Partial homesteading?

[ClickBeetle]

Hello everyone.

I would like some serious advice. I have been pondering this for a long time and decided to find a site that might help me plot some long term goals.

When I was in my 20s, I always thought I would end up in some remote cabin somewhere. I love living very simply. For a few years, I lived alone with my dogs in a very remote area. I so loved it. It was hard and my pipes would freeze, and my heater would quite, but it was so cool.

Because of family crises, deaths, other reasons, I ended up living a different kind of life that I planned. I cannot complain, have a good life, but I still crave that other lifestyle. Because of family responsibilities (aging parents, children) I can't totally live my dream, yet.

BUT, I keep thinking of small ways I could get my lifestyle closer to what I want. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Or advice?

Land where I live is super pricey right now. My other drawback is I am not too handy. So, I have to pay a of money to get help with projects. Another drawback is being way too busy. However, lately it has dawned on me that I really limit myself more than what reality could provide.

I thought about a mobile home or tiny house? But, I am kind of worried about chemicals in mobile homes/travel trailers. Also, water quality.

I also thought about building a sweatlodge and a little cabin in my backyard to have a piece of the dream while tending to other responsiblities.

Anyway, it seems overwhelming to me/impossible to ever live the way I want. However, I thought I would start reading here and who knows! Maybe I can get there.

I plan to read through posts, etc. but curious if anyone is in the same boat as me.

[jwal10]

Do you own or rent, country or city? What keeps you from finding the place you want....small place out of town, besides money? What do you have to work with where you are at? Many ways to work toward what you want....James

[Shrek]

Most everyone "partial homesteads" by todays standards and even the standards of the Ingalls on which "Little House on the Prairie" was based.

Now folks do what ag interests they can around their job or telecommuting.

In the days of Charles Ingalls, they worked their farm and took jobs at sawmills, as teamsters, seamstresses, etc.

Even my grandfather worked a farm by day and built ships and barges at a nearby shipyard at night.

Do whatever ag interests you can and whatever work you have to do to make the bills and call it your flavor of "partial homesteading".

[Whisperwindkat]

Do what you can where you are. You say you aren't handy, so learn some skills. Build a fort or treehouse for the kids to gain some building skills. Attend some homesteading classes if there are any in your area. Grow a small garden even if it is only a container garden. Learn to can, freeze and dehydrate even if you do it with produce from the farmer's market or pick your own farms. Basically, read as much as you can find a project that you can do to gain some skill and then go for it. Make the time to do what you want to do. Life is too short to be so busy doing for everybody else that you get forgotten and left behind. My grandaddy was the county plumbing inspector by day and a dairymen the rest of the time. It can be done. Blessings, Kat

[Callieslamb]

I think most of us are 'partials'. DH has a great job. He has no desire to give it up since he's worked so hard for it. Why should he? We have a son still at home - alone. He needs companionship. We still grow most of our own food and do our own building and repairs. I have lunch with friends weekly - at restaurants. I have no desire to change any of this.

It's your life. Live it like you can while making it into what you want.

[7thswan]

When I left my ex, I left the Homesteading lifestyle behind,he wasen't helping me much anyway. My life did a 180, I lived in the city,and very "Public" lifestyle. I couldn't let go of parts of my other life tho. I planted and tended a tiny strip of a garden, raised worms in a plastic tote, traveled, mostly to hunt and charter boats all by myself to Fish. Used to smoke fish I caught, right on the front porch. Got into comp.Archery,spent much time in the woods. I'm back to my old life now. My point is,find ways to make your Heart happy, it might be as simple as a hobby or craft that gives you that feeling you need, until your Dream can become reality again.

[Haven]

You would be surprised how much you can do on a small urban plot of yard.

Many of us have land, but our gardens, etc are spread out all over that land. Someone on 20 acres could probably fit their gardens, fruit trees, chickens, etc in a small yard. It just requires a little more planning to get things set up properly. Most people with land have tons of "wasted" space sitting around, unless they are full time farmers.

[mrs.H]

You might be looking at the wrong properties. I know things cost more up there, but, DH and I bought a 1600+ sq ft house on 2.47 acres with a 16x16 shed for $40,000! I was a foreclosure of course but it only needed cosmetic work. We are about 50 minutes North of Atlanta. I searched all the house for sale daily on line from all the major realty sites and a bunch of minor sites. I would call our Realtor to tell her we were on our way to look at the outside of something I found. I think I drove her nuts. But I also saved her a lot of gas, because most places we didn't need to see the inside to know it wouldn't work for us. The house we are in had been on the market for several months, I kept seeing it, but some sites said it had .57 acres, and some said 2+. I finally asked my realtor about it, and she looked into it and said it should be 2+ and didn't know why it wasn't on all sites. So we went, with her to look at it. The house was perfect, a ranch that had been built to handicap code, Wide door ways, wide master bath not steps, (I want to be able to stay in my home when I'm old as dirt, ya know.) It is in a cul-de-sac. In our county you can have 3 goats per acre and long as there is no HOA. But .57 acres was a deal breaker. So we put an offer on the house with the condition that it had 2+ acres. We paid for our own survey. And then we closed in may. Now we have 4 goats and 18 chickens and a huge back yard to start our garden next year.

