Carla Emery .. was a 'homesteading icon and paragon of wisdom' ... departed her 'earthly' homestead, in October of 2005.
In Memory of Carla Emery -> http://www.carlaemery.com/
She was a mother, a wife, author, teacher, humanitarian, a 'tireless crusader for the homesteading movement', and far more > http://www.carlaemery.com/about-carla.htm
Her most notable and valued publication, was the book, The Encyclopedia of Country Living .. which is available for purchase in most any retail book stores and on-line. And, don't forget about the wonderful resources at your local library!
There are definitely some differences between the 'Homestead Act', a 'homestead', and 'homesteading' ...
I've provided some web-links below .. that should provide some substantial info and a variety of resources to any folks that may would care to be enlightened about 'homesteading'. Not all of us 'fit' the mold' .. but we can certainly partake of the fundamental ideas and learn how to attempt to pursue, and perhaps reap .. some of the wonderful benefits of the efforts.
Some, like to claim 'homesteading' to be simply an 'attitude'. And, a recent 'trend' is the belief that 'homesteading' is nothing more than leaving the city behind to plan to adapt to a bit more 'rural' lifestyle. I think it's the implementation of a combination of several various factors into ones family lifestyle ... And, some like to tack the word 'commitment' into the scenario.
Hopin' that you may find some benefit .. in takin' a lil gander, for yourself ...
- Magpye
HomeStead.org web-site .. > http://www.homestead.org/
An MSN web-site and 'forum' .. > http://www.homesteadinginfo.com/sitemap.html
Homesteading Today (discussion forum) web site .. > http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/index.php?
The Mother Earth News .. > http://www.motherearthnews.com/forums/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=6
Another .. > http://groups.msn.com/SimplySelfSufficiency/home.msnw
Recipe for Simplicity .. > http://www.gallagherpress.com/pierce/index.htm
Inner Explorations, Simple and Sustainable Living .. > http://www.innerexplorations.com/simpletext/simple.htm
CountrySide magazine ('limited' on-line version) .. > http://www.countrysidemag.com/current.htm
The LAST 'homestead' of the associated 'Homestead ACT of 1862' .. > http://www.nps.gov/home/homesteader.html
This message was edited Jan 25, 2006 9:58 PM
* A 'Homesteading Lifestyle' .. and More *
Thank you for the links.There sure is alot to read.
Thank you Magpye for all the wonderful links. You've certainly saved the rest of us a lot of valuable time in finding all this great info. online.
Thank you, thank you Magpye! I had found a few of these - but it probably would have taken more than a year to come across the rest!!
And more links at some of these sites too. As a kid, I used to love the books by the Nearings and by Euell Gibbons. Decided I better not follow Gibbons' advice on mushrooms though. I heard somewhere that the wrong mushroom stopped more books from coming :( how sad if true.
I recommend Reader's Digest "Back to Basics How to Learn and Enjoy Traditional American Skills" too. Really good synopses on some skills that would come in handy for homesteading; I've read the source books for some of the topics and they really do distill it down to the most important points. I used to find these at the library. Too bad the 70's are gone without society as a whole implementing more of the good ideas like solar power and making/growing things yourself rather than just buying what you can't afford with a credit card. Our library has older books for sale every month and I can pick up really useful books there for very little.
Thanks, you guys ..
Just glad the web-links are welcome, and are 'useful' ...
We'd planned (and followed thru), for the southern roof of our home to be fully exposed to the southern sun. Have long talked of going 'solar' .. but great googly-mooglies; 'solar' is not an inexpensive undertaking, in the least!! Ouchers .. And, certainly is not worth a mortgage. We have our generator to fall back on, when there's an extended electrical outage. Of course, the generator certainly entails further consumption of fossil fuels. But, we're still lookin' to strive and work toward our goals ...
