Theres been a couple of things I've been thinking about lately and I'd really like to hear some other points of view. If you don't want to hear me ramble on, you can skip to the bottom paragraph.

I grew up in Appalachia- real honest to goodness Foxfire Appalachia. My (great) Uncle Robert and Aunt Grace had the kind of homestead that a lot of us dream about and I am fortunante enough to remember a great deal of it. Robert plowed with Mules, together,he and Grace raised almost everything they ate. They never had a telephone, I don't know if they ever got electicity-I remember the keroscene lamps-I do remember that they finally got running water-in the house, when they were in their sixties. I remember the out house very well. I remember the well off the backporch- the water was so cold it made your teeth hurt. Grace never gave up her woodburning cookstove. I remember her frying chicken and baking biscuits in July with a kitchen packed full of people-it was a wedding or a funeral, can't remeber which, and the temp. in the kitchen was 110 degrees. They had three books-The Holy Bible, The Farmers Almanac, and the Sears Roebuck catalog-they reckoned that was all they needed. They got up before firstlight and went to bed when it got dark. I remember calenders-but for the life of me I can't remember seeing a clock. They'd sit on the porch and tell stories-Robert could tell ghost stories that would raise the hair on the back of your head. It sounds really wonderful. Most of it was.

But theres a dark side. I heard other stories-of farming/hunting accidents so gruesome,I can't repeat them here. Of countless relitives and friends that died from treatable things (treatable now) Once Robert cut his arm while I was there and Grace packed the wound full of spiders webs. People died from exhaustion. As a child, I've slept in rooms so cold you could see your breath. I went to church were the Men sat on one side and Women on the other-and more than one lady came in with a black eye and at dinner, men where always served the best food first. I've been to a fair number of quiltings and things whispered there would make your skin crawl. Most of the time there was enought to eat, but there were some Febuarys where I din't want to see another pinto bean. My grandma refused to teach me how to knit-her family raised sheep, you see, and they got a lot of stuff they needed from selling the wool. As a child of about ten or so, she learned to knit socks and thats what she did anytime she had a second of spare time-she carried her knitting in her apron pocket-she hated it. Poor people knit and wore homespun and handknit clothes and she wouldn't allow us to do that. She can not to this day understand why you would want to knit when theres K-mart right down the road with perfectly good socks.

I don't share that point of view, but I respect it. I was going through some back issues of Countryside and ran across a letter from a lady who was upset because she moved to Kentucky-not far from here, actually, expecting everyone to be living the happy happy Foxfire life, and to her disgust, (she worded it quite strongly) people didn't want homemade stuff, they were happy with packaged bread and cake mixes.

Most of the responses I got from the dishwashing post-I posted one on Countryside as well, were really super. However, I got a private e-mail-where someone said that basically anyone who couldn't or wouldn't live without running water were wimps and a few other not so nice things. This, however, from someone who obviously had access to electrcity and phone lines.

Its made me think about homesteading-its seems like a lot of homesteaders want to go back in time, and if you don't do things the "old Way" then, you are not really a "true" homesteader. Yet we have these conversations on the internet. I think we need to pick and choose out technologies carefully, but I don't want to go backwards-yes I want to hand knit my socks but I want solar power and e-mail. What do y'all think about this-I open the floor to discussion.

-- Kelly (homearts2002@yahoo.com), January 16, 2002

Answers

What a wonderful time in history to homestead!! Gosh, I can do all the "old things" I want but still have the computer, paramedics, and a microwave. I have the choice to knit my socks or go to K-Mart and buy them. I think homesteading today is wonderful because we have the "choices"! We can choose to be as self-sufficient as we want.

-- Karen (db0421@yahoo.com), January 16, 2002.

Just a couple thought: Would I want to go back in time? There's a big part of me that would love that, but that's not where God put me. I figure I'm here to help carry on the homestead traditions. I would do more homestead stuff if it were totally up to me, but I'm married and while Gary's all for alot of it, he doesn't want to live without electricity-besides he couldn't practice his singing etc. And we both like indoor plumbing.

Also, I believe it was Jay from Alabama on Cs forum that said something to the effect that the pioneers used the tools that were available to them, I took that to mean that if they had what we have, they'd use them too, or most of them of them would. Sure took a lot of self-imposed guilt off my shoulders. I have learned so much from being on the forums for over 2 years and I've gained confidence from answering lots of questions. I realized I knew more that I thought.

There are horror stories in each generation, that's just the way it is. We have better medical help, but we also have diseases that they didn't. There were wars then, ours are just more 'sophisticated'. There are still people in this country and around the world that don't have enough to eat.

Sure wish I knew how to knit socks:~}

-- Cindy (SE. IN) (atilrthehony@hotmail.com), January 16, 2002.

Hi Kelly, you brought back a lot of memories for me.

I have always thought that I was born in the wrong era. I've been torn between the old and new ways. I cook with wood, but on the other side of the kitchen is the microwave. I always loved to watch the Walton's on TV. Now, I know that not every problem back then had a happy ending, and there were many dangerous situations (such as influenza) that are now controllable, but the general, overall 'feel' of the good ole days is what I wish for. Children respecting their parents, earning wages, communities sharing, self sustaining lifestyle, simplicity, well, you get the idea. I know that there are families living this now, but so much has changed our lives since then, that this is no longer considered the norm. Many, many people ask us questions about why we do things, or how we do things, and they're the amazed. Some people just don't have the common sense that is needed to live. It's sad. At this point in my life, I can't imagine living any other way. I feel fullfillment and have higher self-esteem knowing that what I can accomplish.

