Can you interpret the signs of the times?
What signs, you might ask? What am I supposed to be looking for?
1. Empty or poorly stocked grocery shelves
2. Food chain problems
3. Food processing plants burning down
4. Radio ads predicting major food shortages
5. Another year of low crop yields
6. Fewer market animals in feedlots
7. Drought and floods in our farmland
8. Predictions of worse supply chain problems
9. War and rumors of wars
10. Runaway inflation
Any one of these signs should be a warning bell that you need to be preparing. A question most frequently asked is: Is it too late to start homesteading?
No.
It is better to start late than never at all.
How and Where do you start?
If you are like most people, you will be turning to the internet for information. Be aware – you will have a real shock and perhaps become paralyzed by the amount of information that will come rushing your way. You can easily become overwhelmed and give up before you even start.
Take heart! The majority of things on the net aren’t necessarily true or they aren’t relevant to your situation.
For example, canning information….you will find contradictory, and dangerous, information about something as basic as meat canning. Some folks say you can water-bath meat (which isn’t safe) if you do it for 3 hours straight. (That has been shown to be dangerous because the meat doesn’t reach high enough temperatures to kill all the organisms you need to kill, no matter how long you water-bath the jars.) You must pressure can meat to get it to 240°F to make it safe for storage.
There are many canning books on the market and available at second hand stores.
Ball's Blue Book Guide to Home Preserving, the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, and anything by the University of Georgia will have the safest and more updated way to preserve your harvest.
So where and how do I learn the skills I need to know?
Remember that getting started is similar to a small child starting Kindergarten. The child learns simple things first – their names, colors, numbers, letters and sounds. The teacher doesn’t teach them chemistry, algebra, and economics.
To get started homesteading, a person needs to be honest about what they know and can do. To try to bluff your way through will cost time, energy, money, and perhaps, your health.
How to start?
1. Inventory your present knowledge and skills. Be honest about what your skill sets are. Just because you saw someone do something when you were a kid doesn’t mean you can do it now. An example of a useful homesteading skill is pouring and finishing concrete. Watching a crew do this is much different from actually doing the work.
Pouring and finishing cement is a skill that all homesteaders should have.
Offer to be a helper when the opportunity presents itself.
Pick up tips and learn everything you can from other do-it-yourselfers and professionals.
2. Inventory your resources – this includes:
a. Time
b. Labor
c. Land
d. Materials
e. Money
3. Be realistic about what you want to accomplish the first year. Make a plan with a schedule to start and complete your project. An example would be planting your first garden.
4. Research where to locate good useful information and skills:
a. Read – books, homesteading magazines, internet sites
b. Identify agencies and organizations
i. Cooperative Extension – free or low cost
ii. Soil and Water District – free or low cost
iii. Division of Forestry – usually free
iv. Division of Wildlife – usually free
v. Join local organizations
1. Beekeepers clubs
2. Livestock producers
3. Garden clubs
4. Fruit and berry growers
vi. Join homesteading groups
5. Attend homesteading field days, workshops, and training programs.
a. This Winter and Spring there have been field days and workshops for free and low cost in eastern Ohio covering such topics as:
i. Maple syrup production
ii. Beekeeping
iii. Hog butchering
iv. Planning a garden
v. Developing wildlife habitat
vi. Forestry management
vii. Getting started in canning food
viii. Chainsaw safety
ix. How to select an electric chain saw
Attending homestead field days is a great way to meet like-minded people, learn skills,
see what new tech is out there, and get inspired to try new things.
6. Meet and visit other homesteaders
a. Many homesteaders are willing to provide information and help you get started
7. Visit older family members or senior homesteaders and see what they have been doing for years.
Polly and I recently visited a 60-something guy. He showed us his recently built smoke house and underground cold food storage room. We took notes.
Developing a partial or completely self-sufficient homestead is a long journey. Each year Polly and I add at least one major resource to our homestead equipment inventory. We have purchased a Berkey water purification system, a solar generator, a steam juicer, a chicken plucker, a portable chicken house, and so forth. Some items were new, some used, and some we constructed ourselves. We also attend field days and workshops to hear new speakers, network with others and review new homesteading products and ideas.
Modern homesteading isn’t a new idea, however… it was being done in small areas of the country since the 1960’s, but gathered a lot of traction in the late 1980’s.
We have always been interested in the modern homesteading movement and in 1993 we convinced our local Ohio State Extension (Carroll County) to hold a ‘Country Living Field Day’ for homesteaders. There were over 2000 attendees the first year and during its ten-year run, attendance reached 7000 for a one-day event.
More recently, we have been working to develop a similar event, The Homestead Rendezvous – A Country Living Field Day Spring Event. This year it will be held on May 20th at the Bergholz Firehall grounds in Bergholz, Ohio. It’s free to attend with vendors, government agriculture agencies, equipment dealers, demonstrations, and speakers.
Here is the like to our Facebook page featuring vendors, workshops, and other activities:
We meet hundreds of people who want to get started but are procastinators. They want all kinds of information from the field day because they had other things to do – usually mowing the lawn or getting a haircut.
Come out and meet like-minded homesteaders, develop a network, buy, sell, or barter, discover solutions for your homestead projects, try out equipment and products. The information and help you need will be there. Make sure you are there, too.
The only failure of a homesteader is never getting started.
See you on May 20th.
Bob
Comments