# Soon-to-be Homesteaders



## red (Oct 3, 2008)

I'm wondering how many members here are currently working and living in the city, getting ready to soon move out to their homestead?

How much longer do you have to go?

Where are you working in the mean time?

What will your homestead consist of?


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## netandtim (Oct 8, 2008)

Red,
Several years ago, hubby and I decided that the "retirement" home we had purchased back in 1996 was no longer in an area that we wanted to retire. We searched for and found a 12-acre former working homestead located in a very rural area but close enough to get to a small town for supplies. It's about 2 hours from where we currently live.

It's got a small, rickety (built in 1941) farmhouse - livable, but needs work, a great well, a working septic system, small garage, summer kitchen/canning shed, propane tanks, rabbit pens, chicken coops, hog pens, 2 fenced pastures, water supplies ran to all animal areas as well as peach, pecan, pear, apple, blueberry, blackberry, grapes.

We've got approximately one year before being able to pack our bags and move full time. We would like to sell the city house, but that depends on the state of the real estate market at the time. If the house won't sell, we'll keep it for rental income. For income, I'm retired military but have a full time job as a 9-1-1 / fire / ambulance dispatcher. Hubby will retire from the military in less than a year.

Once there, we intend on 2-3 freezer beef a year, a couple of feeder pigs, chickens for meat/eggs, perhaps a couple of goats for milk as well as raising a large garden. 

In the meantime, we're learning how to garden, can, dehydrate, make-your-own-convenience mixes, stocking up on basics, reading all the self-sufficient books/websites that we can get our hands on, saving up as much money as possible. Little by little (weekends mostly) we're fixing up the farmhouse to make it comfortably livable.

Net


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## JeepHammer (Oct 10, 2008)

NetandTim, you just described my 'Dream Home' if you throw in some solar and wind power to keep the place off the grid!


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## gds (Oct 10, 2008)

netandtim said:


> Red,
> Several years ago, hubby and I decided that the "retirement" home we had purchased back in 1996 was no longer in an area that we wanted to retire. We searched for and found a 12-acre former working homestead located in a very rural area but close enough to get to a small town for supplies. It's about 2 hours from where we currently live.
> 
> It's got a small, rickety (built in 1941) farmhouse - livable, but needs work, a great well, a working septic system, small garage, summer kitchen/canning shed, propane tanks, rabbit pens, chicken coops, hog pens, 2 fenced pastures, water supplies ran to all animal areas as well as peach, pecan, pear, apple, blueberry, blackberry, grapes.
> ...


That plan is a beautiful thing. Make it happen. A coupla retired vets. riding off into the sunset, it don't git any better then that.


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## NappyRootz (Oct 13, 2008)

Sounds like a great plan Net! Seems like you and Tim have a great little life.


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## netandtim (Oct 8, 2008)

Awww - gee thanks, everyone for the well wishes. We're working hard everyday to make it happen.

Jeep, we do plan on adding solar, but not wind - there's not enough steady wind of any magnitude to do anything with.

Sorry I haven't been here in a few days. I know it seems I popped in, posted a bunch and then left. In reality, we took off for a few days and headed to the farm to get a little closer to the dream. Got a washer installed, a sycamore cut down, and planted lemon, pear, plum and apple trees.

I'm off to check the rest of the forum to see what everyone is up to!
Net


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## gds (Oct 10, 2008)

"and planted lemon, pear, plum and apple trees."

Hmmm, I'm curious what kind of soil and climate you have that a lemon tree will grow with those others? When I lived in the south it was no problem to get any citrus or peaches to grow, apples and plums never did anything. Now that I'm in the mid west everything except citrus does well.


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## TechAdmin (Oct 1, 2008)

I would love to see pictures of anyone currently homesteading even urban homesteading.

I'm my goal but right now land prices anywhere in a 2 hr diameter is about 10k an acre. I hope this downturn will lower prices a little.


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## TechAdmin (Oct 1, 2008)

Here is a neat little Blog I check out every so often of some a family starting a rural homesteading life; http://meanwhileacrosstown.com/


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## netandtim (Oct 8, 2008)

I know that lemons growing with pear and apple sounds a bit strange, but we live between zones 8a/8b and even within that have tiny microclimates. The lemon is a Meyer Lemon, known for a better cold tolerance than most other lemons. It's planted on the south side of a structure for wind/cold protection. Come a hard freeze and we'll certainly have to protect it. The place came with apple, pear, peach and pecan trees already growing. We're just adding additional trees to replenish those reaching end of productivity.

Net


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## Washkeeton (Oct 18, 2008)

Ok so I will try this one more time... hopefully it will post this time. 

I started out at the age of 10 wanting to live the homesteading life. I wanted to move out to the bush of Alaska and live off the land. That was my childhood dream. I starte preperations for this lifestyle at age 10. I lived in the hot, dry, desert of the southwest in a fairly good sized city. I hated it. 

I got a chance and moved to AZ up in the mountains. I bought a trailer thinking I could buy a small parcel of land move the trailer and live on it. That didnt pan out...but I did meet a person that would become my best friend. She had dreams of living and running dogs in Alaska. 

With in the second year we knew each other we had shared both of our dreams. She and I wanting a lot of the same lifestyle. We moved into a bush cabin out of Fairbanks in 96. We lived there for the first yr with good and bad. We had 3 full weeks of 70 below weather. I took advantage of it by going camping and chopping wood. We already were hauling water, using an outhouse, and hauling in heating fuel that we had to pump into the tank... The propane for the stove froze. We ran dogs to 30 below mostly thinking the icefog for them at 40 below and lower wasnt good for their lungs. She left after the first year. 

My daughter and I found another smaller place for us and our 12 dogs. We moved into a 8x20 travel trailer with a small add on. 3 inch walls at 60 below is kinda chilly. We lived here for about a year and a half. I got a job to pay for this place and was then transfered down to the anchorage area. I bought the place that Im in now. 

I am back on the grid (yuck) and have 2.5 acres. I just had about a quarter acre cleared this summer to put in a garden for next yr. Up until June of this year I had 30 free range chickens. I had a wolverine come visit that killed all but 7 of them.


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## Copacetic (Oct 18, 2008)

Our family is from Arkansas. We moved three years ago to Idaho to work. We are moving back to Arkansas next week to live on a few acres of heaven. We will garden, chickens for meat and eggs, Nigerian Dwarf goats for milk and dairy products, guinea hogs for meat, and as soon as we can, we will be off-grid and well water. Almost 12 years of planning and we are just weeks from the implementation of our plans. Wish us well and good luck to all in their endeavors.


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