My Homesteading Journey by katlupe

I have such good news for everyone! Everyone has been after me for so long to write a book about my homesteading life that I have finally done it. And finished it! It is listed on my own website at this time for sale. I will be listing it on some other sites also. But it will ONLY be listed and sold by me. It is not a book for resale, personal use only.

I have put my heart and soul in this book. It explains how my husband and I came from living in the busy city of St. Petersburg, Florida working at Home Shopping Network to living out in the middle of the state forest in upstate New York. How we bought a hunting camp and turned it into our own paradise - our little homestead, Peaceful Forest.

Once I started working on it, I found I had so much to say. Homesteading is my life. It is what defines me and makes me complete. So many people do not understand why anyone would want to live this way. They do not understand the feeling you get when you look at a pantry full of food that you have grown and canned, yourself. What a feeling it is!

Yet, my homesteading lifestyle is not old fashioned in any sense of the word. I live more high tech than most people as I explain in my book. I earn my living on my laptop computer, which is powered by my small affordable solar system, that anyone could set up.

Our road in July.

I try to show you, that if you just try, you can achieve this lifestyle too. Even if you live in a city or anywhere in between. Not everyone will want to live in the middle of the state forest! I am certainly glad of that fact!!!! In other countries, they live simpler, than us Americans. We are very wasteful and living the homesteading lifestyle is the way to overcome this bad habit.

So if you think you want to homestead, or are just thinking of doing it, please grab a copy of my book, My Homesteading Journey. It is an eBook, so as soon as you purchase it, you will be able to download it, and read it immediately. No waiting for it to come in the mail! Wonderful thing about living in this high tech age!!!!

Remember it is a eBook which means that it is NOT available in paper form. It sells on my site for $14.99 and there are no shipping charges, of course. It will come in an zipped file and you will need to unzip it. Then it is a PDF file that you will need Adobe to read it on your computer.

I am in the process of updating this book and you will be able to purchase it right here on this page as soon as I am finished. I have taken out all the photos as they make it slower to download, especially for dial-up buyers. Most of my photos are all available anyway on this blog so you have probably already seen them all anyway. You can still purchase it on my site. But after it is updated it will be available here and paid through PayPal.

Thank you for being a visitor or regular reader of my blog. I appreciate every single person who passes through my site, and hope I can assist you in some way of becoming more self-sufficient or better prepared in this world we live in. Blessings and my prayers to all of you!

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

Snow At Last!!!!!

Georgie Girl & Dark Shadow

I can't say that I do not like the snow. This morning when I woke up, there was snow. My husband was not happy at all. So I tried not to show my excitement. The truth is that my beautiful horse, Georgie Girl loves snow. She likes to take a bite of her grain, and then a bite of snow at the same time. Normally, I have to go get a shovel full for her to eat, but when the snow is fresh like this, she eats it right off the stone wall near her spot. She was in a very good mood, so I was too. Even, my dog, Nikita was running and rolling in the snow like a puppy. So everyone really, with the exception of my husband and my cat, Patches was happy with the first snowfall of the year. We did have a light dusting a couple of times. But not enough for me to consider it a snowfall.

I have been very busy with my home-based business, Peaceful Forest. I am making new banners to promote products. Adding affiliate links. Adding new products. Writing articles. So busy, I don't know whether I am coming or going. But I like it. Working at home sounds like it's not really working. But it's just as much work as paid employment, and most times it's more. I work more than 12 hours a day 7 days a week on my computer. But I do have the luxury, of being able to squeeze in chores and things in my work day. So my work days are long. But I am not complaining.

Updated 2019

Copyright © 2006 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2006  Kathleen G. Lupole

Noisy Horse!

