You know what Kristen...I think everyone has there own reasons and mine have changed over the years but it's mostly because I want to do all of these things...It's just plain fun...I am not into going to the movies or bars or hanging out at the mall (OMYIhatethat) but learning a new skill is so much fun and I do it cause I want to...don't need to...got enough to buy it and pay for it, got savings in the bank so I'm not living on the edge going gracefully into retirement and it's all about doing what you want to do...and about those Bunnies...I wouldn't pass up that deal either and remember not only are they a source of food but if you can hold off eating them (LOL just kidding) they will make you a mountain of the best manure for your garden..and they are just plain old fun to raise and watch...

I think Ruthie is correct that we do it mostly for the fun. I spend more on gardening supplies than the same vegetables and fruit would cost me at the grocery store especially if you amortize my tractor.
For me there are two other less important reasons:
One, I need the exercise, Walking ,jogging, gyms, etc. bore the heck out of me, and I get lazy and begin skipping routines. It's fun to wrestle my tiller. Not fun to swing the hoe but a necessity and good exercise.
Two, most of the food tastes so much better than supermarket stuff. Even tomatos bought from local commercial growers are flat and flavorless. They artificially color them and grow varieties for long keeping rather than flavor. They will sit on the shelf for months and dry out rather than rot. But they are mealy and flat tasting. We freeze a lot and can a little to have good vegies year round.

Ted you are so right about the garden fresh taste...A neighbor recently was discussing gardening with me and he said, for just the two of you why bother, you can buy it cheaper and easier....Yeppers we all know that you can do just that..but then there is the thing called garden fresh taste...an/or home grown taste and I have yet (and I'm 65) found a tomato at the market that tastes anywhere near home grown...or the one thing I always thing about is the true sweetnes of a home grown melon that is allowed to actually ripen on the vine...Oh My I am making my mouth water...that's what gardening is about...I just love canning and freezing too...There is nothing better than being dog tired at night and looking at a counter full of jars of your own fresh home grown that you have "put up" that day...

WE are building a retirement home and I am currently planning the landscape, Blackberry vines, grapes, plums figs etc etc...The house isn't even finished but I already have 7 raised beds...only one is planted (potatoes) but the last normal frost date is the 7th of march so everything is going in soon. Potatoes...yes I know I can buy them on sale for probably 99 cents a bag but read my lips...I like the fun of growing them...potatoes are just plain fun...

Kristen,
We've been raising our on meats for quite sometime, love gardening (not real good at this),in general I love providing what we need on our own. But the joy and hard work isn't the only reason. I've always belived that more chemical is put into our foods than needed just for presrving,looks and growth. I like knowing what is going into our foods. Someday we even intend to butcher our own meats. I don't think the world is going to end, I just want to make sure we stay as healthy as possible. We have a 7 year old grandson that is autistic he wasn't born that way as usual he became that way at almost 2 years old. Our belief is it was due to his childhood shots the doctors office gave him his mmr shots to close. I'm not saying don't give your children their childhood shots. But watch the timing make sure these are far apart. We feel this was mercury poisoning to him.He likes homegrown foods and we know what is in them. He enjoys going out in the fields with the cattle, milking the milk cow, collecting fresh eggs, picking the garden, cooking the great tasting foods. So our reasons for all this is enjoyment, exercise, health, and peace of mind.

Our society is soooo materialistic. It just feels good to try to live more like our ancestors, closer to the land and without all the unneccessary neccessities of today's lifestyle.And yes, I do believe if society continues as it is, the world will end. We can't just take and take and never give back to the earth. It feels like the right thing to do.

Kristen, everyone who has posted has given valid reasons for home production of food and other necessities. I don't know you very well, although you frequently post about subjects that interest me, but I suspect part of your need to have homesteading skills may relate to the fact that you have young, dependant children. If "something" happened, you need to be able to provide for them. It is a scary old world to be raising children in and (I speculate) you feel the need to be prepared. (Feel free to tell me I am way off the mark on this!)

My son is long since grown and on his own, and now I pursue homesteading skills for a variety of other reasons:
- It connects me with my ancestors and provides me with a kind of knowledge that I could not gain in any other way.
- It is research for my historical novel-in-progress.
- The food tastes better when it is home produced.
- I hate the whole concept of factory farming.
- I want to do my bit to preserve heritage breeds of livestock and varieties of fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers.
- It is my idea of fun.

