Who works a full-time job and homesteads?

[steve-in-kville]

Just out of my own curiousity:

How many acres to you homestead?

Do you work a full-time or part-time job away from home?

Do you have a spouse or family to help with the chores?


Regards,

steve

[mistletoad]

We have 6 acres. DH works full-time away from home, I work full-time from home. Our boys help some with chores, but mostly the work is done by DH and I.

[HilltopDaisy]

I own 5 acres, work fulltime and mandatory OT (hospital), and drive 45 minutes each way. Single and no kids, but I am blessed to have wonderful neighbors (Mr.P spent 2 hours helping me set up a new fence charger today). I grow a huge garden and sell produce, have approx. 30 laying hens and sell eggs, 2 beehives, horses, sheep, goats, guineas, dogs, cats, a rabbit and a duck. I love my life, but I am VERY busy! Some days I feel like I will never be caught up, there's always something that needs to be done. I sure wouldn't mind having my very own "DH"!

[dlangland]

Been there/done that for many yrs. until I finally got ahead enough...No debt and been single for just over 19 yrs. and decided the heck with it. Now I just do my own thing...Live within my means, live off my real-estate and other investment income, work on occasion when I need money for basics like taxes...I do so admire those of you that can/do get everything done when you have to be gone so many hours of the day for work, but I just got burnt out on all that driving...felt quilty when I wasn't on premise. Or, maybe it's just that I have gotten to that middle-age, and since I no longer have any teens living at home, I value my time more then anything in life, and my material needs are very small. Deb

[Farmer Willy]

We have 12 a. I work a full time 40 hr, part time 20 hr. and a 1:15 min drive each way. Won't do it forever, but the 5 a. next door is for sale, have bills and debt we're clearing up. 3 more buildings to raise and a bit of fencing yet. Happy?? You bet I am. Wife keeps the chickens fed, the dogs out of most trouble, cans the stuff from the garden. We're using this winter to pay off our bills and stockpile building material. Counting down to the day I quit the part-time and can find full time closer to home. Till then we pug away and have a great time.

[Terri]

When I worked full-time, I could only put in a few fruit trees and have a small garden. The energy just wasn't there.

[littlebitfarm]

I have 16 acres. Work full time at the water plant, teach dog classes on the side 1 evening a week. Care for the horses, cattle, sheep, and goats by myself (unless you count the dogs as help! <G>).

Kathie

[Beeman]

I think you would have to define homestead to get more of a picture. The working away from home doesn't define things either. I ran my business on my property, it was a stand alone service business and took way more than 40 hrs. a week.

[Shepherd]

We bought our home & 40 acres while we both worked FT. We decided to only start one thing at a time and see what we could handle. First thing was to build a chicken coop and then we got chickens. Commuting 1 1/2 hrs a day to and from work and working 8-10 hours a day, depending on the workload, didn't leave much time for anything much besides going to work, feeding/watering the chickens, rushing to fix a meal and going to bed so we could get up and do it all again the next day. Bad winter weather only made it harder.

Our next bigger purchase was a tractor with a blade so we could get in and out to go to work. That was within a couple of months of moving here.

Our land is mowed for our alfalfa/clover/grass hay for the most part... the rest is heavy timber. We have no kids to help with chores... we do them ourselves, not that it's too much so far. We've entertained the thought of getting some fencing up so we can raise our own beef and pork, but have yet to do that.

This year was the first year we raised our own steer and pig and we combined efforts with 2 other neighbors who did the same thing. We kept the steers and pigs together at one of the close neighbors' and took turns doing the chores. What a great way to try out something new when we didn't know anything about it... and had people to answer our questions and teach us. Now we have a freezer full of beef and another one full of pork. And now, we know we can do it... all we have to do is get the fencing up and the watering tanks, etc.

The company my DH and I worked for over 25 years finally closed; he found a new job and I am now a stay at home "farmette"/homemaker. First time in my life I haven't worked full time. I'm so thankful for this opportunity. My DH is miserable at this job; the stress is unbelievable and taking a toll on him. I keep telling him we need to start a business from home, whether it's raising beef, selling firewood, an internet business of some type... whatever it takes. We wouldn't need much of an income.

We've been very frugile with our money thru the years and when our company closed, we paid the farm off. I had income property before we got married and we sold those a couple years ago which made it possible to pay the farm off and buy an additional 80 acres adjoining our land, so we're up to 120 acres. We bought 40 acres of that on contract with low payments and interest. We chose to do that so we wouldn't use up the last of our savings because we want to get wind and solar power set up eventually to cut our retirement expenses down to a minimum.

The next thing I intend on getting is dairy goats, or a small breed cow for milk products; possibly getting honey bees too. I can tons of stuff from meats to stews, soups, broths, veggies, jellies/preserves, etc. I dehydrate as much as I can for now but am trying to work out a way to do it naturally using no power... drives me crazy to have a dehydrator running for days and days.

I am learning to quilt and I do a lot of various crafts. I am hoping to either sell things on the internet once I build up a supply, or sell at farmer's markets.

How about you Steve?

[kesoaps]

I agree that a stronger definition of homesteading is needed. I ran a very small csa this year, but won't next...I'll just garden for us instead. I've got my sheep plus care for the chickens. Certainly not self sufficient. Dh works full time with a 2 hour-one-way commute, I work 30-40 hours per week. Dh would rather shop in town and go out to eat, I'd rather rely on what we can produce here.

[ET1 SS]

Originally Posted by steve-in-kville

Just out of my own curiousity:
How many acres to you homestead?
Do you work a full-time or part-time job away from home?
Do you have a spouse or family to help with the chores?

My wife works FT, and some OT. I collect my pension.

We have 42+ acres, and sharecrop 105 acres. I (or our teenage son) does most of our chores.