We're just plum tickled that we kept and still use our natural spring for our water supply! Ahh, we've had to haul water on an occasion or two, during the really dry periods (or, we have a bunch of company come in at one time!) ... But, I tell ya .. driving down to the Boxley Valley spring, and fetchin' water in our 250 gal truck bed tank, is truly a treat for us. It's an opportunity to visit with a good many folks, that rely solely on the Boxley Spring for their water at their homes. If memory serves me, the last time we 'had' to go and haul water back here to the house .. was two or three years ago; but it was to give the yard a good waterin' soak ... But, have had to do so, for the veggie garden also on a time or two.
We've also set up a catch barrel for the rain water, under a gutter at the back of the shed - for use on the veggie beds that may be planted out in that area. A lil extra water 'insurance' during dry spells. Also, have a lil 12 volt water pump, that we can hook up to the truck battery .. to enable the use of a 'sprinkler' if we want, when we've had to haul water in.
We're far from self-reliant, but still have a hold on the hopes of getting closer ...
Our daughter out in New Mexico .. currently has her water well pump powered, strictly by solar. She's still contemplating going total solar for her home and horse barns. Especially considering, that to run electrical poles & lines to her place, will cost her a minimum $20K, out of pocket! Yikes - I'd certainly go solar!! Plus, she can actually sell energy back to the utility company also ... At present, she's still undecided.
- Magpye
For several years we had a very integrated farmstead, sort of a homestead I guess you might say. We grew a big garden and stored what we could in various ways to help with the grocery bill during the winter. Since we had acreage we bought young calves, fed them our excess goat milk, then pasture and hay, so we had our own beef. We raised a couple of pigs every year, one for the freezer and one to sell to pay for the feed for both of them. Chickens gave us all the eggs we wanted and some to sell. Fryer chickens were raised for the freezer. The sheep gave us a lamb for the freezer and some to sell every year, and all these critters provided ample amounts of fertilizer for the garden. Kitchen scraps were fed to the pigs and chickens. Everything seemed to benefit from something else we did. I still grow a large garden and freeze or can a lot of produce every year. Potatoes, onions and winter squash get stored in the basement. It really helps with the grocery bill.
If everybody could just do one or two things it would at least be a start. I realize that a large part of our population live in apartments and don't even grow a tomato plant on the patio, but many more have a back yard where they could at least grow a few of their own vegies, maybe have a few chickens, or a few rabbits.
MaryE
Your place sounds like a dream come true.
I don't know how I managed without the produce from my garden. Even before we moved out from town, I at least had a couple of tomatoe plants on the back porch. Noticed this week that the yukky tomatoes at the grocery store were $ 1.98 lb. and the "almost decent" ones were $ 2.98 lb.
It's such a simple thing to plop a tomatoe plant in a pot...... I can't imagine paying that price for tomatoes...................although I have to admit I was tempted..................it's winter and I'm getting pretty hungry for a fresh tomatoe. LOL But not quite that hungry..............yet.
PeggieK, I was talking to somebody just the other day who uses canned tomatoes in her salads. She strains off the juice for soup and puts the chunks in her salad. They definitely taste better than those plastic "fresh" ones. I personally use radishes and red cabbage in my green salads for color and haven't bought a tomato for eons.
I agree about the canned tomatoes. Not quite the same as fresh-from-the-garden, but most of the flavor if not the texture is there. For color I also use shredded carrots, and for flavor variation I like to use sprouts - alfalfa, radish, fenugreek, etc. Sprouting is so easy to do...I call it "instant" gardening.
I also use grated carrots for salad color, I was just thinking red when I typed the above. This morning I found a jar of alfalfa seed and got some sprouts started, haven't done that for a while. They're so easy and so good.
Yummy ideas. I noticed that I have spinach still growing in one of my raised beds. It never seemed to die out this winter.
The canned tomatoes are good for DH, the cooking makes them better for the lycopine that men need. So maybe I will try a few in my salads.
More articles that may be of interest .. (from CountrySide Magazine)
Home heating from the good Earth
> http://www.countrysidemag.com/current.htm#article5
Homestead security equals free-range chickens, a good dog, and Jerusalem artichokes
> http://www.countrysidemag.com/current.htm#article1
What is intensive planting? How does it work?
