People who have gotten "it" of their systems.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Is there anything you just had to get out of your system, then you where satisfied? The houseboat thread got me thinking about this. I am thinking about 5-10 years on the homestead may relieve me of my buring desire to farm. But who knows, I may be hooked for life, which is okay, or I may deside to try something else, which is okay too. My wife's burning desire is to travel, I don't know if that will be satisfied once we do a bit or not, or if we will have to step it up to living overseas to keep up the buzz! I have a real admoration for folks that pursue their dreams, it seems like most people are simply content to watch TV and do the same old thing. Or just settle for a small taste of what they really want, on a vacation or something. Not me! If there is nothing on the horizon, I am bummed! I wonder what I will think when I am 40+ (26 now), maybe it just comes with the territory...

[texican]

When I was growing up, I had relatives who worked hard, became successful, and relatively well off... and their plans for retirement were grandiose. Until a few months into retirement, they became disabled, and couldn't spend their money on anything but nurses and doctors... They'd spent their youth, and traded it for money.

I decided to go on the 'grand tour' before retirement. Knowing bodies get wrecked and torn up, through time, I took up rock climbing... then mountain climbing, then backpacking, then backcountry ranger'ing. I know, you can do these things at any age, but it's a heckuva lot easier when you've got all your tendons and ligaments... I've lost some (ligaments) along the way (ironically, in the process of trying to use them before I 'loosed' them. {btw... one of my major pet peeves is when people say loose, when they actually should be saying lose... 'Loosers' has a completely different meaning than 'losers'..... and when I see someone use loosers, improperly for losers, I think bad things...}

I'm pretty much over rock climbing, although I'm building a stone house with a side purpose of being able to climb around...

[JGex]

Originally Posted by Matthew Lindsay

Is there anything you just had to get out of your system, then you where satisfied? The houseboat thread got me thinking about this. I am thinking about 5-10 years on the homestead may relieve me of my buring desire to farm. But who knows, I may be hooked for life, which is okay, or I may deside to try something else, which is okay too. My wife's burning desire is to travel, I don't know if that will be satisfied once we do a bit or not, or if we will have to step it up to living overseas to keep up the buzz! I have a real admoration for folks that pursue their dreams, it seems like most people are simply content to watch TV and do the same old thing. Or just settle for a small taste of what they really want, on a vacation or something. Not me! If there is nothing on the horizon, I am bummed! I wonder what I will think when I am 40+ (26 now), maybe it just comes with the territory...

We travel for our work a LOT - actually planned our business around it so we could travel. This travel takes us from music festival to Europe to Burning Man to music cruises, etc, etc and we've been doing it heavily for the last 6 years. I love seeing the rest of the U.S. and other countries, but I'm ready to settle in and get some goats and bunnies and grow my garden again. So I guess, yes, I had the travel bug and I think I've almost worked it out of my system.

Do your traveling now... while you can enjoy the adventure. You're still young enough to enjoy back-packing and staying in hostels. Take the unbeaten path. There's plenty of time to settle in and homestead in a few years.

[ailsaek]

After my divorce nearly sixteen years ago (wow), I took a six-year-long "walk on the wild side." It was fun, mostly, a learning experience, definitely, and I'm all done with it now.

[Wayne02]

I have a "get it out of your system" example, but it is no where near the seriousness of what you are talking about.

For years I always purchased (paid cash in full) used vehicles and maintained them myself averaging 11 years of ownership for each vehicle over the years. I knew that buying used was the financially responsible thing to do, but I had always wanted to buy a brand new vehicle and I used all the typical excuses - factory warranty wouldn't have to work on it myself, new so would be more reliable, can have all the options you want, etc.

Then at the age of 37 I had saved up and broke-down and purchased (paid cash in full) a new fancy truck right off the showroom floor. A really nice truck, fully loaded, new model year, BIG bucks. All through the transaction I had that nagging feeling that this was not the right thing to do yet I signed on the dotted line. As soon as I pulled onto the road coming out of the dealership I had a terrible feeling in my stomach knowing that the value of the truck had just depreciated at least 4K. Four thousand dollars with the stroke of a pen. The fact that I had paid cash and was not making monthly payments really made the point hit home for me all the more, just like pulling out my wallet and handing the guy $4,000. I had a fancy new truck, much nicer than vehicles I had owned before, but I felt like an idiot that night driving home...

