happened in the last 17 yrs...

Now I want a couple of milk goats....but I don't see that happening, what we have right now is enough for us to handle..

I dont call it anything but just feeding ourselves...

It's a state of mind!
 

Love it :clap:

I think homesteading is more a state of mind. The person has an interest in that lifestyle and researches it and gains skills. You practice those skills within your economic range and physical abilities. The person who lives in an apartment., grows lettuce in a window box, and cans food from local farmers market is a homesteader. The person with off grid home, huge garden, and animals is a homesteader.

Why does there need to be an exact protocol for homesteading? :)

No one here has ever exactly defined it. But the state of mind version is what is usually used.

But some have tried to define it to prove others are not their version of a Homesteader - not a good thing.

It's a state of mind and living up to it the best you can with the resources and location you are at.

What do you think it should be?

geo

I have never, and will never, call myself a homesteader.


Homesteading is when you bet Uncle Sam that you can prove up either 160, or 640 acres of land, depending upon when/where you filed your claim.
Not only am I descended from homesteaders, I have personally known several children of homesteaders, who vividly remember what it was like even after they're old and gray. And it was a hard-fought battle against time, other people, and Mother Nature that we can't even imagine in this day and age.


To me, calling myself a "homesteader" is like a little kid playing cowboys and Indians and thinking he knows what it's like to be either one.
I'm just someone who does for myself as best I can.

In short, I think it's learning how to be as self-sufficient as possible, and it's a lifetime process. Ideally, it involves land for raising livestock, but even urban dwellers can garden, fish & hunt and learn a lot about food preservation, guns, needlecrafts, woodworking, etc. and even alternative energy sources for when the power goes out. It's hard work so you have to want to do it. In that respect, it is indeed a state of mind.

Why are there two of these threads? I posted on the other one.

'Cuz the definition of homesteading on that thread is different than on this one........???

geo

the two same threads have been merged into this one thread.

Homesteading and homestead are the 2 most mis used words I have seen in years.

I think you've got it by George.

You nailed it, IMO. Homesteading is a huge fad, a good fad, but it is a misused word IMO. On one hand, calling ourselves homesteaders is a disservice to those who actually did homestead.

On the other hand, I am not sure what single word would sum up todays modern day wanna be. Myself included...

I live on my grandparents original Homestead, the real deal. But I do not call it a homestead, as I know what they went through, I know a trip to the now non-existent town 10 miles away, through swamps, forests, and hills, in 1928 with a sleigh and a team, was an overnight affair. And they went and bought salt, not much else. That, is self sufficiency. Some think they are self sufficient on here. I think I and my family are very self sufficient. But those days are gone, where TRULY self sufficient people existed.

Self sufficient is not to me, trading a dozen eggs for a few pounds of wheat. To me, you would be raising the wheat, and the eggs, yourSELF!!!

According to Mirriam-Webster:


home·stead

noun \ˈhōm-ˌsted, -stid\


Definition of HOMESTEAD

1
a : the home and adjoining land occupied by a family
b : an ancestral home
c : house

2
: a tract of land acquired from United States public lands by filing a record and living on and cultivating the tract

So, according to def. 1a, I have a homestead where I practice HomeInsteading?

actually we probably want the second definition, further down the page, because the OP is using the word as a verb:

home·stead verb \-ˌsted\
Definition of HOMESTEAD

transitive verb
: to acquire or occupy as a homestead
intransitive verb
: to acquire or settle on land under a homestead law
— home·stead·er noun

Examples of HOMESTEAD

They homesteaded the territory in the 1860s.

First Known Use of HOMESTEAD
1872

There are many of us out there doing just that!

Didnt mean to raise anyone's hackles. I'm also sorry for having two posts the same, still new to this. My opinion of a true homesteader is someone who raises food hunts, gathers, and does for them self. Someone who if the grid goes out for good, no outside job , basically if all the convinces of the world stops, and you can just shrug your shoulders and keep on going like nothing happened. To me that's a homesteader. Just my opinion don't get mad, not trying to offend anyone. That being said my self and family are going to try to be as self Reliant as possible. Heading toward what I call a homesteader, but in today's world it's going to be very , very hard. Benny

I read on here a lot and have determined that homesteading is covering every angle of the place you live with game cameras to protect yourself from the common cold to foreign invation and tomato thieves. And you have to have a bucket of wheat.

historically homesteading was taking a piece of land for free from the government and making a living on it..after a period of time it was yours if you lived on it and worked it.

all of the more modern definiations are generally some take on that.

:clap: That's why I love the name "homesteading today". At this point in history "homesteading" can represent many different levels and lifestyles. At a different point in history, the definition was much narrower.

Well, I have a Homestead exemption on my property taxes. I really cant tell you what that means other than about $500 less a year on my taxes. And the gals at the tax office cant either.

What I consider a " homestead " has been covered. I would say aquiring some property and getting housing, and probably a garden and some live stock would be a reasonable facsimile.

But a tomato plant in a pot and one chicken is no where close.

Like so many things these days, homesteading is a feel good term and a fad.

