Did you "settle" for your homestead?

We searched for 2 years before finding just the right place. It is just right for us, 2 acres, a really cool old barn, 1600 sq ft house that is old but has had upkeep. The only thing we didn't get on our wish list was water either a creek or pond, but in the end being debt free was our number 1 goal so this house is perfect!

We've both moved so many times before we met we'd learned you bring your happiness with you, or you aren't.

We knew what we wanted, and had no illusions about finding it already sitting there waiting. So, we found a place we could make into what we wanted. Making our wishes come true is more fun than just walking into someone else' idea of perfect.

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http://www.ozarktubs.com
"The Big Load Washtub"

We leapt into it knowing zip about the the perfect place. We have made it work for us. Back when the house burnt we looked at other places with real knowledge of what we wanted and what works and what doesn't and in the end we stayed here. We put enough of our hearts and souls into this land it just doesn't matter if we have to walk up and down a big hill or all the other little quirks and issues. It's perfect for us.

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"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me." C S Lewis

Mickenlib, that looks like a postcard. I would certainly call that a perfect place!

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Living Large Down on the Farm.

I grew up on a small diversified farm in central Indiana. My Dad also worked in a nearby factory, so I learned almost first hand as a kid how to be a "farmer", since he was not able to do as much on the farm while working eight hours a day, leaving Mom and me to do the gardening, the egg gathering, the calf raising, the feeding and watering of the cows and pigs and rabbits and chickens--as well as the chasing them off the road so many times. I also learned how to plow and disc and plant and cultivate and harvest.

But when I graduated from Purdue, I "settled" on a new three bedroom subdivision house for the next nearly twenty years while I worked for a large manufacturing corporation(the one that went bankrupt). My wife was a city girl from South Bend, perfectly content with the subdivision life and the school system for the kids. Well, after about ten years, for me, the half acre lot and the three tomato plants and the ultra green lawn wore off, and I began dragging her out to all the many small country places that I had found--scared her to death.....

In 1982, the bosses called a meeting and announced that our WHOLE department was moving to Kalamazoo, "you can stay here, and we'll not boot you out, we'll try to find a job for you" (yeah, second shift, or??)

Since I had looked so long for a country place in Indiana with no luck, I called her and told her, "Guess what, we're moving to Kalamazoo!" "Oh?" A realtor came down and gave us some grocery store books of listings. Inside it, I saw the ad for this place.....lakeside home on five acres, with beach, garden space, woods with walking trails, spacious country style house........ I told my buddy, "Right here, John, this is the place I'm gonna buy....." "Right, you haven't even seen the place yet...and look at that price" "No, no, this is it!, I can feel it in my bones..."

Again, scared my wife to death. She stood in the kitchen and told the realtor, "I just know he's going to buy this place, and he hasn't even looked at this kitchen!" And it was pretty bad. It was filthy, with spilled cat food under the stove and fridge, cat hairs clogging the heat registers, and a worn out lineolum floor exposing the floorboards. And on each of the three floors, a separate set of three kitty kats greeted me ---nine in all....each who had left many tokens of appreciation. And most of them had soaked into the existing carpeting.

To make a long story short, a new kitchen floor, bucket after bucket filthy bleachwater, and new carpeting placated her, so we began living a new, sort of like "homesteading" way of life as I commuted 23 miles one way to that large manufacturing company(the one that went bankrupt) job in Kalamazoo. Yes, my wife settled, but one day she finally did tell me, "I love this place!"

I don't usually preach on this forum, but I do believe it wasn't simply luck or coincidence, but truly a gift from God, an answer to prayer. He sent those nine kitty kats just for me, so any other lookers (remember, this is a lake property) would take one sniff and head for the door, until we got there. It's been an answer to prayer ever since....and also a refining fire....He knew what He was doing.

I kinda think He could've done the job with just three or four kitty kats, though.



geo

Interesting question and answers.

I was born and raised where I live, so in a sense, I had to settle for where my farm is. But I am one of those guys where you will have to pry my cold, dry, corpse of this property someday.

