I just want to thank everyone who took the time to answer me about homesteading. You guys have given me such hope. It sounds to me that you are all just like me. Just a little further along.My husband & I would love nothing more that to be completly self sufficent. We even talked about wind mill enegry or something similer. I am so old fashioned. It is the big joke. I just have to teach myself it all. I sewed all my daughter's the summer before last. I embroider, crochet, do sampliers. and so on. Please forgive my spelling we are doing math here right now so my attention is only 1/2 here. Any help on how to teach myself to do things that will make it eaiser when we move. Or any good books. We even talked about communial living.

Jennifer

-- Jennifer (jenniferthf@aol.com), January 31, 2002

Answers

Jennifer, Heck I'm so old fashioned that I still plow with horses! I love my life. We raise cattle, hogs, bees, chickens, draft horses and will soon add sheep. We garden, can our own food, make maple syrup, do a fair bit of our own butchering..shucks we even make our own apple pie filling!

I work off farm to help get our debt down, then it is here I plan to stay!

Thanks for letting me respond.. sometimes it is good to reflect on how far you have come .. instead of what is still left to do!

Good luck

-- Ralph in N.E.Ohio (Roadapple@suite224.net), January 31, 2002.

Jennifer, Get a subscribtion to CS if you don't already have one, plus check out the library for any books you might want. A good one to start witj is Country Living.

-- Sherry (tlnifty@ecenet.com), January 31, 2002.

Jennifer, A book I have found to be a must have for my library is " The encyclopedia of country living" by Carla Emery. Another book I have enjoyed also and I think kind of what started things for me, as my dad had this book.. Is called "Back to Basics" Think readers digest put it out.... When I was an older teen I wanted to convert the swimming pool to raise fish in lol...... my mom about pulled her hair out hahaha

-- Trina (trina@ccountry.net), January 31, 2002.

Wetoo ahd considered a comunity based idea. Way bak when, neighbor could trade work, share major trools if needed and would just plain help each other out. That is why I think it is so hard for those of us today who are trying to live that simple. Even with neighbors within sight we are often still quit isolated in our values and ways of doing things. You rarely find a neighbor who would gladly come help you get your wood in for the year in exchange for helping get his etc.

-- Novina in ND (homespun@stellarnet.com), January 31, 2002.

For years I had considered the idea of communal living, but everytime I brought it up with people who were involved in the sixties 'back to the land' movement, they said don't do it. It wasn't that people didn't have good intentions, but there was such a varying amount of commitment to their intentions. I did involve myself with a beach commune in 1995, and it really was a magical experience. I would not change that year in any way. I learned so much through networking; but in the end, I came to some of the same conclusions as my elder hippie friends. Books: Coming Into The Country by John McFee, John was a journalist for Newyorker Mag, and traveled to document life in Alaska. His portraits of the engenious people of rural Alaska are very inspiring. Wilderness Mother by Deanna Kawatski is an autobiographical tale of a woman who homesteaded fairly close to where I am in the coast mountains of B.C. I've met some of the characters she writes of. This is a very spirited book of one woman living her dream. Walden by Henry David Thoreau A classic book on one man's study/journey from the urban busy-ness to rural tranquility. One Straw Revolution, and/or The Natural Way of Farming by Matsanobu Fukuoka. Absolutely un-conventional, but immenently practical. books that can change your whole outlook on the way you might think about growing food crops. This man started a huge movement in re-seeding deserts. both are out of print in the west, but are available in India. I have the sddress somewhere. If you want it e-mail me. I ordered a copy of both through the inter- library loan, it took about two months for each, and I only was allowed to have them a week. Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholemew is the most economical way of doing gardening in anywhere near a conventional manner. Making More Plants by Ken Druse is all about different methods of plant propogation. It covers a lot of ground, is easy to read, and understand. I'm a bit tired, so I can't think of the thousands of books that I've glanced at or own, or read, or whatever. One source that isn't mentioned much are the Harrowsmith Country Life books, and The Harrowsmith Reader. as someone mentioned before, Back to Basics, put out by readers digest is full of great inspiration, and collective wisdom. I remember as a young boy, and as a teenager picking it up and dreaming of all the things that I could relate to but were missing from my life. Sometimes I have to remind myself this, so I thought that I'd encorporate it here: there is nothing old fashioned about living honestly, and with the elements. It is the ultimate fashion to unify your life with the seasons; don't let the Civic mindset tell you otherwise.

-- roberto pokachinni (pokachinni@yahoo.com), February 07, 2002.