I spent most of this past summer building a house.

[PonderosaQ]

Jenn,
A friend of mine who is a nurse has done what you asked about successfully for years. She works 3 or sometimes 4 long shifts each week. If they have a double shift available she'll take that. She works in what her hospital calls a casual pool but is guaranteed 30 hrs a week and keeps her benefits. She prefers to do all work on successive days. First day off she rests and recovers then she has energy for the other days off. She enjoys being able to choose what time of day she does different chores e.g. early morning and evening in summer, midday in winter. It was difficult when her kids when her younger however, it allowed her to raise them the way she wanted to and manage after a divorce from a dad who didn't pay his child support.She would take her vacation time when something really demanding came along like spring planting. She has an acre of garden and a huge flock of chickens. She sells her produce and eggs to neighbors and at work. She also has a large unheated hoop house which she grows hardy plants in, both perennials and small shrubs. She sells them at a flea market 2-3 times a year. She also planted Christmas trees, not in huge quantity but enough that she sells a few plus the trimmings right from her house every Xmas. She used to make up wreaths and grave blankets too but she has slowed down a bit as she ages.

Good luck in finding a plan that works for you and coming back to the USA.

PQ

[pumpkinlady]

We farmed our 90 acres and my father-in-laws 80 acres. I work 40 hours off the farm and hubby works 6-7 days a week at 48-84 hours a weekat a mill. We also ran a seasonal corn stand on a major highway and fall produce at our farm.
I say farmed as we are in the process of quiting the majority of farming for profit. We are hoping to just raise what we need for a few cows and horses. As we get older we are finding the work to be just too much for us.

[brosil]

I'm working 40 of my 70 acres and working full time. The wife helps more than she used to. She's working full time as well. About 40 sheep, a bunch of chickens and a steer at this time.

[ET1 SS]

Originally Posted by Jenn

... Maybe I need to retire but I'm just afraid I might run out of money. Or maybe I prefer to wish I could homestead whole hog than to try it and decide I wish I were still working.....

If you have the option of retiring, then really it all depends on how much your pension is.

My pension for example is just a little but more, than if I were to work FT at minimum wage. If I went back to working in my career field, I would be joining your DH. But I would make much more than now.

Really it all hangs on how much your pension is.

If your pension is greater than say $1500/month, then definately go homestead FT.

But the less it is, then the more you should really ber looking at your budget.

You mention that you might 'run out of money', but remeber each month you still get a pay-check when on retirement. So you really only can run out until the next paycheck comes in. Mine is on direct deposit, so I dont have to handle it.

[Ravenlost]

We have 96 acres and hubby works full-time with a one-way commute of 45 minutes. I am home so I do a lot of the day-to-day work of feeding animals, gardening, minor maintenance. Hubby's off days are spent on the farm and he loves it. LOL...on Wednesdays he goes in at 4 p.m. and he usually says he needs to go to work to get some rest! He retires in two years and is looking forward to it, but we have a pretty good set-up going right now and we're happy with the way we're managing all 96 acres.

[Beeman]

Originally Posted by ET1 SS

If you have the option of retiring, then really it all depends on how much your pension is.

My pension for example is just a little but more, than if I were to work FT at minimum wage. If I went back to working in my career field, I would be joining your DH. But I would make much more than now.

Really it all hangs on how much your pension is.

If your pension is greater than say $1500/month, then definately go homestead FT.

But the less it is, then the more you should really ber looking at your budget.

You mention that you might 'run out of money', but remeber each month you still get a pay-check when on retirement. So you really only can run out until the next paycheck comes in. Mine is on direct deposit, so I dont have to handle it.

A pension, what's a pension?

In inquiring about homesteading you will find that many have a source of income like a pension that makes it work.

[ET1 SS]

Lol

[beaglady]

DH and I both work full time. We have a small farm on about 25 acres, but for the most part, he is content to live on a farm and doesn't feel compelled to be a farmer. He helps with pruning fruit trees, tilling the garden and built the hoophouses for my poultry, but beyond that, he doesn't want to do too much.

I try not to take on more than I can handle by myself, but I like doing too many things and usually end up keeping myself too busy to relax. I have a few kinds of heritage chickens & turkeys & plan to hatch and sell some next year. This year, I raised broilers for us and my parents, plus a few to sell. I sold a few turkeys this week. Over the summer, I went to a farmers market every Saturday to sell eggs and soap. I have 5 beehives too. My vegetable garden was a disaster this year cause I ran out of time to tend it.

Its awfully hard (at least for me) to limit myself to just a few activities. Next year, though I'm going to trade with one of my girlfriends - her organic veggies for my poultry.

[bachelorb]

Originally Posted by steve-in-kville

Just out of my own curiousity:

How many acres to you homestead?

Do you work a full-time or part-time job away from home?

Do you have a spouse or family to help with the chores?


Regards,

steve

We have 60 acres where we raise goats and chickens (and other animals until the fever passes).

Both my wife and I work full time away from the farm.

Family responsibility.

Boys- They have to be there on chicken butchering day. We do 50-60 chickens once a year. One boy is the runner abd one boy bleeds them out.
Other responsibilities include worming, morning feeding, and culling.

They also get paid five dollars an hour for all work not related to our food. Right now we have fifty acres that need fencing this next summer, they'll get paid for that.

Wife - Shes responsible for the garden, and gutting the chickens on butchering day. She also feeds the animals when the boys and I can't do it. She cans and freezes the vegetables and the chicken also. She does a great job of keeping me company sometimes when I'm out there working.

Me- All repairs on the farm of fencing, barn, and equipment. Feed the animals in the evening. I also do all the mowing and new land clearing. I take the animals to auction to sell and am responsible for all the "on the farm" income records.