My thoughts on Homesteading

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I’ve been thinking alot lately about my life and how I want to live it.

It’s not a mid-life crisis or anything like that, though sometimes I suppose it a reflecting of aging and thinking about the time that might be left.  More often it’s thoughts about how quickly time seems to be slipping away and some of the things that I always thought I would have time for later on, I haven’t made time for.   And it’s fast approaching  “later on” .   My youngest daughter will be 15 in a week.   And I have a grownup one.. in college.   Wow.  How did that happen?

Well, I suppose everyone faces these thoughts now and then, but it probably hit me hardest when my dad called me up one winter evening a few months ago to tell me that the doctors thought he might have pancreatic cancer and that it was not good.   It really hit me very hard.   Primarily because I haven’t seen my father in over 16 years.   And I always thought that I would do my best to try and get back in touch with him and be more family like, soon… later on…  and now it seemed that I might not have that much time… there might not be “later on”….

I’m very glad to report that “THEY” were wrong and it turned out to be a less agressive form of cancer, still not good, but at least the odds were 70% survival, instead of barely 5%…  he’s going through chemo and we’re talking a lot more, trying to reconnect some, it’s a rough time, but well, it’s what happens in life sometimes.

But I really think that shook me up.  Yes, it really shook me up.  No doubt.  And ever since then, the last few weeks, I’ve been really thinking hard about my life and a lot of the choices I’ve made and even down to my thinking patterns and how I deal with people and how I react.

You might think… well what does this have to do with homesteading…   well, kinda nothing and kinda everything!    I imagine back in the old days when Pa came from from the mill and all and said to Ma, pack up the youngins and the wagon, we’re heading west to homestead in the wilderness…  that there had to be a lot of soulsearching and idea gathering and just sheer panic, excitement and fear. Such a major life change.  Leaving behind all that was familiar and regular, routine and understood.   Perhaps never seeing family ever again…   maybe even death on the route, or loosing a child or a loved one!   My gosh…  and then to risk everything on trying to make a go on 160 acres and a little sod house or rough log cabin…   I can hardly believe the sacrifices and risks involved in such a do or dare proposition.

So when I am faced with paper or plastic at the grocery store, or what sort of organic this or that I need at Whole Foods…   or what little life altering change can I make to save the planet… I think about those first homesteaders.   They didn’t do this to get “green”.   They didn’t do it to “get away from it all”  or to “discover nature” or anything like that.  They were hard working stiffs who wanted a better more satisfying life.  They wanted their own land and to provide for their families as best they could.   They wanted the freedom to do as they wished, yet not to be the kookiest bunch on the block… they wanted their own little American dream.

So, here I stand at this point in my life.   I can’t very well throw the kids in the van and drop everything to go and live in the deep wilds of Alaska…  or like in the middle of nowhere in North Dakota or something, off the grid and all.   I suppose I could… but it’s really not practical these days.   Well, not for a chubby old woman and two grown girl children…  and some cats and ferrets and an old dog.  But I don’t have to make such a drastic change to feel the spirit of homesteading.   I can start to take back some of my life.   Get rid of the fast food and the whole mentality that everything has to be microwavable.   I can get rid of the idea that you need every single new gadget and service like cable and this phone thing and that electronic deal and this new streaming whatever.  I can ditch the plastic bags at the store, I can grow some of my own food and I can slow down and enjoy life more.   This working all the time, never just enjoying the moment stuff is getting too old.   It’s making everything fun and redemptive and enjoyable fall into that dread “later on” period of life that doesn’t seem to ever be here.

I want to teach my daughters how to sew.  Sew a quilt, sew a shirt, or a pair of PJ pants… or maybe just a stuffed toy or whatever. I want to grow a HUGE garden and not just a few tomatoes in a pot.   I want to grow a patch of wheat and then harvest and thresh it and shake off the chaft and grind it into flour and make a loaf of bread just to say I did it.  I want to live simple and fully.  With good friends, music, and time to read a book in the hammock in the sunshine of summer.  Learn to make pasta by hand.  Give homemade jelly and maybe even a bottle of wine a chance.   I want to go camping and walking around in the woods.   I want chickens and sheep.  (Not cattle or goats really, nothing I got to milk twice a day! I have come to that conclusion… I’m not even really a bit milk drinker or cheese eater… so… that is one thing I’ve decided is not for me…)  And of course, I want a pony.  (haha)  Doesn’t every little girl want a pony?

Well, some might say, yeah, well, that’s all good and dandy but what about this or that…   You need a decent car, you need better medical coverage, you need a retirement fund, you need…..   gosh the list goes on and on.

No, I think I need some dirt on my hands, and I think I need to spend some time with my girls before they totally grow up and start their own lives and families and all that.  I think I need to cook more stuff that just tastes great.  Homemade pies and whatever suits us.   And I think it’s time to live more deliberately, more economically, more simple.

That’s what homesteading means to me…   taking a chance and trying to make it on your own with some help, but mostly by the sweat of your brow and your own hand, taking care of your own backyard.   Your own 160 acres… even if it’s only in your dreams.   That’s what I want to do… that’s my focus in this life of mine…  Later On is NOW.   No more waiting and wondering and thinking and wishing…  it’s now.  Who knows if we will have a “later on”…  not everyone gets that time you know…   I don’t want to risk it.   I’m going to have a good time with my garden and my lack of cable and a dishwasher and all that.  I’m going to make due with what I have and I’m going to enjoy life…   I hope you will too….

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Maggie is Creating Today

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Maggie has been given the old bread machine and has already taken it apart for parts and such.   It was such a hoot to see her telling me all about the various parts inside and that is was very much like a washing machine, with a motor and a belt and all that.  She knew where the speaker was and the leds and the brain of the thing and the motors and all that.  Her dad is an electrician and they have been taking dead things apart and salvaging bits and pieces for some evil end.dsc03415_m

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