Getting Started.

[fantasymaker]

Our beloved Funky Pioneer needs help.How about Ideas on getting started? the little things you can do to be ready to homestead and ways into it with VERY limited resorses?

[fantasymaker]

How about renting? I have rented the sweetest little pasture near me for $100.00 a year 11 acers nice stream good fence great grass some shad no facilities but I could have put aportable shed on it but since I raised sheep I didnt need one

[Jan Doling]

Get a library card and read every related book you can.

Start collecting and labeling your seeds. You can start a container garden if you don't have your land yet.

Start a journal and a wish book (ordinary notebook with articles and pictures of homesteads, gardens, etc. that you wish to emulate).

You can build a few rabbit hutches (scrounge curbside and construction sites for free materials) and put the word out that you will take a free rabbit or two.

Make regular visits to garage sales & thrift shops for tools.

Take a free Home Depot classes: learn to tile, paint, repair and build.

Volunteer to help farmers and homesteaders for free in exchange for ideas and learning important skills (network).

[RockyRooster]

Need ideas]

[DW]

Learn to preserve food, read, cook only from scratch, sew/mend, shop thrift stores, compare prices, hunt (if you're into it).

[MaineFarmMom]

Volunteer to help farmers and homesteaders for free in exchange for ideas and learning important skills (network).

That's what I was going to say. The more you do the better off you are when you're on your own place. It's surprising how much information is interchangeable.

I'll add - get into shape. Gain strength and endurance. When I started out I could barely carry 25 lbs of chicken food 100 yards. I had to set it down a couple of times. Now it's easy to throw 100 lbs over my shoulder and go.

[treesonggal]

Ask yourself some tough questions.

Why do you want to do this? What are your strengths/weaknesses?
How much is "very little" money to you? What is your current fiinancial picture (debts, assets, items you can do without, employment now and future prospects)? What does homesteading mean to you? Is it growing and preserving most of your own food? Building your own energy efficient home or renovating an old house? Will you make your own clothes, buy at yard sales and resale or free stores? Will you have farm animals or pets? Will you butcher your meat or sell animals for income?

I found my place for $3,000 down and $300 a month. It's tiny: 150 square feet (yes, you read that correctly). I have no septic, no electric and no well for water. I stayed in the cabin until the building inspector gave me the boot. Then I stayed with friends for a few months before returning on the sly to the cabin. A month later I parked an old 16 foot travel trailer and a screen room next to the cabin and I stay there. I haul water from a friend's, use a cell phone, hold yard sales for a meager income while looking for work. I drive an old car, don't eat out, have no television, don't take vacations, rarely have company, and have health insurance for another eight months. Sure, my circumstances may seem bleak to others but I am content and happy. I'm doing what I wanted to do. I believe in myself and am willing to make sacrifices and work hard. But going into this I thought I'd get work and keep working. I thought I'd get more accomplished here by this time. I thought the garden would be bigger, the firewood pile higher, the cabin added on to, the root cellar built, etc. But all of that and more will come in good time. Friends, spouses and family can be a great resource and support system but at the end of the day it's all up to you. Good luck