How and why did you all start homesteading? How long have you been at it? Who's doing it full time or part time?

Little Bit Farm

-- Little bit Farm (littlebit@calinet.com), April 08, 2000

Answers

Little Bit, Oh boy I can't wait to read the answers to this question. This is going to be fun. I had a friend show me TMEN one day about 25 years ago. It seemed like the life I always wanted to live, so I did it. I have never regretted it. Oh the boys whined about it, usually when we were picking chickens. but it is the only way to raise your kids. karen

-- Karen Mauk (dairygoatmama@hotmail.com), April 08, 2000.

Little Bit Farm, I love your name...my little sheltie's name is Little Bit. I, like Karen got started over 25 years ago with Mother Earth News & also Organic Gardening. I found an add for Countryside magazine in one of them & subscribed. I quickly dropped Mother Earth News but stayed with Organic Gardening for quite a few years. I have learned an awful lot! I am upset that I did not participate in this forum sooner even tho I knew it existed. Just never checked it out until recently.......Jane

-- Jane Gauch (Sewbears4u@aol.com), April 08, 2000.

My folks bought a farmhouse built in 1876 and nine acres of farmland around it when I was in second grade, so they could get us out of the suburbs. Grandma thought they were nuts, moving two little ones out to a place with wood stoves and no indoor plumbing! They sold the house in town (an almost new three bedroom ranch) after spending a year or so, every weekend, getting the old place in livable shape. Brother and I grew up healthy as little shaggy ponies, while my Aunt's kids (who lived in town in a modern house, and well supplied with the best medicines that Eli Lilly could supply, since my Uncle worked there) were constantly sickly from something or another.

We had two HUGE gardens, and were constantly canning something for the winter. We had every kind of domestic animal we could find in the barn and hen house, and spent the summer in 4-h and camp and on horse back. On vacations we went to places like Williamsburg and Washington and Boston and Salem, and soaked up a LOT of history, so I grew up appreciative of the ways of the past. We gleaned fields and ground wheat from the field across the way, and had a food storage stash. Y2K had nothin' on us! We churned butter and made soap and raised our own honey. Guess it all kinda stuck with me.

-- Leann Banta (thelionandlamb@hotmail.com), April 08, 2000.

I grew up tagging along after my grandfather who was born in 1880. He had more stories, ideas for things he wanted to see done, and enthusiasm for the future than I saw in people half his age. He and Grandmama survived the Depression and raised their children through it. He farmed in the diversified style that we call homesteading and kept a country store. It was from my grandparents that the interest came and I'm very fortunate that I have a husband who supports my work when other family and outsiders are saying "Why don't you just go to the grocery store?" and "Why don't you get a job? You wouldn't have to work nearly so hard."

My grandparents died when I was still a young adult and as much as I loved talking with them during their lifes, I often think what a wonderful gift it would be if I could spend 24 hour with them now that I can listen with adult understanding.

We've been "homesteading" over 25 years. My husband has a full time job and I run the farm on a day to day basis with help from him in extra busy times and on big projects like hauling the hay we have custom baled. We have goats, sheep, chickens, dogs and cats and in the past have had horses and cattle as well. Our place is 65 acres. We've been approached about selling part of it but declined as a hedge against too many neighbors nearby. Besides, my granddad used to say to buy all the land you could afford because they aren't making any more. Wise old bird, my Papa.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), April 08, 2000.

Little Bit Farm, you ask a question I have often thought about writing an entire article on! We started homesteading when we had a 2-bedroom apartment - the neighbors couldn't get over the deer hanging in the garage in November and the 10' x 10' garden tucked next to that same garage! Although we really got into it when we moved up to our 9/10ths acre-built-on-a-swamp-humble-abode, the homesteading "thread" (or itch) was something I think I was born with! But it took this magazine to bring it to the forefront of my mind, heart and soul. We have been here in our somewhat swampy home for nearly 8 years, and it is truly a work of art - in progress... If you had told me 12 years ago that I would be homeschooling my kids, raising rabbits and chickens for meat and eggs, canning/freezing/dehydrating most of our food, heating and cooking with wood -(and the list goes on!)-I would have thought you had lost your wits! But when I found this little advertisement in the back of MEN, there was no looking back! CS&SSJ has been a veritable gold mine for ideas and inspiration, and if there were such a thing as a lifetime subscription, I would be first in line. And now that I have finally joined the 21st century with this alternately aggravating/wonderful machine (the ****&$%#^# 'puter), I can get my Countryside "fix" on a daily basis. This forum provides so much in the spirit of the homesteader - we can feel as if we are in good, honest company.

