Whats the problem?

DUPE

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"Let the beauty we love, be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground." Rumi

Exactly. There's far more ways to be rich than $$.

BRP: Now your making me long for the country while I'm still stuck here in the city. So what time is dinner, I'll be there



fin29: Already doing the research,etc. I'm not really looking for outside validation. I'm just sick of arguing. I want to do my own thing and let others do theirs.

I feel your right though that confidence comes with doing. I realize I have a lot to learn, but it's all possible with patience and persistance.

If theres anything I've learned at college it's humility.

what part of Maine are you in? Our homestead is in northern VT.

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"Let the beauty we love, be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground." Rumi

(said in my best boonhower voice)
Itellyawhat sometimitgoodtaletemthinkyeraredneck thatwaytheydontthinkyasmarts andaskyatodosometinferem.

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"Let the beauty we love, be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground." Rumi

"The other thing that gets me is I'm always told "thats xx miles to drive to work, thats to far". "

I get that all the time from friends who live in the city. "You drive 27 miles to the grocery store?" Well, it takes me about 45 minutes to drive that 27 miles on a windy road right next to the river - I pass woods and other small farms, I watch eagles fishing and the occasional elk cross the road.

In Seattle it took me 45 minutes to drive 8 miles to work in the morning. I got to look at other cars stopped up in traffic, concrete, and strip malls. I'm spending the same amount of time in the car either way - I'll take my pretty road along the river.

Most people will never understand how satisfying it is to sit outside as the sun is setting and look at the garden you put in, the fences you built, the healthy animals you've raised. Most people don't want to work that hard.

It's all possible with patience, persistence, and planning.

We're in Central Maine. I spent a while in the Coventry/Newport area last summer catering for Phish and also crisscrossed through St. Johnsbury, WR Junction, Rutland, etc. on my way to Albany and Lowell, MA at that time for other gigs. Nice area.

heck thats right close to where our property is. Its over at westfield not far from rt 100.

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"Let the beauty we love, be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground." Rumi

Good thing you weren't there last year...
Arial shot of the concert site...note the stage/crowd at 4 o'clock and the dairy farm at 5 o'clock. Gotta love it.

my elderly Aunt is one of those that just doesn't get it. She always says, "Why are you doing THAT??? You are so smart, you could do anything you want to do!". And that is precisely the point...I AM doing what I want to do. I have ALWAYS wanted to do this. It took me 40+ years to get to this point, but it is what I have always wanted.

I was born and raised in a fairly good sized Southern city. My father was "corporate America" and my mother was volunteer, Junior League, social registry personified. A real "lady". I have wanted to be on the land in the middle of nowhere, raising my own food, animals, etc for as long as I can remember. I quess I was born with this longing. My friends and family call me the "earth mother", some with fondness and respect, some with sarcasm and disdain.

I have friends who share our ideals and some who don't. I have family who "get it" and some who don't.

I do what I do here with my husband and children because we believe it is the best way for US to live. It may not be the best for others and we respect their right to do as they choose.

For us, having had lives in the city (cookie cutter houses from which you could spit on your neighbor if you so desired, high crime, crowded streets, dirty streets and parks, stinky pollution, light pollution, rat-race jobs, etc) I much prefer our educated choice of life in the country with woodsmoke curling from the chimney, crisp white snow, homemade bread and soup from our own preserved garden bounty in the winter; the yellow green of new spring leaves, busy nest building birds, the music of chirrupping peepers, garden veggies poking their heads out of sun warmed soil enriched with our compost and wildflowers in the spring; fishing, watching the children swing from the rope into the lake with shouts and laughter, fireflies blinking, whipoorwills calling, garden pregnant with vegetables and my kids playing outside until well after dark, canning and freezing all that garden goodness in the summer; and the rich smell of herbs drying, the vibrant colors of autumn leaves, playing in the leaf piles before they go to compost and "putting things to bed" for overwintering in the fall.

