In what way has Countryside magazine helped you most?

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I hope everyone had a great holiday season. Now I am ready to get back to "normal". I've been thinking the last few days about all the ways Countryside has helped me over the years, and in trying to pinpoint what was of the most benefit, here's what I came up with.

First, helping me develop that homesteader attitude of self sufficiency - making do, being satisfied with what I have, continually increasing my knowledge and skills, etc. The other single most valuable "skill" I've learned is to keep records! Being the softies we are toward animals, dh and I tend to have too many freeloaders around here. Right now we can afford a few pets (the old chickens that don't lay, the gimpy doe that I don't breed). BUT if/when hard times hit, thanks to good record keeping, I know exactly which animals to cull, which management practices to change, and which plants/animals do or don't pay off for our area and situation. I would be ill prepared for hard times were it not for Countryside's help and encouragement. Which "gems" from Countryside have helped you the most?

-- Lenette (kigervixen@webtv.net), January 02, 2001

Answers

Ah!!Lenette. Good question ! It will be so interesting to read these answers. Ever since I saw my first CountrySide issue, I couldnt lay it down untill I had read every article . You know I think what Countryside has given to me is the knowlege that we are not alone in our irregular way of living and thinking. It is so wonderful to know that there are others out there somewhere who are trying to live a simple more self sufficent lifestye. Sitting down with countryside is like sitting down with an old friend to share ideas and inspirations. Mostly I have gleamed little idea's from countryside, like putting saran wrap over my canned goods in the basement so that they dont rust.(Why I couldnt think of that one myself, I dont know,but so glad that a countrysider came up with the simple idea) Yes, What Countryside has given to me is a sence of not being alone in the world.

-- trendle ellwood (trendlespin@msn.com), January 02, 2001.

I can't pinpoint a specific that has been helpful to me, just one generality-focus. For years, we have played at homesteading and didn't really knuckle down and see projects through to their logical conclusion (like culling when the records indicate it's a must). We were, and still are to a degree, hobby homesteaders. What has become clear to us is the time and energy we have wasted in "playing at this". I don't grow a huge garden anymore, just the things I know we will eat and not waste. I'm getting rid of the rabbits because neither of us cares for rabbit meat and we don't have the desire to butcher them. Raising dogs was a bust because my breed (Australian Shepherds) is not popular around here and you can't give them away. I could raise somethiing more popular, but I'm not that keen on just adding to the pet population for a quick buck. So here we are, more focused, getting a little more simplified, and enjoying life more. Another thing Countryside has done for me (us) is remind me that I'm not alone in my philosophy of life. The magazine and this forum show me that others are thinking and doing the same things for alot of the same reasons. That is validation that I don't get from friends and family. God bless all you Countrysiders out there. We may bicker like a large family, but the get-togethers are still fun!

-- melina b. (goatgalmjb1@hotmail.com), January 02, 2001.

I got my Countryside and my Organic Gardening magazines recently ,on the same day.I briefly flipped thru the O.G.,saw two small paragraphs of interest,and tossed it aside.My Countryside I read off & on,for three days.

Countryside is what O.G. used to be for me,a source of some pretty accurate info about a wide variety of interests and topics without alot of political fluff in the way.Mostly,I like How to's,not politics,but that's me.

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), January 02, 2001.


Countryside Magazine has helped me most by making me feel much better about "moving beyond the sidewalks" as they say. It took away much of the fear. I still worry about getting hurt and not being able to go for help...the chainsaw scares me to death but I haven't the time or the strength to cut it by hand and it has to be done (the firewood). I get a lot of encouragement from reading the threads/and knowing there are many other women alone out there that are managing to DO IT.

-- Iam (titia@canada.com), January 02, 2001.

I have to echo Sharon. It used to be M.E.N and Organic Gardening and Farming that educated me. I finally just dropped my subscription to OG. I'm not saying this in a boasting way, but since I've been organic gardening for almost 30 years, OG just didn't have anything for me that I hadn't already heard or didn't already know. At least Countryside offers even more alternatives: some good, some not so good, but they are there to consider, try and adopt or toss aside. OG has sold out to the masses or, to give them the benefit of the doubt, is trying to educate them at a very basic level.

Anyhow, that said, Countryside gets me thinking and piques my interest enough to sit down and read it through. I like the livestock articles. The magazine has something to offer to both the experienced and the newbie and I think that is good.