As it turned out, 7 years later, the truck has never broken down, and has needed only a couple of minor things fixed outside of regular maintenance, so that is good. I paid big bucks for an extended warranty that has just run out and I never needed to use it. It turned out that the hassle of scheduling the truck for the required maintenance was such that I just ended up doing the work myself in my shop rather than bringing it into the dealership. I did have two things done under warranty at the dealership totaling about $500 in parts if I remember correctly.

That being said, and despite the above positives, I still feel it was the wrong thing to do from a financial standpoint, but hopefully I've got that new car thing out of my system.

[Jim S.]

Originally Posted by Matthew Lindsay

Is there anything you just had to get out of your system, then you where satisfied? The houseboat thread got me thinking about this. I am thinking about 5-10 years on the homestead may relieve me of my buring desire to farm. But who knows, I may be hooked for life, which is okay, or I may deside to try something else, which is okay too. My wife's burning desire is to travel, I don't know if that will be satisfied once we do a bit or not, or if we will have to step it up to living overseas to keep up the buzz! I have a real admoration for folks that pursue their dreams, it seems like most people are simply content to watch TV and do the same old thing. Or just settle for a small taste of what they really want, on a vacation or something. Not me! If there is nothing on the horizon, I am bummed! I wonder what I will think when I am 40+ (26 now), maybe it just comes with the territory...

If it's for you and you find some success at it, farming gets in your blood. If it is not for you or you are not the hard-working, thrifty type of person it takes to make money at it, farming will shortly become a major PITA and something you will do anything to get shed of.

That's the nice thing about farming, it lets you know pretty quick. Now, for your part, if you find you don't like it or can't succeed, please be upfront about it and GET OUT and sell your animals. I have seen far too many livestock that were neglected because the "new" wore off. Thanks.

My wife's desire is to travel, too, which is something I can't do and farm as well. I could stay on my place and never go anywhere and be perfectly happy.

Can't go with ya on the "follow your dream" thing, since I have many, many, many friends and acquaintences who have done just that. About 1 in 25 actually succeeds. The rest fail in some form, and it marks them for a long time. Some folks I know have never gotten over it. My own DW invested 3 years of education time (away from me about 900 miles) and several tens of grand to follow her dream, which so far after 7 years at it has resulted in an income that is one quarter of what she had been making. I don't hold it against her (though I wish she made more because it put more burden on me) because she would have gone nuts staying in her former life. Still, she was just another one I have seen, and she admits it has been hard to overcome that failure in her life and move beyond it.

Seeing all that over and over -- and the personal wreckage from it -- taught me my personal mantra: "Follow what is realistic." I'm not living my dream, I am living a good life that is reasonable and will pay my bills. Personally, I think that's as good as it gets unless I win the lottery.

I am a goal-oriented and self-motivated person (which is a decided plus in farming). If that's what you mean by "something on the horizon," I'm with ya there.

[SimplerTimez]

Originally Posted by Matthew Lindsay

Is there anything you just had to get out of your system, then you where satisfied? The houseboat thread got me thinking about this. I am thinking about 5-10 years on the homestead may relieve me of my buring desire to farm. But who knows, I may be hooked for life, which is okay, or I may deside to try something else, which is okay too. My wife's burning desire is to travel, I don't know if that will be satisfied once we do a bit or not, or if we will have to step it up to living overseas to keep up the buzz! I have a real admoration for folks that pursue their dreams, it seems like most people are simply content to watch TV and do the same old thing. Or just settle for a small taste of what they really want, on a vacation or something. Not me! If there is nothing on the horizon, I am bummed! I wonder what I will think when I am 40+ (26 now), maybe it just comes with the territory...

I think the most intersting part in your question is ...'keep up the buzz.' I guess I must have never had a buzz, per se, unless it's the one in me now to homestead. But I can tell you that a lot of the things that I *thought* would make me happy, actually cost me some of the most valuable things I had - mostly time with my family.

