Some Urban Homesteader Is Living In A Bucolic Cabin On A Roof In Manhattan

Flying above New York City in a helicopter can be a beautiful thing, until you look down and see that someone has stolen and is living your dream life in a bucolic cabin on a rooftop in the West Village. Is there anything more enviable in the real estate racket of NYC than a house on a regular old apartment building's roof? Sonnets should be written about this shit. Ballads composed and sung... from other, lesser rooftops. The dichotomy of country and city right there, together, and yet still so close to mass transit and Starbucks. From the safety of the sidewalk you'll continue to live on in blissful ignorance, seeing only this as you pass by the building on Greenwich Street:

From up above, however, you'll discover a picturesque cabin that looks like it belongs in a horror flick, or maybe a Lifetime Christmas special. Someone comes home to this. Someone comes up from the dirty city streets, kicks their shoes off, uncorks some rosé, and drinks it straight from the bottle while walking around barefoot in that fresh grass.

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Living the good life in town and city

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Growing your own food and living the good life of a homesteader is, all too often, associated in the minds of most people with living in the country, the sticks, the boonies. This is a fallacy, however, for it is a mindset rather than being dependent on location.

True, it is easier, to some degree, to do it in the boonies, especially if you have a home with a little – or more than just a little – land. That does not mean, however, that living in town has to prevent you from living it; at least to some degree.

“Living the good life” of a homesteader, as said, is dependent on your mindset much more than it is on your location and it also does not just and only mean growing your own food.

Growing your own food, or at least part of it, while being the main stay, so to speak, of living the good life, is only part of living the life of a homesteader, whether in the boonies or the city. Self-reliance in everything, as fas as this is possible and feasible, is the name of the game, and I say deliberately self-reliance and not self-sufficiency as the latter is impossible to achieve, ever, on your own.

There is more, much more, to living the life of a homesteader, whether in the country or town, than just growing your own food.

Making do with what you have got and making things you want and need as much as possible yourself is, and always has been, a very large part of it, as was and is reusing, repurposing and upcycling things that others regard as waste, be that tin cans, glass jars, bits of paper, string, rubber bands, card or pallet lumber, to name but a few. Much more than that can be reused, repurposed and upcycled and our parents and grandparents, and not just in the country, did just that. Everyone, in fact, bar the very rich, was doing it.

It is very much a mindset and one that we must redevelop for the good of the Planet and for our very survival on this Planet. Like then it also can and will save money but it will do more than just that. It will allow us to live a much more fulfilled life and it will save vital resources on a global scale. The good life is about that too.

All too often the other aspects of what makes up homesteading are forgotten and not only when being considered for an urban or suburban environment. Too many eco-warriors are still in a consumer mindset rather than one of producer.

We have to learn once more to make and produce things for ourselves, with the resources to hand, rather than popping to the stores for everything, even if the things we look at buying are ethically produced, are “green”, etc.

An old friend of mine, now sadly deceased, was a great example of a homesteader in an urban setting. He lived in an apartment but canned all manner of things for his pantry and made much for himself, including clothes, and much more besides.

While I know that he would have much rather have preferred to live in a shack in the mountains the fact that he did not did not let it stop him from pursuing his dream of self-reliance and self-sufficiency, as far as possible, in town and that very successfully.

It can be done and do it we must.

© 2013

The Rurbanite

Homesteading in the suburbs and the city

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

If you were wellies, grow some of your own food and live the life of a homesteader while living in the city or suburbs then you are a rurbanite.

While it may sound strange to some who equate homesteading with life in the boonies a homestead can be established anywhere, including the urban jungle. In fact, it has to be done, and if you do it then this new term applies to you, or you could say “urban homesteader”, but that is a bit long and does not sound so good.

Rurbanite is a new word, obviously, and one that has not, as yet, made it into the Oxford Dictionary. It is a composite of ruralite and urbanite thus becoming rurbanite. One could define it as a person living the rural dream in the city.

That urban homesteading is possible and can feed an entire family from the back- and the front yard, with produce to spare, has been proven especially by Jules Dervaes and his family, who runs a website and business called “Urban Homestead”.

Even in the smallest of spaces it is possible to grow some food and the homesteader mindset can be applied everywhere especially with regards to reuse and repurposing and make do and men, as I discussed in “Every home a homestead” and “Does a homestead have to be in the country?” and a number of others.

The homesteader mindset on all subjects and levels can and must become the norm for all of us and be applied everywhere in order for us to become more sustainable and reduce our impact on the Planet.

We have only this Planet but especially those of us in the developed world live a life that, actually, requires the resources of around three and that just does not compute and is not sustainable.

Join the revolution and become a rurbanite, if you live in the suburbs and the towns; an urban homesteader.

© 2013

Does a homestead have to be in the country?

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Everywhere, almost, where we look when the word homestead and homesteading is mentioned it is done so in the same breath with country and countryside.

Now does this mean that you can only homestead in the boonies, on some property in the sticks? Can you only live the “good life” in the country?

To all intents and purposes a homestead can be anywhere, really. It depends on how one defines “homesteading” and “homestead” and the good life can be lived in suburbia as much as in the boonies, only it is on different scales.

Depending on where you live, which country and state, you may owner-build your home and thus can create a homestead even in the suburbs and even in town. As said, it is all a question of scale and perception.

It obviously depends on the local ordinances and rules as to what you can do and those you need to consider before acquiring a flock of hens for the backyard for instance or digging up the front garden to grown food.

Some local ordinances, we all know, are stupid in the extreme, such as where it is a felony to do rainwater harvesting for use in the garden and elsewhere. How come that someone, apparently, owns the rights to the water coming from your roof? The problem is, however, that if you break such laws you can be called to account for it. Therefore do check first as to what you can and cannot do.

In Britain, even though central government decreed, basically, that it is supposed to, now, be a right to be able to install PV panels or small wind turbines, the local authorities still insist that you go through the planning process and more often than not will refuse permission, despite of the fact they should grant it.

There are ways that you can “homestead” anywhere and much of it is a case of what you perceive as homesteading and homestead, as I have said already. A home with some garden space for growing food can be a urban or suburban homestead, no problem. And if your backyard (and front lawn) is not enough for your food growing requirements see whether you can get an allotment plot.

Anyone can can, and the double can is intended. Home canning, in jars; making preserves and jams; drying herbs and fungi; etc. is all homesteading, wherever this may happen.

Reducing your food miles, and otherwise your impact in the Planet too is homesteading.

When you put your mind to reusing and repurposing and even upcycling items of waste into usable and even saleable things then you are also homesteading, at least as far as I, and many others, are concerned.

When you go wild food foraging in countryside and urban parks then you are also homesteading, as far as I am concerned.

Homesteading is not just for the countryside and the boonies; homesteading is possible (almost) anywhere and everywhere.

© 2011