Homestead mailing list

[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Clansgian AT wmconnect.com wrote:

> I have done this too, and indeed worn it like a virtue.  But the
> question posed itself some time back whether this was what the
> homestead life was all about.  (What if the Hokey-Pokey IS what it's
> all about!)  Is the destiny laid on all us homesteaders that we spend
> our days chasing about madly with 100 things to do but only time and
> resources to do 20 of them at best, always behind, always exhausted,
> our plans and aspirations always partly realized?

I think so.  Way back when I lived in the city/suburbia and worked a
paying job, back when I started to become disillusioned with my life as
it were, I began to take a hard look at the rest of my life and
determine what I wanted to do with it.  I wanted to be busy.  I wanted
to constantly learn new things, to learn "old" things, to spend my time
doing something worthwhile, that would feed our family, even when we
could not afford to go to the store.  I wanted to get back to basics and
learn survival skills, and to be able to pass those skills and values
down to my children.  I felt that time was short, and that I needed to
learn and teach the skills that I could because while I may never NEED
them, I feel certain that my kids will.  In making and researching that
decision, I came across this group and it did not take long for me to
realize that homesteading = work...lots and lots of work...lots and lots
of plans and partially completed projects.  At first, I thought, man,
would I ever be finished with anything??? But then I realized that the
work itself is what life is about.  You keep on going, day in and day
out, and it is that that keeps you young in mind and body.  In the
process, you get to enjoy a quiet snowfall, a summer breeze, a leaf
rain,or a cleansing shower.  You get to enjoy goat kids, piglets, that
first tomato, or that feeling of dirt under your fingernails.  Of
course, too, there are the pulled muscles, the blisters, the heat
rashes, and the splinters.  (Am I the only one who gets at least one
splinter a week?<g>)  You can chase the setting sun on a horse, an ATV,
or on foot, through hill and dale, in all kinds of weather.  You won't
ever catch it, but you will enjoy the chase a lot more than if you lived
like 95% of Americans. I hear so often tales of people who retire from
their jobs and then die the following year. I can't help but feel that
they needed to work, and that symbolically or not, there was a mental
change that happened when the work was done...that they prepared to die.
When you get it all done, there is nothing else to live for...I hope to
never be done.  When I die, I hope to be in my garden on a sunny day
working on some project or another.

Bev, wishing all a Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays
--
Bevanron of EarthNSky Farm   Sleep well tonight, for somewhere in the
ocean's depths, MY son is protecting YOUR freedom.