Your assessment is correct. There are just no days off, even if you’re a hobby farmer like me. Nothing wrong with cutting your losses.
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?
#92Something 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…
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.
Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?
#93I'm a full time Iowa farmer. And not an "alternative" farmer, a John Deere & rows of corn type.
Unless you have:
A) an existing land base big enough to support you (in my area, that might be 500+ acres) and the knowledge and equipment to farm it,
B) a niche market for a rare farm product that you can charge exorbitant prices for, or
C) preexisting wealth (which can maybe get you item A),
you're not going to get ahead financially by homesteading. The business model just doesn't pencil out. Doubly so for any sort of animal agriculture. The market (both inputs and outputs) is driven by commercial farms, and you're trying to compete with that market from a wildly disadvantaged starting position.
Homesteaders I know also tend to be rather unfocused in their plans. They want to grow 15 different kinds of food, build everything they need from scratch, learn how to do a dozen different jobs, and take care of all the various maintenance around it all. That's fun when it's a hobby, but exhausting when you're trying to make a living off of it. And ultimately the work you're doing for yourself and the money your saving are usually the equivalent of minimum-wage-type jobs; having a basement full of home-canned garden produce is a point of pride, but it's not like the price of grocery store frozen peas was making up a significant fraction of your monthly spending beforehand.
Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?
#94As other have asked, it would be nice to get some clarification a bit on what exactly do you mean by "homesteading?". Did you buy a full blown farm and are now keeping cows? Is there a specific reason you didn't want to move to countryside but still keep your tech-job remotely?
I can share some of my own experience, as I'm a second year bee-keeper and CTO with around 16 years of experience. So I've chosen to share my life between a excellent tech job & a city apartment and a country side house (2 hour drive from my apartment).
We decided to start bee-keeping with my wife two years ago because we both felt the need to be in the nature. And bee-keeping has really been a great choice because it doesn't need your attention 24/7/365. During the ~4 winter months we have here in Estonia, I barely go there, maybe 2-3 times. So I still have the freedom to travel or pursue other hobbies if I'd like to. And during the sprint - summer - autumn, I only need to be there once a week which also isn't a fixed day, so I can play around my work schedule nicely. Sometimes I even go there during workdays and just do some remote work from there, in the middle of the woods where the only sounds you can hear is wind blowing and birds chirping. I'm obviously there a lot more than that, but this is the bare minium, this is the "I HAVE TO" and if the weather sucks or I'm busy otherwise, I don't have to go more than that.
And even though it's sometimes physically hard and tiring, it has had a enormous positive effect on my life. Doing something with your own hands that you can see and touch is a very different kind of happiness than the one my work offers me.
But all this comes with a "but". I mostly grew up on the country side, even more so, I'm actually keeping my bees at my grandmothers house (where she no longer lives due to her age) where I spent most of my summers during childhood. So I knew what was waiting for me regarding up-keeping the house & land.
What I'd suggest is to do the things that make you happy not the things that others are doing. If you don't like the physical work, don't do it. If you'd just like to enjoy nature, just get a cabin the in woods where you can go from time to time.
I'm in a lot better place with my good paying tech job and half-time bee-keeping because I also have the funds to invest into the house & land and make it more livable for the future. If I would have just quit my job and moved there full time, I'd be struggling to make the ends meet, let alone actually build houses there and develop the place for the better.
Tools, resources and materials (wood, metal, sand, gravel etc) and help from professionals all cost money. It's a lot easier to earn that money in tech than with farming. But in case the society as we know it today collapses, I still have the skills, tools and land to live off, but it hasn't yet, so no point in going full off-grid yet.
Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?
#95> I can't help feel frustrated when I watch my friends in the city enjoy all of the comforts it offers and seemingly pull away from me both financially and socially.
I'll add this: you could have posted the same comment (minus "in the city") were you living along side them. It's easy to cherry pick your successful friends and compare yourself to them, regardless of your current situation in life.
I would instead compare yourself today to yourself ... 5 years ago. Then consider where you want to be 5 years hence.
Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?
#96Something 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…
One of my favorite YouTube channels is an off-grid homesteader in the UK. I once thought the idea was compelling, but watching the incredible amount of work this guy has put in over many years has discouraged me, as has the toll it took on his body. Plus, he is massively more competent than I am at just about everything: he built a hydraulic post holer and a log miller from scratch, built several buildings, planted thousands of trees, miles of fence, built and installed a hydro-electric system, and so on. And even with all that work, the smallholding isn't self-sustaining—his real income is building hydro-electric systems for other people (and YouTube I suppose).
Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?
#97I had a large property which I then put goats on, and having the goats was a highlight of my life. Sadly, they were a tragedy as well. Both of the boys got block urethras and the girl was a feisty liability (I was the only one that could interact with her before she got aggressive and started fighting people).
I have a lot of respect for people that do homesteading, but it requires making hard decisions if you involve animals.
I was gardening as well, and I love the hands in soil. However, it is back-breaking work for marginal gains.
The only thing I do recommend is finding a balance between what you desire in life versus what others are doing. Comparison is really the thief of joy. If you can find meaning in the labor, then it is great. As hard as it was to take care of two sick goats for years, it was meaningful.
Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?
#98What is homesteading? Never heard of it.
In a nutshell: living "off the grid" and growing your own food. Basically pretending like you're in the 1800's.
Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?
#99Here's the thing....long family history of farming row crops and raising cattle. What is shown on YouTube by these popular channels isn't real life. They don't have the camera strapped to their heads 24/7. They are showing what they know will get them eyeballs....and that's the fantasy world.
You nailed it it is a crap load of hard work. It is soul crushing trying to save a newborn calf and having it die in your arms. Have had it happen numerous times and it does not get any easier. Have seen hundreds of acres of crops destroyed in 30 seconds from a weather event. Stress is real and it sucks.
Re: Ask HN: Did I make a mistake jumping on the homestead bandwagon?
#100It sounds like you romanticized homestead life if you find that lifestyle "soul crushing". As with many things, it's about the journey, not the destination.
If you expected to do homesteading stuff for a couple years and then 'retire' in some garden of eden, I suspect you are realizing that will never be the case. The homesteading life (or at least why I chose it myself) is about personal fulfillment in managing the land and animals, the DIY and semi-self-sustainable aspect of it and the freedom that comes with privacy and your own space.
Becoming truly self-sustaining and self-sufficient is incredibly difficult these days. Good luck to you.