Maggie, you're probably right-- having kids definitely exacerbated my condition! But I was like this before, too-- I wrote a poem way back in 1998 that had a title something like "Things I Need For the Coming Revolution" filled with all this type of stuff-- it was pretty funny.

I do agree that a lot of this is just FUN, and I agree on the factory farming, and I agree on the taste. But I think I'm also asking about people who take it several steps farther... Maybe I need to go to the big homesteading site, I think there is one...

Thanks for your responses!

Kristen

Karen, I know what you are talking about. I've had the same nagging "awareness" myself. I agree I feel more empowered the more self-sufficient I become as the others have posted; but I also have studied the Bible and know what the "forecast" is and how world conditions support prophecy as never before in history. In the meantime, I enjoy being in the country, learning more skills and being more in touch with the ways my granparents and their parents lived and managed. Seems a more honest and character-building way to get along; even more satisfying is the way my daughter is picking up on the way we get by and questioning the "necessities" of life.
We have made the move to the country on our orchard and she doesn't want cable (believe it or not!) and doesn't seem to mind hooking up hoses once a week to empty the cistern into the "pit". Now THAT"S progress!!

Well i was raised like this so thats part of the reason for my need to provide as much as possible for myself. And there is truly nothing like that farm fresh taste. Most supermarket veggies (besides being blasted with pestisides that are horrible for us) are picked before they are mature to ensure they arrive at the supermarket while they still look pretty and "fresh". And example is cucumbers which i grew last year for the first time. I left them on the vine until they started showing little yellow spots. They tasted really good. Then during the winter I bought a cucumber from the grocery store. It tasted "green". Yuck.
Then ofcourse there were the bell peppers i grew. I bought a package of mixed seeds so I had all different colors (green, yellow, red, orange, chocolate, white)and left them on the plants until i started noticing soft spots. They added amazing flavor to anything I put them in. Peppers bought from the store won't do that.

I agree with what everyone has said so far. Each year I have more and more of a desire to get back to the "simple" life - although why it was called that I don't really know - the work was obviously MUCH harder than what we have to do these days. I agree with Shawnee - it seems to be a more honest way of living, the way we were intended to live from the beginning - off of the land.... naturally. I have gained a very large awareness of chemical additives, preservatives, nitrates, and all of the other things that are put into our food that frankly, our bodies were just not intended to deal with. And yes, there is the world "forecast" and that is in the back of my mind. But in the meantime, I feel, like many of you, empowered that I don't have to rely on others for all of our food. And we don't hang out at the malls or bars either - home for me is fun, comforting, and a learning experience all the time. I will be learning to can and freeze this year and really look forward to it. The more skills I can learn the better off I am. I guess, above all, when I am a steward of the land and animals, I feel like I'm doing what God intended for us. Sorry to ramble.

Hi everybody this is a very wonderful subject with a multitude of possibilities and beautiful personal fulfillment with both nature and inner man's approach to self and to our Creator.I treasure how some spoke of not needing as many worldly things as before after doing a retreat.
Forgive me if I say things hard to understand I wish to be simple and have sought a peaceful life away from the cares of modern society,each attempt I made was met with disappointment and I am certain it is my own foolishness which caused these problems.I have thought for many years a way to ecscape and currently I am doing fine,nice greenhouse,nice people with similiar goals,and future plans.
I found some nice sites dealing with windmill (Electric)construction from scratch, total cost $700.00 and some which pump water which I would like to share.I built the greenhouse for $700.00 100% by myself, it is 16' x 40' plastic is locally purchased 6mm good for 1-2 years,it is very strong the greenhouse that is,to conserve money I used some hickory and oak post every 5' on sides.If anyone is interested in seeing pictures let me know.The links to windmill construction are wonderful and Hugh Piggott should win a huge award for his contribution to wind energy,I am selling nothing by providing these links because Hugh and the other gentleman gives the information away for free and is included on site all the diagrams and how to's,please read and pass on to others,now we can all afford battery wind chargers and cost for windmills total est.$700.00
http://www.otherpower.com/otherpower_wind.html

http://www.scoraigwind.com/index.htm

I think we could go on for ever on this topic.

