Terra do Milho

Tag: homesteading history

  • A Homestead in The Late 19th Century

    A Homestead in The Late 19th Century

    Do you want to know what it was like to run a Homestead in the late 19th century? Do you like to read a reality novel to learn something from the past?

    I love to learn things about the past. Because we run a modern Homestead I am really curious to find out how people used to Homestead in the past.

    I also love to read novels I can learn something from. I find it very relaxing to read novels. At the same time I have the feeling I am not wasting my time reading a novel like “Trails of The Earth” because I can learn something as well.

    In this blog I want to share with you what the book “Trails of the Earth, the true story of a pioneer Woman, by Mary Mann Hamilton” is about. I have read this book with great pleasure.

     

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    What is “Trails of the Earth” about?

    “Trails of the Earth” is a true lived story. Mary Mann Hamilton tells us her live story almost without taking a breath.

    Her style of writing is very open and readable. It is as if you hear your grandma telling you stories about the past. She describes events picturesquely so you almost have the feeling the events are part of your own memory.

    Mary tells you about the hardships and the good things she went through in her life. There are breathtaking scenes, like about her surviving a big flood on a tree trunk; sad moments where she loses a child and a happy Christmas story on their own piece of land.

    At a young age she marries Frank Hamilton. A handsome somewhat older man, who works for a railroad company and for a sawmill. Frank is an English immigrant who does not want to talk about his background, although we get to know that he is an offspring from an old, wealthy English family.

    Frank appears to be a heavy drinker, but despite this he does try to care for his family. At the beginning of their marriage the mysterious background of Frank and his drinking habits are not easy to handle for Mary.

    Together with Frank and their children, Mary moves to the Mississippi delta where Frank works for a loggers company. Mary runs a boarding house for the loggers. They have to move several times.

    Finally after some years Mary manages to save some money to buy their own Homestead at the Sunflower River. The community manages to run a small school and to attract a doctor. Something that was not so common in those days.

    The need to educate ourselves as homesteaders.

    For me reading Mary Manns book is a way to educate myself about running a Homestead. In her book I read that this is nothing new. Mary and Frank were not farmers. Mary was running a boarding house and Frank was mostly doing administrative jobs.

    When they got their Homestead they had to learn how to farm. Frank had no idea how to plough a field and grow cotton and corn. He had to learn it by himself, with some kind help from a neighbour.

    Frank and Mary did not know about farming, just like many of us did not know everything about Homesteading. We had to train ourselves.

    I think the way Frank and Mary made things happen is very recognisable for us Homesteaders.

    Poor health care.

    Although some of us might live a bit remote, most of us will make it to a doctor in time.

    Something that was not always the case back in the days, as Mary describes in her book.

    And making it to a doctor did not mean that you would survive an illness. One of Mary and Franks children dies because of a medical fault, and so does Frank at the end of the book.

    Living in remote places was quite a different type of adventure back in the days, as I learned from Mary’s book. It was not only exciting but also a risky thing to do.

    What is the benefit of reading this book?

    I liked reading this book because it is easy. The story is straightforward without any complicated interwoven story lines. There is just one story line, her life as it happens.

    It might sound a bit boring, but it is actually very relaxing after a hard days work on the Homestead. Mary’s vivid way of telling her story makes you want to continue reading.

    The way Mary tells us about her life also made me except some backsides of Homesteading. Like the never ending workload. This is not only the case for our Homestead, but is very much connected to Homesteading. Her story made me except this fact and deal differently with it.

    I also liked the many details about the life back then. This way I got a very good picture of what was going on.

    A pleasant book for you to read.

    For Homesteaders who are always busy and who would like to read a book from which you can learn something, “Trails of the Earth” is an interesting book to read.

    Also for people who are starting a Homestead and want to know what it is like “Trails of the Earth” is an interesting book. It shows you what Homesteading is about. Sure the times have changed and facilities like a doctor and a school are much better now. However some things have not changed at all. Like the amount of work a homestead is and the fact that you will have to teach yourself how to run a Homestead.

    To go short: a book worth reading.

    Click on the picture to buy the book.

  • Enjoy Working on Your Homestead Again

    Enjoy Working on Your Homestead Again

    Don’t you enjoy working on your Homestead anymore, because it is so overwhelming? Does it make you wonder whether other homesteaders have the same trouble and why on earth somebody would start a homestead?

