Homesteading as a moral commitment

“I’d love to do what you’re doing,” we sometimes hear, followed by the inevitable “but.” There are people who say they would love to live a more self-sufficient life, to be off-the-grid, to homestead out in the country, growing their own food and living a more intentional life. Many of these individuals are sincere and do wish to break free of their enslavement to a social and economic system that holds them tightly in its grasp, but how many of them will ever move on their desires?

It was very encouraging recently to come into contact with a man and his family who earnestly desire to become modern day homesteaders. I will do anything and everything I can to help them realize their dreams (and whomever else). This family’s desire is not just a passing fancy; they are serious and are doing things now to make it a reality. Unfortunately, most of the people I’ve heard express affinity for what my family and I are doing are most likely never going to do it. They have a romantic notion of “the simple life” (which ain’t so simple) but they value some things too highly to give them up to see their notions become reality.

Recently, in passing I mentioned that living a homesteading life requires a moral commitment, but I didn’t elaborate on that point. Basically, the morality of the situation resides in believing it is good/better to pursuing this particular way of living, an intentional life, as I like to call it. For us it is better to live without debt than to borrow money in order to have things which we may want but don’t need, realizing the difference between wants and needs. It is right to invest our energy and labor in providing as much as we can for ourselves rather than relying on industrial mechanisms to make things available for us via an exchange of my labor in the form of dollar bills. Being together and working together as a family is more highly valued than having enough money to provide a bigger home and more things at the expense of family. These are all moral choices that guide our way of life.

You can examine anyone’s life and begin to see what they value. You can do that with my life and find things that reveal moral commitments I should change (I need to be examining my life for this purpose, actually). For instance, if one values things over relationships, this is evident. Granted, some do not see any other way to live than the usual, standard way of living that is all around us; they’ve been conditioned and trained to accept life on terms that they did not create. Intentionally changing the terms upon which we live our lives requires discernment, seeing how we live in its bare, naked form, for what it is.

Western culture and economics dictate a certain way of life, one that I find morally problematic in many ways. Until I had opportunity and reason to question the context of modern life, I didn’t see this. As my eyes opened to the problems of our socio-economic system, I was challenged with the responsibility of making a choice about what to do. Should I go along with what I understand is wrong but which is difficult to disentangle myself from (the easier path)? Or, should I act upon my understanding and choose to change the circumstances of my life, living in opposition to much of the socio-economic order surrounding me? That’s a tough place to be, but one in which everyone makes a choice. Even choosing not to decide is still to make a choice.

We are surrounded by romantic notions of rural/farm life and the good old days. Most of these notions are not in sync with the reality of rural/farm life as it exists today. Examine the packaging in the grocery store to see the images that are sold to us, images that draw upon our romantic notions. These are a part of our social psyche, but they are not based upon current reality. These are powerful images that when we buy things from the grocery store may help us feel good about what we’re buying and eating and keep us from seriously considering the real conditions of production. They are evidence, though, of the power of our notions and their very real existence.

I think it is these same kinds of romantic notions which lead people to say they would love to live a self-sufficient life but to never make changes in their lives to realize at least part of that desire. Being a homesteader doesn’t always mean owning a chunk of rural property with enough room to raise a large garden and a menagerie of animals. However, it does mean making choices and decisions in our lives that separate us from the hegemony of the socio-economic system in which we are all enslaved. It means frugality. It means doing as much for yourself and your family as you can. It means taking increasing responsibility for your life in meaningful ways within the current sphere of your existence. It’s a process, not a destination.

I wish to encourage all who want to homestead to take steps right now to realize their desires. However small the steps may be, start taking some now. Limit your consumption of industrially produced products by making do with what you have or making for yourself. Focus on and prioritize those things which are more meaningful, like time together as a family playing and working. Grow a tomato plant in a pot. Preserve some of your own food. Make your choices more intentional with a goal of realizing your dreams/desires one step at a time.

There’s nothing wrong with romantic notions. They can guide and motivate us. We need to take responsibility for our our actions, for the moral choices we make every day, with an end in view, not because it is a romantic notion, but because it is a better way to live. Our moral commitments are revealed in what we do. What does what we’re each doing say about us and our values?

Our new pond (part 1)

 

One of the things we've wanted to do since shortly after we moved here is to build a pond. I wrote about the site we’ve had in mind in May (Chucky’s Pond), but we didn't had the funds to make it happen until this summer since we don't do debt. The intended purposes for the pond are swimming, some fishing, irrigation, and to add beauty. It's located near the house I'm building. So, we'll be right next to it and able to enjoy it year-round.

Here’s a view of the site for the pond from a photo I took a couple of years ago:

  
I had a couple individuals come out from NCRS a couple of years ago for an evaluation of the pond site. They were less than helpful. Based upon their records for the soil in the area, they gave me a 50/50 chance of a pond there holding water. They did say that whoever I got to build the pond would be able to tell once he started. They didn't do much more than get out of the car and talk to me for a few minutes.

