Our Second Farmhouse - Running in Circles!

This house was massive - 3,000 to 3,500 square feet - but because of its layout and age, the size did not resemble any grand house of a century ago or even large modern houses.  It was well over a century old but was in 3 parts and each joined in their own haphazard way without any thought to the overall flow.
 
The main entrance was through a side porch that extended along half of one side of the house.  You entered through a screen door that did little to keep the cold and snow out and 5 feet straight across the long but narrow porch from the screen door was a more solid wooden door that led into the kitchen.  This was the only door of the 2 with a lock - a bathroom lock!  I felt really safe and secure...NOT!  I also felt really cold as you could see daylight around the door.  Because the two doors were straight across from each other, the air just blew straight through into the main house.

From the porch, you walked into what was the first addition, added on in the 20's or 30's.  This contained the kitchen and back stairs that led up to an ancient bathroom and 1 bedroom.  The kitchen led into the main hallway of the original house that ended at the main set of stairs.  I always thought that old houses with 2 sets of stairs were so cool as only old houses had back stairs.  I had no idea how much fun kids could have running up one set of stairs and down the other.  Or how many heart attacks I could have worrying about them getting hurt, especially when their selectively-deaf cousins came over (not that my own kids weren't selective!). 

Just in case the two sets of stairs weren't enough fun for the kids, there was more.  When you stepped into the hallway from the kitchen, you had a choice of 3 doors - the one to the right leading to a huge living room that ran the entire length of the original house, the one to the left that led into another huge living room that was equally large and one just ahead and a little to the right that led to the basement.  Straight ahead, the hall ended as there was a closet blocking it, facing the other way.  You had to go through either the room on the left or right, as both rooms had another door.  These doors led to the entrance to the closet, to the main stairs and the front door.  Both of these rooms also had a third door, one leading to the kitchen and the other to the dining room.

So all told, the kids could run in at least 6 circles, counting the 2 sets of basement stairs.  Talk about nuts!  Later, we closed off the door to the old basement steps and just used the newer stairs in the 2nd addition.  That slowed the kids down a bit.  We closed off both doors into the living room on the right and just used the door from the dining room. That slowed them down a lot more.  We took one doorway out of the other large living room to the left and left 2 doorways in so we could turn this room into 2 rooms.  Blocking all these doorways meant that we could no longer get through to the front door or stairs unless we took out the closet.  This gave us a nice, long hallway with lots of light...and really slowed the kids down!

Too many doors.
http://www.craftster.org/

The old stairwell at the back of the Delaney House

http://www.62ndstreet.blogspot.com/

Our Second Farmhouse-Controversial Hedge!

Our second farmhouse had a massive evergreen hedge around it that was at least 10-12 feet high and 6 feet thick.  Even though I'd always wanted to live in the country after having grown up in the city, I still unknowingly approached everything from a city frame of mind.  I should have been thrilled upon seeing this huge windbreak but instead, all I could imagine was lots of flying and creepy-crawling insects, moths, bats, mice, etc.  I really like all of these things...NOT!  And the hedge was dark and looming, blocking the light from the front windows.  And...it had not been looked after for many years.

The first year, I planted the garden behind one section of the hedge.  The next spring, I went to do the same thing and noticed that the hedge had died and turned brown for at least a foot in. A few years before this, when a small evergreen bush that I had planted was dying, my sister-in-law had told me that tiny red spiders were killing it and without chemical spray, it would die for sure.  Well, I didn't use chemical spray, even though it was common and completely legal then.
 
Back to the hedge - within a number of days, it had died at least 6 feet in.  Again, I was not going to use chemicals and we did the only thing we could think of...we pulled it out, that section at least.  We looked at the other section which was at least twice as long, went across the front of the house and turned in an "L" shape to come up to the house.  We decided that we would keep it but cut it down to 3 feet high in order to let some light into the house and front yard and we would do what we could (we knew nothing about hedges, trees or gardening, for that matter.  Only what we stumbled upon!) to let it grow up again a little healthier. When we did this, however, we realized that there was nothing of the hedge left below the 3-foot mark so we took it out, also.

Shortly after all of this, hubby asked the previous owner, who still lived next door, where the septic tank and drilled well was (he never found either!).  While he was at our place looking, he noticed all the hedges gone and freaked!!  He was so mad and did not hesitate to let us know!  We explained about how it was dying...he didn't care.  We then explained about how there was nothing left on the bottom 3 feet.  He stopped, thought for a minute, then said that part was likely his fault because they had stored wood in the bottom 3 feet of the hedges in order to dry it.  Year 'round and for 40 - 50 years.  But he stayed peeved at us forever after that and never forgave us.

For me, it was really hurtful because everwhere I've lived, I've always left everything just as the previous owner had it for up to 5 years, as much as possible, (whether I liked it or not didn't matter)because they usually came back for a visit and I did not want to upset or insult them.  So for me to want to get rid of the hedge was a big deal and I did worry about his reaction.  I certainly did not expect such a strong one!

