Reflections of katlupe: homesteaders

Showing posts with label homesteaders. Show all posts

Saturday, January 05, 2013

Guns Are Needed On A Homestead

A secluded homestead needs protection!

Guns are an important tool of the homestead. Listen to me before you say, "no guns for me!" A gun is not only for protection. What do you do when one of your animals needs to be put down" due to illness or injury? A gun is the fastest and most humane way to do that. What about a raccoon in your driveway, rabid in the daytime and ready to bite someone? A gun will take care of him in an instant. Or maybe you have some critter killing your chickens during the night and need to put a stop to it fast. A gun will put an end to that too! See, there are a large amount of other instances when a gun is needed.

My brother, Mickey

Gun control has become a big issue right now. On Facebook, some of the posts and comments are causing outright wars among friends. The thing is that there will always be people for them as well as the people against them. I am for guns myself, but I grew up with guns in our house. My brother was shooting guns at a very young age, even though he once shot out the television screen with his pellet gun!

Daddy was an outstanding hunter!

One particular friend of my husband's on Facebook argues for gun control based on the fact that he was almost killed by a gun which was most likely a Mafia type attack on him due to a business he ran. That is a completely different thing! Most of us will not be concerned with a Mafia hit upon us or our families. The other thing he often recites is having a local teenager break into your house and you shoot him or he steals your gun and shoots you. Well in my house, that would not happen. Nobody could break into my house right now, because we are always here. At night it would be pretty near impossible to sneak up on our house.

Snakes can be shot with a gun!

Just because you are armed and can defend yourself does not mean you take shooting another person lightly. Not at all! Most times the people who go on shooting rampages are not the gun owner. They have stolen the gun from someone or got it illegally and are feeling the power of it. Most children who are taught to use a gun, will know how to safely handle it and don't play with them.

My brother, Mickey

I find that the people against guns are usually the ones who have never handled one. They are people who only think of guns as a weapon to kill or steal from someone. My father was an avid hunter and he knew how to handle guns. I remember him working on making his own reloads in the evenings. My brother builds long rifles for himself and others. He uses black powder exclusively.

Carrying a gun, either for hunting or protection.

So for me, guns are no big deal. But gun control is a whole other issue! Read this article for a little more insight on what it is like not to have a gun when you need one: Jew Without A Gun. Excellent, excellent article!

Thursday, July 05, 2012

Remember Carla Emery

My newest blog post on my new Homesteading on the Internet site is Carla Emery Inspired Me. Please join me there and read the newest post!

This is the newest book that will out in November of 2012. Have to get put on this list.

This is the book I have and love it. But it is kind of falling apart. So I would like to replace it with the newest edition.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

My Husband's Grandparents

Monday, January 02, 2012

Learn How On Pinterest

I have a confession to make...........I am addicted, badly! Yes, I always said I never get addicted to anything, but it has happened to me. My addiction is to a web site called Pinterest. Have you heard of it? If you have been there, then you know how addicting it can be. I go there to relax and have fun. Yes, it is possible to do that online.

It is a networking site with pictures.......lots of pictures! Awesome pictures about any subject you are interested in. You set up boards with names of the topics you like, and then you pin (click it and add it to whatever board you choose) photos to it. Other members will repin or like your pictures, they may make a comment on it or reply to you about the picture. If a member has boards you like, you can follow that board. It is free and fun to use. You can also share the pins on Facebook or Twitter.

At first, I didn't quite understand the whole concept of this site. Now, I have spent most of the holidays playing on it.......WOW! This site is powerful! Now I finally get it. I have developed my boards with topics that generate my own interests. Some of the boards I have set up will help me writing this blog this year and also to put together a new homesteading book I am working on.

The way to develop your boards on Pinterest so they are of use to you on your blogs is to search for the kind of items you want to write about. This is my entire Pinterest Board.

You can see all my topics:

I've Been - Places I have traveled to or lived.
Horses - I love these magnificent creatures!
Flowers - Flowers of all colors and varieties.
Black Dogs - I am partial to the black dog!
Cats - My whole life, I have been a "cat person" and always will be.
Things I Found - Items I find that look interesting.
Past Memories - Past memories of cars, people, items, music, whatever.
Feelings - Love, Hate, Friendships, Sadness, etc.
Favorite Places & Spaces - Beautiful spots and rooms to make them stand out.
Homestead Home - My vision of my homestead home or other homesteads.
Critters And Nature - Animals and nature.
Food - Good food that I'd like to make.
Homestead Gardens - The garden on the homestead is the most important part!
Places Afar - Places that I have not been, but look inviting.
My Style Pinboard - Personal style of what I like, make-up, clothing, hair, my style.
Products I Love - Products I find that I'd like to have.
I Could Have Said That - Saying that I thought or could have said.
People - Famous and some not so famous.
DIY - Crafts, Repairs, Projects of all kinds.
Tiny Critters - Teeny tiny critters, from bugs, to baby critters, to cells.
Gifts - Beautiful items that could be a gift for the people in my life.
Photography - I love photography and this is all things to do with that hobby.
Purple - My favorite color.........need I say more? Take a peek and feast your eyes!
Our Future Home Office - Ideas for turning our living room into a home office with style.
Holidays - Ideas for all holidays.
Christian - All thing Christian related.
Modern Homesteading - Homesteading in the new century, high tech and old!
Preps - Preparation is one of the things I stress, see for yourself!
New York State - I LOVE my home state of NY.......this is why!
Sweets - Sugar is so bad for you! But sometimes, I need a little taste of these goodies!
Low Carb Food - The wonderful food that will save our lives and help us live long lives!
Storage And Organization - Organize and Prosper!

