How do you do it?

BackwoodsBuff · #1 05/25/13, 08:38 PM

Right now, I live on a homestead in Kentucky and do pretty well. Of course I lack several factors which make a good homestead:

-Larger garden (I'd like an acre instead 8000 sq. ft.)
-Barn sites
-Grazing area (I have wanted a milk cow and a few goats for a long time)
-Hunting and wood access
-Private water access for home and garden use
-Area for a few horses
-Of course, the backwoods isolation

My question focuses mainly on these things:

How do you get up and leave friends & family?
How do you buy a large amount of land without major debt or mortgages?
How can you make enough money from home to keep the necessary bills paid?
Could it even be done?

It has always been my dream to move north to Montana and establish a homestead from the ground up. I'm plenty young, but how can I make this happen in 10 years?

TnAndy · #2 05/25/13, 08:49 PM

We've spent 30 years in Tennessee doing about that. If you can figure how to pull it off in 10, you're WAY ahead of me

Alice In TX/MO · #3 05/25/13, 08:58 PM

How do you get up and leave friends & family?

You take family with you. You make new friends.

How do you buy a large amount of land without major debt or mortgages?

You figure out how much you NEED, not a large piece. You work regular jobs till it is paid for.

How can you make enough money from home to keep the necessary bills paid?

Most likely can't. Everybody I know has outside jobs or is on a good retirement plan.

ATPFARM · #4 05/25/13, 09:00 PM

1. You will make friends wherever you go... family... dunno
2. Inheritance..
3. Keep looking for niche's ... they are out there...
4. It can be done... with discipline.. a dollar saved is a dollar thirty earned...

BackwoodsBuff · #5 05/25/13, 09:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TnAndy

We've spent 30 years in Tennessee doing about that. If you can figure how to pull it off in 10, you're WAY ahead of me

No way in ten years! I mean just move northwest! I should've been clearer.

d'vash · #6 05/25/13, 09:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BackwoodsBuff

How do you get up and leave friends & family?
How do you buy a large amount of land without major debt or mortgages?
How can you make enough money from home to keep the necessary bills paid?
Could it even be done?

I was born and raised in Ontario, and made a 2000 km move crosscountry to a wonderful little island on the east cost of Canada.

To answer you're first question; having moved many times I am used to "just getting up and leaving". Not being the most social person, and having very few family members in Ontario may have also helped to contribute have making the move easier. I also happened to leave during a time were the friends I had were going away to the states or out west for school, for work. I stay in contact via Facebook, Skype, phone calls and occasional visits.

I think saving up in order to be able to put a large down payment, in addition having a property that provides you with rental income (whether it be land or residence). The rental income can act as a "buffer", and help pay housing expenses.

There are lots of people who work from home and make a decent, even a very prosperous, living. Sure, it's possible.

Helena · #7 05/26/13, 01:10 PM

Don't wait until things are perfect for you or you will never leave. Just get up and prepare as much as possible and get out there and do it !! Time passes much too quickly in this life to sit and plan and hope that you'll be ready..someday.

ET1 SS · #8 05/26/13, 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BackwoodsBuff

...
How do you get up and leave friends & family?
How do you buy a large amount of land without major debt or mortgages?
How can you make enough money from home to keep the necessary bills paid?
Could it even be done?

1- I was career military, after a couple decades you get used to being away from relatives.

2- I bought cheap forest land. Two parcels; one for $350/acre, and one with river frontage for $900/acre. With cashing in my portfolio I was able to pay cash, and I had enough leftover to build our house.

3- Earning enough cash from a homestead to 100% pay your bills is hard. I have a small pension, so I am okay. Among others that I rub elbows with, I would guess that around 90% hold multiple p/t seasonal jobs in town. The other 10% live in absolute poverty [a shack that leans, or raising two children in an abandoned school bus, or a yurt].

4- Yes. People are doing it.

BlueRose · #9 05/26/13, 07:15 PM

Research what area you want to live and start watching for land to come up for sale or auction.
I was able to get owner financing on my little 'homestead'.
Not what I dreamed but I can make it work.

joebill · #10 05/26/13, 09:54 PM

I'll address a few of those.

