New Post has been published on Green Eating And Living
"I'm amazed at how much I have accomplished on my to-do lists!" (homesteading)
I have been planning my ideal homestead ever since I was a kid. I
grew up reading a few books about the wilderness and homesteading, over
and over. My favorites were books by Bradford Angier like Skills for
Taming the Wilds, How to Build Your Home in the Woods and Or, Your Own
in the Wilderness. Then there was The New Way of the Wilderness by
Calvin Rutstrum and Wildwood Wisdom by Ellsworth Jaeger. Then I found
Five Acres and Independence by M.G. Kains and The Have-More Plan by Ed
and Carolyn Robinson and all the books by the Nearings. From there I
read anything and everything I could get my hands on about building,
organic gardening, homestead animals, etc.
I have always kept journals. This has been very helpful. I tried
to write down all my dreams, schemes and big ideas. I sketched out
details, made lists and kept a bibliography.
To this day, I am amazed at how much I have accomplished on my to
Once I knew what I wanted, I could take advantage of things I
gleaned or salvaged or got cheap at a garage sale. Projects came
together as time, money and scrounging permitted. I have lived in all
sorts of situations from middle-class kid to college student to
corporate America technician to homeless to a rented cabin to owning my
own underground home and organic farm.
Wow! Was I ever happy when I got here and could put down roots!
I’ve been here 10 years now. I started with a 14 x 28 ft. one-room
underground house with no running water, bathroom, kitchen, electricity,
etc. There was a big overgrown field by the road that was full of
brambles, bushes, poplars and small evergreens. I had been living in a
tent all summer before moving here. I had virtually no money.
I located a spring, developed it and ran a pipe to the house for
The only cooking amenities were the wood stove and a
“barbecue window.” I opened a window, started a fire with
sticks and newspapers, and cooked most things in a wok over a makeshift
grill. First I got a “free for the taking” gas stove that was
outside, hooked to a small propane tank. Eventually I got room to put it
inside. There was a closet into the earth that we used for a root
cellar. Our “kitchen” was a piece of plywood with holes that
two buckets hung in. Gray water had to be taken outside. The toilet was
a five gallon bucket under the loft.
Over time the house and out buildings expanded. We added a bedroom
for my daughter, a bathroom, a root cellar, a solar greenhouse, an
outhouse in the field/garden, a chicken coop, tool shed, apprentice
trailer and a sweat lodge.
I cleared the field and started making raised beds. I planted an
orchard of apples, plums, pears, cherries and blueberries, elderberries
and raspberries. A row of lilacs and rugosa roses were put on the bank
near the driveway, backed by highbush cranberries and forsythia.
There are patches of Jerusalem artichokes, asparagus,
strawberries, horseradish and comfrey.
After years of doing without, we got on the grid. I tried to hold
out for solar and/or water power, but didn’t have the money.
That’s definitely a dream for the future, but not a high priority
right now. I enjoy the computer for getting on-line and the satellite tv
system. We still have all our pre-electricity systems in case of power
The house is heated by two wood stoves. If I had my druthers I’d have a masonry fireplace–the kind with lots of mass that
utilizes quick, hot burns. They aren’t cheap, though. My second
choice would be to have an outside wood furnace. Dragging lots of wood
around, both outside and inside gets old.
The spring is covered by a simple wood cap. My dream is to build a
I stone spring house where I could store things. I’d also like to
have a water storage tank and bury the water lines deeper.
The solar greenhouse has 55 gallon drums of water and a rock wall
to help soak up heat and give it off slowly. It’s 12 x 48 ft.
In my dreams the greenhouse is glassed with low-E or some other
energy efficient glass, instead of the durable, serviceable but ugly
woven greenhouse plastic.
At this point hot water comes from the wood stove in winter and
100 feet of black plastic hose in the greenhouse in the summer. I would
like a hot water tank and maybe a glazed box for better solar gain.
The gas stove is okay… but my real dream is to have a restaurant
model with a broiler. It would be great for preserving and day-to-day
cooking. When I dream big, I imagine myself with an AGA… a stove that
has a lot of mass and is always “on.” Oh yeah, I’d like a
masonry bread oven in the house and am planning a Quebec-style (or Bread
and Puppet style) outside brick oven.
