Homesteading Qualities, Part 2
One of the most basic qualities you need to be
a successful homesteader is moderate strength. You should be able
to:
- Lift a 50 pound bag of feed to your shoulder.
- Carry a full five gallon bucket of water in each hand. (That's about 35 pounds in each hand, but you don't need to be able to lift it beyond your waist.)
- Walk a mile on level ground without getting out of breath.
- Move around
without keeling over in moderate heat (about 85 F) and cold (about 30
F.)
Don't be tempted to
assume your partner can do all of the heavy lifting for you. I'd
be sunk if I had to ask Mark to help me every time I needed to lift a
bag of chicken feed from the golf cart into the trashcan by the
tractors. He wouldn't mind, but it'd drive me crazy!
If you live in the city and dream of being a homesteader but have no
other way of moving toward your goal, it can't hurt to try to achieve
those four abilities. Step outside your climate-controlled office
and gym this summer and build up a bit of tolerance to heat. Take
a walk around the block every evening. You'd be surprised how
easy it is to achieve this level of physical fitness, putting you one
step closer to your goal!
| This post is part of our Homesteading Qualities lunchtime series.
Read all of the entries: |
Or explore more posts by date or by subject.
About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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