An attempt to define the indefinable;
that urge that starts deep in the gut and isn’t helped by burping, or
chocolate, or anything but digging your bare toes into Mother Earth. The
impulse to answer the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
with something other than an acceptable occupation like Butcher or Baker
or Candlestick Maker-
The impulse to stand tall and announce:
“I am a Homesteader.”
home⋅stead⋅er
Spelled Pronunciation
[hohm-sted-er]
– noun
|
1. |
the owner or
holder of a homestead. |
|
2. |
a settler under
the Homestead Act. |
Origin:
1860–65,
Americanism;
homestead +
-er
1 
Dictionary.com
Unabridged (v 1.1) -
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc.
2006.
~~~~~~~~~~
Of course the above
is a very basic and unemotional definition. It’s from a dictionary - it’s
supposed to be boring.
In the last few
years, my family and I have had the good fortune to travel and meet a
number of folks who share our homesteading dreams and visions.
Some of these
homesteaders have had the graciousness and good humor to fill out a survey
I sent to them in search of The Real True Homesteaders - people who for all
intents and purposes look absolutely (mostly) normal to society most of
the time, but whose hearts beat with the rhythm of the seasons and whose
fingernails are never quite clean.
These are the
surveys and their answers.
These are their
photos and stories.
At the end of each
survey, I’ve added my own comments and observations - most telling, and
what seems an integral facet of the homesteaders’ character, is the
tendency to downplay their actual accomplishments.
One of the things I
hear most from people who have an interest in this lifestyle is, “Well, we
aren’t REAL homesteaders - we live in the city.”
PART ONE - THE URBAN HOMESTEADER
Profile A - Homesteading From The Big Apple
Please state your
name and state of residence: Phill, New York
How long have you
been a homesteader? It’s
complicated. I studied “the life” for two years, but in real life,
we’re part-timers for about a year now. We’re building next summer,
and then we’ll be more serious part-timers. And then in a few years,
we’ll be full-time. For the past year, we’ve been roughing it - no
running water, no electricity (well, we do have a little generator).
Were you born to
the homesteading life, or attain it?
I grew up in a rural Florida town. More just plain “rural” than
homesteaders though. That is, we had well water and we canned food, but we
didn’t have any animals, and we shopped in a grocery store. Predictably, I
moved to a large city as soon as I was able. Several years ago, we visited
the Adirondacks, and fell in love with the area. As the idea of buying “a
little shack” evolved, it became, “Let’s build something small and sensible
where we can have chickens and goats and live simply.” We’re more into
simplicity than anything else.
How many acres is
your current homestead?
Just one measly acre, but we adore every inch of it.
How long have you
been on your current homestead?
One year, part-time.
Do you work off
the farm? And if so, and you don’t mind sharing, what is your outside
employment?
One of us sells crafts and works as a freelance musician; the other
prefers employment in academia. Although we own our place outright
and will be able to live very cheaply when we full-time it, the job
situation probably won’t change much, because we’re already doing what we
like to do.
How much of your
income comes from something farm-related? And what is your goal?
Although we’ll raise a garden and perhaps some chickens for ourselves, we
likely won’t generate income from that.
