Just out of curiosity, what is your philosophy behind homesteading? do you want to homestead for religious reasons? economic reasons? aesthetic reasons? Also, what is your ideal homestead like, and how far away (maybe I should say, how close are you to that ideal?) There is always so much to do that it's much more encouraging to say "how close" and look at what's done instead of what's not done!!!

-- Patti (trigger@mcn.net), July 15, 2000

Answers

Response to Just a nosy question

The main reason we're homesteading is to be as self sufficient as possible and I like the challenge. The goal around here is to be able to make a living right here at home. So far we're on track to be food self sufficient within a year. Next year, by the looks of things, should be the first year where we'll be making significant $$$, both from the garden and greenhouse. With the sawmill being finally operational that should open other $$$ streams. We're taking the approach of doing a number of things for income generation. There's a certain kind of security in diversification thats appealing to me.

By the time we're fully operational we'll have chickens, goats, guinneas, geese, and ducks. Theoretical income streams will be Chickens for eggs and meat, Sawmill for custom sawing and a small pallet operation, the greenhouse for bedding plants in the spring and cash crops in winter, the garden for food and income, and possibly the freeplants.com concept. In each case the things we're doing here either save us money or will make us money also. I try to leverage the various activities so one operation will provide inputs to one or more of the others.

Diversification is also pivotal in creating what I call bio-loops or a permaculture kind of thing. We've come a long way in the last couple of years and I'm pleased with our progress thus far. I've done most of it myself which has been good for me. Its definately a rut- resistant way of life which I like also.

-- john leake (natlivent@pcpros.net), July 15, 2000.

Response to Just a nosy question

This may sound kind of high minded, but my dream is to create a little microcosm of a symbiotic universe. I always tell my friends who truly don't understand why I want to do what I am doing that with all the work and heartbreak, that it takes a lot of focus to build a universe! This is really a joke because I am a Christian and I know all I am doing is striving to work within the system that the Lord created. I am not making anything, just re-arranging really.

Reasons? They all touch each other. Religious, yes, I feel much more in tune with God when I am caring for His creation than when I am chasing after money. Economic, yes, as the system we are operating under has no chance of becoming healthy for living beings as I see it. Aesthetic, yes, I don't think there is anything more beautiful than a thriving garden with healthy happy animals and visiting birds and butterflies and the sunrise, nothing smells as good to me as healthy soil after a light rain. Well, maybe a forest, but that is healthy soil as well, just some extra goodies there!

How close? Getting closer, but the beauty of it is I will never be done. That's the thing about cycles, they just continue. As John said, bio-loops. It's a great big circle, and I don't find it monotonous at all. I just pray that I can leave the place to someone who will appreciate many of the same things.

-- Doreen (livinginskin@yahoo.com), July 15, 2000.

Response to Just a nosy question

Well, the land is almost paid for....10 acres! That brings the goal closer than it was a year ago! Reasons? Hmm, I wouldn't say religious, but definitely spiritual. Alot has to do with healthy living and eating food that isn't tainted, breathing air that isn't smog laden. Other reasons include the fact that the other choices don't fit! And that's probably the biggest reason. Choosing between living in a city or living in the country, surrounded by concrete or trees, chasing the almighty buck or chasing some nutty chickens or a butterfly,..... Sue

-- Sue (sulandherb@aol.com), July 15, 2000.

Response to Just a nosy question

We believe God sent us here! We had lived in a large city of over 300,000 for many years-we came back to this county, in Ks. to take care of my Dad who was dyeing of cancer--when my Dad died we planned on moveing back to the city as all of our friends were there & our church home was there--but before we moved back---we had to take in my husband's mother who had Alzheimers. We ended up buying an old home at auction in a town with a population of maybe 50 people on a nice day. Quite a change from what we were use to. We remolded the home & we have keep buying, what ever comes up for sale or auction--& cleaning it up, or completely tear it down & plant orchards, gardens, etc. Just cleaning up properties, that were REALLY BAD!!! We buy everything with cash & we don't owe anyone anything. We now are careing for My mother--but we feel God wants us to be here. When, we came; there was a church that maybe 6 people warmed the pews--they didn't know what salvation was---but God has brought in a salvation preaching, Bible preaching, young pastor & in less than a year of him comming, we are averageing 75 a Sunday. The area is going to have its FIRST revival that anyone can remember haveing, in Sept of this year.We are becoming more & more "self reliant" as they say on our property here. We are such a small town I have ducks, chickens, & geese, & baby keets in my yard. We garden, & we are doing more & more to bring in extra income without haveing a "business", as we have been business owners for over 35 years. My hubby drives 65 miles to work each day & it takes him less time, than when he had to drive across town, when we lived in all the hussle & bussle. He will be able to retire in a few years--& he has in enough years we would be crazy to dump it now before he retires. His driveing time is his quiet time with God. How close are we to haveing done what we want done-----probably another 1,000 years--might do it--but if we ever get it all done then there is something wrong with us! As each day we plan & set more goals & want to improve something-or just be able to do nothing, if that is what we want. If I'm close to meeting ALL MY DREAMS--THEN I HAVE PROBABLY QUIT DREAMING & SETTING GOALS & I NEVER WANT TO BE ALL DONE! I want to go home to Jesus, or be raptured before I'm ever DONE ! Plus, God just keeps sending more people into our lives, we are suspose to help, or be care givers for--I don't ever want, to not be there, when God wants us to serve Him! Sonda in Ks.

