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11/19/05, 08:00 PM
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New Guy
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Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Smyth County, Virginia
Posts: 35
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Hey Ya'll , Talk me out of homesteading
Hey Folks,
First post on the forum.
My wife and I are in the process of starting from scratch in a remote location. I've been trapped in the city for the last 15 years. We're presently in the soon to be megalopolis area of Hampton va. I hate this place. The traffic is terrible , 2 or more murders every day. It's basically a mess.
Luckily I'll be getting laid-off from my job in May. I've been an electronics technician with the Navy for a few years and a contractor serving the Navy for the last 15. I've had enough.
We've decided to try our best at a new beginning out on the country and try to make ends meet with my part time hobby/craft. My wife Deb is a city girl to the bone, but I dazzled her with the views  I'm an old hillbilly from North Georgia , and cant wait to get back to lumpy ground.
We're buying 44 acres and doing it the hard way.So I hope to provide some amusement with our tribulations as we progress.
We have no choice but to go alternative energy, so any input will be helpful. I've ben reading everything I can find on the subject, but it's nice to get the real "skinny" from folks that walk the walk.
I've enjoyed reading ya'lls posts and if anyone has any questions on forging steel into tools and how to do it cheap,I'll try to help.
Mark
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11/19/05, 08:03 PM
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AFKA ZealYouthGuy
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: NW Pa./NY Border.
Posts: 11,453
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Mark Williams
Hey Folks,
First post on the forum.
My wife and I are in the process of starting from scratch in a remote location. I've been trapped in the city for the last 15 years. We're presently in the soon to be megalopolis area of Hampton va. I hate this place. The traffic is terrible , 2 or more murders every day. It's basically a mess.
Luckily I'll be getting laid-off from my job in May. I've been an electronics technician with the Navy for a few years and a contractor serving the Navy for the last 15. I've had enough.
We've decided to try our best at a new beginning out on the country and try to make ends meet with my part time hobby/craft. My wife Deb is a city girl to the bone, but I dazzled her with the views I'm an old hillbilly from North Georgia , and cant wait to get back to lumpy ground.
We're buying 44 acres and doing it the hard way.So I hope to provide some amusement with our tribulations as we progress.
We have no choice but to go alternative energy, so any input will be helpful. I've ben reading everything I can find on the subject, but it's nice to get the real "skinny" from folks that walk the walk.
I've enjoyed reading ya'lls posts and if anyone has any questions on forging steel into tools and how to do it cheap,I'll try to help.
Mark |
Ha, we're enablers here. We won't talk you out of anything. If you want to know anything about chickens, just be sure not to ask CRASHY!!! She will always tell you to get more.
Welcome to the site. I look forward to hearing from you.
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11/19/05, 08:27 PM
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: centeral Okla. S of I-40, E of I-35
Posts: 594
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We are 3 and 1/2 years in to it starting from bare land.
I can tell you lots about the pit falls of freeranging.
Those @#$#@! animals are suposed to want to be FREE, and out there loose, doing "animal stuff" not trying to move INTO my house..........two of my most often used words are,...."MOVE!" & "GET OUT!". 
__________________
Thumper/in Okla.
Growing a Homestead from the dirt up.
save the grass, eat a cow
C.L.F.
{chlorophill liberation front}
Last edited by Thumper/inOkla.; 11/19/05 at 08:31 PM.
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11/19/05, 08:44 PM
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Flying Z
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Chapel Hill, NC
Posts: 595
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Welcome Mark, Go here http://www.fieldlines.com/ for everything you want to know about alternative energy for the DIY'er. These guys and Gals are located all over the world and some really know there stuff. Being an Electronics tech you'll fit right in with them. Good luck, Randy
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11/19/05, 08:49 PM
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New Guy
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Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Smyth County, Virginia
Posts: 35
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Free range.
Where we're heading it's free range all right, all the rules of the West apply. If ya dont want them cows in yer house, put up a fence. Cant wait !!
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11/19/05, 08:53 PM
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Formerly 4animals.
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Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: south alabama(Hartford)
Posts: 1,023
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Mark Williams
Hey Folks,
First post on the forum.
My wife and I are in the process of starting from scratch in a remote location. I've been trapped in the city for the last 15 years. We're presently in the soon to be megalopolis area of Hampton va. I hate this place. The traffic is terrible , 2 or more murders every day. It's basically a mess.
Luckily I'll be getting laid-off from my job in May. I've been an electronics technician with the Navy for a few years and a contractor serving the Navy for the last 15. I've had enough.
We've decided to try our best at a new beginning out on the country and try to make ends meet with my part time hobby/craft. My wife Deb is a city girl to the bone, but I dazzled her with the views I'm an old hillbilly from North Georgia , and cant wait to get back to lumpy ground.
We're buying 44 acres and doing it the hard way.So I hope to provide some amusement with our tribulations as we progress.
We have no choice but to go alternative energy, so any input will be helpful. I've ben reading everything I can find on the subject, but it's nice to get the real "skinny" from folks that walk the walk.
I've enjoyed reading ya'lls posts and if anyone has any questions on forging steel into tools and how to do it cheap,I'll try to help.
Mark |
hey congrats! were did you live and were did you move to?
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11/19/05, 08:53 PM
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AFKA ZealYouthGuy
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: NW Pa./NY Border.
