The First Time Homesteader Part I, II, III

The First Time Homesteader

By Ken Davison

In the 30 years that we have been homesteaders, we have probably made every mistake in the book, at least once. This was partly because there was no "book". Our parents were not homesteaders and by the time we had questions, our grand parents were gone. With nobody to teach us, we had to learn the hard way. The old timers called it "paying fool tax". We write this for "first time" or "would-be" homesteaders, in the hopes that you won't have to pay as much "fool tax" as we did. The best place for anyone wanting to become a homesteader is to start is right where they are now. Even while living in the city, working a 9 to 5 job, many of the necessary homesteading skills can be learned, and once learned, put into practice. Your situation will place limits on what and how much you can actually do. While raising goats may be out of the question, raising a few tomato plants and herbs in pots on a window sill is a definite start.

By learning how to live more frugally, you will be better able to save towards someday getting your own piece of land. Perhaps you choose to buy produce when it is at it's cheapest, in mid summer, and home can or dry some for your food storage? Go to produce sellers and ask if they have any produce that is too bad to sell. Often produce is damaged in shipping and cannot be sold, but is still perfectly usable. Vegetables with a small spot of spoilage can often have this section removed and the rest be just fine. Often the produce seller will give you these vegetables for free, or at very low prices. The food can then be reclaimed, dried, frozen, home canned or eaten fresh. The bad parts can be fed to any chickens that your space might allow, or if nothing else, could be used as compost for your plants. For "city compost", run all the bad plant parts through your blender with just a little water, and then pour the "slurry" around your plants.

Start now to buy things used, but in as good a condition as possible. Visit yard sales and flea markets. If you have the space, start gathering the tools that you will need once you move onto your homestead. Begin to simplify your life now and start selling off things you no longer use, making more room for the things that you will want for homesteading. The best place to buy many homesteading tools is actually in the city, where they are not as often used. Read as much as you can about homesteading skills. In short, make your preparations while you are still "stuck" in the city. If nothing else, it will help to make the time go by faster, and the time spent working on your homestead plans can become a small island of sanity where you can renew your spirit. Eventually the day will come when you can start to really live your homestead dreams. Where you look for land may be determined by many things; family, friends, employment, climate and land prices. Unless you have your heart set on one particular area, check land prices all across the country. You may be pleasantly surprised at how cheap land is in some parts. Recently, in Florida, (not known for cheap land), we saw one 20 acre piece sell for only $400.00 per acre.

What should you look for in a piece of land? One of the most important things to think about and look for in a piece of land is water. Having a good water source can make or break a homestead. You may not only want to check out annual rainfall in a area, but also how deep the water table is. Most well drillers can give you a pretty good idea how deep the water table is in a given area. While it is sometimes possible to gather enough water to run a frugal household with rain water catchment (such as a cistern), having water for livestock and irrigation is more difficult. Natural springs and year round streams are a big plus when looking at land. Before you buy the land is a good time to try to find out about any problems that may be present with the water. Do some of the local wells dry up in summer? Are there unwanted minerals in the local water? How does the water taste? What about pollution in the ground water?

The deeper the water table, the harder it is to pump the water to the surface. The "pitcher pump" will draw water only about 20 feet. Deep well pumps are available in manual and electric power. People who are new to homesteading, and are coming off of "public water" systems, need to reeducate themselves to the realities of where water comes from. A low capacity water system, already in place, doesn't necessarily mean rejecting a piece of property; but people should acknowledge that solving water problems on the homestead cannot simply taken care of with a call to the local utility company. The property that you may be looking at may not have adequate water for your needs, and it is up to you, not the seller, to determine this. We simply cannot stress enough how valuable an adequate water supply is on a homestead.

The next area for concern is access. Access simply means a way of getting to your land. There are at least two possible problems with access. One is: does the land have legal access? In many areas legal access is established, such as when a road or trail has been in use for a long time, but this is not always the case. Just because the seller was able to drive you to the land does not always mean that there is legal access. Almost all states have laws that make it unlawful to "land lock" anyone off their land, but the new land owner may have to buy "right of way" access at current market value. A slightly higher priced piece of land, with legal access guaranteed, may be less expensive in the long run than a lower priced piece would be without the access. With legal access, the electric company can bring power lines beside the right of way. Otherwise, you may have to go to your neighbors and ask them to grant the power company right of way. While most states have laws protecting people from being land locked, few require that power access be granted.

