Homesteading

Post Reply New Topic

Another thread, along with years of wanting to do this, has prompted me to set up this topic.

Has anyone here seriously considered the idea of homesteading? Has anyone actually done it? If you have done it, how has it worked for you? Does anyone know of any good places to do this?

I have always wanted to try homesteading. I'm not going to try to explain the topic here, just Google it. I have actually created spreadsheets on what I would need to do it, along with the cost of everything. It's a very large temptation in a world that seems to be getting harder and harder to understand.

Do the words google and spreadsheets not go against the principal?

Homesteading and being a total luddite are not the same thing.

It's seemed to me to be a wonderful idea, yet one of those things that's nigh impossible. To get the amount of money required for land enough to live on, I'd need to work for a very long time at a job that pays better than any I've ever had, and then even if your little farm is totally self-sufficient, you've got to run some kind of money-making business off it, to pay the taxes.

I've thought about sheep, though. One might sell the fleeces online without having to deal with anybody.

I sort of kind of do it. We've 40 acres - goats for meat and milk, chickens for eggs and grow all our own vegetables. I also hunt for meat.

Having a family means some compromises on how self-sufficient you want to go. If I was single I could be a lot more primitive.

The great advantage from an Aspergers point of view is the relative isolation.

Before we went down that path it was years of saving and reading heaps and heaps of books.

I don't know if anyone in the States seen a show here in Canada called Pioneer Quest: A Year in the Real West, it was on in 2000 and showed how 2 couples made
the switch from the modern day to living in the 1860's, it was very interesting for me because my moms family were settlers in the same area as that show

Because of the expense for land, I think an intentional community would be more feasible. I have spent a lot of time asking around a bit and looking at ic.org, but I have yet to find a few other folks to help get one going.

Do you think there are a dozen Aspies anywhere who might be able to communicate and get along well enough to try?!

I would definitely try doing it, although for some reason the thought of trying it with people I don't know makes me think of Jonestown with kool-aid waiting at the kitchen table...

I have seriously considered this. The individual aspie would only need a couple acres to grow food and raise chickens and turkeys. Larger animals require grazing lands, which drastically increases land costs. I think that if you exclude grazing animals (cows, sheep, goats) you could get by with as little as a half acre to an acre of land, slashing your land expense. Pigs require less land, but are extremely labor intensive to raise and slaughter. My grandfather was a homesteader in the 1950s, when everybody else was flocking to the suburbs he homesteaded on two acres of land, and with him, his wife, and his daughter (who moved out at 18 ) he didn't use all of it. He taught me most of what I needed to know. I think that with the decline in America's society and economy that people will move out of the cities and back to the land as they did during the 1930s. With solar and wind power, and improvements in diesel generators, you could be totally independent of the grid. The sad thing is that most people would have no idea how to grow their own food or raise chickens, if the grocery stores were empty they'd panic. And eventually the grocery stores will be empty.

I live in an area with multiple intentional communities (minus the Kool-Aid, as far as I know), as well as lots of Amish and Mennonite people. Dancing Rabbit offers people the chance to stay with them for short periods of time to get an idea of how intentional community living might work out for them. There are also hermitages around the United States, just for your information. I am not that radically anti-people myself.

I must admit that the idea of an intentional community of like-minded people, as of the variety that are encountered here, is very tempting. Perhaps it is not relating well to most of humanity that draws me towards this idea. A group of people that recognizes that fact might just communicate better, and more rationally and honestly, than a group of people who agree on "getting out", but not much else. I don't really know.

There is something both alluring and practical about the idea of living off the land. I suppose there is a way to do a little of both, while still participating in "society". I mean, there's no law against raising your own food, living in a home fueled by solar and wind power, and still working at a job in town-- is there? All-the-way self-sufficient would be best, but I suppose there is a way to compromise a little. I just admit to wanting to know about everything, and the idea of being totally self-sufficient really plays into that desire. I am glad that there are other like-minded people here.

This is what Weird Al has to say on the subject:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE45AIfervg

This is pretty much my lottery-win dream, retreating to a big house, probably just outside a small town, with a group of like-minded people. I think I would be quite content to grow vegetables and raise chickens, but I'm not sure I would be prepared to depend on it as my only source of income.

My partner, who is as interested in medieval architecture as I am in costume, would love to build a castle and run it as a function venue/tourist attraction, but I'm not sure how I would go with that level of human interaction.

I'd loooove to do something similar to that, but on a smaller piece of land. Maybe sort of like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex2ye2AZR2k

And this, I love this: http://www.simondale.net/house/

I would love to live self sufficiently but using modern technology to make things a lot easier and efficient.

Make sure you find a good piece of land. And that it's in a place with very low property taxes. Otherwise your land must be income producing just to pay taxes.

Also, successful homesteading actually requires a good amount of social skills as you'll need to rely on neighbors from time to time.