This is a bit of a departure from my usual writing, but it has come to my attention that it might be necessary.
In the 1960-70s there was a back-to-the-land movement in
our country. Many people decided they’d
had enough with consumerism and urban living conditions, and they moved—sometimes
in groups and sometimes singly—“back to the land” to return to their
roots. The Homestead Act of 1872 granted
land to Americans if they were willing to strike out and build a homestead on
U.S. land, and this continued up until the mid-1970s in the lower forty-eight. This Act enabled many to build their first
homestead.
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| Just a tiny patch of land. |
Unfortunately, homesteading is very hard work, and eking
a living out of the land can be physically and mentally exhausting. Many people were not prepared for the
sacrifices they would have to make. Many
people did not educate themselves enough about what would be required to make
such a move. Many people were not
prepared for the striking contrast between city life and rural life once the
romance of the idea had worn off. And so,
many people failed homesteading and returned to the cities, disenchanted and
downtrodden (and sometimes grateful).
But some people did not fail. Some people succeeded, although they often
had to change and adapt their plans to do so.
People who were flexible and willing to learn new ideas and trash old
ideas were able to successfully create a homestead. It’s because of them that the idea of
homesteading is still alive today, although it’s important to point out that
the 1960-70s were just one instance of the movement known as “homesteading” or “back
to the land.” In fact, all throughout
history, examples can be found of people who had reached their limits with
society and wanted out.
But that was then and this is now. The Homestead Act of 1872 was discontinued in
1976 (1986 in Alaska). You can’t get “free”
land anywhere, although I think we all know that there is no such thing as “free”
anything. Certainly, the homesteaders
who took advantage of the Act found that out for themselves. Yet even today, there are new “homesteads”
popping up everywhere.
So what is a
homestead? That depends. I think the idea has certainly changed over
the years. The original Act granted 160
acres per homestead. That’s a lot of
acreage to take care of, and it’s no wonder that many people failed. It’s also a testament of strength to those
who succeeded. In my opinion a homestead
is both a physical plot and a mental state of being. The two are inseparable in order to succeed
at homesteading.
You see, the land is just one part. It’s the mental mindset that is most
important, and I think that includes a desire for freedom, a love of nature,
the need to disentangle from social constructs, and a fierce independence. The idea of doing it for yourself instead of
having it done (often dismally) for you appeals very much to the person with a
homestead mindset. Those of you who are
independent (and often stubborn) by nature know of what I speak.
A homestead is where you stake your claim. It’s your territory, whether that territory
is physical or mental. A homestead is
where you can be yourself. A homestead
is where every success is due to you
and your hard work, and every failure
also falls squarely on your shoulders and no one else’s. Personal responsibility reigns supreme on the
homestead. There is no one to pass the
buck to because you are it.
This frightens some people and thrills others. If you’re among those who are frightened by
this, you might want to stop reading now if you haven’t already. But if you’re thrilled by this idea, read on.
There is a sense of desperation these days. I can see it in people’s eyes. Not everyone, of course, but a great many
people. There is a feeling of being in a
trap, of having nowhere to go. There is
a sickening idea of being on a hamster’s wheel, running around and around and
around and getting absolutely nowhere but exhausted. For a while, these feelings can be staved off
by “having fun.” Eating out, drinking,
theatres, plays, short vacations, extravagant shopping trips, expensive
jewelry, etc., are some ways that people keep the hamster image out of their
minds. During the day, they’re
fine. Their minds are kept busy, and
they delight in new baubles. But at
night, the hamster comes out and they lay in bed, staring at the ceiling,
seeing the trap but not knowing how to get out.
There is a way back.
It’s a long road and it involves a lot of hard work, but it sure beats
being on the hamster’s wheel, spinning and spinning. This way back is what I call “homesteading.” It doesn’t involve hundreds of thousands of
dollars. It doesn’t involve vast
acreage. The only acreage initially
required is the space between your two ears.
The change comes from within. It starts when you say—and you mean—that you have had enough. Enough of everything. Enough of smog and crime. Enough of cramped living conditions. Enough of bizarre social constructs. Enough of wage slavery. Enough of spinning your wheels and getting
nowhere—whatever it is, you have had enough. And you find out
that when you have had enough, you have had way too much.
But where to start?
You start right where you are. You
don’t wait to see if you win the lottery next Saturday. You start finding out what you can do for
yourself. That’s what a homesteader
really is: Someone who lives life
according to his own terms and on his own turf.
It doesn’t all happen magically, of course, but you start at the
beginning just like every other homesteader in the world. And you don’t give up, because if there’s one
thing that homesteaders are, it’s stubborn. That stubbornness leads to fierce independence, and someday you find
yourself with people who can move mountains if they have to.
Sit down for a moment and find out what it is that you
can do for yourself without anyone’s help.
The chances are (especially if you are young and living in the city),
not very much. So you determine right
then and there to start doing things, no
matter how small, for yourself. You make
your own coffee. You bake your own
bread. You cook your own food. You brew your own wine.
Oh, I can hear it now.
“But someone had to grow and harvest that coffee, that wheat, that food,
those grapes, so what good am I doing here?
How am I changing things?”
Yep. But you didn’t have to pay
someone to bake it for you, cook it for you, or brew it for you—often a most
inferior product to boot—and you saved that money and put it away. No, you didn’t go shopping with it. You put it away so that someday you could buy
an acre or so of land.
