How did you decide?
 

My husband and I live in the city and work here, too. We can't stop thinking about homesteading, though. We have two young children (5 and 9 months) and will probably have more.

How did you know homesteading was for you? How did you make it happen for your family?

We don't have the money to just up and move. It would take years and years to svae up enough to buy land.

I'm wondering how any of you have went from city/suburban life to homesteading?

Any advise is more than welcome!!

You have to decide if your comfort level is urban, suburban, small town, or country. Spend your vacation in a very small town. Walk around, go to the library, see what is happening. If it is summer, this is when the town is hopping. Not everyone is suited to living in the country, but having a vegetable garden and a couple of fruit trees is all they need.

I grew up in a rural area but it was still easy to access the city. I guess it would be called country living but it was still in a neigborhood and has since been settled by junkies. Very disapointing.

We are interested semi-self sufficient true country living. Just don't know how to make it happen. Or what if we find a way to "make the switch" and hate it??

Its scary to think about making life changing decisions.

Renting a place in the country with a couple or three or five acres would help you decide - if your situation allows (distance to work, etc.).

As we pray about our particular situation and look at property we find we are learning a great deal. We've been at it for three years now. Each and every property we walk teaches us something new. Our main consideration is being close to family and finding a place that works for them, too. We wouldn't be able to even consider having a little "homestead" or more self-reliant way of living if we hadn't gotten out of debt, though.

In 1976 I got married and went out and about looking for a decent place to live, and raise her three kids. I sold my house, held a week long yard sale and cashed out all we could and headed into the wonderful world of homesteading with about 2000 bucks in my pocket and a promise of another 1500 within six months... so much fer promises!! That was 35 years... two wives, several homesteads, and about a million gallons of sweat ago. Today, my Yvonne and I are living on our 37 acres in the log home I built here in Ky after my second divorce and living the good life. When I started out I didnt have enough money to pay attention, much less buy a place outright, but money came as needed to make do. I cut and sold firewood, helped local farmers with their tobacco crops, fixed cars, built houses for folks, and did a lot of trading and hustling to make ends meet. (mostly legal too) Owner financing was a blessing to me in the early years as was kindly neighbors who helped us out along the way. To me it was a matter of just taking the leap... mostly on faith... and moving to the country. Tents were our first home, then a 16x16 "A" frame cabin built out of a couple logs for stringers, and some cedar poles cut off the farm, along with other materials scavenged out of an old barn that had collapsed on itself years prior. As time went on plans changed many times, homesteads were lost, others sold, more were bought, and more houses built. Looking back... its been quite an adventure..... and I wouldnt do it any other way. :)

Cool story, YH!!!

Thanks... its been a pretty cool life so far. Not to be confused with easy... but its been a lot of fun. If you liked this brief synopsis I recommend digging around in the "everybody has a story" archives.... I wrote a short novel there a couple years ago. Complete with pictures even! :)

We went from city life to our 2 acre homestead. It has always been a dream for me and since this is DH's last duty assignment before he retires we decided to give it a try. DH wasn't really interested in it initally, so I did everything except tilling the garden. That all changed 2 years ago when I was unable to bring in the harvest due to back surgery. DH took over the garden and the animals and decided he enjoyed it too. It's quite a learning experience for us two city kids, but we really enjoy the lifestyle.

Wow...just read it. You are a great storyteller.

what aspect of Homesteading do you feel would be of interest? If it's the fresh food, no presertives, head for the farmers markets on the weekends or drive out to the country and buy the seasonal produce and start cooking and can whats left, plant some stuff in containers around your backyard, or deck, or what haveyou! If you own where your at plant a fruit tree or 2, once you make up some tomatoe sauces and applebutter then decide?????????????? enjoy..

If you make the switch and hate it, switch back. Better to have tried than live a lifetime wondering "What if?"

