cynthia Stafford wrote:Im 60 yo woman.
I have been homesteading alone since 2019.
My emotional health due to loneliness is becoming more difficult to function with.
Many projects require 4 hands rather than two.
I have fallen, slipped on ice while carrying loads, and became traped under a tree trunk (for a 5 min struggle) when tring to move it to a different location.
I have had an encounter with a bobcat, face to face (literally). i dont own a gun because im fearful to use one. my screem scared the cat.
i cant butcher roosters or any animal. its heart breaking to me.
presently my 4 wheel drive F150 is stuck on ice in my driveway and i can not get out.
Planting trees every spring has taken up time use choices and creates a tough growing season in which im always behind. During the fall harvest i am also stacking wood for winter. Overwhelming. i can not cut my own firewood as i fear the saw.
i want to build a better heat system and off grid power.
both beyond my time availability and skill set.
Im not going to give up. most days are beauty, health, and reward.
the world is crazy and this is the best life choice.
the above statements are to help any alone woman fully know what to expect.
I'm 50 and have been urban growing, a quarter acre homestead for 6 or 7 years now. I currently have a partner but, they are a cancer survivor and have had a transplant and I'll likely outlive them here.
for me it seems simple that a woman can do things alone like this. we do most everything anyway? always have. my great grandparents, he was sickly and she did everything on their little farm. everything: ten kids, all housework, all farming, livestock and plants. she did it all and as the kids aged up they helped then moved out.
she did all that with no electric until the last years of it too. for me, I do everything outside the house. I work and do the orchard and garden and am starting quail and guinea hens this year. I've built hoophouse and greenhouse and compost piles and haul in manure and wood chips and fix the boiler and the gas heater and the freezer. I do the plumbing and repair the floors and roof.
my current partner does all the housework. I hate housework, so I'm really glad about that. it's good to have company but another thing that makes it easy on a woman to do this alone is that we have our friends. if and when I outlive my partner I'll invite an old friend or two to move in with me. a few of us here can do just as well. I'm not social or extroverted but my friends last a long time! I've thought ahead and spent time meeting and knowing younger people too, finding friends half my age or less, people who will be able to pick up when I leave off.
but to do that you can't be stuck in the past. I am in awe that we have the internet, that I can have video calls with friends on the other side of the country. they can walk me through their own gardens. they can show me the weird bug. in the phone! in my pocket! I use tiktok and other new stuff all the time, younger people have access to so much knowledge that I need, and I know things they need. I think it was Timothy Leary who said that you've got to stay current or you get lost. whoever said it was right. all the new things are changing the world for better and worse and I feel like I've got to understand those things.
I got diagnosed with ADHD a few years ago and getting therapy and medication for that made everything so much simpler. being able to keep track of things is no longer a chore of its own. I really grieve for the lost years I spent without that being fixed or helped.
as a woman I do get the condescending talk from men when I need to hire in help, but I'm not concerned with people's opinions so I don't respond well to it. the only real annoyance is men trying to hit on me at the mechanic etc or in the trades. it's always been like that. I've lived rural, I've lived in the deep forest, and I've lived in the center city. I've felt least safe in suburban areas and developed farm communities than I ever have in city or true forest seclusion. here I'm in town but not downtown and it's pretty good. safe as anywhere else could be. I don't have a lot of money and it's visible, so I think that helps some. I do wish I had money, more space, more land would be good. the house and plot next door were for sale a time back and oh, I dreamed of buying it
I really wonder how the original poster is doing. if she ever tried.