The second and equally important access problem is terrain. Swampy areas, steep hills, creeks that may swell during rains, areas of the land that are prone to flooding, or anything that may make getting to the land difficult or impossible, should be considered before buying. Unless you have priced building materials recently, you may be in for "price tag shock" the next time that you do. Any buildings or other improvements that are already on the land will increase its value. Maybe the old house is too rough for you to live in, but it might make a work shop or barn. Consider all improvements when looking at land, including how far power lines would have to be run in order to get electricity. If you plan on heating with wood, the size and quality of the wood lot should be looked at. Soil quality and places for gardens or pastures should be considered. The growing season should also be thought about before buying.

Even with hard work, climate does effect what and how much can be grown. The severity of winters and how hot the summers are might be considered. Other considerations are what the State and local laws might be that restrict the use of the land. You need to find out about these before you buy the land, not after. How fast is the area growing? Many more neighbors might effect local restrictions on land use, or more people putting in wells might, in time, lower the water table. If you are choosing the land as a permanent homestead, you might want an area that is not showing rapid growth. Any natural building material that is on the land might be taken into consideration.

Distance from schools, hospitals, shopping centers and the possibility for work may also need to be considered. Finally the price must be taken into account. Two very similar pieces of land can often vary greatly in price in the same area. By talking to the people already living in an area, it is sometimes possible to find land that is much below the price of what the Real Estate dealers are showing. Real Estate brokers work for a commission when selling the land. If you buy directly from the seller, you can often save this commission. If you already have some land that does not stand up to these ideas too well, then there are ways to work around many problems; but homesteading would be much easier without this extra effort. Stay tuned next time for Shelter and Animals...


The First Time Homesteader (Part II): Shelter and Animals

By Ken Davison

After finding a piece of land, shelter is the next thing that needs to be considered. If you have found land with a house already on it, or have enough money to have a house built, then shelter will not be too much a problem for you. If you, like many of us, are trying to build your homestead on a "shoe string", you still have many options. You could stay in the city and save money to have a house built, but it seems to be getting increasingly difficult to actually save any money, while living in the city. You can still save money, while living in the city, but you will need to apply all your homesteading skills towards living in the city in a frugal manner. You might decide that you really need to get out of the "rat race" environment as soon as possible, in order to maintain, or regain your sanity.

Spring is the best time to make the move to your new homestead. You will then have the whole summer to get prepared for the coming winter. Used travel trailers, converted school buses, (we have lived in our converted school bus on several occasions, for up to 8 months, and while it is a bit small, it is still "home" when the need arises) and large tents are all possibilities for temporary housing. Be aware that some areas won't allow you to live in one of these on your own land, while you are building a required "to code" house. This comes under knowing what restrictions are on the use of the land (even if these restrictions are not being enforced, they can be). It is better to find these out before you buy.

For example: Laurie, my wife, once bought a small plot of land that already had horses on it, to keep her own horses there. A neighbor complained to the county and it turned out that there was a county law that forbid having animals on property that did not have a dwelling on it. Because the land was in a "100 year flood plain" (once every 100 years it might flood) no dwelling could be built there. Laurie could not use this land for the purpose that she had bought it. She was unable to even sell it and let it be foreclosed.

AYou can also build your own dwelling. I did this when I first moved to my land In Arkansas, and while it certainly was not easy, it sure beat staying in the city any longer. Areas that do not require building permits and state inspections will be less expensive and move a lot faster, than those that do. Also money can often be saved by using alternative types of construction, instead of blindly following "Code". Our house in Arkansas was not built to code, nor is the place in Florida, but both are strong and snug. (Please read my articles on alternative construction, such as the one on "ferro-cement"). In a few areas that allow alternative construction, the electric company may not put in power to non-code houses (thus you will have to get "off the grid" and use alternative power sources; which is really not at all difficult, and works our much better in the long run anyway). Some areas may require that a septic system be put in before construction is started. We recommend your looking into all this before you start to build your dwelling.

