What makes you a "Homesteader"?

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People define homesteading in many ways. What is the one defining thing or things(!) that make you a homesteader?

To tell you the truth I always considered myself a tightwad first, and not really a homesteader. I really started to feel like a homesteader when I got my chickens! I also felt pretty "homesteady" when we finished our fruit cellar!

I think that homesteading is partly a state of mind, but you still should at least try to act on the inclinations. Thus I grow a garden, can, freeze, and dry the produce. My husband hunts, and fishes some. We burn wood, built a hot-bed to start plants, have the chickens for eggs, and try to "tread lightly on the land" I think that is the first and most important rule of homesteading. Make your impact as light as possible, and leave things better than you found them!

-- Melissa (cmnorris@1st.net), November 23, 2001

Answers

Hello Melissa, Self-determinism. That is to say, that without this quality most people would pack it up and move back to the city! Sincerely, Ernest

-- http://communities.msn.com/livingoffthelandintheozarks (espresso42@hotmail.com), November 24, 2001.

I don't really consider myself a homesteader. I live in the country now (lived in town til this September). I don't enjoy gardening, but I enjoy people who do! We will be getting 2 wethers (goats) soon, but they will be for brush control only. I love the IDEA of homesteading, but haven't made the plunge. I get into a swimming pool one toe at a time, hence my philosophy in life is "take it slow".

-- Jo (mamamia2kids@msn.com), November 24, 2001.

I see things different than most of the rest of the world. Everyone one shares the same basic needs, thoughts, feelings etc. But with a true homesteader, all that goes a step beyond, to a deeper reality/feeling, I think. A desire for purity and truth. And a willingness to work for it.

-- Cindy (S.E.IN) (atilrthehony@countrylife.net), November 25, 2001.

My idea of homesteading used to be something like Little House on the Prairie or the Waltons or any other NON-specialized family farm. That is still my goal, but since being introduced to Countryside Magazine and other publications, as well as people on various forums, I have had to change my definition of homesteading. Homesteading seems to be more of a state of mind than where you live. It is an attitude of living frugally, not wastefully. Of providing the best food possible for your family. Of not being too dependent on outside sources. This comes gradually, unless you have suddenly been handed a lump sum of cash and can immediately buy all the equipment needed to be totally self-sufficient.

Most people think of beginning homesteading as starting a garden or raising chickens or rabbits. But there are people who do those things who do not consider themselves homesteaders at all. So homesteading must have more to do with attitude, and WHY you do what you do. How that attitude works itself out is as different as each individual.

-- Cathy N. (keeper8@attcanada.ca), November 25, 2001.


To me, homesteading simply means someone who lives some form of self- reliance. It can be someone who lives in the city who just has a small garden or it can be someone who lives in the country, totally off-grid (which I hope to be able to do someday). To me, it can simply mean making things from scratch, even it that be electricity. Does any of this make sense? lol Iris

-- Iris (Sar_India@msn.com), November 26, 2001.


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