Homesteading In The Modern World

Peaceful Forest Homestead 1999

I consider myself a "homesteader", even though I am not at the point where I could say that I am a accomplished "homesteader". It has been my dream since about 1995. We have been accomplishing things little by little. It is an on going process. Finding a house was a big thing. What we had planned was to buy land and build our own home. To live on the land in a camper or something. Instead we found a house that was used as a deer camp since 1923. It is a wood framed house with fairly new vinyl siding. It was built in 1850. So we didn't need to live in a camper after all. It does need a lot of work and we will do that as we can afford it. The first thing that we are trying so hard to do is to finish our barn.

My husband was in an accident at work three years ago and had his right elbow crushed. He worked for the local highway department and they didn't think it was necessary to fix the brakes on their road roller. My husband was new on the job and the guy he replaced had refused to drive it. He took the job because it was close to home and ended up being almost killed. When it happened he thought he would not make it out alive. It was a dramatic ride for him backwards down a big hill at a fast speed on a machine he had no way to stop.

He managed to steer it into a yard where it threw him off. His arm ran into a pipe that stopped the momentum of his body. Good thing it did as the roller went right over him but did not hit him and crushed that pipe. If the pipe hadn't stopped him he would have been under that road roller.

In New York state you cannot sue your employer. Nice law, huh? Protects employers from having to face the music for making employees operate faulty equipment. Now my husband is facing the fact that he may need an artificial elbow which he does not want. He is also suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which sometimes can get pretty bad.

Most of our projects are on hold. I am working on the internet trying to make a living to finish some of the big things. Such as the barn. I am not asking for donations or a free ride. Just for people to purchase items they would normally be purchasing from my website. I have friends that will offer me money but why won't they go to my site? I can never understand it.

Copyright © 2005 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2005 Kathleen G. Lupole

Updated 2024