How did you get started?

I agree with Tracy start collecting your canning goods and work toward learning how to do that. The place just north of her would be a plus. It always helps to live near someone who understand you and knows what growing conditions you are growing in.

When my hubby was stationed in North Chicago we lived in a city. One day I stumbled upon Carla Emory's Encyclopedia of Country Living, and I was hooked on canning and dreaming of growing my own food. I had always grown something but never a full fledged garden. I started small, bought my canning jars and equipment, and bought my veggies and fruits in bulk at the farmers markets, and canned as much as I could. Next thing you know I was planting potatatos around my front porch, and planting a garden in my back yard. Gardens weren't allowed, but the same week they told me that they also gave me yard of the month. :-) They liked things well manicured and I took good care of my garden.

The two most important things I can tell you?
Eat what you grow and grow what you eat.
And You will never move forward if you keep looking back. So take baby steps, you will get there eventually. Involve the whole family. Even a two year old can carry a carrot into the house. That may actually help get them to eat some things if they participate.

By the way, the next place DH was stationed (S.C.) we bought a 5 acre lot to retire on. We never moved there, however . . . one night hubby sat us all down and gave us a piece of paper and told us to include everything that should go on our land. Much to our surprise all three of us drew pretty much the same thing. Everything from where the house should be to where the berries should be planted. The only difference in any of our drawings was my hubby had a pig, and my son had an area to play basketball. So do include the entire family - they just might surprise you! Besides you will have fun trying to get to all the ideas

I'd say the first thing ya'll need to decide is what do you and your husband want out of life. Where do you expect to be in life? So many things can be done, but if they aren't getting ya'll to where you want to be in life no point in chasing them. I realize that sounds real nebulous, but why spend money and time to learn say, quilting, if that is something that never will have any relevance to where you want to go with your life. Once you figure out "what you want to be when you grow up" then you and the rest of us can give some relevant pointers.
You've already decided you don't like where you are and what ya'll are doing now, spend some quiet time with your husband, maybe over morning coffee and decide what ya'll want to shoot for.

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"Only the rocks [and really embarassing moments] live forever"

"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands..." tick-tick-tick

Define what a "working" farm should pay?

You see, I know a lady who lives outside of Denver who makes a GREAT living on 5 acres, growing nothing but Basil.

I know another woman in Florida who also makes a terrific living on ONE acre. She has two greenhouses on that acre and grows vegetable seedlings.

These women have different markets (the former sells her basil to high class restaurants, the latter sells her veggie plants to home gardeners), live in different areas, do different things, but they both have cable, nice televisions, etc., and both are living debt free.

SMALL producers do not make a living off of corn and wheat. Nor milk and beef. The million-dollar farms you are talking about are growing *commodities*, and doing so with quarter-of-a-million dollar combines and enough chemicals to cause you to grow a second head.

The small producer figures out their niche market. Smoked hams? Fruit trees? Milk soap? And then gears their land towards that.

Sit down with your family and decide how much money you need per year after deducting your living expenses. I.e., if you plan to live off-grid with your solar panels and wind turbines, you need to deduct the cost of the electric bill, since you won't be getting one. If you are going to grow and produce your own food, and process it yourself, you need to deduct most of your grocery bill, because you won't be giving the stores so much money.

Figure out what it will ACTUALLY cost you to live. Add 15% to that for mistakes and luxuries.

That is the actual dollar amount your land needs to produce for you.

If you have 10 acres, you are not going to want to grow corn on it, which down here this year, yielded something like $362 an acre? You would instead want to grow something like broccoli, which yielded $6,447 an acre.

See what I mean about specialties? As a small farmer, you CANNOT COMPETE WITH AGRI-BUSINESS. Don't even try. Commodities depend upon having a LOT of planted land producing a LOT of food to make money. Corn, at $362 an acre, can make sense if you have great, big machinery to seed, weed, fertilize, and harvest it for you, and you have 5000 acres of the stuff. You cannot afford that sort of operation and, more importantly, it probably won't make you happy. Factory Farming doesn't sound like something that you would find satisfying.

