Homesteading: Living off the Land

Homesteading is a wonderful word. Upon hearing it, all sorts of things come to mind: the old west, cattle drives, farming, gardens, answering to yourself and only yourself, an honest day's work, a porch with a swing and a beautiful sunset unimpeded by sky scrapers. But is it really so beautiful a lifestyle? Homesteading has long been a dream of the author. To be completely self-sufficient, off the grid, and owing nothing to anybody is a life beyond heaven. To have neighbors who are no closer than two miles away would be even better. But what is it that the author dreams about? How would it be to never have a sick day? Here we will explore what homesteading actually entails and how homesteaders really feel about their job.

According to Wikipedia, "Broadly defined, homesteading is a lifestyle of simple, agrarian self-sufficiency." The definition, at least, sounds very inviting. But when we get past the cover, we find that homesteading is many, many things. Simple is not one of those things.

Land: The first thing that one must do to to consider him or herself a rural homesteader is to own land (there is such a thing as an urban homesteader, and we'll get to that in a minute). It really is up to the reader how much land would be totally necessary, and opinions from "experts" (those who are living the life) vary. Some say that one acre can almost totally sustain four people, and some say that it's more logical to have 30 to 40 acres, using half of it as a wood-lot and using the rest of it for completely sustaining a family, including orchards, ponds, meat, milk, eggs, etcetera. So, we'll go with a starting estimate of about 20 acres (that's somewhere in between the two guesses and it's about the middle range of property that a rural homesteader owns and operates) - which can get expensive, even considering that you do not particularly want a house already on the site.