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

https://www.cargill.com/story/the-worlds-farmers-are-aging-r...

Nobody wants to be a farmer anymore because of government policies that not only attack farmers, but also spread misinformation against farming.

In the near future, maybe 3-5 years we're going to be forced to spend money as taxpayers to create farmers. The problem is... we've done this before in other industries and it made things worse. There's a 0% chance this will work for farming.

This is set in stone just from a country average. The number of boomer retirees cannot be displaced with workers. Afterall child labour laws etc. Which means we've known about this worker shortage for ~15 years now.

Germany(-4%), Russia(-5%), and South Korea(-6%) are already impacted by this worker shortage. Canada(3%) and Japan(3%) are right on the cusp of starting the problem. The USA, UK, Italy, Spain, France will be a little bit more.

If we do nothing, Germany will be -23%, Russia will be -24%, Canada -11%, South Korea -26%. USA is projected to basically just stave off worker shortage.

You might ask, 'but isnt that happening now' LOL no, not even close. What we need to do, and what Canada is doing. We are basically letting in any immigrants at all. ~400,000 per year. We have a province, PEI which has 140,000 people. We are bringing in multiple provinces worth of people every year to help stave off the worker shortage.

So you know what the homesteading movement is about? It's about creating farmers. You were manipulated.

My recommendation, figure out how to make it easy/automated. Vertical farming, aquaponics, whatever.

We grow some fruit and veggies, tinker with the property, trying to improve a little here and there, leaving it in a slightly better state for the next generation (We live here as my wife's family has been living here quite literally since the dark ages; when Columbus wore diapers, my wife's ancestors had already tilled this plot of land for at least a hundred years)

I'd go nuts if it was all I did, though - farming is lonely, hard work. I'd much rather do engineering. Different strokes, &c.

The main thing people on the internet leave off is that you have to a) be okay with isolation/alone time, and b) you will work every day of your life.

We set out to make a plot that is as self-sufficient as possible (internet, water, and about 1/4 of our electricity come from the grid still, all other inputs are from our land). It took most of the two decades to get to a point where we can breathe. That doesn't mean 'not work' that means that we aren't doing backbreaking labor as much anymore.

It's the call of the pastoral. People have such rose-tinted glasses about the past and how people lived then. It was hard, dirty, and short.

If you don't find pleasure in the work itself, for the sake of itself, maybe consider a change. That doesn't make you a failure, it makes you practical. Learning is part of it. I learned that I like working with my hands more than I like working in an office. I also learned that it doesn't pay the bills.

If you're different, you're different. So what?

That being said, if it's just the social aspect, find people around you to do things with. We share labor with our neighbors. It's nice because it provides much needed help with the work, and it provides a social aspect. But one thing that holds true, is that, if you are in a really rural area, people tend toward being alone. That's why they live there.

Comfort is the issue.

Hard times create strong men Strong men create good times Good times create weak men Weak men create hard times

It seems like there are lots of interesting projects and ideas out there that can help you with "keeping plants alive", maybe some of these can lift some weight of your shoulders?

Maybe you can automate watering some vegetables by using Arduinos and electronically controlled valves and sth. like that. That could free up time which might improve your quality of life?!?