Thursday, July 02, 2009

The Start of the Journey

I have decided to pursue the lifestyle of a homesteader. I do not know if I will be successful, but I do know I am going to try. To me, the difference between a house and a homestead is the difference between consumption and production. This thought is not mine originally, but I have heard it from enough sources to have difficulty attributing it to any one person or place. I agree. I want my home to produce it’s own energy, to take care of it’s own waste, to be easily and cheaply repairable, and I want the land that it is on to produce food in the form of plants and livestock, so that my land and home, my homestead, work to produce for me. Too many people think that they have to spend 30-40 years of their life toiling away to pay off debts incurred to be able to afford one of the most basic necessities of life, shelter. Instead, I want to build what I have heard called “sweat equity” by starting from scratch and building my land up into something that provides for me, debt free. By doing so, I will not have to be a wage-slave, toiling away for 8 hours a day to make someone else rich. I harbor no illusions that this venture will not be hard work, but I know that hard work done for my own benefit, or for the benefit of the people I love, is vastly more rewarding and fulfilling. I choose to make this my life's goal and passion. In doing so, I will have many steps to follow. The steps I have outlined for myself so far are these:

  1. Work from now until February or March of 2010 to save as much money as possible.
  2. During that time, apply for an internship with a permaculture homestead in Washington state.
  3. Also during that time, I will practice gardening in order to have more experience growing plants.
  4. If accepted to the internship, I will participate in the internship from early to mid March until late October/early November.
  5. Spend Winter 2010/11 working to save up more money.
  6. During this time, I will be searching for an appropriate piece of land, preferably between 30 and 60 acres in size, on which to build my permaculture homestead.
  7. Have land picked and purchased by spring of 2011 so I can begin planting and building on my permaculture homestead.

2 comments:

  1. Very cool endeavour - best of luck.

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  2. My family is just about to move from a suburban block to an acre and begin a similar journey here in Australia. I'll be following your progress with interest!

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