Hopelessly romantic? Maybe. A healthy happy family? Definitely. For us...it works

~Berta

pcdreams Dinner is always served 7:00 PM when the wife comes through the door.But not tonight,got Church.

You know your only 51 miles from here.Be a good day trip,check out the Mennonites Bulk Store,Vegatable Stand,the river,Bennet Spring State Park.

big rockpile

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I love being married.Its so great to find that one person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.



If I need a Shelter
If I need a Friend
I go to the Rock!

If you remember that, you will be a happy man!

While you are out in Maine this, year, why don't you check out the farmers markets? That will give you an idea of what will grow well in your area. It will also give you a chance to meet like-minded folks.

The REASON that your Dad is down on the farming idea is because he personally did not like it. He is trying to tell you that farming is an unpleasant life.

Well, for him it WAS an unpleasant life! He just isn't taking account that your tastes are NOT his! :haha: He is afraid for you.

But, if you ENJOY life on the farm, he will probably come around.

We grow much of our own food...less now than we used to when (out of necessity) we limited ourselves to whatever we produced on our land. My wife has her holistic health studio on the south 40 of our land now, and my shop is well set up for augmenting our income with cabinetry...but, neither of us has/had any desire to drive to a town everyday to work for wages so we can come home and use our place as a bedroom, rather than a place of vast enjoyment and satisfaction. The less we go to town, the less money we spend.

Overhead is what kills most small businesses, including homesteaders. We have no mortgage and when we need a new building on our land we use native materials and our own labors. We need to maintain a balance of payments of our own...importing/exporting. We need to export more from our homestead than we import from town. The best way to do that is to want less, create as much as we can off of our own property, and bring money from outside via value added product or services.

Besides...being on our land is fun! (and safer than the world "out there")

Oh yeah...we try to buy anything we can't produce locally, and barring that...we belong to a buying club to buy bulk items.

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I hope you get what you want...and that you actually want what you get!

I have a similar problem, except it's with my wife. I think she wants to be supportive of my dreams, but doesn't really believe in it all. This year I started a garden in our back yard (suburbia) thinking that if nothing else, I need to get familiar with growing vegetables. She seems to enjoy that but only if its not too hot, or too cold, or too muggy, or no bugs are out, etc...

I'm miserable where I work but she seems to think that a job in the country needs to be an equal or higher salary with full benefits in order to make the change feasible. I disagree.

Suffice to say, something needs to give, because the lifestyle I'm living is dragging me down.

Been there, done that.

Know what? DH was just scared. Also, he is a city boy by CHOICE!

You know, jobs in the country may pay less, but then the mortgage payment might ALSO be less. That helps.

We bought our little homestead about 15 years ago, and only recently bought 5+ acres farther out. DH thinks that we can never afford to get a house built out there, but I suspect that we can.

Changing his mind is really up to me. He simply needs to be SHOWN how, in dollars and cents. He is not unwilling, he simply needs to be shown how.

I will work the land that we have (1 acre in town, 5+ acrtes 20 miles away). I will establish an income. Then we will add THAT income to OUR income.......

In addition to the fruit and veggies and eggs from this place, of course.

After all, spending less on groceries is the same as a raise, is it not?! Once the dollars are in the bank, DH will feel MUCH better about building on the country property!

Of course, this will take a few years, but meanwhile I have the 1 acre that we live on. In order to find an affordable acre, we went farther out from town than most people want to live. We drove from DH's office along a highway to a reasonable commute time, and we bought something that we could afford. It was CHEAPER than a comparable place in town, because it was 20 minutes to a grocery store, and 10 minutes to the closest gas station.

For me, sitting at my desk IS hard work. It's hard to be sitting here, next to a window showing me perfect weather for working in the garden. And playing in the dirt is just what I like to do. It might be physically difficult, but it's something I enjoy, and therefore it is a kind of play. It's fun to feed those horrible white grubs to the chickens and to eat fruit fresh off the trees and warm from the sun. It's fun to plant something and tend it and watch it grow and produce. I don't get that sort of enjoyment at my office job, only irritation and stress. Probably to the minds of too many people, work is something that should NOT be fun. Good thing those of us here aren't of that frame of mind!

