Practical Blog Post #7 - Homesteading/Community

Last blog we presented to you our Secondary Support Systems and discussed the use of electricity and fossil fuels within a paradigm of Deep Sustainability. There is still one topic, or theme, that I will present , this topic/theme is Homesteading.

I have found that a good dictionary, showing the historical roots and old usages of words, can shed light on the essence that those words were originally intended to convey. 'Homestead' is a compound word of two parts, 'Home' we all know the meaning of and its essence has not changed significantly over the centuries. 'Stead', according to Websters, is akin to the older word "Standon", which is old English for 'to stand'. The word, 'stead' also implies 'place', so Home Stead leads to Home Place, as well as Home Stand. To be 'Stead Fast' can mean 'to be fixed firmly in place'. 'Stead' also leads us to the word 'steady' which is 'to be direct or certain in movement'. All this dictionary work helps to form a picture of what Home Steading is in general and what it requires from us in particular. I have come to think of Home Steading as Home Standing, that is, growing and building a Home Place where we can Stand Strongly, with Steady purpose and direction.

There are a number of factors working against Standing Strongly in our Home Place in the modern world. A primary one is the cost of property ownership, that is, land with or without a house already built upon it. High cost, by itself, leaves many people renting their Home Places. However, even when renters follow the rules of their landlords and pay their rent on time, they remain subject to having their lease left unrenewed upon expiration, having to start over, finding and creating a new home somewhere else. When people are able to purchase the property needed to create their own home, it is often with the burden of a mortgage. Although they are called 'homeowners', those with mortgages, are actually leasing to own from their lending financial institutions. Opening up that dictionary again, we find that 'MortGage' is a combination of 'mort', meaning 'death' (as in mortuary), and 'gage', an old form of 'pledge'. So, to take on a 'mortgage' can be understood as making a 'Death Pledge', and obligation that will be met just before one dies, or one in which the mortgager dies in the course of trying to meet its' conditions. Having a financial institution hold interest in a piece of property can also lead to an overemphasis on 'property value'. Constant thinking about 'potential resale value' undermines peoples' ability to create a true Home for themselves. Finally, property taxes can form another barrier and burden to Home Steading, especially when rates are allowed to be raised at the whim of county officials.

I will offer two examples of Home Steading as I have defined it, people standing strongly in their Home Place with Steady purpose and direction. Both examples are actually communities and that may be a lesson for us. Seems to be that it is more difficult to Stand Strongly as an individual, or even as a nuclear family unit, than as an intentional community (one with a common purpose), or an extended family clan, as once was the tradition. Common Stead, or Community Home Stead, may actually be a better term to describe these places, and a better long-term goal for us aspiring Home Steaders.

The first positive example of people Standing Strongly in their Home Place is that of the Old Order Amish. I have mentioned this group before, and I believe many of you are already familiar with them. What I will add about the Amish to what I have already stated before, is that they clearly have very strong convictions that they all share together. Whether or not we are on the outside sharing those same convictions is less important than us seeing the power of common vision to hold a community together. In my past studies of Amish ways, I learned that the primary reason that they do not bring electricity into their houses, even though an available grid is often nearby, is because they do not want to be 'connected' to the outside world. What I find most interesting about Amish practices, is that despite going clearly against all modern ideas of what it takes to be 'successful', they are one of the only farming people today who are actually succeeding, economically. The Amish are doing so well following their own traditional guidelines, that they are expanding their Home Places and buying with cash, in full, the properties of adjacent farmers, non-Amish farmers who have failed financially following conventional modern guidelines.

The second example of a People Standing Strongly in their Home Place is that of the Ancient Pueblos of New Mexico. I will focus on the one closest to our own family home here in Taos, the Taos Pueblo. People began settling here and creating a Home Place for themselves around 1000 years ago, making Taos Pueblo one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in all of North America. Life today at this Pueblo appears to be very similar to how it may have been at the beginning. Similar to the Amish, and perhaps even stricter, Taos Pueblo has accepted very few modern innovations within its' old walls: clear glass for windows, kerosene for task lighting, propane for some of the cooking, occasionally a car is allowed access to the plaza. Water is still drawn directly from Red Willow Creek, which flows down from their sacred Blue Lake. Space-heating is done primarily through the burning of pinon (pinyon) and juniper firewood taken from their own Forest. Bread continues to be baked in hornos, round wood-fired ovens located just outside either of the two apartment complexes. Perhaps most importantly, the ancient rituals and religious practices continue. Dances and feast days are scheduled throughout most of the year and religious service in underground 'kiva' chambers is still required of all men. Taos Pueblo has shown an extraordinary sense of steady conviction and purpose in keeping to their old ways, despite strong, sometimes hostile, pressure from the outside world to change.

With best wishes for Strength and Steady Endurance in your own Home Places.