To homestead or not to homestead...

Lately, I have been thinking about how Abe and I want to live and how we want Gilbert to grow up. I read a few blogs of bona fide homesteaders like The Elliot Homestead and Black Fox Homestead.

I garden and preserve my own food. I compost. I buy organic when it's actually worth it. I started buying my eggs from a local farmer.  I try to buy local produce. I'm working on being more frugal and eating healthy (by the way, my pre-pregnancy jeans started zipping again last week). A bit further into the spring, I'm planning on getting laying hens.

But am I a homesteader? Should I declare myself a homesteader and join the movement?

To me, homesteading evokes images like this:

(source)

 I find myself humming tunes from mid-century Rogers & Hammerstein musicals.

So why don't I just get over myself and admit it that I'm an aspiring homesteader?

(Abe said that he is on board as long as it involves growing horseradish.  What can I say?  The man is not hard to please.)

I have never been a joiner. To quote Groucho Marx, “I don’t want to belong to any club that would accept me as a member”. I am cautious when declaring myself to part of a group. I research and research. Then I research some more. If I find that I agree with a group's ideas about 80% of the time, but the other 20% really bugs me, I pass. I still haven't picked a political party...

According to my research (I must admit my research mostly involves Google... my inner librarian is crying a little), the modern homesteading movement comes down to valuing self-sufficiency and minimizing waste. The homesteaders value living simply and closer to the land. I have found that the motivations for homesteading are diverse. The reasons range from a desire for something simpler, to a love of fresh food; from a need to be healthier, to a desire to be less dependent on big ag and/or the government, and a desire to be good stewards of the land. The homesteaders are big families and small families. They live in cities and on farms. The degree to which they homestead varies.

With this in mind, I think it is safe to say... I am an aspiring homesteader!!!

I want to live closer to the land. I love fresh food and home-preserved goods. I strive to live simply. I want to pass on a well-preserved planet to my kids.

Now that it's out, I feel better.