Homesteading

[MrPopo]

I'd love to get solar panels and go off grid one day. I would also like to get better about growing my own vegetables.

Going off the grid means no internet.

[samsonlonghair]

Yep, the internet is inherently interconnected, hence "on the grid". Good point, Popo. That doesn't mean that we should stop trying to consume less and produce more.

For instance, we could consume less electricity and produce more. I live in a fairly high elevation in the Appalachian mountains. At three thousand feet the wind seems to be constantly blowing. A few people in my neck of the woods have their own windmills to generate electricity. I asked one of the farmers in my area if his windmill means he is off the grid. He replied, "nope, the grid pays me money when I generate excess electricity." I think that's pretty neat. I'm not so sure that the ten dollars he gets back from the electric company offsets the initial cost of buying his windmill. I still think it's pretty neat though.

There's also a local movement to grow heirloom vegetables. I think this one is beyond me for now. I can't even get the monsanto super seeds to grow properly. I'm pretty terrible with vegetables, but I'll try again this year. For the moment, I'm just glad that local farm families are keeping heirloom seed cultivation going.

Another dream is building my own home. I don't actually know the first thing about wood working, so I'm woefully ill prepared for this, but maybe in five or ten years I'll be able to get started.

I limit myself to not building/repairing two things:
1. My daily driving car.
2. The structure of my house.
Ill work on tractors or my fire engine, no big deal. But the daily driver is what pays the bills. The house is where I sleep and store my things, so I dont want to screw it up. I have no issue adding onto a house, or building a barn or shed, but the core of my house will be built by a 3rd party.

Funny you should mention the daily driver. This year I started fixing my own car for the first time (beyond basic things like oil changes). I fixed an oil leak by replacing the valve cover gaskets. I replaced the tensioner pulley, the idler pulley, and the serpentine belt. I tightened the emergency brake. Tomorrow I plan on replacing my cracked tail light cover. In the next few weeks I'm going to take care of an errant oxygen sensor and then fix my car stereo.

This time last year I had no clue how to do any of this stuff. I just get my info online. I wish I had learned sooner. I only own one car, so it is by definition my daily driver. I can't really afford to pay someone else to fix my car, so necessity dictates that I must fix whatever needs fixing.

I do like your floodplain house concept though. No reason to be in the plain when you can be above it. My only worry would be that the garage usually becomes seasonal storage or a workshop for most people. If you had that house, would that be an issue if it floods?

True. Another solution would be to build up an earthen terrace or simply an elevated foundation. Then I can build my house on top of that. I've seen a few riverside houses that are build on top of tall foundations or on stilts. I could build a house on stilts, but then what do I do with that extra space under the house? I suppose I could build a patio under the house. A brick patio is fairly flood resistant.

I think a garage or workshop would be a good use of that space. It's still true that everything on ground level in the valleys is subject to flooding. Right now, both storage space and living space are built on (or near) the ground level. I'd consider it an improvement if only the storage space where on the bottom and the living space where on top. Garages are going to be built on (or near) the ground level anyway, right? I suppose you could build a cement or earthen ramp to drive your car upon in case the floodwaters threaten your vehicle.

[J T]

I'd love to get solar panels and go off grid one day. I would also like to get better about growing my own vegetables.

Going off the grid means no internet.

Ok, well, maybe a little line into the grid.

[dsheinem]

Isn't a few steps in the right direction each year towards a more sustainable lifestyle a fair amount of progress? I doubt in this day and age we can go entirely off the grid, but we can probably reign in some of own consumption bit by bit.

Yeah, sorry, the term is still nebulous and pretty pointless to me. I mean samson just made a claim that learning to fix some things in his own car is part of a move towards homesteading...I think?

So, basically:

Continuing to learn to do new things for yourself = homesteading?

with bonus points if it also helps the environment?


So (of course) I did a bit of digging around after reading some of these replies. This article, while not entirely on point, seems to nicely make at least some points that I've been hitting around: http://bitchmagazine.org/article/co-opting-the-coop.

But for large portions of the poor and immigrant classes, homesteading skills are still survival skills. Can you really have a rebirth of something that never actually died out in the first place?

she is talking about, for example, homesteaders that have become the face of the "movement":

The Dervaes family, the entrepreneurs behind the Urban Homestead project, is a good example of this. The family has spent 10 years turning an urban lot, a 15-minute drive from downtown Pasadena, into a sustainable farm. They call their family-run organization the Path to Freedom. At their website, you can follow their "10 Elements of Urban Homesteading" checklist or download their press kit. You'll also find instructions not to use the term "urban homesteading" unless referring specifically to them or their products. In 2011, cease-and-desist letters were sent to bloggers who used the term to encompass the general phenomenon of homesteading in the city. It's a far cry from no. 10 on their checklist, "Be a good neighbor."

Their project is a form of capitalistic homesteading—the Dervaeses sell shirts, hats, seeds, and even a short film at their online store—but it's also about branding. The family provides consulting and workshops based on their own experiences. They have positioned themselves as the face of urban homesteading. That doesn't make them bad people, but it does erase the people who have been practicing these skills for much longer and with much more need.