    In this blog I want to tell you something about a book I read and how exactly it changed my view on the work we have on our small farm. And how it made me enjoy our place and our work much more.

    This is what I learned from Mary Mann Hamilton’s book “Trails of the Earth, The Treu Story of a Pioneer Woman”.

    This blog contains affiliate links. By using these links to buy something you will support our farm.

    The amount of work it just is, to run a Homestead

     

    Somehow I did not get that it was not just us having so much work on our 9 acre farm. I know my neighbours complain a lot about the amount of work as well. But I kind of, did not generalise the fact that we have so much to do.

    We are so used that thing can be fixed quickly. We see buildings rising in the towns with such an ease. Streets made in some weeks time.

    We do not know any more what hard work it was to build up homesteads in a wild environment in the old days. With only just the human labour available, no Tarmac roads, no Walmart nearby, no hardware store within a km, no connection to the town’s drinking water pipe, no central heating.

    Mary Mann was always working, together with her children, with her worker William, with some help from the neighbours. She was running a household and when her husband was out working somewhere else, she ran the farm. It was just the way it was. No choice.

    For me reading Mary Mann’s life story was a reminder of what effort it took to make your own farm. And that is what I was doing. Not a quick fix. I am building up a farm in a wild environment, just like she did. And that needs time. Something that I had to learn to accept.

    Once accepted that it takes time, I am going to take the time. No hurries no worries.

    Unlike Mary Mann Hamilton, we go to the grocery store if we do not manage to put in our cabbages and broad beans. Lucky us. Does it matter? No. Do we want it different? Yes. But we do not need to do it now, right away to survive. We can take our time. Making it better all the time, in small steps.

    Reading the book made me realise that my life is so much easier than hers, it made me so much more relaxed about this huge workload I thought I had.

     

    The Homesteads of the past where not 100% self-sufficient

     

    I learned from my Grandmother who used to have a Homestead in the tea plantations in Indonesia that there would be a delivery of some sort ones a week. A lorry would come driving up the winding roads in the mountains to deliver some ordered goods to my Grandmothers home. The same happens in Mary Mann’s story.

    Flower, soap and many other household products were bought outside, in the closest town. A lorry would be organised to bring the goods home. Home would be a remote place like the loggers camp, a homestead or a tea planters compound (in my grandma’s case).

    Being 100% self sufficient on just one homestead has never been the case. It never happened that way. There was always a human community around. No matter how far indigenous people live in the would they always traded goods. Things that they have for things that they do not have.

    When your homestead concentrates on dairy, you might as well trade cheese for vegetables. That does not make you a bad homesteader. You can still grow some lettuce because you prefer to eat your lettuce freshly picked, but you do not need to grow everything.

    In our individualistic society we are so used to doing everything ourselves. In the past things were different. People were very much depending on each other. Living like they did in our homestead needs a different approach.

     

    People were not working on their own

     

    Back in the past families were much bigger and neighbours were closer. Every family member had to contribute to the work in the household or on the land. Neighbours would help out in times of crisis. Together the family ran the farm.

    Mary Mann’s children would all work on the land. Every child had it’s tasks adjusted to their age. The smaller ones doing lighter and simpler work, the older ones whatever they could handle at their age. They were tough to use tools and guns as they grew up and they handled the things well.

    How are we supposed to run our 9 acre Homestead just with the two of us. No way! We need to bring down our expectations. Either we do not do all the work we want to do, or we will have to hire in somebody to do the work for us. That became very clear to me after reading “Trails of The Earth”.

     

    Change of Motivation

     

    Did you start your Homestead with a different motivation from the motivation you have right now to keep on going?

    You do not need to stick to the impossible. You can make a change without losing the essential things you want with your life.

    In “Trail of The Earth” Mary Mann describes very well how her motivation to run her own place changes.

    First her motivation was to work hard to make some savings for their families own Homestead. When they finally manage to buy a piece of land to run their Homestead, the family lose it again. That was a big shock at first, but after that having her own Homestead as not what motivated her. The well being of the children was much more important to her then the ownership of a piece of land.

    After this change in motivation the family rented a good piece of land. They then had their Homestead anyway. Since you only need good land, it does not always matter whether you own it or not.

    Things can change. Life makes you take different priorities. After having owned a Homestead it might not be as ideal as you have thought. It is just a matter of allowing yourself a change to make a change.

     

    Wise lessons.

