How did you get started?
 

Morning, folks,

The title sums it up. How did you get started? How did you come by your land? How/when did you learn the necessary skills? How/when did you obtain the tools and supplies you needed?

Full disclosure, I'm mostly curious about the stories of people who might come from somewhat similar circumstances as my wife and I. Happy to hear the origin story of anyone willing to share, though.

I grew up spending summers and school vacations with my grandparents on the family farm. I learned to can, work cows, grow a garden, hunt, fish, and just being frugal. Both my parents had run as far from farm life as possible, so we lived in town. Every chance I got though I was at the farm. Told my granddaddy when I was little that I wanted to be a farmer. Tickled him to death to think someone would farm the land when he was gone. Long story short, my uncle stole it. Family farm was gone. Then my husband and I needed to move and an old family friend was no longer living on her little 10 acre farm. She could no longer take care of it due to age. She asked if we wanted it and she was willing to finance it because the house was in pretty bad shape and no bank would touch it. So here we are. We have been fixing up the house and still have things to do and many things that go wrong with this house. Anyway, we acquired tools as we could afford them and we had a plan as to what we would buy next year. Each month we would take some money and either put it aside for a big purchase or go ahead and purchase the smaller things. We started with smaller things, then worked our way up. There are still things we would like to have and don't because we just don't have the money yet. We drive old cars that we can pay cash for. We do like my grandparents did...we scrimp, save and do without to be able to get what we need. We had plenty of barbed wire and only horses when we moved here so it was easy to fence for horses. When we decided to get goats it took us a year to get the fencing we would need before the goats came. Each month we purchased fencing supplies or put money away for fencing. By the time we got ready to get the goats, we had all the fencing materials stacked in the barn and a brand new shiny Gallagher fence charger in the house waiting for use. So that is how we have done it...a little at a time. We were determined to not take on any debt for our little farm. We still have things that we are saving for and we have a small emergency fund for the "farm" stuff. But it has been little by little over the past 13 years. Blessings, Kat

At birth! Born into a "subsistence " type farm family,which the whole community was and all as poor as dirt!Many things people now "prep for" we lived.I am now 64 and have learned something new every day.

Wade

My wife and I both grew up on farms out in the country. When we married we bought a house in a subdivision that was in the middle of both of our families. after a few months of subdivision life with close neighbors that had the "keeping up with the Joneses" mentality we realized we HATED where we lived and wanted to escape.
It took us 5 years to find our perfect 3 1/2 acre homestead. We moved in last spring and haven't/ will never look back.

I got started with an idea, a few steps back to my raising, $20k down and a 120 coupon thick payment book.

Grew up hating that garden mom & dad had. Sure, the food was good. But I didn't care for the work.

Ended up renting the first little "homestead" shortly after I got married the first time and surprise of all surprises, I had a little garden and some chickens. Not sure what changed, but I was very contented in a lot of ways.

Second homestead was also a rental, this time part of a horse farm and interestingly, a 22 acre farm that my great grandparents had farmed years ago. It was neat to live in the house, dilapidated as it was, that my great grandparents did. Some of the family would get together from time to time and do a walk through and remember stuff. There, I had one of the biggest gardens I've had the pleasure of working, and a flock of about 50 or so laying hens. (There were some who insisted that I "farmed" there. I never quite thought of it like that. It was just stuff that I did because I wanted to.)

I moved away from that last place after a divorce and a move to another part of the country with my wife of almost 14 happy years. Spent about 10 years in suburbia and went through a major hurricane (Katrina, near New Orleans), and managed to end up living in an rv fulltime.

In many ways, I guess I've been searching for a place that takes me back to my great-grandparents' old farm. I can't go back there, it's not there anymore. Someone bought it and tore the old house down replacing it with a hideous modern box of a house. The land has been absorbed into either play spaces or the neighboring farms. It pains me to even drive by.

