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Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?
111–120 of 188 posts
Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?
#112Something I've noticed among the "successful" youtube homesteaders is that they almost all invariably have property "in the city" that they rent out (generally unseen, usually unspoken, and always off camera) for significant passive income and treat homesteading like a virtuous hobby. Many of them also have side hustles like giving paid talks on homesteading, renting out "farm experiences", or offering classes on var…
> Something I've noticed among the "successful" youtube homesteaders is that they almost all invariably have property "in the city" that they rent out (generally unseen, usually unspoken, and always off camera) for significant passive income and treat homesteading like a virtuous hobby.
Another thing is that the most successful ones are making a bunch of money from their YouTube channels. So how self-sufficient can that path really be? You can't really say "anyone can do this!" if you're relying on hundreds of thousands of subscribers for passive income. This kind of gets at your last point, that it smells like a pyramid scheme.
I think it's best to view most YouTube homesteaders as entertainment, and not take it too seriously as a "how-to" manual. There are other sources for that. Homesteading can be done, of course, but it doesn't look like 30 minute clips.
Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
What you said about the work required to keep buildings from degrading and the forest at bay is so true, but it's something you don't realize until you live it. The other option I've been playing with is to treat homesteading like a hobby. Outsource all the non-core homestead work and insource the gardening, animal husbandry, etc (which is harder to outsource anyway), all while keeping a remote tech job.
I can’t for the life of me remember the name but there’s a site that’s kind of a Couch Surfing/Airbnb/Craigslist mashup where people can post a room or a property available in exchange for a certain amount of work each day/week/month. Some people will post a typical home for a week on the condition the occupant feeds and walks the dog while they’re away but a lot of the listings were for rooms on a farm in exchange f…
Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?
#114They were always going to pull away financially and socially, you chose a humble country life and they chose a vibrant city life. The reality of rural life is that it's filled with chores. Chopping wood, stacking logs, running the woodstove, making more of your own meals, DIY fixing: all this is not for everyone.
The other option is that you're comparing your life to others' lives. This usually doesn't end well, you only notice what they have that you don't.
Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?
#115Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've always said, the only people who think farming for a living sounds fun have obviously never farmed. It is more tenable if you have income sources so you aren't depending on farming for your dinner. If you are independent wealthy and can pay others to do all the farming for you, you aren't a farmer, you merely own a farm. It is a tough life. The best part is the half days, just pick any 12 hours you want to work!
Homestead may not work if you depend on your own farm for all of your food needs. However, I feel off grid life with solar, storage, EV etc. combined with a remote job and hopefully cheaper Satellite Internet in the future may work for a lot of people. If I lived in a scenic country I would've at least tried this lifestyle, but may be that is because I am inherently introverted.
I think you might be missing a lot of the amenities of modern towns/cities. Let’s ignore energy and internet/cell service.
* You’ll want to live close to a grocery store.
* You’ll want to live close to doctors —- not only hospitals and ambulances but also any specialist you or someone in your family mind need.
* You’ll want access to tradesmen/craftsmen. Plumbers, auto mechanics, carpenters, electricians. Things break, can you fix everything?
* You’ll want some degree of liquidity in your property. Selling a house in a town is way easier than selling a house 50 miles from the nearest town.
Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
What you said about the work required to keep buildings from degrading and the forest at bay is so true, but it's something you don't realize until you live it. The other option I've been playing with is to treat homesteading like a hobby. Outsource all the non-core homestead work and insource the gardening, animal husbandry, etc (which is harder to outsource anyway), all while keeping a remote tech job.
The same can be said of large houses. They look fantastic and wonderful but many people don't think about the scale of maintenance. A smaller/modest house can have it's roof replaced for $4500...that fancy house down the street: $25000 for the low-ball.
Heck most people won't even figure in the extra cost of electricity for a larger home, never mind understanding upkeep is a fairly consistent fixed cost that’s proportional to the size of the home.
Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?
#118I have flirted with the idea of homesteading, but I always felt a hybrid approach would be a better way of doing things. You are on HN, so I assume you have some kind of tech knowledge.
Perhaps it's too late for you, but this is my plan, and maybe this will give you some ideas is
- Continue working my regular job remotely (money stability, not going all in, can use money to deal with problems on the homestead side)
- Plant fruit trees (low maintenance, high yield once they are established | fruit/lemons)
- Have chickens and maybe rabbits (low maintenance, have to feed them and that's mostly it | eggs/meat)
- Bees (low maintenance | honey)
- Plant a garden during spring with things I like
In essence I think that going full time self-sufficient farmer is a cool sounding idea, but that's not what I want to be dedicating my time on. I rather be less dependent on others, but knowing that I won't be mining for iron to make my own tools.
So my suggestion would be, pull back a bit, it's obvious you are not enjoying it. Find a job you like that is remote. Remove high maintenance things, focus on low maintenance or enjoyable homesteading things. Then you can add something "harder" once you are used to the current workload. Or make enough money to hire someone to do the things you hate...
Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?
#119All this assumes that you’re in roughly my spot—software engineer who lives on more land than you know what to do with. (We’re on 100 acres, but most of ours, we just rent out to some guys for pasture and hay.)
I wonder if you’re seeing it as a rulebook. YouTube shows you 45 different projects, and so your mind says that you have to do all of them, now.
If food security is your concern, start with something manageable and move on once you’re done. If you want chickens, don’t think at all about goats or cattle. Just build the best darn chicken enclosure you can, raise some hens, and enjoy the eggs. Only once you’re satisfied you can keep that routine do you think about taking the next animal on.
Exhibit B: our temptation was to build a gigantic garden, because we could. That flopped because it’s really hard to weed that when you’ve got a toddler and a baby and a day job. This year? Small garden that we can keep up with.
What’s our agenda this year?
- Cover our cave so we can use it
- Find a place to store firewood to dry it
- Cut a bunch of it
Everything else is a nice to have. I highly doubt you’re depending on this, so don’t make yourself feel guilty just because someone on YouTube is in a season of life where they can do more.
Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?
#120I've just read the book:
https://www.ynharari.com/book/sapiens-2/
Which describes the journey of humankind through the ages. The author has an interesting take on farming in general, in that farming led to centuries of misery for most people...and that the time before farming when we were hunter/gatherers was a far better time for individuals. When hunting/gathering, people suffered less from disease (smaller communities = less chance of catching something bad), worked fewer hours in the day, and were not at the mercy so much of climate change - starvation wasn't a thing as your small band of people travelled to places of good resources. Knowledge was key here, knowing which foods you could and couldn't eat, skills in hunting, working as a team.
I'm not sure if it's possible to be a hunter/gatherer in a modern western country? Certainly not in the UK where I live as all land is owned by someone - I suppose you could try and "live off the land" by hunting wild game, fishing, in the US?