Posts: 11,453
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Hey Mark, nice website,
I love the UTang integral. How much is a knife like the one shown? I would love to have one like that.
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11/19/05, 09:13 PM
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New Guy
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Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Smyth County, Virginia
Posts: 35
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Were in Hampton . We'll be moving to Eastern Washington. Spent a week there and we fell in love with it.
Bob e-mail me for info on knives.
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11/19/05, 09:17 PM
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Formerly 4animals.
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Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: south alabama(Hartford)
Posts: 1,023
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cool were in fairafax virginia(near mount vernon) and were moving to south alabama
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11/19/05, 09:24 PM
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New Guy
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Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Smyth County, Virginia
Posts: 35
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by 4animals
cool were in fairafax virginia(near mount vernon) and were moving to south alabama
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Dont get me wrong, I love the South. It's beautiful as it can be, but it's HOT down here. I grew up in North Georgia and Northeast South Carolina and loved it as a kid. But it seems the older I get the more I cant stand the heat.
I guess forging hot steel might have a lot to do with wanting to get out of the hot and humid South.
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11/19/05, 09:30 PM
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Formerly 4animals.
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Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: south alabama(Hartford)
Posts: 1,023
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yea its hot as you know where down there but my dad has lived up here for quite a while and all of my dads family live down n geneva,Alabama
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11/19/05, 09:56 PM
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Eastern Washington
Posts: 415
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eastern Washington
Hey Mark,
Welcome to Eastern Washington! What area are you looking at? We are in the Tri-Cities area.
Denise
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Denise
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11/19/05, 10:59 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: seattle
Posts: 16
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Hi there,
I am moving to moses lake wa area....great fishing )) 
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11/20/05, 06:47 AM
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New Guy
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Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Smyth County, Virginia
Posts: 35
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by 4animals
yea its hot as you know where down there but my dad has lived up here for quite a while and all of my dads family live down n geneva,Alabama
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I can understand that. My Father is in S.C. He's not real happy with the thoughts of me moving out West, other than it gives him an excuse to ride his Goldwing
Thanks for the welcome Denise and campergirl. We're pretty like the whole Stevens county/Ferry county area. It's all nice around there. It's supposedly a little dryer than the Western side of the Cascades, but we dont plan on farming much other than a garden.
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11/20/05, 08:45 AM
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: New York
Posts: 3,891
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Just be sure you are going into this with both eyes wide open. I would not try to talk you out of it, but it sure can be a tough way to live. Follow any of us around on a day off from our "paying" jobs, when we're attempting to get caught up on homestead chores, and you'll see what I mean. Working from home will most likely be a tremendous help with this. Welcome to Homesteading Today, and best of luck to you.
__________________
I cried because I had no shoes, until I saw a man who had no feet.
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11/20/05, 09:17 AM
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Goshen Farm
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone 8a, AZ
Posts: 6,191
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Mark: nice website....but if, as you say, you are very slow in your work- how will you make enough to buy food for the new homestead? you and wife must have other skills we dont know about that you are planning on using...like getting jobs? LOL just teasing, I wish the very best for you and your family while going after your dreams!
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11/20/05, 10:09 AM
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Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 1,750
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I'm wiping the drool off my chin! I love the hawk with the heart in it.
What fantastic work.
Washington is a great state. We were stationed at Ft. Lewis for 4 years and loved it. The east and the west are are like two different worlds but both very beautiful.
Welcome to homesteading. Sorry, can't talk you out of it
Hope all your dreams come true.
P
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11/20/05, 12:47 PM
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: centeral Okla. S of I-40, E of I-35
Posts: 594
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running out of water is "fun" too.........I have been lucky and only had 3 or 4 times of no fresh water (generator was out so I couldn't pump the well), and I have not had to make it more than I think 4 days in summer heat on just the water left standing in the storage barrels.
One time all the animals had to come to the house to drink from the same dish pan, and only the Hickory Cane corn (from Ken Scarabok, hope I spelled your name right Ken) and my strawberries got hand carried buckets of water those weeks.
__________________
Thumper/in Okla.
Growing a Homestead from the dirt up.
save the grass, eat a cow
C.L.F.
{chlorophill liberation front}
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11/20/05, 12:52 PM
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New Guy
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Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Smyth County, Virginia
Posts: 35
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Pigeon Lady
I'm wiping the drool off my chin! I love the hawk with the heart in it.
What fantastic work.
Washington is a great state. We were stationed at Ft. Lewis for 4 years and loved it. The east and the west are are like two different worlds but both very beautiful.
Welcome to homesteading. Sorry, can't talk you out of it
Hope all your dreams come true.
P |
Thanks P Lady,
I love doing the bladesmithing. The reason I say I'm slow is that I only do it part-time. I'll be going full-time once we move.
Should be quite a ride for us.
We're excited a little scared too. Dont want to make any stupid mistakes. Or as few as possible
Looking forward to learning some new things and a new lifestyle.
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11/20/05, 08:40 PM
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zone 5 - riverfrontage
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Forests of maine
Posts: 5,872
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I bet you will have fun.
We were stationed at Bangor Subase for four years, and during that time, I shopped for land in Eastern Wa along the border (high plain desert) cheap land! Good stuff. but I did not want to pump water from so deep.
Good luck.
When I finished my 20+ years in the Navy, we settled on buying here in Maine. We got 42+ acres on a river for $35k. and we love it. In the middle of building now.
Keep us informed.
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