That does not mean you cannot achieve your dream...just stay away from things that say "commercial farm" and start looking for "horse property" or "hobby farm/ranch", and "land for sale".

And HOW you market what you grow and where you grow it will change too. Wanna raise angora goats and alpacas for the hand spinner market? Carded cashmere was going for $18 USD an ounce last I checked. That might be something you market in a storefront, along with other items, if you live close to a population center, or something you have on a website if you live WAY to far out to make face-to-face selling practical.

If you end up in a village that is pretty far from a population center, you might consider producing something your neighbors are likely to want. 50 acres of well-managed woodlot could provide a healthy income in both firewood and veneer wood, especially if you are careful to re-plant and upgrade your woods.

You are seeing acres and acres of neat, orderly rows of commodities, and you SHOULD start looking at what you and your DH would ENJOY growing or producing.

Start with how much money you *need*, then go about figuring how to acquire it.

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Peace,
Caliann

"First, Show me in the Bible where it says you can save someone's soul by annoying the hell out of them." -- Chuck

Dang,, how come when theres a woman who can drive a tractor and pull farm machinery, SHES ALREADY TAKEN lol

l all ways say its not what you have its what you do with it dh and l have 8 acres we have close to 50 calves on it with 10 girls on pasture we are an vealer opertion the calves never see pasture all corn feed we make anywhere from 3000.00 to 6000.00 a month depends how many we ship per month and we do frezzer orders or people can buy 2 packs of hambuger if they want or 20lbs of meat (we try to cater to affordable)we do put in a garden and will be having chickens,pigs, turkeys and sheep in spring,dh fixs everything himself right down to doing all his vet work himself and l cook everthing from scratch myself,can,sew etc and how long we been doing this 2 years and yes we have bills but we do see a profit. scared ya we were scared when we did this but we been more healthy then we have ever been, just take one day at a time and enjoy

Wow, this is a lot of great advice, thank you! I do know that we need to become more focused and figure out exactly what we want. It seems so overwhelming as there's so many changes coming up and everything is so unsure at this point, we're both having a hard time figuring out what's right for us. At this point, my hubby took a big leap today and told his boss he can't work away anymore, so that's a HUGE step for him. He'll be changing positions a bit, but at least for now he'll be home every night, and still make a comfortable income which we're going to continue to take advantage of and save every penny that we can in order to pay an acreage off as quickly as possible. Which means we can't move far away, but at this point we're worried about taking too big of risks with four children to provide for. Especially since the economy is still unstable in parts of the country, seems silly to leave such a secure job right now. Maybe once the acreage is paid off though... Until then, I think he'll just continue working and I'll start farming. At this point we're not going to try farming for profit, just for our own benefit. Dairy goats, chickens, ducks/geese, meat rabbits, maybe a pig, and a large garden. Once we have the farm paid for (should in about 5-8 yrs) then we may try to get to a point where we're making enough income so hubby can quit working. Something like you, tammy8701. That's definitely inspiring!! And thanks, CaliannG, that's some awesome advice. Sorry FarmBoyBill, I'm sure there's a tractor driving woman out there for you though lol!

Thanks again to everyone for the advice, you've helped me to clear my head a bit and sort out what's most important to us. I think it probably is smarter for us to take baby steps though, and focus on getting good with hobby farming for our own benefit before hubby quits the job and we jump in with two feet and no safety net.

I am from a long generations of farmers, there is an old saying in our family "With a good 200 acres and a good job at the factory I can make a living at farming"

I was raised on a small farm but didnt really get back until some 6yrs ago after kids left home. I found that though no one actually taught me when I was a child it was still in my blood.
Dabbled in goats & chickens while children were small. Have lived in a few different places but never without garden space & a few chickens.
Hubby works full time & Im the stay at home Ms Goat Lady. It's a stretch at times but then again I dont care about hardly anything like having my hair or done or clothes etc.
The children complained at times about not having nice cars & the hippest clothes but they lived through it and now that theyre grown have great respect for the "lack". They have even expressed appreciation.

