ADSactly Homesteading - What is homesteading?

in #homesteading6 years ago (edited)

ADSactly Homesteading - What is homesteading?



Most of us have seen the word homesteading trending on the internet but don’t know what it entails and willing to learn and understand it. Even Steemit is not left out as the homesteading tag is trending daily. People think of it as farming, although it is a form of agriculture it does not stop at farming as it crosses all aspect of life.

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Image Source: Pixabay. Credits to cocoparisienne for goats-chickens, used under the CC0 Creative Commons license.

Homesteading originated from the homesteading acts of the United States in 1862 where adult people where awarded land grants to live on for five years before taking full control of the land.

Later, it was associated with Back to the land movement where people migrated from the urban cities to their rural areas to engage in farming activities.

Then what is homesteading?

Foremost, a formal definition from Wikipedia.

Homesteading is a lifestyle of self-sufficiency. It is characterized by subsistence agriculture, home preservation of food, and it may or may not also involve the small-scale production of textiles, clothing, and craftwork for household use or sale.

Then, my interpretations

  • It’s an enjoyable yet time and commitment taking-path to self-sufficiency.
  • It’s a lifestyle, i.e., the whole life of that particular person practicing it.
  • It's a medium to getting the feeling of self-reliance.
  • It is a mindset. It is first a mindset before an act or activity as it builds upon self-sufficiency.
  • It is a crude or basic method of farming as it involves you using what you have to produce what you want.
  • It is producing agricultural products, agricultural related and food products by you for yourself and in some cases for sales.
  • From combining the definition of home and steadings, it is the act of using your dwelling place for farming by constructing a farmhouse and its associated buildings like barns, cattle sheds to achieve self-sufficiency.

Lastly and joining my interpretations together,

It is a life that revolves around anything that involves you using anything to achieve self-sufficiency.

The definition of homesteading differs amidst people but these words (Self-sufficiency and Home) are essential and core to defining homesteading.

Self-sufficiency

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Image Source: bioprepper.

People pressure Day-by-day, the food, power, consumer economy and employment sectors, despite them possessing limited answers and solutions. Self-sufficiency was and is being employed by people as an escape route out of this menace. It is the act of fending for you by yourself.

Yeah people like me who craved for freedom from this faulty system. So I needed an escape route and Homesteading, my love was there to help. This is what homesteading is built upon - SELF-SUFFICIENCY.

Here is what an ancient philosopher, Epicurus said about self-sufficiency

Self-sufficiency is the greatest of all wealth.

Homesteading is a form of subsistence agriculture which main aim is self-sufficiency. People go into homesteading due to several reasons like retirement, unemployment, and experiences with the failure of the food system and food ingredients but it all points to achieving self-sufficiency. Self-sufficiency is the basis of every homesteading activity.

Self-sufficiency is a mindset because it will be revealed in your decisions thus translating into you using what you have to produce what you what and showing forth creativity. It allows you to see things out of nothing. It will be your primary drive during the homesteading life because it should be the primary reason you venture into homesteading.

My desire not to use any of the products or support of the pressurized system yielded great decision and in turn higher production.

So I can smile like the woman below seeing my chickens growing in size and say I am self-sufficient.

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Image Source: Pixabay. Credits to Tyca for field-village, used under the CC0 Creative Commons license.

There are this feeling and joy that comes with what you prepare or produced by yourself (picture above). There is also that sense of self-achievement in creating things by you. Self-sufficiency is the path to all these.

Home

Home is one of the core values of homesteading in the form of closeness/availability to the farm and the love of home (a phrase I coined). Homesteading requires all your time and attention with no or little distraction because you will do most of the work. Entertaining diversion which will be hard to ignore if you farm is not your home will hinder the production and efficiency of your farm.

Your homestead doesn’t have to be a massive expanse of land, a part of your dwelling place can do, e.g., Balcony gardening. All that matter is your availability.

My chicken coop is constructed between the walls supporting the water storage tank in my home. Yeah. So your home is even too big for you not to start homesteading

The value of a home in homesteading is not limited to availability on the farm but also to the warmth and love of home. There is a usual feeling when we are at home compared to when we at our office or markets, the love and warmth are usually there.

There is always a high craving for me to return to mine homestead when I go visit a place. These do not indicate that I am taking things extreme, it just a desires for that comforting place and heaven of love. Oh the love of home, do you mind experiencing it. Moreover, it’s my lifestyle, why can’t I make it extreme.

The love of home comes from people or things around us. Thus your homestead should host family and friends as they will be a source of love and motivation when the path becomes rough and discouraging.

My siblings help me anytime I want to carry out tedious works or activity that requires extra hand which they always enjoy as we get our hands dirty.

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Image Source: thepaleomama.

However, humans should not be the only source of the love of home, your plants and animals are not exempted. On sighting them, there should be a love feeling within you.

For instance, on hearing my turkey call, there is an atmosphere of love I experienced. I was filled with joy on getting home from a visit when my turkeys heard my voice, and all ran towards the gate like they were to welcome me. OOLULULU can you hear them.