Much of the in-doors time on the homestead is spent in the kitchen, and the homestead kitchen should be designed to handle all of the tasks that might take place there. Big sinks with large work areas will help make the homestead kitchen more practical. Unless you are buying an already existing structure, think about how you are going to heat and cool your house while you are designing your plans. Your house plans should suit your location. Arkansas has hard winters and mild summers, but Florida has mild winters and hot summers. The optimum house design for one area may not be the best for another. New homesteaders will also need storage space. Vehicles that are not being used can be turned into temporary storage. We bought a old, not running school bus with the seats removed, for storage. When I first moved to my land in Arkansas and badly needed storage, I trimmed the limbs off several small trees, bent them and tied them together to form a dome shape, which I then covered with a sheet of plastic. Fast, cheap storage.

Animals are another area where many new homesteaders run into trouble. One of the most often made mistakes is getting animals before the housing and pens for them are in place. We have done this ourselves and it almost always resulted in stress, extra work and sometimes damage to our garden or fruit trees. All of which could have been easily avoided by having the animal housing and pens ready before we brought the animals home. One idea that we have come up with over the years is "the universal pen" that will hold everything from a cow to pigs, goats to chickens. This is the "holding area" for livestock, while we build real pens and housing for them. Pens and fencing that will not hold animals is a continuing aggravation, so take the time to build yours extra strong from the start. If you plan on holding animals that might try to dig out of a area, you might want to bury the fencing. For animals like goats, that may try to jump out of a area, make your fencing taller than you think you will need. The old saying goes "Never enough time to do the job right, but plenty of time to do it over." I have been guilty of this.

Another possible problem is buying animals and then having with no proper way to haul them home. We once loaded a 410 pound steer into our poor old V.W. mini van and have made too many trips with pigs, chickens and goats in our car. Not only was it messy, but on occasion, down right dangerous! Driving with a goat going wild in your lap can be hazardous to your health! At most auctions, there is always somebody who will haul animals to your homestead, for a price. But after you have paid the hauling fee, the price of the animal is often no bargain. One simple idea that seems to work, if you only have a car, is to outfit a small trailer with a stock rack and use this when you have to haul animals.

Another area that can cause problems is that many animals grow to a very large size. That cute little pig can grow into a 600 lb. porker and that little calf into a huge steer or heifer. It is wise to think about how you would load and transport one of these animals once they've grown up. Fencing that once held the young animals might not hold the full grown adults. We once had a moderately sized boar pig that used his tusks to snap "chain link" fencing until he had a hog sized hole. Animals that were once family "pets" can turn mean. Our boar had been really friendly (he would go for walks with me, like a dog and even played with our dogs) until we loaned him to our neighbors to breed their sow. We don't know if they mistreated him or what, but he was never as friendly or nice after we got him back; and one day, for no apparent reason, used one of his tusks to open a three inch long gash in my leg. Old friend or not, he went into the freezer the next day.

Getting too many animals is another mistake many first time homesteaders tend to make. There is a kind of balance one must seek. It is just about as easy to take care of a few animals as it is to take care of only one. You have to feed, water, house and clean up after one, and the work load is not much higher for a few more; but once you pass a certain point, the sheer numbers can cause problems. Where only a few animals may be willing to stay in a pen, a larger number will often try to escape. Feeding and watering can become dreaded chores, when you have too many animals. Because each kind of animal requires different care and maintenance, having too many different kinds of animals can cause problems. We have found that it is best to start with one kind of animal and once they are set up well and everything is running smoothly and gradually add another kind to the homestead.

Chickens are about the best place for the new homesteader to start. The basic question in chickens is do you want them for meat or for eggs. This is often a bit over done by new homesteaders. "Meat" birds will lay eggs, but not as many or for as long as "egg breeds" and you can certainly eat a "Egg Breed", but they won't produce quite as much meat. It might be good to start with a breed that will work well for either, such as the "Rhode Island Reds" or the "Barred Rocks". These are both heavy birds, but are pretty good egg layers. You may or may not have predator problems. We had to completely enclose our chicken yard to keep the hawks off our chickens, because I don't like to shoot hawks, and besides, it is unlawful to do so in many areas. A solid, tight closing coop will go a long way in keeping your birds safe at night.