Just this past summer, I got to park the rv on land right beside my parents' house and they allowed us to take over their garden for the season. They're getting up in years and didn't think they wanted to garden anymore. We made it as big as we could but it really was just not big enough to grow all that we wanted to grow. And the whole family was involved so there were maybe 6 or 7 families that wanted to eat from it. That's wonderful that they all wanted to. And it produced a lot of really good food. But it just wasn't enough of it. It's also in an area that used to be pretty rural but now is becoming way less rural. Instead of a farm across the street, there's a restaurant and behind them where it was fields, they're growing a subdivision. So returning there is really not an option I want to do.

And so I'm looking for a place to settle down. Have seen a couple of places in TN that I really like. Not sure what the future holds but it feels like "home" here on the Cumberland Plateau.

Books, lots and lots of books. At one point they were actually stacked so high they touched the ceiling at one point. Books on land, homesteading, canning, hunting, gunsmithing, auto repair, house repair, home building, plant ID, trees, gardening, fishing, ect.

Once I've read up on a subject, I implement the ideas I get. Used the book on home construction to design the cabin that I'm building. Used "Western Gardening" to help plan the orchard I planted. Use the auto repair manuals to help maintain the ATV I bought. Canning my own meats now that I have a canner I bought at the flea market for 8$. For laying the tile in my bathroom, I bought the book on flooring. Pretty much everything I've attempted to do on my property, I've gotten a book about it first.

I had to find a way out of the rental system after financial problems and losing my house in the city. I bought my inheritance from my parents at the price they paid for it. It is the best lot on my side of the road in a half mile of dirt road. Got lucky there. Got great terms for the sale. No interest. Which means I paid the purchase and not 5 times the purchase price.
I started with a bow saw, camper trailer and a port-a-potty from wally world.

I morphed to better grade tools. I mowed bout 5 acres with a city push power lawn mower. Then got a rider mower. It lasted one season. Then got a small tractor with brush hog. Added a FEL couple months later.

Built a small shack to get out of the very hot camper trailer. This also allowed me to heat with wood. I've spent maybe $400 total for heat the last 3 years.

Now I'm thinking about buying a 20 ton log splitter. Can get a brand new one for less than $600. That would make it cost about $630 with the tax. I've got way to many large dead trees to cut and split with a maul. I've already filled up all the low washes and gullies with dead wood. Now covering it with dirt and compost to level so it can be planted.

I've hauled in probably over a 100 tons of organic material in the past 10 years. I still need 10 times that much.

Have started doing some cover cropping and have a small garden.

The locals aren't much help if any. Don't even seem to be able to hire them. Those that have been hired do very sub grade poor work. They will take anything they can get for free or steal.

That's a little tough when you don't supply what your and wife's circumstances are..... ;)

Me, I hung onto dads pants leg riding on the tractor as he worked and planted the fields, picked up a lot of ton of rock along the way, and hitched a whole lot of hitch pins learning what I learned.

Paul

Me too! I was a bookworm, and still am! I remember buying my first gardening book when we were only married a year or so, the original Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening by J.I. Rodale. We lived in a college town in a beautiful, hilly part of Indiana, where education was valued, as was the great outdoors.

My DH finished his graduate degree while I tended a VERY large garden, freezing and canning all that came our way. I also worked at a natural foods co-op that's still thriving, almost forty years later. I watched what others did, what worked for them and what didn't, and planned accordingly. One friend from the co-op needed to sell out when the economy turned in the early 1980s, so I bought her entire library of homesteading books.

I had seen my mother do some canning when I was a child, and I knew the wonder of going into the fruit-hills with her close to home. I wanted to explore those outbuildings and those beautiful rolling hills and valleys, to feel the sun on my face and the sweet smelling breezes in my hair. I wanted to pass on these simple joys to my own kids.

And we moved here.

It's not a whole lot of land, but I have awesome neighbors who give us free access to their woods, creeks, pastures, and hills. Our land was in the same family for over 100 years when we bought it, granted to a doctor for his service in the Civil War. It had almost everything we needed in outbuildings and fencing and had been well cared for, with up to date electric, plumbing, etc. The spacious root cellar in the basement was a big deal to me, which really puzzled the realtor, but I know you folks would understand.

I find that, in living this life, there's a huge sense of connection to those who went before me. We do many of the same tasks, in many of the same rooms, with many of the same tools. There's a thread of continuity in some of the most humble tasks. I hang my wash on a line so old, not even the old-timers can remember when it was built. There's writing in the cement around the outbuildings, initials and things like "DAD, 1917," as well as the footprints of the naughty hen or cat that strayed into the freshly poured stoops. These things are so dear to me.

