Homesteading

Homesteading is enjoying a resurgence in popularity as more and more people, fed up with the pressures of modern living, choose to live closer to the land.

But living closer to the land these days often means taking a fair amount of modern technology along too, which helps to make life easier and a lot more comfortable.

Gone are the oil lamps, now replaced with electic lights very often powered with solar enrgy. Handpumps have made way for mains water or certainly an electrically powered pump.

Homesteading has evolved and changed and today it looks very different from those homesteads of old.

Modern homesteaders don’t face the same hardships as earlier generations. But although technology makes life easier on the homestead, getting one set up in the first place is much harder.

Previous generations could take advantage of a government program and claim ownership of federal land. That isn’t possible today. The land must be paid for, and unless the purchaser has cash in the bank to fund the purchase it is often difficult to acquire a place to get set up.

Where a mortgage is required, a homesteader must generate a fairly large income to be able to cover the payments. Income earned from selling some produce and odd jobbing is unlikely to be enough.

In this instance, it is necessary to hold an outside job or start a home based business to meet the additional expense of a mortgage.

Moving With The Times

So what does a modern homestead look like?

Well they tend to be of smaller acreage than those claimed in the 1800′s. Land parcels as small as 1 acre can provide a huge contribution to a families food needs, although outside inputs will still be needed.

Some will have a perfectly normal looking house, others may have a cob home, a small cabin, a straw bale home, an underground house, a yurt or a trailer.

Many homes will be connected to mains electricity and water, but others will be completely off grid ( like ours) and obtain electricity from solar panels or a wind turbine. Water may be pumped from a well or a stream and put through a filter. In some cases rainwater may be the only source of water for the property.

You may find a conventional toilet in the home but equally you might encounter a compost toilet.

Food self sufficiency is ususally a primary goal and chickens, goats and pigs are common choices along with large vegetable gardens and orchards filled with fruit and nut trees.

The home might have a wood stove for heating or a geothermal heat pump but it’s just as likely to have a furnace.

In short there is no one picture of a modern homestead just as there is no one type of modern homesteader. Some will be the fiefdoms of survivalists, while at the other end of the spectrum lie the domains of eco friendly, resource depletion aware families. Occupying the middle ground however are mostly people who want a simpler life and enjoy working for themselves to supply the needs of their families.

Even In The City!

It’s pretty amazing just how much can be achieved with good planning and attention to detail.

A home on a relatively small lot can still be a fairly self sufficient homestead. Solar panels supply electricity and when placed up on the roof take up no precious ground space. The addition of underground rainwater storage tanks will provide water without taking up space on a small property.

Every inch of space outdoors is converted to growing areas and housing for chickens and maybe a couple of pygmy goats for milk and cheese.

The urban location provides the benefits of being closer to job opportunities than it’s rural counterpart. Higher population density means a wider market to sell any surplus produce to, as well as a broader customer base for any small business that the homesteader chooses to operate.

Self sufficiency in the city is ideal for those who want a simpler lifestyle, but don’t want the work involved in maintaining acres of land.

Read more about self sufficiency in the city…

Skills, Skills, Skills

The skills you will need depend very much on what you intend to do. If you are just going to keep chickens then you don’t need to learn how to take care of bees or trim a goats hooves for example.

Learning how to garden is pretty important and knowing how to cook and preserve the food you have grown, are skills that you’ll need, if you are to get the most out of your new life.

Don’t worry if you lack basic skills, most are easily learned and can often be picked up “on the job”. Arm yourself with some good books and you will soon find your feet.