Homesteaders

[rancher hicks]

taxes on my 15 acres are less than $60 a year, you dont need much room to grow enough for a family of four. I found this and thought it was neat , maybe not 100% accurate but it does give you a better idea instead of just randomly grasping for numbers out of the blue.

$60? Good garden o' peas. We pay more than that in just school taxes on our empty lot. Well treed lot and it's less than 2 acres. You certainly can make $60 Just in egg sales alone.

The map thing is a good idea and I suspect just meant to give you an outline. No one I know makes all there living without some sort of job.

Every successful rancher has a wife who works in the city.

Heck I'd be happy if half our food and living came from the land. Course we're in NYS and it's freezing. No way we'd survive without the grid.

 

[alldembirds]

yerp lucky me $60 , a dirt road goes across the very edge so the county takes off however much and I only have a tiny house right now, i live in one of the poorest counties in missouri, with some of the lowest taxes, My in-laws pay however many hundred for a half acre lot with a small house right across the state line

my wife does have an amazing job, but plans on leaving it once our homestead is finished. without that job we couldn't dream of even starting to homestead.

i dont worry about the cold, its easy to deal with , you can always bundle up more or build a bigger fire, I worry about the heat, you can only take so much off. I am already designing my next house, its going to be mostly underground to keep me cool.

 

[trsturself]

I don't enjoy the cold but I'm with you guys, easier to put more layers on. I couldn't handle the heat of AZ. I work down there pretty often and you don't even want to go outside during the summer. I couldn't live like that.

As for gardening I think that it is A LOT of trial and error. Just because you didn't have success one year, doesn't mean you don't have a green thumb. You just need to try something different the next year, and probably the next year, and the year after that, and then you'll have it down and you'll move and have to start all over again, like I did. LOL

We have a large house on 5 acres. There's no way we'll ever be able to not work. That would be ideal but it's just not gonna happen. We will be selling stuff just to help offset the cost of the stuff we are doing, we aren't hoping to make a profit. But if we can come close to breaking even then that's better than paying for everything out of pocket.

 

[wyoDreamer]

yerp lucky me $60 , a dirt road goes across the very edge so the county takes off however much and I only have a tiny house right now, i live in one of the poorest counties in missouri, with some of the lowest taxes, My in-laws pay however many hundred for a half acre lot with a small house right across the state line

my wife does have an amazing job, but plans on leaving it once our homestead is finished. without that job we couldn't dream of even starting to homestead.

i dont worry about the cold, its easy to deal with , you can always bundle up more or build a bigger fire, I worry about the heat, you can only take so much off. I am already designing my next house, its going to be mostly underground to keep me cool.

Have you looked at the Earthship homes? They are pretty neat, I love the atriums at the entries. They have a lot of neat concepts.

 

[RichnSteph]

Have you looked at the Earthship homes? They are pretty neat, I love the atriums at the entries. They have a lot of neat concepts.

I lived in New Mexico for a time and got to see the community of ES homes out there...... Great concepts, amazing ideas, awesome use of discarded tires and cans and things.. but they were really really weird people. Think hippies in teepee type housing environments. Oh I'm a firm believer in what they advocate but what you see on the web is vastly different from the actual homes. I do believe that a properly set up and maintained ES is the way of the future but not showering for weeks at a time, no personal hygiene, dread locked hair because you don't want to "kill seals with shampoo waste" , cleaning their backsides with their hands because "paper kills the rain forest" and the overall smell of those folks revolts me.

I kind of went on a rant there, my apologies.

 

[wyoDreamer]

From the little info I have found online about the actual people, they did seem a bit beyond me in desire to save the environment. I like the concepts that they integrate into the buildings.

I love the house that we just bought, but if we were to ever build a new place I really want to incorporate a lot of passive solar and energy conservation into it. Maybe, after I find a job, we will buy some hunting property and get a chance to build a cabin.

 

[rancher hicks]

yerp lucky me $60 , a dirt road goes across the very edge so the county takes off however much and I only have a tiny house right now, i live in one of the poorest counties in missouri, with some of the lowest taxes, My in-laws pay however many hundred for a half acre lot with a small house right across the state line

my wife does have an amazing job, but plans on leaving it once our homestead is finished. without that job we couldn't dream of even starting to homestead.

i dont worry about the cold, its easy to deal with , you can always bundle up more or build a bigger fire, I worry about the heat, you can only take so much off. I am already designing my next house, its going to be mostly underground to keep me cool.

Poor IMO is subjective. Wealth can not be measured in dollars and cents. If it can be why are so many folks with lots of money so sad? Why do they look to drugs and other vices for satisfaction? A person can be content with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Point being? Are you poor? That depends on your perspective. Success IMO can't be measured in $$$, but in how content you are to have what you have.

1Ti 6:6
But godliness with contentment is great gain.

I don't enjoy the cold but I'm with you guys, easier to put more layers on. I couldn't handle the heat of AZ. I work down there pretty often and you don't even want to go outside during the summer. I couldn't live like that.