My grandparents and greatgrandparents on back all farmed. My m(aternal)GF took it up after working in chicago as an engineer type earlier (not a farmboy). He probably took mechanical skills, money, and certainly the help of his father-in-law and in-laws along with him to the farm. He also lived very cheaply and primitively- no indoor plumbing until 20-30 years after all the neighbors and relatives, etc.

Some cousins went broke doing it this past century. I am not a mechanic and haven't worked on a large farm or a farm trying to earn money and I doubt I want to do the work required for it. I have a good job I can take anywhere and can usually work parttime if I want. Therefore for me farming for my living is a serious gamble.

So I am planning homesteading as my hobby, my retirement/ semi-retirement/ sabbatical activity, but have not, for instance, gone so far as to take a mechanic course so I would believe I could own a tractor without it being a huge money sink or waste of my money. I want independence from the grocery store as much as I think I can achieve without getting overwhelmed (ie no longer enjoying it) but don't hope for an income to cover all my spending including saving for retirement.

Even when/if I settle into my dream homestead I would have a lot of misgivings if my kids planned to be farmers as their entire plan for all income and needs starting at 17. In my case I might view it as a plan to sponge off mom forever- and would either decide if I could afford for them to do that or send them out to a 'real' farm to learn what I can't teach them. I'd be much happier if they had a skill like nursing doctoring carpentry whatever that'd earn them above min. wage and be easy to find work in whenever they needed/wanted.

ohh I love Bennett springs. never been to the other two places though. I always mean to go but I end up spending the day fishing

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"Let the beauty we love, be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground." Rumi

Jenn: I can certainly understand you view.

I'm not that young (wish I was) anymore. However I also have other skills if
things don't pan out. I'll be finishing my associates in network technology this
summer. I just hate the idea of depending on a job as income. If I can sustain
us I'm that much happier. Which is the same reason we're going solar.

I probally shouldn't say this but I think things will work out. Is it going to be
easy? Of course not but if it was everyone would do it and it wouldn't be as
fun or enjoyable anymore.

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"Let the beauty we love, be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground." Rumi

What do you do if your own husband disagrees with the lifestyle you choose? We've been married 7 years and were very young when we got married. Neither of us had really "grown up" yet and I didn't realize at that point what I really wanted out of life. Long story short, I've figured it out. I want chickens, I want cows or goats, I want a big organic garden, I want to get away from materialism and grow closer to God and the land he's provided for us. I've talked my husband into chickens. I'm really enjoying them and I think he is too (though he'll never admit it) I rented a tiller this spring and put in a fair size garden and have loved working in it so far. I'd like to turn our sunroom into a green room and grow more throughout the winter. I want livestock- not many, just maybe 3 or 4 goats or a couple jersey cows (we have 2 acres) and then go from there. But, my husband is drawing the line at chickens. He wants it to end there as far as animals go. I've baked my own bread for the last few months and my husband prefers the taste of store-bought bread, so he buys his own (though I think he is just subconsciously rebelling against this new earthy wife he has). We both have outside jobs (I only work part-time, though). We have 3 young children. We do have a lot on our plates right now, but I love the hard work I'm putting into developing the life I want. I love my husband, I know he loves me, but I feel us growing apart and it makes me sad. I don't feel I should have to give up my dreams, but I don't want to be selfish and I am a christian and know and believe what the Bible says about "wives, submit to your husbands" I feel I'm being pulled in two different directions.

pcdreams- if they know you'll have a safe career to fall back on then it's the old success matters bit. Hopefully they'll come to accept or at least quit nagging that you aren't struggling for their version of success. (My in-laws are lovely- maybe 'cause they can brag on thier son so they can survive our home/house not being a showcase- they found for us the homestead of our dreams ((we were still in Germany)) after sadly admitting we would never like the gated community where a pickuptruckful of manure would never be allowed to enter).

rnmom23 let's start a new thread?