I have learned that "simplicity" in the end, is an easier way of life. I run into less problems living with nature instead of against it. It took many years of hard work and sacrifice to obtain my piece of land.

When my 8 y/o understand the chickens are waiting for him to eat, he realizes they depend on him and then he grows from that. He see's first hand his actions affect another directly. What better teacher than oneself?

I like having a horse to pull the wood out of the woods as my tractor is usually broken down and cant get through the woods without destroying nature(not to mention fuel prices). I dont feel alone in the woods when Sampson(percheron) is there helping me.

I was a chemist but tossed away that rat race to live simple and I love it!!! I gave away most of my belongings of society. I have no nick nacks to dust...lol My chi flows free now...lol I like to can everything. I save so much money canning our own food that we are able to travel and share. Not to mention my food taste better than the "virtual food" at the supermarket.
But I still need society. I like the neighbor baling my hay with his machines. I like having my computer, dirtbikes, vehicle and health care...lol.
Marie

Kristen - I totally agree with what Maggie said, as that's what I thought immediately. When my kids were that young, I also went through that "end of the world" phase.

I felt like I had to protect them from the unknown. We moved from our house in the city to a rural suburb (would like a place in the country, but this 1/3 acre is the best we can do right now) and immediately planted all kinds of food-bearers - apple trees, asparagus, berry bushes, etc., plus enlarged the existing veggie bed. I also started researching ways of life from the depression era, just to get some ideas.
I'm too "citified" for most homesteading things, though I'm learning. I couldn't raise animals for food, except maybe eggs. :-)

But I have learned how to can lots of things, so that makes me feel better. Frozen is easier and sometimes better, but then you rely on the power grid. I just feel better having an option.

And I think that's what it's all about - having options. Most people don't.

I can totally see what your talking about.And I wonder too because its seems it is happening right now.Gasoline is above 2.00 a gallon and looks like that maybe considered cheap in a year or so.Property taxes have become a burden and compare almost to renting but without the services.Public and private debt is in the billions and looks like a ballon about to pop any minute.During the depression when everything crashed those who lived in the country or moved back to the farm survived and they just used the skills they had gained as kids working along side their parents and grandparents.Raising rabbits is probably a good choice.

I grew up on a farm during the depresion so I learned most of those crafts from my parents. Though it seems idelic in retrospect, I wouldn't go back to those times for anything.Those were hard times for my parents and we were better than many. I can remember grown men coming by and offering to chop wood or other chores for a meal. I have no surviving children so that has nothing to do with my gardening.
I use comercial fertilizers, pesticides, fungacides and herbicides; anything to improve my production and don't fear preservatives, though i agree they affect the taste. We used arsenic to poison bean beattles and potato bugs when I was a kid with no bad side effects. My parents lived to be nearly 90 and my siblings lived into late 70's or mid 80's.
We freeze almost everything, only can pickles and jellies.
I would never give up my modern computer and color TV.
I do this because I enjoy it, I need the exercise and love the taste of home grown foods.

For me doing other than being 'free' is not exceptable.

Money has (or atleast I got over it) never been one of my drives in life. What I want has nothing with going to some building and wasting the better part of my life doing some 'labor' so I can go borrow money from some faceless corp so that I can continue to 'move on up'. I have simply never understood the idea of working 5 (6) days a week so I can have weekends off (maybe) and the week of vacation a year. Debt is the real evil of our 'modern' way of life. Read Walden's Pond sometime.
Not that I had too but I'm building my own house with my own two hands using a hammer and nails. And this is all by my lonesone, crew of one ... me! I'm no primative and frankly have been called a fool for not using the nail guns and all. But the more you are dependent on the mechanical the more disappointment you will face in life. Mechs break down, need up dating, and frankly are another disconnect from the real. The process of doing is what gives me self statisfaction. If the house was built for me would it really be my house? It sure is now!!!! I have the memories of putting each and every stck of lumber in place, every driven nail, every stained piece of wood and every cut that was made. That house is a part of me because I dreamed up, designed and finally built it with nothing more than my own muscle and brain power.
I also do not own nor want a dvd, computer, cell phone, cable, and on and on. People go to work just to make the cash to pay for the monthly bills these items create. Crazy to waste a life to pay monthly for cable tv that sucks anyway ;o)

I also am leaning on the concept of a permaculture. There is a good forum here but its little used seems. Shame.