> http://www.countrysidemag.com/current.htm#article2
Small-scale milking machines
> http://www.countrysidemag.com/current.htm#article3
- Magpye
I didn't know she had died! That makes me sad, I read her book all the time. I've made it my goal to accomplish all the goals she set in the back of her book. She taught me how to raise chickens, make gravy and stuffing from scratch, make soap, make vinegar . . .
I'll just have to redouble my efforts!
Magpye, I think this link also belongs here. It is aboout keeping, cleaning and maintaine wells. springs, spring houses etc and a lot of good stuff regarding water.
Janett
http://www.1stconnect.com/anozira/SiteTops/water/waterFAQ.htm
bump~ just so I can come back and read this when I have more time
Good idea, thank you. There's always somebody new checking in to read these things.
Okay,
Hear I sit and read and just know that I can't read it all at once. great sites to go and visit thank you for the links. Now, could someone take the time and write all this down and send it to me. You see, I do most if not all my DGing via my laptop and while I am on break at work I work the graveyard. That means no printer and little time to browse. I want it all now and know I need to take baby steps, but making a list is hard to keep track of (I have to put the list in my uniform pocket and after a hard days work (law enforcement that is) I usually forget about it. I remember it after I have picked up uniform from the cleaners and start putting stuff back into the pockets. This has happened to me so many times it would take more than all your digits (hands and toes) to count.
Could someone be willing to write down the books at least and I can dmail my homeaddress to send me the list. I can go through and bookmark the internet sites for later viewing.
calvin
Calvin, thank you for your law enforcement service...
I am currently working on putting everything I know/wish I knew/am learning into a website for similar reasons. It's probably going to be winter before I have time to get it into a presentable shape...much of the links around my site don't work, but the links page is working. I will try and add the books/links and such to it for you in the near future. http://www.kmom246.icfsc.com/links.htm
Good luck and many blessings to you and yours.
Thanks Kmom,
I bookmarked your site and it is wonderful.
calvin
Thank you for the kind words. I have a ton more references to add to the links page, and photos from 2005 and even more from 2006 and a huge outline, but only a few articles actually written. I'm trying to add to the references because that is the most useful part for me, but the other stuff is the fun stuff. It gets done in fits and spurts depending on how demanding my little trees are... I suspect it will only get worse as we start acquiring chickens and such next spring!
Hey MayFlwren do you do any crabbing at the Narrows ?
hey, Phicks I wish I had the time! Someday I'll be dangling a chicken wing off the dock for those crabs! I only seem to have crab when I go to Maryland. I haven't had any time to go fishing either :( When you live 60 miles away you somehow get to do the beach thing etc. all the time - when it's close by there isn't any time - I don't know why but that's the way it is. Must have something to do with having to work for a living :( and that of course, is part of the appeal of homesteading - to not have to ask permission to go fishing when the snapper blues are jumping.
I do think that living near the ocean is a good place to do homesteading because you can get fish and shellfish on top of what you grow. And seaweed for the garden. And even in highly populated eastern Massachusetts, plenty of deer to shoot if you hunt. Especially in my garden darn it.
When have you been hanging up here, Phicks?
Am from Hanson ma but ive fished and crabed the narrows for 50 years i was up last summer . ill be up this summer to might move back do you know and of the locals there a guy called Monty? i know a lot of the capeverdess there . Regards Paul
I've met one Monty, haven't seen him for a while, has 2 little boys and his name on his license plate? Might be the wrong Monty. Anyway I think the one I know moved. Paul, give a post or something if you come up! My better half needs crabbing tips :)
Thanks so much for all the wonderful info here! Karen~
(Oh-oh .. This thread, sorta fell by the wayside for a spell.)
You're so very welcome, somermoone !!
If ya find any associated websites yourself - please, don't hesitate to add and share them here, if ya care to.
((huggs))
- Magpye
I have friends that live a lot like that, I go over and there may be jerky they are drying outside and a pig, the kid shot and the daughters are doing something with it`s head. I live rural but not that little house on the prairieish. I think it is neet though.