My wife and moved to a log cabin in a rural area about 8 years ago. Both of us lifetime city dwellers. I still commute to the city to work - long drive, but worth it. We don't do a lot of the "self-sufficient" aspects of homesteading, but have immensely enjoyed country living, having animals and honeybees. We've been amazed at the positive difference it made in our kids.

I've been thinking about this a lot. Right now we own a home in Knoxville, TN. Small city compared to others but a city nonetheless.

Our oldest son is about to start Kindergarted at a private school. I work in the city and my husband is unemployeed at the moment and stays home with the baby. Money is TIGHT!

I've been thinking we could make changes around our house now to see if we like various aspects of homesteading. I'm planning a small (VERY small) scale container garden this year and was thinking of maybe getting some sort of rain harvesting system for that. No clue where to start, though. Everywhere I look wants you to purchse these rain barrells for hundreds of dollars. Yea - not in the budget.

I've looked at solar energy. That would be a HUGE investment but worth it in the long run I assume. We had a horrible hail storm last spring and my first thought was "oh I would DIE if all the solar panels got ruined in 5 minutes!"

I also worry about selling the house later. If we make all these adjustments, would we even be able to sell it if we wanted to?

That was a wonderful story, by the way! I wish I had your courage. I'm waffling over getting a rain barrel for pete's sake!

My biggest concern are my children. I really want them to know a slower more meaningful life. I'd love it if when they thought of "work" chopping fire wood or making a homemade chicken pot pie came to mind...instead of sitting in a cubicle for 8 hours a day, every day (which is actually where I'm at this very moment).

Anyway, thanks for all the advise thus far! I'm off to try and find a simple, CHEAP way to catch all this rain that won't stop falling.

Welcome to the forum. But if you are doing this while on the clock, I heartily suggest you discontinue the practice, unless your employer has very clear rules that allow you do so without any problems that might cause you to become unemployed. I am, by comparison to you, a very old oldtimer, and what happened to me, during this economy will not likely happen to you..... I grew up on a farm in Indiana, went to college, my wife and I both got jobs immediately after graduation, and we proceeded to build a three bedroom house in a subdivision. My wife, a born and bred city girl, was fairly content there, but I wasn't........ To make a long story short, my company transferred me to this location, bought my house(at a small profit for me--no, a large profit), and I found this place on five acres, with a lake front, plenty of room for my own idea of modified "homesteading". (I commuted to work, 25 miles down I-94 for about 18 more years....)

Times have changed. Sadly, in today's economy, I do not expect that to happen for young people for at least twenty years or so. Today's paradigm is more like that of my mother, who moved twenty five times in twenty years as her father followed one temporary construction job after another--living in rented housing all that time, until, in 1937, he put a down payment on a five acre place on a creek across from a city dump in Anderson, Indiana....(a dump next to a dump). During the next thirty years, he fixed, painted, remodeled, added onto, gardened, built a barn, etc, etc........

Yes, sadly, if you do not have the capital(savings, employer sponsorship), you will have to march in place--maybe even up to twenty years, to make a dream come true. During that time, though, you will have to save every penny, secure your job(yes it's called kissing up), if possible, and since you have no "country" skills, learn them. I suggest you find, this Spring, a community garden plot and get underway. Nothing better than sunburn and blisters while you eat your "home" grown tomatoes.....it's a start......

Good luck,

geo

You can start doing things where you are now. Think outside the box. There are many skills you can do/learn this year, like canning or dehydrating or try making more homemade foods.

I like your container garden idea. You'll learn more by 'doing' than just reading. Experience is a great (sometimes harsh) teacher!
And always remember failures are just a learning experience of what not to do the next time. :thumb:

Whatever it is about Homesteading that interests you the most is where you should start, as said above. Start cooking more from scratch , grow some lettuce and tomatoes in a container.Grow some herbs .Make and can some strawberrry jam, if you like it get some tomatoes at a farmers market and can those .Bake some bread .
Just do a little at a time , if its meant to be you will find yourself more and more involved as these activities become more important to you . The way will find itself

got married 1971, his family had a homestead farmhouse avail for sale for $8,000 we bought it and that was that

