Where do you even start???

I didn't mean to sound snobbish about the college loans and cash flow. Before I went back to college, I was living in a car, eating out of dumpsters, and had terrible health problems. I got a spot on a relative's couch, got my health together, got a sh***y job, and got loans to go to night school. I took a series of teaching jobs in inner city Chicago schools that no one else wanted. Now I live in rural Idaho on a 9 acre farm that I own. Anything is possible. In order to achieve your dreams, first you have to dream. Anything is possible through grace.

__________________
Novitiate Homesteader
http://novitiatehomesteader.blogspot.com/

By deciding we could live farther away from family than we originally wanted to. Land prices were so high around the Twin Ciites (MN) that we simply could not afford land. Started looking in WI and found out that we could afford land there.

After that, making the step to SD and doing what we really wanted to do was not that hard. In our case, DH can do just about anything and I have a good career. So I'm the one that started looking for a job in a more rural location - we were considering several states and we moved to where I landed the job.

But if we had not been willing to make some hard choices that put our long term goals above our comfort level, we'd probably still be sitting in suburbia on our 1/3 acre lot.

We did this when our kids were 14 and 17. DH's Dad was having heart problems and they didn't think he would live to see retirement (he is still alive and kicking, but his life is much different) so we decided waiting until we retired might not be a good option.

I have to admit my career is the main reason we have the funds financially, and that took a lot of work too - I had no college education when I got married and had kids.

Cathy

Never give up.

As you can see I joined this forum years ago and mostly lurked and soaked up info. It has (and is) taking some huge sacrifices to realize our dreams... but I didn't give up.


Write down what you want and then pick something on there and make the next step. And then the step after that and then another and so on and so forth. You just have to make those steps.

__________________
You are confined only by the walls you build yourself.

I started out with a tiny house on 1 1/2 acres and traded my older neighbors yard work for use of enough land to grow a market garden. In 1996 one of the neighbors died and their 14 acres with acondemned farmhouse and run down barn came up for sale for $49,000. I jumped on it. By being frugal and working my a** off. We paid off the farm in 6 years. We also rewired replumbed jacked up the foundation and reroofed the house in that time. The house still needs a lot of work but we redo something every year. Our 12 room house now is worth about $150,000. I found out yesterday that there is a picture of our house on google earth along with the land where our market garden is. The yard picture is about 5 years old but the house picture is from this Spring. type in : 2872 State Route 7 Harpursville, NY 13787 then click on more button to get actual street photo.
Linda

__________________
mommagoose_99
Live from
Beautiful Upstate NY

I started bringing my dream to reality 23 years ago when I was living in a one bedroom apartment in Huntsville and made my first batch of homemade wine using gear I bought from a health food store and herbal apothacary called The Pearly Gates to make my first batch of wine without my father being the master vinter and found the book Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew when I made my trip to the Huntville Library that month.

The next Spring I bought six 15 gallon plastic totes, seeds, bagged topsoil , a container of Peter's fertilizer and started my first SFG garden on the patio of my apartment.

That Summer I sat in the middle of my container garden reading Profitable Worm Farming by Charlie Morgan and sipping homemade strawberry wine. That fall, I built a small tote version of the wooden compost bin described in Morgans book to make my own fertilizer.

A couple years later, I still had my patio garden and had my worm binin my apartment and the apartment manager, myself and a couple other residents had a community garden in an area beside her unit.

That year I began taking steps to move back to the rural area where I grew up although my job kept me on the road. About 10 years later I made it back to my hometown and to this day I still have worms.

__________________
"I didn't have time to slay the dragon. It's on my To Do list!"

Thanks for asking the question. We are in such similar situations. We have been researching and trying to learn. We first became interested last November. We have done or tried to do what many suggest here.

We have checked out SO many books from the local library (a great system!) to learn, we got a few chickens to learn about them, put in few small gardens, began a worm compost and a regular compost.

A nearby family has a nice small homestead with chickens, bees, garden, and orchard so we hang out them a little. And we have made what seems like small but solid progress towards working out of debt and saving money. We have begun to look for land to see what's out there. Also, as a side note, we try not to let it consume us because at times I've gone overboard researching that I have to step back and take a break from it. Sometimes I think, "Why do I spend all this time on a dream that may never happen?" but then I'm usually back at it a short time thereafter. I've LOVED learning about the skills and lifestyle, would just like to live it if we meant to.

One of our concerns is not having a life outside of a homestead and own family in terms of socialization and fellowship with others.

Good luck with your research. I'm amazed at how helpful and insightful people are on this site. You've come to a great place to learn!

I can't remember who, but someone made the suggestion to make friends in your community.
I whole-heartedly agree!

DH and I were recently talking about this.

We have a buddy that'll loan us his industrial air compressor when we get around to digging our well.
We had a neighbor who came in with his Cat loader to shove the concrete truck around in the mud the day we got a record rainfall a few hours before we needed to pour footers. Another friend/neighbor helped with the actual pour.
Several friends did some talking and asking when we were first looking at our ground to get a feel for why the seller was selling and how much he'd really take.
Another friend has let our kids come over to play a few times so we could work on the place without them.
Several people have given us stuff they didn't need. A former employer gave us about fifteen telephone poles for our shop. Etc, etc, etc.

__________________
~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

If you are religious, join a place of worship in your faith. If you'd rather not commit by joining, there's nothing wrong with visiting each day of worship.

If you're not religious, volunteer in your community. Senior citizens center, food bank, children's school, etc. Even community events such as festivals, craft fairs, local fireman's fish fry fund raiser, and such.

Working as a volunteer, faith or not, is a good way to met people and form new social bonds.

Offer to help your neighbors. An easy way to get started is to take over some excess produce from your garden to see if they can use it. Or, take then the "extra" apple pie that you baked.

While, chances are you'll have a few neighbors that don't want new friendships, but don't let that stop you, as there will be others who welcome new friends.

Even at the grocery store, hardware store, feedstore, you can strike up a conversation. An easy way to do this is to ask the guy or gal close to you how to use xyz. Winter squash is a good one to ask about in the grocery store. You'll never know when asking a simple question can lead to a new friendship.

Lee

Nice looking place.

__________________
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
Mark Twain
______________________________________________

Enforced tolerance is oppression

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

"...and to this day I still have worms."


Shrek,
The vet can give you a pill for that!

Welcome to the forum. We are glad you joined us. You have gotten great advice so far. There is really nothing I could add except good luck!