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FarmOR

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Aug 27, 2022
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452
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Parma Idaho
Recognizing that some of us are still dreaming?

Some of us have realized our dream. Escaping the rat race? The wage slavery? How about sharing a little bit of your story?

What was your personal emancipation day? How did you plan for it? And what was your catalyst? What do you wish you would have done differently?
 
Ours was kind of fate- I was waiting on a visa to go back to the States, and we had planned to leave NY after another year of saving. We were looking for a small amount of land, possibly Montana. Then a friend who worked as an estate agent said the sale had fallen through on this place; the owner was emigrating and would sell it at what she bought it for. He thought it was something we would like. For some reason, we had a look, more for the drive than anything, and had bought and moved in within a month- in fact, they gave us the keys before the mortgage had been transferred! 23 years later, still here. It's not a homestead, just over an acre with a cottage initially, but we doubled our family, put on an extension and over the years kept pheasants, hens, ducks, lambs and a lot of pets. It's paid off now. Within a year of buying it (because the mortgage had been secured) my husband was able to leave his job and work for himself. Wouldn't have done anything differently, other than got a loan to put the fencing in immediately, rather than bit by bit, and replace the leylandii trees for native ones. They've got so big now it will cost a fortune to remove.
 
My wife and I had long dreamed of moving to the country from the abomination that is South Florida.
In 1995 I was working for Georgia Pacific Distribution Division, and because of a restructuring were closing my warehouse in West Palm Beach.
I was offered a promotion plus moving expenses if I stayed with the company. I was given The option of four different locations.
We thought about it, we did some traveling to explore the options, and in 1996 moved to where we are now.

Rural NE Florida, four acres on a dead end dirt road six miles outside a one stop light town of less than 2,000.
We love it.
 
Covid pretty much forced my husband into retirement, and he was over 65 and was too sick to be working anyway. We bought our farm...23 acres an a broken down farmhouse, built in 1908. Lots of outbuildings. Bought the farm years before, just would visit it. Was happy to move here when covid hit, because New Mexico was the worst in not letting you do anything. And they kept it up for years. So, three years here. Sold our place in New Mexico. Would hate to be in a city, couldn't handle it anymore. Was just reading on the Next Door app from the place where we lived that within five miles of where we lived, they've had days of home invasions. Guys kicking in the doors, taking what they want. People are posting their photos on Next Door, but can't even get Albuquerque PD out to look at them. And if they are caught in the act, people are saying that they'll be released the next day anyway. A few people commenting to take matters in their own hands. We had an attempted home invasion when we lived there. And a break in where they ransacked our place and took a ton of stuff. And our garden and fruit trees picked while I was at work. I am so happy to be where we are. Husband had to be convinced, he's a city guy, and did not want to retire. I think he's mostly convinced, now, but this is where I want to be. We've moved so many times before for his job, so this was my turn.
 
Grew up in the city (poor).
Worked as a cleaner from age 10.
Joined the military - got a degree (science/engineering).
Looked for a good area for farming (not then a popular area for homesteading/lifestylers - more a serious commercial farming area) with at least 40 inches of rain/year, good soils and hilly topography.
Bought the first parcel (a bit under 200 acres) of farm land before turning 30. Picked land that borders on forest (3 sides) and gets first turn at the water runoff - good distance from the nearest town. Built lots of gully dams (legal without permits then). Planted lots of food trees and some for extra/summer shelter. Built out buildings and upgraded fences.
Bought about as much again ten years later (with commercial timber growing on it) - so now a bit under 400 acres. Had a good accountant who structured our financials to be a properly run small business (rather than just a hobby). Agisted out the land for others to run their cattle on (for money) at first, then later got our own herd. Started with good genetics but have progressively upgraded over time. Renovated a brick walled and steel roofed house on the second land parcel. Completed the commercial timber contract and have started turning that land back into grazing land.

I have always had a "day job" (or two) in addition to the farm.

I suspect that too many people:
  1. Buy too small a parcel of land
  2. Wait until too late in life to go homesteading
  3. End up having quite a short active working time on their land before they get too sick/old and can't do much more
  4. Expect that they will be able to make more money from their land than they actually do
  5. Expect they can be genuinely "self sufficient" on their land - even when their land area is quite small and the workload/essential knowledge base/expertise to do that is quite large
  6. Expect they will make more money from their land - when in fact most of the money you make out of rural land is actually capital gain (ie increase in land value - which will only be realized when you sell the land)
I suspect that many people are a bit scared to buy "too much land to handle". The reality is this: As the land parcel size goes up, the price per acre comes down. Larger land parcels in serious farming areas will always be the better value for money. Also, if you want to live in an area where people mostly mind their own business and where dwellings are at least a mile or two apart, then buy land in a commercial farming area.
 
Ugh...you had me up until the commercial farming area. Yes, it's good for seclusion, but the garbage they spray ends up on your property, too. Around here, it's a big deal not to be near any "sprayers" of bad things. My favorite cousin swears that her kitchen garden is ruined many years by a farmer who sprays junk.
 
