Why we wanted to start a Homestead...
Why not? I am not working outside of the home so this would be my job, we have a plethora of knowledge and skills that we have gained over the years, and we are conspiracy theorist who believe we can not continue on the path we are traveling!
I do feel very strongly that something is coming down the road for us all and I have an innate need to make sure I have everything my family will need when the "poop hits the fan" so to speak. I know many people ( I call them sheeple) do not want to hear or acknowledge that something isn't right here in the USA or the World for that matter. It doesn't help when main stream media is selectively airing only the stories that will not cause panic en mass. BUT, our economy is failing, our currency is being sold off by foreign banks, oil is being traded in currencies other than the dollar for the first time since WWII, European Countries like Greece and Spain have 23% unemployment, they are defaulting on loans, their citizens are rioting due to starvation and to put it in a nut shell they are up the creek without a paddle. Why wouldn't you think anything was wrong?
And this is just the tip of the iceberg to what else is going on. Earthquakes linked to gas fracturing, Monsanto poisoning our food supplies with their pesticide ridden Genetically altered seeds (GMO), or even the OWS (Occupy Wall Street) movement. Even the 60's didn't have the protests as large as they are today in so many towns and cities in the US but guess what, this is world wide! People are occupying everywhere because their countries are not hiding what is going on in real life like ours is trying to do. Now I am not trying to preach here although it does seem like it is... I am trying to show everyone what really motivated Jonathan and I the most in making the decision to not just live in Maine - rebuild our lives and carry on. We wanted to make a Change! In how we lived, what we ate, what our children are learning. We knew we had to get away from main stream mentality if we even had a chance of survival once all this crap happens. (We can only pray it doesn't but I am a girl scout at heart - be prepared - better to have a coat and not need it then need one and not have it).
So how do we get away from main stream? First and foremost, stop relying on others to do your work. What I mean by that is start making things from scratch again. Simple. Instead of buying a dozen eggs in the store to eat, raise a chicken. Instead of buying a loaf of bread, bake one your self. More and more I am seeing videos and documentaries on people who are becoming aware of where their food is coming from.
Think about a sandwich for a second. Or better yet, think of a hamburg from the golden arches. What is in a hamburg? ...remember the old jingle? Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame bun? Now where does it all come from? Lets break it down quickly.. Bread - you have to grow the wheat, harvest it, dry it, grind it, mix it with other ingredients to make dough, knead it, bake it and slice it... wow a lot of work! Now the beef - you have to raise the steer (feeding it with grain and hay for almost 2 years), slaughter it, process the meat and grind it into hamburg. Pickles - grow the cucumbers from seed, harvest, pickle it in vinegar and spices, wait for aging and slice it. I think you get the idea that each one of those ingredients has a multitude of steps before you actually get the finished product. And you get all that work for $1.00 maybe $2.00- and that doesn't even take into consideration the cost for the workers who do all the labor before you bite into the hamburger. And we all wonder why the dreaded Pink slime and GMO exists.
Well I don't, I can see why they do. Demand...plain and simple. Demand from all of us wanting our $1 hamburgs, our ready to eat meals, our bread baked for us, eggs in a carton, milk by the gallon, cheese by the pound and all for practically nothing. All of us are to blame for opening Pandora's box - for awakening Frankenstein's monster. All of us in turn have become lazy... I know we have here in our house. Entitled I think is a better word. We all feel entitled like it is our right to have these things without any consequence. No strings attached. It doesn't matter if we are over harvesting the land, killing off ecosystems to sustain our way of life. Poisoning the waterways, the air, the earth - we demand our $1.00 hamburger or gallon of milk and someone better make it for us because I don't have time, because I am at work trying to earn money enough to pay for feeding my family so I don't have to make my own food! Can you see the irony?
So before the piper comes knocking on our door for payment, we are trying to find ways to take back responsibility of our lives. If we want bread, I want to make it. These are not just idol words, we bought wheat berries to grow our own wheat, we have a hand cranked grain mill to grind it, I am learning how to make my own yeast...and best of all we are teaching all these steps to the children so they can become the future teachers. What happens if tomorrow you can't go to the store and buy the bread, meat, eggs, milk, etc because the economy collapses? Shipping halts because of gas prices, factories close because they can't move their product, store shelves are empty because orders are not being filled...How will you feed your family? This is why we are homesteading. This is why we are researching old ways and trying to modernize them into our lives. If nothing happens, well we are still eating healthier because we are making the food we eat - pesticide and GMO free. We also have the pride of knowing we are not relying on someone else for our food. We have taken back control of our lives and our children's lives. We are educating them in Common Sense so they can pass this along to their children and their children's children. If we all just thought more about where the food we eat comes from we may all appreciate it more - not take it for granted.