There is never an end to improvements to be made. That is part of the enjoyment. The work, and the results!

Interesting question. We looked for 2 years. We knew we had conflicting requirements going in, so there was going to be some give & take. We had a few non-negotiables. I am still working, so it needed to be within commuting distance. It needed to be +5 acres so we could have goats (community rules), etc.

We got many blessings not on our list - bigger barn, working water in the barn and in one pasture, etc. We made improvements right away and continue.

We settled in that the house needed more work - but DH does superb work here. and the house is closer to a busier road than we wanted.

Is this our forever place? Probably not, but we knew that going in. We are city folks transitioning to rural/homesteading life with lots to learn. This is our 'get our feet wet' place, learn and grow. Figure out what we like and what we thought we would like and don't. No idea when there will be a 'next place' but once the need to commute is eliminated -- the doors open up.

I feel like we accepted more than settled.

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No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
~Eleanor Roosevelt

Geo,

Thank you for sharing your story, and no, it wasn't "preaching" to me, not at all.

It's interesting to me that one of the places I lived, not too long after I got married for the first time, was an old, old "homestead". It was a rental when I lived there but was the very same old house and farm that my great grandparents once owned and my mom and aunts spent quite a lot of time in. I have old pictures. It had a nice barn and 22 acres around it. Loved that place. Moved away 14 years ago after my first marriage fell apart. I don't miss my first wife, but I sure do miss the place. The place has since been divided and the old house torn own with a hideous modern house now standing there. But it's the place in my memory that somehow, all others get compared to in my mind. It probably doesn't help in finding a homestead.

Thank you for that story Geo and I know you are right. When my husband got sick and we knew we had to sell our farm that he had built from scratch, we were depressed - I mean devastated. I just turned it over to God and asked him to show me where he would have us. We moved 1,000 miles south for a warmer climate and I found this place on line. I too knew this was it and we didn't even look at another property. We absolutely love it and I will always know it was a gift from God. We are no longer depressed and devastated here!

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Living Large Down on the Farm.

I heard about my current place from a coworker. House was empty for 6 months, grass overgrown, old barn, other falling down outbuildings and only a couple good ones. Fences needed replaced but the view was killer, the house could be great with a little work, buildings could be torn down and replaced, new fencing installed. It just felt right. I knew after 2 minutes walking the property I would buy it and never even looked inside the house or new what they were asking. Bought it that week and have loved working on it to make it what I want the last 8 years.
Over times dreams and the idea of "the perfect place" seem to change. While I am happy where I am I dream now of moving south to at least 100 acres (Ozarks/Texarkana area) where the weather is better, land much cheaper, hunting and fishing is views are better, etc. 10 years down the road my idea of perfect might become a smaller property on a lake with a dock at the back door or even a condo on the ocean.
No one knows what the future holds and we all grow and change so the idea of "the perfect forever place" is flawed in my opinion.

Well put. Thanks for sharing.

Since I've been a fulltime rver for almost 10 years now, I asked a question on a popular rv forum about the logistics of people coming into and exiting the fulltime rv lifestyle. It seemed quiet a foreign concept as most there couldn't wrap their minds around anything other than being fulltime rvers.

I can see how lives do change over the years and what a person may want or enjoy today may not be what works for them 10 or 15 or 20 years from now. Some embrace the change while others hide from it. Some refuse to change even long after it's time to do so. And some embrace their lifestyle with all their might until the day they pass away.

Everyone has their own unique history, perspectives, story,... and future which is one of the things that makes this thread so interesting to read! Thank you all for sharing!!

We bought our place based mostly on our time table for retiring. We knew we wanted to live in southern/middle Tennessee and we wanted to be able to get the place move in ready for what we could pay for out of the current paycheck and not touch savings. The place we found was the perfect size (20 acres) for what we wanted to do and even though the pasture had been neglected for 3 years you could tell what could be there with a little effort.

