I did not grow up that way. not at all. And by the time I was born, my grandmother did not live that way either, though she had a problem with her wells and eventually had to get water in milk cans and use that. Even to flush her toilet you had to pour the water into it for it to flush. No problem. But my off the grid home, that I just moved out of this year, had no running water. And yes, people can live like this, but as I got older, I found it very hard. I would wake up to a day full of chores that could have been easier and quicker with the running water, with a washing machine, with hot water coming from the faucets and I could have felt cleaner with a shower rather than a bath tub. I could not stand in the tub like my husband and son did, for any length of time to pour the water over myself to shower. I was not enjoying my life any longer. I moved in there in 1999 and out this year. I think I stuck it out as long as I could.
Homesteading at a early age
- Thread starter Sonny Barrett
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Yes the ol;der we get the harder it would be ,,, I'm glad you have yourself in the environment best for you ,,,, I'm just glad mine happened at a early age ,,, no way could I live like that now
Hello, Sonny and to you, too, Kat! I guess I never had it as rough as I thought in the Texas Hill country. We always had a regular house with running water and the other amenities. I got a glimpse of the life you shared with us though my grandma and some of the area old time ranchers. My grandma had a couple of out houses that when she got a “real bathroom” that were moved and cleaned and used as storage sheds. She kept homemade quilts that we used as bedding for an old iron bed frame. We set it outside many times in the summers and slept out. She still ironed everything with her old iron that she heated on her gas stove. I remember her chopping the heads of some of her chickens for Sunday dinners. She would build us a fire in an old iron washtub to roast wieners. I remember hog killing time in the fall.
I will have to admit yesterday
Thank you for reading ,,, definatley a different way of living but it made you appreciate every little thing in life as it came along ,,, at a young age you learned how to help your fellow neighbor , friend , or family member , everyone pulled together ,,, have a great night
when I wrote this it was harder as it went on .... all the memories , some good and some bad but the good ones outweighed the bad ones a thousand to one !!
I learned at a early age the values of working for what you get , helping family and friends , and the biggest one of all was RESPECT !! It applied to everything , your home , your family , your property , things that belong to others and most of all your country and the ones who defended it ..... as a child you learned by doing and doing it over and over until it was right ... no shortcuts , no calling somebody to come do it for you ,,, learning to go to the woods and knowing which trees to cut that were growing disformed , or enhance future growth of healthy trees . how to build things with your own two hands , repair your own tractors , cars and trucks ..... That was a trate I learned from my father , a hard working man that made things from nothing .
My mother could make meals when it looked like there was nothing , we always had chickens , lots of them , so we always had a lot of chicken and dumplings in summer and beef from the beefer my dad butcherd in the fall and potatoes ,,, lots of potatoes ,,, seems like potatoes for every meal ---- but we ate , never went without ,,, these are all "GOOD" memories . As I'm coming to the end of my time on this earth my children have learned some of these traits handed down ,, not because they needed to but because they wanted too ,,,,, making me proud of them but also proud of myself for taking time to pass this on to them....... Everyone be safe and remember anything that can be passed on by you to the younger generation will make them better , stronger adults ***** Good night for now
I learned at a early age the values of working for what you get , helping family and friends , and the biggest one of all was RESPECT !! It applied to everything , your home , your family , your property , things that belong to others and most of all your country and the ones who defended it ..... as a child you learned by doing and doing it over and over until it was right ... no shortcuts , no calling somebody to come do it for you ,,, learning to go to the woods and knowing which trees to cut that were growing disformed , or enhance future growth of healthy trees . how to build things with your own two hands , repair your own tractors , cars and trucks ..... That was a trate I learned from my father , a hard working man that made things from nothing .
My mother could make meals when it looked like there was nothing , we always had chickens , lots of them , so we always had a lot of chicken and dumplings in summer and beef from the beefer my dad butcherd in the fall and potatoes ,,, lots of potatoes ,,, seems like potatoes for every meal ---- but we ate , never went without ,,, these are all "GOOD" memories . As I'm coming to the end of my time on this earth my children have learned some of these traits handed down ,, not because they needed to but because they wanted too ,,,,, making me proud of them but also proud of myself for taking time to pass this on to them....... Everyone be safe and remember anything that can be passed on by you to the younger generation will make them better , stronger adults ***** Good night for now
All those memories have made you the person you are today. And the fact that you passed those skills and traits on to your children and grandchildren means that you will live on. Not everyone does that or gets that chance. I do not. I will have nobody to follow me. And I am fine with that.
My mother was good at stretching the food though there were only four of us, so it was not that hard to do I guess. My grandmother taught all her kids how to eat or get food when times were tough and they lived in a city. But she grew up on a farm and never lost those skills and eventually she got her own farm again.
Sonny, thank you for sharing your story with us here. I know some of those memories are hard for you to think and write about.
My mother was good at stretching the food though there were only four of us, so it was not that hard to do I guess. My grandmother taught all her kids how to eat or get food when times were tough and they lived in a city. But she grew up on a farm and never lost those skills and eventually she got her own farm again.
Sonny, thank you for sharing your story with us here. I know some of those memories are hard for you to think and write about.
very hard ,,, my mind has been doing overtime thinking back on those days ,, there are so many I can still close my eyes and see them as if I was there 50 years ago ,, scary isn't it
Welcome from Bama… similar memories but a little warmer way down south. I think I was 9 when we got an indoor bathroom with a real bathtub.
I’ve lived up in you neck of the woods a couple of different times. Once in Tonawanda and another time in a little town named LeRoy south of Rochester, its where jell-o was invented.