Leaving family was pretty much a bonus. In some cases, biggest worry was keeping them from coming to visit.

Friends? well, there is a thing we call a phone, and now we have email, and it's not like they are the only friends you'll ever make or they would not be your friends in the first place. If you were unworthy of friends, you wouldn't have any to leave.

I bought 30 acres with a house, 2 wells, outbuildings, utilities, etc. for 30K with 10% down on a contract a dozen years ago, which was paid off 6 years ago. The property was somewhat distressed with a trashy hippie house and lots of junk on it. Built a new house, cleaned the property up, worked hard, and prayed hard and it came together.

The biggest lesson that I keep preaching is that if you take a job cleaning apartments or cutting grass or almost anything else for an employer, you'll be making $8 an hour, but if you do the same work as a self employed person, you'll be earning at least $30 an hour, and if a "boss" fires you, you are out of an income, but if a customer fires you, he's only one of many and you can replace him. I raised 5 daughters as a self employed artisan, with my wife never working outside the home. If I had tried to get a job that would have carried us, It would have been a disaster.

If you know how or can learn how to do anything at all on your own, you can reach your goals with some hard work. If you are depending on a boss for your daily bread, you will always be scratching manure with the chickens......Good luck!.....Joe

Vosey · #11 05/26/13, 10:04 PM

If you have a dream, you have to follow it. And that usually means taking some risks and jumping in.

As for friends, my two best friends are 100's of miles away. My best friend of 20+ years just visited and we realized we haven't seen each other in 9 years! We talk, email and text all the time, so doesn't feel like it at all. Honestly, I'm too busy to have friends and family close by who would want to get together, lunch, shop etc. I do wish I was closer to my parents.

I think land/housing without a mortgage in this world is almost impossible, but aim to make it as affordable as possible and that means, saving, saving now.

As for making a living, my sister and her husband make all of their living on the web. My brother has a farm in Maine, selling his beef and lamb plus his ferrier work makes ends meet. Personally, I work a "real job" and DH is home doing everything else.

The other option is to find more land in Kentucky and compromise. You'll be compromising on the family and friends by going to Montana. Maybe it's a better balance.

FarmboyBill · #12 05/26/13, 10:19 PM

I find that one has to mechanize as much as is needed to be geared towards getting in and maintaining the crops/garden. Im over mechanized, but id rather be over than under.

I see so many times of people like the OP who hasn't hardly much more than a clue, who wants to have an acre garden , and cows, goats, hogs, poultry of various sorts, rabbits, ect. Any and generally most all.

THEN I see where people say they maintain a acre easily with a hoe, or push plow. I think that the above people think that, since SOMEBODY is doing it, anybody can.
IF there is somebody who can maintain a acre garden with a hoe and/or a push plow, there are a hundred who cant. Either cause of age, or another off the farm job, or disability, ect. I couldn't do it in my best day, WHY? Cause I didn't want to. I thought, as someone said, IF it couldn't be done with a tractor of some size it didn't need to be done. That's been a detriment, and now I realize it. BUT, it is what it is. To circumnavigate that thought, I bought what I thought I needed to do the jobs I needed to do on the farm. They allowed me to do more with less time and energy. They cost WAY more, but ive got them.

I would suggest that you get a VARIFIED acre that you can plant to garden and do so.
Evaluate, not only your successes, but also your defeats, against the thought of the work you put into it, and see if that's what you want to be doing for as long as you can do it.
IF your garden is SOMEWHAT productive, but its covered with weeds, ect, and this is your first year, IF you intend to do it again the same way, You will get the same results. maybe worse.
IF you evaluate it, and decide you need this or that to be able to keep up with it, and try it again, THEN you've advanced a bit.
IF it ends up STILL being the same way as the first, You need to be thinking that you should get more out of a 1/2 acre well maintained, than your getting out of a acre weed patch.
IF you THEN grow a 1/2 acre garden, and it produces abundantly, and is nice and maintained, THEN you can decide to either do it that way again, OR decide to expand from what you learned. Either can be considered advances.
IF the 1/2 acre ends up still being weedy, with little production, you may need to decide if you want a garden that will provide fresh produce, and beyond to can and preserve, OR just a small garden to provide fresh veggies in season, and let it go at that.