To some degree, I do understand him, though, because the owner who lived there for the previous year had taken out the white picket fence so that he could drive across the lawn right up to the house.  The white picket fence and the hedge had both been there for decades and I'm sure he (the original owner) was watching the slow disintegration of his life's work!

http://www.nyceducator.com/
The way our hedge should have looked or perhaps the previous owner thought it looked!

http://www.gizmodo.com/
How I REALLY want my hedge to look!

http://www.geograph.org.uk/
This is more like our hedge.
 
Within the next few years after that, we visited the West twice (Saskatchewan) and noticed how many farms had either a windbreak of trees or hedge or a combination of both.  Since I'd grown up in the city and the tall buildings were all the windbreak we needed, I had never spent any time thinking about trees or hedges or their value (even though the nickname for our city was 'The Forest City'.  You'd think something would have registered but no.  In fact, when I would hear 'Forest City', I used to wonder what city they were talking about!  Duh!)

Field windbreak.
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/

 An Iowa windbreak (shelterbelt).
http://www.iowapf.org/
I understand a lot better now, why the old guy was so angry with us.  I understand much better what we lost when we took down our already-existing windbreak and I understand better the benefits to pioneer and current homesteaders.  Anything that keeps our houses warmer, keeps the dust and dirt in the fields where it belongs instead of blowing away and possibly provides us with food in the form of berries is ultra important.

Rabbiteye Blueberry hedge that will grow to 8-10 feet.

Raspberries that will grow 4-8 feet.

Thornless Blackberry that will grow up to 6 feet.

http://www.fast-growing-trees.com/
Cranberry that will grow 8-12 feet.

Elderberry bushes are described by wiki as reaching from 9-26 feet.
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/
Saskatoon Berries, also known as the Saskatoon, Serviceberry, Sarvisberry, Juneberry and historically as Pigeon Berry can grow up to 26 feet and sometimes 33 feet.  I mistakenly thought that it was named after Saskatoon, Saskatchewan but instead, the city was named after the berry.  They are found in Alaska, western Canada and the western and north central U.S.

The thornier the hedge, the better.  It might not keep out all 4-legged creatures but might help against the 2-legged kind!

http://www.123rf.com/

Our 2nd Farmhouse

I don't think that there's such a thing as an old farmhouse without a story to tell and our second farmhouse was no exception.  Because they usually date back over a century, there's no way that the rooms would not reverberate with peals of laughter, shouts of anger, bedtime stories and the spilling of tears...if only they could talk.

Stories come out slowly, usually out of necessity.   A question like "Where's the well?", asked of the original owner who had continued to live next door for over 20 years.  We found out about at least 2 wells, one a dug well out in front of the house that we knew nothing about and the other a fairly new drilled well that no one knew the location of.  The dug well had 2 pieces of cemi-circle shaped cement over top to form a circle.  An old full-sized hand pump stood over the centre and because it was not bolted down, we assumed that the entire affair was ornamental.  We were quite surprised when the original owner (he had sold the farm to the previous owner who had only stayed a year) told us that not only was the well real, it had never been filled in, had been in full use as the only well until just a few years before and he thought we should get it up and running again.  No thanks.  He and his family had paid a lot of money for the drilled well for a reason and we weren't going backwards. 

And you know that we just had to go right out and drop a pebble between the 2 pieces of cement, just to test it.  I was quite disappointed to hear the 'ping' of that pebble hitting water and probably made it even more attractive to the kids because of all my warnings to stay away.  They thought the 'pings' were exciting!  It was a few years before we got that well filled in.   

http://www.windmill-parts.com/

Because of my fear of wells, having 5 small children under 8 and the location of this well being about 10 feet from the house, this wasn't exactly welcome news.  We had purchased the farm when there was snow on the ground and did not get to walk over the land until spring, so we did not know that right behind the barn and quite close to the house, was an another open, dug well, wide enough for a man to stretch across full-length and still fall in.  No one warned us about either dug well, so, of course, I was not impressed.  We managed to get that first well filled in right away, only to find out a year later about the other dug well by the house.
 

Poem

CRADLE QUILT

The quilt that cradled you
As sweetly you slept -
Did you trace its pattern
Of memories kept?

Captured in abstract
Circle and square
To cross-stitch distance
From Here to There;

A block of black velvet
From Granny's chair;
A first-day-of-school skirt,
Locks of your hair;

An ivory petticoat's clinging caress,
A taffeta whisper of wedding dress -
Cloth-binding a patch-work of shapeless things,
Created from chaos - and given wings.

June Masters Bacher - Escondido, Calif.

http://www.alidiza.com/

I cut this poem out of a magazine years ago and found it again recently.

Our First Farmhouse

I love old farmhouses in spite of crooked floors, bats in the attic (literally!) and being super cold.  They have a history that usually spans a century, were built with the superior integrity that modern home-owners can only dream of and the wood trims and doors are amazingly beautiful!  Our first farmhouse was bought in 1988 from the S. family.  They bought it from the Crown in the 1800's and had been the only family to ever own it.  Mr. S. had died 13-14 years before from cancer and Mrs. S. had continued on for almost 10 years, milking the cows, morning and night, alone.  She had 5 kids but none who wanted the farm.  Well, one son did but he was the 'running-around, drinking, ex-wives and kids all over the place' kind of guy (her description) and since dairy farming is way too intense for a non-committal kind of person, she didn't trust him to do anything except lose the farm. 

