How to Start a Homestead

Homesteading takes place in cities, towns and the country, and is not an all or nothing endeavor. Modern pioneers are discovering life skills that have been used by homesteaders, right where they live. 

This changed view invites the homesteader to be environmentally aware and is demonstrated by recycling, re-using, repairing, and refusing. Many items can be recycled, things can find a second or even third reusable purpose, items can be repaired instead of replaced and our purchasing power can refuse to buy styrofoam cups and plates that do not break down in the land fill. These are a few examples to ignite that creative side of your homesteading talents.

Today’s homesteader is more conscious of the environment and their impact on it. It is clear using organic food, locally produced eggs, chickens and meat are back to the land thinking. Every step taken fulfills our desire to live more simply.

Paraphrasing a quote I came across says homesteading in today’s world comes from realizing we’ve become disconnected from real food, from nature, and from each other.

With Covid 19 guidelines keeping us further disconnected from each other we need to reclaim relationships through a lifestyle that relies on a deeper connection to the land, the ecosystem.

You can start simply and grow from wherever you are.

REUSE

RECYCLE

REPAIR

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Homesteading Choices

Skills and activities that a homesteading life includes varying degrees of food preservation, using alternative energy sources, gardening, picking fruit or vegetables, keeping chickens for eggs and meat, sewing, raising animals, craftwork, basic agriculture on a small scale, working a piece of land so it can meet your agriculture and husbandry efforts.  With this, you can see it is easy to become a homesteader.

No one I know has the financial resources to dramatically shift their lifestyle and do things all at once, but a steady, progressive attitude will give you the opportunity to learn as you grow and your resources can be allocated in a timely fashion.  You many find you do not like certain aspects of homesteading and instead can support local producers and makers for those things that you would rather not or can not do yourself.

Balcony Garden

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What a Homesteader Looks Like

Homesteading means different things to different people. It has grown beyond clearing vast tracts of land and doing everything with primitive tools to a movement that reflects the practice of becoming more self-reliant.  Modern day homesteaders go beyond the doomsday prepper many envision, nor is it a modern day version of a hippie, a homeschooler, an idealist or other stereotypes that may come to mind.

Anyone from the apartment dweller to owning vast tracts of land do not define a homesteader. Container gardening, edible landscaping, shopping at local farmers markets, cooking meals from scratch, intentional shopping, connecting with nature with something as simple as a walk in the park, all connect us with ideas of homesteading.

At the heart of homesteading there is a shift in our attitude from being a consumer to being a creator.  We shift away from mass produced things to homemade, reconnecting to nature. Whether we produce it ourselves, barter or purchase locally, we support a sustainable world where we find more food security and safer production practices. 

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How Cold is It?

Our official overnight temperature from Environment Canada showed our temperature at -52 degrees Celsius. After – 40 where the Fahrenheit temperature scale intersects with the Celsius temperature scale, it really shouldn’t matter; but for those not familiar with the Celsius scale, the temperature was -61.6 degrees Fahrenheit. The bad thing about this for me is it is not the coldest temperature I have had to endure. After -60 F the outdoor thermometer did not go any lower but our official temperature was -63 F.

When the temperatures are so cold you can see air suspended in the light from the street lamps. Everything crackles and snaps and sound carries for kilometers or miles if you prefer. The weatherman on the news this evening mentioned only 6 more weeks until spring. I somehow don’t believe it. What the calendar says and what the thermometer says do not always align, especially out here on the bald Canadian prairie.

Now with this bit of background, I spend the days going through gardening books and my seed catalogs from which I placed my first order of the year. The pandemic has been a catalyst for many people to try and grow their own food and not to be so dependent of outside suppliers; many types of seeds are already sold out. I will get my nursery stock this year because they ran out last year and could not fulfill my order so I was ‘bumped’ up the list to get it this year. I have had a garden every year of my adult life, before that it was my Mom and my Grandmother’s who had the big gardens. My daughters are following in the footprints of their maternal relatives and garden as well. It was nice to take a ‘green’ break during these ridiculously cold and frosty days.

My granddaughters want me to plant lots of flowers for the bees and butterflies and I am doing just that. I have always liked to mix some flowers among my vegetable seeds for the aesthetic it gives but I hadn’t realized the practical purpose of it before.

It will feel nice to dig in the warm dirt, plant and tend my little piece of heaven and I can almost smell the rich loam as I think about my garden plans for this year.

I like to sneak a bit of statuary into the garden as well, just makes a delightful surprise for the eye when one is ‘checking the crops’ and showing the progress to any visitor who happens to come by for some iced tea and a visit on the veranda. I reciprocate and enjoy seeing their gardens and often pick up tips and hints, just as I hope they do when they visit mine.

Time to put another log on the fire, refill my teacup and look through more of my gardening books.

Stay safe, stay warm, stay hopeful.

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