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Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?

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Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?

#171

Post by jethro_tell »

User23 wrote: post #162
jethro_tell wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

where are you going to get a farming job that pays the same as tech without also feeding the corporate beast?

They exist. I know several small farmers who are HNWIs in the low 8 digits, not counting their real property. I'd say that's comparable to what you'd expect someone in tech to accumulate over around a 30 year career. They achieved that through a combination of savvy, connections, and growing relatively high margin niche crops instead of trying to compete with corporate gigafarms. But it's extremely hard work, and dep…

This can absolutely be done. But it's hard work and you have to be very self-sufficient. I've done quite well for myself with my farm as a side project but I can weld, program, do HVAC, mechanic work on out machines, pluming and building upkeep. Then you also have to be able to farm, and to top that off, you have to be ready to work when it's time, which is not unlike tech but you also won't have a backup for your oncall rotation.

I spent Christmas afternoon in the snow digging drainage ditches around a new field after a water retention pond burm broke and started washing seed out of the field. Because it was so wet, we couldn't move any machines into the field so myself and father in law dug the basics by hand with shovels around the whole field.

It's not just something you do cause you watched a YouTube video. It takes a certain type of person. It's not unlike bootstraping any other startup.

Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?

#172

Post by auslegung »

maxduckworth wrote: post #68
auslegung wrote: post #31

We’re planning to buy 10-20 acres about 30 minutes outside the city, have a few animals, have a large garden (0.5 acres probably), but I intend to keep my job. Our goal is to produce something instead of only consume, reduce our dependence on a supply chain that we think is untenable, and be able to grow most of our own food should we need to. We’re going to focus on growing food that’s easy to grow. I expect this wi…

That seems like a great model for the modern world. What is the food that's easiest to grow?

It depends on the region. I don’t know much yet, but I’d like a lot of perennials that way it’s less to plant every season. But it might be the case that perennials take a lot of work, idk.

Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?

#173

Post by auslegung »

dkrudy wrote: post #64
auslegung wrote: post #31

We’re planning to buy 10-20 acres about 30 minutes outside the city, have a few animals, have a large garden (0.5 acres probably), but I intend to keep my job. Our goal is to produce something instead of only consume, reduce our dependence on a supply chain that we think is untenable, and be able to grow most of our own food should we need to. We’re going to focus on growing food that’s easy to grow. I expect this wi…

That is a good middle ground, but be ready to drive for SO MUCH more of your life. I grew up this way, and now, live in a city, where I'm engrossed in my whole life, except my job is 30 minutes away, out into the country. 1. You'll be shocked how much planning it takes to accomplish any little task. You'll need to plan days or weeks in advance in order to not forget to get little items that will keep your progress go…

My job is remote so no commute, and we plan to homeschool. We’re going to start small, like a 10 sq ft garden lol, then get bigger slowly each season so we don’t get overwhelmed. Once we get to a place where enough is enough we’ll stop getting bigger and just maintain. We’d like to eat only our own food but we realize that’s more work than we want, so we’ll supplement with what local farmers are growing and butchering.

Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?

#174

Post by foxyv »

A lot of the appeal of a homestead/van/tiny-home life is learning that you can live with less. We don't need the fancy car, the restaurants, the grocery stores, the movie theaters, the bars, or the modern traps. When I watch a homesteader I'm filled with a bit of relaxation "They can do it so I could too!" "I don't NEED this job!" "If it all falls apart I'll still survive."

But in the end, you are giving up a LOT! We may not NEED it, but we sure WANT it. The hard part is letting go of those attachments. But in the end we need to be realistic with ourselves. Did we give them up because we want to be free? Or are we just chaining ourselves to a new thing that we don't love.

Homesteading is inefficient, dirty, painful, unhealthy, and stressful. Most fail horribly. Even among those in history who were do or die, a lot starved or froze to death trying it. The common factor among those who succeed is planning and MONEY. Most successful farms and homesteads start with huge quantities of money that they bleed profusely in the first couple years before becoming profitable. To succeed without money means hustling for every dollar and working 16 hour days 7 days a week.

Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?

#175

Post by ptomato »

tjic wrote: post #50

I made the jump 8 years and 3 days ago. (In fact, I wrote books about it https://www.amazon.com/Escape-City-1-Travis-Corcoran/dp/B093... and https://www.amazon.com/Escape-City-2-Travis-Corcoran/dp/B093... ). My first two years were full of buyer's remorse. I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I had expected, the work was very hard, I felt incompetent, I missed my friends back in the metropolitan area, and I missed out…

> farmhands to install fencing and clear an overgrown pasture, etc.

farmhands _decrease_ the buyer's remorse?

Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?

#176

Post by jethro_tell »

he_is_legend wrote: post #169
jethro_tell wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same could probably be said for software. You can't make any money homesteading software either. Get a half rack 22 u servers, install the os (set up a pxe boot server and golden images plus a bootstrap script). Build out your storage, app server database server, load balancer, write your app, get customers, do support, fix bugs, release features. You could probably break even with a well targeted market and not…

I get your point (i think), but people don't need software. Software is great to have and enhances life to no end, but you could live without it. They do need food though. Why does working to make software pay so much? Yet working to make food pays so little?

Honestly? Because anyone with a strong back can make food but it takes time and education of some sore to make software.

The same could be said with medicine. Everyone needs medicine as much as food but one makes significantly more money.

Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?

#177

Post by cko »

ranprieur wrote: post #167

I tried homesteading too. All I ever wanted in life is to have nothing to do all day, and homesteading is the opposite. It's for workaholics, and also for people who love driving. And I don't think it will help you survive in a collapse. Here's a piece from 2004 that I mirrored on my own website, Urban vs Rural Sustainability by Toby Hemenway: http://ranprieur.com/readings/urbanrural.html

Hey Ran, been reading your site since 2005ish. Since then I went from wanting to be a homeless monk hippy to actually being a semi-retired city dweller.

Thanks for all the insight. I revisit your essays periodically.

Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?

#178

Post by raxxorrax »

It depends on the size of your property and how much you like gardening I guess. Maybe I am lost in translation but I understand a homestead to be a farm of some kind that is remote of anything else. I do very well believe that to be a lot of work. I would have opted for a smaller village or suburb to have easy access to infrastructure.

If you are not happy, you might want to sell. Are you living alone or with your whole family? There certainly is still a world between homestead and city.

To make a farm work isn't really a side job and it would take a lot of hands.

Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?

#179

Post by tjic »

caeril wrote: post #149
tjic wrote: post #50

I made the jump 8 years and 3 days ago. (In fact, I wrote books about it https://www.amazon.com/Escape-City-1-Travis-Corcoran/dp/B093... and https://www.amazon.com/Escape-City-2-Travis-Corcoran/dp/B093... ). My first two years were full of buyer's remorse. I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I had expected, the work was very hard, I felt incompetent, I missed my friends back in the metropolitan area, and I missed out…

Woah, I had no idea you posted on the Orange Site. I can also highly recommend tjic's Escape the City. Even if you don't actually homestead, the recipes and tips on workshop/garage organization are fantastic. And if you like Heinlein mixed with Vinge, Powers of the Earth is also quite good.

LOL, yes.

I'm a coder, ran my own "startups" (small businesses, no VC, no hypergrowth) from 2000 to 2014, my .emacs is thousands of lines long, etc.

TY for the positive reviews of my books!

Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?

#180

Post by cko »

keiferski wrote: post #113
elliekelly wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

https://wwoofusa.org/ ?

Also workaway.info. One summer I participated in two consecutive ones - one in Romania, one in Austria.
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