Oh, re:the subject of full- or part-time...although I work part-time as a school bus driver (makes for interesting looks when my kids DON'T get off the bus :-]), I consider myself a fulltime homesteader - 'cause the attitude and the inner spirit never go away.

Thanks for the chance to write in! I just might still write that article, now that you got me started...

Judi

-- Judi (ddecaro@snet.net), April 08, 2000.

Lil Bit: When I was a young man I realized I hated everyone who didn't have a garden and my best friends were animals!!! Maybe I'm a sick individual....Kirk

-- Kirk Davis (kirkay@yahoo.com), April 08, 2000.

I live on the farm that my parents bought 40+ years ago, when they found out that they were going to have me. Used to be 80 acres, then the Feds condemned and confiscated all but 32 for flood control for a huge public lake they were building. (Lots of broken promises there.) I did live in town (pop 1100) for four years os so, but have spent the rest of my life within the confines of this section of land, on three different places. We own another 18 acres on the opposite side of the section also.

My parents both worked off farm, and worked the farm after work and on weekends. We had hogs, cattle, sheep, occasional horses, crops, gardens, etc... then after the lake came in, we had a small commercial orchard. We currently have no critters other than cats and dogs, and we've pulled out all of the fruit trees, leaving just strawberries (and a little asparagus) to sell. I work off farm, as does my husband. My father is retired.

I found TMEN and OG in the late 70's, and moved onto my first "away from home" place in 1980. Dad and Unc, then later Hubby, did the heavy work and the mechanical stuff, but I had gardens and fruit trees, chickens, rabbits, pigs, cattle, geese, woodstove (only heat we had), well, septic, root cellar.... I canned and froze and butchered. In late '85, we moved to town - still had gardens and fruit trees and a greenhouse. We moved back to the country in '90, after my Mother passed away. My daughter, my father, my new husband and I have all lived together on the home place since we built a new house 4 or 5 years ago, and I expect to be here for a good long time - hope to live here with my daughter and future son-in-law and grandbabies (at least ten years in the future please!) The old barn fell down some years back, and I can't quite afford to build what I want yet, and haven't had time until recently to take proper care of critters anyway. I'm in the process of building a new raised bed garden to replace the old row one, and the grape arbor will go in this fall. The fruit trees will go in next spring. Skids and etc... are being collected to put together a chicken pen - I have first dibs on some the neighbor kids are raising, after the 4-H fair! It will be a while before I get any larger animals - we just don't eat much beef or pork anymore, and one of the relatives who hunts our property ususally donates a deer to the cause. I miss the wood stove for heat, but can't talk these two men into installing one - so far! I don't do as much "homestead" stuff as I'd like to - but I'm happy where I'm at, and with the direction that I'm headed.

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), April 08, 2000.

Little bit, I'm still working on it. Five years ago my husband bought me three tomato plants and three pepper plants over my objections, mainly that I would have to take care of them and our soon to be first born, and I had forgotten everything my mother had taught me about gardens. It turned out to be the best purchase he made. I started reading everything I could get my hands on and that led me to countryside. When I found it, I couldn't believe it! This was me!!!! My family (females) had always done things like cook from scratch and make clothes and other crafty stuff, but this was what I wanted. My mother says that I am just like my great grandmother, and what I wouldn't give to be able to talk to her now, or at least read her journals. Unfortunately for me she died when I was in high school and was incapasitated for several years before that. It seems that just as I was beginning to get into the craft part she left us. I'm sure that she is glad someone is carrying on the tradtions. I've started making quilts for everyone in the family, I have a very large garden (which I garden organicly just as she did), and just this spring I got my first chickens! If I'm lucky, within 10 years I might get to start working on a retirement farm. That is the only way I'll get out of the city. I'm a full time mom, which means that I do spend a lot of time taking care of my little homestead. annette

-- annette (j_a_henry@yahoo.com), April 08, 2000.