These are not set in stone. I add more daily, delete some and sometimes the site it is on disappears and so does the photo. I also rearrange them as sometimes I add them to the wrong board or add more than one of the same photo. It is fun and you can find new ways of doing things or making things. Lots of good recipes! If you go there, please follow me and leave me a message and I will follow you back.

I am not an affiliate of Pinterest, though I wish I was! I am just a very happy pinner! Honestly!

Friday, August 26, 2011

Modern Homesteading Revisted

Relying On Ourselves With No Near Neighbors

In October of 2005 I wrote:

"Carla Emery died last week. I feel numb. She was my inspiration to homesteading. When I first purchased her book, The Encyclopedia of Country Living, I was just awed by what it represented. The idea to be self sufficient and able to take care of yourself and family. Wow! And this lady was offering you the directions and help to problems you would confront and nobody would have the answer. Many times over, I have hauled her book out to look up something I was stumped by.

My book is ragged & torn, but used daily!

She was only 66 years old, and it was disheartening to learn that a woman who lived a healthy lifestyle, had passed away at such a young age. But in her short time on this earth, she touched many people and if they, in turn, do the same, she will have kept the "back to the land" movement, alive and well in the new century. She fired people up! She said she did it, why can't you? She said if you need help, look it up in my book, it's probably there. And it was.

Potatoes Growing In Raised Beds!

People who put down the homesteaders just have no idea what it means. But they will. When there is no food in your grocery stores, no gas in the gas stations, no drugs in the drugstore, no doctors that will see patients that don't have insurance, then you'll be wanting to know where to turn. Well, you will have to learn from the homesteaders, the people who have been busy for the last 20 years or so, setting up their homesteads. Setting up their homesteads, while their friends, family and others were laughing at them. Saying "it's just like 2000!"

Cherry Tomatoes From Our Garden!

Anybody can be taught to live like this, but not all want to. It's a matter of whether you have what it takes. You have to be able to grow a garden and take care of it and make it produce enough food for your family for the next year. You have to be able to raise chickens for eggs, if you need eggs for your family. The same with a cow and milk. If there is something you need or want to survive, you must attain it somehow. If you can raise it or grow it, that's the best way. You may be able to barter for it from other like minded homesteaders. All the money in the world won't be worth much if there is nothing to buy with it, will it?

Learned To Can!

You better start thinking of shelter, water, food, security, clothing, medical needs, heat, cooking fuel, cleaning needs, lighting, food preservation, transportation (without fuel), items to barter with for things you need. Forget about your recreational activities, going to movies, out to dinner, bar hopping, gambling, driving a motor vehicle, working a outside job (won't be any), credit cards, fancy clothes, fancy houses. Time to wake up and take a look at this world we live in. If you never heard of Carla Emery, Jackie Clay, Countryside Magazine, Small Farmer's Journal, Backwoods Home Magazine, Mother Earth News, Back Home Magazine and Homesteading Today - then you better start catching up! These are the teachers, the mentors of the homesteaders of today. Time for them to shine!"

Things haven't changed much since I wrote that. So I thought it deserved being reposted now.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

First Plants Of 2011 In The Ground!

Today even though it was raining most of the day, my husband prepared two of our wood raised beds. He had to weed them first as they had really filled up with grass and weeds something awful. Then he used the wheel hoe/cultivator to plow it up. Then added fresh new compost from our compost pile. This is compost that has been sitting for a couple of years. It is very rich, dark and full of good things. Then he plowed it again.

After he did all that hard work. I had the job of bringing some of the plants from in the house and planted them in the first raised bed. I put the Green Hubbard Winter squash there. Six of them. I had eight, but broke two of them when trying to transplant them. That is because they had gotten quite big and I usually transplant them before they get that size. Next year, I will not start them so soon.

I did not get the second bed planted yet. Hopefully, I will get that one planted tomorrow. These beds are in the side yard, sort of out of the way. That way when they spread out they are not such a pest to my husband when he mows the lawn. He is very particular about the lawn!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Our Homesteading Journey

I grew up in the country. My father was a hunter and a fisherman, so we pretty much always lived in the country. He grew up on a farm. It wasn't a very good farm, because they were very poor. That taught him how to survive and many times his family relied on him for game and fish. Even when he was just a young boy.