Some years back I gave my daughter an old iron skillet that my mother had given to me. It had been my grandmothers, and she cooked meals for my father in it. Now my daughter cooks for her sons, in the same pan that fed their great-grandfather and great-great-grandparents. I know it's just a pan; but there's something really good about that, an everyday elegance, a handshake from the past to the present, that makes me feel like those boys are twice nourished.

I guess I got started by loving the land, the people, and their ways, when I was a very small child. Even though I grew up in the suburbs, my heart was in the country.

My wife and I originally became interested in farming. We saw all the things wrong with the modern industrialized food system and realized how much we would prefer to have more local/healthier things to eat. We took a ton of farming classes, went to beginning farmers conferences and got a ton of books and just learned a lot. My wife is more into the natural health/home maker thing now, but im still into farming/homesteading. We came across the land/house we own while we were on a vacation. It is a lot more north than I wanted to go (it is sort of near duluth, MN) but we got more than 8 acres with half fields half birch forest with a 3 bedroom house for pretty cheap. We are in the process of gutting it and totally renovating the house, and at the same time I am rehabing the field because its been neglected for over 30 years, thankfully its only 4.5 acres. We live far away from it now, but in a couple years the house will be done, and we will move from the city where we live now, where our good jobs are and head out to the great unknown. Im glad we did it this way because with the house payment being so low, if we can net $2,000 a month, we will be living well, and my wife will hopefully not have to work at home. Its a pain in the butt being so far away and not really having any money ever, but it will be worth it some day

Oh yea, it does read a little funny the way I wrote it. Didn't want to scare people off by giving the impression I only wanted to hear from people with similar backgrounds.

These have been great, folks. Thanks very much for sharing.

Born and raised on a dairy farm in SW MO in the 60's. Even in college, I had a plant in my dorm room. Wherever we've lived, I put in a garden. But it wasn't until we decided that the smart thing to do would be to live out of debt that we moved to a few acres. Once we made the debt free decision, things just kind of snowballed from there. DH is a mechanical engineer so he's always been able to build and repair whatever whenever. He always had an interest in tools so he's accumulated them over the years. It was an easy step for us. We have no designs to give up his job and live off our land. But we do as much as we can for ourselves. Always will.

My dad grew up on a small farm in northern Ohio. Mom was a country girl but not a farmer.
They moved up to WI when I was 3 and we farmed for most of my childhood years. We had huge gardens and canned anything that didn't move, also had 2 of the biggest chest freezers we could get. My father had some health problems so for 4th grade we didn't farm or garden.For 5th grade we had a 5 acre place, 3 acres was garden and we raised 200 meat birds. 6th and 7th grade we didn't farm or garden. We had enough canned goods and frozen stuff to see us through a lot of those down times.
So I had some training.
My wife is a city girl that would visit a cousin on her farm once in a while.
We both work off the place but I work 3rd and she only works 4 days a week, so we are able to get things done around here as needed.

We rented a house in the country about 11 years ago. We were just moving in and the landlord stopped by to see if we wanted to buy it. 2 years later he loaned us the downpayment and we bought the place which had 2 acres. We had been gardening and raising chickens and dairy steers on it almost from the time we moved in.
There is a huge run down shed behind the property with several acres of land set up as a feed lot.
We purchased that 6 years ago. And our old landlord has some vacant property down the road we can make hay on.

As for tools and stuff, we get them as we can. We attend most any auction we can and have brought home some good deals, watch the sales and check want ads regularly. I have found that sometimes just putting the word out among friends and co-workers will help find deals as well.
I do get some stuff from my folks over time as they slow down and don't do as much as they used to like a nice Excaliber dehydrator and a grain mill and a few garden tools.

We get a lot of information from my folks but we have more than a few books around that we refer to from time to time. I like John Seymour's The Self Sufficient Life and how to Live it(which we jokingly refer to as "the bible"), and the original Victory Garden book from James Crockett. Actually I like any book by those two guys.

