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  • From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Go ld -- feel free to ignore
  • Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2008 20:37:59 EST

Ok, the traffic is terrific on this list now not in small part thanks to
Desert Bob who has brought up many of the topics we are now discussing. I
wanted
to respond to a specific post by Lynn, but I can't find it now. It had to do
with Bob's plan(s) about taking his leisure at finding a hermitage on which
to
homestead.

Many of us long time homesteaders were left scratching our heads. Times are
bidding fair to become tight. A good number of us established ourselves on
subsistence homesteads when times were better, we were younger, we had other
resources. Failure of this or that did not spell hunger or want, only
whether we
had to go to the Mart or not. But now homesteading is the very basis of our
economy.

It may be that we lunatic fringe homesteaders one the one handand Bob (and
others) on the other hand are not singing from the same hymnal. There are
two
distinct manifestations of homesteading:

1) Homesteading in earnest where what you do is homestead. It is where you
food comes from and likely as not your fuel and house as well. It is basis
of
an economy.

2) There is homesteading as a hobby. There is substantial income from other
sources and if something is wanted for its asthetic purposes around the
homestead, it is purchased.

Around the corner of the county roads is my neighbor Mr. Homesteder Esquire.
He keeps longhorn cattle because it is unusual to do so. He keeps five
horses which he never uses and has two tractors and a bulldozer for 38 acres
(most
of that very steep). His 'homesteading' is fed by annuities and pensions he
and his wife have as income.

His "homestead" is like the proposal that you can heat your house all winter
using only damp leaves as fuel. And you can! Just fill the iron stove half
full of antracite coal and when the iron is glowing cherry red, dump on some
damp leaves that they will burn. And they'll give off plenty of heat too.
The
system works fine so long as you have that bed of antracite coals to keep it
going.

These two homesteading worlds are vastly different in every way. The one is
an economy to support a household, the other is just a different way to spend
your money.

What leaves me scratching my head is that if one wants to set up a homestead
as a basis of one's economy, delaying for any reason in these times makes the
prospects for success less and less every day.

But if it is a hobby homestead, why be in a hurry? But the thing is, a
homestead requiring a cash flow to keep it going like antracite coal to keep
the
damp leaves burning will fall prey to the same ills that will affect the
person
whether he lives in the city or the country.

So I find that I don't know how to address you as a homesteader. Is it to
be Hardscrabble Bob, or Bob Ford Esq.??


James




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