The first thing you need to do is practice and experiment. There is no hard and fast rule that says you have to be in the country to homestead. We were urban and then suburban homesteaders first. Everything that you do on a homestead except for raising animals can be transposed to a suburban environment. You can garden and compost and learn to prepare and store foods. You can experiment with alternate heat and electricity sources and you can start living the simple life in your home. To get more experience you can find farms or other homesteaders who are in the country and could use a free hand. Learn to raise chickens and rabbits and large animals from them. I never used a chainsaw until I volunteered on a farm and I got to be quite good with it. You should experiment with a no running water or electricity situation (simply turn off your water and power) to see it this is even a lifestyle you would wish to live. I can live without electricity but I want a flushing toilet and hot water! Camping is actually a great way to figure out just how basic a basic life you are willing to lead.

And of course it is very important to consider the finances of homesteading. How to budget when one or both of you is not bringing in a regular wage. You can start practicing this right away by cutting back on expenses or living off one income and banking the rest.

I have recently made the leap to a homestead. While I haven't totally been citified, I did grow up in a mix of a city and small town environment. Personally I was always more comfortable in the small town and woods rather than a city. My dad on the other hand was a city boy through and through. Once I got into college and then married, well I let life carry me along for a bit. Finally you might say I started to wake up and I realized that I had let much of my life run by without doing many of the things that I had always wanted to do as a kid (but couldn't because of my folks) and it was time to do or give up.

I started doing the small things, gardening, planting where I could and then hoping for the right time. At one point I started to get the urge to go for it and so I started looking. The wife was a bit cautious to say the least at first. After lots of prayerful consideration we started asking the questions (to the banks). The wife was shocked when (in the midst of this bad economy and impossible to get home loans) that we were pre-approved for the amount we had asked for. By this time I'd already done plenty of research and looking and had found the place that I just knew was the right one for us. And so we talked with our realtor and started the process. I will say that as we began we were looking at numerous extremely difficult hurdles to overcome any number of which would make the project impossible, but I just knew the Lord wanted us to move forward and so we did.

One by one each obstacle fell out of the way for us and now we have a place on a small 13 acre farm, well it's more of an open field that had been farmed in the past. With a new home and nothing else we are going to press forward and make something of this. How I don't really know, but I do have faith that He will provide a way for us as long as we are willing to put in the sweat and work. I don't expect it to be easy or quick (I guess I really don't want it to be easy or quick, as I want to earn this and prove that I am worthy of this stewardship).

I recommend that you start with what you have no matter how small or large, make the most of it even if its only 10'x10' garden. Build on what you have, expand it, enlarge it, and then look for opportunities to grow and get bigger. In time if it's right the Good Lord will provide for you a means to do what you desire and are willing to do.

Homesteading isn't for everyone. The larger ones are for the more adventurous while smaller ones (perhaps up to 5 acres) are often less risk and easier to work with. Once you get over 2 acres you are moving into the more serious homesteading (assuming you are working to make the most of your land versus just making it into a golf course) and will need more time and effort to maintain and improve it. Up to 10-15 acres can take some significant time. Once you start moving beyond that you are start getting more into the full-time homesteading/farming.

Is it a lot of work? Yes! but it's well worth it in my opinion, especially for young families with young kids. It teaches many important lesson of life such as a good work ethic, realities of life and death, and can help keep you humble.

Good luck

You are on the right track by starting while still in the city. You can get big food grade barrels from restaurants. Look for a pickle barrel. That will work fine for your rain water. If you are going to start living in the country, this is the sort of thing you need to be doing- buying smart instead of buying costly. Along with your container garden, turn a 3 x 4 foot section of your garden or lawn into a lasagne vegetable garden. You can google lasagne garden and see what it is. Your son can have a worm farm. He will need a sweater box with a lid, shredded paper from your office, and compost materials such as egg shells, potato peels, and other vegetable matter. You would need red worms, not night crawlers.

