Live Green: Modern Homesteading

Today’s post is a Live Green guest post from one of my favorite blogs, Little House on the Great Flats.

Hiya! I’m Chelle, and sort of nervous about writing my first guest blog post ever!

I’ve been keeping a blog since January, called Little House on the Great Flats, and it originally started as a New Years’ resolution to embrace my inner geeky nature to try to do things in a more sustainable (and slightly old-fashioned) way. The movement is called homesteading and it means something slightly different today than it did back in the 1800s.

If any of you read the Little House on the Prairie books (or watched Far and Away), you might remember hearing about The Homesteading Act of 1862, which gave 160 acres of land to any adult citizen who paid a fee and agreed to live on the land continuously for 5 years, after which they would get a deed to the land. Boy, do I wish I could take advantage of that today! It officially ended in 1976, but really informally ended in 1935, when President Roosevelt withdrew the public domain land to conserve it. It’s probably a good thing, really. They would probably all be McMansions by now!

But back in those hippie-ish days of the 1970s, thousands of young adults decided to go “back to the land” and do without what they considered the unnecessary extravagances and modernities that cluttered up the then-modern life. They bought tens or hundreds of acres of land in cheap areas of the country they could afford, built their own houses, and farmed for themselves and lived a close to subsistence living. They really wanted to live like they did in the 1800s.

Homesteading today has evolved to a slightly more complex understanding – a 21st century version which is all about self-sufficiency and having a respect for yourself and your community, the earth and the people who will come after us. It’s about green living, involving yourself in your community, eating wholesome local food, and making wiser choices to consider the impact that you have.

It doesn’t mean going back to the 1800s. My husband and I both have full time, professional jobs. We’re not living anywhere close to the subsistence level. We reside in a condo. Yup, we have no land of our own to speak of, not even a strip out in front – that’s the HOA’s land. Instead, we community garden, growing hundreds of pounds of veggies this past year, which equals saving $$ AND gives us control over the quality of what we eat. I use my Kitchen Aid mixer to make butter, make my own laundry detergent but use it in my energy star Kenmore washer, enjoy longstanding relationships with the farmers who grow my food, preserve food by canning (I have entirely too much jam in my pantry right now!), and support local businesses by trying to stay away from chain stores where possible. We’re definitely not perfect by any means, but we feel good about the footprint we’re leaving behind.

I realize we’re a little…unique would probably be the nice way to put it – but it’s something we both enjoy and feel strongly about. And I would encourage any one to do something the slow, old-fashioned way sometime soon – to enjoy the way it makes you feel, to appreciate the world as it once was and hopefully will continue to be in the future.

Recipe for petroleum-free eco-fresh powdered laundry detergent:

• 1 cup grated laundry bar soap
• 1/2 cup Washing Soda
• 1/2 cup Borax

Mix together and that’s it. This will make enough for 22-44 loads, is fine for HE washers, and cleans as well for me as Tide does.

Thanks for reading!

Thanks Chelle! Small changes can make a huge footprint difference!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe for updates!