Interestingly enough, homesteading is just the path for us.
As I mentioned previously in my last post on this subject, the reasons that people choose a homesteading lifestyle are many, so I'll just be sharing ours. For us, to become "homesteaders" isn't our goal, but it definitely seems like that path that leads to our destination. In this chapter, I share more about this concept.
CHAPTER 1 – THE PATH, NOT THE DESTINATION
Interestingly enough, homesteading isn’t really even the goal. It’s our aim in life or what we are trying to accomplish. For us, it’s not the destination. However, I am convinced that the homesteading lifestyle is the path to the destination that we desire to arrive at.
For us, the earthly “destination” and lifestyle goal is to live our lives together as a family. At different times in human history it has not been uncommon to have a father, mother, and children all present within a home on throughout the day, even on a daily basis. It seems like not all that long ago in our native America many settlers, pioneers, and others lived a more connected, family life. People would set out, find some land, build a house, raise some animals, teach their children, and live a simple, but fulfilling life together.
Prior to one room schoolhouses and the industrial revolution, it seems that many more people would spend much more time at home. Often, if the father of the home had a trade, he’d do it from home or perhaps an outbuilding. Before zoning laws and permits, people we free to do so, and frequently their children would observe their father working. This is how real life skills that could provide for a family were passed down. A young child would first watch their father, but as they grew in size and capability, they would begin to help out and eventually maybe even take over the trade.
Before certain zoning laws made certain trades or jobs “illegal” in some areas, the common man had more opportunity to choose such a profession. These days, a home in a residential zone and a business in a commercial zone or industrial park are far more common, which leads to the necessity of addition capital to invest in a building away from home, along with the license fees, utility bills, and insurance costs. Personally, all of that does not sound like a step in the correct direction, but I suppose that depends on where you are trying to get to.
As far as I can tell from my grasp on American history, the industrial revolution pulled a lot of men out of the homes, and lead a lot of people towards more of a city life. The government school system came along and pulled a lot of the children out of the homes, and the women’s rights movement pulled a lot of the women out of the homes. Eventually, we ended up at the point when Dad, Mom, and the children all leave home early in the morning and come back home at night. The cost of living and inflation continued to rise, and people choose to live a life of debt bondage where they don’t own their houses, cars, educations, or almost anything else, and suddenly everyone spending more time away at work becomes the responsible thing to do, and the only means to keep the family’s finances afloat.
I’ve seen way to many statistics claiming that many families don’t even spend an entire hour together each day, and personally, that’s not the life that I want, and that’s not how I want my family to be. I’ll continue to share more about why a connected family living a life together is our goal next time, but since it is our goal, the homesteading lifestyle seems to be the best path to allow us to reach our desired destination. In order to live together, interact together, invest in one another, and truly know one another as a family, a more self-sufficient life seems like the only logical path.
A lot of different specifics come into play, and I’ll be sharing more in the coming chapters.
Until next time…
STEEMIT LIKE YOU MEAN IT!