A few words about goats. People either love goats or hate them. (I think that many of the people who love goats secretly hate them.) Goats are one of the most perfect animals for the new homestead, where a pasture has not yet been established. Goats don't even like lush pasture grass and prefer to eat briars and bushes. They will help you to clean off the land of low growing brush and tree shoots as well as briars and black berry vines. They will also make sure that your grape vines are well pruned back and that all young fruit trees that you may have planted are carefully "de-barked". Goats are easy to care for and usually stay healthy, if they can forage for some of their own food. If your goats can't forage, you can cut brush, tree shoots and briars to add to their food to keep them in good health. If your goats are otherwise well fed, you can throw in all sorts of brush and the goats will decide what is good for them. A starving goat might eat something that is not good for it, but a well fed goat will never make this mistake.

We raise comfrey as a medicinal herb (used for poultices) and is also an excellent goat food supplement. They give a milk that is easier for many people to digest than cows. Goats, hoever, can be hard to keep fenced in. In Arkansas, with neighbors a safe distance away, we fenced the goats out of the garden, which proved easier than fencing them in a goat yard. Here, the number of goats seems critical. One goat is lonely and unhappy and often will run off, seeking after it's own kind. 3 or 4 goats form their own society and seem very happy. Once you get above 4 goats, they seem to know that they have you out numbered and tend to just look for trouble. But maybe it was just our goats that acted this way. Goats can jump like deer and all you need is one "jumper" in the group to inspire the rest.

Rabbits are pretty easy to raise, but after having to buy the store bought food for them, I am not sure that they are the best "for the money" meat source. If you are careful, you can start them on greens from the garden and gradually increase the percentage of garden cuttings. Rabbits can catch disease from chickens and should be kept away from them.

Pigs can turn garden waste and table scraps into meat and you still get the fertilizer back. Pigs are smart and can easily be taught to come when you call, simply by calling to them in the same way, each time that you feed them. After they have learned to come for food, if they ever get loose, it's quite simple to round them back up again. If you live in a rural enough area, and your pigs can "free range" and forage for part of their diet, you will do even better. If your pigs ever get into a neighbor's garden, it can strain even the best of relationships. "Hog panels" (16' sections of hog proof fencing that come in two heights--we always buy the tall, because they will hold goats too) sometimes can be used to move your pigs around and the pigs can be used as "organic rototillers" to root up stumps and prepare the soil for planting. To encourage pigs to root out stumps, bury some corn under the stumps. They root up (loosen) the soil, apply their own fertilizer, and if you feed them fully ripe tomatoes, watermelons, and other seeded fruits, they will plant their own garden seeds for you. (Their rows are not too straight though!)

"Pot Bellied Pigs" have become rather common now and they can often be bought for much less cost than regular pigs, because most farmers don't want them and most people don't think of them as food. Many now available are not the pure Vietnamese Pot bellied pigs and many of these will have an adult weight of 100 to 150 pounds. We really like this type of pig for the same reason that they were popular in their home countries. They are just about the perfect size for home butchering and have as good a flavor as any pig. Butchered at 6 to 8 months of age, they are of a size that almost any homestead could easily handle. And yes, they do make good pets, but so do regular sized pigs. Free foraging pigs usually are good to have around, and especially if you live where there are many poisonous snakes, because the pigs like to eat them.

While my wife doesn't hate goats, her preference is a milk cow. A good cow can give between 2500 and 3500 quarts of milk a year and will produce about 30,000 pounds of high quality fertilizer. As with goat's milk, cow's milk can be turned into butter, cheese and cream. You will need some good pasture, as well as hay and grain during the winter in order to keep a cow, because, unlike goats, cows can't live on tree shoots, black berry vines and briars. Cows are usually easier to keep fenced than goats and one cow doesn't seem to get lonely by herself.

Unless you have previous experience, first time homesteaders should perhaps not try to have horses. Horses cost as much to feed as a cow and are prone to even more diseases. Most new homesteaders will not have the time to make the most use of a horse when first starting out. At first it might be wise to have only animals that will give you solid returns for you money and labor. Once the homestead is running smoothly may be the best time to think about horses. One last thought about animals: When faced with a new situation involving animals that we don't have an answer for, we ask ourselves, "What would happen in the natural state, if man had not stepped into the picture?" In other words, we try to look at what would be the most natural answer and try to apply it to our question.