Buy an upright freezer and put a 1/4 cow in it. To do this you will have to find someone who raises and finishes their cows on pasture. You will pay per pound about what you'd pay for hamburger at the grocery store, but along with the hamburger you'll get sirloin, t-bones, etc. Ditto with a half pig or a sheep. The freezer will pay for itself the first year in savings. Any leftover green beans, tomatoes, strawberries you have you can put into zip lock bags and keep in the freezer. Everyone where I live has an upright or chest freezer for meat and garden crops. Some people have more than one.

Freezer - good idea. We actually almost bought one last summer to store my husbands game meats when he hunts but sadly passed on the deal as we don't really have a place for it. I suppose we can carve out a small corner in the garage, though.

We almost went to Lowe's to buy an actual rain barrel but I just couldn't bring myself to pay the $100. I'll have to look into the pickel barrel thing. What kind of restaurants have these? We have mostly chains here.

I tried my hand at making bread and was pretty good if I do say so myself! I stopped because I didnt have time. That's when I realized I hated the way we live. I hate being gone before the kids are awake. I hate not having time to cook. I hate not seeing my family all day. I'm a MOTHER - I need to mother.

We are actually working on reversing our roles. My husband is looking for a job now but its really hard because my current employeer has such good benefits. He will never find something that matches what I make here. Another reason I want to try and reduse some of our monthly costs such as water or electricity.

We use a ton of water, though. The baby wears cloth diapers and it takes a lot of water to get them clean. Can't use the rain barrel for that.

I'm totally excited about the garden. I wish it was time for it now! We have a back patio that I'm going to use. I have lots of left over containers from when we bought various plans over the years. They are small and plastic. Maybe like 1 gallon or something. Is there any way I can use these for my vegetables or would they be too small? I was thinking maybe a couple carrot plants per pot or something??

Worm farm is a CUTE idea! He would love that.

Thanks for all the ideas!!

My hubby and I met in high school. I was 17, he was 16. We would lay outside and look at the stars at night, dreaming of the day we married and moved to the country. We dreamed of the animals we'd keep and how we'd raise our children. We were married when he was 18 and I was 19. WAY too young, everyone said. We'd never make it! But we had determination and a common goal.

So when we married, we moved into a small pre-fab house we purchased. It was not in the country, but we considered it a temporary home while we looked for our first piece of land. Two years later, we found 6 acres, owner finance. We also located an old single-wide mobile home that we bought for next to nothing. We cleared out a small spot for the trailer, had a septic tank and well installed, and moved.

Just 3 short months later, our mobile home went up in flames. It was a total loss and we were horribly underinsured, but we pressed forward. We moved in with in-laws and began plans to build a house on our property. With the $5000 we got from the insurance company, we built a small cement block house. We moved in 10 months after we broke ground. It was an empty shell but it was wired and had a roof on it, so it was good enough for us. Our children were born while we lived in that house. We had milk goats, chickens and our fishing pond.

We have since moved to a larger lot (28 acres) and built two more houses (sold one of them along with 3 acres). We still have chickens but no goats. I have sheep now too, and am going to be getting two Dexter cattle in a few months. My children are grown and living in their own homes on the property. My grandson lives next door. My children loved growing up in the country and want that life for their children. We have a small orchard, lots of blueberry bushes, a pond under construction and a barn for hay storage. We are slowly getting new pastures established. And we are nearly out of debt (finally). We made a lot of sacrifices through the years, and it was a LOT of hard work (and still is) but it was worth it.

Your post made me remember that I also at one time had questions about "what if it's not for us"? I've never looked back!

What we did was we were renting, saving up to buy our place in the country, etc., but hadn't found the right place yet. Wound up buying a 'stepping stone' place - a nice ranch home on 2.5 acres on the outskirts of a small town within commuting distance to town.
Gave us enough space to raise chickens and a pig and also rabbits and a nice garden. We bought with an eye toward resale value. We loved it, wanted more, and three years later we sold it and bought a 36 acre farm. Farm was further out, and we paid less for it than we got for the first place :) That was in 'normal' real estate times, but it can be done still. I find, in our area at least, that farmettes are always in high demand and short supply.

