We have memorialized a detailed approach and framework to the transition to move from the urban and sub-urban socio-economic model to a very different rural socio-economic model, but it is only for those people who are ready, willing, and (most importantly) able.
Somehow, some people have taken to calling this way of life "homesteading." We think it is better described as the resettlement of the American countryside, but "homesteading" is as good a moniker as any. We don't think that "homesteading" is anything you want it to be. We think you need a goal, a destination, and a clear objective if you are going to succeed. If your life's ambition cannot be defined, it is unclear to me how you will get anywhere. To succeed at anything, you must have a method to measure your progress.
Or you can wing it. And fail.
There is only one socio-economic "homesteading" model that is proven to work over the long term. Every other model—communes or collectives, political activists, social justice and gender warriors, rugged individualists/loners, and people dependent on government assistance (government disability), do not have any history of success to point to, let alone intergenerational success. But our model does. A family and a community define a homestead—not a goat, a couple of chickens, and a half dozen tomato plants.
Does that offend you? Well, good. Does this ring true to you? Well, that's good too. We need to make distinctions. A homesteading community is not a cult. We are not looking for bodies like a nursing home out hunting for a government check. We are looking for families and young couples with whom we can engage in cooperative interdependence. People we can build something around. People who have something to offer—now, and in the future. Because the future belongs to our children and the people who have, raise, and care for their children. No community can survive without children to take our place—for we are all mortal. Those people who have decided on a childless existence, have also decided against an investment in their own future and are not a good fit for a cooperative and interdependent community. A cooperative and interdependent community needs families.
A "homestead" is a family with resources (to get started), skills (to provide an income), and a willingness to work and to think for oneself (to reduce interference from outside forces that will keep you dependent). A homestead community is a group of families who have a bond and an allegiance to each other, and not some far off political struggle of strangers. No community can survive the poison of outside politics or grandiose efforts to change human nature. No family can endure the influence of the gender wars and victimhood.
It is not a homestead's workhorses, or cisterns, or garden that makes it work—it is the entire framework of a family cooperating within a community to provide a path to the future for the generations to come. No children means no future for the community. For no way of life can be called "sustainable" unless it accepts our mortality and develops a culture that will give future generations a culture and a way of life to hold on to. A family needs food, shelter, clothing, culture, stimulation, and tradition. A family means children. And that means someone has to provide for them and someone has to care for them—until the youngest is an adult. You will need an income—not a job or a career. Your homestead will be your career. You will need some capital to get started, and you will have a learning curve. That means you need time (youth).
What will your life be? An adventure? Or a hamster running around the suburban maize with an extra 50 or 100 lbs on your back just to make it more miserable than it already is. Because that is the current construct. It takes planning, courage, and brains to escape its clutches.
Want to know more about this way of life? Read "Prosperous Homesteading." If that doesn't scare you off you can come for a visit. Someone will be happy to show you around.
