Homesteading, the Final Frontier

         The homesteading programs at Bangor began in 1973 on Maynard and Sally Kaufman's farm, the School of Homesteading.  Its form did evolve some but its core values are still intact and going strong there today with Maynard and Barbaras apprenticeship program.  A little history and context is in order.
         The New Homesteaders, as Maynard calls these people, are in the tradition of Henry David Thoreau, Ghandi, and Martin Luther King in that they choose a form of nonviolent resistance.  Dropping out means to be self-sufficient and self reliant.  In this way, participation in a society that is seen as inherently unjust and destructive, is minimized, and the homesteader can be part of the solution, not the problem.
         Of course, this last paragraph may be meaningless babble to many.  Motives for pursuing this lifestyle, so at odds with the prevailing consumer based economy, probably appeals to a broad base of society.  How often do you think the harried corporate executive has considered throwing in the towel and migrating to a "simpler",self-sufficient and environmentally friendly back to the land lifestyle?  Many people are not complete unless they feel that connection between what they do with their mind and hands and their sustenance (food, heat, etc.).  Who hasn't longed to get up in the morning and know you can have a long fulfilling day outside doing work that you know directly affects you and your family? 
         Abraham Maslow taught us the hierarchy of needs.  Basic needs have to be met first, food, water, security.  Because of this, the back to the land movement has never been much of a savior for poverty stricken people despite initial impressions.  Land to grow ones own food is not accessible for many of these people and the cultural inpetus is to acquire money to buy the things that they need.  The benefits of self-reliance are applicable to all people- race, class whatever and connections between people and the real world (earth, plants , animals, ecosystems, healthy food, etc.) need to be strengthened regardless of who they are.
         The reality of the homesteading movement remains:  We are predominantly white and middle class.  Maybe this is appropriate, we still are the center of power, both in government and economically.  It is middle-class whites who need to rein in their lifestyles to reduce  the very negative external costs, ultimately represented by the emission greenhouse gases(CO2) and depletion of non-renewable resources.
         So, back to 1973,  the 60s were over and american society was changing.  Roe v. Wade had been decided, and other issues of women's rights were on the american blackboard. .  The Vietnam War debacle was winding down and Watergate was beginning to insinuate its pathos into American culture. The Arab oil embargo had shocked an already depressed American conscious that not only were we capable of doing wrong but that the very core of our affluence was threatened by the rising costs and the finiteness of natural resources.  Earth Day had come and priorities, that were toyed with since Rachel Carson pointed them out in 1962, were beginning to be incorporated into American discourse.
         So the stage was set for Maynard Kaufman's and others to push for an alternative to the consumer based, disconnected, profit oriented economics.  The household economy with its emphasis on labor intensive, low capital and allowing nature to work for us organic gardening and farming techniques, gives us (more than a hundred people affected by this homesteading program) a model, old in its history, but young and exciting to dream.
 
Loading hay at the School of Homesteading
        Out of those initial  applicants, 10 were selected to attend the 1973 group at the School of Homesteading.  These people stayed 8 months approximating the growing season with some winter thrown in- May 1 through the middle of Dec.  This enabled Maynard to pay attention to his career as faculty member at Western Michigan University during the winter months.
         A typical day usually usually had a farm or field work component  and a household and garden component.  People rotated around doing different jobs so everyone sampled everything.  The day usually started with chores which included milking cows and/or goats and feeding the other livestock.  A variety of different animals were always present to provide a diversity of experience.  A cooking contingent handled breakfast.  Meals always consisted of home grown produce, (that first summer, the food consisted of food that Sally had canned the previous growing season).  As you might imagine, the hearty meals were definitely a highlight of the experience.  The day might continue with people learning and doing cheese making, canning, soap making, ice cream making(mmmm..), tractor work, gardening(including different methods), barn cleaning (a highly enjoyable business believe it or not!), field corn planting and cultivating, haying with a hay loader the old fashioned way, and many more experiences too numerous to mention (except of course, beer and wine making).  Learning to cook for a large group using farm raised food was an experience, especially since vegetarian dishes were needed because there were always a couple of vegetarians present.  There were also experiences in the outside community, such as selling produce from the farm stand or at a nearby farmers market or attending the monthly Organic Growers of Michigan meetings.
          Every year was as different as the people attending were.  But the day to day activities were as similar as they are on a year to year basis on any farm.  This format continued like this through 1977.

         In 1977, Maynard and others persuaded Western Michigan University to add two classes to their Environmental Studies curriculum.  Homesteading Theory was developed and taught in the classroom by Maynard, and Homesteading Practice, to be the living learning component to take place on an as yet undetermined farm
         Meanwhile, the Michigan Land Trustees was being formed and a farm was donated by a philanthropist, Joseph Filonowizc, to be used for the purpose of this school.  In the winter of 1978, an instructor, Stu Schafer was hired and the first Homestead Practice students were selected.  By May 1, 5 students moved onto an old farmhouse at a rundown 36 acre farm(junk strewn) just down the road from the School of Homesteading.  The farm was christened the Land Trust Homesteading Farm.
         Although much of the work that summer was removing junk, cleaning up and painting, they did produce a market vegetable garden and raise a diversity of farm animals.
         While the instructors changed, and WMU dropped the Homesteading Practice class and their support in 1980, this reincarnation continued through 1984.
         Meanwhile Maynard and Sally continued their School of Homesteading program, developing more of an apprentice type format, giving a fewer number a more intense and serious leaning experience. Their milking business developed into a Grade A dairy and the maple syruping was developed into an income generating enterprise.  Diversity of activities was a major strength both economically and as a learning experience. Many men and women of diverse origins passed through staying for various lengths of time from weeks to months and departed with enriching and practical experiences.