Exactly! Start where you are now doing what you can do. I wrote down 5 and 10 year goals for my husband and I when we were on a long drive one day. It was about five years later, after we had sold our house when the housing market tanked in 2007 (before we would have owed more than what we purchased it for) that I found the list when I was sorting through some papers. It was amazing how many of those things we accomplished, even down to the selling of our home and preparing to move from that area, etc.

See, when a couple has goals and work towards them together (some goals were ours, some were his and some were mine) then all of life's decisions become influenced by those goals. I lost the paper for awhile, but we both held the goals in our hearts and we knew what the priorities were for the other person, not just ourself.

So does your locality allow you to have a few chickens? Then get them. Can you plant a few veggies? Then do it. Allow yourself to fail, but don't give up. Don't go overboard because you work and have young children. Take every opportunity to save that you can and visit the frugal thread. Saving money now might make your dream a reality later.

Most importantly, pray. It was no mistake that we just happened to turn down the road that we did, on the day we did, and found the place we could afford, close enough to the city for work - yet we are in the country.

Dream on...

we progressed to this life bit by bit. I was raised on a farm. Then I got married, moved to the big city while DH finished college. There was that garden spot in the back yard of our rental. I grew a lot of zucchini. I don't like zucchini. DH doesn't like zucchini.....

Dh graduated from college and we moved to Iowa. We lived in 3 houses over 12 years to accomodate our growing family. We always had a garden and even planted a fruit tree or two. I found a book called, "Edible Landscaping" and I was intrigued. By this time, we had 1.9 acres and a small orchard, grape vines and a large garden. I was canning and freezing more for fun than for food. Our church has taught us to have a year's supply of food, so we have always worked towards that goal.

Then the company moved us to TN. We liked a house on Country Club Lane...and the now teenagers- enjoyed being close to places to work. I enjoyed decorating and remodeling the house. I had a very decorative garden in the back and espalier fruit trees, climging roses. But one day we woke up and said, "whoa Nellie! We have too much debt". We sold and moved to the country and a very small house. Most of the kids were gone by then. We had1 1/2 acres and built a chicken coop. The garden was 50x60 and 10 fruit trees were added. Then...the company said you're moving to MI.

By now we'd bought into the lifestyle and looked specifically for a place where we might possibly grow most of our food. We settled on 7 acres (property is MUCH more expensive here than TN) since we still have a debt-free goal. We converted one stall in the barn for chickens. We bought a couple of jersey calves and we just kept going. We've slowly, step by step, moved towards a more independent life style. We'll never take is as far as some do...but we are enjoying what we have now. I'd never believed we'd be at this point when we started out. Our goal is to be able to provide food for our family members or others in the times that are coming. We've made a lot of mistakes that have cost us. But we're happy with our lives. And this time, we really hope to get a harvest from THESE fruit trees!