I'm sure that she thought long and hard before listing the farm for sale.  A century family farm, the only home that she and her husband had ever lived in and the only home her now-grown children had ever known.  After having it listed for a while with no luck, she went ahead and bought a house in town anyway and now had 2 mortgages.  This went on for 2 years before we came along and 'rescued her'.  It was a good deal for both parties but I couldn't help but feel that something had been lost when a century farm is forever lost to the original family.

The original building in the 1800's had been a log cabin.  Years later, when they could afford it, the family had added a large addition that they called the 'summer kitchen' or 'back kitchen'.  It was used for cooking on the wood cookstove during the summer to help keep the house cool.  I think I'd like a summer kitchen, too!  One night, shortly after moving in, we could hear a meowing under the floor.  Totally confused, we hunted high and low for the source and took up the old floor boards to discover a well right under the room.  This would have been used to pump water up to the sink and yes, I'd like one of those, too!  Talk about convenient...water at your fingertips, no going outside to the well and no hydro! 
Anyway, the cat that had just been 'donated' to us by friends (every newly-wed couple needs a cat, they said...Uh-huh!) had fallen down the well and was meowing so pitifully.  We had no idea what to do so we slid a 10 foot board down into the at least 20-foot-deep empty well, hoping the cat would figure out the last 10 feet for himself.  He didn't.  We then decided to lower a basket, hoping he'd jump into it.  Yeah, right!  It even sounded absurd at the time but what to do?!  Then we accidentally knocked a piece of wood down into the well and that cat shot up and out, flew past us and was gone, leaving us in fits of laughter!  And now we had to repair the floor, find the hole where the cat got through in the first place and fix it and continue to worry about the cat getting in there again.  Years later, when we tore that part down, we finally filled the well in.  Needn't have worried, though...the cat left well enough alone after that!  I've heard of 'moving like a bat out of hell' but not 'moving like a cat out of a well'!  They are quite similar!!

This back kitchen was in pretty poor shape when we moved in.  The floor planks had been nailed directly onto the floor joists - no subfloor of any sort.  Over time, the floor boards dried out and left slight spaces between.  When I swept, the dirt from the crawl space 2 feet below came up through, making more mess than before.  Old windows and no insulation meant freezing cold and I mean freezing.  I placed a bowl of water on the edge of a heat vent that was actually working.  The water froze solid.

On the far side of this room was a door that led to a woodshed.  This woodshed had a walkway that was level with the rest of the house but the rest of the room, where the wood was kept was actually about 5 feet deep.  That would hold a lot of wood but at the time, all I could see was the mess.  Old wood chips, dirt floor, and I assumed, lots of mice.  We didn't use it as we didn't have a wood stove, just a wood furnace in the basement and we stored our wood in the basement.  Now I realize the value of a dry, indoor place to store wood .

At the end of this walkway was another door that led outside to the clothesline stand...or so we thought.  Underneath the stand was what seemed to be a carved-out half log, about 4 feet long.  Hubby pulled it out, debated for a while, scratched his head a while longer, gave up and slid it back in.  We found out later that its original purpose was not that of a clothesline stand but instead, was an outhouse!  It was likely quite modern for that time as you did not have to go outside (it had walls and a roof at one time).  It was still freezing out there but there was no wind, no rain and best of all, no snow.  The carved-out log was actually the 'toilet'.  After people had done their 'business' for a number of days/weeks, it was the father's job to slide it out then empty it.  I think hubby washed his hands extra after that!!  As much as all families would have look forward to the 'new' indoor washrooms, perhaps the father of this family did so a little more than most!

As bad as this summer kitchen seemed to be to us, it had at one time been the pride of the neighbourhood.  Our neighbour, D., had grown up next door and told us that when he was small, all the wedding meals, summer BBQ's, get-togethers, etc. were held in Mrs. S's summer kitchen, at least the food prepping part.  She had the best back kitchen around, he said, and I'm assuming because it had heat for cooking, water and lots of space, all rolled into one.  Oh, and it had a handy 'toilet, too! 

Anyway, after the family saved up for more years, they tore down the original log cabin (shame!) and built a double-bricked, 2-storied farmhouse onto the summer kitchen.  This was the 100-year-old building that we moved into.  We took down the summer kitchen and added a new bathroom/laundry room, living room and garage.  I hope that this tradition of tearing down one part then the other part doesn't continue, though, because the old, red brick house is next in line and it would be a shame to lose another old, red brick farmhouse.

http://www.123rf.com/
Not ours but somewhat similar.

http://www.nps.gov/
Not our house but very similar.  The summer kitchen was the whole back addition where the lady is standing, with the woodshed and outhouse continuing to the right.

http://www.education.boisestate.edu/
A kitchen hand pump that I'm assuming is similar to what must have been in our house.

Our First Farmhouse

When I got married over 20 years ago, I finally got my wood stove...sort of.  The old farmhouse we moved into had a wood/oil combination furnace.  It wasn't hard to run, even for a newbie like myself but it must have been a lot older than it looked.  It only held it's heat for just over an hour, after 1.5 hours, there were only hot embers left and after 2 hours, nothing.  I've read online that 6-12 hours is more the norm.  Even replacing the bricks inside didn't help but this furnace always threw out good heat.  It warmed the entire 2 full storied old house really well, even before we insulated, just as long as you  went down to the basement every hour. 

