Homestead mailing list

["Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT dtnspeed.net>]

James wrote quite an insightful piece on the change of mind necessary for
successful homesteading, among other good and useful bits:

<<3)  Know and have clearly in your mind what it would take to pry you loose

from your homestead.  If that point is relatively fixed in your mind,
everything 
else will revolve around it.  If even "dread disease and poverty" would not 
induce you to leave, then the rest of reality will find a way to line up
with your intentions.>>

When Jim and I moved back here from Chicago we were of a mind that we
wouldn't leave until death did us part from the land. James has it right;
once you decide you're staying, regardless, all you ever have to do is
figure out what you need to do to stay. There's no agonizing over whether
you *ought* to give it up.

A few months ago, my 85-year-old mother told me that, if she had to, she
could probably live in an assisted-living facility. Then she sighed and
said, "But what would be the point?" Although she's been handicapped in the
last couple of years by a severe balance problem and has to use a walker so
she doesn't fall down, she still puts out a large garden. 

When I was growing up, we had a garden that fed us year round, and we often
had nothing on the table that we hadn't raised. She doesn't can (at least
not much) these days but she's still producing more of her own food than
most Americans. It's a hard habit to give up.

Marie