Chelle Lew

Thank you all for the encouraging words! I do not plan on taking out loans or going into debt to homestead. I have no intention of quitting my job in child care either, I work part time at a preschool and am a nanny and babysitter as well. I might try to find work and apartment closer to the land so I can commute by bike instead of driving out from the city.
I was just hoping there's are still some folks who go for it one dime at a time. O in my most likely case one tax refund at a time, lol. Thank you for brining up the point about camping all summer with children! I had bother phathomed such a thing was against the law. I have spent nearly entire summers camping and on the road with kids and never had any problems, however I had an apartment I was wasting rent on while away.
Is it somehow illegal to live without modern ammenities? If so how dothe masses of Amish settlements go untouched! I was actually hoping to live ratherr primitivly once having a home built and possibly upgradign to electric and plumbing if those are things my kids want as they get older. It would take a couple more summers to get to the point where we could live on the land if I had to rent an apartment in addition to investing in the land. But in the long run it might be the logical decision to have a small apartment in town to live in while still spending the majority of the time on the land in the summer.
I have lived on a small scale far with no electricity and no running water for about five years and love every moment of it! We had a humanure loveable lou and the only time there was running water was when it was below zero and i wantd to get the bucket up from the hand drawn well before it froze over.
However my fiancé and I both quit our city jobs to move to the country and jump in head over heals. We took out loans and lost investments. After some unforeseen medical bills we ended up loosing the land contract we had on the Amish farm house. That place was my life and my dream all rolled into one. I lost my fiancé and my farm within a matter of weeks and had to return to the city. However this experience has left me knowing I can thrive off of my garden and animals, which previously were not a permaculturre design and kept us in healthy organic food. I was able to sell extra eggs, cheeses and produce to people who drove by and at small town markets as well. It was not enough to consider a job, but since I was running th ehomestead while he worked it did help make ends meet.
My plan is to buy the land this spring, put up a small garden and possibly a stock sheltere and pen depending on the predator situation and my ability to afford fencing. Perhaps a couple of whethers with horns or a hog, no birds or rabbits. Unless anyone thinks a goose would make it with attention only twice a week? Any animals would just be for meat in the fall as overwintering seems impossible without actually being there to attend to an animal. I have butchered and frozen my share of hogs, goats and birds but would like to try curing and canning this time around.
I hope I addressed the majority of the replies and thank you for readings my essay/introduction.

So I think I have found five acres for what my current savings plus tax refund next spring. However at that point I will have nothing left to invest in my new land. Hypothetically I could get the land now and keep living pay check to pay check and invest my tax refund each year in improving the land. I plan on doing mostf the work myself with the exception of building a small cabin and barn, for which I would have to hire someone to help. The property I am looking at is mostly timber and partial pasture. I have a vision of living in a tent over the summer and building a home some year ithe future when I can pay for building supples (mill, fuel, chainsaw not the wood itself). In the mean time I think I could afford some stock fence and build a small mini barn for goats and tractors for chickens etc as well as start a few hugel beds.
I have years of experience gardening and raising livestock from ducks to cattle and a little experience with traditional building methods. I am just so sick of the rat race of having to invest everything I earn into just making it through only one more month! I have heard time and time agin that I can not homestead. Homesteading is not for the poor, it takes a fortune to get by etc. well what about the settlers nd pioneers who actually homesteaded? They had to survive n grit and elbow grease? Is that not possible in today's world?
I just keep hearing so many people say its not possible to do what I dream of unless your rich, and the honest truth is I will never be anything but low income unless I am able to start some type of business. Right now I make only 20 k a year and barly have enough left after rent, bills and food to pay for my kids sports and hobbies. Does anyone manage to make it on a small farm with a small income? Has anyone started with rare land and built it not a sustainable home without investing hundreds of thousands of dollars? Thanks for the reality check!

This is beautiful! I encounterd a vegetarian the other day and tried to explain to that unless their veggies are home grown chances are they were fertilized with manure, bone meal, blood meal etc. She flippantly replied that they were grown in just dirt because if those things were used the store would have to label them as ingredients on the vegetables?!? I had to chuckle and suggested she volunteer for the local community garden and she sounded interested in joining us next spring.

I don't follow the paleo trend but I cook primarily with cast iron which is seasoned with either pastured lard or tallow. As odd as it may sound my favourite salad dressing is melted butter! I just toss in some dried herbs and simmer for a minute then drizzle on a salad. I really don't like any veggie oils except for avocado oil, but that's a fruit seed and almond oil but that's a nut.
On a side note why minimise calories? If you want to be healthy utilise your calories instead. I totally agree with others who say fats will not make you fat.

I never cook any of my ferments. I might leave them out at room temp to ripen and wars bit before adding to food that I cook. I add sour kraut or fermented veggies to almost every dinner we eat. Lately we have been on a big ginger carrot kick! It tastes great grated on top of most stews or soups.

I use either a tooth powder made of baking soda or bentonite clay, xylitol, neem and charcoal or a tooth paste of clay, xylitol and coconut oil. However these are not things that I think I could grow in the future. Perhaps lard and clay if I could figure out how to just get the beneficial clay from soil? I also like to just chew on cinnamon sticks and use them like tooth pics.

I have been trying to learn about cordwood construction. So far it seems plausible that I could use this method. However I am concerned about the mortar. What was traditionally used in the 1800s for cordwood cabins? Why can't clay soil be used instead of a mixture of concrete, lime, sand and sawdust? In some tutorials and videos I seed using just mortar to fill in between the logs, others I see mortar on the ends with sawdust and lime stuffing for insulation. Which method last the longest? Which insulates more? Any other links, blogs, pics etc a appreciated as so far this is my favourite potential building technique.

Hello,
I now live in apartment and have no large compost/humanure to turn. I have heard of Japanese fermentation compost. I believe it was called Bokashi. Does anyone here use it or a similar compost that wold work for small apartment space? I feel so sad about throwing scrap down drain I hope to find way to compost and have kitchen herbs.
Thank you

Is this system of sewing and germination similar to the planting by the moon signs as described in foxfire anthology? Or is it based on different principles?

How do these differ frombasic organic fertilizers? What makes these preparations unique to Steiners biodynamic agriculture?