This became a huge problem for me when we had 5 kids over the next 7 years.  It became impossible to get to the furnace every hour with 5 very small children upstairs.  I had no problem going down when they were all asleep but when they were all awake, it took less than a minute for one of them to topple an infant out of a sitter, fall off a chair, table or countertop (which they'd never be on if I was there), hit each other with any number of items, fight like the dickens and hurt each other ... it just wasn't worth it to try to keep the fire going.  I just turned on the oil instead.

Hubby would come in from the barn for lunch after 3-4 hours of milking the cows in an old tie-stall barn and have to start the fire over again.  After 3-4 more hours of barn work in the afternoon, he'd have to it again at supper-time and guess what...!  After 3-4 more hours of doing the evening milking, he'd have to again start the fire.  Needless to say, he got tired real quick of this, really annoyed and tired of paying for oil he didn't really want.  And neither of us wanted to get up repeatedly throughout the night.

For my part, I didn't really like the oil heat.  Sure, I was happy and grateful to be warm, especially with small children but the off and on, off and on, off and on of oil can't begin to compare with the nice, even heat of wood.  You warm up, cool down, over and over and we would shiver while waiting for the furnace to 'kick in'.  The biggest downside to the furnace, whether you used wood or oil, was that it required hydro.  In a power outage, you had no heat.  Thank goodness we had a generator!

http://www.air-tech.ca/

A very similar furnace to our old one but probably not as big.

Sources of Heat #2

After I put the photo into yesterday's post, I couldn't continue.  No idea why but I'll continue now.  The gas heater in the photo looks very similar to our old one and yes, ours was a lovely brown colour, too!  It was 3-4 feet long and 2-3 feet wide so it was pretty much a piece of furniture.  The best part about it, besides the instant heat, was the height --- bum height!  Just high enough to lean your butt back against and talk about warm and cozy!  Well, at least it would work that way if you were already leaning when someone turned the heat up.  Many was the time, though, when someone turned the heat up first, then someone else came along and, unaware, took a seat!  Great fun to listen to them yelp, as long as it wasn't me!!  Kinda kidding.  Don't want anyone hurt!

In spite of the wonderful times spent with our gas heater, I still wanted a wood stove.  I blame Laura Ingalls for that, of course!  For setting my sights so high, for giving me such lofty ideas!  A wood stove in the city!  Indeed!  What was I thinking?!  Perhaps I was thinking that the world needs a little more of a pioneering spirit, a little more back-to-the-land spirit, a little more down-hominess, a little more down-to-earth-iness.  Nothing wrong with getting our hands dirty and nothing wrong with a little hard work to teach us to appreciate our resources - maybe I was thinking that.  No matter what I was thinking, I still blame Laura!

http://www.ashbusters.net/

Sources of Heat #1

When I was growing up in the city, we heated our house with a gas stove in the middle of the living room.  It heated the whole house quite well as long as you kept your bedroom door open but pretty chilly otherwise.  We also had a gas hot water heater and cooked on a gas kitchen stove.  They all worked amazingly well, especially during winter storms.  We had heat and could cook during one particularly bad ice storm in the early '70's that left the roads and lawns as one big skating rink.  We lit the ornamental oil lamp of my mom's and we were pretty cozy!

The down side of using gas, though (and for me, it's a big downside) is the whole pilot light thing.  Mostly my dad lit the hot water heater and living room stove when they would go out but my mom often had to light the kitchen stove herself if she wanted to have the meal ready right when dad got home from work (she was pretty good with that precision-thing, unlike myself!).  I know she was terrified but managed to do it when absolutely necessary, without blowing us up.  She certainly deferred to dad whenever she could, though!

I have that whole  I'm-terrified-that-I'm-going-to-blow-us-all-up  thing going on myself.  Hubby did not grow up around gas so he's not so brave, either.  Plus he has the legitimate excuse that he doesn't want to come in from the barn or the back-40 just to light the pilot light.  He grew up with a wood furnace and since wood is free if you don't count labour and since free is good, then wood it is!

Growing up in the city, though, I knew of no one who burned wood, unlike now.  Wood stoves were just for farmers, just for poor people and after all, 3rd world countries still used wood.  People had used wood for centuries and were tired of the mess of ashes and wood chips and wood was very labour-intensive.  They were more than happy to leave all that behind and turn instead to the much cleaner and much more convenient oil, gas or propane.

All these years later, we know that's not the case.  Any type of fuel we burn has a repercussion on the environment, prices have risen drastically and the earth will eventually run dry, not that anyone cared back then, not that most people knew back then.  It used to be recommended that you use an oil hot water heater insted of an electric hot water heater as oil was cheaper than hydro but not anymore.  Oil prices have risen and, of course, so have hydro prices.  Nothing is cheap and 'clean' anymore - except perhaps wood.

http://www.2kstore.com/

Corn Cribs: Gone Forever?

