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Via Jen Sorensen's website.:

I’ve been curious about the homesteading movement for a long time, albeit from a non-tradwife perspective. For a few years I subscribed to Mother Earth News, whose pages of solar panel installations and gardening tips filled my head with pastoral fantasies. (It’s possible that growing up in rural Pennsylvania planted a seed of affection for farm life, even though I suspect I would be terrible at it.) So I have nothing against people who decide to abandon the corporate world, or soulless suburbs, to live close to the land. I’m just not so into oppressive gender roles and unpasteurized milk.

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[-] SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works 48 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

My neighbors are homesteaders, but not the type you see online. It's work at first but honestly the benefits are awesome once they got the ball rolling

They do a lot of gardening, have chickens, apple trees and just built a small sawmill to make and store lumber. I buy eggs and firewood off of them

It seems that a lot of the real hardcore lifestyle people don't spend half of their day filming and posting about it

[-] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 24 points 4 days ago

A few of those "tradwife influencer" types are actually the main income earner for their family.

[-] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

Only because her husband told her to

[-] zloubida@sh.itjust.works 35 points 4 days ago
[-] crank0271@lemmy.world 29 points 4 days ago

But they sure are messy and needy

so is my gf, but my gf doesn't poop breakfast

[-] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 25 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

are promoting eating shite, or you want me to date a. chicken?

[-] zloubida@sh.itjust.works 15 points 4 days ago

i need something stronger than blocking people, do you know how can I hire a hitman for cheap?

[-] Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 4 days ago

For sheep? We're talking about chickens here!

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

definitelynotafed dot hitmansrus dot gov has a lot of them

[-] Caffeinated_Sloth@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

Not in this economy!

[-] zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

not with that attitude

Your gf's a chick

[-] Steve@startrek.website 19 points 4 days ago

Tell me you never had actual chickens

[-] jawa22 11 points 4 days ago

For real. Actually keeping them healthy and happy is a large job. It isn't just "give them food, water, and shelter then get free eggs". It becomes more of a job when you have enough of them to actually produce enough eggs etc. to rely on.

[-] limelight79@lemmy.world 20 points 4 days ago

Friends of ours raise chickens. Sometimes we get free eggs. It's the best of both worlds.

[-] Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca 15 points 4 days ago

Just like boats and cottages, best to have a friend with one than own one yourself.

[-] limelight79@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

And swimming pools!

[-] CubitOom@infosec.pub 2 points 4 days ago

Agreed, although I could see an argument for roosters. However, I love mine.

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago

if you luck into one that doesn't scream all damn day, awesome. otherwise, i get not allowing them in city limits

[-] frog@feddit.uk 25 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Well, you don't actually have to drink raw milk. I always thought that is such a weird thing we do. Like eating meat, I get. People hunted and gathered so people say that is always part of being a homosapien. Raising the animal just to eat it makes sense even if not ethical. Corporation goals are profits.

But raising an animal and keeping it in a state to produce just for it's milk, is a little weird when you think about it, especially considering how many people are lactose intolerant. Also it is targeted towards everyone, like adults. Milk is made for the young. Children stop drinking milk from their human mother, so society decided the next step is to keep supplying milk from a caged animal, a completely different species, forever.

Sounds like some weird sci-fi shit.

[-] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 26 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Even beyond the whole "drinking milk is weird" thing, there's not really a reason to drink raw milk. I mean, maybe it tastes better, but that can't be worth the risk, and even the Amish have cooking pots.

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 12 points 4 days ago

so like, we finally figured out what was so special about the milk out on the dairy a few years back. i'm going to tell you the secret it was not about the milk being fresh outta the cow or anything. We drank it out of Aluminum. Cups. Cheap ones. You can buy them online and the metal makes the milk feel colder. fresher. crisper. Also it was whole milk but y'know.

[-] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 22 points 4 days ago

But is a life without cheese and butter worth living? A croissant without butter? A pizza without cheese? I, I, no. I just can't.

[-] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 9 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I actually get panic attacks if I voluntarily eat animal stuff. So uh, yeah it's worth living.

[-] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 days ago

Are you ever involuntarily fed animal stuff and are ok with it?

[-] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

It's happened, and I'm not "ok" with it but it doesn't induce panic the same way because it's not my own complicit participation.

[-] bitcrafter@programming.dev 18 points 4 days ago

Drinking milk is more pleasant than eating grass directly, so it is not thatweird.

[-] frog@feddit.uk 5 points 4 days ago

But... why do either?

Why do grown adults actually need to drink a liquid from another species?

The reason why adults become lactose intolerant is because they no longer need milk. You can just cut it out of your system.

[-] CubitOom@infosec.pub 18 points 4 days ago

I totally agree that the first human to drink animal milk was probably a very weird person. Although it probably came out of a goal to not waste resources.

There's not really a "reason" that people become lactose intolerant around age 2. Especially when most people are weaned off human milk way before then. Also, to say that there is a reason implies that humans were designed by some omnipotent force. There's plenty of times in a human's life where the nutrients found in milk would be beneficial to have, like after a woman goes through menopause.

It is only recently that we have an abundance of resources that we can choose where we get our nutrients from. And if one were really living off the land, they would not have that choice.

[-] frog@feddit.uk 3 points 4 days ago

I said reason meaning nutrition wise. But I see your points. If it's there already, might as well use it.

[-] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 12 points 4 days ago

I drink very little milk.

I eat a lot of cheese and butter.

[-] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 1 points 4 days ago

That's just more-complicated milk.

[-] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 9 points 4 days ago

Back when, nutrients were hard to come by.

[-] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 days ago

It's not about need it's about efficiency. Milk lets you get calories, especially protein in a way that doesn't kill the animal with less effort than hunting and gathering. That allows for a time and labor surplus that can enable specialization and society as a whole to exist. It's not just drinking, butter, cheese, baking, and fermentation with it are super common uses.

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

i don't need to i enjoy it. it's decadent. put it on some berries with a lil sugar.

[-] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Damned decadent homesteaders.

[-] CubitOom@infosec.pub 6 points 4 days ago

If I had animals that were already lactating, I'd probably make cheese. I would also probably make 2 different batches to do a side by side test between pasteurized cheese and non-pasteurized cheese just so I can see if Europeans are right.

[-] RaoulDook@lemmy.world 15 points 4 days ago

You know Jen, you don't have to do all of those things to do some of the ones you want to do.

[-] the_ego@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago

why go "trad" when you can go full anprim?

[-] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 3 points 4 days ago

Fuzzy orange shape that's why

[-] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 8 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

My vegan perspective on homesteading has always been "Damn, that looks like it would all be 300% easier if they just didn't have those freakin animals."

[-] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 7 points 4 days ago

Only if you live in a super specific climate that you could grow enough variety of plants or drastically change the definition of homesteading.

[-] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Beans, nuts, a hardy grain, berries, vegetables, fruit trees, mushrooms, a yeast culture... I guess I'm missing the particular difficulty. Seems like typical homestead proximately-grown fare to me.

this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2025
368 points (100.0% liked)

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