I've discovered that having 'stuff' is not as important as being happy, and that more stuff doesn't mean more happiness.

The only buzz that currently has my interest will be the one I hear one day, in our own hives, if we're so blessed.

But, I'm a few (!) years older than you, and it has taken me until now to realize what is truly important for me. I want to be content on my own place. It may be different for you and yours

Best wishes,
~ST

[MushCreek]

I did the houseboat thing when I was very young- a couple New England winters cured me real quick!
Next, I wanted my own business. I hammered away at it for 6 years before throwing in the towel. I should have quit sooner.
Now, we have the 'move to the country' bug. We're probably too old to try to make a go of real homesteading, but we'll dabble in it. Time will tell if we are really country folk or not. I've lived in the country before, so I know what to expect, but I was a lot younger then.

[Wolf mom]

First I think the person you need to talk to about this is your wife & see how deep her desire to travel/homestead is. If you have children, that's something else that has to be factored in.

I think I'd regret more never having done what I've done in my life. When I can't do things, I'll at least have the memories. Like Texican, you do it when your body's able.

I think travel is different from homesteading as that's a lifestyle - unless you're talking about living in different places for months. My daughter was a traveling nurse for years. That's a good profession to travel & get to know an area. You can go to other countries also.

Statistics say people change professions 3 times in their life these days - not like your grandfathers time when they worked at one job for all their life. Who's to say you can't change your lifestyle also?

Follow your heart. Just keep putting those pennies away for your old age while doing so.

[sammyd]

In my teen years when the brain in my head did little thinking I was sure that the last place in the world I wanted to be was on the farm, Dad was a crazy control freak and mom was a loon.........
So I joined the navy and spent 7 years seeing the world through an alcoholic haze.
Somewhere around year 2-3 I happened to be walking along a country road in Scotland during the spring. I got a whiff of freshly turned sod and a hint of diesel and knew that I had made the wrong decision in life.
But during those 3 years the hard reality of overinflated property value and horrendous interest rates of the early 80's had driven my folks off the farm, so I signed up for a school and shipped for 4 more years.
Towards the last 2 years somehow my father had managed to save enough money to buy back the same place he had left earlier and I was all set to drag my wife and kids back to WI to work into taking over. But sometime during the last year everything fell apart, wife ran off with another sailor leaving me with 3 kids and dads barn burned down and he had a heart attack. So when I got out there wasn't much to do but go home and figure out how I was going to live. (on a side note just to prove there is no cure for the farm bug, my father spent several months after I had got home looking for a new farm....including an old grade B place, even though he could hardly walk to the end of the driveway to get the mail)
I looked at several "work into ownership" deals and actually signed on for one but with 3 kids and no wife let me tell ya....not fun. I went from a size 36 waist to a size 29 in 6 months and was really doubting my sanity for trying to do it.
I ended up leaving that and working at a succesion of maintenance tech and dairy equipment service jobs. Got remarried and decided that maybe for now, just a little land and a few animals are what's right for me. Although if the chance occurred I would go dairying in a heartbeat now that I have a dependable wife to help me through and the kids are older and able to help.

So as far as I'm concerned, there is no cure for the farm bug and hoesteading for me is like methadone to a heroin addict, just something that won't kill you quite as fast.

[hunter63]

It seems that the only intrest is to "get the buzz", then I think you just answered your own question.
Do it and see what happens, never know, but don't wait to "retire" to try this, lots of hard work, (young guy stuff).

[adamtheha]

That's a great question, and I'm going to answer it for myself. I got the "bug" about two years ago, when a wise old man told me about the impending collapse of the world's economy, and suggested that I plan ahead to grow my own food, and get out of debt. I started looking into it, and now I'm hooked! I can hardly wait to get out of the big city, but I just need a better job. Once I secure that end of things, we'll be gone in a cloud of dust. I pitched the idea to my wife, and she was extremely receptive, since we live in a bit of a lousy neighborhood, and we'll never be able to afford anything better.
I plan to start with a garden, then once I've planted trees, built a barn, settled our energy needs, and built a house, then I'll add some animals. I might get the animals first, but the point I guess is, go slow, add things slowly until you're satisfied and comfortable with what you've got.