Today was a pretty quiet day, unless you consider that my husband's horse, Dark Shadow was in weird mood. For one thing all three of our horses are related, as I have told on here before. So she is the aunt to my smaller horse, who is a TB/Shetland cross, and she is so lovable. But Dark Shadow just picks on her all the time. So today, she kept kicking the lean-to (3 sided building attached to the barn) because Tawny was behind it. My husband gets so mad at her! But I think it's like children playing or fighting. So I had to go outside and spend some time brushing her and babying her. She seemed much better after that. Sometimes, she just wants some attention and that works. She will scream real loud and then bang, she kicks the building. Sounded like a gun today! I thought somebody shot her!!!! But my husband knew it was her. So I run out to her, and that's just what she wanted.

This afternoon we started getting our normal rain. We always get rain here if it gets warm at all. Usually, this time of year, we'd be having much snow and wind. So I am not complaining. My brother called me this morning, and he says it is supposed to get cold tomorrow. So we'll see. I don't mind the cold and the snow, as long as we have a house full of wood! I cook on my wood cook stove all the time, so that stove is usually going. It is so much easier to cook on then conventional type stoves. Plus, your food tastes so much better! But you've heard that before haven't you? In the future, I will be writing one about cooking on one. Which is a dream come true!!!

Hay this year, is hard to come by. It rained so much during our summer, that many of farmers who sell hay, were unable to get it in. So the ones that did, now raised their prices to over a dollar more a bale. I guess, my spoiled girls might end up eating a round bale of cow hay. They have always eaten the best, but now we have such a hard time getting it. If I didn't already own my horses, I wouldn't get one now. But we would never sell these girls. They would not do well anywhere else. Life here is a lot different than at ordinary horse places. They are very special horses.


I'll be back tomorrow, so be sure to stop back by.

Updated 2019

Copyright © 2006 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2006  Kathleen G. Lupole

Being Self Reliant!

I have just realized that I am really a homesteader. I am self reliant! This makes me proud. But until today, I kept looking at my house, that after eight years of living here, I still did not have my plumbing in, or my downstairs bedroom built on, so I must be doing something wrong. But no, this is not a disadvantage. It is clearly, an advantage over the present system the general public lives with. Their life of paying bills. Of running in place for their whole life.

Today, I would like to touch a little on the subject of homesteading, and what it means to me. Lately, I have been feeling financially stressed, as there were many places that I wanted to put my money. Too many! There are always things that you need, or run out of, and then there are things that you really need to fix, or to do, that take that money. But when you start homesteading, you are trying to be independent, self sufficient or, self reliant. So let's see what that covers, food, shelter and heat (especially in the winter!). If we grow our own food, and basically eat only that, then you are on the right track. Shelter, would have to be your home, so the best thing you could do, is to pay off your mortgage as soon as possible. And for heat, you would need to provide it yourself. So you would need a wood stove for heat, and maybe a wood cook stove for cooking, plus, a forest of trees, needing to be pruned. And that takes care of your basic needs.

Your next basic needs, would be clothing and that would include shoes too. So now, this is when you start using that money. Thrift stores, garage sales, rummage sales, free cycle are all good places to start looking for some used clothing. Make a list, with the sizes you are looking for and spend a day shopping. But under no circumstances, should you purchase your clothing at a new store! Issue yourself a challenge to go a whole year without buying one piece of new clothing, with the exception of shoes, sock or underclothes. What I plan on doing, is to check the newspapers for garage sales in the rich areas of your next closest city and spend the day there. What a fun idea! You could probably get some great clothes.

Now for transportation. I can't do much on that. I already have a vehicle with a payment, and even though I hate having a payment, I love driving a vehicle that I don't have to worry constantly about. I hated those clunkers, that you didn't know if you'd get home or not. Plus, with a decent vehicle, it seems like your gas lasts longer. I'm not sure if that is true or not. I just know that I love my Dodge Dakota pick up! But if something happened, I do have three strong horses who could, and would, travel many miles if they had to. I even have a doctor's buggy for them to drive!

Updated 2019

Copyright © 2006 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2006  Kathleen G. Lupole

Fall In New York Is Beautiful!