You wash your own clothes, and if you have a clothesline
to hang them on outside, great. If not,
you hang them in your house on drying racks you can get up at any department
store. Then you take that money you
would have given to the electric company for running the dryer and you put it
away. You repair your clothes when they
get torn instead of immediately buying new clothes. That means if you don’t know how to sew, you’ll
have to teach yourself. And you’ll shop
in secondhand stores.
“No way! I am
soooo busy! There’s no way I can do any
of that. You’re crazy!” That’s my favorite excuse of all time. “I just can’t do it because I’m busy! My job is exhausting! You just don’t understand! You’re living in a fantasy world!” I like that too.
Wage slavery will keep you living from paycheck to
paycheck for the rest of your life, just squeaking by, not knowing that there
are so many things you can do for yourself, and in doing those things, you don’t
have to pay someone else to do them for you.
Yes, they take time to do, but so does working extra hours to pay for
all the things you could have done for yourself.
“What’s the difference?
If I work lots of hours, I’m exhausted but I pay someone to do all my
menial chores. If I work less hours,
yeah, I can do my own chores but I earn a lot less money. Either way I end up exhausted and with very little
money. Either way it works out the same.”
Oh, but it doesn’t.
If there’s one thing every homesteader knows, it’s the satisfaction of
doing something for yourself, of a job well done. This satisfaction comes from hard work and
learning, and ultimately it builds confidence.
Doing things for yourself makes your confidence soar, and you can’t get
that through working long hours and you can’t buy it, either. It’s something you have to earn, and this “earning”
has nothing to do with money at all.
From there, the homesteader will naturally have an urge
to want to be closer to nature, to grow his own food. Or at least some of it. Did you know that in a fertile 6 x 6 patch of
sunny earth, you can grow five tomato plants?
And if they’re San Marzano tomatoes that you have watered and cared for
very well, did you know that you could get over 100 tomatoes per plant? That’s 500 tomatoes. Yes, I have done this myself countless times—countless—in Maine. You could sell some to the
neighbors. Or you could can them and
have your own sauce all year long.
“But I don’t have a 6 x 6 patch of earth!” You can get a five-gallon plastic bucket and
grow one plant in that. Your yield might
be a little lower, maybe 50 or so tomatoes.
But that’s still a lot of tomatoes, and boy are they ever good.
“I can’t put a plastic bucket outside! There’s no room, and even if there were, the
thugs in the neighborhood would steal it or destroy it!” Can you put it on a fire escape? A rooftop?
“No!” Hmmm….maybe tomatoes are
not for you.
Do you have a few sunny windows in your house or
apartment? Did you know that you can
grow leaf lettuce all year long in inside window boxes? You could grow enough to have a lot of salad. You can also grow basil, cilantro, rosemary, and
other herbs right on your windowsill. “I
can’t have any dirt in my house!” Could
you buy some scallions, cut them off about five inches from the root base,
place the stubs in an old glass, put an inch of water in it, and place it in a
window? Soon new scallions will grow
with no dirt at all. And you can keep
harvesting and growing, harvesting and growing, for several months before you’ll
need a new batch of roots. And you can
also do this with celery, bok choy, basil, romaine lettuce, etc.
“No! I live in a
box car without windows . . .” And on
and on. Do you see where I’m going with
this?
“Okay. I’ll try
it. A little. But I still don’t see how it gets me out of
the rat race. How does that work?” It works step by step. It works by teeny tiny victories that you
might not even notice unless you’re really paying attention. It works by building your confidence ever so
slowly. It works by changing the way you
think. Soon you’ll be wondering if you
really need this or that, if you can improvise with that other thing, if you
can do without, or if there’s a whole other way of doing something that you
hadn’t considered before. You take baby
steps, and before you know it, you’ve gone quite a way—and those steps lead to
plans. Big plans.
Do you know what confidence eventually gives you? It gives you courage, and courage is something
that is so lacking in our society today yet so desperately needed. It gives you courage to try something, and if
you fail, it gives you the strength to go on because eventually you’ll work it
out. It gives you foresight. It gives you planning skills, the ability to
see long-term what you need and what you should do to get it. Confidence gives you the ability to say, “No,
I’m not going to do that. I have another
idea,” and then you go out and do it.
Really, that’s all homesteaders are. They’re people who work and think for
themselves. Some of them go on to quit
their jobs and move to large parcels of land, where they farm and work very
hard for themselves. It’s a difficult
life but a satisfying life. Others move
to the suburbs so they can have a little more nature and let the good earth
produce. But either way, all of them are
determined to do for themselves.
I know several families who live on half an acre or
less. Did you know that on a well-placed
half-acre plot with plenty of drainage and sunshine, you can grow all the vegetables a family will need
for a year? Yes, all. Of course, you’ll have to can, freeze, dry,
and/or ferment your harvest to preserve it, but you can grow all the veggies
you need. You can also have several
chickens that will produce more eggs than you can eat. You can have a few fruit trees for jams,
jellies, and wines. All on half an
acre. It’s doable. It can be done. There are people doing it right now.
Some homesteaders ultimately end up being farmers living
in remote areas, but many live in suburbs or mild versions of the “country.” Many of them keep their jobs or at least one
member in the family does or perhaps they’ll all go to part-time work outside
of the homestead. Are they completely free of “the system”? No, but they’re a hell of a lot happier and
freer than someone stuck in the rat race, and in the end, that’s what
homesteading is all about: Home,
freedom, independence, and happiness.