Having lived in the country all the time I was growing up, I was eager to live in the city. Aren't all kids like that? I dreamed of living in New York City. I remember reading books about being a career girl living in the "Big Apple" written by Helen Gurley Brown among others.

Somewhere along the way I changed. We lived in the city of St. Petersburg, FL, in 1994. It was a very beautiful place and I loved it. We walked everywhere and had such fun there. Our kids had all come down there, first my husband's daughter, Hollie, then my Jeff, and then my husband's Jeff. We started our business, Exclusively Cruises and then later, Intricate Systems. But there was so much crime in our area. I was chased home by a guy in the middle of the day and had to hide in an ally. No, I did not feel safe there.

We started reading the homesteading magazines and both of us, started talking about this new found love we had for the homesteading lifestyle. When I read the editorials JD wrote in Countryside magazine, I wanted it even more. So eventually we ended up moving back to NY. First in an apartment in the country in one place, where we worked on learning about gardening, baking bread, making and canning jelly. We started washing our laundry by hand and hanging it outside on our clothesline.

Next we found a house to rent that was even more in the country. On an old farm that was no longer a farm. We loved it and there is where we grew our first real garden. My husband plowing it with our first wheel hoe or cultivator, whatever you wish to call it. While there we started acquiring our various nonelectric items for our future homestead. Our first wood stove, the wood cook stove (which I still use to cook with), our collection of kerosene lamps (that would become our means of lighting our future homestead), our treadle sewing machine (which was owned by my husband's great great grandmother), our clawfoot bathtub and our doctor's buggy.

We were preparing while there. I bought Carla Emery's book, The Encyclopedia of Country Living and read it all the way through. I loved it and I learned from it. I read Backwoods Home Magazine and started following Jackie Clay. When she wrote in there about storing water, I filled over 20 gallon containers with water and stored them in our basement. Then when we had blizzard, we had all the water we needed and never had to leave home. The landlord and all the surrounding residents had to go stay somewhere else. My brother in-law wanted to know how I knew to store the water! I still do it.

While we were there we planted our first real garden and it was awesome. We learned to can all our produce. Even my husband did it. In fact, he did more than me because I was working at the time and he was not. We gathered kindling and explored the woods. And we got our little puppy, Nikita, who is now 13 years old.

We prepared and planned for the day when we would move to our own homestead. That day finally did come. But it took four years to find one that was just right for us. So for all the readers who say they will start when they move to the country, my advice is to start now. Start learning and doing things little by little. Then it is not too much at once. If you already know how to do something when you get there, you can learn other things.

Good luck on your homesteading journey!

Monday, April 04, 2011

Homesteading Authors Who Inspired Our Life

Today I would like to share some of my favorite homestead authors. If they weren't out there writing, I'd have never found out about this awesome lifestyle. There is more information out there than from these authors but these are my favorites.

Jackie Clay is a well known author and writes for Backwoods Home Magazine and her blog which is on the magazine's website. She lives the life and knows very well what she is talking about. I have learned so much from her! She will answer your questions quite honestly. One thing I love about her is that she will tell you, "This is how I do it. I am not telling you to do it this way." Especially when someone asks about something that is not quite up to the people in power's recommendations!

Carla Emery's book, The Encyclopedia of Country Living has been indispensable to me since I first bought it in 1998. I rely on that book constantly, and it looks like it, with the pages falling out in places. Be it gardening, canning, baking bread, raising chickens or having babies at home, Carla has the answer somewhere in that big book. Since her death in 2005, her book is all that is left. Her website is still live but has not been updated, it is kept as a tribute to her.

Sue Robishaw & Steve Schmeck have a website called Many Tracks. Sue Robishaw has written for many years for Countryside & Small Stock Journal. Her and Steve live in the north pennisula of Michigan, where it is really cold in their off-the-grid underground home. She has inspired me in many ways. For one thing, she too, lives without refrigeration and I once contacted her to find out how she did it. I find many answers to my questions on her site and in the magazine in her many articles.

Scott and Helen Nearings are in some ways, our inspiration for homesteading. We like the idea that they were living off the land and were not raising livestock for food. Most people just assume that you are raising livestock for food in some way if you are a homesteader. Not necessarily. They were considered the founders of the back to the land movement. Moving from their small apartment in New York City to Vermont to live off the land set a whole movement in motion. We have reread their books over and over. They have both passed away and their homestead is still maintained by teaching sustainability and self-reliance to future generations at The Good Life Center.

I learned how to live this lifestyle mostly just by doing it. The others who have done it before me have paved the way for me to learn new methods. If one thing doesn't work for me, I can try another way. One thing I have learned is that nothing is set in stone. You can find ways to make it easier for yourself. Just by doing!

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