Every once in a while, something will jog a memory in us that has layed buried deep in our brains for years.  Tonight, while out for a drive and passing canola fields, grain fields and corn fields, the kids started asking about the difference between 'people corn' (sweet corn) and 'cow corn' (field corn).  I grew up in the city and these were my names for them.  I told them what hubby and neighbouring
Amish and Mennonites told me about picking field corn very small and pickling them.  I had always assumed that it was a form of sweet corn that came in a mini-size.  So much I don't know!

The memory was this:  when I was young, every farm it seemed had a corn crib.  I never see them around the countryside anymore and even homesteaders don't mention them.  To me growing up, corn cribs were one of the things that epitomized farm life and country life.  I have no idea why except perhaps it was because most, if not all, farms had one.

Corn crib interior in Pinehurst, NC

Corn cribs had slats in them to allow for airflow to dry the kernels.  Even though the cobs are exposed to the elements they still dried.  Wiki says "some corncribs are elevated above the ground beyond the reach of rodents."  Considering how much complaining the old farmers did about rats and mice, I'd have to guess it didn't work, at least not around here.  Hubby's dad had a crib like the top photo.  He says there was a conveyor belt of sorts that ran under it when it was time to get more corn that you forked/shoveled the corn onto.  Corn could be fed to cows this way, cob and kernel together (as well as the whole stalk) but for pigs, the kernels need to be removed from the cob and only the kernel fed to the pig.

Sibley, Illinois was once known as the home of the largest corn crib in the world.  It could hold 125,000 bushels and was destroyed in 1965.  A  shame!   I can't find any photos of it.

The above corn crib allowed for 2 vehicles - tractor, truck, buggy - to be parked on each end with corn stored in the crib in the middle while the building below allowed for 1 vehicle in the middle and a corn crib on each side.  Saves on space and lumber!

Corn crib modeled on 1915 plans   http://www.farmcollector.com/

Daryl Dempsey's new old-style corn crib, complete with elevator and a load of corn. "Many corn cribs can still be found like this today in Ohio," he says, "but few are still used, and I doubt you'll find a newer one than mine." (Image courtesy of Daryl Dempsey.)

Read more: http://www.farmcollector.com/Farm-life/Good-Enough-for-Granddad.aspx#ixzz1U8JVWJkf

Crib by Leamington, On.  http://www.leamington.canadianlisted.com/

Crib near Iberville, Quebec

http://www.cassandrapages.blogspot.com/

John W. Berg Standing beside the barn and corn crib he built on his farm
1-1/2 miles northeast of Meriden, Ks.  Around 1900.  This barn burnt in June of 1995

http://www.garybo.com/

http://www.blogs.voanews.com/

Can We Achieve the Homesteading Life?

Kit Carson -  http://www.kitcarsonhotel.com/

Laura Secord -  www3.telus.net/st_simons/

Louis Riel -    http://www.louisrielday.com/

Growing up in the city, I longed for the days of Laura, Caddie, Laura Secord and others.  Buffalo Bill, Sir Isaac Brock, Kit Carson, Daniel Boone, Colonel Custer, Louis Riel, Tecumseh, Sitting Bull. 
Indian or white, Canadian or American, male or female - it didn't matter.  It didn't matter which side of the 2 wars (1776 and 1812) they were on, either, although I think I might have cared at that time.   All that mattered was that they lived 'back then'.  Back when there were no motors running, you ate your own food, you wore what you sewed, the fastest thing around was a horse then a train.  Appreciation,
manners and gratitude existedand a handshake meant something.  Your hard work, honesty and integrity would stand you in good stead. 

It wasn't about the battle or the danger for me.  I hate battle, war, guns.  They kind of seem like the opposite of the peace and tranquility that most of us are looking for.  It was about the solitude and quiet that existed to a greater extent.  It was about the fact that any energy expended did not return empty-handed.  You got back what you gave.  Families had to spend time together, both working and playing.  Toys were made of the simplest things and played with endlessly then repaired and re-repaired until they could be salvaged no more.  Effort was given because effort mattered. 

I know that it was not all wonderment and roses, though.  People froze, starved, drowned, died of diseases that we can stop now.  I wonder how many woman died of childbirth complications and how many babies?  While visiting a friend's grave last year, I noticed a tombstone with the names of a couple who had died at an elderly age.  On the stone also were the names of their children, all of whom died either at birth or shortly thereafter, all around the turn of the century.  The parents then lived a good many years with no children.  How did they ever manage to go on?  How??

http://www.celiahayes.wordpress.com/

http://www.walkingprescott.blogspot.com/

All most of us want is a tiny slice of the quieter side of the homesteading life.  A home in the country, a garden and a few animals to 'keep idle hands busy', fill our cupboards and our pantries and 'keep the wolf from the door'.  Hand-made crafts (sewing, quilting, knitting, crocheting, rug-hooking, the list is endless!) to allow our creative side to blossom and possibly bring in some extra cash (thinking of Caroline Ingalls here and her 'egg-money').  Even in this crazy, hectic, loud, self-obsessed world, I think that we can still achieve this to some degree.  

