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Hybrid homesteading

 
gardener
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Location: Málaga, Spain
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Hi there.
I am not completely sure what 'homesteading' means. Apparently it is the lifestyle that you need for thriving alone, or with your family, in an isolated location.
But this is missing the potential for specialization and trade, and I am pretty sure that most of those who claim to be homesteaders have a trade and something in what they specialize, for not everything can be produced from the land.

So far, I am approaching this topic as a handyman. The same I do not need to call an electrician for a bulb replacement, most basic home tasks I can do on my own, I learn to do them, but when it comes to something that needs a specialist, I have to call him/her. Meaning that I need a paid work and some income. Having a paid work means not being at home for 8 to 12 hours a day, depending on the job and the distance. And it means coming home too exhausted to do any hard work.

In the end, I am not living as a homesteader, but we do most of the basic stuff around the house. I can mend a button in my shirt, but I have to buy another when it is wore off. Those skills take time to develop, and an investment in specialized tools, and if you live like me in the urban, there is no lack of specialists that will offer a much better job for a much lower wage. Instead, there's a lack of space for so many different tools in my so small appartment. I do cook and preserve food, but most of what I eat still comes from the supermarket. I bake homemade bread, but most of the bakeries comes from the bakery. I compost my kitchen scraps for the pot plants, where I have mostly culinary herbs, but most of our rubbish still goes to the landfill (we tried to buy less packaged food, but it's an exhausting and expensive task). We can do some first aid, but we need to see the doctor sooner or later. So for, so for.
So we take simple and easy steps towards a more ecologically friendly and self sufficient lifestyle, but stop where it becomes too demanding or expensive.

Would this lifestyle qualify as hybrid homesteading?

PS. Speaking of self-sufficiency, I was told once that self-sufficiency does not mean doing everything on your own, but not needing the free help of others. If you can pay for the work you need to be done with your self earned money, that is self-sufficiency too.
 
pollinator
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Location: Bendigo , Australia
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I have an issue with the use of "free" labour, I do understand the economics of 'workshops' but worry it distorts the true value and cost of the works.
I n my case I had the opportunity to work smart, cleverly . invented a few things which I set up a manufacturing set up in my city backyard and made heaps of income I spent on my country property.
I am lucky I made the choice to buy it 54 years ago and have lived full time here for 9 years.I continue to build and modify structures, I still run my manufacturing from here and have no industrial rent to pay.
 
gardener
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My definition of a homestead is a place where someone lives and creates a lot of value for himself. Usually from the land that he lives on. He might sell some of what he produces or the skills that he uses there, but he doesn't have to. That is the main difference between a homestead and a farm. On a farm the main source of income comes from whatever is produced on the land. On a homestead any products provide supplementary value or decrease the need to buy things. So when I turn my English Ivy leaves into laundry detergent I am practicing a homesteading skill.

There is certainly an aspect of traditional skills when I think of homesteading.
 
steward
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I have always thought of a homestead as a place where folks grow both vegetables and animals.

Isolated sounds like where I live in the boondocks though I don't have a homestead by my thinking.

When I saw "Hybrid Homesteading, I immediately thought of "Hobby Farm".

Speaking of free labor, I feel nothing is ever free.

For several years I was a volunteer at State and National Parks.  I worked in the office and my labor was unpaid though it was not free as I received a free camping spot.

In my experience, volunteering is a great way to learn and have fun doing that.
 
pollinator
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Yes most people are doing hybrid homesteading. Even if we go back 500yrs into the past people where still doing hybrid homesteading. Other than the dukes/etc. Most folks had to leave home and go to work and then got paid wages, which they would then use to trade for good and services. Folks back then still use wages to buy salt and seasoning and teas, they went to a blacksmith, they bought clothes, they still bought alot of grains and beans, because they didn't produce it all.

But yes like you we all want to get to the point where the house is all paid for and as many utilities are pre-paid for (think solar electric), and all we have to do is seasonal gigs to pay for airfare for a cool vacation.  
 
Abraham Palma
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When I said 'free' labor, I mean that you need that others help you for free because you have nothing in return to give them and you can't provide for yourself, which is the case of a few people a know about.
If you count 'feeling good after giving a hand to someone who needed it, regardless if this person will be in need forever' as a payment, fair, but that person is not self-sufficient in my book.
 
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Location: Ozarks
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"Homesteading"  In my mind is starting from raw land and building the needed infrastructures to have a life. How one reaches that can and will vary. Community is a must  that is where the help comes from.  That help can be in the form of trading skills or equipment or trading time for money and the reverse money for time. 

Complete self sufficiency in my mind is not practical, but the pursuit is a worthwhile effort. The more you can produce, build or  repair yourself the more value you add to your efforts and your value to the community. 
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