Are we Homesteaders?

I remember years ago, while browsing blogs online, I came across a post about homesteading. This caught my attention. “Did the government reopen the Homesteading Act?” I wondered. I started reading and researching and, to be honest, I was a bit disappointed. I was hoping to find something new and exciting, but what I found was, these homesteaders lived similar lives to ours.  They were doing many of the same things we were did. They gardened, raised chickens, baked bread, and so on. This made me question,  “Are we homesteaders?” 

Country, when country wasn’t cool

If you’ve read my about page, you know that my husband and I were raised in the country. We grew up with gardens and animals, and with mommas who stayed home to raise kids and keep house. This has always been the norm for us. I joke with my husband and say he was raised in 1850. (he’s 46). His family lived deep in the woods in an old homeplace that had been in their family for over 100 years. They ran pigs in the woods, like in Old Yeller, and rounded them up annually for hog butchering day. They grew most of their own food, kept cows and chickens and I don’t believe my husband ever had store bought milk until he went to college. The women canned the harvest and prepared home-cooked meals. The boys spent their summers baling hay and hauled logs out of the woods to split for firewood during the cooler months. His family home was frozen in time. 

Although I was born on the outskirts of Houston, I grew up running barefoot down dirt roads. We went back to our roots and lived a quiet country life. Not quite as historically as my husband, but definitely a traditional rural lifestyle. We two country bumpkins grew up, got married, and continued to live the lives we knew, raising our children with dirt between their toes.

Are we homesteaders? 

There was a time when living a rural lifestyle wasn’t popular, but there is great value in it and it’s good to see people returning to the land. I remember a time, as a young mom and homemaker, when I felt very alone. People thought I was odd for using a clothesline or making my own biscuits and butter. Some thought we were crazy for homeschooling our children or not allowing them some of the modern conveniences many kids had at the time. We wanted more for our family, or we wanted less because, in many cases, less is more. So, we turned off the TV, pushed open the windows, gathered eggs, picked berries, made soap, milked goats and sat at the table to eat home-grown, home-cooked meals. Are we homesteaders? Maybe. Some would probably say so. We just see ourselves as regular country people.

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