Homesteaders

[rancher hicks]

How I see it.

1. We are all homesteaders to one degree or another IMO. Unfortunately some technology has become necessary. EX. Phones, electricity and this slower than molasses computer. I pay things online, but I would like to reduce as much as I can. If not for DW I'd probably not use the lights or other things as much.

I'm too old for a wood stove and these new pellet stoves need electricity so I'm told.

I grow what I can to reduce the junk in many foods, but I'm not up to butchering livestock.

Outhouses have been banned in some southern states for water safety reasons. I wish they'd hook us up to the sewer since this septic is a pain, when it's raining real bad. It just doesn't drain well as the water table is high. I'm sure I'd be paying a kid to go out and warm up the seat if I had to use an outhouse.

Maybe hang a heat light in there, even put the brooder in there.

I reckon the smell would kill the chicks though.

1.​

the owner or holder of a homestead.

2.​

a settler under the Homestead Act.

homesteader definition, meaning, what is homesteader: someone who goes to live and grow crops on land given by the government, especially in…

home·stead

(hōm′stĕd′)
n.
1. A house, especially a farmhouse, with adjoining buildings and land.
2. Law Property qualifying as a person's home under certain laws, such as laws providing tax abatements andexemptions, survivorship rights for spouse and children, and immunity from claims of creditors.
3. Land claimed by a settler or squatter, especially under the Homestead Act.
4. The place where one's home is.
v. home·stead·ed, home·stead·ing, home·steads
v.intr.
To settle and farm land, especially under the Homestead Act.
v.tr.
To claim and settle (land) as a homestead.
home·stead

(hōm′stĕd′)
n.
1. A house, especially a farmhouse, with adjoining buildings and land.
2. Law Property qualifying as a person's home under certain laws, such as laws providing tax abatements andexemptions, survivorship rights for spouse and children, and immunity from claims of creditors.
3. Land claimed by a settler or squatter, especially under the Homestead Act.
4. The place where one's home is.
v. home·stead·ed, home·stead·ing, home·steads
v.intr.
To settle and farm land, especially under the Homestead Act.
v.tr.
To claim and settle (land) as a homestead.






2. Food safety regulations came about due to Commercial industry farming and the like. We do need them but to what degree? We are a litigas society. Anyone can sue anyone without proof and lives have been ruined. So we carry insurance.

I've visited farms that were not as clean as I'd like. Too some folks here, present company excluded, feed their birds strange things. One person on here was hanging meat to grow maggots to fall to the birds.

Even though it has been proven unhealthy.

I personally did not get into chickens for business. If I have extra eggs I sell them but not as regularly as some.


3. One of the members here lives in Alaska, we became friends sort of on the Granny Square swap site. I PM'd her since my son is stationed there now. She said that the families on the shows do not live in the wilderness but not more than 10 miles from town.

My personal research into these shows, Fixer Upper, Love it or List it, etc. etc. tells me that these shows are "scripted" and staged for entertainment. Calling them "reality" is false advertising imo.

I plan to visit Alaska in the near future.

With all that said, I accept you for whatever degree you can do. I don't care if you kill your own pigs, or have the fastest computer in the west.

I'm here to glean what I can use and leave the rest.

Peace, Rancher

 

[Woodsdweller]

How I see it.

1. We are all homesteaders to one degree or another IMO. Unfortunately some technology has become necessary. EX. Phones, electricity and this slower than molasses computer. I pay things online, but I would like to reduce as much as I can. If not for DW I'd probably not use the lights or other things as much.

I'm too old for a wood stove and these new pellet stoves need electricity so I'm told.

I grow what I can to reduce the junk in many foods, but I'm not up to butchering livestock.

Outhouses have been banned in some southern states for water safety reasons. I wish they'd hook us up to the sewer since this septic is a pain, when it's raining real bad. It just doesn't drain well as the water table is high. I'm sure I'd be paying a kid to go out and warm up the seat if I had to use an outhouse.

Maybe hang a heat light in there, even put the brooder in there.

I reckon the smell would kill the chicks though.

I don't know what brand/model of pellet stove you have, but the Thelins that I own can be run with a battery. When the power goes out..... with 3-100ah batteries hooked up in series connected to a 50 watt solar panel I can run each pellet stove when the sun shines 24/7 indefinitely or 4 days with no sun. Though I rarely run them more than a couple of hours at a time as they warm the place up quickly. I also use the same setup to run 12V lighting, a 12V refrigerator, CPAP, coffee pot, radio, charge cellphone and laptop.

As for outhouses a Port-A-Potty makes an acceptable substitute. I used this one for 5 months while I was building a cottage back in the woods on my mountain.

This was my kitchen.



I'm an old grumpy Boy Scout.

 

[MoonShadows]

I do have an outhouse, and a two-seater at that....but I found it on the property when I moved here 21 years ago. I fixed it up, with the original slate roof, and use it as a small tool "closet" down near one of my gardens in the field. But, I do have a cesspool....not a septic...it was grandfathered in with the property. I had it cleaned out for inspection when I bought the property back in 1995. Since then I haven't had to do a thing, and it does the job well. Amazing, just a hole in the ground, lined with rocks. I was told by the contractor that inspected the house before I purchased it that a cesspool will outlive a septic system any day.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

For me being a homesteader is much more a goal then a reality. Right now we are still pretty dependent on the system. But every year I try to eliminate one more thing that we buy, produce it for ourselves if I can. I will never get to a point where I feel I have successfully become a homesteader, and I am ok with that.