Sheep Versus Coyote

http://www.free-extras.com/

Hubby and I have often contemplated getting some sheep for our farm instead of just cows.  A few things have held us back so far.  In these parts, there are some pretty scary stories of coyotes attacking.  They are supposed to be afraid of dogs.  Not true anymore.  They kill dogs by one coyote luring the dog away from the safety of the farm buildings then the rest of the coyote pack circle in behind the dog, cutting off its escape route and killing the dog as a group.  Our 2 dogs are our pets and I'm not willing to risk their lives.

We've been told that coyotes will stay happy for awhile, as long as there is small game such as gophers, rabbits, groundhogs and the like.  As soon as that food supply is gone, your dogs, cats, chickens, sheep and any other animal around become the next best food source.  Coyotes have been seen riding on the back of live, running calves and eating the calves alive until the calf drop.

Fencing against coyotes can be a real joke, an expensive joke at that.  Barbed wire, electric or a combination will not keep a hungry coyote out.  They'll go over, under and through, electric or not.  One woman around here had tried everything to save her sheep and nothing worked.  She decided to camp out with the sheep like an old-world shepherd, with her gun.  A choice only if you can and want to handle it. 

The only things that I've ever heard of working are donkeys, llamas and the barn.  Coyotes are supposedly terrified of enclosed spaces and will not enter a building but then you have to keep your sheep inside all the time or at least herd them in every night and outside again every morning - and nothing says that the coyotes will not kill them during the day.  Donkeys can bond with the sheep herd or at least, think they own the space around them and therefore become very protective.  The agent who sold us this farm had a sheep farm but went out of the sheep industry after he lost so many sheep that he finally quit.

Would still like to have sheep but at what cost?  Have to think this one through a little longer, I guess!

Don't want to meet up with that!
http://www.examiner.com/

Caddie Woodlawn...Cont.

The second book about Caddie isn't only about her.  Some chapters are dedicated to members of her family while others are about her neighbours.  The first story is about 10-year-old Caddie who, along with her older brother Tom (aged 12) and younger brother Warren (aged 8) innocently get into another one of their scrapes.  While playing hide-and-seek in the haymow one day, Warren found something 'cold and slick' under the hay.  Hoping that it was 'that buried treasure Warren was wanting', the three dug furiously until they victoriously unearthed...WATERMELONS??!  Certainly NOT what was expected and, as a child, this would have been the focus of my interest. 

Now, I'm far more interested in why the watermelons were there, how long they had been there and how long were they expected to last.  Some quotes:

"But Father sold the last of the melons in town a month ago!" objected Tom reasonably.

'Yet there they were, more than a dozen beautiful green and yellow-striped watermelons, carefully hidden under the hay.  Tom tapped them with his thumb and forefinger, and they seemed to be sound and in excellent condition.'

"But listen!"  marveled Warren.  "The few melons that were left in the field frosted and turned rotten several weeks ago."

 'The magical melon was the best one they had ever tasted,...They would not have seemed magical if it had not been long past the season for them.'

'And it was over a week before they thought of the melons again....the melons were still there...'

'Almost every week now another melon followed its predecessors...and almost every week, the treasure under the hay grew smaller.'
'One Sunday afternoon in late November...'

'And each was carrying a beautiful, big green-and-yellow-striped melon...'

"Well, Sir," said Robert, "I don't know as you know it, but melons will keep a long time if they're packed in hay in a cool place.  So, as there were more melons than could be used or sold,...decided we'd bury a goodly number of them and bring them out as a surprise when the melon season was past."
----------------------------------

All of these quotes show the condition of the melons, how late in the season it was, the condition that the melons should have been in, the shock of every member of the family that this particular food item could be preserved in such a way.  The only thing they don't show is my shock.  I knew somewhat that food could be stored in the basement in pails packed with earth or sand but melons would be subject to mice, rats, racoons, skunks and anything else that happened to wander into the barn.

We did not grow melons this year in our garden but I can't let that stop me.  I just have to buy some melons this year and try this.  What a great idea if it works and it could possibly work also for pumpkins and squash.

http://www.bfbooks.com/

Caddie Woodlawn

There are different things I've read over the years about how the pioneers stored and cooked their food, amongst other things,  that I have read with great interest then promptly forgot.  After all, we have better and safer ways to do things now and those old ways are interesting but unnecessary.  As time goes on, we forget that these  methods ever existed.  We then try to come up with new ways to do the same old thing.  Often, we modern people must reinvent the wheel when, in fact, some of what worked back then will still work now...and just as well!

Two of my favourite books growing up were Caddie Woodlawn and the sequel, Caddie Woodlawn's Family.  Carol Ryrie Brink, Caddie's granddaughter, wrote the first book in 1939 and the second book in 1944, 4 years after Caddie's death in 1940, a matter of weeks before Caddie's 86th birthday.  How exciting it must have been for Carol to grow up listening to the wonderful stories told to her.  Carol was orphaned at age 8 and raised by her grandmother, so had many years to listen to Caddie.  How kind of her to share her grandmother's stories with us!  Without her, Laura and others like them, we would know little about those days.

The outside of the Woodlawn house.
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/

  The inside of Caddie's house.
http://www.childrensliteraturenetwork.org/

Modern Homesteading?