We have done a lot on our little place, from gardening and raising 100 chickens for the freezer to making 80 acres of hay for a herd of goats that we milked to feed calves that we sold as feeders. We've grown 4 acres of corn and we raised our own pigs, had rabbits by the hundreds, made a lot of garbage bag silage and had a lot of fun.

My husband's folks owned the property we bought when we got married in 1971. It was an old victorian farmhouse with a couple run down outbuildings..quite small..a chicken coop and a shed..both fell down. We remodeled the house and planted trees and perennials and then in 2002 we lost the house to a lightening strike and fire.

We put a large double wide on the property about 40 ' behind where the old house was and gave a large chunk of our property to the east to our son..where he now has his house. Ron's folks live next door and his dad died right after our fire and his mom a couple years later..so we fixed up their place and sold it to some people from down southern Mi..who eventually will move up here.

My love has always been trees and perennials..every year I plant as many trees and perennials that I am able to afford..and I have had my share of failures..but the property only had a few trees near the house and a small woodsy area on the back acerage..and now is nearly fully wooded..with large established perennial gardens, berries, vines..etc.

I have always been organic, and studied permaculture and realized I was that too..just seem to come natural to me ..and then I realized food forest was also what I was doing here..planting everything all together..never did have just rows of vegetables..even before the housefire when I had a huge area of raised bed garden, there were dwarf fruit trees growing in each of the beds..(one is still alive after the fire and the move but we lost all the rest of them trying to move them after the fire).

When we moved on the property there were 3 apple and 1 pear tree..but they were very old and unkept and became infested with ants and died..but we had 3 seedling apples come up and bear and I have since planted all the other fruit trees, shade trees, and evergreen trees that populate the property.

I have not been allowed by the MAN to have any farm animals other than a couple cats we have now and we had others and dogs in the past..and of course we have a lot of wildlife..

I dearly want chickens..for eggs not really for meat..someday maybe..he doesn't want any farm animals

Ron had a head injury in 1985 and another one about 14 years ago..and after the second one was forced to retire as his mind just went..but he is some what better now..he was raised in a strict family and had to do all the farm chores when a child and he is very much against farm chores now..and with the head injury you don't argue with him

My dad was a gentleman farmer until mom decided the man she married & the life wasn't hers.
I loved riding tractor with Dad, sitting under that brake thing that was attached to another one. When he used that one it would pinch my leg but I never cried or complained because I wanted to stay with Dad.
He never explained the whys of his farm work.
My grandmother didn't teach me anything either but when I grew up I canned like she did.
She grew up on a huge Jersey farm in Mo & Dad was fond of visiting when he was a child. I think he wanted the same for us kids.
Speaking of cast iron, she had an enameled Dutch oven that Dad's 2nd wife took over. When it was time for them to move into assisted living my little bro grabbed it & put it in my truck. :thumb:
Another thing she did was destroy all the old photos of my grandmother's kin, simply because she didn't know who they were.
Well listen up if you remarry & come across stuff like this don't assume nobody else knows who they were.
Anyhow that all set the foundation for where we're at now.

How got started?
 

I married into the country and country living. Did a lot, learned a lot. Stayed out of the city.
The whole story is in a book I wrote- Lessons Learned from Living in the Country- which is on Kindle books- through Amazon, I do believe.
Been here so long, don't know how to live in the city- even for a short time.
Good evening to all- Ed Mashburn

Although my wife lived on a small farm as a child, we're city folks who wanted away from the zero lot line world. We looked extensively for a place remote enough, but not so big we couldn't handle it. We settled on 6 acres with a repo house & milk barn. A real "fixer-upper", but my background is varied enough not to be intimidated by plumbing, electrical, and carpentry renovation. We've done lots to the place, and finally have it just about as we wanted.

We started with chickens, then rabbits, and then a few sheep, learning each as we went. We put in a good sized garden, and learned to can. Butchering can really only be learned by doing, so we've eaten some pretty strange looking cuts.

As far as tools, I've always had a pretty good assortment of hand tools, but you never stop accumulating. Equipment like tractors, mowers, tillers and easy enough to find, but the saying "with old equipment you'll spend as much time working on them as with them" is true. If you're handy buy old, they're better built, if you're not buy new.