-- jimR (jymcyn@earthlink.net), January 02, 2001.



I really feel guilty for not subscribing to the magazine yet but hope to before too much longer. My main reason for coming into the forum is that the answers given are reasonable and people in here know what they are talking about. I feel comfortable asking questions and know that I will not be hooted at and made to feel stupid.. like some forums I have tried. It means alot to have you people to help me out. Thanks one and all and a Happy and Prosperous New Year to You.

-- Lynn (mscratch1@semo.net), January 02, 2001.

Hmm probably the best thing about Countryside is knowing I'm not the only NUT out there :o). Ideas and information...things I hadn't thought about before that others have come up with. Someone telling something that I kind of go...thank goodness I'm not the only one. Helps me feel not quite so isolated. I tell someone about the kinds of things I do and their reply is...cool, glad you like to do that but they can't understand that this is my way of making a living(in the truest sense). They just think I'm a bit eccentric and this is a hobby or something. I guess it could be summed up as a feeling of belonging. I just love ya'll!

-- Amanda in Mo (aseley@townsqr.com), January 02, 2001.

Yep, that's it. Giving us all the attitude it takes to make it in this lifestyle and like Amanda said, letting each of us know that we're not the only one out here living like this. Those two things are what came to mind when I read your post. It reassures me that I can get by on "less".

The only trouble is that now I just want to go ever deeper and deeper into self suffeciency. I live in a town of 400 people and that's much too crowded for me. Heck, we even got a convenience store now. I'm used to driving 14 miles to get a loaf of bread.

-- Joe (jcole@apha.com), January 02, 2001.


Mostly what I get from Countryside is the feeling that I am not alone in this thing. We are the only ones at our church that heat with wood, or have chickens, or have an herb garden. Very few at work do so...but they gently tease me aboout my "excentricities." Ha...that's OK. I'm NOT the only one, 'cause Countryside says so!!!!

-- Leann Banta (thelionandlamb@hotmail.com), January 02, 2001.

I like knowing that there are not only very, very self sufficient folks out there, but also folks like me who have to work to keep the little farm I have and to put food in all the mouths around here - consequently, don't have a heck of a lot of time to really do all the "homesteading" that I would like. And, I like the diversified opinions on such issues as Y2K that come in from people that basically all have similiar goals in life. You all certainly give me a good feeling that I am not alone in my search for peace and happiness, no matter that we might disagree on something here or there. Thank you to the staff of Countryside for allowing us country folk to participate!

-- Dianne (willow@config.com), January 02, 2001.


What do I get from Countryside magazine? Thats easy, everything that I am today that I value the most. In the few years since I scoffed at Lynn for subscribing, I am the one that has embraced it the most. My wife has even remarked that I am totally different than before we subscribed. The old me was only interested in my job and how to make more money. The new me is more interested in making the most of our place and my creative side is more open now.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), January 02, 2001.

To me, Countryside is a truely useful magizene that offers information that is not only useful when I'm thinking for the twentieth time if I should ditch the old house and stop fighting the bug and vermin population that my grandma wrote about in her diary and find me a cozy little home that hasn't been moved into the city by the city moving around it yet, or when I'm coming up with a long term cost effective tomatoe support. Whatever I'm interested in, there's sure to be an article in one of the last three or next three magazines. Heck, even the ads are intersting.

(Havn't seen any male potency or female hygene full page ads yet - knock on a free wood skid turned fence)

-- Marty (Mrs.Puck@Excite.com), January 02, 2001.


I love Countryside! I got my first glimpse years ago when my former father in law loaned me a stack to read. I was hooked! I grew up in the country, so I don't think it is so much about learning skills as much as being reminded of something I used to know or had seen done in my childhood. For me Countryside sorta helped 'gel' an idea or rather way of life I was leaning towards, and it keeps me on track when I start to wander toward consumerism. A shot of realism never hurt anyone. Jackie, Acorn Hill

-- Jackie, Acorn Hill (jlynne@neato.com), January 02, 2001.

The thing I liked the most was the article on charcoal. Yea, out of everything, that hit me the most because it could be used for so many things. I no longer get carsick because I take charcoal before the drive. My animal stings don't smart too long by applying a paste. My husband's poison ivy goes away alot faster and isn't as bad.

