How were you able to get started?

Just a note here to correct a miscommunication on my part. I am pretty sure I posted "when I came to this "county", not this country. In this area we tend to identify with our local county more so than in other areas. I was born in the good ol USA and other than a few brief visits to foreign lands have lived in the states all my life, and in Metcalfe county Ky the majority of my adult life. I will admit that moving into Metcalfe was a bit like moving into a foreign country though... had to learn a new language, and so many of the local customs were so different from other places I had lived. Sorry for the confusion.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

I bought this house and lot in a foreclosure sale for next to nothing about 14 years ago. Spent several months and lot of money fixing it up to move in. I worked on it 2-3 days a week, and occasionally paid a couple guys to help me. When it was over and done, I guess I had about $10,000 in it.

7 years later, I woke up at 2:00 one night/morning and the house was on fire. I got my wife and child out, but we lost everything we had. I had good insurance though and rebuilt the house better than ever, on the same foundation and used most of the same flooring joists and subfloor. And the wall studs of one wall were still standing. It took about a year to rebuild, I had help for a week or so. framing and putting up roof trusses. I guess I had around $35,000 in that.

Back in the 60's the land around my house had been divided up into a small subdivision of half acre lots. The family that owned it got older and when there was only one remaining member, she finally agreed to sell the entire subdivision. I thought it was painfully expensive at $5k a lot for the whole subdivision, but whatever. I could just see the place being auctioned off lot by lot and people everywhere. So I bought the subdivision, and closed the road. The state didn't seem to think I could do that, but the court agreed with me. However they did NOT award me $25,000 in attorney fees for representing myself. I don't know where that story got started, but it's just not true. I felt pretty good that I out-maneuvered the states own lawyers though.

After I had spent the year rebuilding the place, I almost went back to work. I had been a home remodeling contractor. When I was younger, I had been an industrial painter. If you wanted somebody to paint a 60 ft high ceiling in a mill, or a water tank, that was my field. BUT, the house was paid for, I had money in the bank, I was spending my time doing things I enjoyed around the people I loved. Life was good. I never came home tired and frustrated. I never did another job for the public again. I got calls for maybe 2 years, but eventually everybody I had worked for found somebody else. Time went by. My youngest daughter grew up and left home. My wife got sick and died. I still have everything I had, but the people I enjoyed being with are gone. The best years of my life were those few when I stayed home with my family and basked in the sunshine of their love. I only wish I had been able to see this clearly years earlier.

We are practically neighbors YH.

Mulling it over, first you have to have a vision, so to speak, the dream, the spark that makes you want to do that. I was born with that spark and so got a very early start working towards that goal. DH and I got our start with nothing. We saved every penny, always have been as frugal as can be and when we had saved enough, we bought land and paid cash.

I worked as an editor and in public relations. Always lived below my means and socked away money. By my late 30s, I was debt-free and had some retirement savings. When faced with yet another corporate buy-out, I made the choice to jump ship instead.

Left a good job in the city ... workin' for the man every night and day ... And I never lost a minute of sleep, worryin' 'bout way things might have been ...

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"I love all of this mud," said no one, ever.

When we moved here, my husband worked at a nearby factory that makes forklift trucks ten miles away. I worked as a Home Health aide doing private care, but also took jobs in nursing homes from time to time as a CNA when we needed extra money. Our home was a hunting camp and fairly easy to get into. Our intention all along was to work from home on our computers, which we did as soon as we could.

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Homesteading On The Internet
Solar Baby
Reflections of katlupe

There are as many different ways as there are homesteaders. Then what it takes depends what your personal vision of homesteading is. For most people, it takes an outside income besides what their land can produce in order to pay taxes, have health insurance, etc.

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It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with the simple pleasures and to be cheerful and have courage when things go wrong.
Laura Ingalls Wilder

I have always worked an "off farm" job. But I got started the HARD way..borrowed the money for the farm but I paid 20 percent down, and the farm had nothing, just bare land.

I built it up over time but always kept my outside job for insurance and a source of steady income.

Farm is paid for now, but I am not living there - it's for sale and I am looking for one in TN. I still work an outside job.

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Be yourself - no one can tell you that you're doing it wrong!

You're always going to need an income. The first thing I'd advise is to get out of debt and stay out of debt. A few years of sacrifice to get and stay debt-free can buy you a lifetime of choices.

Briefly, for many years I lived and worked in a university town with the "best schools" ever. Nearly lost my daughter, my marriage and my sanity in that crowded, repressive place. Turned to God, began to long to live instead of exist.

A short while after 9/11 I gave up the "best job" ever - and it was a good job - and moved to my dream, the coast. Started my own little service business. Continued to receive the blessing of growing in faith. Started to wonder at the sustainability of our lifestyle.

Daughter grew up, got married, started a family. Moved again to be in semi-extended family setup with her, our fabulous son-in-law and the grandbabies.

Paid off all the debts and learned to act my wage. Now seeking land/home(s) to continue the extended family living but with the ability to be more self-sufficient. Learning and practicing skills in the meantime.

Continue to work in my little business - rebuilding it now after the move. Starting other streams of income little by little. Have adjusted to the much smaller income, but again working to increase income while living the state of life I'm called to.

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The three divine teachers of man: worldly calamity, bodily ailment, and unmerited enmity, and there is but through God alone a deliverance from them. Maine Farmer's Almanac

Yvonne's hubby, yes, I messed up as your post did say "county" instead of "country". Still nice to have hardworking people like you in America.

Zong, way to go! It's not often one representing themselves in a court comes out the winner. Congratulations; and kudos for buying up all that land around you. Smart move; and have no concern my friend, such a nice guy as you is bound to be caught sooner or later. Then you can "bask" again in love.

.... (joining willow girl in her song) .... "rolling, rolling" ... raking the back acres!

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I am what I am! Acknowledging this is the beginning; and my growth is yet to end. http://motdaugrnds.com/farmsales ~~~~~ http://motdaugrnds.com

I was born raised on a 120 acre farm that was a dairy farm then. We had the largest milk check on our route, and the 2nd largest egg check. By 1960 they quit takeing hand milked milk and so dad fed he milk to hogs and chickens, and soon got rid of the cows all but around 2 or 3 of them. WQe had had 10 to 12. I started working full time at the candy factory my mom worked at and which made/makes the cherry mash bars. The round red and white pakedged candy with red stuff on the inside and chocklet with nuts on the outside. T hat winter I met a girl and we got married in June of 69. I bought a 40 and that was/is history. Nonna that has anything to do with today, or the last quarter century. Ive had a buncha jobs and 3 wives, and were Im at, isnt where I started.

Retired military and retired Dept of Corrections, the Mrs is a retired state employee but is to young to draw on it yet.

I was a MEN reader back in the 70s and part of the back to the land movement of that time but life happened instead. Still working outside of the farm; currently as a grant writer.

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www.salmonslayer-simplelife.blogspot.com

Well we only have 5 acres, but we raise a good garden, rabbits and chickens, and enjoy hunting and fishing. We both have jobs -- I'm a RN and work 24 hrs one wk and 36 the next which is enough to provide us with medical, dental and vision inssurance and pay the bills. My husband is a self employed contractor and with the economy the way it is not always busy -- we use his income to do extra things around the house, build a barn, save for ours dgts future and our retirement. We were able to get a good start because our our 1st house we bought had 3 apartments in it and lived in 1 and rented the back 2 out, then we found a house out in the country for $150 a month, so we were able to rent out all 3. After 7-8 yrs we sold the appartment house and used the money for a down payment on our house now. We would love to have 40 to 100 acres-- maybe someday.