It should be noted that homesteading is not all about comfort it requires some essential skills and principles with no exemption of hard work to be successful which will be discussed next time.

Meet my Chickens and Turkeys

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My chickens are an example of the Nigeria Indigenous Breeds or popularly called the Local Breeds. They have a wide range of mixture of colour which makes them beautiful as you can see in the picture which is based on genetics. They are rugged because they adapt to the harsh weather conditions and adverse environmental condition of Nigeria. They are also less susceptible to disease compared to the broiler breeds. I had about 20 broiler chickens then but lost five to diseases despite taking care of them, but these locals hardly fall sick. Their meat is also lean (low fat) and tasty. My turkeys are also local breed thus most of the above features applied to them too.

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I started with three; two hens and one cock which I got from an elderly friend who is also a homesteader. They are on free-range thus they eat all kind of things ranging from food wastes to grasses sometimes etc., although I also give them the industrially prepared layer mash to supplement their slow growth. I don’t have names for them, but I know each one of them due to me being a good homesteader. The two hens engage in intercourse within the house with the male and outside with other free range local chickens. One of the two hens has hatched twice now although she lost some chicks, she has produced five chickens so far with the latest two(chicks)being with her in a locked chicken coop. Although they could be highly prolific, they tend to lose them to the hawks and carelessness. The second hen has hatched once producing three chickens, hoping it will hatch again soon.

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Just recently I got another cock from another homesteader friend making a total of 12 chickens in my homestead. He got a name- Young because he is always at the receiving end of the old male oppression; I settle their fight most times (i.e., herd dominance).

Just like African mothers discipline their elderly kids for beating there younger ones, I had to lock up the senior cock for a while.

My turkeys consist of two males and two females. They mate amidst themselves in the pen as they are not on free-range because they utterly destroyed all the plants in my home the last time they engage in free-range. They also consumed the layer mash of my Isa Brown Layers. Most importantly I love them because they inform me when anyone is at the gate through there lovely vocalizations.

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My turkeys say oolululu

Aren't my poultry birds lovely?

What is homesteading to you?

Start There and Now


Authored by @tormiwah



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I have to admit that I could never live fully self sufficient. However, when Tv shows like Alone, Alaska, Mountain Men, Homestead Rescue, etc., I'm glued to the TV.

Here is a little story from my childhood. I lived in a rural area and had chickens and some farm animals. We never had cages for the chickens as there were no predators in our area. I had a kid fort that my parents built that eventually turned into a chicken nesting area. On this fort, there was a tower. Some of the chickens would go up to the tower and nest even though we had nests built into the base level of the fort. One of my chores was to go collect chicken eggs. To get to the tower, I had to climb a ladder. Well collecting eggs from the tower just got neglected. One day I decided to collect the eggs from the tower which I haven't done in a long time. I took a cardboard box climbed the ladder and collected the eggs. As I went to climb down the ladder, the eggs shifted and bumped against each other and BANG! One of the eggs exploded. Scared me so bad, I almost fell off the ladder. Next came a very intense horrible smell. Luckily, the opening of the box was facing away from me at the time of the explosion and I didn't get sprayed with the egg. Later I found out that what had happened. The egg went bad and got botulism inside and built pressure. The shape of the egg allows it to hold some pretty intense pressure which is why it exploded when it was jostled in the box.

Despite crazy incidences like this, those were great times. I hope you enjoyed and please follow me @socky

Yea defintely
Guess it absorbed moisture and air from the atmosphere
Thus the desire of the bacterias
Eggs do have short lifespan
Happy that you were not sprayed with the smell
Keep steeming

Your suggestion is good , i think same idea with you but just a little , i think the tower not to use and spider steel good to use . sorry my english not good . please correct if i'm wrong . thank you

Had samw experience too the ducks kept nesting everywhere so one day I step on one egg ino the grass it exploded @socky

Very inspirational post. Thanks for sharing this post. In our country this is mainly seen in village. They are self dependents. And doing this kind of job like farming, production etc. And they are benefitted of their work.

First off I want to say beautiful baby you have here in this post! Lovely animals and pictures to go with a nice informative post. I find homesteading to be a interesting way of life. I wish I could try it out for once but I live in area where I could not do that. I am very glad I came across your blog as now I can look around and read all your posts and perhaps learn a thing or two. Keep up the great work and Merry Christmas to you and your family, @adsactly!

Why can't you try it in your area
Are there any rules or what
I hope you are not saying is an urban area because you can also carry it out there - Balcony gardening.
You can just highlight why you think you can't in the comment section.
Can be of help
Thanks for reading

I think even if in urban one can sTill plant and grew them now without much land like hydroponics @ashley @tormiwah

I like chicken

Fried or steemed??lolxxx

Homesteading is really interesting and makes us self efficient. It is very exciting to interact with nature and it is very charming experience. I can see the love and care which you showed to grow your hens.

