Who homesteads using pioneer methods.

-- David R IN W. TN . (srimmer@earthlink.net), July 26, 2002

Answers

define "pioneer methods",, gardening,, raising animals,, some live without electricity, some haul water. Since there isnt any hemsteading land grants anymore,,, you could say, noone does. Living totally off the land,, even the "pioneers" didnt do that.

-- Stan (sopal@net-pert.com), July 26, 2002.

David being that I try to live with as little of the industrialized products as possible, I have an intersest in a pioneer type homestead.I want to make a cabin out of poles and logs, but don't know where to get the hand tools to square off poles or logs and the axe type tool to make ruff cut planks by hand , for flooring ,siding and roofing shingles. I don't even know what these tools are called.Not being happy with animal feed grain quality and hearing that in some countries dairy goats are producing milk without grains, I'm trying to find alternitives to store bought feeds grown with industrail waste products such as amonium nitrate for my goats.Having lived outside the U.S. during most of the 80's and having had there a few milking goats and a heard of meat goats,I wasn't able to get grain there besides cracked corn,but being it was in a tropical rain forest ,there was always greens,vines, palm leaves, besides bananas, fruits ,nuts and wild yams, that I used to forage for in the mountains to feed my goats.In most of the U.S. it gets cold and barren in the winter,so it's learning all over again, how to work and live with the land.I never would have expected that goats need hay for the winter and a place to store the hay.Not to mention all the diseases they get that they didn't get in my tropical home.I believe it's caused by the un-natural consumption of grains.The only thing I medicated my goats for there was worms.I've never seen a sick goat in 10 years time in the rain forrest ,that I had lived in .In the past 4 years I been raising goats in the U.S. ,I've seen goats chough, running nose, navel ill, and heard of worse from friends and forums. So I'm hoping your thread sheds some unknown information by having people post their pioneer methods.I'm betting some of the pre- industrialized methods that are still being used today are by people who don't use computors, so we might not see much information, but anything is possible. I'm in east Tenn.

-- SM Steve (Unreal@home.com), July 26, 2002.

Since your asking on the Internet, odds are "Nobody here. :>) Pioneers didn't have cable modems.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), July 26, 2002.

Someone here must know some pioneer skills.Iron casting maybe? Fish net making, basket weaving or cloth weaving . I see a few Yuppie cabins used for summer and week-end retreats ,that are made like cabins were a few hundred years ago, only they weren't there a few years ago.They are detailed in their craftsmanship to look authentic.Not like some I see that are modern material, imitations . Even the fencing around the land is, I think the word is hewn logs .Than there's a place around here called Caves Cove.It was an old farm site.It has historic a farm house and barn I think. There's too many tourist ( crowded)in that area so I never checked it out .But I know they had it restored and they supposeing use old pioneer type methods to keep it looking like it originaly did.I've seen it done on this old house type of tv show many years ago , where there's highly paid craftsman doing custom pioneer type building .Everyone I know who builds uses that osb flakey plywood.I don't like the way that stuff smells so strong , like glue .But everyone else seems to not mind,cause that's most of what is used.I knew someone who used to buy 4 foot logs 20 inches round.When he got through with them, they were fine quality acoustic guitars worth about $2000. I tried to convince him to teach me the trade.But He would't show his trade secretes. He died years ago and took his talents with him. To clarify things, the word homestead always brings to mind the Homestead Act of 1862 which was free land given for living on, cultivating on,and improving for 5 years than you'd obtain full title of it. but the word homestead means,the place of a house,subsidiary buildings, and ajacent land occupied as a home.

-- SM Steve (Unreal@home.com), July 26, 2002.

http://www.braintan.com/hideout/ Here's a web site that might be helpful.It's on tanning animal skins.That's one advantage of living where it gets cold in the winter.You can dry your skins,near the wood stove.I have a few goat skins I've dried and hope to learn to tan well.My aim is to make a vest to keep my back warm in winter.I guess no-ones thinking about keeping warm lately.

-- SM Steve (Unreal@home.com), July 27, 2002.

Steve, oh how I love reading your posts! You are truly a wise man.....

I have a couple of sheepskins in my freezer.......been there a coupla years now.....do you think they are still worth keeping? (they are from favorite animals, so I hadn't the heart to trash em.)

-- earthmama (earthmama48@yahoo.com), July 27, 2002.

Hi Steve. Been to Cade's Cove a few times acting as a "tour guide" for relatives. It really is a neat place to go if you can ignore the tourist! A few of the old homesteads are still there along with the churches, cemetaries and an old mill. Most of the houses were built on rocks for a foundation and are still solid. When we built our shed 5 years ago, we built the foundation on large rocks, no mortar, and it still holding up great. I got the idea from the houses at Cade's Cove.

Have you ever been to the Museum of Appalachia north of Knoxville? I've always wanted to go there, but haven't found the time yet. I've heard it's pretty neat and they have people who do displays of old time crafts. Might be able to pick their brains a little?

