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I am by no stretch of the imagination homesteading, but I happen to live on a farm. It is not an active farm - the land is rented out to a nearby farmer and the
by lb1lf 5y ago
I am by no stretch of the imagination homesteading, but I happen to live on a farm. It is not an active farm - the land is rented out to a nearby farmer and the only animals to be seen are a couple of cats and deer like you wouldn't believe.
Anyway, just keeping what land is not rented out and the buildings from degrading is nigh on a full-time job in itself; trenches need to be dug and maintained, forest kept at bay, houses painted, roofs mended &c.
I've much respect for anyone who decides to give it a go, but I believe your assessment is correct: It is an awful lot of work for little gain but subsistence, not leaving much time or money for other pastimes.
A couple of hundred years ago, the alternative to this back-breaking work might have been starving or succumbing to the elements.
Today, the alternative is just about any paid job, outsourcing all the backbreaking work to other, larger, more efficient units.
For most people, the choice is simple; for other, more adventurous people, trying out the lifestyle is tempting enough to actually go ahead and do it.
You've gone ahead and done it, found it not to be all it was cranked up to be.
Unless you find (or think you will eventually find) comfort and fulfillment in the work in its own right, I'd say cut your losses, find employment somewhere and try to use the lessons learned while homesteading to your advantage in phase II of your career in the big city.
- maxduckworth 5y agoWhat you said about the work required to keep buildings from degrading and the forest at bay is so true, but it's something you don't realize until you live it. The other option I've been playing with is to treat homesteading like a hobby. Outsource all the non-core homestead work and insource the gardening, animal husbandry, etc (which is harder to outsource anyway), all while keeping a remote tech job.
- mitchell_h 5y agoI've tried the outsourcing part before. Unless you have fields you can lease out or some other basic need of other farmers, it really doesn't work. Especially today with the shortage of "blue collar" workers. The costs to have someone clear land, dig ponds, run water lines, etc is either too much or you simply can't find someone that's reliable. I've seen a few folks move from the city in the last 5-10 years and try the "we'll just hire a landscaper to manage the drive way and cut by the trees". It didn't work out well. 10s of 1000s of dollars a year to have someone reliably do it, or they simply couldn't find someone.
- lb1lf 5y ago-Except the 'remote' part, this is basically what I've done - I work for an engineering company 2.5 miles from home, then tend to the land with my father-in-law on weekends (and evenings if something comes up!) We grow some fruit and veggies, tinker with the property, trying to improve a little here and there, leaving it in a slightly better state for the next generation (We live here as my wife's family has been living here quite literally since the dark ages; when Columbus wore diapers, my wife's ancestors had already tilled this plot of land for at least a hundred years) I'd go nuts if it was all I did, though - farming is lonely, hard work. I'd much rather do engineering. Different strokes, &c.
- datavirtue 5y agoThe same can be said of large houses. They look fantastic and wonderful but many people don't think about the scale of maintenance. A smaller/modest house can have it's roof replaced for $4500...that fancy house down the street: $25000 for the low-ball.
- elliekelly 5y agoI can’t for the life of me remember the name but there’s a site that’s kind of a Couch Surfing/Airbnb/Craigslist mashup where people can post a room or a property available in exchange for a certain amount of work each day/week/month. Some people will post a typical home for a week on the condition the occupant feeds and walks the dog while they’re away but a lot of the listings were for rooms on a farm in exchange for a few hours of work each day. I used it once in Spain with a friend and it was a ton of fun. It was really hard work even though I suspect it was “easy” work by farming standards. Perhaps someone here knows the site and will chime in with the name because if you have a spare room or two and enjoy meeting new people it might be an affordable way to get a bit of help.