If we can't really be settlers or homesteaders in the original, historical sense, can we be 'modern homesteaders'?  Lots of people throughout blogland and beyond have proven that this is possible because they've done it.

Our needs have not changed over the centuries.  The methods used to fulfill those needs have changed as has the amount of 'leisure time' left over to pursue our wants and desires but our needs have not changed.  Speeding up the time it takes to fulfill our needs has left us with spare time.  As a society, have we chosen to spend that time well?  I'm thinking not.  Might we be better served  as individuals, families and a society if we spent some of our spare time relearning some of the skills that kept the pioneers busy and out of trouble?  I'm thinking yes. 

I've always been interested in the food of the pioneers.  It had to be simple as it had to be gotten easily without daily trips to town.  I grew up thinking that we ate essentially the diet of the pioneers -  meat, potatoes and veggies.  Well, if game was plentiful and the veggie garden was planted on time with seed saved from last year, if the ground was good, if the predators stayed away, if it rained enough, if hurricanes, tornadoes, forest and prairie fires, grasshoppers stayed away - then the pioneer ate what I ate growing up.  Since so many starved to death, however, perhaps all did not go so well. 

http://www.history.nd.gov/

http://www.footnotesfromhistory.blogspot.com/

*Note:   Hi Jennifer and welcome to my blog!  Thank you for 'following' and I would love to 'follow' back.   You could leave a message in the comment, if you like.  Thanks again!

In order to know if we can be homesteaders, I need to know what a homesteader did.  I have a general idea but do I really know?  They obviously had to look after their essential needs and if they failed at that, it was simple - they died.  These people all came originally from another country or even a city 'back east'.  Either way, they came from a settled community where things were set up, a certain amount of infrastructure was already in place, families (and therefore a support system) existed, items available for sale in already-existing stores, churches and schools built and fully-functioning.  It had to have been a shock to them, especially the women, when they learned eventually what they had to work with - and worse, what they did not have.

  So many of these homesteaders travelled with enough of their 'luxurie' items - pianos, hutches, fancy dishes - that the wagon axles often broke from the extra burden.  Rather than hazard that happening, the extra items went overboard, literally 'ditched'.  For the women who really did not want to participate but had to because the social decree of the day demanded that they follow their husbands regardless, these items would have represented a connection to their past when they would arrive at their new home.  These items would have represented the only 'constant' in their newly ever-changing world and would have been a source of comfort and peace-of-mind.  These items may also have been irreplaceable heirlooms.

The worst item by far to be left on the trail were bodies.  Sometimes up to 2/3's of the entire wagon-train and entire families died from cholera, falls under the wagon wheels, thirst, freezing in the mountains and they had to be left behind.  People tried to bury the dead deep enough to prevent wolves, coyotes, etc from eating them.  This was hard to do when the ground was rocky, packed hard, frozen solid, etc. and the wagontrain members were thirsty, hungry, tired, cold, diseased, depressed, pregnant, etc.  People drove on, leaving their dreams buried in the ground with their children and I think I can safely guess that many would become bitter and angry forever.

Compare all of this with us renting a mover van or the van with workers and all.  If we move for our jobs, some companies hire people to pack and unpack - all we do is get ourselves there (my niece and her family were this lucky!).  And if we do have to actually move ourselves, so what?  How hard can it be?  We can stop and buy food along the way and sleep in hotels, camp in full-service campgrounds, fill up at full-service gas stations, pop into the emerg. department of any hospital if we feel sick, use the cell phone to let the real estate agent know you're on your way so he/she can meet you with the keys to your new house or let your family know about your progress.  I know, moving's still a nightmare but, in comparison...

Oregon Trail 1900

http://www.education.boisestate.edu/
It's impossible for us to recreate this aspect of the homesteader life.  There are too many laws, too much common sense and too much scientific knowledge now.  We know better than to drink from any stream unless it is first tested and we know about germs.  If we were cold, we'd be using fleece blankets and sleeping bags,  heavy winter coats with hoodies underneath, boots, mitts, scarves - you name it, we can get it.  There'd likely be a TV camera there - at the very least, camcorders, cameras, cell phones.  There would be a police escort part of the way and well-wishers.  If anything happened to our children along the way, we would be charged with murder or man-slaughter, neglect, child-abuse, child endangerment.
We simply cannot be homesteaders in this respect and I'm not so sure that's a bad thing!

Oregon ferry crossing, Kansas River

http://www.kshs.org/

http://www.zug.com/

I don't think that we can actually be 'settlers' in this day and age.  It's hard enough to find a piece of land with a bit of privacy.  Forget finding a spot that has been untouched completely unless we are interested in desert living (some people find a way to do this successfully!) or swampliving.  These seem to be the only kinds of land not being used. 

If we can no longer be settlers, can we still be homesteaders?  According to http://www.dictionary.com/:  'homesteader - squatter:  someone who settles lawfully on government land with the intent to acquire title to it.'  A squatter in the same definition as a homesteader?  Really?  I think of homesteaders with great respect and awe and I think of squatters with DIS-respect and awe-FUL.  The very same http://www.dictionary.com/ says 'squatter - a person who unlawfully occupies an uninhabited building or unused land.'  Homesteaders worked hard to tame the untamed with blood, sweat and tears.  Squatters take what isn't theirs and did not work for.  I don't think that there are too many people who aspire to be squatters but lots would love to be homesteaders!  The most famous (infamous) squatters I know of were the Black Donnellys.  Things would not have turned out as they did had the 'squatter Donnelly's' been kicked off the land properly.