In nature, the weak quite often do not survive. While we try to save all our animals, using herbal remedies and antibiotics, we yet realize that the value of many farm animals does not justify the cost of a trip to the veterinarian. New homesteaders need to, early on, make the distinction in their own minds, that only a few of their animals can economically be considered "pets", the others should be food producers, or be considered food themselves. One of the reasons for being "homesteaders" instead of "agribusiness farmers" is that the homesteaders can treat their animals in a more humane and natural manner. Another good reason is that children can become aware of the cycles of life and where and how food is actually produced.

While it may be easier to eat one of the first animals that your that you have raised, by sending it to the commercial butcher and having it come back in neat little packages, we feel that every homesteader should learn how to do their own butchering. For faint-hearted people, the easiest way may be to buy a small animal (chicken, rabbit, duck, etc.) at the livestock auction and bring it home and butcher it, so that they do not have the time to get attached to it. The first one is always the hardest. If one can't humanely kill and butcher his own animals, rather than having someone else do the "dirty work" and thus subjecting animals to the trauma and callousness of the slaughter house, perhaps he should consider becoming vegetarians. Another point is that it is only on "faith" that you can trust that the meat that you get back is actually from your own animal, or that it has not been tainted in any way, or that you are even getting back all the meat.


The First Time Homesteader (Part III): Gardens and "Country Manners"

By Ken Davison

The garden is another area where new homesteaders often have some problems. The tendency is to try to have a lot of every vegetable known to man in the first few gardens, or to have more of one vegetable planted than the family can possibly use. Our advice is to plant a reasonable amount of the variates that your family likes and then experiment with small patches of varieties of vegetables that you might like to grow more of later.

To combat disease and insects, etc. we plant only part of our seeds early. Several weeks later, we plant the rest in a different section of our garden. Example: In our part of the country, cucumbers and squash, without chemicals, will give us a good early crop, but the plants are susceptible to lots of disease factors. When the early plants show signs of stress, we pull them and plant something else there and start picking from our second planting.

Often the soil won't be ready the first year to produce a perfect garden. Building the soil up organically can take years and many truck loads of manure and compost, but by returning the plant material to the soil as compost, the organic quality of the soil will continue to improve. We favor organic gardening for health reasons and the organic fertilizer does not leech out of the soil as fast as the chemicals do. When we returned to our land in Arkansas the garden had been fallow (unused) for 17 years. After clearing the trees out of the old garden, we found that the soil was still rich, full of earth worms and produced a lush garden. If the first garden does less that you had expected and hoped, try not to be discouraged. While it is true that if you want to save seeds from your garden, you should use non-hybrid seeds; the seeds from most hybrids will reproduce, but they will not be the same variety as the parent plant. Most hybrid tomatos will revert to the "Cherry tomato".

Many books mention planting various plants to attract wild bees to your garden; unfortunately, most of the wild bees are now dead, due to mites. It is estimated that 98% of the wild bees in this country have died at this time. Because many plants need bees for pollination, even if you do not have the equipment or desire to harvest the honey, we still strongly recommend get at least one hive of bees as soon as possible. Many people have written to us, asking why their corn has so few kernels on each ear. We think that this is because the corn is not getting well pollinated. In the past we have had great corn crops, but now ours is also not turning out too well. We are getting bees this year. When you get your bees, you can get some cheap medication that will protect them from mites. If you still have any wild bees in your local area, you might want to set out medicated sugar water for the wild bees.

Perhaps the first garden should be kept simple, with just the basic vegetables and not attempted as too huge a project. Each year the size of the garden can be increased, without the work load of trying to do it all in the first year. Having several, smaller gardens might help to cut down of pest problems. The first year is likely to be the most difficult, and everything that you can do to make it easier will help.

Here I want to talk about something that few people mention. I call it "The Hump". Unless you find a old farm, with a good house, well, septic, fencing, outbuildings and a garden just waiting for you to put plants in it, (places like this exist more in the imagination that they do in reality) you are going to be waging an uphill battle to get your homestead running smoothly. For a time, it may seem that for every two steps forward that you make, you are forced to take one step back. Nothing seems to be getting done soon enough and everything costs more than you had expected. You know in your heart that your homestead is not yet anywhere near what you want it to be and at times it may seem that it never will reach this point. There are more things that need done "Right now" than there is time or money for. But, at some invisible point, if you keep the faith, you will pass "The Hump" and things will start to run smoothly. Once you are past the "Hump" each project will improve the quality of your life.