After we'd had a bit more dry weather in August of this year, I talked with and then hired a local guy to come in with his trackhoe and dump truck to excavate the pond. He originally estimated that it would take 3 days to dig the pond and build the dam. It didn't work out that way, though.

Here he is shortly after beginning the excavation. He was moving the top soil behind the dam location so that it could be pulled back up onto the outside of the dam later. It was shortly after this point that we realized the project wasn't going to be as simple and quick as we both hoped. There were some major pockets of top soil. We're talking like 6 or 7 feet of it. Neither of us expected that. Apparently, over the last several hundred years, a lot of material has washed down off the ridge above and settled here. He said that if I was closer to the main road (I'm glad I'm not, though), I could've gone into business selling top soil.

 
Here’s a view of the future pond after the first couple of feet of top soil was removed: 

 
In the next photo, he had started digging out the extra top soil in order to get to the clay. He loaded the dump truck and stock piled the dirt behind the far end of the proposed dam (you can see some piles near the trees to the back right). There was good clay under there, thankfully. (That’s not his dump truck in the photo – he was actually fueling the excavator in this photo.)

 
In some places the clay wasn't too deep. In other places, there were seams of top soil in between ridges of clay. He might dig three feet into clay and still have top soil adjoining it at that depth.
I had wanted to make the pond as large and deep as possible. But, with the cost of the project increasing with each day required to move more top soil, I decided to move the dam back a bit, making the pond a little smaller – 1/4 acre instead of 1/3 acre.

He dug down to good clay for the dam, allowing a good core trench. After he built the dam up a few feet, he had to move clay from another area of the pond:



I was happy with digging down for the dam clay because that made the pond deeper. It ended up 12 or 13 feet at the deepest end against the dam.

In the following photo, you can see what things looked like after a week's worth of work. We were pretty much done, and I was just about out of money. There were only a couple of things left to do: install the overflow pipe and emergency spillway and build up shape the back side of the dam. You can see in this photo that the slope on the back side was a bit extreme.

 
We used a 12" concrete culvert that was here on our farm for the overflow which should be sufficient over 90% of the time. The watershed for the pond is about 8 acres of hillside. There is another 12" culvert under one of my drives through which the water has been flowing when it rains, draining into a small creek. It has handled the water quite well. We also cut an emergency spillway near the overflow pipe for those times when we get a goose-drowner. The water coming into the pond will mostly come out of a fairly level draw between the hill sides (to the far left in the above photo).

 
With one more day of work, he was able to move the stockpiled top soil and put it on the outside of the dam so that the slope there would be more manageable.

 


As you can see in these photos, when he was done, the dirt was rough and was not packed down. The dam itself was well-packed, but the top soil added to the back slope on the last day of work was not. If he'd had a dozer, he would have run over it.

At this point, I thought I was pretty well done with the pond. But I was wrong. More details to follow. . .

Homestead objectives (part V)

Although you might not be able to tell by looking out the window, we live in turbulent times. I have some very real concerns about where things are headed for our country and globally. I’ve had some of these concerns for a number of years. One of our objectives for homesteading is to be prepared for emergency situations.

There is always the possibility of our utilities being disrupted, whether electricity or water. There are many natural means by which this could happen, and I don’t like feeling dependent upon them. Yeah, we like having the conveniences utilities afford, but when they are disrupted, what then? Years ago, we lived in Southern California. The Los Angeles area is located in what is actually a desert. Yet, there are millions of people living there in a relatively small area, dependent upon electrical service and municipal water. What happens if either of those is knocked out for any length of time? There are earthquakes out there, so this is not a far-fetched idea. Besides, where does the water for the L.A. area come from? There are many demands upon that water source.

Then, there’s the need for food. Seems that just about everyone likes to eat. How much of the food consumed in the L.A. urban area is grown there? I’m using the Los Angeles area as an example, but it’s not the only urban area in which people live with great dependence on services that can be interrupted. Over 80% of the US population lives in urban and suburban areas. It used to be that the cities were surrounded by truck farms which produced much of the food consumed there. That’s no longer the case. Food travels long distances (thousands of miles) to reach the consumer.

I believe that our economy is in bad shape. Ours is a debt-based system, not one based upon savings and sound monetary policy. The over-extension of credit has led to a problem in which we are faced with a major recession or even a depression. Our politicians, rather than deal with the situation in meaningful and honest ways, vote to give yours and my tax dollars to those who are complicit in creating the problems (along with the US Congress and the Federal Reserve). It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that a GDP growth of 3% and a debt growth of 6% is not sustainable and leads to horrible ends. (You can read more about our economic situation here.)

