Homestead Where You’re Planted
I ran across the Dervaes’s website some time ago, but this video is new to me. I find their urban homestead fascinating. I know a lot of folks wish they could move to the country, but watch this and be inspired at how this family uses just 1/10 of an acre to grow much of their own food plus sell some to local restaurants. On their website they tell more about other ways they live frugally. This quote is from their site:
No race can prosper till it learns there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.
~ Booker T. Washington ~
We put up a clothesline just last week to cut down on the expensive propane use. We bought small fans to keep from running the air conditioner too much. We are planting a garden. Are you making any changes in how you live this summer?
(Bonnet tip to Chris Ortiz for the video.)
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:11 am
The Dervae’s are an inspiration and my garden is slowly overtaking lawn, I am currently looking for a few “quiet” chickens, there is a corner of my yard I think I can hide them in. Quail are also a possibility…one project at a time my wife says.
One Booker T. quote deserves another.
“All races that have reached success and have influenced the world for righteousness have laid their foundation at one stage of their career in the intelligent and successful cultivation of the soil ; that is, have begun their free life by coming into contact with earth and wood and stone and minerals. Any people that begins on a natural foundation of this kind, rises slowly but naturally and gradually in the world.”
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:08 am
Thank you for sharing this video. It is very inspirational. We are blessed to have an acre in a suburb and we can really work this land if we get busy. It will be tricky with the heat so we also have our share of research to do.
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:18 am
Isn’t that an interesting video?? I watched it the other day and was really amazed at how productive a piece of land can truly be when properly cultivated.
My Mom and I turned our suburban side yard into a garden plot this year. We were joking that next year we’ll turn the backyard into a cornfield. Okay, maybe not…
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Couldn’t see the video, but just reading about their productivity is inspiring. Thanks for the link.
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:43 am
Isn’t that Dervaes family amazing?!! When I read their blog and see what they’ve done I feel like we’re just wasting our land. We are planting our very first vegetable garden this year. My wonderful husband built a raised bed for it right in the back yard. We have 2.65 acres to play with and the only drawback is the rocky New England soil, but we do have a nice compost pile going and lots of neighbors with cows and horses who can supply us with manure. We already have a small flock of chickens for eggs and a guinea for tick control. We’d like to do the pastured poultry but that’s in the works. I can only do so much physical labor with my bad back, but I make up for it with ambition and ideas.
We normally really heavily on fans during the hot, humid NH summer season. A/C is always a last resort. I hate the closed-in feeling. After waiting all winter to get the windows open there’s no way I’m shutting up the house again!
You can come up with creative ways to keep cool. Ice cold footbaths are great! We ran out of heating oil just before the time to shut the thermostat down for the warm weather and it cost us over $1000 to fill the tank. One. Thousand. Dollars. We are seriously thinking woodstove.
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:33 am
Mmm, Ideas? Well, we will be working on the backyard in fact..but to create a new play area for the kids. We don’t have the budget to go crazy, and so I have a lot of ideas taken from a website called “The Dollar Stretcher”. I’m looking forward to building our own gigantic sandbox for all my little diggers. It is amazing how much we waste with what is around us. I had to smile though, and say that I’m happy with my new washing machine…that is NOT by hand!! It does save money in time and water. I’ve also purchased a “pullman loaf pan”, which I had never heard of before. The cost is around $50-, but it can make a perfectly rectangular 16″ sandwhich loaf of bread. It comes with a lid that aids in the shaping. We love it. I think just asking ourselves “how can I best use that?” has helped too. A very wonderful book that I love is called “Stories of Thrift for Young Americans”, which was written in 1915, but is significant to our time.
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:39 am
We just put up a clothesline this week too! I love looking out the window and seeing all the colors in the backyard now. Although, as I look out right now there are some birds using it as a perch…this could be a problem.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:10 pm
I expanded the garden some. Our raspberry bushes are everywhere, cherry tree is blossoming finally, and our strawberry plants are getting pulled because they’re trying to take over the back yard. We finally got in a watering system. If everything goes well this year, I plan to double my garden next year. That’s not too impressive, considering it’s really not that big of a garden, but you have to start somewhere.
We’re trying to finish the basement this year. If that goes well I hope to rip out half the grass next year. We have a large front yard and I’m sick of watering that lawn.
May 24th, 2008 at 12:02 am
WOW. “Inspiring” just doesn’t do that justice! I am amazed.
Today we excavated, leveled, and brought in garden soil (ouch $$…but we live on dirt that’s like a gravel pit, so what can one do?). We already have 3 raised beds (4′ x 8′) outside the kitchen window, but the new Lower Garden is 35′ x 43′!!! Wahoo! We plan to grow every veggie we eat, except for corn and avocados.
I am also looking into year-round gardening, which will be nothing short of a challenge here in the Northwest, but is seeming more and more necessary as years and “technology” go by.
That video certainly gets the wheels a’turning. Thanks for posting it!
May 26th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Very amazing… In Oregon, it would be interesting to see what types of things would grow as the weather is so unpredictable.
May 30th, 2008 at 7:07 am
WOW! I came across this post from the Engstrom family. I had to watch it twice. It gave me inspiration. We live in town and have always had a small graden, but wow the posibilities! We have a big back yard just in grass. So now, almost 1/2 of it is garden. Thanks for posting this great video.