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["Lynn Wigglesworth" <lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com>]

Hi James;

I would love to live the life you decribe, but one can only be a
homesteader of that type if one has no debts (including mortgage). There
is some truth to Frank's suggestion that people have to have money to
'afford' a simple life. My life has taken a serious detour into a
financial ditch. When I divorced, in order to keep the farm, I had to give
the ex half of the equity of the farm in CASH. After years of scrimping to
pay down the mortgage, thanks to increasing property values, his half was
worth almost as much as we paid for the farm. Increasing property value
only hurts a homeowner unless he is selling the property or borrowing
money against it (two things homesteaders loath); I'd have been better off
(tax-wise,too) if the value of my farm plummetted.

Unfortunately, the mortgage company doesn't accept excess produce, so I
have to find something I can convert to cash...I can get a job I'd
probably hate (only minimum wage around here, and I don't want to commute
because I have children and want to be nearby) or I could try to do
something I enjoy more and have more control over...like market gardening.
I tried and it didn't work (no one here is willing to pay even supermarket
prices for local food), but I'm glad I gave it a shot.

Lynn Wigglesworth
Peasant Farmer
Tioga County, PA


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Clansgian AT wmconnect.com>
To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 24, 2007 10:42 AM
Subject: [Homestead] Homesteading as a basis of economy


>
>
> >  I like to write and
> > > read and
> > > have a job, so I don't have the time for homesteading.
>
>
>
> > No common model for all. Yours is as good as anyone's. Many find the
> > old homestead model too limiting, including me.
> >
> >
>
> I suppose there are homesteading models I'd find too limiting too.  I
don't
> consider market gardening as necessarily a homesteading model although
many do.
>  I'd consider it more of a job model.   But going to the farmer's market
once
> saw us begin preparations on Thursday and working quite intensively and
> continually on it until we left for the market very early Saturday
morning.  By
> late Satruday we'd spent 25 to 28 hours, more than half a "work week".
That's 25
> hours for two adults not including the work done by the children.  At
that
> rate we'd have to make over $250 to make minimum wage.  We did a couple
of
> times, but it was rare.  In talking with other large families there, the
most
> experienced and most involved were making about $300 per market day.
>
> That's too limiting for me.  Any produce sold from our gardens now is
from
> people showing up on site and asking for it and even that is incidental.
>
> I have come to view homesteading as an economic model, the basis of a
> personal or family economic system.  I know homesteading is often viewed
as reclusing
> oneself into a cloistered monastary taking vows of poverty and stability
> ('stability' in the monastic sense of agreeing to never leave the place
you
> abide).  But viewed as the basis for an economic system, it's a matter
quite
> different from that.
>
> Everyone is going to eat, live in housing, wear clothes, use fuel for
heating
> and cooking.  The thing to decide is whether these things are going to
> brought about dierectly, a direct use economy, or whether you will work
for cash and
> purchase them.  These are two different economic models.  One is not
better
> than the other, it, as in all things, is a matter of choose one and have
the
> results of one, choose the other and have the results of the other.
>
> The above sentiment, from Lisa I believe, that if one homesteads, one
then
> does not have time for reading and writing ... leaves me as baffled and
confused
> as the statment form a friend once who said she couldn't have a garden
> because she couldn't afford one.
>
> There has been more than one comment, and one recently (don't remember
from
> whom) that asked how some of us can blather to such an extent on this
list if
> we are really homesteading.  Both Denise and I write quite a bit on a
wide
> variety of topics, not just homesteading and self-sufficiency.  We read
on the
> average of two books a week each.  Just finished 'The End of Nature' and
'Deep
> Economy' by Bill McKibben and I'm now reading three of Edith Pargeter's
"Brother
> Cadfael" mysteries that I missed when I read most of the rest years ago.
>
> We have MORE time for reading and writing that we'd have if we provided
with
> a job what now we privide directly, just the same that it costs us LESS
> because we have a garden.
>
> Here just past the solstace the corn and potatoes have been hoed for the
last
> time, pumpkins and squash have been replanted where the crows dug up the
> seeds, and I'm finishing up the shaded seedbeds to growing the fall
brassica.
> It's a month yet before time to plant the fall root crops and the things
that
> need preserved are coming out of the garden at a measured trickle.  All
the
> agrarian and husbanding farmstead tasks can be done in a couple of hours
a day now.
>  Right now four hours a day in the shop just about does it for me both
> personally and economically.
>
> So there is a hiatus where there's no need to rush off to the next task.
The
> year is full of such lulls and hiatus (the plural of hiatus is hiatus).
But
> what if I had a job?  It would be 'drag myself off to it no matter
what', to
> some good end or no, leaving behind a rainy or frozen day, or pristine
summer
> weather.
>
> The homesteading economic basis gives the person MORE time personal and
> professional involvement, not less.  And this is true for two reasons:
>
> 1.  Once our base needs are met through our direct economy, we quit
working
> at it.  This is almost tautological.  If you are frying up the breakfast
eggs
> for the family and you have two eggs for each person fried, you don't
keep
> frying eggs.  When you pour yourself that cup of morning tea and the cup
is
> filled, you don't keep pouring tea.  And yet as obvious as this is, it
is exactly
> how we agree to live our lives in the 'job' world.  If on any given
month, or
> week, or even day you suddenly find that you've earned enough money to
meet your
> needs, you can't just walk away and do other things.  You still have to
go
> back to the job the next day.
>
> Not so with the direct use economy.  When we have cut the wood we need
for
> the winter, we stop cutting wood.  When we plant all the corn we will
want for
> the year, we stop planting corn.  When we have dried and canned all the
pears
> we care for, we quit processing pears.   When the fences are all secure,
we
> quit fencing.  When three's enough cheese for the season, we stop making
cheese.
> (Do you begin to see how that in this system of viewing things, it is so
> important to separate in one's mind and one's view the things done for
direct use
> and the things done for cash, even if on the surface they they may be
one and
> the same.)
>
> So the first way the direct use economy gleans more time than a job
economy
> is that there are times when we are actually done with our work and the
rest of
> the time is our own.  Sure those in a job economy might say ‘but I work
40
> hours (or a lot more if you own the business) and it seems as if you
> homesteaders are working 100 hours a week at your subsistence living’.
Indeed we do,
> sometimes.  But other times we work ten hours a week at it and sometimes
none.
>
> 2)  In a direct use economy effort is applied very efficiently to the
task
> with no time wasted.  The most obvious manifestation of this is
commuting.  For
> that part of the living earned by direct use, the homesteader doesn't
commute,
> doesn't buy special clothes, doesn't eat meals away from his own
kitchen, and
> is on hand to deal with things that would rob great swaths of time were
he
> remote from hearth and home.  In a direct use economy emergencies and
> adversities are averaged out in a way that cannot be done in the 'job'
economy.
>
> So having expended some thought and consideration to the homesteading
direct
> use economy, I have to say that I like to read and write .... I don't
have
> time to not homestead.
>    </HTML>
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