'Steading' or Farming

let me shed a little light on this forum for those that dont know this...HT was originally a forum that sprang from the magazine "countryside and small stock journal.it has a philosophy they go by for their readers.its was what their goal was for the readers of the magazine.it was never about big ag..their magazines for that like progressive farmer etc.there are many here who came from that mindset of being a small holder of land and doing things on their own for the sheer enjoyment and it was about a lifestyle of "doing".this was started not as a site for big ag...the forum was let go and was taken over by chuck and it became homesteadingtoday....many of you might find it interesting to read what the original owners envisioned in their magazine and still do and it reflected in the forum that became what we now know here.


http://www.countrysidemag.com/aboutus/



About Countryside& Small Stock Journal Countryside & Small Stock Journal (better known as just “Countryside“) is more than a magazine: it’s a network where homesteaders share a wide variety of experiences and ideas about simple, sustainable, country living.
There are no guidelines and no paid writers. Instead, there is an open atmosphere of neighborly sharing.
Major, more-or-less regular departments are patterned on a walking tour of an “ideal” or composite homestead that goes something like this:
We’ll meet you at the front gate and exchange brief ideas and comments in Country Conversation.
Then, depending on the weather and season, we might stroll through The Garden, inspect The Beehive, and take a look at the Henhouse and Rabbitry. We’ll visit The Sheep Shed and The Goat Barn, The Pig Pen and The Family Cow.
On some homesteads we might see rare, exotic, or new breeds: Miniature, Devon, or Scotch Highland cattle, for instance, or perhaps fallow deer or emus. On others the highlight of the tour might be The Greenhouse, the wind or solar power installation or other forms of Alternative Energy, or The Root Cellar.
In most cases we’ll visit The Workshop, where we might learn how to build a solar oven, a pea sheller or a high-quality food dryer-or how to repair or even make a tool or part such as an ax handle.
We’ll discuss such topics as Home Business, Home Schooling, and home health care or Alternative Medicine.
Back in The Country Kitchen we’ll enjoy a bit of hospitality-and recipe sharing, including canning, freezing, drying and root cellaring hints.
While the bread dough is rising we’ll probably pick up some new ideas on recycling, conservation, or ways to save a little money-or to use it more wisely.
We’ll also visit other Country Neighbors all across the country (and sometimes beyond), hearing and seeing-in their own words and pictures-what they’re doing and how they’re doing it.
And finally, After Chores, maybe sitting on the porch swing on a warm summer evening or around the woodstove on a wintry one, we’ll discuss all those things that seem to crop up when good neighbors get together-as long as they fit Our Philosophy which appears in every issue:
Our Philosophy
It’s not a single idea, but many ideas and attitudes, including a reverence for nature and a preference for country life; a desire for maximum personal self-reliance and creative leisure; a concern for family nurture and community cohesion; a belief that the primary reward of work should be well-being rather than money; a certain nostalgia for the supposed simplicities of the past and an anxiety about the technological and bureaucratic complexities of the present and the future; and a taste for the plain and functional.
Countryside reflects and supports the simple life, and calls its practitioners “homesteaders.”



http://www.countrysidemag.com/

COUNTRYSIDE is the truly original country magazine (established 1917) serving that branch of the Voluntary Simplicity movement seeking greater self-reliance (homesteading), with emphasis on home food production. This includes gardening, small-scale livestock, cooking, food preservation, resource conservation, recycling, frugality, money management, alternative energy, old-time skills, home business, and
much more.
COUNTRYSIDE features reader-written personal experiences and photos straight out of family albums, making each issue just like a long letter from friends who are living the good life, beyond the sidewalks.

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i went to the woods because i wished to live deliberately to front only the essential facts of life,.......,and not,when i came to die,discover that i had not lived...Henry David Thoreau

for those that dont know the old original site is archived down in the basement here that can still be seen. i lurked for years and years until i couldnt stand it any longer and joined in on the fun and sharing of simple and daily life.


Lusenet: Original Countryside Forum

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i went to the woods because i wished to live deliberately to front only the essential facts of life,.......,and not,when i came to die,discover that i had not lived...Henry David Thoreau

Hey Geo! Me too!

I don't like the labels either. If you are engaged in producing food from the land then you are farming, regardless of the scale or whether or not you resell your goods for cash. A 'homestead' is just a place where you live and farm.

I don't think we need a whole different term to describe a farmer who sells alot of stuff vs a farmer who only sells a little bit of his stuff. The act of farming has nothing to do with resale or income, its about producing food from the land.

My grandparents [both sets] had subsistence farms in the 1910s. My paternal grandfather explained to us that back then: "Raise a hog, pay the bank". In that era, if a farm produced one extra hog each year, it was enough to pay the annual bank mortgage debt.

In the 1920s, things changed, the culture became one of get big or get out. Tractors were needed, mules were phased out. Fuel, synthetic fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides, became the name of the game.

In the 30's both sets of my grandparents lost their farms to the bankers.

My father worked his entire life trying to make farming work. He always maintained a fulltime job to support his farming habit.

I grew-up with cattle and nut orchards.

My father tried very hard to convince my sons to go into farming. But both of them saw that he was not able to get farming to support itself in this economy. Either of them, would have needed to high paying job to support farming on the side.

I worked in a career field that was very arduous, but that offered a 20-year pension. Now with my pension, I produce a few crops and livestock. I sell in a Farmer's Market, but without my pension I could not do this.



I do understand that attitude when you say 'farming' and some folks get upset by it. I get it.

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http://www.mofga.org/

http://www.mofga.org/Programs/FarmAp...2/Default.aspx

Same is true of every business venture. 60% don't work out. Farming is no different, no better and no worse. I can point to 4 successful farms all within a 1/4 mile from here, and I can tell you some sad stories of failed businesses from laundry mats, to restaurants, to farms.

What a great topic. The difference between farming and homesteading is something that I've given lots of consideration to since moving from the city to the country four years ago. I came with a fairly concrete vision of living as self-sufficiently as possible, and doing things in the most simple, down-to-earth way as possible. But what I have learned from my neighbors in the way of country skills, and what I have had to learn out of necessity, bears little resemblance to my initial vision. One thing which really sticks in my craw is the amount of time and money that has gone (and that continues to go) into equipment and supplies. Everything from gopher traps to drip tape and fertilizer injectors to animal feed and bedding and gas-powered equipment like a garden tractor and snow blower. Could I do without all of these things? Sure, but probably not without cutting my productivity to a point where I probably could not survive, and not without having a far greater skill set then I have, since I'm out here on my own. So, for now, I'll have to be satisfied being a farmer, rather than a homesteader, but the reality of what pure homesteading means has finally sunk in. I think it takes a really exceptional person to be able to achieve that.

Like, Like, Like. Call it whatever. We ARE ALL BLESSED....




to live as we want....well....are able....James

I like what elkhound posted about the homesteading practitioners
Philosophy. The first part speaks to me. It's not one thing, but
many attitudes, especially a reverence towards nature and a
preference for country life.

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The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man.

A homestead is where you plant your feet. A farm is where you plant your seed. You can do both on the same piece of Earth.

geo

You can call our way of life anyway you want to. we call it home, we raise a lot of our own meats,vegetables and fruits. Raise grain crops and hay. We hunt and fish and mushroom hunt. Heat with wood, also have propane. We both also have full time jobs. We enjoy the simple life and the modern life.