There are other concerns, of course, that have motivated us to living our homestead adventure. It is part of being prepared for an uncertain future. Not just for ourselves, though. We have a desire to help our families, neighbors, and friends in the event of need. In the event of a major catastrophe, it would be a blessing to those around us to be able to meet some of their needs. So, yes, we are concerned for ourselves, but it’s bigger than that. God wants us to each have a heart of mercy and to love others. Lessening our dependence upon external services and being able to provide for many or most of our own needs means that we can be in a position to help others whenever it might become necessary.

We don’t live off the grid, at least not yet. But, we could if necessary. We heat with wood and can cook with it, too. We have other water supplies besides municipal water. We grow much of our own food and can grow more (we’re working on doing just that). We live within our means, meaning we haven’t developed “needs” that would prevent us from living more simply than we already do.

It would be nice if the only emergency situations we will ever face are of short duration, like the power being out because of an ice storm. However, because we can see the possibilities and potential for much greater social and economic disruption, it makes it all the more important to us to seek to be prepared as well as possible for those eventualities. Better safe than sorry.

Homestead objectives (part IV)

In my other blog (cedar-ridge-farm), I detail our house-building project. In moving to Kentucky, building our own home was -- and continues to be -- one of our homesteading objectives.

We lived in a nice, two-story, brick house we bought with Bank of America’s loaned money. It had a full basement, a large living room, and spacious bedrooms. There was a 2/3 acre lot that we bought with the house. This provided gardening area. We loved our red brick house, but we wanted to live in the country, not in the city with a busy interstate a stone’s throw away.

Somehow, several years ago I came across a book about building with straw bales. I don’t remember the title of the book, but I enjoyed reading it and began considering building a homestead house using straw bales someday. I also read The $50 Underground House and considered that option.

In looking for property, it wasn’t imperative for us to build a house on our homestead; it would’ve been fine if there was an existing house. But, we liked the idea of building, and not requiring a house on the property provided more options when looking for homestead property. We even thought it would be alright to live in a tent while building our house. I’m glad it didn’t work out that way. We’ve been living in “temporary” quarters for almost six years, thankfully, not a tent, just an old mobile home.

When we bought this property, there was an unfinished, one-bedroom cabin. We gave that to my parents, and they were quite glad to seize the opportunity to have it, remodel it, finish it, and live here with us. There was also an old log cabin constructed of hand-hewn poplar logs. I don’t know how long it had been standing there, but it was not in salvageable shape, although it was lived in sometime in the last 20 years or so. We pulled this cabin down in early spring 2007.

We selected a site for our new home that overlooks our garden area down in the bottom. It’s a great location with a southern exposure and pleasant shade in the afternoons. It also will afford a nice view toward one of our hay fields and wonderful views of our ridge on the other side of the garden. It’s near the location where the old cabin used to sit.

I thought we would build the house with load-bearing straw bale walls, but we changed that plan after doing some more reading. We settled on a timber frame house wrapped with straw bale walls. This would allow the frame to hold the roof, making any future repairs to the walls much easier (the aim is for repairs to never be necessary). We developed our own floor plans which changed several times, but we finally reached a plan that suits of well. It will have three bedrooms, two baths, a mudroom, a large great room, and a wrap around porch.

After purchasing 8x8s and 6x8s from a local saw mill, I began chiseling the joints for the frame. I decided to be a purist and use no metal joinery. It took about two and a half years to get the frame ready to be raised. On Labor Day weekend 2007, several friends assisted us in raising the frame. That was an awesome experience. Since then, we’ve gotten the roof on and have begun working on the root cellar. We hope to complete a lot more work on it this year with the aim of being able to move in by Thanksgiving. God willing, I will be able to add a lot more to my blog on this house project.

What’s up?

Let’s see if I can meet my goal of five posts this week. I let down on the job last week with no good excuse. I just didn’t seem motivated to post. I could’ve found the time, I suppose. Part of the deal may be partially due to a bit of stress. What do I have to stress about? Nothing really, as long as I keep things in perspective: God’s in charge, giving me nothing to worry about.

As I mentioned previously, we live without debt. It’s been a way of life for the last ten years or so. We’ve been without a mortgage for nearly six years now. I’m currently in a situation that is akin to debt in my mind, and I don’t like it.

 

In August 2004, we bought a 1996 Chevrolet Suburban that had previously belonged to the National Forestry Service. I purchased it from a dealer off of Ebay who had bought it at an auction. We wanted an all-around vehicle that would serve our family and farm needs. This 3/4-ton Suburban did the job. Until gas prices escalated out of control, the pitiful gas mileage the big block V-8 in it achieved wasn’t a problem. Based upon the amount of miles we annually put on a vehicle, it wouldn’t have saved us anything to have another vehicle on which to pay taxes, registration, and insurance. However, last summer we were offered a good deal on a one-owner car in which all six of us could fit. The extra expenses associated with a second vehicle could be and have been met from what we’ve been able to save in gas.