My road in fall

My newest form of entertainment has become my bird feeding station under my apple tree. I can watch them while I am washing dishes or doing most anything in the kitchen. I always had just one suet feeder and hanging feeder and there is a large rock out there that I put feed on for my ground feeders. Just lately though, I have 6 beautiful blue jays out there every day. What a show it is to watch them trying so hard to feed on the small suet feeders! Usually, my smaller chickadees and nuthatches feed on that. And they end up getting pushed out since the blue jays are so much larger. So this week I purchased a larger suet feeder, which has a shelf on the side for the bird to stand on and the blue jays fit on it just fine. Solved that problem!

Hobo Bird Watching!

My cat, Hobo thinks I feed the birds for her entertainment! She hides around my various gardening beds, and even right behind the rock that I put feed on. But they seem to know she is there. In 2003, someone threw her off the bridge near my house. I had to nurse her back to health as she had a hole in her head, blood coming out her eye, nose and mouth. My husband warned me not to get too attached as he might have to put her out of her misery. I started bathing her with 4 herb tea, a generic brand of Essiac tea available at Herbal Healer.

Hobo

Anyway, she survived, and is an important member of our family now. But she wasn't too trusting in the beginning, and must have had a bad life before coming here. She has lost most of her teeth, and is petite in size, but a tough little girl, and a awesome hunter. She is not afraid of most things and will put all kinds of critters on our door step. I have the feeling that whoever had her before, and threw her off that bridge, probably did it in anger. She has a way of thinking that nobody can tell her what to do, and will growl, and in the early days here, would strike out with a claw or two. She doesn't do that anymore, but I have more patience than most. Especially with my animals!

Sun shining!

We have been having unseasonably beautiful weather here in upstate New York. And I just love it! Nothing puts me in a better mood than seeing that sun shining! Gives me power too, since I use solar power to generate my electricity. Next year, I hope we can install a wind turbine. Then we will probably never have to use our generator. Great news on that. Though I am planning on getting a bread machine, and figure I will probably have to use the generator for that. But I will be using it for mixing and kneading only, and bake the bread in my oven. I just don't have enough time or energy to make it completely from scratch anymore. So this will work for me.

Pumpkin Bread

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving, and didn't eat too much. Now it's the time of year for more festivities and all those holiday goodies. Enjoy it but don't go overboard.

Updated 2019

Copyright © 2006 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2006  Kathleen G. Lupole

Random Thoughts

Many people cannot sacrifice to get what they want. If it doesn't come fast or easily, they just give up on their dream. I see it many times in people around me. I cannot tell you how many times, I have had people ask me, all kind of questions about living off the grid, and using solar panels to generate my electricity. They are so interested in it. Yet they are afraid of going without those trivial things such as television or microwaves. Even if I lived with grid power, I would not use either of those things anyway! Such time wasters! Yes, a microwave is a time waster, as it ruins your food. I will not eat food that is zapped in a microwave. A television is a mind waster. I would much rather read or write, or talk to the person I am with. Yet, they will say that is their dream! How can it be then, that they are not trying to live that way now?

When visitors come to my Peaceful Forest Homestead, they are struck by the quiet, peaceful way of life here. And that is with us working on computers all day long. Surrounded by thousands of acres of state forest land, regardless of the season, it is a place of beauty and peacefulness. This morning, the sun is shining throught the tall trees, highlighting the bright orange and red leaves that haven't fallen off some of the trees yet. Even winter here is wonderous to view! My chickadees have been going through my bird feeders like a house on fire! They just can't get enough. I love the morning sounds of the chickadees demanding more feed from me.

What strikes me is the uncaring ways that the younger people have become. They show no respect to people older than themselves. They talk like they come right off the streets, and maybe they do. Some think it's cool to be that way. To me, they only sound childish. Immature. Ignorant. Uneducated. Need I go on? These are the people coming up. Most were born in the 70's. You would think they would gain some common sense and decency by now. They think they are shocking you! Oh my goodness, young man or woman, you do not shock me! I probably know more than you do. It's just that I know the things that are important to survive in this world and you most likely, do not. And you probably never will.