by SaraSue, Survival Blog:
LIVING THE DREAM
First off, why do I homestead? My passion is to provide a safe haven for my large family away from the world’s chaos. A place where food can be grown, the air is clean and fresh, no noise or people pollution, no homeless encampments, and precious little crime. A safe, productive, hideaway. Realizing that nowhere is completely safe, we know that some places are better than others. Just look around. If you live in the country, you might have a million-dollar view from the porch of a humble home. I do. I can scarcely take it in. It’s restful to the eyes and soul. I take no credit whatsoever for this place. I stumbled upon it for a variety of reasons and feel that it was a gift from the Lord. After possibly decades of reading Survivalblog, I had a mental checklist for a retreat property and this one fit the bill. I had no intentions of “homesteading” other than a deep desire to become as “self-sufficient” as possible. I didn’t even know what I was going to do with this property other than raise some chickens. That’s how it started.
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A lot of people are trying to “homestead” now, and for various admirable reasons. Some are looking to get out of the rat race and live a simpler life. Some see that bad things are happening and feel a need to grow their own food and be self-sufficient. Others started out with chickens on a small plot, and as is said, “Chickens are the gateway drug to homesteading.” They end up getting more animals – some have tried goats, turkeys, quail, cows, pigs, rabbits, sheep, etc. In many cases, they think they can quit their job, grow their own food, and have little if any expenses. I’m here to tell you that unless you have a good source of income, it’s not possible. Sorry to mess with your Cheerios this morning, but homesteading costs money. I’ve spent more money “homesteading” than I ever spent as a professional working woman living in the suburbs. I’m here to share my experiences, be they good or bad.
Buying raw land and putting a camper on it while you learn to grow your own food is nothing more than a fantasy. Oh, I know of people who are trying to do just that. The other day, as I drove 45 minutes through the meandering hills to get to a Feed Store that has the best prices, I saw some raw land with a big camper on it, some kid toys, a couple of camp chairs, and a fire pit. I noticed that the land was in process of being cleared. I groaned just looking at it in passing. No electricity, no septic, no water…. And it’s November! They would have to tow that huge trailer out to dump their tanks, fill up with water, pick up propane, and I have no idea if there was solar on top of the trailer for basic needs. I noticed that where they parked, it’s shaded by a hill, and that’s great for keeping things cool, but not so great when you need as much sun exposure for solar as possible. I guess they could move the camper about when needed, but there were no roads, at all. With the amount of rain we get here, they could get really stuck in the clay mud. I wondered how long they would stick it out. That doesn’t look like “freedom” to me. It looks like a nightmare. Oh, it might be fun for a few weeks and then the reality sets in of hauling your own water, rationing propane, keeping clothes and yourself clean. Well, to each his or her own, but I would never do that.
I met a couple who had a child and one on the way who were camping in the various campgrounds around here. They were hoping to buy raw land and build, so they were staying in the campgrounds full time while the father worked in the trades. At least most campgrounds have laundry facilities, electricity, and running water. I heard recently that they picked up and moved to Florida, then bought a house after the father got a job there. “The Dream” was just too hard. As well, land values here in Tennessee have been skyrocketing. Reminds me of what happened in Idaho around the time I left. It became unaffordable for most people.
In another case I noticed, there’s a home not far from me that is in very poor repair. Normally, there are numerous cars, trucks, and a camper or two parked outside the home. The front porch is always stacked with firewood. At least they are keeping warm, I thought. Nearby, next to a ramshackle, old, barn that is unusable were various animals: goats, donkeys, chickens, a steer, and a couple of ratty-looking livestock guardian dogs. You could tell the animals were sorely underfed, had not been moved, and were living on manure-filled bare land with not a blade of grass to be found. Now, you could say, “Well, they are just really poor”, and that could very well be true. But, whatever the reason, the animals were starving and looked sad. The other day as I drove by, I noticed the lot was filled with trucks and it looked to be either an auction or a funeral. All the animals were gone. It made me very sad. Whoever lived there, and for whatever reasons, they should not have allowed their animals to be so mistreated, blinded by their “self-sufficiency” dreams of raising their own food. But, that’s just my observation and I could be wrong as to the why of it all. I hope the animals are in a better place.
In other cases, I have noticed a lot of YouTube channels that are focused on homesteading. Many of them are very good and the families are successful at what they are attempting to do. In every successful case that I have seen, at least one of the adults has an off farm job, or they have cobbled together a financial plan that actually works. The few who do not have some sort of alternative income, didn’t start out that way. They financed their lifestyle with regular jobs until they became successful farming. Farming, or homesteading, is a really hard way of life and it’s not cheap by any means. When you move into a suburban home, or even a rural home, there are existing amenities that make life more livable. There is electricity, there are roads, there is sewer or septic, there is water, and there’s a reason banks won’t finance a mortgage without the essentials. The risk of failure is great.
I have many times put a “business plan” together based on a farming lifestyle. If you drill down to the real costs associated with growing your own food, the numbers are ugly. Very few of us will become like Joel Salatin of PolyFace Farms. He is an outstanding human being and has been very successful at teaching others how to farm, has written many books, speaks all over the country, and is someone to look up to. He is the first to emphasize the sacrifices that he and his wife made in the early years of reclaiming his family’s farm and making it what it is today. They did indeed live in the attic of the old farmhouse and had off-farm jobs until they could make a go of it. Spend a moment to peruse their farm store online and check out the pricing. They offer the best food money can buy, but the prices reflect the real costs of “clean food” at scale. A smaller farmer would not be able to offer that quality of food for those prices or they’d go broke immediately. I grow that same quality of food here on my small farm and I couldn’t break even selling a broiler chicken for $25. What that means is, I would have to scale way up in order to see any sort of profit. Think about it. Even if I could just get ahead $3 per broiler bird, I would have to raise, sell, butcher, package, and market 100 birds to make $300. Not worth the effort. Now, having said that, if a family, or group of people, worked together without pay from the farm, to produce that quality of food, they might could see a small income. And many are doing so. I do not know Joel Salatin personally, but I’ve followed his journey, read his books, and have great admiration for what he and his family have been able to do. I don’t mean to discourage anyone from homesteading. I am hoping that I can inject some realism into the picture for you because I’ve made almost all the mistakes.
If you want to successfully homestead, there are some basics that you must have to start with. When I purchased the property I’m currently on (difficulties aside), what I saw in it was a solidly built home, access to water, electricity, septic, roads, fenced and cross-fenced, two fairly new barns, mail delivery to a rural road (not necessary but nice to have), far enough off the beaten path to have privacy, acceptably close enough to emergency services, and shopping close enough that a trip to and fro could be made within the day. I call all of this Infrastructure. I can’t stress to you how important existing infrastructure is. As those of you who have followed my story know, even with all that in place, I spent a boatload of money fixing things that needed fixin’.
