Start Homesteading

Chainsaws are essential to our homestead life!

Learning how to live your life as self-sufficient as possible in this crazy world is not easy. So many people write to me and say they are stuck in the city. Stuck in a job. Stuck in a relationship with someone who does not want to live this way at all. I mean, some people have no desire to take on this life. Especially if they have never been exposed to it at all. If you are wanting to get started though, there are ways to do that without moving or divorcing your spouse and children.

The heart of our homestead!

Do you believe you must buy a home in the country to start the homesteading lifestyle? No! Absolutely not! I have met many homesteaders who live right dab in the middle of the city. Two blogging and homesteading friends who are currently urban homesteaders, thirtyfivebyninety and Viggie Veggies do an awesome job of homesteading in the city. As long as you have some kind of a backyard that you can plant a garden in, you should be able to get started. Starting small is always the best way anyway.

Our food supply at Peaceful Forest!

I have written about beginning homesteading skills many times on this blog.  Learn Your Homesteading Skills Slowly, is one. But I still see when I go to my favorite homesteading forum that many "wannabees" do not, or think they cannot, start until they buy their property. That is not the way to do it. You must start now, wherever you are, whatever situation you are in. Learn and research. Discover exactly how you want to live. You do not need to live like the Nearings or Jackie Clay. Pick your own road. It is your homesteading journey, this is My Homesteading Journey!

Canning my garden produce every year builds our food supply!

With the internet you can learn all the skills you need very easily. Put the term in the search engine and find your directions. What could be easier? So many things I do now, I had never done before. You sharpen your skills the more you do them. So get started!

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2011  Kathleen G. Lupole

Growing Something!

I realize now, after all these years of being as self-sufficient as I possibly can, that I could have lived this way wherever I lived in the past. You do not have to wait to start living a "modern homesteading" life until you live in the country. Or have bought your piece of land. You REALLY can do it anywhere.

Photo Source: Free Clip Art Now

Back in those days, I would have had the money to do more of what I want to do now. If all you do is plan and read books, you may have wasted much of your time waiting. If it is what you desire, you need to start now. Start by reading, but by doing also.

Lettuce and salad greens on the deck.

A small garden even if it only some containers on your deck or in your yard is a good start. If you already do that, add more so you can harvest some food for the winter.

Canned Chicken and Beef

When you go to the store, stock up on items you use a lot. If you can get some during a sale, buy as much as you can. If they have a sale on meat, buy as much as you can afford and can or freeze it. If you get where you are replenishing your pantry (and freezer) with your weekly grocery money instead of buying the food you will eat that week, then you are on the right track.

Eventually, you will look around and say, "Wow, I am doing it." You will be in control of your own food supply. Maybe not all of it, but most it. At the very least, you will have food to eat. Then if bad times happen, as they do to everyone at some point in their lives, you will have a full pantry.

I even store some food that we do not eat. Like dried beans. That can be like cash in the future. Something to barter with.

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole
All Photographs Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole
 

Choosing To Live Off-The-Grid

"Why in this modern world would anyone want to live in a house without electric or plumbing?"

"You are going to have a hard life living like that. Ask me how I know."

"I love my electric." This was from my Mother.

"I think of it as a privilege to pay the electric and gas company $200. a month for their services." This was from my Mother in-law. 

So many people warned my husband and me when we bought our house in the middle of the state forest. A house that had never been hooked up to any electric or telephone lines. A house that had been a hunting camp since 1923. A house that needed much tender loving care and repairs. At first I admit, it was like an adventure. My stepdaughter said, "It's like you are always on vacation."

I can't tell you how many times all the people on the grid who are paying for the privilege of using the power grid have had power outages since we moved here. We had a tornado and still had our power. The people around us were without power for more than a week. It doesn't feel like a hardship to me. It is more a hardship to me to pay that electric bill. I'd rather buy a new wind turbine or a bag of horse feed. Things I can have because I don't pay the electric company.

We didn't chose to live off-the-grid due to it being cheaper. Though it is, after you have built up your system. We chose it because we wanted independence. We had started reading Backwoods Home Magazine and Countryside Magazine and they really influenced us a lot. Our plan of living in a rural area and generating our own power became something we wanted to do in the worse way.

You don't need a lot of money to get started if you add a little bit at a time to your system. I write about that pretty regular on my other blog, Solar Baby. I am not trying to convert anyone to living this way. It has to be something you really want to do. Anyone can do it if they really want to, just like anything else in life.

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole
All Photographs Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole