Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast

Episode 219

Redefining the Modern Homestead

Self sufficiency, tiny homes, sustainability, renewable energy, or simple self reliance, are all things we hear about more and more these days. Personally I am happy to see this level of interest in self reliant living because it is the focus of so much of my life. 

While its exciting to talk about theses things, for so many people that is exactly where it stops. Nearly 80% of our population now lives in urban areas, and that percentage is increasing every year. If you are one of those people that does not have acreage or you cannot live in a rural area it is still possible to create a small homestead. In todays world, the modern homestead truly needs to be completely redefined. 

So join me for E219 Redefining the Modern Homestead. 

Welcome back everyone to the Adventures in Sustainable Living podcast. This is your host Patrick and this is E219 Redefining the Modern Homestead. 

My last episode was all about finding your personal path to self reliance. This week’s episode is more or less a continuation of that same theme. I am simply going to focus on the one big question that so many people have, “What is modern homesteading?” Or “How can I have a homestead when I live in the city?”  

Good News Story of the Week

But before we get to that I want to share the good news story of the week since it is something that touches very close to home with me. 

I am sure that most of us have heard the phrase “Use it or lose it.” For example, if you know a foreign language and you never use it, sooner or later you are going to lose that ability. Well, as it turns out, the same is true with our brains. 

According to a new study conducted at Rush University, visiting friends, going to parties, attending church, and even community bingo games keeps your brain healthy and active and may prevent or delay dementia in old age. 

Dr Bryan James, PhD, associate professor of internal medicine at Rush states that in this study they show that the least socially active older adults develop dementia 5 years earlier than the most socially active. This is because social activity strengthens neural circuits in the brain, making them more resistent to the buildup of pathology that occurs with age. Social behavior activates the same areas of the brain involved in thinking and memory. In addition a 5 year delay in dementia onset is estimated to add an additional three years of life. 

Well, I guess this adds a new dimension to the phrase “Use it or lose it.” Dementia is  a very slow, undignified way to die that I personally witnessed in one of my family members. I will always remember that experience and that is one of the reasons I continue to challenge myself all the time, always thinking, always learning.

So, that said, let’s move on to this week’s episode. 

If you remember from my last episode Finding Your Personal Path to Self Reliance, I said the best thing you can do for yourself is to start where you are. What that means is that each of us has a different starting point because our individual circumstances are unique. Our individual skills are unique. The person that has lived in an urban area most of their life has a different starting point than someone who has been farming or homesteading for 10 years. 

But I also said in my last episode, given the world we live in today, I feel that being self reliant is even more important. Part of being self reliance is of course providing yourself with as much food as you can no matter where you live.  That said, someone who lives in an urban area has a much different living situation than I because I live on acreage in the middle of the forest. It is easy for me to say that I have a homestead because I have enough room for a big greenhouse, a chicken barn, a solar array, and many other things. But what do you do if you live in an apartment or flat. 

Now perhaps this episode is a little over kill related to what I discussed last week but I truly wanted to emphasize that it is possible to be a little self sufficient no matter where you are living.  But when you talk about homesteading, most people’s thoughts automatically go to living on a farm somewhere, raising chickens, rabbits, having a large garden or whatever. 

However, our society and culture is just not what it used to be. Nearly 80% of us now live in urban areas. And maybe that’s great for a lot of reasons. But when you live in an area where there is a high concentration of people, it is even more important to be self sufficient to some degree. That is why we need to start thinking of the modern homestead in a little bit of a different way, meaning we need to redefine this concept. 

I have often said that my life at the cabin is a good marriage between old country wisdom and modern technology. That is a good way to think about modern homesteading. It involves integrating traditional homesteading principles with modern technology and sustainable living practices. In day-to-day life that means taking the old ways and making them more efficient using tools and technologies from the world we are in today.  By doing so individuals and families are able to pursue a more self sufficient and environmentally conscious lifestyle regardless of whether they live in an urban area or somewhere more rural. 

If you think about it homesteading simply emphasizes self sufficiency, mindful use of resources, and environmentally conscious practices. It includes growing and preserving food, raising livestock, and utilizing renewable energy. Such a lifestyle focuses on conservation, food security, regenerative farming practices, and waste reduction. It also involves water purification, composting, home canning, recycling, up cycling and other sustainability practices. 

But here’s the reality. What works for me may not work for you. I will never have a fruit orchard at the cabin because of climate limitations. But someone that lives in a warmer climate can do that. We have a very nice barn where we raise chickens and turkeys. If you live in an urban area most likely you will only have a few chickens. It would be extremely difficult to raise large livestock at the cabin, not to mention having to contend with large predators. Someone living at a much lower elevation on a ranch could easily do this. 

Think of it this way. If you are trying to be more self sufficient you don’t have to do it all. Take advantage of other people’s resources and abilities. For example, we can’t really raise large livestock at the cabin. But we can buy a whole animal from someone who raises livestock, process the animal ourselves and have a freezer full of farm raised organic meat. That is exactly what we do when we go to a ranch in eastern Colorado and buy a whole elk. If you can’t have an orchard or a large garden then go to the farmer’s market and buy in bulk. Just because you can’t grow these things yourself doesn’t mean you can’t buy in bulk and do home canning. 

The reality is that each of our circumstances are unique. But that does not prevent us from being creative and cashing in on what we can do. That’s the benefit of our modern technology. Take what works for you, mix and match as needed and create your own personal version of self sufficiency, aka your modern homestead. 

So starting thinking in terms of old ways, new technology. This is what allows you to practice homestead values while working a full time job and living in an urban area. You can still use a dehydrator, a pressure canner, a tractor, and power your home from renewable energy. Taking advantage of modern technology simply decreases the work load so that you can live a homesteading lifestyle without necessarily having the time to do what it took a hundred years ago. 

For some people this may be a rooftop garden, a small urban chicken coup, composting, or simply focusing on zero waste. The point here is that there is no right way to have a modern homestead. It is more about reconnecting with nature and focusing on self sufficiency while also adapting to the culture and climate we now have in our modern world. 

Despite the fact that modern technologies and modern amenities allows us to completely avoid the homesteading lifestyle there is another aspect to doing this that so many people over look. You don’t have to develop a homesteading lifestyle out of necessity. You can do it just for the fun of it or to gain some personal satisfaction out of providing some things for yourself. 

Let’s face it, with the world we live in today we can have fresh fruit and veggies in the middle of the winter. I don’t have to can apples to make a homemade pie in December. I don’t have to grow and can tomatoes to make a nice marinara sauce in February. All I have to do is go to the supermarket and spend a few dollars and I can have what I want anytime I want. 

But let me say this. There is not way to compare the taste of a home grown chicken egg to what your purchase in the supermarket. It is just not the same thing.  If you eat beef, try  purchasing organic farm raised meat instead of the factoring farming meat you get in the supermarket. The taste difference is incredible. Make homemade pasta sauce from home grown tomatoes and you will experience a whole new taste sensation. Flavor your meals with homegrown herbs instead of store bought and you will experience a slice of heaven. There is absolutely no comparison to cooking a meal made from homegrown ingredients instead of commercially grown and processed foods. You have no idea what you are missing out on until you try it. 

So maybe modern homesteading is urban homesteading. That might mean your backyard, your porch, a patio, a balcony, or a small container garden. In most cases, if it will grow in the ground it will grow in a pot, a bag, or some other small container.  

You just have to think in terms of being a little self sufficient with what you have now. Don’t wait for that idealistic small farm or tiny home that everyone is excited about because of all the social media posts. Get busy and learn some skills and get some basic experience and expand as you learn more. After all, the techniques and skills involved in producing your own food are not difficult. But, it does require some of your time and work of course. You need to get some experience and know exactly what you are in for so that when that idealistic place is on your radar you will be ready to go. 

And allow me to reiterate that you have to start somewhere, so just do it. Start with a small herb garden on a window sill, maybe a very small hydroponics set up. Start with things that are easy to grow such as lettuce, green onions, tomatoes, maybe some peppers. Learn a little about renewable energy and start with a small project. There are numerous small solar electric plug and play systems on the market these days. That is the benefit of modern technology. 

Now it may be easy to look at my present lifestyle and say “It must be nice.” But you must know that I started with nothing, meaning raw land. I actually lived in a tent the first 5 months on the homestead. Then I moved into the cabin with nothing more than a wood stove and a propane cooker and kerosene lanterns. Then came the gas lights, the root cellar, the storage shed, the woodshed, the solar array. It was literally a long slow progression that happened over the course of ten years. I was always learning, trying new things, experiencing grand successes and dismal failures. But I did it and I am still doing it. I am still learning new things even today. 

Now there is one thing I would say concerning our modern technology. It is nice to have but do not become completely dependent on it. Don’t forget the value of simple skills. A great example is our modern GPS that we have in vehicles and in our phones. We use this almost daily just to find things, to make it quicker to get somewhere. But do you really know how to navigate without it? If you were left with nothing, could you figure out the four directions, north, south, east and west. And why is that even important? Can you even read and use a compass? 

From a common sense perspective, knowing basic navigation is a must just to find your way around. As far as the homestead is concerned, knowing the four directions is important when planting a garden and deciding what to put where.  It is crucial when setting up a solar array. As far as your home is concerned, knowing which way is south is important if you are going to build a sunroom and take advantage of passive solar heating. Knowing the four directions with give you a better idea where to plant trees to shade the house and keep it cooler. So yes there is value in knowing the four directions. Yet this is simple everyday knowledge that most people just do not have because they do not think it is valuable. 

So, at the end of the day, what exactly is modern homesteading? 

More than likely there are still places in the world where people can set out into the wilderness and build a cabin from scratch, set up a homestead, and basically live off the land without any outside influence. And yes that is possible but it would indeed be a hard life. 

Modern homesteading is a bit different. You may embrace traditional ways to grow your own food, preserve it and live close to the land. But you can also incorporate modern tools and technology to make things easier. For example, using a dehydrator or a pressure canner to preserve food. 

Urban homesteading requires some adaptation. For example, roof top gardens, small chicken coups, small scale composting and focusing on zero waste. Modern homesteaders can greatly reduce their impact on the planet by using renewable energy. But at the same time these homesteaders may even have full time professional jobs while growing a great deal of their own food and raising chickens. In other words, modern homesteaders may not need to go back to the land. They may be able to stay right where they are and balance self sufficiency and sustainability with modern life. That is modern homesteading. 

Now I want to close out this episode with a short discussion about carbon footprint since this episode is about homesteading and leading a more environmentally friendly lifestyle. 

At this point, surely most of us are familiar with the concept of carbon footprint. Very simply put, a carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases that are generated by our actions.  This may include the energy we use, the food we eat, the waste we produce, the amount of electricity we use. For example, the 3000 square foot home is going to have a far greater carbon footprint than a 500 square foot off-grid cabin.

So the question is whether or not your carbon footprint an accurate assessment of your total impact on the environment? 

Very simply put…..NO!

While the concept of a carbon footprint is valid to some degree, it is a distraction from the whole picture. We need to focus more on our entire lifestyle. Emma Pattee, who is a freelance climate journalist,  wrote an article about forgetting your carbon footprint, used a great example. The following example is credited to her. 

One person lives in a studio apartment and works from home. The other person flies for work once a week. On the surface, and by using the carbon footprint calculator, it is quite obvious that the person flying once a week has a far greater impact on the environment. But here is the thing you don’t see. The person that flies once a week is a climate scientist that travels to different countries teaching people about the dangers of climate change. The person that works from home produces promotional ads for a major oil conglomerate. So, who is the one that actually produces the greater environmental impact?

And that brings up a great point when it comes to homesteading and why you are interesting in doing this. Whatever it is that you do, you have to consider your real life environmental impact. 

Well folks that’s about it for this week. I hope you have enjoyed this episode and will join me again next week. Until then, this is your host Patrick signing off. Always remember to live sustainably because this is how we build a better future.