A Plain Country Homestead

A loaded question, I know

What says "homestead" to you?  What kind of people make you instantly think "homesteader"?  What activities bring thoughts of "homesteading" to your mind and heart?

Homestead, homesteader, homesteading:  home·stead n.

• 1. A house, especially a farmhouse, with adjoining buildings and land.
• 2. Law Property designated by a householder as the householder's home and protected by law from forced sale to meet debts.
• 3. Land claimed by a settler or squatter, especially under the Homestead Act.
• 4. The place where one's home is.

To me, when I hear homestead/homesteader/homesteading I instantly think pioneers.  Too many years of television warping my mind I suppose.  I think of the strength of our ancestors who settled land, either themselves or for others as slaves or share farmers.  I think of all the hard work that went into simply existing day to day bak when the world was still developing and growing.  I think of the fathers, many torn from their families in times of war and conflict, standing for what they deeply believed in and willing to stand behind those beliefs with their own lives if need be.  I think of the mothers left for long times on the homestead, sometimes isolated from neighbors, sometimes lonely in the middle of a growing town, but maintaining the faith and strength of the family, waiting on her man to return.

I think of the children.  Strong children raised out of strong parents with stong faith and beliefs in God.  They did not enter into the hardship of pioneer life without faith.  It simply wasn't done back in those days.  There wasn't a 'movement' persay, but it was understood that their faith is what made them who and what they were.  Church was just a part of everyday life, as was the Bible.  That may be the only book they carried with them.  It held family histories, some from this country, most from their 'mother countries.'  The children themselves often carried names of distant kin, some dead and passed, some still alive waiting money to make the journey to a new world and new life.

I think ofthe homesteads...I know they were often not much really, but they were fought-for and special, no matter what size or condition.  Ideally, I envision a nice white farmhouse, not large in size, but practical for a large, growing family.  A barn or two, fenced pens for the assorted animals, at least one good sized garden plot, maybe even more spread out on the land around the home and barn.  A small pond nearby for stock water and maybe a picnic and fishing from time to time.  A larger home, more settled and longer in existence, shows a growing orchard, too.

I think of simple, filling lunches (what were they then?  'dinner' was lunch, 'supper' was the evening meal?)  I see a table with good food, though smaller in portion than what some are used to today.  There is an assortment of fresh vegetables, maybe a jar of jam or a bit of honey if company were joining.  A bit of meat and potatoes, and fresh bread....I can smell the ktichen work of the day!

I see a clothesline that rivals even the largest I've seen myself.  I see homespun and wool hanging over bushes, laid out of tall grasses, and hung on the line in the yard.  I hear chickens in the yard, I watch them pecking and scratching with their young.  I hear pigs in the pen, cows in the field.  Children running home from a day of school.

There really isn't much in my thoughts of country, although in my heart I see country living related to homestead life.  Many of these same visions could easily happen in a small town, a large town or a big city.  They would be slightly different, but not in ways that matter really.  Homesteading, being a homesteader, to me at least, has more to do with the heart you have than the land you live on.  It's the heart with which you live out your days.  It's a thirst for knowledge....knowledge of your past, your heritage, and knowledge of where you want to be in your life down the road. 

I guess I don't envision homesteaders spending long hours away from home, working jobs they don't find joy in.  I don't bring thoughts to mind of a homesteader sending children off to school to have free time for themselves.  I don't bring thoughts of homesteading to mind when I see men and women working to afford 'luxuries' they have rationalized out as needs when they are really just selfish wants.  I can see a homesteader in most folks simply by their attitude of life and how they relate to things in general.  Homesteaders aren't homeschoolers.  Homesteaders aren't land-owners.  Homesteaders aren't all working off their land and home for a living.  Many are, but most of us have to find our income elsewhere, and it isn't always an easy walk with our society these days brandishing new and fancy as a value system.

But in my heart, in my mind's eye of dreams and thoughts, I see a quiet family, sitting at the end of the long day, talking over the many blessings The Lord has shared with them over their day.  I see lamplight, I see an open Bible, and I see contented, blessed faces being together as a family.  Folks are happy -- maybe the day didn't go as planned, maybe something was lost or money unexpectedly used, but they are hapy with the life they have been given to live out.  They are together, they are healthy and they are a family tucked inside from the world around them for the night.

Is this really just a long-gone ideal lifestyle?  I don't think so.  In fact, I pray mightily that it isn't something lost from our grips.  I have moved too far from that ideal lifestyle, I know.  We are far more 'plain and simple' in our living than some, but the world itself has thrown out nearly all of the visions I bring to mind when I think homestead.  I long for that simple life to overtake us again and for things to become basic and cut-n-dried again.  Maybe one day.  In The Kingdom.  Soon.