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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 23:49:51 EST



> > If I am right in thinking that you consider yourself a real homesteader
> and therefore have no outside sorce of income but get all your living from
> your farm, my hats off to you.

No, no, no, William. Let me be quick to disclaim that. Although you might
not find the actual modus operendi of this homestead quite so admirable, you
surely will find it more interesting still.

This homestead operates on the 'Dinarius Principle' (I made that up, don't
Google it!) When Jesus was asked whether it was lawful to pay tribute, he
asked
to see a penny (a dinarius, a day's wages). He asked whose image and
superscription was on the coin and they asnwered "Caesar's". So he said,
"Render
unto Caesar the thing's that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are
God's."

This homestead is self sufficient. If we closed and locked the gates we
could endure twenty years with no outside contact. Sure, our jeans and
Carharts
would be a bit thread bare and the stash of wire and nails might be a bit
thin
by then, but we'ds till survive.

This farmstead is a complex symbiosis of activity. We do not use routinely
use outside fuel, fertilizer, seeds, food, feed, etc.

It is the BASIS of our economy.

Alas, and double alas, we live in Caesar's world. We must per force render
unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's. To that end we have cottage
industries. I am a luthier and wood worker. Some people, instead of such an
activity, try their hand at farming. More power to them, but the farming is
something
that takes the place of my woodworking and is not an extension of
homesteading economy itself.

The paradigm is this. We grow things to eat. If there is surplus, that
feeds the animals. If there is surplus beyond that, we sometimes sell it.
But it
is always incidental.

If I want a computer, digital camera, more than utilitarian pair of boots, a
DVD, a pound of tea; I bestir myself to deal in Caesar's world until I have
the dinari enough to buy Caesar's goods.

If Caesar's world, or my ability to participate in it, were to collapse,
well, we'd continue on unabated with our homested fare and bedecked in our
homestead costume (had from the Salavation Army store usually) and singing
our
homestead tunes to amuse ourselves.

But if I were to try to pay the taxes or buy a bottle of sake with money had
from an extension of my direct use economy ... why .... I'd be a farmer in
the
agribusiness sense. I'm not. I suck at that. So instead I render unto
Caesar the things that are Caesar's .... and unto Nature the things that are
Hers.






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