-- Annie (mistletoe6@earthlink.net), July 27, 2002.

Steve, Glad to see your into such ways. I visit east TN. two to three times a year.Love those mountains and valleys.I pick all the old timers brains , I can find around there.The tools you mention can be found at the flea markets in your area and out of way places.A froe,Broad ax,scribe,hand saw will get you started, also a brace and bit for your pegging. Annie ,The place at Norris is nice and informitive,Craft days are in Oct.

-- David R IN W. TN. (srimmer@earthlink.net), July 27, 2002.

Earthmama, I'm new at drying skins. I would think your sheep skins are still good ?. I bought inexspensive table salt. Fisrt I salted the hair side just in case , then I salted the flesh side of the skins.I made sure every part of the flesh had salt especially the ends, I hand rubbed the salt in, to make sure it would stick to the flesh. Since my house is still like a messy unfinished constuction site, I did this near the wood stove in winter and left the skin flat on the floor. It's done in winter , because you need to keep the flys away from the skins, to prevent maggots from getting in the skin .Even though ,I think maggots can't live in the salt .The next day I hung the skin from the ceiling with fishing line.I was told by a friend latter on that I should have tacked the skin to a square piece of plywood, that's bigger than the skin and should have scraped off the fat and flesh that had remained on the skin while it was still moist. That web site I added in the post before ,has a Forum for tanning and there are experienced people there to get answers from. There is also some pages on that site that show how to wet scrape and dry scrape a skin and methods of tanning .They also sell tools for tanning .I'm gonna need their advice soon, I'm getting ready to skin a few more goats and I want to get that soft flexible skin you get from tanning, to make some cloths and I want to make a homemade drum. I have only dried skins, which leaves them stiff like cardboard , tanning them afterwoods makes them soft and flexible like soft leather .As far as killing a goat goes, I've done many and I'm still not comfortable with killing animals. But I won't eat meat unless I've raised the animal myself and killed it myself.I know what the animal has eaten and I know it had a good life and never been mistreated ..If you or anyone has a questain on drying skin,just ask, but I'm in the learning stages so I'm limited.

-- SM Steve (Unreal@home.com), July 27, 2002.

I almost forgot ,Annie I don't know if you'll read this in time or if your interested but in Townsend today is a Native American heritage celebration til 5 pm. Here's what the D-Times says.I'm late already. http://www.thedailytimes.com/sited/story/html/100010 I don't mind the tourist, it's just the large numbers of them makes everything feel so congestive.

-- SM Steve (Unreal@home.com), July 27, 2002.

make sure the salt you use is sea salt, or NON iodized salt. The iodine can react witht he skin, and it wont take a tanning or smoking, or whatever your using to preserve it. Ive found non iodized salt right next to the iodized stuf on the shelf

-- Stan (sopal@net-pert.com), July 27, 2002.

David, thanks for the reminder. This year I'm going to make an honest effort to get up there. Need to take a break from this gardening once in awhile, huh? :) I've also wanted to go to Crossville to the General Store. Ever been there?

Steve, did you go to the festival? I would have loved to been able to make it over there but I had to get the onions put up! Sounds like it would have been a good one to go to. In the front of the phone book is a calendar of events for the year. There is one listed for Sept. 28th, Fall Old Timers Day in Cades Cove. It's a reunion of the people and their decendants who lived there before the park. Might get some good tips there?

-- Annie (mistletoe6@earthlink.net), July 27, 2002.

Steve, some of the finest books on pioneering and the "old ways" were written by a man called Eric Sloane. He was a writer and an artist, and I have books of his that detail every last tool made by people in the 1700's and 1800's, and what they were used for. He was especially reverent toward wood, and what it could be used for. (In fact, one of his books is called, "A Reverence for Wood".) He says that America was built with wood - if the first settlers hadn't found the vast forests that were here, they wouldn't have survived. I never get tired of reading his books.

-- Bonnie (51940@aeroinc.net), July 27, 2002.

I'm loving this thread! Great tips, and I'll definately check into those books! Thanks all!

-- Patty (SycamoreHollow@aol.com), July 27, 2002.

Stan,By Pioneer Methods I mean the ways in which one goes about doing things on one's homestead such as a poineer would have used wood pegs in the log walls, today a person might use steel rods or spikes. Annie , have been to the Cumberland General Store,neat place to browse,high prices but bargains can be found, you would like it.Make sure you hit crossville largest weekly flea market also,easy to find.The longest yard sale on highway 127,goes thru 4 states,starts in kentucky ends in alabama is Aug. 11. 127 goes thru crossville.

-- David R IN W. TN. (srimmer@earthlink.net), July 27, 2002.

hmmmmmm, August 11th...... General Store plus the longest yard sale? DH wouldn't see me for days....I'd end up somewhere in Alabama! :)

-- Annie (mistletoe6@earthlink.net), July 27, 2002.

