Claude Thompson

Homesteading isn’t about living off the grid, but rather reducing your dependence on the things that modern society has made us dependent upon. It can start with just a few homesteading tools.

For example, a deer from the wild can provide an entire year of healthy, untainted meat for your family. Add to that a few garden tools, a canning jar or two and you’re well on your way!

Source: kare11.com

A homestead is an independent living lifestyle that encompasses a wide range of living categories. Most people that homestead focus on self-sufficiency in regards to food, energy and more.

Winter is a great time to chop firewood for your homestead! You’ll stay warm while working and can use the wood for cooking, heat, and crafting.

Maury County will kick off June with another festive First Fridays, as well as the inaugural Homestead Festival at Rory Feek’s farm, end of school bashes and more.

1. Homestead Festival at Feek Farm

Go back to the basics of farm living and homesteading this weekend, along with a roundup of great live music and food at the first ever Homestead Festival.

The two-day festival will feature dozens of demonstrators showcasing the art of “homesteading,” or ways to provide sustainable living through things like gardening, plant and livestock raising and ways to live off the land.

www.TheHomesteadFestival.com.

www.TheMulehouse.com.

3. Baxter’s End of School Bash

Celebrate the end of the school year by paying a visit to Baxter’s Mercantile, 808 S. Garden St., for its End of School Bash.

The event will take place over two days, from 5-8 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

Baxter’s will feature outdoor vendors, sidewalk chalk for the kids, food samples and a petting zoo courtesy of Swizzle Sweet Farm from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Friday.

Saturday’s event will also include free face painting and balloons from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

4. The Rebel’s 4th annual Pig Roast Luau

Grab your best grass skirt and head down to The Rebel Bar and Grill, 307 Riverside Drive, for the fourth annual Pig Roast Luau.

The event starts at 3 p.m. Saturday and will include live music and lawn games like corn hole, connect four, or challenge someone to a friendly game of beer pong.

The Rebel will also have a full bar throughout the night.

All ages are welcome, although admission will be 21 and up, starting at 8 p.m.

5. Live entertainment

Murphy Ridge will perform at Asgard Brewing Co. & Taproom, 104 E. 5th St., starting at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Cord Martin will perform at Vintage Winery, 616 N. Main St., starting at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

Brian Golden Blues Experiment will perform at Bad Idea Brewing, 307 W. 11th St. in the Columbia Arts Building, starting at 6 p.m. Friday.

Aaron Sizemore Band will perform at Tuck’s Place, 102 Depot St., starting at 8 p.m. Friday.

Chloe Belle will perform at Mt. Pleasant Grille, 100 Main St. in Mt. Pleasant, starting at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

The 231 South Band will perform at The Boondox, 3543 Highway 431, starting at 8 p.m. Saturday.

Amber Falls Winery and Cellars, 794 Ridgetop Road, will host another Music on The Ridge starting at 3 p.m. Saturday, featuring Box of Rox from 3-7 p.m. and The Spice is Right food truck.

Amber Falls will host a second Music on The Ridge starting at 1 p.m. Sunday, featuring the Laura Lane Duo from 1-5 p.m. and Mostarda food truck.

Aaron Sizemore Band will perform at The Rebel Bar and Grill, 307 Riverside Drive, starting at 4 p.m. Sunday.

Jay Powell covers events and entertainment for The Daily Herald. Contact him at jpowell@c-dh.net or follow him on Twitter @JayPowellCDH.

Source: columbiadailyherald.com

Homesteading is a philosophy of self-sufficiency that can be practiced anywhere. Whether you live on 100 acres in the country or in the heart of a big city, it’s all about making more and buying less.

It’s also about growing as a family. Spending the day together working on projects and taking care of animals brings people closer.

IOWA CITY, Iowa – (Iowa’s News Now) — At Walker Homestead in Iowa City, variety is the spice — and herbs — of life.

“Four acre garden, so we grow probably 80-100 different species of vegetables and a handful of fruits as well,” says farm manager Ben Weber. “We’ve got cows, chickens, goats, sheep, turkeys.”

The farm sells much of its product through community-supported agriculture or CSA programs or at an on-site farmers market. Though Walker is also in the business of educating about a more self-sustainable way of life.

“It’s more than a trend. I think this is the new lifestyle,” says general manager Kent Foulker.