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), July 15, 2000.

Response to Just a nosy question

I do it because I like it. I enjoy farm work; animals; gardening; the countryside; the seclusion; the rewards; the exercise; the appetite the work gives me; the calories the work burns so I can eat hardy and satisfy my appetite without weight gain; the "high" I feel when I'm in the woods doing exactly what I should be doing at that time and it is just me and God's nature; the common sense lessons my child was taught while growing up around a homestead and seeing how she has turned it into a treasure no one can take; the satisfaction of knowing that I'm not sitting in front of the TV every night like most Americans and being brainwashed and lobotomized by capitalism and Hollywood; the feeling of being in sync with nature I have when I fall into bed at sunset totally tired and wake up at sunrise rested and ready to start over. The witnessing of sunrise every day and feeling that fresh, new puff of breeze that stirs just before the sun shows...Like I said, I do it because it gives me pleasure. In 8 years, when I retire from my day job, I believe I shall find waiting for me health, strength, peace, and the ability to finish my life on this Earth doing what I love most. There is a reason farmers are still in the fields when they are in their 80s...it is what they live for...they never retire their love and that is what I have found, a life long love that will sustain me and my family...something I never want to retire from. It isn't just a way of life, it is life! ;-)

-- JimR (jroberts1@cas.org), July 17, 2000.

Response to Just a nosy question

My answer is simple, I wanted to raise my own children. This simply could not be done with the mortgage we had in town. Though I raised meat (rabbits) and eggs, gardened and canned, we simply would have had to have had two incomes. So we had to can the mortgage, which meant building our own home, finding a county in which we could build without codes, and starting our own business. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), July 17, 2000.

Response to Just a nosy question

Thanks, everyone, for your great answers. Very well written and inspirational. I appreciate your viewpoints. My interest in homesteading started, embarrassinly enough, with Y2K. Not that I was really worried about it, but we did start looking around at what we have, and what we could do to be more self-sufficient. We live on what was my father-in-law's ranch, and have much we could do to be more self-sufficient than we are. Right now we have laying chickens, and would like to get chickens to butcher next year. The hens I have now will have to die of old age, because they are too much like pets for me to ever butcher!! We raise cattle, and usually have either a beef to butcher, or elk or deer. My kids raise 4-H pigs, and I would like to raise one for meat. We have a greenhouse, and a fair size garden which I would like to increase the size of. I have started apple trees, plum trees, raspberries, strawberries and rhubarb, which is about all that will grow in our Zone 3 area. I would really like to have a milk cow, and am looking for one. My kids think I'm crazy, and vow to never set foot near it, but that's OK. I would also like to have honey bees and am planning a herb garden. My mother-in-law was a back-to-the-lander in the 70's, and I learned alot from her about gardening, canning, bread-baking, churning butter, and nutrition in general. I guess I feel like our economy is kind of a house of plastic cards that is due for a tumble. There is too much easy credit available nowadays, and many people are too far extended. Too many farmers and ranchers are being forced out of business, and too much prime farm land is being bought up for housing developments. We are becoming too far removed from our food source and too many of the "survival" skills of food production are being lost. I know very few people in our area, or my age group that know how to can, sew, bake bread, or churn butter anymore. And this is an agricultural area. I also like the idea of taking care of your own family members. My kids have learned alot of skills on the ranch, and have learned how to think for themselves. They have also had the benefit of having grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins (by the dozens) around to grow up with. And it is nice to be able to help the grandparents out as they age, as they helped us when we needed it. Besides that, I guess I'm just ornery enough, that if society tells me what I'm "supposed" to be doing, I'm going to do it another way just to be contrary!!!

-- Patti (trigger@mcn.net), July 17, 2000.