Add solar water heating, solar water pumping, compost toliet (self built .. may need to bucket at first. i have a septic tank now but will not continue to pollute the land with its use), standing wood burning stove for winter heat (and a coppice for a continous supply of wood to burn), grow my own food (got a hell of a deal on a truck load of used mason jars ;o), collecting greywater in a bog for later use in the gardens and on and on.
To me its all about living rather than just going through the motions of living. If I owe than I'm owned! If you don't decide your own future than someone will decide for you!
Whew!
;o)
Mike

Well put Mike. Good luck on the house. :)

I guess I am maybe the only one here who thinks the "end of the world" might just actually be coming. Ok, not the total end of the world, but I just look at the Middle East and think that our oil could be shut off at any time. I read stories about how a big earthquake on the west coast is a "not if, but when" proposition. No, I don't go through my day worrying about these things, but I can pump water without electricity and my wood pile will see to it we don't freeze.
You do know that Iran and Pakistan and India have nuclear bombs, don't you. You have heard of Avian Flu?
"Paranoia, it'll destroy ya"
Just stay home and raise good food.
G

There was this character in the book "Catch 22". A pilot who would crash his plane every time he took off. He wanted to be sure that he could survive in case he ever crashed.

We live this life because we love it. I gave up the American Dream on a mission 36 years ago. This is, as Scott and Helen Nearing said, a way to live sanely and simply in an insane world.

I've been reading what everyone has written, but when you have the peace that God gives, you don't have to worry about the end of the world. And only He can give that peace.
May I introduce you to Him?
Jan

I got into collecting fruit trees through knowing at some point I may have to feed myself. They are a great investment for the future and future generations.
Disease historically impacts our populations greatly. Hard to believe 1/4 people dying but it happens. But lately "superpower" countries are bullying others, and that is not only stupid but apt to cause payback. Likely big cities, I think. I thankfully live far away from that. I could live comfortably off of my acre (and soon to likely grow to 8). I also horde veggie seeds!!
If something awful were ever to happen, I would be the only one looting the garden centre!

I want to thank the author of this thread for a wonderful subject...fasinating for sure!

Someone mentioned variety in produce another mentioned the process was fun and then there was the feeling of satisfaction knowing you had grown the crop that your family will eat for the coming winter. I think all of those reasons are important and worthy. The religious aspects aren't relevant to me nor the belief of a world ending in doom although I suspect this is the motivation for quite a few "survivalist" types out there.

MountainMan_BC quote:
If something awful were ever to happen, I would be the only one looting the garden centre!

lol...well, hopefully you'll never have too:P

My interest comes from.. When the day comes that we finally pay off our last piece of debt we will be able to buy the house and the land we've always wanted. Somwhere close to family but our neighbors will be at least shouting distance away. This will probably be quite a ways from a city so going to the market and into town won't be every day. I love gardening and I want to know how to do all of the things that goes with it. (6 years and counting)

Cherri

Oh I had forgotten to tell ya about the yeast ;o)
Red cabbage naturals has a yeast on its leaves. If you break apart a red cabbage and soak the leaves in water for a day or so you can then use that 'yeast' water for bread making.
Knew I forgot to say something in my above soapbox stumping ;o)
mike

Just found this forum -- "Harvest" is my norm. This is a fascinating thread - could go on forever.

I don't think there's ever an easy one-part answer to a question this big. Fun. Economics. Taste. Quality. "With" nature. Faith. Simplicity.

Did anyone mention responsibility? After I started because of economics, continued because of satisfaction, persisted because of fun, I realized the need to be responsible for my own family; my own actions. It's easy to throw away half the peas on your plate if you bought them at $.25 per can, but not so simple if you remember shelling each and every one on a hot summer day. THEN you save them for soup. If you follow through with recycling instead of dumping all your trash in the dumpster, you think twice and move away from overly packaged products. Yes, God had some pointed things to say about waste, but we've ignored most of that and it's gotten our country into a lot of trouble.

