Getting Started In Homesteading

My husband made our bread weekly!

Baking bread is such a big part of a homesteaders' life. The people who dream about being homesteaders almost always start with learning how, if they have never done it before, baking their own bread. My grandmother always baked her own until she became diabetic. After that, she never made good food again. She made her own jam and jelly, but it was horrible since it now had saccharin in it. Yuck! I'd spit it out and she'd frown at me. 

When we moved back to NY  from St. Petersburg, FL, my husband and I found an apartment in the country. It was on 26 acres of land and was an old farm that had been converted into multi-family apartments. We lived in the upstairs of the old farmhouse. There were about 4-5 apartments there and a big old barn and the land of course. We decided that was where we would start homesteading. My husband had grown up on this road where we lived, but it was not as congested back then. Now it had lots of houses built where all the old farms were. Lots of traffic so to cross the road we had to wait awhile to get to the other side. 

Learned to grow vegetables!

We tried to put in a garden down near the creek on the land across the road. The soil was not real good, but we figured we could use the water to keep it watered and not have to carry it very far. We camped out down there in our tent and it was pretty neat as it was away from all the houses and almost like being in the real country. Nothing like where we live now though! We had the police come to visit us to investigate our garden because a neighbor could see us working on it and thought it was down there away from everything because it had to something illegal we were planting! Well, we told the cop to go check it out. It was like a garden and an Indian camp too, with a tee pee and a tanning pole. Our neighbors below us, were drug dealers and they had a hoot after they found out the cops were there for us, of all people. First they were panicking, then they were surprised as they thought we were boring. The cop came back and said yes, all she found was corn and tomatoes and some green bean plants. Loved that!

My husband  was driving an over-the-road truck off and on during this time. First for one company then switched. I was working as a home health aide for an agency and worked in a health related complex for the  elderly. So while I was at work he would make the bread, wash our laundry, work in the garden, etc. Then when he went back out on the road, I started learning how to can. I picked crab apples and made crabapple jelly. None of the people who lived around us did anything like that. I had all the crab apples and wild pears I could use. 

I kept reading my homesteading magazines, such as Mother Earth News, Countryside and Backwoods Home magazines. They helped us stay focused. On week-ends we would drive all over the country looking for our property. It was a fun time and now I look back on it and see how far we have come since that time. If you just start learning how to do some things, then start doing them.........it doesn't matter if you are in the middle of a city, in the suburbs or out in the wilderness. Most of these things revolve around the kitchen and the garden anyway.

So if you are interested in becoming more self-sufficient, keep reading my blog as I will be touching on homesteading skills every week. There are so many things you can do right now, wherever you live. I have a friend who was going to seminary school and he was able to grow a little garden right on the school property. You can do a lot more than you think. 

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

Finding Our Homestead In The Woods

Most people who have never been to New York state associate the rest of the state with New York City. Many times they think we haven't even seen a cow or a tree! New York state is a big dairy state and has lots of farmland all over the whole state. New York City actually makes up a very small part of the state as a whole. New York state also has acres and acres of state forest and state parks. Trees and mountains make up much of our Empire state. I always thought we should have been called the Forest State! I have traveled all over the whole country and believe me have not seen such a welcoming site as the green mountains of Pennsylvania and New York! Taxes may be high but we get plenty of rain and our beautiful forests in return.

Our Peaceful Forest Homestead is in the middle of the state forest in upstate New York. Our only neighbors, besides the wild kind are hunting camps. Our home was originally a farm and in 1924 became a hunting camp also until we purchased it in 1999. The house is what is called a Greek Revival style house and was built in 1850. In fact, when my husband was working on digging out a room connected to our cellar, he found a 1848 penny! My treasure! It may have belonged to the smart man who built our home and I have wondered about him many times through out our years here.

Our small piece of land is totally surrounded by the state forest and that means many large trees. The forest is very thick and every now and then it is logged to thin it out. At first we didn't like it when they did that but now we see the value of it and we have done that on our land ourselves. The woods came right up to our house and had to be cleared for gardens. All the roads leading to our house are dirt but are well taken care of. Our road looks to me like a trail through the woods. Sometimes the grass grows in the middle of it and I like that. The forest keeps it cool out here so when everyone else is sweating the summer weather, our home is usually about 10 degrees cooler.

We had searched for over four years for our place. Both of us loved the forest and used to drive through state forest in both New York and Pennsylvania. We would see homes in the middle of the state forest and say, "How did they get a house in the middle of the state forest?" Now people ask me that question! My answer is "Keep searching!" They are out there.

At first, I did not realize that the house was off the grid. Then I did not realize from looking at the listing that it did not have plumbing. No running water! No bathroom! It had an outhouse quite a distance from the house though. Before we moved here we purchased a claw foot bath tub (deep!) and a Sun Mar composting toliet. The bath tub my husband found at an antique store when he was out driving a truck for his company making deliveries. He stopped and put a deposit on it. Exactly what we wanted! The Sun Mar I found in our local Pennysaver for sale used for $200. I called about it and they said someone else had called and whoever got there first with the money could have it. We drove right there and came home with our new composting toilet.

 

The day we moved in we found out that the previous owners had left all their furniture in the house and we had a moving van full of our stuff which would not fit with their stuff. Plus, it was in the middle of a downpour that we moved in. My son, Jeffrey helped us and stayed with us for a few weeks which was a big help. We had to unload the van and take it back the next day so he had to put our things in the house with all that excess of stuff. Not an easy job! So the first thing after returning the truck was to haul things to do the dump that we had to pay for! Not what we were expecting to do.

Copyright © 2009 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2009 Kathleen G. Lupole

Updated September 2020