I think you are smart for looking into this now while your children are small. Our situation is a little different than most, but maybe similar to some, I don't know.
Joe & I were both twice divorced. I came into this marriage with Ashley (then 8 years old, now 21) and Jacob (then 4 years old, now 17) and he came into it with Caleb (then 2 1/2 years old, now 15).
Because we had so many debts from our previous marriages we both worked, the children went to public school and we ate mostly convenience foods (ex. banquet salisbury steaks, canned peas, canned biscuits). I cringe now when I think about that but it was all we knew and our kids did just fine in spite of it.
In 2002 we decided I would quit my job in Medical Records at the hospital and homeschool our 3 children. Our daughter is now married with a baby and is very glad she was homeschooled but our boys didn't take so well to it and they are now a freshman & junior at the high school here.
Anyway, because we were going to one income I decided I needed to learn to cook from scratch and save money. My dad and mom had always gardened & canned tons of food. I don't think I ever ate store bought green beans or corn the whole time I was growing up. If he didn't grow it then we had friends who farmed who would bring us in produce. Now I never helped with the garden. Had no desire to but now I love to garden.
I'd say in the last 10 years really is when I've learned the most about doing for ourselves. We live in town on a small lot. Ours is an old home with many problems that neither dh nor I know how to fix so we have an Amish friend who does the work for us. In fact, I may have worked out a trade of our wringer washer & tubs (don't have an efficient way to use them inside) for his work to repair our back porch roof if we buy the materials. We have a sandpoint well but still need to buy a new pump, once that's done I can use that water to water the garden. I have a compost pile started at the back of our property and keep adding to it often and will one day use it in the garden.
6 years ago we installed a woodstove to help cut the costs of our gas bill because at the time it was running us almost $300 a month. Now we supplement our heat with the firewood. The older we get our joints hurt when it's cold and dh doesn't like a cold house.
I do now cook most everything from scratch. I learned to bake homemade bread, biscuits, dinner rolls, tortilla shells, french bread, corn bread, pies, cakes, cheesecakes, brownies, and more desserts.
Before I learned these things we would stock up once a year at tax time on groceries at Aldis. We still do this but our list has changed much since then. But I still spend about $300 and it lasts us most of the year as far as staple items go.
By living in town (have lived her most all of my life) we are limited on what we can do. But the town we live in allows a person to have chickens. I don't have them yet. One step at a time as dh isn't as on board with this as I am. But our neighbor behind us has an addition on their garage that is their chicken coop. A couple summers ago she butchered out about 100 chickens. We could raise rabbits, and did at one time, but dh won't eat them so I don't see the sense in keeping them.
I would recommend you watch Food Inc. We just watched it last night. I think it will change the way you look at your food and will probably encourage you to start growing your own even if it is small.

I love all the stories on here, you are all an inspiration. I would like to add that it would help if you were able to surround yourself with like minded people. You can learn from each other and encourage each other. Most people in my life always thought I was crazy because I would sooner make our food, can our own vege, and grow everything I could. We lived frugally while raising our children and they didn't get the 100.00 pair of shoes that my nieces and nephews got but they survived and none of them today would pay that for their children's either, so I guess we made an impact. where I live, I do have neighbors but can't see any from my house. I live on three acres but most of my neighbors moved to the area because they could build large houses in the country rather than to live with the land. My one regret is that we didn't buy where we could learn from others who were like minded. Maybe if we bought in an area zoned agriculture it would have been better. I have one neighbor who has horses but her closest neighbor is bent on making her get rid if them, luckily no one ever even knew that we had animals as we are nicely wooded all around us.
Sometimes good neighbors are hard to find, but could be worth putting into the plan.

You don't always have to buy land to start your initial foray into homesteading. I've leased, and bartered for land (including housing) in exchange for work on the owner's farm, or drawing up a contract that I will improve certain things over a calendar year in lieu of rent. For 2011 I leased some property in exchange for reroofing the barn.

Rachelanne!

We're almost neighbors :) I'm just outside the Jefferson County line. Let me know if I can help with anything.

anmlfrm@comcast.net

Also check out your local farmers markets, so much good local information can be had. As for container gardening, I can't get anything to grow in one, except weeds. LOL But there are so may on this form that can help you with container gardening. Also, learn how to can and freeze the veggies that are in season at your farmers market. If you have a garden, you need to be able save some for the winter.

Now, to the question. How do you Know?

I grew up on a ranch, when I got married we moved out of State and lived in the city for 24 years. We had a small garden and a long walk in our yard was 30'. 14 years ago, we moved to a town of 800 and the commute to the DH job is 30 minutes. We have 4 1/2 acers, the garden is 20'x40', we have goats, chickens, ducks, sheep, dogs and cats. The long walk now is 4 1/2 acers, when the stupid goat takes out the electric fence. We have not been on vacation in 14 years, the power can be out for weeks and there is always something to be done. Not to be negetive, but the romance of homesteading, is not what it is. It's hard work, if your up to it, go for it.