Having a computer opens up a whole new can of worms. I believe that there have been discussions about computer use on the homestead in past Countryside issues. Not sure about on the CS forum. I fought having a computer for a number of years. Now, I consider the computer as a tool. It has helped me research information, keep track of budgets, this list is endless.

Please don't be discourage by negative e-mails to your post. I'm sure you got more positive ones! Obviously the person had enough nerve to post privately but not publically. Possibly fearing he/she would be in the minority.

Keep up the great writing! I look forward to your posts. Hope your information is published!

-- Charleen in WNY (harperhill@eznet.net), January 16, 2002.

Kelly,though I am only 40 years old I lived withoutrunning water or any indoor plumbing until I was 12.I am the youngest of 13,one of my sisters had polio,she survived,one brother died at age 1 of cancer,no pain relievers (30's),one brother had whooping cough,he survived.Even burns and cuts where scary then because you just doctored yourself.Food and clothes could be scarce too.Daddy raised us with no government help though,he trapped,raised animals,gardened, foraged,etc. We had only pot belly stoves for heat and then later oil heaters.Daddy talked about being so hungry in the 30's that your backbone felt like it was grinding your belly.I thought my Mom's favorite piece of chicken was the back,and she didnt like desserts.From listening to my folks and my own few exeperiences(?)I have no desire to go back in time,but I like to learn old ways and I want my own family to ejoy life and care about each other and others too,as in day gone by.I could live as in years past if I had too.My veiw of homesteading may well line up with yours.

-- willa (goodall6@hotmail.com), January 16, 2002.

One of the interesting things that my older relatives have talked about, and I think this comes out on the FoxFire books, is they have a lot of fond memories of growing up, of the closeness of communities, of a slower pace of life, of, in fact a reverence of life. My other Grandmother, allways put food in serving dishes and set it on the table-we never, ever served from pots on the stove, because, she said, food was so hard to come by it must be treated with respect. Having helped her plant, grow, tend, hoe, harvest, butcher, can, etc etc, ("lots of verbs, all of them tiring") I never even thought otherwise.

Theres somthing of a debate on the Countryside forum of what is a true homesteader-whether you have animals and so forth. For myself, trying to capture the best of the past and blend it with the best of what we have now, is my homestead goal.

-- Kelly (homearts2002@yahoo.com), January 16, 2002.

Kelly:

what a fascinating topic. I'm in my early forties but I have a friend in her late 60s. She grew up in rural MN, with no running water, no electricity, etc., and went through the depression. She has said she would not go back to those times...there were times when it was difficult to stay warm in the winter.

Someone mentioned writing. Are you writing about this or your history? I think it would be great reading, given your initial post.

-- Cat (catcrazy@somewhere.com), January 17, 2002.

Hey Cat, I thought YOU were a writer-is that right? I'm dabbling in writing. Truth is, Because of cutbacks and so forth, (So they say, maybe they just didn't like me!!!!) I didn't get rehired this year-so I'm sort of at loose ends and my sister and Mom and husband are all pestering me to do some writing-probably to get out of thier hair for a while. I'm fasinated with Appalachian history and folklore, and of course with homesteading. I take walks or rides through the mountains and find all these abandoned homesteads and it haunts me that there is this whole culture gone. I suppose it haunts me that I"VE seen it go-thats how it was when I was a child, I didn't think about it, and now its gone......It bothers me that what a lot of people know about this region is what theyve seen on tv which is foolish. I'm not denying that there isn't poverty here and lots of problems..... Still, it was a self-relient culture thats pretty much disappeared now.

-- Kelly (homearts2002@yahoo.com), January 17, 2002.

I AM a writer!

I think your subject sounds neat and if you have passion for it, which it sounds like, it will show in the writing.

-- Cat (Catcrazy@somewhere.com), January 17, 2002.

People who really are homesteading today would not call it homesteading and they are still doing it because they must. We don't hear about these people because they are sometimes immigrants and don't have the access to computers because of language/education barriers.

If you would find recent immigrants from vietnam, korea or mexico who are from a rural area, you would find people who don't waste anything and use what they have on hand. Every part of an animal is used. Nothing is wasted.

I suppose that is my biggest thing about homesteading that I try to teach my kids: don't waste anything--no matter how much money you have. If you don't need what you save, someone else will and you can give it away to them. As long as people are hungry in this world, we have no right to waste.

Just because a garbage man picks up your garbage (we don't have one here)it doesn't mean the garbage "disappears". If you had to dispose of it yourself on your own property--you'd better believe you'd think about what you threw away!

And if you grow your own vegetables, you have to think about what is going into the soil and water. And you have to think about the science of keeping the food.

If you raise your own meat--well that much effort means you THINK about not eating like a hog because it costs time and money and labor to raise it. And you don't waste. And you think about what goes into the water and their food. And you think about humane ways to raise and kill animals.

If you don't homestead it means it it's easy not to think about all these things.

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), January 17, 2002.

Sorry, meant that it's EASY not to think about waste, and chemicals and labor when you are not homesteading.

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), January 17, 2002.

Good answer Ann. Sometimes I struggle with these things myself. Just becasue something is being given to you for free, doesn't mean it is "free" You still have to store it and eventualy dispose of it.

Sometimes as we get more finacially secure, it seems easier to just buy new, or to take the easy way out. Like I don't really HAVE to reuse baggies and foil now. I could afford to throw them away and buy new ones, but can our Earth afford for me to do that? Those are some issues I'm sure many of us face.

-- Melissa (me@home.net), January 17, 2002.

Kelly, maybe you can do a website and a book.

-- Cindy (SE. IN) (atilrthehony@hotmail.com), January 17, 2002.