How to Start Your Own Farm or Homestead: Setting Priorities | General Homesteading Discussion | Forums

A nice excerpt from this book

If you've ever thought about pursuing a self-sufficient lifestyle on your own rural homestead or survival retreat but feared you didn't have the money or skills to do it, Steven D. Gregersen offers advice for it all in Creating the Low-Budget Homestead. In this excerpt, Gregersen discusses how to start your own farm or homestead, and one of the first things to consider before getting started — the wants-versus-needs aspect of a rural, off-the-grid lifestyle.

Setting Priorities

I read an article this morning that debated whether or not the “modern woman” can “have it all,” possessing a highly paid, professional career, enjoying a fulfilling marriage, and being the perfect mother to her children. One of those commenting below the story pointed out that everyone featured on the program had at least one failed marriage, and many didn’t have children. Those who did have children had nannies to care for them. The only thing they had in common was that they had all risen to the top in their chosen careers.

Trying to have it all is one of the main reasons I’ve seen people fail at their attempts to live the low-budget homestead lifestyle. Everything has a price, and the wise person knows this. Satisfaction and success cannot be measured by the accumulation of possessions, wealth, or fame but must instead be sought through things like family, security, contentment, and a sense of fulfillment. Living like we do requires a completely different philosophy of life.

Comfort versus Convenience

I had a friend tell me once that he couldn’t live like we do. I was really puzzled by that, so I asked him what was so hard about the way we lived? He looked me right in the eye and said, “That’s exactly what I’m talking about.” I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about! On another occasion, I talked to someone else who said something about how many things we gave up to live the way we do. I was puzzled by that one too! Then I put those two comments together. What I believe both people were referring to was the issue of comfort vs. convenience.

The dictionary defines comfort as “a condition of ease or well-being; a feeling of being relaxed, cozy, contented.” It defines convenience as “something that increases comfort or makes work less difficult.” Synonyms include expediency, ease, and handiness. Which got me pondering the question: Do laborsaving devices make life more comfortable?

Example one: You are a wife in 1955. In the kitchen you have a refrigerator, gas or electric range, and an electric mixer. The utility room contains a wringer washer, you hang your clothes on a clothesline, you iron your husband’s shirts and jeans and your dresses, and you have a Hoover vacuum cleaner. In the living room you have one telephone, one black-and-white television with an antenna (no cable), and 13 channels to choose from. In the morning you fix a hearty breakfast and send your husband off to work and two of your four children off to school with sack lunches. You still have two pre school kids at home to care for. After school, your children are greeted at the door by the smell of home-baked cookies. They grab a couple on their way to the backyard to play. Your husband gets home an hour later, and you all sit down to a home-cooked meal and relax in the evening watching I Love Lucy, The Jackie Gleason Show, and You Bet Your Life on TV, or maybe you read a book or magazine while the kids play in their room. In your bedroom you have a bed, closet, dresser with mirror, and a radio. You have one car that your husband drives to work, and you all share one bathroom. The dog sleeps outside in his own house (which the husband shares with the dog on occasions). There is no automatic dishwasher, microwave, permanent-press clothes, computer, or video games, and you have no “outside” job.

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