So you think you're a homesteader? Part 21

So you think you're a homesteader? Lessons from the MAYFLOWER... In the last post we discussed the importance of your "Mental Tool Kit" and the importance of flexibility. We left our colonist friends struggling with sickness & death while completing the first small structure on shore. Now in February 1621, They've also constructed another shed to store their supplies in and when weather permits they are having their worship meetings on shore. Cold, snow, rain & ice are hampering the boat work but still they begin to move their irreplaceable supplies from MAYFLOWER to the storage buildings. The master of MAYFLOWER, Christopher Jones has given up the idea of a speedy return to England because his crew is just as ill as everyone else. The mortality is reaching its peak now and the few able people are strained by caring for the ill, building the shelters and burying the dead. Natives have been seen for the second time so the need to secure their supplies ashore adds more of a burden. We won't name the dead individually but in memoriam of them all, let's remember Rose. Most people have heard of Myles Standish, the military advisor for Plimouth, soldier of fortune soon to be formally tasked with the defense of the colony, but who remembers his wife Rose ? Sadly Rose Standish dies at the end of January and is buried in that frozen ground. A party out duck hunting sees a dozen natives moving toward the build site and later their fires are seen from shipboard - the colonists fears seem realized as it appears the "sauvages" have found them and are closing in when they are most weak. Cheerful aren't I? So let's look at a lesson here, farming / homesteading always has been & always will be a daily gamble. A bet against the weather, the economy, animals, machinery & neighbors - all that on one side and just you with your body & brain on the other. So when the snow is falling, ground is frozen & you're surrounded by hostiles you've got two choices - sit down and give up or stand up and plow ahead. My observation of people who can live this life is that they're stubborn as hell. We will fight, we might die but we don't quit and that's the attitude that built this Nation.

- Unicoi Ludd