Our story is a little odd. DH had gotten laid off about 2 years earlier and was having absolutely no luck finding work. He was getting really depressed (you know how you men are). He was feeling really useless and at loose ends. So we were having dinner on my birthday and, out of nowhere, he popped off with "I think we should buy a farm". Apparently, he had been thinking about it for years (before he got laid off) and finally decided to say it out loud. I think he was shocked that I didn't say, "Are you out of your mind?"

He spent the first 7-8 years of his life on his grandparent's farm but I'm a suburb girl. Our younger son's 4H experience on a suburban farm owned by a local school district was as close as I've ever gotten to farming.

So, about 3 years ago, we bought an 11 acre, foreclosed property with a house that is not currently 100% livable. We're working on starting the orchard and getting the house to a fit state to live in so we can leave the suburbs behind us forever. It's the hardest physical labor I've ever done. And I'm loving every minute. Sadly, due to work schedules, we can only work on the weekends or during the summer so it's taking much longer than I like.

I'm a big believer in the idea that everyone in the world has one place that is their "spot". The place that restores their soul, their place of refuge. Lots of people have places where they live but how many have found their "spot". Our farm is my spot. I can fully relax and let the pressures of life fly away there. A walk in our woods restores my soul. I can breathe there. I can't wait to move.

For me, books, magazines and Youtube have been a huge help. I've been reading everything I can get my hands on and making plans. Of course, I'll have to live to be 186 years old to finish all the things I have planned but that's ok.

Wife and I both grew up in big cities, but also grew up on stories of country living from our parents and grandparents. It sounded like fun. When we got married, we couldn't afford any land, so we bought a starter home in suburbia with the biggest lot we could afford, a whole 1/2 acre. 4 years later, we had a woodstove, goats, sheep, chickens, rabbits, ducks, a garden, and several fruit trees and bushes crammed into that 1/2 acre. From there we were able to buy 6 acres with a decent house and that really got things moving. Cut a few things, added a few and that is where we are today. I could probably afford more land these days, but 6 acres is plenty to keep me busy, and I really don't want to start over again!

How did I get started? I actually had no choice in the matter because of the situation I was in, i.e. needed to keep my precious mother out of a nursing home while still maintaining my psychological well-being....all at a time when the job market was terrible for a woman in her 50s.

I knew the only way to accomplish this was to purchase a piece of land where I could grow our own food...oh yes, this "city gal" (complete with plastic demeanor) was placed in the position of having to learn how to survive with a prayer and determination.

I asked my Heavenly Father for at least 3 acres and found an ad for this one "tract" while I was waiting for my mother to see her neurologist. The owner didn't even want to show the tract to us...Later I found out why, i.e. they hadn't even owned all of it.

Making a lengthy story short, suffice it to say I got started with a prayer and a "walk by faith". The deed to this tract of land was corrected (by strangers), the land was cleared and the well and disposal system prepared due to another stranger buying our largest trees and this trailer was "given" to me by another stranger. Even our first chickens were given to us by a stranger. The soil is great, the water is healthy, I was able to get us a start of dairy goats and create a garden. BINGO! Mother was kept out of a nursing home! (I learned to love it here!)

I did it the old fashioned way. I inherited it.

4th generation farmer on a Missouri certified Century farm.

I did buy some extra though.

Gene

After 22 years in the Army I wanted to have something I couldn't do while I was in. So upon retirement we purchased house and 8 acres. Started with chickens and bees, then purchased about 7 more acres and repaired the fence, ran water and power out in the pasture, built a hay/cow shed. We have 7 dexter cows and 5 AGH. We also have a garden every year. We have no real experience, trial and error is an excellent teacher.

Thank you, everyone, for sharing. It's really interesting getting a glimpse of so many different beginnings.

were in the same boat, it can be frustrating. we are completely gutting the house we bought. We are redoing the electrical and plumbing in spring, putting in a wood stove and insulating, then next year save up for appliances, farming equipment (hand tools) and some chickens and then move up :) The floors and drywall need to get re done, I wanted to hire someone but i dont know if i can afford it, so i might be forced to find out how to do it on my own. drywall doesnt scare me as much as the floors.