I'll curb the philosophical muse just a bit for you! I am only able to homestead part time, but in four years come July, I have gotten a lot done. Perhaps another four of the workaday and then I will be able to work alot at not working alot! I have a most incredible mother who comes from a family of true to the wool West Virginia Appalachian "hillbillies". If I could down load half of the "folk" medicine and knowledge that she has I could start my own magazine! But alas, I have other genes operating in me as well.

When I was a kid we had a 3/4 acre garden that we HAD to work in for one hour, sometimes more, every day during summer vacation. This was in a remote suburb of Milwaukee Wi. So summer gardening was it. My saintly mother would work forty hours a week then come home take care of 5 kids stay up canning all the stuff we had picked that day til 3am get up at 7am and NEVER whine. Just doing what she had to do to care for her family.

So we always had food and there were always **chores** and then I grew up moved away, drank alot, partied alot, found out what it was to live on popcorn for a week (with a little dog I had found) cause you had nothing except a salt shaker stolen from a Mc Donalds...and a light came on in my dim little brain. I think we all have a bit of the rebel in us. Sometimes it just takes a bit longer to realize what it is that needs to be rebelled against!

It just came to me about 12 years ago, that all of the "normal" stuff in this country is completely unsustainable. So, I just started looking at solar power and gardening and alternative health care and then I found Countryside, and I had a name for it and some other avenues to explore! Oh JOY!!! It was like finding your way home as the prodigal or something of the sort...A very good thing.

-- Doreen Davenport (livinginskin@yahoo.com), April 09, 2000.

I quess I am a fulltimer, although I occassionly work for the almighty dollar in town. I struggled farming in Iowa till 1995, than there were 3 triggering events. Satan lives in Iowa and my wife calls her mom and I sold out to get away from the bad influence my mother-n-law was on the children. My grandmother passed away and we brought her home to Virginia to be buried next to my grandfather. My father in law and his new wife gave us a subscribtion to countryside for a x-mas gift. I respect the man so I read it and I have read everyone since that day. My father had inherited the note that the people living on this farm owed. Grandma had sold it on contract. They were aging and wanted out --so I assumed the note for a down payment and I bought it back. I always wanted to grow things and my wife has been the inspiration for us to be self sufficent--planting for the future generations and canning. I can't explain it but I feel my grandfathers presence here, in the tough times. He weathered the depression here. The orchards he planted are showing their age but the new ones will be ready for my grandchildren. For me--Homesteading is the refusal to participate in a system that I don't believe in, while uplifting all the things that I do still believe in. Within the fence here are my family and what I love, seperated from the world. Here I am the master of my own destiny. When I pull out on the highway--that changes rapidly ! I don't leave here much anymore. Joel Rosen

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), April 09, 2000.

Honestly, I am not sure. Suburbian raised, the only one in my family who gardened, even as a child. My siblings think I am crazy, but I tell them I have learned more in the past few years (since I left the city) than I did in the decades before that. My garden had consumed most of my Minneapolis back yard, so now it is limitless. I always gravitated toward practical crops, wildflowers rather than roses, perennials rather than annuals. Love fresh foods, as do the kids. We could never grow enough snow peas to have enough to freeze. The kids eat spinach and peas straight from the garden in the summer.

While still in the city, I complained a lot about my environment, and found us doing more pick-your-own excursions, and nature trips. Fate found us ready to sell the Mpls home and have an opportunity to caretake (in lieu of rent) a place in the country. NO WAY were we going to go back the city after going to sleep to crickets and owls, waking to breeze through the corn.

Plopped all the money from selling the city house down on this old farm (1896 and showing it's age) and no regrets. Could never sell this place and pull the kind of profit I did on the city house, but I don't care. Mortgage is about the same, with 100 times the space.

