Before I moved to Missouri, this was how I envisioned homesteading:
When Chris and I decided to leave the Los Angeles area, and move to the country, we had this crazy idea that we would like to support our family by growing and raising most of our own food, and by running agriculture based businesses from our own farm. This idea was inspired by friends of my cousin, whom we had never met, who left SoCal and moved to Colorado and are doing something similar. In so doing, we would be leading a more organic life, with close ties to our food and land, while providing quality produce and products for our consumers.
Turns out, it's a thing. And it has a name:
Homesteading.
The modern day homestead, sometimes called a farmstead, doesn't start out on a wagon at the sound of a gunshot. It starts when one decides to become more self-sufficient, and takes action towards that end. In our case, homesteading is a process. We are not attempting to go completely off grid from day one. While we will have our own well and septic system, we will rely on electricity from the power company at first. We will gradually build our orchard, kitchen garden, market garden, and increase our animal stock.
Our goal is to make fewer trips to town for supplies and to be able to depend on our own resources.
As we build zone by zone, we will keep you updated on the progress of our little homestead. It's an interesting journey from city life to country life. We are transforming the way we think about everything we consume as we try to live more simply.
re: Questions in your last paragraph...
ReplyDeleteOver the past few years, noticing my age advancing, I've begun to prioritize my activities (one reason I quit Facebook in 2010). I realized there are things many of us do every day that take time away from more important things. I called my process "decluttering". It was a physical process too -- getting rid of hundreds of old things I've kept for no good reason, and thousands of documents, but mostly it's an ongoing mental battle.
To borrow an Aussie phrase I've always liked: Good on you!
DeleteI find that the mental decluttering is critical. It (for me anyway) is what makes the physical decluttering permanent. I had to go through that when I was decluttering 70 pounds of extra Lorella a few years ago. There was so much I was hiding behind, not only extra layers of fat. But that's another blog post altogether.
I think it was in my mid 30's that I made some healthy decisions that impacted every area of my life and that's when most of my self-growth started really showing.
-L
Another entry indeed... For me, I think having kids was a big part of it, and I was late on that. Not just having kids, but being the stay-at-home parent. Most people don't become parents when they're nearly 40. Maybe if I'd had kids younger, I wouldn't have been ready to declutter. Who knows? :-)
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