[Pigeon Lady]

I got a few things out of my system.

My major enduring dream from being 4 years old was to be an artist and live on a farm in the middle of nowhere!

Upon leaving High School (in England) I was torn between going to art college or joining the military. I was shy, weak and sickly. Teachers used to sit in the staff room and say "whatever's going to become of little Pauline" I knew I wouldn't last two minutes in the military so chose 4 years of art college in the next town over. Lived at home until I was 24.

Then, I met and married my first husband (American) and emigrated over here. The marriage lasted about 5 years ( felt like 20) and I found myself in a position ( no kids) to do whatever I wanted.

Decided to go home to England and try for the military. I was 30 at the time. Went to the army recruiting office in town and they told me how difficult basic training would be and how they were only looking for kids just out of school... went across the street to the Navy recruiter. They asked my age (I didn't look 30) and laughed themselves silly.

So, I came back to the states and continued on in my job working nights on the psychiatric unit at the local hospital.

The Gulf war started and I was itching to get in there and do "something" so I called the US army recruiter and made an appointment. Was welcomed with open arms! So there I was in basic training at 32 with a bunch of teenagers. I'd been lifting weights and working out quite a bit before going in so the PT tests were pretty easy. Unfortunately the army wouldn't recognize my 4 years of college ( yes I had certificates but not the transcripts that the US requires) and there wasn't time to jump through all the hoops to get the required "proof." So I was a 32 y/o private

The war ended while I was in AIT (combat medic) and they sent me to Korea for a year and then FT. Lewis Wa. and few month in Somalia. There I met my wonderful Husband!!

A year later I was expecting our son. After seeing the long hours poor army kids spent in daycare ---Like when the platoon Sgt decides "no one's leaving till this gets done, even if it takes us till midnight! ..."
I said "No way is my kid being farmed out for 17 hours a day" I was a senior in nursing school at the time but my pregnancy was getting very complicated. There was no way I could have completed those last few months, so it was a good time to put in paperwork to get out of the military altogether.

Since then -1994- I've been a stay home, homeschooling mom. Still got to travel a lot due to hubby staying in. We've traveled cross country 3 times, been to Germany and of course back home to England many times.

When we were stationed in NC we discovered Countryside Magazine and got the bug to homestead. Well, I homesteaded while Ken was deployed here there and everywhere with special ops. He finally retired from the army about 18 months ago and we bought our farm on 34 acres. I have all the animals I ever wanted and do some freelance artwork on the side. My biggest dream finally came true!

Can honestly say I got it all out of my system and wouldn't have missed a minute of it!

I see my old school friends back home who at various times along the way had dreams of doing this or that and always gave in to the doubts that it might be too hard, or they would lose the comfortable security of the job they've been in for 12 years, they'd be a long way from family etc. and I feel so sad for them. Seems their whole lives have been spent working at jobs they hate, watching TV in the evening and taking a two week vacation in the summer. They tell me they feel unfulfilled, like life has just slipped away from them and now it's too late to change anything.

I say take the bull by the horns and go after whatever dream you have. Even if you're 70 years old. As long as you have a bit of breath left it's never too late to be working toward some goal or other. Always have something on the horizon!

Pauline

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Originally Posted by Wolf mom

First I think the person you need to talk to about this is your wife & see how deep her desire to travel/homestead is. If you have children, that's something else that has to be factored in.

Oh yeah, she is on board, and no kids yet, but as we have been crafting the plan we have "tried" to include all the considerations of having children. We are planners...

[live on land]

I too have a dream. The dream is to homestead. I have had this dream even before I met my wife. When we got married she even said that she would homestead. Now twenty five years latter and we are sitting at a place in our lives that we could, she says that if I were to homestead I would have to go by my self. Now the decision has to be made. All I think about and read about is to have some land and homestead. I know what my decision may come out to be. But I will have to live with that the rest of my life.