We got our place for the value of the land since the house was considered not fixable. We got with a contractor to tear it down and rebuild but he showed us how most of the issues were cosmetic so we decided to gut it out on our own and contract him to do the things we weren't capable of or in most cases I just didn't want to tackle at this point in my life. We are adding a large closed in porch to the house this next month and the house will be done. At this point we have less than 60k in the house and already have the materials needed to finish the flooring in the only room that isn't done.

It has been hard in a lot of ways but the joy that my best friend (wife) and I have shared together over the last two years could not have been bought at any price.

We still need to get a pole barn up to use as my wood shop but we are having our contractor arrange that. The folks that we have hired to help us get it done are also our neighbors and have become good friends also.

Since most of us our living withing budgets we are likely to have to "settle" is some respect. We are going to retire this summer and started looking for a place 5 years ago, just incase we could find that "perfect" place that was within our means. During that time we actually found two or three places that would have been great, but we were a "day late or a dollar short". We loved the last place and offered a contract higher than what would be usual. Somone else offered a contract just a little bit higher, so we didn't get that one either.

It is likely, that we will have to "settle" on something unless we find tha perfect place within the next couple of months. We have found some terrific pieces of land with poor houses or a mobile home. We have found some terrific homes with poor land. One can do a lot with a building if they are younger, but when one is 66, and living on SS and a small pension, the energy and money isn't there to build up a place from scratch.

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Moving to that big black hole in the night satellite photo. (also the hole in cell phone coverage )

We found that when we agreed on a property together, like a shared dream, and God opened the door for us to buy it, then there was no settling except in the sense that we are now settling our land. It's a blessing that we are thankful for even though it is taking so much time and effort to make it into our farm.

I always new I wanted part of my grandparents place. I made an offer on 40 acres of it. The family wouldn't sell that to me. So I bought the whole 355 acres for what I offered on the 40. So yes, I settled for the better.

WWW

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If the grass looks greener it is probably over the septic tank. - troy n sarah tx

Our existance here is soley for the expoitation of CMG

Thanks, Miss Kay. It is a great spot. We bought it for the land and the view. It's very quiet and pretty secluded, we have neighbors but we can't see them when the leaves are out. We are putting a lot into it - time and sweat and whatever money we can - but it's worth it.

The first place I definitely settled-it was what we could afford.

The second place was where the kids and I needed to be to recover and heal from the death of my hubs.

This place, well I wouldn't consider it settling so much as compromising. It sure wasn't in a state that I was looking in! When I came across the picture of it on an internet search though, I knew it was going to be mine. This is what hooked me:



There's been a lot of bumps in the road, but knock on wood, I can see us living here for many, many years.

Settled just sounds so negative. I bought what I could afford and turned it into something I can be proud of.

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www.littlebitfarm.net

I did "settle" for the place we're at because originally, I wanted to move to the Rockies. But the Ozarks was a compromise so my ex-husband could stay closer to his family in Louisiana. As it turns out, this place is a much better choice for many reasons and so I'm glad I didn't dig in heels about going farther out.

@KYPROUD, our house is about 30 min to the nearest very small town, with 6 low-water bridges on them. They flood often, the roads ice over and stay snow-covered and have some steep hills that make driving them hazardous during winter. My parents were horrified by my decision to move out here with our kids, only one of which at the time was of driving age. The danger of the roads was one of the things that concerned them most. They're all older now, youngest in college, and have all managed to navigate the roads just fine. Teenagers being teenagers did lead to some minor incidents, and deer always around have given other reasons for accidents, but the dangers here are nothing compared to driving at interstate speeds in 6 lanes of traffic. I do worry about the eldest when he's getting off work at midnight on icy winter roads, but care and caution have so far been enough and all has gone well.

I picked my stead 3 years before the
previous owners decided to sell. For me the
location was perfect on the hill, easy access and
My ideal about transition zone between agricultural
to the south and wild lands to the east. The North
Neighbours distant. It has all the ecological and scenic
Foest beauty along with great growing and animal
raising potential. The ideallic beaver ponds and wetland
meadows bring in vast variety of wildlife. Making trails
into zenstead can't give sny better feeling for modern homesteading
with foraging and winter activities. Just the best!

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The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man.