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Bob and Nancy Dickey
Laughing Stock Boer Goats
"Seriously Great Bloodlines"
and the meat goes on....
Near Seattle

'I am from a long generations of farmers, there is an old saying in our family "With a good 200 acres and a good job at the factory I can make a living at farming" '

"At this point, my hubby took a big leap today and told his boss he can't work away anymore, so that's a HUGE step for him. He'll be changing positions a bit, but at least for now he'll be home every night, and still make a comfortable income which we're going to continue to take advantage of and save every penny that we can in order to pay an acreage off as quickly as possible."

Not any of my business, but......quitting/cutting back in a well paying job in todays economy for some one with plans such as described above.......well, I dunno.
One thing I've learned about money: It's better to have it & not need it than to need it & not have it.
I agree with Qhorseman.

Charlie

Sparkey: While he is cutting back, we're still living very comfortably. We have no debts other than our mortgage, and have low bills. We don't spend extra on frills, and as it is my husband makes a very good living for the area that we live in. He could keep working away and make more money than if he's home every night, but it's just so stressful on all of us, let alone if we have a hobby farm. It's really hard on the kids, and it's at the point where it's just not worth it anymore. Even with being home every night though, we should be able to keep making double mortgage payments and with the place we're looking at buying it should be paid for in about 5 yrs, so the extra bit of money we're giving up shouldn't derail things too bad. The economy where we live hasn't really been hit that hard either, the company that he works for has gotten larger every year and they've just landed a huge muli-million dollar contract for work for the next 3 yrs so his job is fairly stable. We're blessed that he has a lot of leeway due to being with them for so long, and he can basically choose what position he wants due to being trained in many different areas. That's the main reason why we're choosing not to move away to get cheaper land, he'd be stupid to walk away from the company he works for now. Plus him being home is one step closer to our dream, and our ultimate goal in how we want to raise our children. I do agree with Qhorseman though as well, I don't really see either how he could ever quit working altogether, but hopefully once we have the farm paid off he can at least be a bit more choosey with what job he decides to do, since we wont' need such a high income.

start where you are now. You can grow a garden even on a postage sized lot. You can do as much as you can right where you are. Maybe you can learn a bit about composting. Is it possible to have a "pet" chicken or two?

Whatever you do, dont give up his job/income. You may never get to a point where you can give up an income and do it all off the farm. Its a dream for most but a reality for few. I just have 2.24 acres and we have no debt what so ever so my husband doesn't have to work a full time job to get bills paid and our family is together most of the time. I dont make any money off my hobby farm but i am able to put a lot of food away for our family and thats what I really love. Maybe some day when my fruit trees produce way more than I need I might sell some extras but my goal is more to be self sufficient than to be making money.

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LittleRedHen:
We do have a garden here in town, I've read sooo many books learning about everything I can to prepare myself. And no, we can't have pet chickens. But I can food, know all the methods of storing foods, etc. Basically I've done as much as I can for where we live right now, and am just waiting for our house to sell so I can get onto an acreage where I can get started on putting all the knowledge to work.

Hubby isn't giving up his job though, just changing positions. We'll still be very comfortable on a bit of a lower income. The lower income is still more than what the majority of people make in the town we live in (not bragging, just trying to stress that we're not being dumb and stretching ourselves too thin by doing so). Honestly, if hubby keeps on at his current position I don't know where we'll end up. It's extremely high-stress, and we're starting to see the effects from it. He as well as me and the kids just can't take it for too much longer without seeing some serious repercussions from it. So even though it's a bit less money, it's definitely the right thing to do for us. What you're doing though is definitely what I'm aspiring too, just getting to a point where the mortgage will be paid off and maybe then hubby can cut back to part-time or a low stress full time job. I'd much rather be working for our own food rather than working to make money to buy food!

It sounds as if you know what you're doing. Of course you have to be cautious, particularly in today's financial climate but sometimes you have to take a bit of a leap as well. Go for it with your eyes wide open!

Its good that he is going to be home - in the long run time spent with the kids is FAR more important than how much money he can make.

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"The Constitution says to promote the general welfare, not to provide welfare!" ~ Lt. Col Allen West