 

[Loc20chick]

For me being a homesteader is not according to its definition. I just want to produce my own vegetables as I enjoy the process of gardening and produce our own eggs and chicken meats as I enjoy taking care of the chickens. They give me something to do around the house instead of just sitting watching tv or browsing the net. Working around my home keeps me busy and active and food that I have grown tastes better (at least that's what I think). There are other reasons I like to grow my food but I don't think I can become self sufficient.

 

[rancher hicks]

When I first moved to Liverpool,NY as a kid we had a number of outhouses on the property but they were torn down for some reason.

My stepfathers camp had and outhouse, though he did put in a inside toilet. I'm not sure where the septic tank was or how things worked.

I could not live with a cesspool. Our septic would go if they'd run a sewer line. Most of the houses around here have septics.

As for the homesteader thing, I concur with doing with less purchased fare and eating healthier. I say if I can keep from buying 50% of our food that's good. There are just somethings I can't grow such as hay and feed.

Certain stuff requires buying tools and machines and that just makes it unaffordable. Seems to me unless you're growing for selling you can pretty much grow enough for your family. Heck if I got rid of more than half the chickens I would still get enough eggs for the house. Course it's just the two of us.

IMO you need at least two coops so if something hits one coop (disease or pred. ) the other might be okay. Too I don't cotton to keeping one breed. My Delaware generally will give me eggs when others don't.

If I were younger I would do things differently.

Woods, I like the bench but it must be uncomfortable to watch TV. Did you make a recliner? Where do you keep the remote?

Seriously I may try to build one or two of those. Sometimes when you're in the woods you want to sit for a spell.

 

[MoonShadows]

Like you, if I could grow 50% of our food, I would be very happy; we're not there yet. I wish I could buy equipment to make it easier to do this (especially at age 60), but we still have debt we are paying off, and any "extra" money goes to that. Sometimes I watch shows or videos of people who are "off grid", a direction I would like to move towards more, but it is expensive. Things like alternative power (solar, wind, water) or heat (geo thermal) are expensive to install. Sometimes I wish this bug had bitten me much earlier in life; I would have done things much differently. But, I am happy that I have started and am doing it now. I do what I can, and I am content with that.

 

[rancher hicks]

Like you, if I could grow 50% of our food, I would be very happy; we're not there yet. I wish I could buy equipment to make it easier to do this (especially at age 60), but we still have debt we are paying off, and any "extra" money goes to that. Sometimes I watch shows or videos of people who are "off grid", a direction I would like to move towards more, but it is expensive. Things like alternative power (solar, wind, water) or heat (geo thermal) are expensive to install. Sometimes I wish this bug had bitten me much earlier in life; I would have done things much differently. But, I am happy that I have started and am doing it now. I do what I can, and I am content with that.

Well now by being here you can find ways to cut things down. Keep a journal $1 at the dollar store of what you USE and how much. I planted Okra but we don't really use Okra so instead I should plant something else.

Too, starting your own tomatoes and other plants is much easier than you think. There are many options other than buying trays and peat pots and all that. Seed starting soil isn't that expensive.

I plan to start only enough for what I need. Share a packet of seeds with a friend or offer to buy unused seeds.

I'm setting up now to start my tomatoes. Then will be my other things. I plan to make my own paper pots. Not all but I'll give it a try and see how things work out. Too, if you dump your plants out of the those peat pots you can reuse them. Tomatoes come out just fine. They don't break down as well as we're led to believe. I always break them up when planting the plants.

Some folks don't know this, but tomatoes are easy to propagate. One leggy plant can be used to start many new ones. Google it and see what I mean.

I plan to start flowers and have checked into how to save seeds. One tomato can be enough for the next year.

I've been asking DW how much of this or that do we use.

Use your public library as much as possible. There are some really good and not so good books on most of what you need. Too Youtube is a great source of information.

So I advise you to get that journal or tablet of paper and make that list of what it is you need to get you through the year. Come back and here and ask whatever questions you need.

I wish you well,

Rancher, older than sixty, Hicks.

 

[Beekissed]

Like you, if I could grow 50% of our food, I would be very happy; we're not there yet. I wish I could buy equipment to make it easier to do this (especially at age 60), but we still have debt we are paying off, and any "extra" money goes to that. Sometimes I watch shows or videos of people who are "off grid", a direction I would like to move towards more, but it is expensive. Things like alternative power (solar, wind, water) or heat (geo thermal) are expensive to install. Sometimes I wish this bug had bitten me much earlier in life; I would have done things much differently. But, I am happy that I have started and am doing it now. I do what I can, and I am content with that.

Everyone thinks that but it's just not so....my folks had nothing but a chainsaw, some hand tools and a tiller when they went off grid and we never did put in "alternative power" in those years of living off grid. We heated with wood, got our water from a spring at first(also where we kept out food cool) and then from the hand dug well, and eventually got a propane fridge that ran off bottled propane. The thing is, you really don't need electric power at all if you don't want it and you can live just fine without it.

My folks went off grid and started homesteading when my folks were in their late 40s, early 50s and were still off grid in their early 60s(finally got basic electric back there but still had no running water or plumbing), so it can be done with minimal equipment and expense. Just got to work smarter and not harder.

 

[Chicken girl 15]

Our goal is to grow/raise 90% of what we eat here on our property or set up trades with other families like ours. As of now we have narrowed down what to plant and how much we think we will need of it. I have a very hungry family of 7 who prefers fresh over processed so it just makes sense.

As for housing , at the moment we have all modern luxuries. Come spring we are starting our cabin out on our property. I will have a hand pump for water, a composting toilet, 2-3 wood stoves one being a cook stove, we will have a propane fridge as insulin has to be kept cold and my 14 year old is diabetic. Other than that it's going to be primitive.