FT vs PT, right now I do data entry from home. I used to drive a school bus. My degree is in a field I can't utilize (Microbiology). I guess that makes us PT and in debt. Neccessity being the mother of invention, we do more and more for ourselves as needed. I was just telling someone yesterday that the kids go through a gallon a day of cow milk, adding up to about $100/month. The sweet goats in the barn will be lifting my milk burden in about a month, hopefully never to be seen again. With sugar and flour, and the home-canned goods, we are never so out of groceries that I can't come up with something. Groceries used to cost us more than the mortgage.

-- Rachel (rldk@hotmail.com), April 09, 2000.

Rachel, I read your last letter here and had to add a thought for you. Have you checked into working in a hospital laboratory? With a degree in Micro that would make you CLIA eligible to work there. There is a big shortage of lab techs in most places. A lot of hospitals would train you and there are many part-time jobs to be filled. I can sympathize with being indebt, and although I hate to drive off to work and leave my pregnant dog and gravid goats, someone has to pay for the feed and the hay, and all the rest. karen

-- Karen Mauk (dairygoatmama@hotmail.com), April 09, 2000.

This is kind of a P.S., my mother grew up on a farm during the depression. I come from a long line of farmers[german farmers,dutch farmers and irish farmers,with a Lakota great great just to make things interesting] We moved around a lot, and when the construction business went bad we parked our trailer at one of the relatives who lived in the country[i loved that] My mother could and did milk cows, dress out chickens and could sew clothes without a pattern and cook from scratch with no recipe! when we finally got a place we had chickens in the backyard and a rabbitry in the garage. She subcribed to a little magazine called Small Stock Journal [that's before jd and the Countryside part] She always wanted to live in the country but died of cancer at age 48. So I am doing this for her as well as for me. Joel, it is so great that you got your grandparents farm, I went to Nebraska to try and find my mom's home place and it had all been torn down and is part of a wheat field now. karen

-- Karen Mauk (dairygoatmama@hotmail.com), April 09, 2000.

My memories of a small child are not about playing dress up or playing with dolls .My memories are of playing with the plastic farm animals and pretending I lived on a farm or playing Vet and taking care of the animals.Thats all I ever wanted! Yes I did go through that teenage part of wanting lights and city stuff .But still I was drawn to the Waltons ,Little House on the praire , the local zoo , and Old Sturbridge Village . I got married and began a family in a small town{for Ct standards}We made many trips up North dreaming of a move .It took over 10 years and some personal troubles , but we got serious about moving .We now had 3 children . I had been reading CS and other like publications and dreaming for so long I couldn't believe we would actually do it !We finally found this run down , trash piled farm .We laughed and keep looking , 6 months later we were back and signed on the dotted line.It was the best or worst thing we have ever done depending on what day it is . We moved here 2 years after buying it .There was still lots of work to be done! No heat , electricity , plumbing , ect.We've come a long way and still have much farther to go .On most days i love it , on others ow well .Our first few months here we redid the foundation , got power and plumbing and ow ya got pregnant!My miracle baby , it was a tough pregnancy. But she here and healthy ! Things are coming together slowly .We have 4 beef cows ,goats , chickens ,pigs and more to come .Life on the homestead is wonderful.

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), April 09, 2000.

I guess homesteading was always in my heart. Funny thin was when i was a teenager I hated the farm... was born and raised on a farm. But then when I was about 17 a friend of mine began talking about living a simplier life.. he was also 17 and in my drivers ed class in school. (we never dated though) We used to talk about John Denver and dream of living in a log cabin. Well... the seeds were planted. I later married after high school to a city boy who thought he was country. About 5 yrs later I found the perfect homestead.. the highest point in Chatauqua County (western NY) and it had a flushless toilet and a Russian woodstove. I was estatic! Well.. city boy changed his mind and a few yrs later we divorced. After wards I remarried and we bought a farm. I loved it. I was milking cows.. about 100 and attending college to get my teaching degree. then economics in NY changed and we were very strapped financilaay.. unemployment was high as were taxes. We then turned to being more self-sufficient.. and were able to stay a few more years. Then we were no longer able to hold on.. I had to look out of state for a position. I believe God lead us on our journey here to VA. we are now blessed with a 35 acre farm, its paid for and we raise mainly goats but also have cows, chickens, pigs and I want to get turkeys and geese. When we bought our farm it just had a tobacco barn on it.. it was clear cut land, but the company did not destroy it too badly. We could not afford rent and the land payment at the same time so we had to move onto the land... meaning what I refer to now as "The Great Camp-out." We camped out in the tobacco barn for 6 weeks while I worked summer school and saved money to buy a 12x50 used trailer. We were excited over it. But one problem.. we lived 2 and 1/2 yrs without electricity and I loved it. It was a simple and peaceful life. We are now blessed with a nice newer moblie home, a nice big barn and electricity and a wonderful farm. We are now working hard on becomming self-sufficient. I want to add solar electricity one day, give the boys.. now 24 and 21 our current mobile home and build a cordwood house. I love homesteading and feel so blessed.