For the house, I’d like a workshop/ sewing/crafts room with
lots of storage space and big counters. Around the outside, it would be
fantastic to have a huge covered porch–maybe with a summer kitchen. And
wouldn’t it be great to have a round, stackwood sauna!
I’ve gotten good at scrounging used and new lumber, but if
money weren’t an issue, I’d have a portable sawmill… or even
a chainsaw lumber maker sounds good.
The geese and chickens have their own homes and the tools have
their shed… but imagine a barn!
I could have everything better consolidated and maybe even have an
apprentice apartment. The rototillers would all be in one shed and the
cider press could have a permanent home. Gee, maybe I could even park my
truck our of the way of freezing rain and blowing snow!
Ohhh… if I were more organized, maybe there could be a real
sugar house instead of an outside pot and finishing the syrup in the
house. And it would sure be great to have some beehives.
Hmmm… for power outages I have a 12 volt power supply, camping
equipment, a dynamo radio–but a big generator could keep the freezers
going and I could still watch my favorite Home and Garden TV shows.
The grapes are doing okay, but if I were good, I’d put up a
fancy trellis. The raised beds are easy to reform each spring, but it
would be nice to have permanent sides of logs or boards.
There’s a packing shed for keeping freshly picked veggies out
of the sun. The water comes to it via hydraulic ram pump into sinks. One
improvement I’ve often dreamed of is to have a deep stone/gravel
floor for better drainage.
I have a three bay compost bin made from pallets. Ideally these
need replacing as the pallets are truly becoming part of the compost. As
long as I’m dreaming, it would be nice to have the compost enclosed
in screening to keep out the skunks, raccoons and deer. We have a
compost tumbler made from 55 gallon drum on a stand. I love it for
mixing potting soil each spring. In my dreams it is kept well painted.
The greenhouse, though large, is never large enough! I always end
up making hay bale cold frames and putting the hardier stuff outside
ASAP in the Spring. Of course, in my dream there are well-insulated
When it comes to work–this is the 8th year of Peace & Carrots
Farm CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). In my dreams, it all runs
smoothly. Apprentices always work out and help is available when I most
need it. Picking days are celebrations and everyone is eager to do their
best! The beds are weeded and mulched, the successions are timely, the
paths are mulched and everything is labeled.
The most outrageous dream…
I think my most outrageous homestead dream is fencing. Instead of
the four foot welded wire fencing that encloses an acre, I’d have
high-tensile fencing eight feet high around all two acres of the
Deer are the biggest impediment to a successful garden here. Heck,
as long as I’m dreaming, I’d like outriggers of electric
When we do custom rototilling or cider pressing, I put down the
tailgate of my pickup and strap the equipment to the truck. I keep a
beat-up camper on the truck all the time. My homestead dreams include a
new pickup or at least a trailer to tow equipment or my 4WD ATV. I use
the ATV to go from the house to the field, to transport groceries, to
haul wood, to pick and haul veggies. A dream homestead would have a
small tractor with a bucket loader and several garden carts for the ATV.
My daughter is homeschooled and our house is full of thousands of
books. My ideal homestead would have a library that is well organized.
We could walk to the shelves and find exactly what we were looking for!
There would be neat stockpiles of supplies like paper, notebooks, craft
supplies, etc. The encyclopedias would always be arranged from A to Z
and there would be two phone lines–one dedicated to the computer.
Okay–enough! What I have learned from writing this is that
homesteading is an ever-evolving process. A real homesteader can find
happiness in making-do, recycling and scrounging.
If everything were perfect, the challenge and some of the charm of
country living would be missing. Our dreams keep us focused and
learning. Our needs and wants keep us building and growing. There will
never be enough time or money to “do it all”, but dreaming
about the possibilities can be very satisfying.
It’s great to see what we have already accomplished and
energizing to make plans for the future.
http://greeneatingandliving.com/homesteading/im-amazed-at-how-much-i-have-accomplished-on-my-to-do-lists-homesteading/
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