How did I know?

Because even though I grew up in the suburbs, all the places we went in the country, whether to pick apples or get picklers to put up, there was magic for me. I felt most at home in the woods and trees, out in the natural world. The mysteries behind the doors of old wooden sheds, the frank perfume of barnyard animals, the mazes of perennials of old ladies' gardens, were to me some of the most compelling things on earth. I couldn't get enough.

I had two little girls and I didn't want them to grow up to be one of the superficial little mall rats I saw all around me. I wanted them to know the weight and the pleasures of responsibility.

I wanted clean food. Fresh. Organic. Homegrown or local. I knew I couldn't change the world, but I could sure change my little corner of it.

When I was in high school there was this song called "Out in the Country." It totally verbalized how I felt.

Out In The Country

Whenever I need to leave it all behind
Or feel the need to get away
I find a quiet place, far from the human race
Out in the country

Before the breathin' air is gone
Before the sun is just a bright spot in the nighttime
Out where the rivers like to run
I stand alone and take back somethin' worth rememberin'

Whenever I feel them closing in on me
Or need a bit of room to move
When life becomes too fast, I find relief at last
Out in the country

Before the breathin' air is gone
Before the sun is just a bright spot in the nighttime
Out where the rivers like to run
I stand alone and take back somethin' worth rememberin'

Before the breathin' air is gone
Before the sun is just a bright spot in the nighttime...

I stand alone...


We've been following this lifestyle for 32 years, and it's made me feel rich.

Hi rachelann,

I have used large outdoor trash cans for rain barrels, works rather well. I bought a new plastic one for 38 dollars. I agree, the premade ones are quite expensive. Cut a hole in the lid, and positioned it over the spout. Works good pretty good. We put mosquito dunkers in it to keep bugs from laying eggs in it. Or you could screen it.

Last year my husband and I were living in a condo in a metro area, now we live in a smallish house in a smallish town with a 1/4 acre yard. We're in a very rural county, and we are really enjoying the change. My back yard is slowly being taken over by garden space, we have a grape arbor, and are planning on putting in a couple currant bushes for a little variety. May start raising rabbits this spring for meat, as they don't take up much space. There are Amish farmer's markets near us and they sell cheap vegetables, which I buy to can or freeze to suppliment what I can grow in limited space.
I started a lot of vegetables in large containers last year too, and I recommend a book called 'The Vegetable Gardener's Container Bible' by Edward Smith. Your library might have it, or another book on the subject. Mr. Smith recommends self watering containers for the best results for container vegetables. Also has a lot of recommendations about the type of soil. I got the book after I planted a lot of my vegetables, and I think I'd do it his way if I were to do it again. My green beans did the best in containers than anything, but that's just me. :)

Welcome to the forum!

Brilliant idea!!! Thanks!!! I've been looking at a few container gardening websites and such. There is just SO much information out there its kind of hard to know what to focus on.

I was raised country but sent to college for a viable degree that was only viable in the technology oriented urban setting and my entry level salary prevented any possibilty of my living further than an apartment within 10 miles down a straight 4 lane from my place of work.

After work I found myself in my small apartment feeling like a fish out of water so I turned my patio into a 12 by 10 foot reminder of the rurality where I grew up to escape the urban reality I was forced to live and work in until I could increase my income to finance a 30 mile one way commute down two lane roads with curves again.

Along the way I saved, took on a mortgage at the end of a two lane road with some curves in it lower than my urban rent , moved my career more towards telecommuting and built my golden (actually more of a silver) parachute for "some day".

Then my "some day" became my lay off day and I ended up with the required time to use my at home resources to redefine my goal path and I been following it since deciding which turns and detours are best to follow.

So for me rurality wasn't so much a life change but more of a round trip path to where I started and I returned back to within 6 miles of where I began 35 years later with more stuff, fun memories and options than when I started out.