I’ve lived up in you neck of the woods a couple of different times. Once in Tonawanda and another time in a little town named LeRoy south of Rochester, its where jell-o was invented.
I'm about 25 miles east of Binghamton ---- 5 miles from I - 88
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Welcome to here! I loved your story...I could listen to you all day!
howdy from a east Texan .... and welcome to the forum and family...there's quite a few knowledgeable folks here that'll gladly tell ya what you need to know,or at least point ya in the right direction and/or give ya a good idea or 2..and by all means jump right on in with any replies you have on a topic
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Welcome!
Block house you were Rich!
We lived in a wood house with tin roof.
I did not know what insulation was until I was 12 years old, I had never seen it, none in the house.
We had a woodstove in the living room.
Milked cows, gathered eggs, grew vegetables every year.
Cleaned cow stalls to put in the garden, the farm was only 30 acres, but we did all grew up so how.
Butchered rabbits, chickens, pigs, bulls we took to town to be butchered.
Block house you were Rich!
We lived in a wood house with tin roof.
I did not know what insulation was until I was 12 years old, I had never seen it, none in the house.
We had a woodstove in the living room.
Milked cows, gathered eggs, grew vegetables every year.
Cleaned cow stalls to put in the garden, the farm was only 30 acres, but we did all grew up so how.
Butchered rabbits, chickens, pigs, bulls we took to town to be butchered.
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I had the best of both worlds, I use to stomp our clothes on a rock creek water ran over. But mostly when in the country if power was out as it often was, we'd go to laundry mat.Or when in city we had a washing machine. Grand daddy always kept an apartment open for us in one of his rentals. He was a farm boy who went to the city got rich during depression and never looked back. he had a job at Marrita Bread Co. and there were lots of bread lines back then. And lots of houses you could buy for pennies on the dollar. He left all of his property to his son one 5 apt house to mama and her sister.
That is a pretty neat story. I always wondered what it would be like to grow up that way as I grew up the opposite way. My dad is an electrical engineer. We always had the most modern/up-to-date technology. I had a cell phone by the time I graduated high school.
I can’t wait to learn more about your life.
I can’t wait to learn more about your life.
One thing about your story that sticks in my mind is that we lived in the same area and went to the same school, in fact, in the same class........yet our lives were so very different at the very same time. Sonny, tell us more!
Thank you ,, I'm going to try to write more on here
Yes I remember the little girl with th big dimples ,, then you went away and I seen you again briefly 8 years later then re united on FB and this forum ,,,, been friends for 60 years with with 48 years in the middle missing ,,, it's been fantastic rekindling a friendship
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yes she is !!!That is sweet Sonny.
Welcome from north of the 49th, you will find a mix of people here, some grew up as you did, others just trying to simplify life. Good folks. My B&B keeps me busy call tourist season so we will have to connect later but glad you found us
Welcome Sonny. I'm sure growing up in East Tennessee was quite different from up north.But you speaking of working the garden, building what you needed, repairing anything that needed it sure rings a bell in my memories. I'm 57 and we had electric and running water when I grew up. But I vividly recall stories of boht my parents and grandparents stories about having none of that. My granddad had just installed plumbing the year before I was born. So although I never knew any different it was quite a new thing to them. Both grandparents farmed, so did we once we got our place. Back then everyone seemed to be taskmasters in making sure we did things right. But looking back, they were more making sure we knew how to do for our self as we got older and out on our own.
I look forward to learning more from you.
I look forward to learning more from you.
My Grandma grew up on a farm and her parents had immigrated (legally, of course) from Austria in the 1880s. They were basically farmers and my great grandfather raised work horses which he used in his job in the PA coal mines, hauling coal out. So my grandmother knew how to do everything to do with farming, living with very little money and had a strong work ethic. She taught her kids how to glean fields while living the city where she worked at a shoe factory tanning hides to be used for shoes. My mother knew how to do all this too. She would tell me stories of coming home from school and getting their wood cook stove started for supper. Peeling potatoes and her and her sisters had their jobs to do and everyone just did them. They were pretty self-sufficient right there in the city. Of course back then, there was no problem with chickens in your yard or small milk goats. She sold milk, butter and eggs at her job and she grew a huge garden which included berry bushes, apple trees and a peach tree. In the city. It inspires me to think of how she lived so much better off when she was what was then considered poor. But her later years having a farm out in the country which was a non working one and she had gotten older, she was still poor.The difference was that she could not produce all that food to live on or to sell due to her age and none of her children wanted to live there. I wish I had been into this lifestyle then, maybe I could have lived with her and she could could have taught me but helped her in the end years of her life.
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Being a Yankee I had my doubts about ya until I noticed that yure named Sonny, kinda partial to that name myself.
we musta had differnt mother's together. I figger there arnt too many of us Sonny's out thare so I guess we need to stick up fer eachother.
All seriousness aside Welcome bro.
we musta had differnt mother's together. I figger there arnt too many of us Sonny's out thare so I guess we need to stick up fer eachother.
All seriousness aside Welcome bro.
Homesteading is not for an older couple with no kids and grand kids that is for sure. Farming in general is very demanding and warrants help quite often. It seems that the successful farmers or homesteaders have a larger family that will come to the aid of the older generation when needed. When you have to work with that big buck boer goat or push some cattle around or separate the calves from their mother you better have some help. With no help, at some point you will end up needing to move into suburbia and give up your preparedness lifestyle. If your kids grow up and move away to work in the city you can kiss the lifestyle goodbye. Even 20 acres can get to be too much to maintain and you will be forced to downsize. I guarantee that 300 acres would become unmanageable.