First and foremost homesteading is a lifestyle choice. I flat out like to grow things, plants and animals. I take great personal pleasure in it.

Second, it's a wonderful way to raise children - teaching responsibility, patience, diligence, and delayed gratification in order to achieve a greater goal.

Lastly, because I'm a survivalist. Once you leave short-term prepping and enter into the medium-term you begin to enter into homesteading. The further you get into long-term prepping the more of a homesteader you become. There comes a point when they are pretty well one and the same thing.

If I'd never heard the word "survivalism" though I'd still be a homesteader and would still enjoy it just as much. This is what I like doing and I intend to do it until the day I die. Even then I'll still be doing it as my wife and children all understand that my ashes are to be spread across Dun Hagan so that I can close the cycle and go back to that from whence I came.

It ain't the "simple life", that's for sure. In fact, it's complex and complicated as all get out. The simple life would be living in town leading a life of leisure with everything done for me or supplied to me in return for nothing more than the money I earn working in some form of gainful employment. Simple, but meaningless.

Insects, disease, bad weather, heat, humidity, sun burn, gnats, lack of sleep, aches and pains I'll take them all if that's what it takes to do what I want to do.

.....Alan.

I feel lucky in the respect that I was raised on an dairy farm, but did not marry a farmer and left the farm for aprox. 10 years. It gave me the opportunity to live life like a "normal" person. Regular job, house in the burbs, vacations etc. Which after ten years left me restless, deep in debt, and aimless. What should have I strived for? A job promotion? A new car? All these things seemed trival, and unfulfilling. Then i got sick. At 28 yrs of age I was full of tumors, pain and misery. The doctors told me to get my affairs in order and I took a good look at my life. I made the desicion that whatever time I had left I would spend it raising my son the way I was raised. We sold our ranch house in the burbs and bought the abandoned farm. I had surgery to remove 12 pounds of tumors from my abdomen, and stopped. No chemo, no radation. I went back to the organic way I was raised. We have spent the last 6 years restoring the farmhouse, reclaiming the fields and loving life. Doing it all ourselves. Material things can make life more comfortable, but that doesn't mean it's better or happier. My Husband lost his job last x-mas(plant moved to mexico). Instead of panic and depression like 99% of the people who lost their jobs too, he's seen it for what it is, just a job. We will not go hungry or cold. Yes money is a necessary thing but it's not everything. When you can be self sufficient it takes away alot of the stress and pressure that just ruin life. Yes it's more physical work but in my eyes well worth it.

It may have alot to do with having children....I went through the same thing when my daughter was a baby. DH was out of work & our electric was cut off....which turned off the electric heat....in the dead middle of winter. I vowed that would never happen again. That was 30 years ago & we've never had to do without or depend on handouts from others for our basic needs, regardless of our economic situation.
In our modern economy, we are all largely dependent on others for our basic necessities, and that's what bothers me. I don't like being in a position where someone else determines whether or not I eat (or have lights or stay warm/cool, etc) today based on whether I have the cash to pay for the food (or gasoline or electricity, etc.)
The satisfaction of doing-it-yourself is simply an added bonus :)

Uh - I have question here. While it's lovely to think about "chucking it all" & going back to the earth, what do you all do about health insurance?

I grow all our vegetables & herbs organically & really, really enjoy it, & am working to bring to fruition a fixer-upper farm.

But I have to say, that after 2 accidents involving a fractured spine & a nearly severed leg, if my husband didn't have a terrific job with terrific health insurance - my farm dreams would be down the toilet right now. Think mid 6-figure medical bills. And think about them before you decide that tossing everything & going for the self-sufficient lifestyle is such a "good thing".

Mike - you say you neither have nor want a computer. How are you posting here? Lol!! No offense meant, but it looks like your last post was way after library hours.