Depending on what you started with, (bare land, land with a dwelling, etc.) getting past the "Hump" can take from a few months to up to a couple of years. Many first time homesteaders get discouraged and give up before they get past the "Hump" and so never really know the joys of homesteading. During this time, the "grass" may start looking "greener" in some other part of the country and some homesteaders may think about moving. On my first homestead, in Arkansas, it was the second year before we got past the "Hump". Our first house was so drafty and cold in winter that it was the second year before mice would even move in! From then on things got easier. One day we realized that we were comfortable, that there were no projects that couldn't wait, and that we could take the time to go fishing without feeling guilty. We were past the Hump!

It is good to try to get along with your "country" neighbors. In many very rural areas "Country manners" are not the same as "city manners". It is polite to announce yourself before walking up to the door of a rural house. Call out and let people know that you are there before approaching a dwelling. "Snooping" around a rural homestead is also a bad idea, unless you like looking down the wrong end of a shotgun. Only people who are up to no good snoop around without permission. Walking up a homestead with a firearm in your hands is also very impolite. In many rural areas of the country, the practice of "blood feuds" has only recently died out and is still in practice in a few areas today. Your rural neighbor will be no more pleased to have you come up with a firearm than you would be if you opened your door to a armed person in the city. If you are hunting, with permission, and need to talk to a neighbor, lean your gun against a nearby tree before approaching the house. Ask permission before you hunt on other peoples land. If you ask, most often you will be given permission and the farmer may even tell you where the best spots are to find game.

If (when) your neighbor's livestock get into your garden, etc., try not to react in an unreasonable manner. Tell the neighbor about the problem. If it continues to occur, you might even offer to help repair the neighbor's fence for them. If nothing else, your acting in a reasonable manner and making such an offer might shame them into keeping their animals home. Sooner or later, it will be your animals that are in a neighbor's garden. If a neighbor's dog attacks your livestock and you have to shoot the dog, (it is best to NOT shoot a neighbor's dog) that is usually the end of the matter. Take a photo of the damage and the dead dog and then bury the dog and don't talk about it. If there are ever questions about why you shot the dog, you will have the proof. It is considered incorrect to shoot a person's dog and then demand payment for the damage that the dog may have done. If you want to try to get reimbursed for the damage, try to catch the dog and return it to the owner when you make the demands for damages. If you think that law enforcement should be called, try to have the dog confined when they arrive, as proof that it was the dog that actually did the damage. Otherwise, it may be your word against the dog's owner. Generally, there are few interpersonal problems that are not made worse by calling in the police. In some cases, however, it can't be avoided.

Native, rural, country folks will think differently from you. Few people will talk about this, but it is true none the less. "City" people tend to think about a lot of "abstract" things and real "country" people don't think very much in the abstract. You may notice this before you have been too long in a real rural area. Of course there will be many people that are "transplanted" city folk in your area, who will think more as you do and you will be able to get your "intellectual stimulation" from talking to them. You will get some of your best advice from the older locals. In many rural parts of the country, it is customary to offer to food any people who happen to be at the farm at dinner time. This custom stems from really hard times in the past, when many people had nothing to eat. The locals may not really want you to stay for dinner, or even like you well enough to invite you to dinner, but they may ask anyway. It is polite to say that you have dinner waiting at home, etc., but thank them for the offer. If a rural neighbor is at your house at dinner time, you might ask them to stay for dinner. Almost always, they will decline, but they will know that you are good folks for asking.

When you go to a rural neighbor's to buy, trade or borrow, don't jump right into business. Take the time to talk about how they are doing, the weather and crops, etc., before broaching the subject that you came for. In many areas, it is considered good "Country manners" to visit a bit before doing business. Most business deals in the country are done "on a hand shake" and the "deal" is not sealed until you and the other person shake hands. Once you shake, the deal is DONE. You need to be sure that the deal is to your liking before ever shaking hands. Many rural folks are shrewd "Horse traders" and will certainly try to get the best of the deal.

Another custom is "haggling". Trading and selling is not just business in the country, but also recreation and you take some of the fun out of it if you don't at least try to talk down the price a little, even if the price seems very reasonable from the start. This may not be true in all areas, but in areas that still have a lot of "old timers" it is. If you borrow something, try to return it promptly after you use it and always return it in as good, or better condition, than when you borrowed it. If you break something that you have borrowed, fix it, or get it fixed before returning it. If you can't afford the repairs on something you want to borrow, should it break, don't borrow it. Bargain shrewdly, but try to treat your local neighbors fairly.