We both were raised on small farms and the hubby worked after school and summers for a rancher driving his tractor and building fences etc. After many years of living the city life, we decided it was time to get out of town so I borrowed from my retirement account and bought 185 acres in MO. We had the timber cut, rented a dozer and built the road, had power lines run across the nearest mountain, had a well put down, bought a throw away house trailer to live in until we could build, and started fencing and building barns. In a few years, we had pastures, horses, cows, goats, chickens, garden, and when we got tired we jumped in the spring fed creek to cool off and play. Life was good for several years until the hubby got sick and became disabled. So, we sold the farm for 3 times what we paid and moved south where we bought the perfect little farm for us on 18 acres. This time, we already had the barn, big farm house, fencing, well, and the best dirt on earth. Life here is good again. Here we have an orchard, garden, horses, Guernsey milk cows, poultry, and the most amazing view of those Texas sunrises out over our little ranch. Since we are older now, we like that we are on a paved road this time and just 5 minutes from town with stores, hospitals and everything we could want. I also have the perfect set up for a road side stand if I decide to do that. That original farm was the best investment we ever made and I would guess our equity in this one goes up each year as well.

Yep, definitely can be frustrating. Thankfully, the electrician says the wiring is fine and does not need to be redone at our place so that is one expense we've been spared. DH is fairly good at plumbing so he can redo that himself. I am thankful for Youtube because I've learned a lot that way. I have discovered an everlasting hatred of wallpaper from scraping it off the walls (can't steam horsehair plaster walls) and have vowed to never put that stuff up ever!

The happiest of my childhood memories, were of living on my grandparents' 90 acre farm/ranch (OR). Like a seed planted in fertile soil... I never could get it out of my system, never felt "right" living in the cities. I began collecting books on gardening, preserving food, and other homesteading related books. I started gardening in pots, then having little gardens everywhere we lived. My first DH is still a city guy, but my current DH is not. We both wanted to live the same type of lifestyle. We have a small property, by most standards, of 5.1 acres (almost 4 acres if forest). I posted a thread about our current property.

I grew up never having the feeling I was "home". My mother was crazy and I was never at ease anywhere. When I married the second time, we bought 3 acres to raise our five children. It was about 12 years later when I realized I was HOME and no one was going to take this place away from me.

I'm slowly making our home into our homestead.

I probably got started as a child on my grandparent's farm. They had an old farm house, no running water but did have a cistern pump at the kitchen sink, a wood burning cook stove etc. When my sister and I stayed the week we got to take a bath on the enclosed back porch with water heated on the stove etc. I was born in 1948. So fast forward to 1987 and I am married, 2 kids and homeschooling in a small town. DH is a remodeler. We wanted to get out of town so started looking for some cheap acreage. After many a Sunday afternoon drive we found something that looked promising. An abandoned looking place. Went to the neighbor and found out who owned it, got in touch with them and they sold it to us, 5 acres and a livable house, a couple outbuildings for $15,000. on land contract. WOW, we were in heaven. The house took a bit of cosmetic work mostly. The roof got redone by DH and a couple friends and we were on our way. Someone gave us some chickens to occupy the old chicken coop, the second summer DH and I got the garden going and we've been here since. Did a lot of work over the years, DH added a shop and the old shop became a "mower" shed and anything else that needed a roof over it's head. We love it. We call it Breezy Hollow.

When I was a child I remember having to wake up before dawn and DO something. Cows, chickens, garden...etc. Summer break was a nightmare because we worked often until dark which can be 9 pm. As a teen my friends would go out and get into trouble but I was too tired to do anything. I vowed to grow up and never grow or raise anything in my life.

Then in my mid forties I saw that some of my old friends were on drugs or jailed or just plain unhappy. I realized that I was unhappy too. My parents had not only gave me a healthy, wholesome home life but they had also given me values too. Skills that not everyone posses. I needed to get back.

Less than two years ago I bought our old home place from my father. I helped build this house and this house helped build me. I wish I had done it sooner. Its [not so] funny that some of my old friends who used to laugh at me for being too tired to go out are now wishing they had what I have now.