Homesteading in the City?

**Lylac** · 10-20-2005, 10:48 AM

Hello all,
New here, and I am wondering if anyone tries to homestead in their life while living in a less-rural area? I can't have animals and such, but I am interested in many aspects of homesteading and would love to know your thoughts.

I don't know how to sew or do knitting or quilting and would love to learn those wonderful abilities.

I have done canning, but didn't do any this summer.

What are some ways I can homestead in the city?

Thank you, Lylac

**Darlene** · 10-20-2005, 11:21 AM

Good question, Welcome!
To me homesteading means doing more for yourself.
~ homemade baking, mending of clothing, finding new ways to make things last or do a job better.
~Container gardening or shopping at the farmers market and then saving what you've grown.

Next...

**homesteadmamma** · 10-20-2005, 11:22 AM

I homesteaded in a city of 700,000 for a number of years before we moved to the country. There are many things you can do - the very first is READ, READ, READ.

~Storey's Basic Country Skills
~Self-sufficient Life and How to live it by John Seymour
~Reader's Digest Back to Basics
~Carla Emery's book Encyclopedia of Country Living

Find one area your really interested in. For our family is was to try and be has self-sufficient as we could, so we started with food. That meant learning to garden, compost, how to can and preserve the harvest, going totally organic when we gardened. There is so much to learn in just this area alone.

Next I took some quilting classes and learnt how to quilt. Along with that I taught myself how to sew so that I could make many of the items we wear.

From there it just expanded.

There are many who homestead and live in the city all their lives. Is it a bit harder, yes because of all that surrounds a person in city living. However it can be done - were living proof of it. I wouldn't trade my life in the country now for anything.

**jlxian** · 10-20-2005, 01:57 PM

I agree --- self-sufficiency is the basic definition. There are many areas you can work on for self-sufficiency --- gardening, canning, sewing, alternative energy use (passive solar comes to my mind), to name a few.

Even though we live in the country on several acres my family is not able to pursue much more self sufficiency than gardening right now because we work full time. But every little bit towards self sufficiency is helpful.

**forestdale** · 10-20-2005, 02:37 PM

Hi Lylac, welcome to the village.

I really like your name.

I believe that homesteading is more a state of mind than a location. It's becoming independent from the mainstream and learning the skills you need to do as much for yourself as you can. You have to decide what those things will be for you and then set about doing them. There are lots of library books that will help, and read the threads here too. They hold a treasure trove of information.

Good luck on your journey. It's interesting territory.

**Michele Annette** · 10-20-2005, 04:09 PM

Welcome Lylac! I second what everyone else has said!

We live in an apartment and I can't wait for us to become more self sufficient as well. We have tried a garden here, plenty of room, but there isn't enough sun. So in the meantime I quilt, sew, cook from scratch, can and many other things until we can own our own place. Have fun learning all there is in self sufficiency!

**Valerie in WA** · 10-20-2005, 05:44 PM

I've been lurking on this forum for quite some time, wondering exactly how to 'qualify' as a homesteader. I knew it's something that interests me, but I wasn't sure exactly what it meant here.

May I suggest that this statement from Rhonda by 'stickied':

I believe that homesteading is more a state of mind than a location. It's becoming independent from the mainstream and learning the skills you need to do as much for yourself as you can. You have to decide what those things will be for you and then set about doing them.

I'm not much of a 'joiner' but I'll be hoping over the 'join our club thread' right now.

**DaisyLady** · 10-21-2005, 05:03 PM

We used to live in a rural area and even though we have not moved we find ourselves living in the city! Our small township was swallowed up by an amalgamation of several big cities and a couple of townships.

As homesteaders, that meant that we no longer had as much control over the way we use our property. We can no longer even have chickens.

So, we continue to practice homesteading much the way others in this thread have described. For us, the biggest challenge has been to try and support our local farmers by purchasing their products when in season and then storing the food ourselves.

We have also committed to energy, water and resource conscious.

We still have a dream of one day moving out of this city and becoming even more self sufficient.