I also remember as I was reading the article on "what is a homesteader?" I realized I was doing homesteading. Not on a grand scale but homesteading just the same.

When I first got Countryside, I used to say how I wish I could contribute something to that advice. Now on the Forum, I can.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), January 02, 2001.


Reading CS has made me realize more than ever before that there are always more than one way to accomplish a task, a chore, a recipe, a fence, or way of thinking about something, or someone. Life can be an adventure, and I want to be sure to enjoy the ride.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), January 03, 2001.


I had never heard of Countryside Magazine until I went online. I found the forum about a year and a half ago, and I ordered several back issues of the magazine to see what it was like. The first issue I read contained "42 real-life stories of homesteaders who started with little or nothing". That article changed my life!! I was raised in the country, surrounded by animals, gardens, pasture and woods, but had spent much of the last 20 years in the city, gardening a small plot, dreaming of fruit trees and perennials. It was shortly after the lowest point in my life that I found Countryside (my father died, another marriage failed, and I was deep in debt). I had made a plan, first in my head, then on paper. I set goals, and decided to give myself 5 years to get my act together and then buy a place in the country. Enter Countryside Magazine. It helped me firm things up, to see more clearly how I wanted to live the rest of my life, and showed me that I can do anything I set out to do. I've made some nice friends from this forum, and I bought 4.7 acres, and I'm so close to being out of debt! I always welcome the opportunity to share with folks how Countryside has changed my life! When I finally get on my land, I'll already know what animals I want, and what to plant, etc. Thanks Everyone!

-- Cathy in NY (hrnofplnty@yahoo.com), January 03, 2001.

It woulld be hard to count the benefits I have gotten from CS over the past 20+ years but the most important one is, I met my wife through the "Pen Pals" column over 8 years ago.

-- Hendo (redgate@echoweb.net), January 03, 2001.

Countryside has helped me in so many ways. First of all I was raised in the country, Clinch Mountain was my backyard. I've been a military wife for over 17 years now and when I read all the story's it reminds me of home. Countryside especially reminds me there is still a lot of us that enjoy simplicity, family, and God. The reason I got the internet was to read the forum. Thanks to all who participate, I may not think along the same lines as some of you but I do enjoy this here forum. I've been called primitive, Laura Ingalls, and anything dating back, but in away its kinda of a compliment. I love the slow paced living. Love in Christ, Judy

-- Judy (allsmile@ctnet.net), January 03, 2001.

Countryside has done so many things for me that to try to name just one would be impossible, so I'll be kind and just keep it at 3!

1. The Y2K issues helped me realize exactly where I was in relationship to where I wanted to be as far as not being dependent on Wally World (both literally and as a metaphore for the whole current economical/sociological present state of the nation) (whew!).

2. It showed me that there was a well read publication, and hence a part of our culture, somewhere, that still had integrity and viability at the same time.

3. I found the forum, and with it a family to stand in for the one I have left behind in my journey, and to which I will be returning eventually, carrying with me all that I have learned (and I'm taking y'all back with me to meet the folks and keep me company!).

Thanks for everything, and especially the chance to know Hoot. I never would have known what I would have missed, which is a depressing thought.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), January 03, 2001.


Most all of it really. I have always craved learning, reading, thinking about things and such. Mostly now the alternative energy is most important, really finding a way to get off all lines and still be able to stay in touch with information, TV, internet, phone. It's being done now, and I want to do it. Plus, there's allot in the magizine that just makes you think, stop and think.

Plus, the people in CS are like me. I graduated HS and took off across the country working ranches. I have always been like this. Give me wide open spaces and a place to think. Countryside and Organic Gardening have been a great asset in knowing how to do it for yourself and make it for yourself. Now I had better go get busy!

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), January 05, 2001.


Perhaps just putting the word on what it is I have always wanted to do....I've subscribed since 94 and have every issue for reference, and I just don't know how I could have gotten an inkling of where to start without the resources it made available.

When I first found Countryside and Backwoods Home, it was certainly revelatory....like a million watt bulb coming on saying, "YES!!!! I finally found it!" Even though the 'definition' of homesteading is quite broad, somehow having a name for it solidified and strengthened the desires and principles I had.

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@excite.com), January 05, 2001.


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