So you think you're a homesteader? Part 20

So you think you're a homesteader? Lessons from the MAYFLOWER- We left our colonist friends working on the first 20x20 building at Plimouth in the early part of January 1621, and examined the phrase "those that were able". Now it's late January and the time has come in this series to stop naming the dead individually. They deserve to be remembered but for the purposes of these posts it's enough to quote William Bradford about this period of time -" But that which was most sadd & lamentable was, that in 2 or 3 moneths time halfe of their company dyed, espetialy in Jan. & Feb....". If you've followed me this far I ask that you pause a moment and really think about that. Bradford goes on to say the cause was lack of shelter and the ravages of scurvy that caused "there dyed sometimes 2 or 3 of a day". You might ask why they didn't give up & return to England, well besides being committed to building a new life in the new world they couldn't go back if they wanted to. So many were ill that there weren't enough crew to sail the ship. Those that were able completed the building ashore only to see the thatched roof catch fire, fortunately only the roof burned and they were able to repair it. They plowed ahead (those that were able) and layed out sites for "meersteads" or individual homesites & drew lots to determine who got which site. Let's ask ourselves a question - why did they lack shelter ? After all they have seen plenty of native housing built from local materials that were functional, warm & dry- why not copy those? They faced vast forests and had the tools and man power to throw up log cabins in a hurry, why didn't they do that ? The answer to those questions is the lesson for this post. All people have a tool kit with them, some more complete than others but we all have one. The old saying- "If all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail" applies to the tool kit we carry. No I'm not speaking of that metal box of hammers, wrenchs & screw drivers you keep in the garage ! I'm talking about your Mental Tool Kit - our friends on MAYFLOWER carried a mental tool kit from England & Holland that was limited to certain ideas of what a house was and couldn't see options that were better suited to the time & place. Log cabins were an idea brought to America by later immigrants from forest rich Scandinavia and Native housing was too "crude" in their eyes to be considered proper housing for civilized people. Failure to be flexible & imaginative led to the terrible mortality of 50%. In our lives today, many people neglect building their mental tool kit because they can "Google it" - that's fine but does "Google" know what you have to work with ? What local conditions & resources you have available? If you want to be independent you must stock you're brain with as much knowledge as possible and be able to adapt. Most problems aren't nails so make sure your brain isn't just a hammer.

-Unicoi Ludd