Backpackers like to use the phrase "hike your own hike". Simply put, everyone on a trail is going the same direction, but how they choose to hike - pace, gear, companions - is up to the individual. More bluntly, it means to not complain about what others are doing and to focus on what you are doing.
I was reminded of this phrase as I listened to Dan Small talk about his homesteading experience at the Madison Garden Expo. He offered some frank comments about homesteading, such as the belief that raising animals for food can save money. Dan stated it was unlikely he and his wife broke even on their animals once feed and other items were factored in. He does not even keep track of those costs, as he and his wife are more interested in living how they want than optimizing the process or satisfying someone's definition of homesteading - they are hiking their own hike.
His comments suggested to me there is a continuum of homesteading. At one end is 'vacation property', a cabin on a lake for fishing or an 80-acre woodlot for hunting. Further along the continuum is 'hobby farm', where a family may have a couple of horses and a few chickens for eggs. Homesteaders try to work farther along the continuum, replacing external inputs with doing things themselves, or going off-grid with utilities. At the far end, I suppose, is 'armed Idaho separatist'. None of these is the 'wrong' way to homestead, they just represent what makes the landowners happy.
At the moment, we are in the vacation property/hobby farm stage as we refurbish our home and plan for the future. The goal is to try to do things ourselves, and have the property provide for us. Our maple syrup experiment was part of that process. This was our last weekend of tapping trees, as it was time to move onto other projects. The capital cost for our maple syrup supplies was about $130. That included pails and spiles for tapping 6 trees, a boiling pan, and a filter. After 3 weeks of boiling, we ended up with exactly 1 gallon of maple syrup. Several folks on the maple syrup Facebook group I follow indicate they sell their maple syrup for about a dollar an ounce. That works out to $128 for 1 gallon. So after 1 season, the supplies paid for themselves - a noteworthy achievement for homesteading. This does not factor in labor costs, of course, but how do you put a price on three Saturdays spent outside in Spring? Why hike when you can sit, enjoy a campfire, and watch steam rise into blue sky.
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