Homesteading in this vein makes doing "self-sustaining" into doing something "cool." The analogue I was alluding to with the "hipster culture" dig is that this kind of co-option of historic survival requirements for those who live in poorer, rural areas as a kind of path to cultural capital by those who don't actually need to utilize them is a long held mark of hipsterdom (e.g. thrift store clothes, using older media technologies, ramen recipe books, retro gaming, etc.).

Anyway, the article and its comments are full of disagreement and back and forth debate on this topic and I think it would be of some interest to folks here. I won't say I completely agree with the author at all points, but some of them are relevant to this thread.

All of that isn't to disparage fast or any of you for trying to do things that make your life better, easier, more in touch with nature, better for the environment, etc. But the joke I made earlier about "Well, I have a garden and an old house in the country. Am I a homesteader?" is meant to illustrate that what is being referred to as an environmental movement or a journey towards bettering oneself is really just a common, everyday experience for significant portions of the world's population. It's just called "life" and doesn't really carry the kind of cultural capital associated with the revival of the term in the 21st Century.

[TSTR]

if ur not Amish ur doing it wrong

[samsonlonghair]

That's okay. Be jaded. Ignore everything I said about producing electricity too. I'm going to keep learning to do more and more things for myself. If you think we're having this discussion just because we're a bunch of hipsters who like to act cool in search of cultural capital, then you can keep on thinking that. I have no need to impress you.

Also, forget that no one here is trying to assert that homesteading is a new idea. Forget that the word "homestead" entered the American vernacular in the 1860s. Forget that the desire to live a simpler life closer to the land has been a mainstay of American thought since the time of Henry David Thoreau. Forget that rugged individualism has been a defining character of the American male psyche since long before Hoover coined the phrase.

Just keep right on asserting that we're simple pawns caught up in "the movement". We also play retro video games just to impress our hipster friends with how ironic we are when we go to our caviar and bukkake soirees. It couldn't possibly be the case that I play retro video games because those are the only ones I can afford. Likewise, it couldn't possibly be true that I'm trying to raise / grow my own food in order to get myself off of food stamps.

In the meantime, I'm going to be making plans for my vegetables and livestock this spring. Enjoy your century-old house. I'll be dreaming of owning land and building a house thereon. You just keep right on dismissing the topic by posting links to reputable journals of opinion such as bitch magazine. I'm busy trying to dig myself out of poverty here, thanks.

[samsonlonghair]

Back on topic, What vegetables do you think are well-suited for raised beds? I'm thinking about building my first raised bed this spring... if I can even get my seeds to germinate in the first place.

[dsheinem]

screed

you missed the part where I said:

All of that isn't to disparage fast or any of you for trying to do things that make your life better, easier, more in touch with nature, better for the environment, etc.

So please don't take it so personally. My point is that there's a lot done under the banner of "homesteading" that is fairly ignorant of the history of the term and IS done as a hipster-like practice. There's also the fact that not all efforts towards self-sufficiency should be classified as homesteading, a term with a specific historic connections (which you astutely pointed to, of course).

And there's nothing wrong with Bitch magazine.

[Opa Opa]

Back on topic, What vegetables do you think are well-suited for raised beds? I'm thinking about building my first raised bed this spring... if I can even get my seeds to germinate in the first place.

What's the advantage of a raised bed vs the regular ground level? I've never made one but from what I understand a raised bed dries out faster.

[Blu]

Oh, I don't disagree with some of your points. But a lot of my relatives live in the rural UP and grow a variety of veggies they eat year round, and trade or give to others any excess they don't need. It isn't hipster at all, but more of a way of life that is common.

But for large portions of the poor and immigrant classes, homesteading skills are still survival skills. Can you really have a rebirth of something that never actually died out in the first place?

I think this is spot on. But, the truth is though, if you look at urban centers where fresh, unprocessed food comes at a premium, that you see a smattering of urban gardens. Detroit is a great example of the amount of processed food. There's tons of community gardens now--I mean, there's so much razing of older buildings that arable land is newly available. The exception would be the Packard Plant, nothing ever could be done with that land, if it was ever razed. Anywho, some of this is being commercialized, but a lot of it is used by the community working towards sustainable agriculture and having some new alternatives than what is currently being offered at a higher cost.

For me, homesteading would be a way for me to eliminate some of my other living costs so that I could make a better effort towards my family's future and our retirement. Cutting down on the money I spend on food, energy, transport, are all things that will help with this. Especially with the way I see consumerism and consumption plague a lot of this campus with no regard the environment or the repercussions of their choices, it has me wanting to live a simpler life closer to the land. I want to make venison and chicken virtually the only meats we eat, rather than beef.

So yes, homesteading has a variety of meanings, and of course hipsters will attach themselves to the hip with the idea. For me, I just want to make less of an impact on the planet we will continue to have to live on, and make it cheaper to live. The sharing of ideas and new practices like this thread are quite utilitarian.

Samson: from what I've heard, the windmills help quickly turn a profit, and offset their initial costs. They're quite plentiful in the UP, since there's plenty of wind that rises off of the lake, and the lands in the eastern part are vastly plains, and the west, mountains. It's a great idea, if you're okay with the aesthetics, since you're in a beautifully scenic area. Even for larger turbine farms, there's relatively little health impacts.