Amish Heart said:
Ugh...you had me up until the commercial farming area. Yes, it's good for seclusion, but the garbage they spray ends up on your property, too. Around here, it's a big deal not to be near any "sprayers" of bad things. My favorite cousin swears that her kitchen garden is ruined many years by a farmer who sprays junk.
Click to expand...
Cattle farmers don't use much in the way of sprays.

Like I mentioned in the post above, we specifically went out looking for hilly land - that is enough to preclude broad-acre cropping type farming and everything that goes with that.

One of my neighbors has achieved 100% organic certification.
 
I've built four homesteads in wilderness Alaska (ALONE). The first one was "Free", I just had to work hard and live a life of hardship. Luckly, I got to Alaska before they terminated The Federal Homesteading Act.

The second one was on "Majestic" Lake Clark in western Alaska. A 52 mile long lake, packed with fish & abundant game, but the only way there was to fly-in, no roads. Fortunately, I was (still am) a commercial pilot, and owned airplanes for my Alaska Big Game Hunting Guiding Business.

The third and forth on the Alaska, Kenai Peninsula. Been working and building this forth one the last 24 years. Soon they will put me in an institution or in the ground. I am completely used up. But God what a wonderful thrilling life I've been allowed to lived.
 
Just for information, up till about 25 or 30 years ago The Great State of Alaska, and The Federal Government each had free land available. There were several "different" programs for acquiring land. I think that is all closed now.
 
I got here from a little nothing place in Tn. called Hellenwood, My plan was to work long enough to buy myself a good deer rifle, a 357 magnum, and a decent used car and go back, that was 35 years ago, screw that place!
 
Met the love of my life at 43 years old, a couple years later we were taching survival classes, disscovered where we lived was not such a good place. sold everything and moved to montana. didn't have all that much money but found 20 acres with a contract carried by owner. both of us worked while we improved the raw land and planted and built.
Had a forest fire, lost everything (including the guns) and moved on. Now 25 years later living on a acre with chickens and garden waiting to see what happens next.
Never regretted selling a paid for house and getting out of a bad area.
 
I had a good paying job but lived in a metropolis. I felt like I was watching my life pass by on a big drive in movie screen. I so much wanted a simpler life and return to nature. I grew up on a cattle ranch fifteen miles from a small mill town, but land prices made me think it was impossible or at best improbable.

But something was driving me to keep looking. Keep dreaming. The small entrepreneurs food manufacturer that I was working for got swallowed up by a giant corporation and the negative effects were immediately experienced. It was bad at the time, but the exact catalyst that I needed!

And I found a rundown place with a reasonable price. The asset to liability ratio was what I was looking for: A crappie run down little house with a big productive land mass? Or so it appeared? It turned out that everything was more run down than expected, but that ignorance worked in my favor because I was ready to act.

I kept my job in the metropolis for another year and commuted. The commute grew progressively worse and I started renting a room to cut down on driving and exhaustion ( was working 12+ regular shifts). And the work environment was progressively worsening too. But another miracle opportunity happened and I found more local employment for the same rate of pay ( 30 miles vs 70).

I kept working full time +overtime and working on the farm too. At first, I rented the farmland, so to keep my heroism in check? But eventually took over the farmland too. That was a lot, let me tell you? I really was sacrificing one performance for the other. And finally realized that I had paid off the property, equipment and making income sufficient to outpace expenses. Then that glorious day happened that I celebrate every year on February 20, 2013, my personal emancipation proclamation!
 
As I got older, the homestead changed to a place to retire to. :(. 20 years ago I had bigger plans, then retirement and old fartness hit. Lori's horse lives 10 miles away, the fishing lakes and shooting range are about the same distance.

House.jpg
 
dademoss said:
As I got older, the homestead changed to a place to retire to.
Click to expand...
Although already retired, the Mrs. and I are already working on this. We already bought a place that's pretty much zero maintenance and set up the way we like it. Still have the homestead which is our primary place but it's getting harder to maintain and work as we age.
 
Never moved to homestead. Moved 7 times in 50 years marriage but always in country and same county. This final move is attached to land I grew up on. Always had cats dogs and chicken’s even growing up. Having 5 daughters led me into dehydrated foods and canning and getting by on using what we have. Husband not on same page but improving
 
Enjoyed reading everyone's comments on this, good topic

We worked high paying jobs in Orlando before we moved here and planned our "escape" for around 10 years. We wanted out of Florida and live in a rural area before we got too old to do it but we did want to wait until son graduated from high school. Went property shopping about 10 years ago and looked in North Carolina, Virginia, Vermont and Maine for property. The only place we found anything we liked was Virginia and husband grew up in Virginia so he liked the idea of moving here very much. We bought 59 acres of farmland , no house and rented it to a farmer that already had cows on it rented from previous owner ( old lady that was splitting up the farm and selling it off) . It was a beautiful property with pond, woods, large hayfield.
We were going to build a house on it.
Then I found our current property "just looking' at more properties in this area. It sounded too good to be true, land, and lots of buildings for around the same price the other property had cost. So we came up here to meet with some well driller and the county guy to see what it would take to build a house on the first property. It sucked, would cost a small fortune, and permitting required the septic to be a long way from pond, and creek , which would have placed the house next to the road . Everything we wanted to do there would have been a permitting nightmare.