     

    Mary Mann’s book “Trail of the Earth”, contains, I think,  some wise lessons for us Homesteaders.

    First of all, a Homestead is just a lot of work. In the past days people would share the work amongst the family members and they would not try to be entirely self-sufficient.

    As you have your Homestead and you know better what it is to run one, the way you see Homesteading might change.

    These I think are lessons I learned from Mary Mann’s book, looking into the history of Homesteading. It made my view on our own situation much more realistic. And that changed our approach to the work that needs to be done.

    When you are where we were, It is definitely worth reading the book.

    Click here to buy the book

  • How Not to Struggle On a Homestead with Too Much Work

    How Not to Struggle On a Homestead with Too Much Work

    For four weeks on a row we were working our heads off. Trying to harvest all our fruit, make cheese, getting the fruit processed, cleaning the house, laundry, dishes it needs to be finished. There was too much work on our homestead. The work goes on and on, endless.  I never imagined that running a homestead would be so exhausting.

    Is this what is happening at your homestead? Or is this the biggest fear you have not to start your own homestead?

    In this blog I am going to let you know how we learned to deal with an overwhelming workload on our Terra do milho homestead.

    This blogpost contains affiliate links. By using them you support our homestead.

    After 8 years of hard work our workload was still overwhelming

    At the beginning we thought we would be able to finish our homestead in two years and then have it up and running. Making money with renting out a holiday tent and selling fruit and giving meditation lessons.

    What we didn’t expect is the amount of time it takes to do everything yourself. Apart from building our homestead we wanted to be as self-sustainable as possible.

    We do have electricity from the grid, but that is it. We had to provide our own drinking water and we use our own wood from the land for heating the house. We grow our own fruit and veggies, we have chickens for eggs and goats for milk, yoghurt and cheese. To keep the basics going is already a lot of work.

    Working very hard we managed to get the basics going. However, after 8 years there are still a lot of unfinished projects.

    When, in 2018 a violent wild fire destroyed half of our fruit trees we were almost ready to quit. We had to start planting all over again. It was so frustrating because we couldn’t handle the overwhelming amount of work no more.

    Something needed to change. But how and what?

    Over the years we tried a lot to handle our workload. Time management, dividing the work, schedules, working plans and much more. Some things helped, but the feeling that it was all too much remained.

    One morning when I woke up I was thinking about my grandmother. She used to have a homestead in the mountains in Indonesia, on Java. My grandmother lived in the mountains with her family, my grandfather was a specialist in treating tea plants. They lived in the middle of nowhere, more or less like we do. How did she manage? And how did all those pioneers who lived like my grandmother managed homesteading?

    I started looking for answers on the internet and came across a very special book, which changed my way of looking at the problem.

    How reading a book changed my view on our overwhelming workload.

    After reading Trails of the Earth: The True Story of a Pioneering Woman by Mary Mann Hamilton, I realised that it is just what it is. Homesteading is a lot of work, there is no way to avoid it. Reading this book helped me to accept a fact of life.


    In her book she describes her life in way that made me realise that there is no reason to be frustrated about the amount of work we have. She is not frustrated about having an overwhelming workload all the time, she takes it as it is. Unlike we did.

    I realised, since there is no way to change the never ending amount of work on a homestead, you might as well find a way to deal with it as it is. Mary Mann, my grandmother, they just lived with it.

    What has changed on the farm since I read this book?

    Since I have read the book our plans on the farm are much less ambitious. We stick to what we have and try to keep it as simple as possible. Enjoying what we have instead of missing what we do not have. This is a big switch of mindset.

    Since it is just a fact of life that homesteading is hard work, it is not changeable. What is changeable is the way you experience it.

    Working from the perspective that you like what you have means also that you lose less time by trying to gain what you don’t have. It is so much more relaxed.

    It also means that there is no point in hurry up things. There is going to be an endless amount of jobs and projects. When you finish one, there will be another one. You might as well take a nice break between the jobs. Enjoy a lazy Sunday or go party at the neighbours.

    Mary Mann Hamilton made us see homesteading in a different way, just by being herself and telling us her story.

    Thanks to Mary’s book Trail of the Earth, I am far less frustrated by an overwhelming workload. We now do one thing at the time. Instead of trying to finish homesteading, we actually are learning how to enjoy it. And believe me there is so much joy in it.

    Read the book and find out yourself how much it can do for you.

    Click here to get to: Trail of the Earth by Mary Mann Hamilton.