Yea.
You to can experience the love and care, why not engage in homesteading
Thanks for reading
Merry xmas

Recently i had been to Bloominton IL US. From there when i went for a side seeing to Moraine View State Park, on the way i saw some beautiful villages. I am sure they are "homesteading". I found them doing every thing themselves like you mentioned in the post, forming to dairy. I saw their yards with plowing machines to cattle yards. It was a beautiful site to see. Excepting for some mall purchases they need not go any ware. They grow every thing from eggs, chicken, fist to vestibules. I saw one aged farmer happily running plowing machine with big beer bottle in one hand. His yard, his pleasure. I felt very much envied on the seeing it. They have all including tools and small workshop for the repair of automobiles “- self sufficient –“ in their 150 to 200 acars of land.
Lovely post. Thank you. Just few picks.

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Yes
That's the idea
The joy and peace are contagious.
With your description that's really a significant homestead. And they didn't just start recently
Thanks for sharing with us.
You too could start homesteading and who knows who will take the pictures of your homestead and share with us

Thank you. I wish and hope it...
thank you for the reply and vote. i have been interested to know about Nigeria. i follow you. wish to have regular interactions.

I think it's an old idea being repackaged. Are Amwish homesteading? @nagavolu. It's pesticide free, organic grown are better tasting than commercial feed chicken and it keeps you moving about which is good for health

Thank you for sharing @adsactly , the post worth be reading , i'm interested of this kind of things , personally if you allow my opinion ,my definition of homesteading is like your's and i wish live on farm and do what i love . but for me it seems impossible in the current time (sorry about it) , knowing that i was a homesteader in the past , i had a farm but cuz of my living conditions i can't realy work on it and spent more time ,i explain :

In my country which is "Algeria" , working for a day (let's say 8 hours) gives you just 4$-5$ max,and some jobs are really hard and not enough paid , so i decided to do 2 jobs in one day and sometimes 3 ! ,so i think you agree with me if i say that working day & night will destroy my health ! unfortunately that was the unique way to make some money and build up my farmhome and buy some chickens to start together a beautiful story (:D oolululu my dream lost).

When Finally i achieved some of my desires like Fenced my little garden and make some money after 3 long months ! , it's at this moment when I had some health problems that I wasn't ready for, Two ankle sprains for both my legs! A heart disease,.... and other health problems (I don't have the courage to speack about it so sorry), in short the total, and all the money I had left in medical care .

And that's why I gave up the farm and almost everything. I want to get up but without "money & support from anyone" it is difficult, but at least I do not lose hope for live! I don't give up! , thank you again for sharing this post , trust me that make me feel better & happy .

Take care of your loves (You know what i mean friend :) ) . peace .

Wow that's so discouraging
All will be well
Yea, don't give up. You can try using little things around you to start up again. Perhaps a little garden
So sad to hear about your health. Expect a tip from me.

Yea my loves, they send their greetings and wish you merry xmas

Please be well @educated.leb I really dream growing old in a farm with free roaming animals and not worry them being stolen like in my country

Love this post! Very informative and I respect your value of home and the honesty about the work and reward, the Love. I believe we need the "back to the land" movement to pick up more steam (wink) as our current ways of living are so unsustainable. Being able to work WITH the land, instead of simply taking up space on it (and relying on others to neatly package our needs for us, so we can go out and spend our ever-inflated dollars on the convenience) is truly a path to freedom and an invaluable lesson to teach our children. There IS another way of living, and I'm excited to see the future as cryptos and blockchain tech advances, some of the early steps to taking the power back from the upper tier, allowing individuals more power to create, innovate, and have more time to procreate! As James Altucher (brilliant dude, if you don't know of him check him out, this squirrely little guy is genius: https://jamesaltucher.com/start/ ) says, we're in the midst of a shift, where people are realizing they can't rely on their governments to save them (in fact they often are doing quite the opposite), "safe" jobs are dwindling with the advances in tech, and so we're entering a "choose yourself" economy, and the possibilities are limitless! We NEED to be more self sufficient, to put the work in and invest in ourselves. It's my vision to create a "homestead" in South America and other locales based on permaculture principles, to live in a tree house, and have many animals and children running around to help out. I believe teaching the children of the local communities, that may not have access to great schools and the promise of a job, how to build their own shelter and grow their own food will be both challenging and indescribably rewarding. Self-sufficiency = freedom.
“You are in prison. If you wish to get out of prison, the first thing you must do is realize that you are in prison. If you think you are free, you can't escape.” ― G.I. Gurdjieff

oshadharon ekta post dsn bhai.....khub vlo lglo post ta dekhe.....keep going

One of the great benefits of the steemit community is that it gives us a platform to learn about new and interesting subjects like homesteading. Growing up, I loved the Little House On The Prairie and watched it every day after school. This post reminded me of reading Giants In The Earth when I was a teenager and I am reading The Last Letter Home by Vilhelm Moberg which is the last book in the Emigrant novels. I enthusiastically read your article and photos and recognize that this is an ideal way to produce organic and delicious self sustaining food supply. I will follow you and please follow me @senseicat

Nice post!

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