I would like to say thank you to the website
Construction Management Degree for including us in their list of the 50 best homesteading blogs. You can see the list
here.
I am so flabbergasted that we are being included since I haven't been very diligent in blogging lately. I mentioned the 'press' to Husband and he
harrumphed with a "
We aren't homesteaders why are they mentioning us?"
I guess we envision 'homesteaders' as people who have carved out a little niche in the big woods, built a log cabin and are living off the land (self
sufficient) with no outside influence. But, as I mull over the definition of homesteaders in the era of 2010, I have come to realize that perhaps we are 'modern homesteaders'. This is what we have done:
- Bought acreage
- Cleared the land
- Built our house to be as energy efficient and green as we could afford (and Husband did most of the construction himself)
- Landscaped and put in flower beds
- Built gardens - we have three; for vegetables, berries, and crazy growing things (such as mint, rhubarb, horseradish, lovage etc)
- Built 2 greenhouses
- We eat very healthy (compared to most of the population) and don't purchase preprocessed foods or eat fast food
- We can, pickle and preserve food from the garden
- We have chickens and ducks for eggs (roosters for meat) with extra eggs being sold
- We try to recycle what we can and compost
- I like to try doing different things and learning new skills as I am always afraid of what could happen in the future and want to be able to self sufficient if ever needed
- There are no free rides in our household and the kids pitch in with chores and also learn to do things on their own
- Husband (and now son) hunt
So does that make us homesteaders? I think we still live an affluent lifestyle, but I know our friends and work colleagues don't quite understand our lifestyle as they have no focus on food/gardening, butchering, animals etc. To me, I can't understand that how a person can have no idea about where food comes from, or anything about the natural world. In fact the other day I had a lady ask me what a dandelion was! "Is that the yellow flower that grows on my lawn?" Now that I find frightening!
So what do you think? What is your definition of homesteading?