Another thing that came up in the hud report, was that the heat pump/ac unit did not work. We figured at that price we could spring for a new unit, but when we had the power turned on it started right up! My husband thought that the inspector that tested it was using some sort of little generator to see if it worked, and it just didn't have the juice to turn it on.

So my point is, be prepared to do your own research. Don't wait for you realtor, he or she is not going to make a lot of money on a $40,000 sale, and may not put that much time into looking, and don't just look in the paper! I found a lot of even better buys, but $40 was all we had. If we had $80,000, we would be on 10 acres with a house and barn and pond.

[clovis]

While I'll have a thousand people disagree with me on this:

Homesteading is a state of mind, not an address or location. Make do with what you have, and be happy.

[Terri]

ClickBeetle, I fell in love with a man who loved cities and had NO intention of living in a rural area, ans so we compromised. We live on the edge of town on an acre lot. Basically, I homestead my back yard.

I have a garden and I made a greenhouse. I have fruit trees but the Christmas trees are gone. Well, the kids *ARE* grown! My bees died the other year from an illness, and I set out a swarm lure to get bees again but the drought was so bad nobody's bees swarmed. I will hope for better luck next year.I am still picking salad greens from the garden. My first building project was the hen house and it wore out after only 10 years because of clumsy construction, and I cheated and bought a garden shed for my next hen house: I have 4 hens for eggs. I raised blackberries and sold what we could not eat. I like to fish in the local lakes but this year I did not have the energy. I did, however, plant a lot more perennial flowers!

When you have a drive to homestead, you find a way, even if it is in your own back yard.

We did, eventually, buy 5 acres out of town but then my health then went bad, so we will probably never move to the out of town land: I visit it once a week, and I have planted it to permaculture things. I also have one of my bee swarm traps out there but this year, as I said, the drought meant few flowers which meant few swarms!

[Bret]

Originally Posted by clovis

While I'll have a thousand people disagree with me on this:

Homesteading is a state of mind, not an address or location. Make do with what you have, and be happy.

After a close review, I can find absolutely nothing to disagree about this.

[Lizza]

Clovis is right, it is a state of mind.

For right now, this minute, my suggestion is to look at the many "urban homesteading" books and websites. There is a lot people are doing on very small lots.

Since you feel there are many things you don't know how to do, I would build that sweat lodge, build the kids a fort, put in whatever garden you can. Gain skills so that you are handy. No one is born "handy", it is a learned skill. Maybe a piece of property will come on the market that needs complete infrastructure and a house but you will be ready for it.

[edcopp]

Welcome to the forum.

Read and learn. Learn and do. Small steps.

[vallyfarm]

If you can't fix or repair anything, but neet to hire others I think homesteading of any type will be difficult. If the pipes freeze and break you need to be able to get them running, not wait until the plumber arrives from 50 miles away. The costs of this would be huge. I admire you're gumption, but think learning how to do some plumbing, tractor repair, welding, etc. would be first on my list. The thought of paying for every little roof leak or carb rebuild kind of defeats the idea of living a self reliant life. Mike

[SFM in KY]

Some of the options will depend on where you are actually living now, renting or owning and whether you are living in the inner city or edge of a smaller town. But you can definitely do something ...

When my grandparents retired, they had nearly all of their back yard plowed and planted a huge garden, which they maintained until after my grandfather's death and my grandmother could no longer live alone 10 years later.

In Las Vegas, I grew two tomato plants in tubs in the 'yard' of the mobile home lot where we lived the first two years we lived there.

I'm not able physically to do much gardening now, but still grow a few tomatoes and broccoli every year. The thing I miss the most is, in fact, being 'isolated' ... living on a small farm 5 miles from the nearest small town, I'm still absolutely surrounded by people, very heavily populated rural area, lots of people retired or working in town and living on small acreages.

I can't do anything about the 'noise' ... I can not go outside even at 5 AM and not hear some kind of traffic ... but I am at least in the process of remodeling a small travel trailer into a private art studio/office and will be able to 'hibernate' there sans phone/Internet only on my terms ... and no place for visitors to sit down and visit either!

[Chief Cook]

Clovis is right, homesteading is a state of mind. You also need to do what you can with what you have. If it makes your heart happy and your mind comforted, go for it. The rewards of trial and error are invaluable. Life is an adventure and it is too short to let that adventure go to waste. Good luck and blessings to you and yours.

[Dusky Beauty]

The trick to a lifestyle that approaches self sufficiency is all in the planning. I recommend this book:The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre!: Carleen Madigan: 9781603421386: Amazon.com: Books
It's a guide for squeezing as much production as possible out of a quarter of an acre and has basic information on most everything. If you have even more space, it's even better.

It's also a fun, easy read.