So I called our realtor and he took us to the other property we have now. It was a complete mess and realtor and husband said " you don't really want to buy THIS???". But I pointed out it would be much cheaper than building everything new on the other one. And it was in a nicer area, and the house on top of mountain instead of next to road, and 2 huge barns, and goat fencing in place in some areas, large chicken coup, shop etc.
So we bought it and are still fixing stuff 7 years later.....it didn't have any electricity since the Amish owned it before. No sort of proper utilities at all but honestly I love living here
We ended up selling the other property to have some money to live on and help our son pay for college.
Oh that was one of the requirements we had for property:must have a good university within reasonable driving distance . He drives 1 hour each way but is almost done.
The other requirement was near ski area but after my stupid accident I can no longer ski, oh well, enjoyed it the first few years

That was long...sorry
 
I met my beautiful wife and 2 months later we were ingaged and bought an acre of raw land. Started clearing n building a home. 4 months after we met we married. We lost that house to a forest fire and rebuilt a new home.
Along the way we bought 2 more acre lots next to us. We gave 1 acre to our son when he got married and sold our current home I built to our daughter. And now building our retirement home on the other acre.
We all work together to raise a big garden n small livestock. Or when things go wrong. So nice having family near
 
I had a 22 year military career and we moved on average of every two years, so we had to wait. The wife and I knew we wanted to buy a place at some point, so we started saving from day one, $50 a month at first, and with each promotion/pay raise we added to it.

Got out of the military and bought a place in the bayous of the Mississippi delta. The Katrina aftermath cause a population explosion an my quiet area was suddenly now filled with wealthy neighbors. Sold the place for a big profit and followed a call in my heart to move north. After moving to Alaska, the wife and I spent a couple years looking for the perfect place.

We have spent the last 9 years fixing the old Alaskan homestead up. Really nice location with access to abundant resources. My property sits between two streams with steep gullies on the east and west flank of my property giving my control and uncontested access to a vast wilderness behind me. Along this lonely stretch of highway that my property boarders are a dotting of other homesteads settled in the 1960 and 1970s, most now empty. When we moved here, there were several other year round residents. But as these original homesteaders aged, the wife and I are the only year round residents in the area.

We decided against livestock due to our desire to travel around the state and due to concerns with bears and other critters. But we have abundant gardens that, other than this past summer have produced amazingly well. We also practice subsistence taking advantage of what the Lord provides us. We certainly enjoy living a quiet and simple life but it does take a lot of effort.
 
FarmOR said:
Recognizing that some of us are still dreaming?

Some of us have realized our dream. Escaping the rat race? The wage slavery? How about sharing a little bit of your story?

What was your personal emancipation day? How did you plan for it? And what was your catalyst? What do you wish you would have done differently?
Click to expand...
Worked like a Hebrew slave, lived in hotel rooms and Rv trailers 60-80 hours a week pulling pipe wrenches till I went into supervision
Saved every penny of overtime and ate beanie weenies. Till I had the cash to buy my land and the materials to build a house
The day I arrived at my land, I hopped out of the truck and started falling trees in a path That would be the drive way and the spot for the house
I wore out a riding lawnmower using it yo pull trees and drag to a huge bonnfire
First thing built was a septic tank system And a water line
Bought a wore out rv and lived in it while I. Built the house
What motivated me?
I did not want to owe anyone anything
Just want to live my life The way I want to with out having to kiss someones ass
And. I dont
 
not on a homestead but in a house in a remote area in the countryside well away from any big cities.
lived in a city for over 40 years then moved out when I met my wife 25 years ago.. a country girl born and bred.
 
lonewolf said:
not on a homestead but in a house in a remote area in the countryside well away from any big cities.
lived in a city for over 40 years then moved out when I met my wife 25 years ago.. a country girl born and bred.
Click to expand...
Country girl?
Spell how she says the word “coins”
( this is just for fun, no disrespect towards your wife intended at all).
 
wife is from the same county as me, Devon, UK.
some older people here have broad west country accents but its dying out in the young.
 
Frodo said:
Humming. Never thought about it
Does the Uk have distinct regional accents ?
We have 4 or 5 different southern accents in the south along with Ebonics. If that is a language? And it is different regionally also
Click to expand...
yes Scotland and Wales have their own accents.
The North of England has its own regional accents, Newcastle, Yorkshire , Lancashire etc.
some of Southern England has its own accents, Essex, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall.
 
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