Bernice

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), April 09, 2000.

The whys and hows for me getting into homesteading, like so many others, started with TMEN. The philosophy and concept was really interesting to me, appealing to my independent spirit and the romantic in me. But, for alot of reasons (excuses) I didn't get beyond the armchair philosopher for quite a while. But dreams die hard. I've maintained my interest by reading likeminded publications, built some of the DIY projects from TMEN and rediscovered bottomfeeding (scrounging and scavenging), recalling fond memories from childhood.

I've lived most of my adult life single, in a small lakefront home on a nice large lot. The neighborhood wasn't real conducive to homesteading activities.

About 12 yrs ago I met my wife. Since we've been together I've tried making a living doing a variety of things but was never really satisfied, even when I was making OK money. About eight years ago we had a chance to buy some land fairly cheap near our home. We bought it on a lark so to speak, six acres, reasonable terms, on a land contract. The primary purpose was as an investment and as a toy, someplace to dink around. The reason we got the land cheap is because it had been badly abused. About half had been used as a small rotten granite quarry, the other half had been a junkyard for many years until the DNR ordered a cleanup about 20yrs ago. The quarry portion looked like a moonscape when we got it. The first yr we had a dozer come in and smooth things out. The following yr I was able to rent a huge 50ton excavator for the summer and I dug some ponds and built a small dam. We really didn't have a plan of moving there. It was just something to do that I enjoyed. But I noticed, while I was working there, that I'd get that peaceful easy feeling the Eagles sang about.

During this time however the economy was kickin in real good and land values started to increase, making my shack on the lake worth alot more that I'd paid for it 30 yrs ago. Most of the time we lived on the lake it was hand to mouth and paycheck to paycheck, sometimes with enuf left over to support my land development hobby. We decided we were in a rut, and we definitely were. Too much debt, too little income, not enuf $ to live even the modest life we wanted and not enuf room in that little house. It was time to sell and we did.

In the mean time we were looking at double wides, new and used. We bought a used double wide, 26x56, one of 13 solar homes that were manufactured in the mid eighties with our sights on homesteading. I can't say we're out of debt now but we're financially alot better off than we were. We moved here about 15 months ago. During this big transition we decided we were only going to do this once so we were going to get what we wanted. We built a damp root cellar and a dry one, a drive-in basement where the main shop area is, put up a 30x70 pole building, built the boiler room/power room/wood and fuel shed and were good to go for y2k. The irony is that we had no debt other than mortgage until we decided to go ahead with the back-up power system, which we had to borrow for. In anticipation of having a renewable energy system our backup power system includes batteries, generator, and inverter. It cost more doing it that way compared to a simple generator back-up but when resources permit we'll ad the renewables. Everything else is in place.

Last fall I quit my factory job and worked my butt of literally, (lost 20 lbs) for the next three months, building the 11x70 greenhouse/chicken coop attached to the south side of the pole building, finishing up the boiler room/power room/wood shed building in anticipation of y2k. Everything was done by Dec 26.

We've been building soil for the last 3 yrs. Without attention, the soil, if you can call it that, is either sand with little pebbles of glass, nuts, bolts, washers etc, left over from the junk yard days or bare rotten granite. The city, about 3 miles from here, has been hauling 50 yards of leaves each fall. We compost them with horse manure, blood meal, kelp, grass clippings, bone meal a little granite dust and whatever else we can get ahold of over the winter and spread it the following spring. We had our first garden of sorts last summer and it will be much larger this year with the fresh compost to make beds out of.

