We all know the difference between a house and a home. A house is but a mere structure, a place to hang one's hat, a roof over our head; but a HOME, ah, a home is where the heart is, it is shelter from the storm, and where we long to be when we are away. When a "house" becomes a "home", it is because we are more emotionally invested in it, having banked love, memories, and a sense of place.I have come to discover that the distance between 'home' and 'HOMESTEAD' is just as great; although the words to describe the additional investment required to transform a mere home into a homestead still escape me. "Permanence" comes to mind, as does "connectedness". After all, one doesn't start homesteading a piece of real estate they intend to leave someday (at least without a plan and a container garden), because the roots of a homestead run deep. Of course, the very word 'homestead' automatically implies growing things and an investment in the land one's "home" sits upon, even if it is a tiny suburban lot, or a condominium courtyard, or just a windowsill; when we homestead, we literally DO lay down roots. And with roots, our investment begins to yield returns - our plants feed us, our animals nurture us, our kitchens become havens of health and wellness, we require fewer resources from 'the outside world', and we generate fewer wastes in exchange. We act more 'sustainably', yet become more sustained.
If a 'home' is a state of mind, then a 'homestead' is a condition of the heart. I can't recall the exact moment my home became our homestead. Thankfully, there are no minimum requirements to meet, or any conditional checklists that must be satisfied. It does seem, though, that the common denominators uniting backyard homesteads and their enthusiasts are:*Gardening, producing a share of one's own food
*Composting as much as possible
*Collecting, storing, and reusing rainwater
*Experimenting with alternative energy
*Investing in biodiversity
*Integrating small animals into land management plans: milk, eggs and honey
*Implementing organic practices
*Learning food preservation techniques
*Eating well, using nutrition first in our healthcare practices, using medicinal herbs
*Working and sharing food and resources with our neighbors and communities
Sound complicated? It really isn't - because creating a homestead is less about what we DO than how we FEEL. At our Bohemian Homestead, my husband, Eddie, and I started simply with a small herb garden and just forgot to stop...Slowly, quite accidentally and without warning, the home evolved into a place we felt utterly connected to: complete with kids and chickens, weeds and crops, and - in keeping with our personal vision of paradise - crazy, large scale sculptures interspersed among the gardens. It is a homestead because mundane activities like taking out the compost and feeding the birds have become sacred, and because, despite all American pressures to 'be mobile', to 'move upward', we have decided that THIS is the place. ...and it sure feels GOOD:)