So, now we don’t need a Suburban for the farm. In fact, a pickup truck would be more convenient. I began contemplating what I really desired and needed from a farm truck, and then I began looking to determine what it might cost. My idea was to sell the Suburban to pay for the truck. But, I didn’t want to be without a farm vehicle in the meantime. It’s convenient to be able to haul firewood and other things when needed or desired.

Then, a truck came up in my Ebay searches that met my criteria: four wheel drive, at least 3/4- ton, dependable, with a flat-bed dump. This truck was a 1979 F250. My dad offered to buy it for me, and after I sold the Suburban, I would buy it from him. Actually, he originally offered to loan me the money, but I felt better changing the terms, even if it really is only semantically different. So, we brought the truck home on January 1, 2009. Since then, I’ve been trying to sell the Suburban. Guess what? It’s not worth as much as I thought, or, rather, people aren’t willing to pay as much as it’s worth.

My stress has been because of the “debt” I feel I am in to my dad. I have to pay him for the truck. Until I do, it’s hanging over me. It’s been affecting me, kind of hanging there low-key. It’s been a good reminder about being in debt, though. For that I’m actually thankful.

The story continues. I listed the Suburban on Craigslist. One guy was interested. He looked at it, but wanted to get it painted. While he was getting an estimate, I listed it on Ebay. Then, it sold the next day for the Buy-it-Now price. The guy who bought it lives in Michigan. Great guy. I’ve talked to him on the phone several times, and I really like him. So, we made arrangements to meet him part way so that he didn’t have to drive the whole 600 miles to get it. He ended up driving nearly 500 miles. The only problem was that on the way to meet him, the Suburban began having some problems its never had before, something computer-related. I couldn’t meet him, and even if I could, he couldn’t drive it home acting the way it was.

So, I called him on his friend’s cell phone to let him know. They decided to head back to Michigan. He couldn’t take the Suburban. It was no longer sold. After it sat at a truck stop for a while, we drove it home with no more problems. I guess I wasn’t supposed to sell it that day. I’m having it checked out in the morning, though, because if it’s fixed and working properly, he’ll still buy it. In the meantime, I still have a truck to buy from my dad.

 

P.S. I took this photo the evening of January 9, 2008.

Homestead objectives (part III)

The third objective we have is to live debt free.

Yeah, we could do this where ever we might live, whether homesteading or not. In fact, that would be a good idea, and it’s what we would be doing, I believe.

I grew up in a family that was monetarily poor (we were rich in many other things and ways). Out of necessity, my parents had to manage their money carefully and well. Without even knowing it, I learned some things about money from them. I’ve not been one to go deeply into debt at any time, but I have utilized credit at different times. I worked my way through my first four years of college, graduating without any student loan debt. Anne and I were married shortly after I graduated, and we did accumulate a certain amount of credit card debt and used a personal loan to buy a used car. There were no student loans for my years in graduate school either, thankfully. But, we still seemed to carry a bit of credit card debt through the years.

In 1999 we obtained a 100% mortgage in order to buy a house. Shortly after that we began to get really serious about paying off all of our debts and to pay off our mortgage as quickly as possible. We formulated a 10-year plan in which to be completely out of debt, including our mortgage. At the end of that time, we were going to buy some property using our equity and begin our homesteading adventure. God had other ideas. He modified our plan, and it became a four year plan.

Buying our 57 acres was the beginning of truly having no debt. We were able to pay for the property completely with the equity we got out of our house in Illinois and with what we had saved. We had figured early on that one way to be able to homestead involved limiting our expenses. One of the biggest ones oftentimes is a mortgage. So, we didn’t even consider property that was beyond our means which would require borrowed money. Almost six years down the road, we take living without a mortgage for granted.

Debt isn’t even an option. We don’t have any credit cards. We did for a while, paying them off every month. We decided that we didn’t need them. If we want to buy something online or pay at the pump to fill up a vehicle, we can use our debit card. If we don’t have the money, we don’t try to get it from the bank, and we don’t put it on a card.

Debt seems to be a way of life for people all around us. How much of that borrowed money is spent on consumable items that don’t produce anything? Living beyond our means puts us into slavery; we owe part of our lives to the lender until its paid off. There are times when there are not many other options, I will admit, but as a way of life, it is not sustainable. Non-sustainability is a contrary goal to a homesteading objective.

When I walk on our place, I’m walking on my own dirt. I paid for it. Yeah, I have to pay property tax which is like paying rent to the government to “own” my own place, but that’s another issue. I count it a blessing to live debt free, and I thank God for leading us to see debt as slavery and to get out of it. It is much better and more peaceful to be free.