A Determined Homesteader can't do it alone, no matter how stubborn he may be. He needs an equally determined wife. At least in fiction, the Determined Homesteader's Wife is usually a strong-willed woman who's handy around the cabin and fields, and probably knows how to load and shoot a gun. And if she doesn't have those capabilities at the beginning of the story, she soon will have. Especially when those skills are required to protect the Determined Homesteader's Children. Has a tendency to become the Determined Widow if the main character of the story is The Drifter or The Gunslinger.