Nancy Ross - Homesteading

Homesteading

A Beginners Guide To Homesteading

Nancy Ross

T he homestead movement has been around for years and is slowly gaining in popularity. People who are tired of being at the mercy of their local stores in terms of products available and prices are finding that the simplicity and hard work of living in the homestead movement is perfect for them. This is a movement that allows us to go back to our roots, think back to the 1800s when people basically had to fend for themselves for a lot of the things they needed.

The modern homestead movement is a little bit different than what you would find back in the 1800s, but the ideas are still the same. Ideally, you would be able to go out to your own acreage and take care of everything yourself, without having to get food, clothing, water or electricity or anything else from another source. Of course, this is a little bit difficult for a lot of people to accomplish; some dont want to give this much commitment, at least in the beginning, and others may like their current lifestyles and just want to save some money. This is why the definition of homesteading has changed over the course of time to include anyone who is working towards a life of self-sufficiency, even those who arent all the way there yet.

This guidebook is going to provide you with all of the information that you need to understand the homestead lifestyle and what you will need to do in order to get started. Whether you are just looking to give a few of the aspects a try and want to know where to get started or you would like to jump all in and live this lifestyle to the fullest, this guidebook has the information that you need to get started.

The homestead lifestyle has so many benefits that you are going to be able to enjoy. The simplicity of life, the ability to only rely on yourself and your neighbors and even the chance to just sit back and enjoy the more important things in life, such as your family, can make the homesteading lifestyle all worth it. Read through this guidebook and learn all the important things that you need in order to get started, whether big or small, on the homesteading lifestyle.

T he world is full of many amazing technological advances. We are used to hearing all about the latest and greatest that was invented to help make lives easier and to help us interact with other people. We go to the grocery store or a fast food restaurant to get all of our food. We go to the department store to get our clothes or any other household items that we may need. We also have to rely on the utility companies to supply us with our basic energy needs.

All of this may have made life easier, but it has certainly made us dependent on other people and may cost us quite a bit. Many people are getting tired of all this dependency. They dont like that they are forced to pay high prices for items to make a company rich when they could make the same items at home. Out of this frustration came the whole idea of homesteading.

Homesteading is an idea of becoming self-sufficient. It is the realization that you are able to do a lot of these tasks, such as raise your own food, make your own homemade products, and even grow a garden to help you get by. Now, there are varying degrees of homesteading. Some people may choose to grow a few vegetables and raise some chickens in their backyard to create a little bit of self-sufficiency while others will go all the way and never rely on department or grocery stores ever again because they can do all the work on their own.

There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to homesteading. Every little bit is a big step to protecting our earth and helping you to save money. While the term is meant more towards those who go back to the roots of homesteading and can provide everything for themselves, the whole movement realizes that some people may not be able to do this. If you work a full time job and are rarely home, or live in an apartment building, you may not be able to grow all the food that you need, make your clothes, and provide your own energy source. But the idea is to reduce the human impact on the environment and to stop relying on the ups and down of corporate America to provide us with these basic necessities.

T o get a better idea of the homesteading movement, lets take a look at some of the history that comes with homesteading. During the 1800s, homesteading became a popular term thanks to the Homesteading Act of 1862. This act basically provided land grants of up to 160 acres to any adult citizen. You would need to pay a small fee to register and then live on the land for five continuous years. After this time, you were given the deed to this land and could do what you would like with it.

This was mainly to encourage people to go out and start living in the western parts of the country. Those who had never stood a chance of owning their own land would flock out to these areas for practically free land and set up their own farms and families in that area. It was widely popular and allowed many people to own the farms they held for years.

This program technically ended in 1976 thanks to the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, but it started to end in 1935 when President Roosevelt began his conservation programs by using public domain lands. During the years that it was available, more than 783,000 men and women moved out to these areas and made it the five years to keep the land for themselves.

Back to the Land

After the Homestead Act was officially over, the term homesteading began to take a change. It was during the 1970s that this term started to evolve into what it means today. Homesteading is now more of a way to leave the modern conveniences of life behind you and returning to more rural roots. Tens of thousands of young adults as well as those with a bit of adventure in them decided to leave the suburbs and big cities in order to go back out into the country and start to take care of things for themselves. This continued to be a trend for the next thirty years and started to include those who were trying to live self-sufficiently even while living in a city as well as those who were in rural areas.