         For many, spending a large block of time providing apparent slave labor without obvious financial renumeration, would seem a waste of time.  I think the experience had many advantages both to the individual and to society.  The individual acquired practical experiences to enrich and increase skills, such as gardening, canning, basic equipment maintenance etc. In this day and age where are minds and bodies are exercised separately, small scale farming-homesteading offers an enriching alternative. Society benefits by the instilling of holistic values of self-reliance and direct awareness of the circular nature of a healthy environment and our interactions with it as a species. And on the other side, Maynard and Sally never benefited financially from this arrangement (you think they vacationed in Florida every winter?).
         Maynard and Barbara at the School of Homesteading continue to carry on the tradition as a living learning school, but that may change.  The Land Trust Homesteading Farm is now in private hands and is operated as a part time farm-homestead by my family.  Change is a constant and our lives evolve as does our society.  Hopefully the maturation we experience is matched by a maturation of our society and culture.  Is it?

Barn building in 1980 at the Land Trust Farm

        My formative and growing years happened to have occurred in the mid 1960's.  Being a "budding young scientist" and devouring books on astronomy and paying strict attention to the space program, the future seemed one of hope for me.  I had no doubt that during the closing few years of the second millennium, we would be making trips to space as casually as some of us might to Australia. Bear in mind this is immediately before the events and calamities touched upon at the beginning of this article.  In a world with easy solutions, unlimited resources, energy, without knowledge of environmental consequence, such a future would have been possible.  Since then, we have learned of our imperfections and that, in fact, we already live on a starship- the spaceship Earth. We have much to learn about this craft and its life-support system. I also happen to think that we can learn much about this spaceship from learning from its own environment, out in space appropriately through remote sensing but that is another matter.
      Through much of the 1970's, I did some drifting.  I went to school a couple of years after high school, went to Florida on a motorcycle for almost a year and spent a year in Indianapolis at a college there.  Throughout this period, I made it a point to come back to my folks farm and be a "homesteading student" for part or all of the summer and fall.  It was not a result of any commitment to homesteading but a comfortable and fun place to be.  I learned alot about people and made friends but it definitely was not a "career move".  In 1977 and part of 1978 I worked the farm to the north of the School of Homesteading and in the winter of 1979, I went back to WMU and took Environmental Studies classes and eventually in 1983 graduated with a degree in that and Agriculture.  Anyway, that winter in 1979, I took a class by Dr. John Cooley called "Man's Place in Nature", an eye opener of a class.  I learned and read Thoreau, John Muir, Aldo Leopold, and Wendell Berry among others.  A lot of writing was done about these books and I felt that I independently and on my own volition came up with some realizations and something clicked.  A very important book to me was Berry's Unsettling of America, Culture and Agriculture. The paper, I wrote for that, did wonders for my self esteem, allowing me to reach my own conclusion about the value of small scale farming and I include it here, (Ecology of Mind).
        That winter, a new homestead instructor was hired. As fate would have it, both for Mark Thomas and myself, Mark had a heart attack the day of his interview.  Maynard asked me to help him out instructing that spring and, except for 2 yrs, I've been on this 36 acre farm since. 
        Since 1984 I've focussed more on making a family than on homesteading. Bobbi and I married in 1985. I now have a career as an Rn supervisor at a local hospital where I only work two weekend nights. This leaves me 5 days of being with our kids(Shannon and Emma), home improvement,  gardening, canning, farming and just plain messing around.  I do plant alot of trees every year and usually have a small tree nursery going.  Permaculture is a more developed form of homesteading in my opinion, and I spent a period learning about that, hosting a 3 week permaculture design course in 1985.  I am, always have been and always will be, pragmatic, like most people, towards developing the "perfect lifestyle", being a polluter and consumer like everyone else is.  I'm not about to give up this computer I'm using or going back to hitchhiking!
1985 Permaculture Design Course
        The paradigm shift where everything would become "green", the planet covered with a rich tapestry of small farms, forests and villages with people living in harmony with low tech lifestyles fulfilled by their inclusion in the natural world, hasn't happened.  Its not even close.  We had thought that oil would have run out by now and force such a change but instead it is cheaper than ever.  Maybe technological solutions do work, can bridge the gap no matter how distasteful they are.  Maybe alternative fuels and technology will add time. Pollution has been allieved for the time being with basic technological improvements along with conservation.  Technologies, like pesticides, are "innocent until proven guilty" and we will have to suffer the consequences before meaningful change can occur.
        Now we hear that biotechnology, that ultimate pandora's box, has been even allowed to be included within the USDA organic standards along with food irradiation.   The organic farmer has been coopted by big business and it is now "mainstream".  All these changes are evolutionary not revolutionary with their success in doubt..  Meanwhile, local forests are cleared for more blueberries, Kalamazoo is sending out its cancerous runaway growth down M-43 towards us, and local poverty is spanning generations and there seems no solution.  The greenhouse effect puts an absolute limit on our consumption and those ramifications are likely to be immeasurable.  Maybe the world will end in fire.
        There are no solutions, only questions. So everyone, keep asking(I'll work on that too)! 

Jon Towne   tomar@cybersol.com
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    1973, Nathan at Barney's dump... Can be hard to find a tv at the School of Homesteading 

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