As for gardening I think that it is A LOT of trial and error. Just because you didn't have success one year, doesn't mean you don't have a green thumb. You just need to try something different the next year, and probably the next year, and the year after that, and then you'll have it down and you'll move and have to start all over again, like I did. LOL

We have a large house on 5 acres. There's no way we'll ever be able to not work. That would be ideal but it's just not gonna happen. We will be selling stuff just to help offset the cost of the stuff we are doing, we aren't hoping to make a profit. But if we can come close to breaking even then that's better than paying for everything out of pocket.

I lived in New Mexico for a time and got to see the community of ES homes out there...... Great concepts, amazing ideas, awesome use of discarded tires and cans and things.. but they were really really weird people. Think hippies in teepee type housing environments. Oh I'm a firm believer in what they advocate but what you see on the web is vastly different from the actual homes. I do believe that a properly set up and maintained ES is the way of the future but not showering for weeks at a time, no personal hygiene, dread locked hair because you don't want to "kill seals with shampoo waste" , cleaning their backsides with their hands because "paper kills the rain forest" and the overall smell of those folks revolts me.

I kind of went on a rant there, my apologies.

These dirty people, are why I could never embrace that type of living. I recall a neighbor saying to me once and I never forgot it, "It's one thing to be poor, it's another to be dirty".

Not using paper won't save the rain forests. It is sad that things are what they are, but you have to have some measurable data to show just how effective what you do is.

Point: The CNY Cat Coalition works to trap, spay/neuter and release feral cats. The measurable data is less and less feral cats. I worked delivering mail in the city and saw less and less feral cats. So they are having an effect.

Now not using paper does nothing to stop what is happening in South America. Petitioning those in power to work toward stopping what is going on will have more of an effect, IMO. Of course if you go to them smelling like an outhouse, you're not likely to convince them to see things your way.

I think plastic is a bigger danger than paper products. Recycling has an effect. They could have recycled newspapers to wipe their butts. It would have been cleaner and reduced the uselessness of cutting down trees or whatever I mean.

Plus if you know history you know that much of the death and disease of the past was due to poor hygiene. Of course there are those who go to extremes. Still that is no reason to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Just so you know, you are effective. Your being here helps me to have an ear and you teach me things. Friends are always together in spirit.

 

[alldembirds]

Poor IMO is subjective. Wealth can not be measured in dollars and cents. If it can be why are so many folks with lots of money so sad? Why do they look to drugs and other vices for satisfaction? A person can be content with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Point being? Are you poor? That depends on your perspective. Success IMO can't be measured in $$$, but in how content you are to have what you have.

sure I should have said the lowest income county, your off point, the point of the comment was our taxes reflect the demographic here.


@wyoDreamer earthships just arnt for me, even though i am one of those dreadlocked hippies that everybody is spitting on right now., I prefer the hard lines of a more modern house and toilet paper than those things. I already have it mostly drawn up

 

[wyoDreamer]

As I said, I like some of the concepts of the house. I wouldn't want to own any of the ones I saw on the site, I do like my modern conveniences.
I have worked out my dream house also. DH wants to do a concrete house - I like the insulated concrete form walls. No air infiltration and a lot of mass to moderate temps.
I would like to do overhangs to shade interior during high summer, but appropriate overhand to let in any winter sun that is possible, with a mass wall painted dark to gather any heat possible for the house. I love the atriums at the front of the house. My dreamhouse will have two greenhouses on the front of the house, with a mudroom area between. They both will be stepped down at least 3 feet so the beds will be raised to the floor level of the house, with a window between the greenhouse and the house for light. The kitchen will be located behind one of the greenhouses and the other will be in front of a study. The front door will open into the great room with a high efficiency woodstove/fireplace in a mass wall at the back. The stairway will be behind the fireplace wall. Upstairs will be a sitting room along the window wall and off that the upstairs bedrooms. Above the greenhouse will be a porch, so the roof will be stepped back from the front of the house. The back of the house will be partially earthen berm to help conserve the heat. It will have windows down low to let a breeze in and windows up high to let out the heat.

I wish you luck in achieving your dreams and building the house you want.

 

[rancher hicks]

sure I should have said the lowest income county, your off point, the point of the comment was our taxes reflect the demographic here.


@wyoDreamer earthships just arnt for me, even though i am one of those dreadlocked hippies that everybody is spitting on right now., I prefer the hard lines of a more modern house and toilet paper than those things. I already have it mostly drawn up

I was trying to cheer you a bit's all.

One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the
express purpose of showing him how poor people live.

They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"

"It was great, Dad."

"Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked.

"Oh yeah," said the son.

"So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father.

The son answered:

"I saw that we have one dog and they had four.

We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end.

We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.

Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.

We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.

We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.

We buy our food, but they grow theirs.

We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them."

The boy's father was speechless.

Then his son added, "Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are."

Isn't perspective a wonderful thing? Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don't have.
Appreciate every single thing you have, especially your friends!

"Life is too short and friends are too few."