Just remember that people tend to look at living in the country as an ideal lifestyle out of a movie. If you are both working full time, add another full or part time job into your schedule. Living in the country is a lot of hard work and after a long day working at a "real" job, there are still animals that need fed and cleaned up after, along with an entire list of other jobs that need done in the garden etc.

As you said, It's not a movie. I don't care if I'm Sick or just don't feel like going there. The animals have to be feed, the garden has to be tended and the barns have to be cleaned. Then there are the times I have to carry water down in gallon jugs, when all hosses are frozen. I do love my little farm, just glad I don't have to take care of a ranch as my Dad did.

check out dorothy ainsworth's site.

there are urban homesteading sites too, where you can learn and do things now, right where you are.

also, possum living has some good ideas, altho I know I couldnt' carry it that far.

much is dependant on how much debt you carry currently and how much you love the nice things city life has--snow plows, stores down the street, etc. you run out of someting here and too bad. next trip to town might be a week. and we're not even that far out, there are plenty here that running out of soemthing means doing without for a month or more.

sometimes things sound more romantic than they are in reality. depending on how far you go with it, this homesteading thing is tons of work. and its never done. ever. but, I love it. as another touched on, I feel very rich most of the time, but on paper, I believe we are classified as poverty.

rachelanne it sounds like you have a natural pull to this type of life style. I can identify with that. I live in a small town in a rural area. When I married my husband 16 years ago I was impressed and intrigued by the way his family lived. The gardened, raised and butchered their own beef and hogs. They also taught my husband lots of skills that have helped in our very slow transistion to a more self reliant lifestyle that I consider homesteading. We gardened for years and did lots of our own repair work and we love to camp. One day my husband came home and told me that an old house I used to pass as a child was for sale. It is an original homestead but it is now just inside of the city limits. It has an old barn and a chicken coop. For the first few years we cleaned the place up and made improvements on the house. The I got a small flock of chickens and our garden expands every year. However now I feel like we are at a cross roads. My husband works out of town much of the year and I have a high stress level job. My husband had back surgery last year and as soon as he was recoverying well I was plagued with tri-geminal neralgia (sp). Following that we've discovered I also have some swelling in my brain and have so far been unable to identify why. Since those things happened we have been really thinking about how we want to spend our life. I've become more motivated to buy the property next to us that would give us a couple of acres total. In the last couple of years we've preserved lots of veggies but we've also given lots away. My dream now is to quit my job and find a part time job so I can devote time and attention to a small buisness of growing and selling produce. We are also considering getting a family milk cow and selling the excess. I really feel it's time to take care of myself and my family. I really appreciate everyones stories.

Tell us about your current house and yard. Do you own the yard, even through a mortgage? Are you in a community with covenants and restrictions? We'd all be glad to give you some suggestions of things to do that could help you out.

I'm glad you didn't buy the rain barrel. They're way to easy to build. I'm assuming your home has gutters already. Do a search of youtube for DIY rain barrels. Look on Craigslist for the actual barrels. Buy as many of them as you can. Put a rain barrel underneath every downspout.

Cut the other barrels in half and drill holes in them to use for container gardens. If you plan on moving soon, plant dwarf fruit trees in these so you can take them with you. Sneak tomatoes and peppers into your landscape where ever you can. If an ornamental shrub needs to be replaced, replace it with something that produces edible berries.

Cancel your cable or satelite tv. Sell any video games that may be around. You won't have time for such as that. Keep your internet connection, you'll need it for ideas, suggestions and inspiration. Keep searching youtube for things like chicken tractors, espalier fruit trees, aquaponics, soldier fly production. Read that incredible thread here on Homesteading Today about composting. Buy in bulk, shop at ALDI, learn to coupon. It doens't matter who stays home, learn to cook from scratch. Ask for a pressure canner for a Christmas present. Ask for canning jars for birthday presents. Buy in bulk, cook great big batches and can the left overs.

There is a new website (Farm Dreams) that is for those still dreaming as well as those that did it (and I think those that always have been lol)

Site address is http://www.farm-dreams.com/

Pat