I prefer to learn from the past and utilize the future. I have no desire for primitiveness.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), July 27, 2002.

David, I somehow miss your posting earlier today.I think my reading glasses need to be stronger.Thanks for the names of the tools.I'm gonna check out the Crossville flea market.I've been there a few times.I got some pigs , actually boars I need to sell.They are slow selling here,so I'll try there. Bonnie , those books sound good, are they still in print ?, some of those books are classics and I bet are hard to get.I'm gonna try to find em. Is the one with the tools titled, A Reverence for Wood ? Stan, I'm glad you mentioned the non-iodized salt, cause I still have a container of salt from the first 2 skins I dried. And I used iodized,now I'm wondering, if I have trouble with the tanning I'll know why.I'm gonna try to dry 2 more this week,hoping it can be done with the low humidity of an airconditioned room. Yes, I got weak and hook up my ac this year.Turned it on for the first time, this year, last week. I will get non -iodized for that project . Annie, I went to the festival,I would rather have been putting up onions myself if I grew some this year. I got there just in time to hear a story of the trail of tears,it was told well and interesting cause it had personal details I've never heard before .I watch a guy making arrow heads,and got some tips from him on how to make them,mostly trial and error.And some of his work was diplayed on deer skins ,which he dried and tanned, so I got some tips on that too. He used a pound of salt, a pint of vinegar, to one gallon of water.He called it a pick-ling solution .He soaked the skin in the solution over night, than dried the skin,stretched out,tied on a frame.When dried,he scrape all the fat and flesh, to the clean skin using a steel bristol brush. Then he used a tanning solution made from a bar of ivory soap scrappings and mineral oil ,I think he said a pint of the oil.He put that on the skin to tan it.Then a day for that to soak in and then work the skin to get it soft,which I think is done over the edge of a board.He said if I got tied and the skin wasn't finished being worked soft, to roll it up, put it in a cool place, and start working it the next day.This is done with the hair in tac. To remove the hair he said I'd need to soak it in lye. But I didn't ask how that method was done.

-- SM Steve (Unreal@home.com), July 27, 2002.

Jay, for a person who once made a comment, " Never ingage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent "which has become part of my subconscious, I would think you'd preffer the quality of lifes primative methods.Or at least understand the motives of what drives these desires . Example: Although there are more advanced ways of human sexual reproduction , such as clonning and artificial insememnation,the old fashsion primitive ways are by far more gratifying, even if reproduction isn't the goal. And this example could be extentended to general areas of life,such as home building, gardening and livestock raising, tools, cloths, decorating art work and musical insturment crafting. There's a sense of art , accomplishment,some independance, self disipline,improved motor skills,problem solving, and conquering of our once ,inabilities. Like mountain climing, it's the high of the challange. Also less negative impact on the planets enviorment. Example of that,(from Annie), is using rocks for a foundation of a home or barn instead of concrete. Ingredients mined to make concrete leaves the earth with big holes in it and makes a once beautiful life productive piece of earth, like a life-less crater of the moom. It could also be profitable,people with wealth pay top dollar for primitive craftmanship that often gives a quality look and feel that can't be gotten through buying a mass produced item or product .Than there are others like myself who always have alot more time, but rarely any money.And for others,it's a form of entertainment . It's Fun.

-- SM Steve (Unreal@home.com), July 28, 2002.

Steve,You hit the nail on the head.

-- David R IN W. TN. (srimmer@earthlink.net), July 28, 2002.

Have you seen the PBS special that was out a few months ago called Pioneer House??? Lots of tips along with a name of a Martha Stewart type of cookbook from the 1800's with lots of interesting recipes and by today's standards, innovative ways to prepare the dishes. I picked up the book at BN.com. The name of it is: Miss Beecher's Domestic Receipt-Book (I guess the word recipe was not used yet.) by Catherine Beecher written 1858

No idea on the sheep skins...I probably should do something as I lose a few sheep each year out of the flock and to date, bury them with skins on...lazy??? or just too many other chores to do...like playing on the computer...

I got tired of my 1880's foundation which was some shallow well fitted rocks around the perimeter of my house as my soup bowl would spill if it was filled over half way due to the tilt...

I jacked the house up, dug a trench and formed it and poured a foundation...however now it seems to be settling a bit...maybe the soil just can not support two story house???

Anyone know why homesteadingtoday.com stopped working???

-- Garyfrom Mn (hpysheep@midwestinfo.com), August 01, 2002.

Sorry, Steve, I don't know the answers to your questions about the books - I've had mine for awhile, but I think I got one or two from Amazon.com. some are BIG (coffee-table-size), and some are hard-back size; none are paper-backed. They weren't cheap, but I read them over and over and love them. Well worth (to me) the money!

-- Bonnie (51940@aeroinc.net), August 03, 2002.

hog head meat how to make it

-- dick barnes (mamawbarnes2002@yahoo.com), October 22, 2004.