SAME way with a cow. You need to, if you already don't, need to arrange with somebody to where you can milk a cow morning and night. That will tell you IF you want to do a bothersome to some chore in the morning, as well as at night, AND what your hands, and shoulders tell you after a week of milking. ACTUALLY, a month would be better since that would be time enough for you to break your hands and arms to the exercise and to have got over the hump as it were, and to THEN base a honest evaluation as to whether you want to continue to milk for as long as your able.

BackwoodsBuff · #13 05/29/13, 01:51 PM

Thanks everyone for your input.

unregistered168043 · #14 05/29/13, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BackwoodsBuff

My question focuses mainly on these things:

How do you get up and leave friends & family?
How do you buy a large amount of land without major debt or mortgages?
How can you make enough money from home to keep the necessary bills paid?
Could it even be done?

It has always been my dream to move north to Montana and establish a homestead from the ground up. I'm plenty young, but how can I make this happen in 10 years?

1. I was able to leave friends and family mostly because I didnt have too many. I had cousins and uncles, and one grandmother. They didnt like seeing me move so far away but it wasn't really enough to keep me living such a humdrum life in the suburbs.

2. With money. I had some saved and sold my house in an area where real estate prices ( and taxes ) were absurd. I bought in a place that was much cheaper.

3. I got a part time job to suppliment my income. I have some savings still. I gave up cell phones, cable TV, heat only with wood, grow a good deal of my food, have no health insurance, no home insurance, and minimal auto coverage. My property taxes are very low, and I generally do for myself.

This is my way, and I love the freedom. I can never live any other way since I have put the fears of 'what if' behind me. I'd rather live 60 years and be free, than 200 chained to a desk. Its not for everyone.

mrstillery09 · #15 05/29/13, 04:08 PM

I'm glad you asked this question, as I was just thinking it over yesterday. My brother, and mother are of the opinion it would be absolutely impossible for any small sized homestead/farm to make it in our day and age. I think it would be difficult, full of hard labor, but possible. I love hearing everyone's responses!

RazrRebel · #16 05/29/13, 04:32 PM

I think a lot would be based on where at. I live in rural Southwest Va. I don't know anybody that has a milk cow. We're pretty rural by most standards but community wise not a lot of homesteading. The mountains and no flat land has a lot to do with it..

ET1 SS · #17 05/29/13, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrstillery09

I'm glad you asked this question, as I was just thinking it over yesterday. My brother, and mother are of the opinion it would be absolutely impossible for any small sized homestead/farm to make it in our day and age. I think it would be difficult, full of hard labor, but possible. I love hearing everyone's responses!

I suggest that you go to your local Farmer's Market. See if any farms have hand-out brochures. Ask if they are ever open for farm tours.

Around here, maybe half of them have brochures. Nearly all are open for tours. They may want an appointment for one.

Also statewide we have designated farm tour days when all [participating] farms are supposed to be open for tours.

It would give you a chance to talk individually with folks who are doing it.

ChristieAcres · #18 05/29/13, 04:58 PM

Any homestead can be self supportive IF there is at least one who is self employed and they have multiple streams of income. As is also said, location location location... I know folks who are just like this. They have acreage, huge garden, and a nursery license. They sell produce Spring to late Fall, a lot of it! Their property has frontage on a busy road... The DW makes jams, jellies, pies, etc...sells out! The DH also has a thriving firewood biz. He get his wood for free, cleaning up properties of fallen wood, cuts and uses his electric splitter. He is also a sports referee. This older couple clear thousands each month doing what they do. I know others in niche markets doing very well. The key is multiple streams of income, not based on the same market conditions.

JoePa · #19 05/29/13, 05:19 PM

I think if you want to get an idea of a true homesteader - watch the TV program - Alaska the Last Frontier - these people really live off the land - I really enjoy watching that show - you got to realize that a couple generations of hard work put together what they have now -