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Modern Rustic: Starting a Homestead: A Guide to Buying Property and Moving Toward Self-Sufficiency
In the wake of the great recession the “do-it-yourself” ethic has grown in popularity. At the core of the DIY ethic is the idea that an individual is capable of doing many jobs without the need of a specialist. For some people this is a cost savings measure that helps make ends meet in lean times. For example, why spend 10 dollars at a car wash when you can clean your car at home for free?
For some people this idea is expanded from just a simple way to meet your needs on the cheap. They look out at a grocery store filled with processed foods, genetically modified produce, farm raised fish dripping with antibiotics and meats that have been enhanced with injected fluids from animals that spent their lives pumped full of industrial strength hormones. They see this nightmare and long for a way to defy it.
For some people this itch is scratched by keeping a small garden out back and a deft eye for organically grown produce at the farmer’s market. Still others might take up hunting, fishing or trapping as a hobby. For all of these people, learning new skills and developing new experiences becomes a passion.
There are some, like myself, who find there is a thing in the blood which calls us to forsake the city and seek out a new future for ourselves in the wide open skies of the country. We are enticed to explore a lifestyle made by our own hands. We long to breathe easy in rural life.
This trend of people moving from life in the city to life in the country has recently adopted the term Homesteading. This is a little bit of a misnomer, in that homesteading usually refers to people who have claimed a property under the now defunct Homestead Act. The Homestead Act originally started in 1862 as an extension of Manifest Destiny. It allowed settlers to claim tracts of land to farm as they saw fit. Usually the land was purchased from the public domain for only a tiny sum of money. So long as you lived and worked on the land it was yours. The Homestead Act officially ended in 1976 when property values started their rise towards the ridiculous heights of the real estate bubble.
Now homesteading has come to identify a way of life that combines subsistence farming with other aspects such as hunting and animal husbandry in a way that reduces or removes one’s dependence on the fickle supply systems of the modern world.
This book is about how to transition to the homesteading lifesytle. It is specifically about choosing the right property for your needs including: budget, site location, water needs, power and heating options, waste disposal and staying connected.
If you are ready to begin the homesteading lifestyle or you have questions and doubts about what you might need to get started living off your own land, keep reading.
For some people this idea is expanded from just a simple way to meet your needs on the cheap. They look out at a grocery store filled with processed foods, genetically modified produce, farm raised fish dripping with antibiotics and meats that have been enhanced with injected fluids from animals that spent their lives pumped full of industrial strength hormones. They see this nightmare and long for a way to defy it.
For some people this itch is scratched by keeping a small garden out back and a deft eye for organically grown produce at the farmer’s market. Still others might take up hunting, fishing or trapping as a hobby. For all of these people, learning new skills and developing new experiences becomes a passion.
There are some, like myself, who find there is a thing in the blood which calls us to forsake the city and seek out a new future for ourselves in the wide open skies of the country. We are enticed to explore a lifestyle made by our own hands. We long to breathe easy in rural life.
This trend of people moving from life in the city to life in the country has recently adopted the term Homesteading. This is a little bit of a misnomer, in that homesteading usually refers to people who have claimed a property under the now defunct Homestead Act. The Homestead Act originally started in 1862 as an extension of Manifest Destiny. It allowed settlers to claim tracts of land to farm as they saw fit. Usually the land was purchased from the public domain for only a tiny sum of money. So long as you lived and worked on the land it was yours. The Homestead Act officially ended in 1976 when property values started their rise towards the ridiculous heights of the real estate bubble.
Now homesteading has come to identify a way of life that combines subsistence farming with other aspects such as hunting and animal husbandry in a way that reduces or removes one’s dependence on the fickle supply systems of the modern world.
This book is about how to transition to the homesteading lifesytle. It is specifically about choosing the right property for your needs including: budget, site location, water needs, power and heating options, waste disposal and staying connected.
If you are ready to begin the homesteading lifestyle or you have questions and doubts about what you might need to get started living off your own land, keep reading.
- GenresNonfiction
46 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 11, 2014
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 27, 2014
A decent, basic guide...but a lot is missing. For example, the author never mentions checking the quality of soil on properties, nor how much water flow is needed for a garden.
Displaying 1 of 1 review