At this point in my journey, I'm raising chickens for meat and eggs, raising vegetables, herbs, blackberries, apples and pears. I'm canning, freezing, dehydrating, cooking from scratch and baking most of our bread and biscuits. And you know what?.....I don't feel any more "homesteadery" now than I did the first year that I went to U-pick farms for a bushel each of tomatoes and green beans. Staying up late at night and learning to can got into my blood. During one of those very quiet late nights, I realized that I had found what I was meant to do.

I have never looked back.

In just about every sub-culture (and we would be a sub-culture), there are people that want to define it. Every single one of those people seeking to define it are, at least secretly, wanting it defined in such a way so that they, and those like them, may point and say that they are "TRUE" whatever-it-is.

There are no "TRUE" Homesteaders, or "REAL" homesteaders. Do you know why? It is because "Homesteading" is not a thing. It is not something you can point to and say, "That! That is the REAL Mona Lisa! All of the others are forgeries, fakes!"

Homesteading is a philosophy, and like all philosophies, it is open to interpretation. It means different things to different people, and no two people are going to have the same ideal or definition of it.

And honestly, the only thing defining it would do is to cause people to go on their superior, "I am more Homesteader than thou" kicks.

I'm not on a better than you kick, I don't even have anything even going till this spring. I own raw land , that's it. So I'm not in competition with anyone and if I am I'm loosing! I know what a contractor is a welder, a doctor and so on. Don't know much about sub cultures or philosophy , and my opinion is obviously different from yours. I don't understand how a state of mind can make you a homesteader. Someone said you can live in a city and have a tomato plant and a lettuce plant an be a homesteader. If you say so so. That's not what I thought it meant. That's why I asked. I thought a homesteader was someone who lived off there land. (Not just on) there land. I live on 12 acres but I'm not a homesteader. I would as of right now call my self a dreamer, a won a be. But not a homesteader. A couple of people on here I talked to I would call a homesteader ( just my opinion) and some not so much. I wanna be rich but just me thinking about it don't put a bunch of money in my bank account. A lot of super nice people on here, some are more what I would call a hobby people. And there's nothing wrong with that. Benny

Marilyn, know what you mean I didn't sink a fence post yet, but I know this is the life I'm going to live, known it since 96. Wish spring would get here. Benny

Here ya go! Isn't it nice that the internet provides? You will notice that homesteading was part of philosophical tracts in ancient Asia?

"Broadly defined, homesteading is a lifestyle of self-sufficiency. It is characterized by subsistence agriculture, home preservation of foodstuffs, and may or may not also include production of textiles, clothing, and craftwork for household use or sale. Conducted in different manners across the world in different historical eras, homesteading is generally differentiated from rural village or commune living by isolation of the homestead, either social or physical.

As a social movement
The attractiveness of back-to-the-land movements dates from the Roman era, and has been noted in Asian poetry and philosophy tracts as well. The ideas of modern homesteading proponents, such as Ralph Borsodi, gained in popularity in the 1960's in the United States. Self-sufficiency movements in the 1990's and 2000's began to apply the concept to urban and suburban settings, known as urban homesteading. According to author John Seymour, "urban homesteading" incorporates small-scale, sustainable agriculture and homemaking.

[edit]As economic choice
In homesteading, social and government support systems are frequently eschewed in favor of self-reliance and relative deprivation, in order to maximize independence and self-determination. The degree of independence occurs along a spectrum, with many homesteaders creating foodstuffs or crafts to appeal to high-end niche markets in order to meet financial needs. Other homesteaders come to the lifestyle following successful careers which provide the funding for land, housing, taxes, and specialized equipment such as solar panels, farm equipment and electricity generators.

Modern government regulation - in the form of building codes, food safety codes, zoning regulations, minimum wage and social security for occasional labor, and town council restrictions on landscaping and animal keeping - has increased the marginal cost of home production of food. This, combined with the delayed rewards of creating a viable agriculture site, increase the difficulty of establishing a self-sufficient homestead from scratch, particularly for those of limited income.

Actual financial savings from adopting a homesteading lifestyle appear most closely related to lower material living standards and conservation of purchased resources (such as electricity, fertilizer, water, and foodstuffs) rather than lower costs of living. Economies of scale in modern agriculture and opportunity cost of manual labor prevent home-raised food from being an economical choice. However, many homesteaders express deep satisfaction with their standard of living and feel that their lifestyle is healthier and more rewarding than more conventional patterns of living."

That is fantastic, Caliann. :D

I give up.

Maybe just relax and enjoy what is Homesteading Today, without trying to make anyone see it your way?

You can do Homesteading your way, and everyone else will do it their way.

so, relax -
There are good people here, especially when you're not trying to put them in a little box that fits your outlook.

Not trying to to make anyone see anything my way. There is no my way or your way. I was wondering if it was defined as "75 percent sufficient or 90 percent self sufficient?" That's all. I just didnt know what the definition was. People get mad and say I'm trying to put people in a box, some answers look like they are politicians running for office. Or just trying to sound important. I'm over it. Benny