Human needs do not change.  We need the same things that the homesteaders needed, we just do not need to work so hard to achieve them.  Food, water, clean air, sleep, shelter, warmth, clothing, health care, spiritual needs, light, transportation, sanitation, cleanliness and some form of entertainment.  The necessities of life do not change, only how we acquire them.  The homesteaders worked extremely hard just to stay alive.  I cannot imagine how they found time for barn dances, neighbourhood gatherings and church on Sunday.

First Pioneer Picnic, 1886, Labarge
Caledonia Main Steet 1912
Looking East
Caledonia, Kent County, Michigan
http://www.kraft-mi.org/

What Is a Settler?

I think of the words 'settler' and 'pioneer' as interchangeable but maybe they're not.  According to The Free Dictionary By Farlex, a settler is #1. Someone who settles in a new region.  and #2. One who settles or decides something.  The second sounds like a judge and the first could be anyone who has moved.  Nowadays, people are always on the move so I guess everyone's a settler.  The third definition it gives is #3. A person who settles in a new country or a colony.  I've always thought of a settler as someone who is the first ever into a new, unsettled area of land.  If you're new to a colony, that means that the colony already existed.  The colony may have been started by settlers but you were not one of them, so I can't think of you as a settler. 

I think that the difference between those who actually 'settled' the area and those who came after is massive.  Those who came first had the tough task of choosing the land and hopefully you would choose enough good land for a large group of farmers and a great spot for a crossroads (town).  If you didn't choose wisely or were too hasty, others would not join you.   They'd march on by and you'd have to close up shop and follow or go it alone on your homestead.  You'd end up having town located weeks away instead of a few days.  You didn't need town all the time but you did need to get to town occasionally.

You wouldn't do well even if you did convince others to stick around in a poor area.  They or their animals could starve or freeze to death over that first winter if they were not prepared.  Having a poor crop would help ensure that they were not prepared and it would be your fault - or be perceived to be your fault.  You would wish that they had moved on.  Cohesiveness and comradery were so essential to the settlers and they could not afford a divide.  Besides, any misfortune that befell your neighbours also befell you and your household.  Since everyone was a settler and therefore in the same boat, there was no one to help you out, no government agency to save you.  You truly were on your own.

 So it was imperative that the first family pick a good spot from the beginning...something we have lots of help with today.  Anywhere we choose to live today, someone has already lived there before or if we're building new, someone else lives somewhere near enough for us to know the general gist of the land.  We have computer maps, aerial views, previous photos, surveyor reports as well as other sophisticated scientific equipment.  It is truly impossible for us to understand what the settlers suffered through...before they even got to plant their first crops.  I think, therefore, that it's impossible for any of us 'to go where no man has gone before' and perhaps equally impossible to truly be 'settlers'.

http://www.seilifestyle.blogspot.com/

What is Homesteading?

 I've found from my foray in blogland over the past few months that, as much as I like a wide variety of blogs, my favourite by far are the homesteading blogs.  Whether the blogger is living the life or just researching and producing the occasional post makes no 'nevermind' to me.  I just enjoy the whole subject and could read on forever - too many Little House books and shows when I was young, I guess!  There are few amongst us who have not read or watched Laura's life as it unfolded and wished that we were there.

I've been wondering though, what we really know about homesteading.  After all, what have we ever done regarding this way of life besides 'read' and 'watch'?  What would we be willing to give up for this life and what would we be willing to live without?  Do we even have the knowledge of how to do it and, if not, would we know where to get the info. that's needed?  If we could not get the info., would we be willing to learn on our own, at the risk of failure?  More than anything, would we be able to simply do without?

I'm doing this bunch of posts for myself more than anything as a way of studying homesteading and learning, not because I already know lots and have the ability to teach (I don't!).  Feel free to add anything you wish along the way (do so kindly!)  So many of you have knowledge and experience that the rest of us (well, me anyway) would love to hear about.

The definition of homesteading according to wiki - "Broadly defined, homesteading is a lifestyle of simple self-sufficiency....As of 2010, the term may apply to anyone who follows the back-to-the-land movement by adopting a sustainable, self-sufficient lifestyle.  While land is no longer freely available in most areas of the world, homesteading remains as a way of life.  According to author John Seymour, 'urban homesteading' incorporates small-scale, sustainable agriculture and homemaking."

According to Wikipedia-Dictionary.com-Merriam-Webster-The Free Dictionary, homesteading is described as "1. Life as a settler on a homestead. and 2. The granting of homesteads to settlers."  Well, I think all governments have gotten past the 'handing out free land to people in exchange for them living on it' thing so that only leaves #1 - Life as a settler on a homestead.  What is that lifestyle comprised of?  What are the different elements?  What equipment and tools are needed?  What is the test for success?  What is an actual 'settler'?

http://www.edhird.wordpress.com/