Very few people are what I would consider 100% homesteaders (we have a few on the board) but the majority fall under description as hobby homesteaders. We do what we find fun rewarding and what we are able to.

[oregon woodsmok]

It might look like some people are born handy, but they really aren't. The difference is that they are really interested in engines, or wood working, or plumbing, so they learn at every opportunity.

For those of us who aren't all that interested, we can still learn how to do it. Somewhere around you there are classes in woodworking, small engine repair, auto shop, and plumbing. Community classes, parks and recreation classes, junior colleges. Sometimes high schools are open at night for adult education. You'll have to seek it out, but there is someone in your area who will teach you skills.

You can volunteer at Habitat for Humanity and they will teach you the skills you need to build.

The gardening is super easy. Find the local garden club and announce that you'd like to learn to grow tomatoes and you will be swarmed by gardeners who want to teach you. You'll probably get buried in free plant starts, too.

To me, the most important aspect of homesteading is growing your own food. You can grow food anywhere you live.

[duane9835]

Automotive Plastic Engineer by day..... Homesteader by night!!!!

My wife and i bought our property last year within 10 miles of our home and have since raied enough chickens, turkeys, pigs, goats for milk to totally fill our freezer for the year.

[ClickBeetle]

WOW! Thanks so much!!!! Even though I cannot answer everyone individually, each of your posts is very much appreciated! Feel free to *skim* this long post. I am thinking out loud, pondering James' questions!

To be totally honest my biggest issue has been family/friend pressure. BUT, I realized this the other day! First step to sanity.

I'll explain briefly: I moved away out West when I was a young adult. I lived in a travel trailer for three years near the mountains. LOVED it. I have always been a free spirit-lots of great life experiences moving around. I moved home b/c of fam emergency and was VERY surprised that I was being scrutinized for years. It took me awhile to process the fact that while I was living my life, friends and fam were thinking I was really weird. ha. I am really a stable individual that loves simple living (seems like all of you). So, fast forward-ended up in this area, and cannot leave for little while. Subconciously I realized I have been feeling a lot of pressure from family and people in the area to rein in my out-of-the box way of living. Plus, my kids are growing up (teen) and they have made comments that we don't live like x.y,z. We live in a highly materialistic area & I am...not. .

No doubt, grief was a factor for going on auto-pilot for awhile. I feel like lately I am an emerging butterfly again. Plus, I have realized my true friends love me and that being eccentric is just who I am so people are just going to have to deal with it.

I live in a rural area so that is good. I own my house but it does not have the privacy I am desiring. I am able to walk to work, that is awesome. sweet. I have thought a lot about a little place on the edge of town-not so much maintenance for me or snow removal, etc that I need a lot of equipment. Actually there is a place for sale but cannot quite afford it yet. He is asking too much, so maybe it will be around awhile. I have called him twice and he will not budge.

Another thing I have pondered is there are quite a few organic farms in the area,so....I could volunteer. I do not have tons of time, but maybe someone would let me volunteer once a month to start learning. I love farms so much and I know I will never have the knowledge or money to have a real farm but I could volunteer.

My lawn has way too many trees to garden. I have tried moving pots around in the sun and got some small tommy-toes. Pretty paulty crop.ha. A woodpecker moved in to one of the trees this Spring so I might be having to cut it down.

There is a mobile home park out in the country. It seems like a fairly nice area, I know a person that lives there. It would be a cheap way to get in the country until I can find something. But then you are trapped by the lot fee.

There is land for sale that I could afford, but I don't know how to get a straight answer about what the building requirements are and if they can change if adjoining land is sold. This area can be rather up-scale and I am worried I would buy some land, and people would complain if I put up a mobile home, small home, basic cabin. I almost bought some land that I thought I had cleared any requirements. But, something did not seem right about my information, so I did not buy. How can you tell for sure people are going to let you build what you want?

I have thought about learning more about how to build things. I have taken a few classes and I am pretty smart. I just get frustrated because everything seems to need these expensive tools & I always mess something up. I could save a lot of money I know!! I like the post about trial and error. One thing about getting older is I am not nearly so hyper and hard on myself. I need to just TRY. And, I have a confession-I am afraid of electricity and gas. ha I know-stupid-but this stops me in a lot of projects.

I do primitive skills and try to teach it when I can. One thing I really, really want is a sweatlodge. I have wanted one for a long time. And, I have not done it because of that pressure. Quite frankly, I think my family would freak out. ha. But, maybe that is okay.

Terri, I have a huge interest in bees. I have a friend who used to do this. I could maybe volunteer somewhere also because a local guy does this. I keep saying volunteer because in the past, I jump in and get in over my head. If I start volunteering I can build up a knowledge base without the pressure.

I will check out books and this forum!

I love this Callieslamb:It's your life. Live it like you can while making it into what you want.

Thanks for the information and the inspiration. One fault I have is getting ahead of myself and then getting overwhelmed. I am going to try to set some small goals and move forward.

Thanks for the welcome!