The long range objective is to do market gardening in the summer, to sell bedding plants in the spring, and even, hopefully operate the greenhouse in the winter growing cold weather crops.

I would not call this the simple life. Its a heluva lot of work. Would I go back to the sidewalks? Not on a bet! I've got too much to do here and lovin it.

-- john leake (natlivent@pcpros.net), April 10, 2000.

I was always very independent and loved nature so I think homesteading was a natural for me however I have not always done it. I worked for 25 years and chased the almighty dollar but the last 5 years or so of that I became very disatisfied with that lifestyle. I had read TMEN and Organic Gardening for years and when someone introduced me to CS&SSJ I found what I was looking for! At the time, I was recuperating from a broken ankle and this kind person sent me some magazines to read. After thinking, I came to realize I wanted to live that style of life. My husband & I have worked hard to get where we are. I no longer work outside of the home(stead) and we are planning for my husband to retire early in 2 or 3 years so we can truly live the life we both want to live. It's a wonderful life and I wouldn't change for the world. Only wish I had done it years ago when I was younger.

-- barbara (barbaraj@mis.net), April 10, 2000.

After various fits and starts of acquiring skills (mostly from my more adventurous friends) in the 1970's when we "all" wanted to get back to the Garden ) I got serious about homesteading in the early 80's. My husband and I moved out of the big city and onto a small leased property which had a hand built house, garden, greenhouse, chicken house, shop, and most charmingly, a sauna with a sod roof right next to a creek. We only stayed a couple of years, as we were looking to buy our own place. We bought a very used single wide mobile home and put it on three nice acres. However, we were both working in order to get everything debt free, so we ended up on another place, then another, where we built a house, and finally ended up where we are now. We love it here, have been here 6 years now, and have remodeled our house, built fences, barns, chicken runs/houses, bunkhouse, garden, etc. We will probably be here for another 5 (translate 10) years until we can't stand all the congestion and head to some property we bought in Eastern Washington.

My husband works in a small backwoods town about 15 miles from here, and I am going back to school to get my Med Transcriptionist Certificate so I can work from home. We are getting close to having everything paid off (just a bit of the mortgage left) and are honing up more country skills before we finally both can REALLY retire (I went back to school so I could work a while to get my husband retired sooner.)

My inspiration was my grandparents. They did everything themselves, from making their own hunting equipment (archery) to making musical instruments and playing in dance bands during the Depression to make ends meet. My grandpa would put up hay in the middle of the night to avoid the heat. They had no electricity. My grandmother could knit, tat, crochet and had her own knitting shop for a while, too. I really admired them and they taught me a lot about character. Wish I could talk to them for a while again, too.

We have sheep, ducks, cats, geese, and chickens, and would have more critters if we had room. I would also like more room to grow grain and hay.

Rambling, but gotta run. I have enjoyed reading all of your stories! Thank you.

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), April 10, 2000.

I've been trying to figure out how to answer this question without writing a book! So here goes- lived in country at 8,walking in pasture, feeding chickens, petting calf, remember Grandma's farm,Nope the horse, feather bed, crickets and frogs, quiet, stars, fireflies in a jar,moved to town, moved away, married, kids, wanted garden, "you don't know how to do that, you never do anything right", 19 years wasted, " tried marriage, didn't like it", bye-bye, back to school, uncle died, got his 40 acres and shack, met interesting guy, liked my books and had some of his own,moved to Montana, he followed, married, moved to uncle's farm, bought Grandpa's old land, moved again, building house and starting over. 15 years of wedded bliss. Life is good! Maybe those 19 years weren't really wasted completely. I've got 3 great kids and "we" have 4 beautiful grandchildren. And I'm still young!

-- Peg (jnjohnsn@pressenter.com), April 11, 2000.

