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I've done it three times. Once on Three acres, then with my wife on 80 acres and now we have downsized to 2 acres. I could talk ALL DAY about the +/- but youll

I've done it three times. Once on Three acres, then with my wife on 80 acres and now we have downsized to 2 acres. I could talk ALL DAY about the +/- but youll never know till you do it. Can you pull a dead fetus out of a sick goat at 3am in the middle of winter? I have. Can you load a full size pig with an injured back foot into the back of a truck, probably not but I've done that too. Do you like living around animals that could kill you if you look at them wrong? A bull is absolutely nothing to fuck with. Do you want to be 15-30 minutes away from the closest gas/food/hospital? I say do it but to be honest, most people can't, won't and don't want to even HEAR about the realities of farm life let alone do it themselves.

codingdave 4y ago
It doesn't have to be like that. I've done it on 6 acres on the edge of a town, 3 minutes from groceries, all my kids walked to school. You also don't have to do livestock - you can just grow plants. "Homesteading" does not have to be "farm life". There are huge middle grounds. That being said, no matter where you land, it will be work. Probably more than people think. The weather will dictate what you do. And for the first couple years as you build skills, tools, and infrastructure, your "free" food will be the most expensive food you've ever had.
- deleted 4y ago
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- paulryanrogers 4y ago
  Can you get enough protein without animals? Is it really homesteading if you can walk to a grocery store?
  - kstenerud 4y ago
    When is a Scotsman a true Scotsman? It's not the etymology that counts, but rather what someone is trying to accomplish.
    - ksaj 4y ago
      I don't know where exactly the dividing line is, but homesteading and hobby farming differentiate at some point. If you are regularly buying groceries, it's probably a hobby farm.
      - codingdave 4y ago
        By your definition, all the full-time farmers I know would be hobby farmers because they buy all their groceries despite farming acreages in the thousands. People trying to be self-sustainable on a couple acres and getting 80% of the way there will also still regularly buy groceries. I'm not sure that the labels matter. Different people make different choices in what they choose to grow, raise, buy, or barter. At the end of the day, many people produce some of their own food, and that is a good thing whether it is a hobby farm, a homestead, or a garden box on an urban apartment balcony.
        ksaj 4y ago
        Then you are over-reacting to partial information you have received, and assuming things that cannot actually be assumed by what was stated. Farmers primarily farm for other people, and live off the money they they make from doing it. Their goods are grown/raised specifically to be converted into money. That money is the commodity that the household lives off of. With this in mind, let's look at the difference between hobby farming and homesteading, which is solely what I was doing in my original comment: Hobby farmers farm for their enjoyment, and not strictly for a living (except in the case of petting zoos, etc, but that is far and away from commodity farming), and require groceries to maintain themselves. The key is the word "hobby" in the title. It's not commercial, and it is not their primary way of survival. What they grow/raise is for the hobby aspect, and any commodity aspect is extra - something additional. It's the difference between a professional and a hobby skier. One skis for fun. The other skis for money. One can become the other, but the difference between them is still pretty clear. Homesteaders literally live off the land, off the grid, etc., and thereby are differentiated from hobby farmers. They grow food for their own consumption. Only excess is traded, and it is nearly never a commercial venture. If we had to cram in the ski metaphor, then to a homesteader, skiing becomes a form of transportation. And just the same, skiing could get you to your neighbor's farm efficiently, but you could also do it as a hobby. Oh, there's that word again! But surely you see the difference now. Intent and purpose have everything to do with the difference. There is cross over between homesteading and hobby farming, but they are not the same thing. This is precisely what I said in my previous comment. There was nothing mentioned in any way about profession commodity farming. You pulled that one out of nowhere.
  - vram22 4y ago
    Google vegan bodybuilders and see Bill Pearl. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Pearl https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Pearl Okay, eggs and milk are from animals, but they are not meat, at least.
jacquesm 4y ago
Indeed. It think a lot of people romanticize this sort of thing without actually looking at it clearly. But props to the OP for at least asking.

codingdave 4y ago

It doesn't have to be like that. I've done it on 6 acres on the edge of a town, 3 minutes from groceries, all my kids walked to school. You also don't have to do livestock - you can just grow plants. "Homesteading" does not have to be "farm life". There are huge middle grounds. That being said, no matter where you land, it will be work. Probably more than people think. The weather will dictate what you do. And for the first couple years as you build skills, tools, and infrastructure, your "free" food will be the most expensive food you've ever had.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
paulryanrogers 4y ago
Can you get enough protein without animals? Is it really homesteading if you can walk to a grocery store?
- kstenerud 4y ago
  When is a Scotsman a true Scotsman? It's not the etymology that counts, but rather what someone is trying to accomplish.
  - ksaj 4y ago
    I don't know where exactly the dividing line is, but homesteading and hobby farming differentiate at some point. If you are regularly buying groceries, it's probably a hobby farm.
    - codingdave 4y ago
      By your definition, all the full-time farmers I know would be hobby farmers because they buy all their groceries despite farming acreages in the thousands. People trying to be self-sustainable on a couple acres and getting 80% of the way there will also still regularly buy groceries. I'm not sure that the labels matter. Different people make different choices in what they choose to grow, raise, buy, or barter. At the end of the day, many people produce some of their own food, and that is a good thing whether it is a hobby farm, a homestead, or a garden box on an urban apartment balcony.
      - ksaj 4y ago
        Then you are over-reacting to partial information you have received, and assuming things that cannot actually be assumed by what was stated. Farmers primarily farm for other people, and live off the money they they make from doing it. Their goods are grown/raised specifically to be converted into money. That money is the commodity that the household lives off of. With this in mind, let's look at the difference between hobby farming and homesteading, which is solely what I was doing in my original comment: Hobby farmers farm for their enjoyment, and not strictly for a living (except in the case of petting zoos, etc, but that is far and away from commodity farming), and require groceries to maintain themselves. The key is the word "hobby" in the title. It's not commercial, and it is not their primary way of survival. What they grow/raise is for the hobby aspect, and any commodity aspect is extra - something additional. It's the difference between a professional and a hobby skier. One skis for fun. The other skis for money. One can become the other, but the difference between them is still pretty clear. Homesteaders literally live off the land, off the grid, etc., and thereby are differentiated from hobby farmers. They grow food for their own consumption. Only excess is traded, and it is nearly never a commercial venture. If we had to cram in the ski metaphor, then to a homesteader, skiing becomes a form of transportation. And just the same, skiing could get you to your neighbor's farm efficiently, but you could also do it as a hobby. Oh, there's that word again! But surely you see the difference now. Intent and purpose have everything to do with the difference. There is cross over between homesteading and hobby farming, but they are not the same thing. This is precisely what I said in my previous comment. There was nothing mentioned in any way about profession commodity farming. You pulled that one out of nowhere.
- vram22 4y ago
  Google vegan bodybuilders and see Bill Pearl. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Pearl https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Pearl Okay, eggs and milk are from animals, but they are not meat, at least.

jacquesm 4y ago

Indeed. It think a lot of people romanticize this sort of thing without actually looking at it clearly. But props to the OP for at least asking.