So when asked why we are doing this we can honestly say it is for all of the above reasons and a million more, but mostly it is because we care about tomorrow and the future of our world, we care about our children.
I do feel very strongly that something is coming down the road for us all and I have an innate need to make sure I have everything my family will need when the "poop hits the fan" so to speak. I know many people ( I call them sheeple) do not want to hear or acknowledge that something isn't right here in the USA or the World for that matter. It doesn't help when main stream media is selectively airing only the stories that will not cause panic en mass. BUT, our economy is failing, our currency is being sold off by foreign banks, oil is being traded in currencies other than the dollar for the first time since WWII, European Countries like Greece and Spain have 23% unemployment, they are defaulting on loans, their citizens are rioting due to starvation and to put it in a nut shell they are up the creek without a paddle. Why wouldn't you think anything was wrong?
And this is just the tip of the iceberg to what else is going on. Earthquakes linked to gas fracturing, Monsanto poisoning our food supplies with their pesticide ridden Genetically altered seeds (GMO), or even the OWS (Occupy Wall Street) movement. Even the 60's didn't have the protests as large as they are today in so many towns and cities in the US but guess what, this is world wide! People are occupying everywhere because their countries are not hiding what is going on in real life like ours is trying to do. Now I am not trying to preach here although it does seem like it is... I am trying to show everyone what really motivated Jonathan and I the most in making the decision to not just live in Maine - rebuild our lives and carry on. We wanted to make a Change! In how we lived, what we ate, what our children are learning. We knew we had to get away from main stream mentality if we even had a chance of survival once all this crap happens. (We can only pray it doesn't but I am a girl scout at heart - be prepared - better to have a coat and not need it then need one and not have it).
So how do we get away from main stream? First and foremost, stop relying on others to do your work. What I mean by that is start making things from scratch again. Simple. Instead of buying a dozen eggs in the store to eat, raise a chicken. Instead of buying a loaf of bread, bake one your self. More and more I am seeing videos and documentaries on people who are becoming aware of where their food is coming from.
Think about a sandwich for a second. Or better yet, think of a hamburg from the golden arches. What is in a hamburg? ...remember the old jingle? Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame bun? Now where does it all come from? Lets break it down quickly.. Bread - you have to grow the wheat, harvest it, dry it, grind it, mix it with other ingredients to make dough, knead it, bake it and slice it... wow a lot of work! Now the beef - you have to raise the steer (feeding it with grain and hay for almost 2 years), slaughter it, process the meat and grind it into hamburg. Pickles - grow the cucumbers from seed, harvest, pickle it in vinegar and spices, wait for aging and slice it. I think you get the idea that each one of those ingredients has a multitude of steps before you actually get the finished product. And you get all that work for $1.00 maybe $2.00- and that doesn't even take into consideration the cost for the workers who do all the labor before you bite into the hamburger. And we all wonder why the dreaded Pink slime and GMO exists.
Well I don't, I can see why they do. Demand...plain and simple. Demand from all of us wanting our $1 hamburgs, our ready to eat meals, our bread baked for us, eggs in a carton, milk by the gallon, cheese by the pound and all for practically nothing. All of us are to blame for opening Pandora's box - for awakening Frankenstein's monster. All of us in turn have become lazy... I know we have here in our house. Entitled I think is a better word. We all feel entitled like it is our right to have these things without any consequence. No strings attached. It doesn't matter if we are over harvesting the land, killing off ecosystems to sustain our way of life. Poisoning the waterways, the air, the earth - we demand our $1.00 hamburger or gallon of milk and someone better make it for us because I don't have time, because I am at work trying to earn money enough to pay for feeding my family so I don't have to make my own food! Can you see the irony?
So before the piper comes knocking on our door for payment, we are trying to find ways to take back responsibility of our lives. If we want bread, I want to make it. These are not just idol words, we bought wheat berries to grow our own wheat, we have a hand cranked grain mill to grind it, I am learning how to make my own yeast...and best of all we are teaching all these steps to the children so they can become the future teachers. What happens if tomorrow you can't go to the store and buy the bread, meat, eggs, milk, etc because the economy collapses? Shipping halts because of gas prices, factories close because they can't move their product, store shelves are empty because orders are not being filled...How will you feed your family? This is why we are homesteading. This is why we are researching old ways and trying to modernize them into our lives. If nothing happens, well we are still eating healthier because we are making the food we eat - pesticide and GMO free. We also have the pride of knowing we are not relying on someone else for our food. We have taken back control of our lives and our children's lives. We are educating them in Common Sense so they can pass this along to their children and their children's children. If we all just thought more about where the food we eat comes from we may all appreciate it more - not take it for granted.
So when asked why we are doing this we can honestly say it is for all of the above reasons and a million more, but mostly it is because we care about tomorrow and the future of our world, we care about our children.
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