I think it's an extension of my family's tendency to look for the next horizon, the next place to homestead. From Missouri via covered wagon in the 1860's, to the Oregon coast (which was still pretty isolated even as my mother was growing up there in the thirties and forties) to the homestead in Alaska which is where I lived until I was ten, it seems like our family has always been looking for a place where we could make a go of it without living in town, or being dependent on other people. My husband and I took a big step backwards a few years ago, when his parents talked us into moving to NH to be near them, and into buying a place that was more than we could afford -- it's much better to start small, and be able to accomplish something. Now we are considering how best to undo the mistake and start going forward again. Right now he's working two jobs, and when he's home he's too tired to do much. I'm working part- time or full-time at whatever I can do that allows me to take care of our mentally handicapped daughter, so don't have much time for outdoor things, though I still do most of the cooking from scratch, and keep a small garden. My husband said the other day that he felt like he was caught in a monkey trap -- you know, you stick your hand in to get something, but once you grab onto it, you can't get your hand back out. I held my tongue, because he knows as well as I do that if we are going to get out of this we are going to have to let go of some things and start from scratch again. But we've learned a lot over the years, have the experience, so it won't really be from scratch after all.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), April 11, 2000.

wow Peg I'm glad I didn't have to read that out loud, I would have passed out for a lack of air!

-- Novina West (lamb@stellarnet.com), April 11, 2000.

I will add my 2 cents, Grew up in a city[ oakland calif] in the 60s and 70s Raised by a single mom who I drove nuts with all my strays that follewed me home, Sponsired a horse in the hills as a teen so got use to wide open spaces, out of city and married with three kids two step and one home grown [2 teens and a 5 year old will sure teach you patence]Live in town but have raised beds with organic garden , 9 dwarf fruit trees, 2 chickens , 2 goats, 2 horses and 2 dogs and 5or 6 cats ,Horses are boarded at friends ranch. Still havent got land yet but we are getting closer every day.Read a good book [ John Jeavons how to grow more vegetables ] which helped me to make most out of the small lot we have.As the saying goes bloom were your planted.

-- kathy h (saddlebronc@msn.com), April 12, 2000.

Well i thought I'd come back and answer my own question. About 7 years ago I was going through a post-partum depression and usually I come out of it about 10 months to a year after the birth of a baby. Well when my hormones start to settle down it is like the lights come on. This had been a particularly rough case. The thing is I look on this as a blessing because when I start to come out of it I am at my most creative. Anyway, I was doing some real soul searching at that time trying to figure out what God wanted me to do with my life. When I was growing up it was during the time when everyone was telling girls they had to find a career and make something of themselves. I had always really only wanted one thing and that was to be a wife and a mother. The thing was when I was making decisions about my life this was an unacceptable goal. My family didn't pressure me either way but I felt pressured by my peer experiences. After high school I fiddled around with college and then married my husband. Then I went back to school after my first child was born. All this time I was looking for what I was supposed to do. I soon left school and tried real estate in southern California in 1991. HA! What a time to get in the Real estate business. My broker went under. Finally I had my second child and thus the subsequent depression. I finally decided after much prayer that God had already given me what he wanted to do and it was the very thing I loved so much, being a wife and mother. So I began to pray about how I could be the absolute best at what I wanted to be. I sat down and wrote out a list of things I felt a wife and mother ought to be. The list included things like: loving, feeding her family well, keeping her home well, educating her children. As I began to look at the things I was doing and what I could do better, I realized I could feed my children and husband better. I realized the quality of food they were getting wasn't acceptable. And so I began to look for better ways to feed my family. At that time we lived in a tract home(something that repulses me now), and so I went out to the back yard and put in a square foot garden. I began looking for books and magazines and that is when I discovered homesteading. You should have seen my husbands face when I hauled him into our room and told him I wanted to live in the country and raise all our own food. Some men would have patted their wife on the head and ignored her wishes. Not my husband. At first he was not crazy about the idea, but he took me seriously and with much negotiation first we moved to 1 1/2 acres, then we moved to 5, and now we're still on five but we rent it in the middle of a 142 acre ranch. I homestead full time, He homesteads parttime. It is working for us. We have struggle and struggled but it beyond worth it. The dream that was mine became his too. My husband would no more go back to town than he would carry me to the moon. Praise the Lord! I don't think I could stand a tract house again. Am I the perfect wife and mother yet? Absolutely not, but hopefully everyday I get a little closer to what God wants me to be.

Little Bit Farm

-- Little bit Farm (littlebit@calinet.com), April 15, 2000.