- MBTI
- INFJ
- Enneagram
- 4w5
Does anyone here have experience with homesteading or living on a small farm?
I find the idea appealing for several reasons, but I'm not sure how wise or feasible it actually is for me. The fantasy is to be partially self sufficient so that I could have minimal contact with others; maybe a monthly supply run or less often if possible. Living in the city has become increasingly awful, and I expect it will get worse.
So the problem begins with the cost. Land prices have been increasing quite a lot. I've spent a few days scrolling through landwatch recently, and even though I do not know much, I get the impression that many of those properties are lemons that someone picked up at their county tax auction and want to pass on to fools who don't know what they are doing (while making a substantial profit of course). If the advertisements talk about going "off grid" or whatever, that is a red flag from what I've seen because it feels like they are targeting newbs hopping on the trend. A piece of land could be in the middle of nowhere, no access roads, no electricity, no tillable soil, and they will be like "start your off grid adventure here" and want $10k per acre. Seems insane to me.
I guess at a minimum I would want electricity and decent access roads, and that leaves having a well drilled, installing septic, and building or buying a house. Some middle of nowhere places still have boomer HOAs somehow, and I've seen restrictions banning manufactured/mobile homes and requiring large square footage amounts. I don't have faith in my skills to build my own home despite encouragement from youtubers. So buying a piece of land, a single wide (or paying for a small house to be built), well/pump/etc., and installing septic would cost about the same as a small 1 bedroom condo in the city.
Saving up that money is feasible in the long term, but I worry that I wouldn't be self sufficient enough to make it worthwhile being out there (particularly in regard to food production). I don't have a good sense of the cost of raising livestock or growing produce, but from what I can gather, it could easily cause someone to bleed money. This is especially true if they have to rely on buying feed for the animals.
It seems like the only safe way to do it is if I had a ton of money saved up, but at that point its really just retirement with some potentially expensive hobbies gardening, raising animals, etc. And by the time that happens, I'm not sure my body will be in shape to handle the labor. I am also lacking in the skills I would need. I've started reading up on them, but realistically they would take years to acquire. I guess I'm curious if it would make retirement more accessible or allow me to retire much earlier than I normally could (if you count doing manual labor as retiring).
The bottom line is this is something I would look forward to if I could make it work. Right now I have nothing to look forward to, and spending the rest of my life shackled to a stressful desk job isn't really appealing. I want to get away from people and be somewhat of a hermit. Every year that passes I become a bit more misanthropic because of how awful people are to me, and I fear it wont get better.
I find the idea appealing for several reasons, but I'm not sure how wise or feasible it actually is for me. The fantasy is to be partially self sufficient so that I could have minimal contact with others; maybe a monthly supply run or less often if possible. Living in the city has become increasingly awful, and I expect it will get worse.
So the problem begins with the cost. Land prices have been increasing quite a lot. I've spent a few days scrolling through landwatch recently, and even though I do not know much, I get the impression that many of those properties are lemons that someone picked up at their county tax auction and want to pass on to fools who don't know what they are doing (while making a substantial profit of course). If the advertisements talk about going "off grid" or whatever, that is a red flag from what I've seen because it feels like they are targeting newbs hopping on the trend. A piece of land could be in the middle of nowhere, no access roads, no electricity, no tillable soil, and they will be like "start your off grid adventure here" and want $10k per acre. Seems insane to me.
I guess at a minimum I would want electricity and decent access roads, and that leaves having a well drilled, installing septic, and building or buying a house. Some middle of nowhere places still have boomer HOAs somehow, and I've seen restrictions banning manufactured/mobile homes and requiring large square footage amounts. I don't have faith in my skills to build my own home despite encouragement from youtubers. So buying a piece of land, a single wide (or paying for a small house to be built), well/pump/etc., and installing septic would cost about the same as a small 1 bedroom condo in the city.
Saving up that money is feasible in the long term, but I worry that I wouldn't be self sufficient enough to make it worthwhile being out there (particularly in regard to food production). I don't have a good sense of the cost of raising livestock or growing produce, but from what I can gather, it could easily cause someone to bleed money. This is especially true if they have to rely on buying feed for the animals.
It seems like the only safe way to do it is if I had a ton of money saved up, but at that point its really just retirement with some potentially expensive hobbies gardening, raising animals, etc. And by the time that happens, I'm not sure my body will be in shape to handle the labor. I am also lacking in the skills I would need. I've started reading up on them, but realistically they would take years to acquire. I guess I'm curious if it would make retirement more accessible or allow me to retire much earlier than I normally could (if you count doing manual labor as retiring).
The bottom line is this is something I would look forward to if I could make it work. Right now I have nothing to look forward to, and spending the rest of my life shackled to a stressful desk job isn't really appealing. I want to get away from people and be somewhat of a hermit. Every year that passes I become a bit more misanthropic because of how awful people are to me, and I fear it wont get better.