During the pandemic, as more people stayed at home, interest in homesteading grew. Homesteading itself is a spectrum, but focused on a more self-reliant lifestyle that often includes growing your own food or raising animals for meat and other products.

While Walker is a fairly large operation, Weber says it doesn’t take a huge plot or time commitment to grow your own groceries.

“Half an acre of vegetables can more than provide for a family of four for a year with intensive planting and succession planting,” he says.

With inflation and shortages still cropping up, homesteaders find cutting links out of the supply chain helps cut their own food costs.

“You know a lot of that cost that gets accrued is shipping costs,” Foulker says. “The whole supply chain that builds up cost over time and the customer has to pay for it.”

“Seeds are just 90 cents a packet and you can grow huge amounts of food from just that 90 cents,” says president Kristy Walker.

Weber says homegrown food is better for the environment because it cuts down on the transportation of the supply chain and can be better for your mind and body. He says by reducing the time between farm and table, you can get more nutrients from the produce. There’s also the benefits of being outside.

“You’re getting both the fresh air and the exercise,” Walker says. “Nothing like lifting your spirits by even just ten minutes in the garden.”

Walker Homestead will soon launch a series on Tik Tok to introduce a new generation to homesteading; videos will teach about growing food using a new victory garden the team will soon plant. Walker Homestead hopes using this new tool to teach an age-old way of life will mean even more people grow closer to how their food is grown.

“It’s ownership. And you can say I did that, I grew that and now I’m eating it and it is better than what you can get at the store,” Weber says. “It’s hard to be upset when you get to play into the dirt all day.”

Source: cbs2iowa.com

Homesteading is a way of life that promotes independence and self-reliance. It’s also a great way to teach kids valuable skills and build family bonding.

Helping homeowners understand the benefits of homesteading (as opposed to just a property tax exemption) can set you apart as a real estate professional. Here are some tips to get you started.

Mike Haasl’s backyard is full of life.

Chickens bustle around a steaming pile of compost.

A few vegetables start to sprout in a 60 by 120-foot garden.

A small orchard will produce fruit later this year, and Haasl will forage for nuts and berries and venison.

A maple syrup shack just closed for the season. Next to it, three carefully constructed towers of chopped wood will heat his home.

Haasl is a homesteader.

“Homesteading is kind of like living a little closer to nature and knowing where your food comes from,” Haasl says. “It’s like Laura Ingalls Wilder, only with appliances and tractors now.”

He and his wife try to live as sustainably and self-sufficiently as possible.

“My motivation for doing this was resilience and just feeling like we’re taking care of ourselves,” he says.

Haasl wasn’t always a homesteader though. He started out just by harvesting sap from the maple trees in his yard. Then, he started foraging too, and over time, these small projects became a lifestyle.

Seven and half years ago, Haasl and his wife left the city to become fulltime homesteaders.

“The goal is just to keep doing this,” he says, “to try to live really inexpensively by heating ourselves and feeding ourselves.”

The couple are not alone in their desire to live off the land. Since moving to northern Wisconsin, Haasl says they’ve met dozens of people with similar aspirations.

Many are their neighbors.

“Just within a half mile of our house, I think there’s at least three homesteads,” he says.

The number of people interested in gardening and raising chickens and foraging motivated Haasl to start a homesteading club four years ago.

Hundreds of people have signed up.

“For the population of this area, to have 200 people on an email list, I think that says there’s a fair number of homesteaders,” he says.

Homesteading has experienced a revival in parts of the U.S.

It dates back to the Homesteading Act of 1862, when the federal government granted 160 acres to anyone willing to live off that land for at least five years. At the time, it was an effort to populate western territory.

Modern homesteaders partake in many of the same activities as long-ago pioneers.

But Haasl says homesteading today doesn’t have to take an all-or-nothing approach.

Now, it’s less of a necessity to survive and more of a way to stand up to over-consumption in a return to self-sufficiency.

“It’s hard to change the world as one person, but if you’re sustainable and other people find ways to do their thing sustainably and that spreads, then that’s great,” Haasl says. “Sustainability for all.”

“At the same time, if you’re resilient or off grid or taking care of your own needs, on a community and regional scale, that means as a whole, we’re less dependent on the natural gas pipes working and food getting shipped through a port. We do it for both reasons, and both reasons feed together to help Rhinelander and Oneida County and the Northwoods be more stable.”

Source: wxpr.org