Homesteading inspiration? | Page 2 | General Homesteading Discussion | Forums

What is your inspiration and how does that direct you towards Homesteading?

I read both posts so far...really neat both of you!

I guess my main drive is to be free as possible to live my live with as little compromise to my value system as possible. 

I was raised by a back to land family of the late 70's in upstate NY.  Dad built a small 6 sided house with no money.  My brother and I slept in cots by the fire.  Dad farmed Christmas tree's and Maple syrup for most of my childhood.  Mom a teacher.   I have now been gifted that land by my father so I'm looking forward to the next stages and journey in life, farming this perniiall style / contour based /permie-ish.  Also creating a farm for my son to work.

They (parents) attempted homesteading but like lots of back to the landers I've read about the transition was a bit to great.  both from urban-ish area's.  Chickens got eaten.  Gardening in our rocky mountain soil of upstate NY was a challenge.  I really liked the way I was raised.  We would hike for miles in either direction camping in half finished cabins..playing in creeks.  It was a bit boring though with no other kids around and the bus and most trips to town ate up most of our childhood hours. 

I figured out real quick, the best way I figured to live the way I wanted was I needed land.  Bought first house when 20 (10 year note), built another house on spec and kept working on schools computers and networks during this time saving money and gaining idea's to build the best shot I got at this homestead.  Researching mostly building and farming along the way.

some Books of significant value to me were:

my side of the mountain

your money or your life

living homes

you can farm

At this time I was reflecting on how best to structure my life so I didn't need hardly any money.  I tried to figure out what were the problem with the way my parents tried.  They were still a bit dependent on money b/c they liked stuff a bit and we were in the middle of no where so anyplace required gas and a car.  The dollar still had great power in their life.

 This lead me/us looking for a piece of land next to my wife's work (I'm not worried about me b/c I work all over, and not much).  We found a piece of land with 15 acres of STEEP mountain for 45k , Degraded soil..if there was any at all really.  It was all wooded and at the edge of the town/city (15k) my wife worked in and I liked (20 miles from where I grew up).  The land was seriously challenging, and old cow pasture WELL over grown (80-100' tree's covering it ), the old access road in overgrown.  it had been quarried in the 20's? , and later turned into subdivision (70's) but b/c of the steepness (some parts more the 45 degree's) these lots were never sold and over time became owned by the same owner we bought from. 

The assets were it had spring! Was within walking distance to town (under a mile to get groceries...just down the steep hill! South facing!  Large enough lot so sustain our family.  Rocks for building..tree's for building and firewood.  Potential for micro hydro! The steepness also made it so there is no chance of us having neighbors and no chance that are land would be attempted to be wanted by others such as pipeline companies etc.  we also decided to build right in middle of lot.  I'm still crafting this lot and fixing things we inherited like an exsessivly long driveway I've managed to cut in half.   The house is now getting close to done, rasing kids while lving this way was also a challenge ..but that's life...jump all in.

I came to a point where I realized my full time job as stripping all the time I had.  So instead of improve the efficiency of our living or making us less dependet on the dollar there was no way to evolve without ditching the full time job.  cashed out my state retirement and started by own business doing the same thing I was doing by under my own name.  From there as I've needed less cash I've backed off my obligations.  Latley I've figured out the income I need to stay below is 12k beyond that is just giving to the war machine and that is something morally I cannot do any longer.

The freedom I've been searching for we have slowly been obtaining.  My monetary needs can be accomplished by working once or twice a month....acceptable to me.  My wife works 3 days a week we have been eating all healthy foods from CSA's and Farmers markets as well as more conventional outlets.  I always try to buy local and quality being that the world that I want to create!

Not having a car b/c of our location as also greatly sped up the process.  Reading books like early retirement extreme helped there!  Cars cost so much money .. the reg/taxs/fee's ...the tickets you get..fixing of said car.  I can do most things my self but its just a waste of time to me now.  I'll walk with a backpack to get groceries 😀 Living in our currently location on edge of town has made a huge difference there vs. the out in the middle of nowhere romanticized version of homesteading.  If you use gas..you need money. If you don't want to have to make money don't use gas .haaahaa.  I aim to keep tweaking things so life gets cheaper and cheaper and free-rer and free-er!

Another thing that I feel my parents didn't  quite get right was food production.  We never had gardens growing up.  they tried but failed and gave up over time.  .dad was a good builder and built lots of things over his life (he lives in a converted caboose he built right now).  So that for me is the unkown...farming..gardening..dipping into permaculture books and experimenting I feel like we have a chance to take care of this need and instead of giving the next gernation a portfolio of paper assets they will have land with life growing on them!

Not as long as your @kvr ..but I tried lol

I am my own man and will not accept otherwise.  I want to give back to earth and make it more abundant.  To many gerantions now we have taken out the fertility and life of this place we all live on.  I just want to start the slow process of giving back and rebuilding it and enriching...that's what I belive homesteading can do!

I never heard of the education of little tree..that looks really good..thanks for mentioning that! Very little on North East Natives...its always west coast. 

I asked Debbie (wife) to get it for me for christmas ..thanks k