Rural Culture on the Homestead

I wanted to talk a little about the misconception of rural culture and life on our little farm . There is frequently a perception that farm life requires you to be a slack-jawed, hay-chewing, redneck, inbred, quasi-idiot, this is far from the truth. At our homestead culture abounds, there is no country music playing 24-7, there are no velvet paintings, deer antlers and mounted heads do not feature heavily in our house and we have yet to paint a mural of a bald eagle an American flag or a cowboy.

So what do we have? Simple decorations fowling the precepts of feng shui. Books feature heavily in every room, and plants help keep the air calm. At our last slaughter party after the day of work we served tea in the middle eastern fashion alongside home brewed cider and mead and had a discussion on the utopian/dystopian cultures fetured in books such as 1984, Brave New World and Ferinheight 451. Not exactly a beer swilling redneck ho-down.

People will be drawn to the culture that speaks most strongly to them and here we cultivate a culture of respect and intelligence. While we may describe ourselves as "Redneck-geek-hippies" it would be a gross mistake to define ourselves or our people that way. So for those who do not know us well or those who just happen to stumble into our company; Any one can be a modern homesteader, all you really need is respect for yourself, a love for others and a desire to live the best life possible.

Of course a good pair of boots helps too.