With a subject like this, I had to see what was posted! I am one that can "see" patterns in human behavior, church bibles, priests, and preachers, or should I say religious organizations? Obviously things are going in the wrong direction, but this was predicted a long time ago. I am sure we all know or have noticed the war, weather and natural disasters are getting a tad worse each year, with a few years of breaks between? If not, read your library magazines like Popular Science and such. I am not the only one that notices these things. Of course when so many bad things are going on and reported daily in the media, people tend to seek ways to avoid the danagers and possible disasters many are predicting. It is correct to say "your world" will end soon, but that is a word riddle about life and death of any and all human government (rule) types, and lifestyles. Among us here there has already been a few endings of "world", followed by a number of new beginnings (Genesis). Change is good, normally if it means coming away from dependency on human rulers, meaning generals, and merchants also.

Doing so tends to make a person feel less like a victim, and more like a "self-reliant" individual. Call it survivalist if you like, but what we are seeking is a closer move towards our nomadic parent's lifestyle; totally free of human rulers of any kind, but also linked to the natural world in a very personal way, more like the animals that tend to survive disasters. Since humans are at the top of the food chain, and can stay there with knowledge and wisdom, our only real enemy is another person wanting to rule over us in some way instead of living as an equal. Living as equals is where the sharing idea came from, but hording and merchandizing came from the "settler" way of thinking, seeking to "profit" from others. This is why the church bibles are full of stories about nomads (Hebrews) not getting along with settler (Gentile) types, and the basic message was nomadic is the better choice for a number of reasons, including peace, even if some tent dwellers tended to be violent pirates.

Not wanting to preach the "Hebrew" viewpoint all that much more, let me say "organic" is wise, and requires knowledge shared among equals since the merchants have another objective; dependancy. The reason the superstores have stuff so cheap is to enslave those without knowledge and the wisdom of self-reliance. "Heirloom" fruits and vegetables don't need seed packet salers either if you know how to keep your own seeds each year, so that is why the merchants only offer hybreds; the seeds tend to not reproduce faithfully by design. Wisdom and experience teaches hybred seeds and plants are self-destructive, and continues the city victim (settler) cycle. Your deep desire for self-reliance is based on wisdom from experience and an unexplainable lust to be less dependant on others, even if this is never fully possible over an entire life cycle. We call it an instinct that tends to show itself in powerful ways during various stages in life. Think "teenager", lol, as one example.

So my advice is to continue to walk the new path towards more and more self-reliance and share your failures and successes for the benefit of others just getting on the same path. In my mind this is living as an equal knowing a time will come, as before (many times over), when times are going to be tuff for the survivors among us seeking a more nomadic freedom. Why these times come, and when they come are the messages of the "seers", and predictions, some call prophecy. That is a "time of sharing" for another day and subject title. Obviously many here know by instinct they need to be more self-reliant, but may have trouble explaining why, and what is in the back of their mind. Take encouragement from my words and keep walking away from being in a victimizing lifestyle. Tsavah

I haven't posted either here, or on the farm life site in quite some time, but I saw this posting and just had to read what everyone had to say. I feel very strongly also, about wanting to leave the rat race and live more simply. My question is... for those of you who have done this already...how do you do it?? How much money do you need to have saved up in order to make it all work? We own a home which we still have a sizeable mortgage to pay on, but aside from that, have very little debt, no car payments, one student loan to pay off. Do we sell our home and buy something with the profit (most likely a shack) so we no longer have a mortgage?? I have been gardening and canning or freezing what ever I have a surplus of for a few years now, and love it. I certainly relate to all of you who say you are self reliant for the pure satisfaction of knowing you planted, grew, harvested and prepared or canned the food yourself. That part of it doesn't worry me. It's the "how do we pay our taxes, afford medical care should any of us need it?? stuff that I wonder about.

Personally, I work currently in an industry that provides services for client companies and their employees' mental health, so that it doesn't affect their work performance. WE do a lot of talking about work/life balance and the importance of it...but to tell you the truth, the majority of the people I talk with on a daily basis have so much stress and depression due to the lifestyles that we feel forced into living. Media, 24 hour retailers, corporate America- all prey on people. I myself am a victim, but in my mind I'm frantically trying to plan my escape!! Going from full to part time, once again, is my start. I need time at home to regain my emotional/spiritual equilibrium that comes from getting back to gardening, cooking, quilting, being outside in fresh air and not stuck in a cubicle 9 hours a day.

Those of you who have done it,please enlighten me with a few pointers on getting out of the rat race.