If you think you have good knowledge and ideas about ways of doing things (building, raising livestock, gardening, etc.) don't try to tell your rural neighbors what they are doing wrong. Show them by doing it right on your own place. Nothing sells like success. Do not expect your rural neighbors to be any more receptive to the concept of "homesteading" than many of your "city" acquaintances, even though the rural folks may be applying many "Homestead" practices. Most country people have been working for years to have more of the "uptown" conveniences and many have not experienced true "city living" or its down side.

Farming equipment is usually one of the big investments for new homesteaders. There is still a lot of really old equipment (tractors, disk harrows, plows, hay balers, etc.) out there that can be had for a low price. While all of this old equipment was built to last for years and much of it still works, finding parts for some of this stuff is next to impossible. It is a good idea to check around for spare parts for a particular piece of equipment before you buy or trade for it. A lot is simply outdated for big farming, but could be used by the homesteader just fine. (Example: the older type of hay bailer that makes the square bales.) Now most large farmers use the round balers and the old type can often by had for very little, compared with just 10 years ago.

Unless the price is so low that you can't loose, check out spare parts for equipment before you buy. In our area of Arkansas there are many old tractors sitting around on homesteads that have broken some part which is no longer available. Remember that the local folks are shrewd traders and may be selling/trading something because they know that no parts are available and the equipment may be about worn out. It may be better to have less equipment, or smaller but newer equipment, with spare parts available. Carefully consider if you really need to own a piece of equipment before you make the investment. It may be more practical to hire someone to come in and do what work you want done using their equipment. We have never needed a tractor for our homestead, making a truck or 4x4 do most of the work instead. Instead of buying a rototiller, we apply the organic fertilizer to the top of the beds and let the rain water carry it down to the plants, just as mother nature does it. We also mulch as heavy as possible and the mulch turns into fertilizer with time.

Income, once you move to a rural area, may not be as high as what was available while in the city. Often the pay rate is lower, driving distance may be greater and local work may be scarce. This should be taken into account when thinking about land and other payments. What may have been an easy to make payment on in the city, may turn out to be unrealistic in a rural area. While it is true that once the homestead is more or less complete and running smoothly, much of the day to day costs of living will be lower, but this won't happen over night. People may be faced with lowering their "standard of living" until the homestead is more complete. Taking an overload of debts to the homestead is most often a bad idea. If people will apply the concepts of homesteading while still working and living in the city, they can usually cut their expenses and begin to pay off outstanding debts.

There is a great deal of knowledge needed to become really successful homesteaders and this won't come over night. Don't expect to ever know it all. Many times it is necessary to begin a project while having incomplete knowledge and learn while "doing". While one can certainly learn a lot from books and talking to other people, many of the situations on your particular homestead will be different and adjustments will have to be made. Learn all that you can before starting a new project, but don't let the fact that you don't know it all stop you. Mistakes will be made along the way. The old timers called this "paying fool tax". My old grandfather always said, "Boy, there is nothing wrong with making a mistake, but try to never make the same mistake twice. Why make a mistake twice, when there are thousands of brand new mistakes, just waiting to be made?"

When Laurie first started homesteading, she and her (then) husband made a "five year plan". This was a "mind set" that helped define priorities and helped with the feeling that things were not happening fast enough. Some people have the attitude that unless something can be done perfectly, they won't do it at all. These people seem to seldom accomplish very much and very few are homesteaders. Just do the best that you can and don't dwell on the mistakes. Homesteading is not an "destination". It is a "journey"...Enjoy the journey!

[rubybeetle]

Great article! I love the part about the goats. We have two pygmy goats, they mostly drive me nuts but I'm glad we have them.

[Taggart]

Wow, there's lots of great information there. Some of it I can identify with, having grown up on a farm.

I know there are tough times when homesteading, but I imagine that there's a great amount of gratification that comes when things are going well, even aside from the practical reasons described in these threads.

[ACCER]

Outstanding article! I printed it out ot show some friends who don't have a computer. A lot of it sounded familiar having grown up in a rural area. But it was still great to read.