What is a survival homesteader?

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When I created The Survival Homesteader, I started with a plan that was basically tell people about self reliance, self sufficiency and modern homesteading ideas. With that in mind, I brainstormed for a couple of days on a name and a few ideas and created a website. Since then, I have been trying to write articles and put out information that could help others.

With all that going on, I never stopped to think about the name of my site. Yesterday, I was listening to someone talking about site creation and who a site creator should serve, when this little voice started asking me, ”What is a survival homesteader?” After some thought, and a couple of cups of coffee, I had a definition that was worth the question.

A survival homesteader is a person that lives in a world in which there is always a potential for danger. Our eyes have been opened to what is going on in the world around us. We suddenly understand the reality that lives and dreams can be snuffed out in an instant. We see what is happening in society and it has left us uneasy.

We may be forced for a while to live in two worlds: the one in which we want to live with our families and the one in which we are forced into that seems increasingly darker. We continue to work our jobs, which never made us happy. We try to figure out ways in which we can be closer to home. We start trying to pay off debts because we see our economy is going down the toilet.

We decide we don’t like the idea of a company infecting our corn with fish genes so it will be able to survive being sprayed with Roundup, so we start our own gardens and can our own vegetables. We realize our homes aren’t safe, so we buy weapons that will help us protect them. We see our economy get worse, so we decide to buy silver and gold to try and protect what wealth we have.

We learn to grow gardens, and raise some kind of livestock. We look for ways to keep them safe from others that might want to take them from us. We try to create sustainability in our lives. Even though we see a violent world around us, we look to a higher power in hopes that it can get better. At the same time, we prepare for it to get worse.

Many of us strive to create a life in which we no longer have to depend on others to help us. We see jobs continuing to disappear and work to make something that will help us if our job goes away. We learn to barter, we learn to sell some of the things we grow and we strive to be independent, to gain some level of freedom most people can no longer understand.

Sometimes we are looked on with scorn and pity, yet we pity the ones that look at us that way because they can’t understand. Our independence makes us different. The way we see the world makes others think we are kooks. That’s alright though, because we don’t have to live like they do anymore. Let them think we are crazy for our beliefs. We see something they are afraid of. We have decided to face those things that others fear head on. We make no excuses, admit our mistakes and take comfort in knowing we are not victims. We are survivors.

That is where we stand and that is why I created The Survival Homesteader. Eventually, it will be a community for the people that are, or wish to be, free and independent.

For those of you that have just found TSH, welcome. For those that keep coming and checking out what I have to say, thanks. I hope this article helps to solidify what it is you want in your life. If this article, or any other article on TSH has helped you, let me know.