In this world’s rapid technology, the idea of life has begun to get popularity and acceptance in a slow and relaxing rhythm. Includes growing fruits and vegetables, animal husbandry, food storage, making homemade bread, cheese, and yogurt, spinning and weaving, making cleaning products, using solar and wind energy, saving of water, and the production of fertilizers and compost. The basics of homesteading are self-sufficiency and environmental responsibility.
The only concept that sustains urban and rural employment is the idea of self-feeding, resisting the temptation to overconsume, consuming homemade products, creating products rather than buying mass-produced products in stores. If you want to live a self-sufficient life, homesteading is a must for you.
Homestead properties are characterized by subsistence farming, domestic food preservation, and in certain cases may involve small-scale production of clothing, fabrics, and crafts for domestic use. or sale. Homesteading generally differentiates the livelihood of rural communities through the social or physical isolation of the farm.
The use of this term in the United States of America dates back to the Homestead Act of 1862 and probably even before the 19th century. Self-reliance movements in the 20th century began using the concept known as urban squatting in urban and suburban locales. It includes small sustainable agricultural and domestic activities. In the workplace, government and social support coordination usually have wide latitude to favor self-sufficiency and deprivation from family and friends to maximize self-sufficiency and self-determination.
Some settlers adopt this lifestyle after successful careers that allow them to finance electricity, generators, land, farm equipment, housing, solar panels, and taxes. Contemporary government regulations in the form of structural codes, nutrition programs, zoning policies, minimum wages, and Social Security for seasonal workers.
And the city committee’s restrictions on horticulture and animal husbandry have improved the marginal cost of domestic production of subsistence. Combined with the late rewards for creating a viable farming site, this increases the difficulty of starting an independent farming operation from scratch, especially for those on low incomes.
Actual monetary savings in achieving a family’s existence appear to be related to lower material standards of subsistence and the conservation of acquired resources such as food, electricity, water, and fertilizers rather than reductions in the cost of living. Measurement advantages in modern agriculture and the opportunity cost of physical labor prevent homegrown food from being a viable option. However, many homesteaders are fine with their level of existence, believing that their way of life is healthier and more rewarding than other conventional ways of life.
Below is a non-exhaustive list of homesteading skills that we hope can inspire new homesteaders to learn. Highly recommended for young people who want to try a new approach to life. Each skill you acquire will bring you one step closer to living in greater self-sufficiency and autonomy.
This is typically to link with the desire of the family in the said household to live in an ecologically conscious way.Urban homesteading, also called hobby farming or backyard homesteading highlights: Community trading; Composting; Do- It -Yourself housework and repairs; Line drying of clothes; Growing fruits, culinary plants, vegetables, and medicinal plants; Homes with gardens, not lawns; Production and preservation of food and products for home use; Rainwater harvesting and usage; Raising chickens, rabbits, worms, goats, fish or bees; Self-sufficient lifestyle through reusing, ending and recycling things; and Use of alternative power sources and means of transport.
Fundamental homesteading skills consist of learning how to:
- Bake a bread;
- Butcher small livestock such as chicken and rabbits;
- Caponize the chicken;
- Pick the location for a vegetable garden or orchard;
- Crochet;
- Cut and glaze glass;
- Determine an animal’s age by its teeth;
- Dig and properly use a shallow well;
- Do basic sewing; and home canning and food preservation;
- Dub a chicken;
- Dye cloth or yarn from plants;
- Entertain yourself and live without electronic media;
- Fillet and clean a fish;
- Graft baby animals onto a foster-mother;
- Grind wheat into flour;
- Grow a vegetable plant and everyday kitchen herbs;
- Haggle like a horse trader;
- Hand thresh and winnow oats, wheat and other small grains;
- Hang clothes on a clothesline;
- Hatch out chicken, duck or other poultry eggs;
- Knit;
- Know the differences between trees and the unique properties of various types of wood; how and when to use hybrid seeds; how and when to prune grapes and fruit trees; when winter is over; and healthy plants and animals from those which are not healthy;
- Lay basic brick or build a stone wall;
- Learn when it is more economical to buy something ready-made or when to make it yourself along with basic plumbing and how to sweat copper pipes and joints;
- Light a fire both indoors and outdoors;
- Live within your financial means;
- Make hard or soft cheese; butter; sausage; paper and ink; candles; soap from wood ashes and animal fat; fire starters from pinecones or corn cobs; make and use a hot bed or cold frame; and long-term plans for the future such as plan for an orchard or a livestock breeding program;
- Create your own wine;
- Manage human urine and feces without plumbing;
- Pasteurize milk;
- Plant a tree;
- Properly use a handsaw, measuring tape; hammer & nails, wire cutters and screw driver;
- Read the weather, an almanac, the moon and the stars;
- Recognize your own mental and physical skill limits;
- Refinish furniture;
- Reload ammunition;
- Safely use a chainsaw;
- Save open pollinated seeds;
- Put bait traps for unwanted vermin and predators;
- Sew your own underwear;
- Sharpen any edge tool such as a chisel, knife, hoe or axe;
- Spin wool, flax or cotton into yarn or thread with a drop spindle or on a
- spinning wheel;
- Swap, network and barter with like-minded people;
- Tell the time of day by the sun;
- Thaw out frozen pipes without busting them;
- Use a hoe, garden shovel or spade without hurting your back, a wash tub, washboard and hand wringer; a non-electric lighting; a treadle sewing machine; a scythe; a pressure cooker; a wood stove and how to bank a fire; electric netting or fencing; and a pressure tank garden sprayer, an awl and do basic leather repair;
- Weave cloth and a basket; and,
- Witch for water with a bend metal hanger or forked branch.
- These skills are but a few of the original homesteading skills that a person should possess. The focus herein is on urban homesteading which refers to a household that produces for consumption a significant portion of their food in
- the form of vegetables, fruits and livestock.
- This is typically to link with the desire of the family in the said household to live in an ecologically conscious way. Urban homesteading, also called hobby farming or backyard homesteading highlights:
- Community trading;
- Composting;
- Line drying of clothes;
- Growing fruits, culinary plants, vegetables and medicinal plants;
- Homes with gardens, not lawns;
- Production and preservation of food and products for home use;
- Rainwater harvesting and usage;
- Raising chickens, rabbits, worms, goats, fish or bees;
- Self-sufficient lifestyle through re-using, ending and recycling things; and
- Use of alternative power sources and means of transport.
- Grow your own fruits and vegetables.
- Raise farm animals for food
- Use alternative sources of energy —
- renewable energy
- Rethink transportation by using bicycles or walking
- to work
- Make efforts to reduce waste and also repurpose waste ·
- Rainwater harvesting
- Do your housework yourself
- Learn to knit, mend, do repairs and learn using basic tools and techniques
Erzsebet Frey (Eli Frey) is an ecologist and online entrepreneur with a Master of Science in Ecology from the University of Belgrade. Originally from Serbia, she has lived in Sri Lanka since 2017. Eli has worked internationally in countries like Oman, Brazil, Germany, and Sri Lanka. In 2018, she expanded into SEO and blogging, completing courses from UC Davis and Edinburgh. Eli has founded multiple websites focused on biology, ecology, environmental science, sustainable and simple living, and outdoor activities. She enjoys creating nature and simple living videos on YouTube and participates in speleology, diving, and hiking.