Homesteading / Simple living / Downshifting... anyone?

[rhoda_bruce]

a lot of people can't see why I live as I do, but when we have a hurricane or for whatever reason during the winter when they shut off the power or gas to do repairs and it gets cold, I don't suffer.......I just light a fire. I don't have all my food in the freezer because I can, so I won't loose everything if the power fails for long periods. I don't want to depend on the freezer anyway, so I don't allow too much to accumulate in it.
It is difficult, but it makes me feel more in control over my life. Even without a working washing machine or dryer, I can still pull out my washboard and use my clothes line.....which is being used as I type. My house is cooler without the dryer in use. My children know skills that others their age do not know.
Plus........I don't know if its true, but I am told by a friend that if I study my bills.....all my bills that I will see that some of those new bills that have passed........well we are already paying taxes on them, which we won't have the benefits of for years to come. I will pay as little onto that stuff as I possibly can.
Actually though......I want to be as independant as possible. I don't want to depend on electricity to 'keep' everything or to clean everything or whatever.....same with gas....same with purchases. There are no stores open after a bad storm. Better have stocked up or have your own stuff in storage.

 

[sune42]

A.T. Hagan :

I'd like to know where this idea that homesteading is "simple living" came from.

I've been actively homesteading for nearly the last ten years now and life has become anything but "simple!"

"Simple living" is a house in the suburbs where one goes to the grocery for everything that you eat, a lawn service takes care of your yard, and your biggest decision of an evening is what to have for supper and what television shows to watch afterwards.

Homesteading is anything but simple. It's danged complex when you are in it up to your elbows.

.....Alan.

Very true​

 

[Beekissed]

A.T. Hagan :

I'd like to know where this idea that homesteading is "simple living" came from.

I've been actively homesteading for nearly the last ten years now and life has become anything but "simple!"

"Simple living" is a house in the suburbs where one goes to the grocery for everything that you eat, a lawn service takes care of your yard, and your biggest decision of an evening is what to have for supper and what television shows to watch afterwards.

Homesteading is anything but simple. It's danged complex when you are in it up to your elbows.

.....Alan.

Depends on your definition of simple!

When you live off-grid and on a homestead, it usually is less involved if you develop a system or rhythm for the chores and things you do. Once you have that rhythm down, things become pretty basic and routine to a certain degree. You know how much money you have and you know just how much you normally spend, you know how much food to put up each year and how much wood to get in. Kerosene's getting low...better get some next trip to the local country store. Every morning and evening the animals need watered and fed....no complicated schedules to keep there. Planting times, harvest times, sunups and sundowns, meals are basic and good, bed times are not iffy and sleep is not hard to come by....to me, this is simple and easy. Quiet nights, peaceful mornings...the loudest noises are the roosters, the chainsaw, the tractor. Want to have an outhouse? Build one or move the old one to a new hole. Easy. Need firewood? Have chainsaw and trees....no problem! No TV....come home from work and find just the same evening chores and a good, quiet book.

Now...those are things I can keep clear in my mind and plan my days around. Simple.

Living in the suburbs, spending all my money on many different things, worrying how I can accomplish this on my pay, deciding on the many different options from what to buy, what to eat, what to watch on TV is somehow more complicated to me. How to get my neighbor to be considerate about loud music, barking dogs, squealing tires? Trash pickup is which day now? And only 4 bags??? How in the world did I generate this much trash??? The fuel/electric bill was more than the mortgage payment this month...how did that happen? There is a zoning law about that? Since when? You mean I can't build a garage without applying for a building permit and it might take 5 months to get approval? NO chickens???!!!! Honey, someone stole our gas grill out of the back yard! We can't hang up clothes in our own back yard??? What the hay?

Equals complicated to me.....

 

[speckledhen]

Simple is not the same as easy, that's for sure!

 

[tobin123]

I really enjoy putting the laundry out on the line,I hate using the dryer.Hubby doesn't like his clothes on the line{he says they feel rough}Now if he is at work while I do laundry I will put in extra softner and he doesn't notice.TIL NOW WHEN HE READS THIS!!!!I would like to learn how to wash by hand,ANYBODY?We use only wood for our heat,it's pretty funny and annoying when the company comes to check our propane meter,IT NEVER MOVES,but they still come out and check it.Maybe we can discuss having it removed.
We did add onto our garden this week,it grew a lot.I am pretty sure that farmer that does it for us(we love him and his family,he is always plowing our garden whenever I need it(he is retired)}So we now have a bigger area to farm.Hopefully we can double our pumpkins and make some extra $$$$$.That is the goal.We also just purchased a young boer doe,this is something we want to raise for $$$ and to sell for 4H.I did one thing that I am happy about and that is less mowing,now that the garden grew,again.

 

[skeeter03]

We are trying to become more "simple"
We have the Chickens for eggs and meat
we buy half a free range local cow every year.
and have a huge garden (trying to get dh to take that over this year lol) + fruit trees.
And fishing.
I can lots of stuff.
try to make all my own dog food if I can get the meat and provisions for it lol.
woodstove for heat.
berry picking when in season.
We are going to try to get as much "free" food as we can this year as dh has been laid off
this year we are going to try hunting.
and well of course laundry on the line.
and the elimination of debt is in process.
Clothes - try freecycle everyone - works great! i get so much stuff there for my kids and usually its great quality and nice.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Well my homesteading capabilities just multiplied. My parents have apparently separated their property and I got the wilderness. My parents probably both have years left......I mean I still have grandparents. But now my husband is coming up with all kinds of plans. There are 2 clearings on the place and he saved a bunch of Japanese Plum seeds and wants to plant figtrees so he can have them for his wine making. He also wants to order a bunch of cypress and ash trees. One because it grows well here and is a valueable tree and the other for firewood in the future.
He also checked into getting a still picture camera he can hide because we are convinced that someone is vandelizing our beehives in Dad's orchard. I can apparently keep bees in my yard, but not in the orchard.
He also wants to stock the ponds with fish. I have read about that, but never did it.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

To paraphrase Von Clausewitz, "in homesteading everything is very 'simple' but the simplest things can be difficult."

.....Alan.

 

[BigSkyChickens]

I'm trying to keep it simple, but Martha Stewart does not make it easy. I was picking up more barn red paint at home depot, and started looking at the samples: Sea Glass, Aegean Blue, Araucana Teal and Cornbread! How great would those colors look on the inside of my new chick house?!

But I know better - I can whitewash the inside for a fraction of the cost!

No, simple is not the same as easy, but hard work is good for me.

 

[Want Less]

I randomly started going back through my old posts and ran across this one... I had such a fun time re-reading through everyone's input that I thought I'd give it a little bump and see if we can get this thread ball rolling again!

We're still going strong with our shift toward a more simple life (although I agree with all of you that "simple living" is NOT simple... maybe we should rename it to REWARDING life!). Our chickens are doing wonderful and we hope to expand our flock this spring. We've been selling eggs here and there which has been fun. For the first time, we planted a fall garden of cabbages, broccoli, carrots and spinach. I have to say that fall gardening is different than what I expected... am I the only one who feels weird watering things outside in December?

Our holidays this year are revolving around simplicity. Instead of giving gadgets and plastic whatchamacallits from a retail store, we are making gift boxes full of our own homemade canned goods, fresh breads, farm eggs and other assorted goodies. In cases where we want to give more, we're opting for giving experiences... movie tickets, theater tickets, dinners on us....

We've also declared our own junk mail and catalog war and we're putting an end one by one to all the wasted paper companies and organizations are putting in our mailbox everyday. (Here's a blog I love that has great tips on stopping your unwanted junk mail)

So what are all of you up to these days?