I'm gonna become A mountain hermit!

[southernstyle]

Well maybe not A hemit but self suffecient anyhow.

I've been unemployed for about 5 months now and when the unemployment checks ran out and no hope for A job within 100 miles I started selling firewood, or trying to anyhow. I always dreamed of having some land and farming it for food and A little money for taxes and such.

With A stack of credit cards gone default and in my mid 30's that dream seems hopless right now. I need land is what I need. Unrestricted so I can farm and do all of the other things god intended us to do. Land is 15,000 per acre average here and I'll have to sell alot of firewood to get the money up for that.

I basically want to live without the cares of "Owing" money or having to store my utility trailer because the homeowners association dont like it in the drive way.

I sure could use some good ideas here..

 

[ericjeeper]

You have joined the wrong site

Ain't nary a soul here that thinks about saving money.. All we do is buy more saws and more saws..
And that would be a Hermit . We are a bad influence here, very bad for pocket books.

 

[beerman6]

marry a rich old broad...

 

[Windwalker7]

I feel for you man! Wish I had some advice or some kind of answer, but I don't.

The way they economy looks right now, there will be many others in your shoes. They say "misery loves company" I just know that everyone is in this boat together.


Harder times are yet to come for many folks. God bless us all!

 

[sawinredneck]

It's only going to get worse I am afraid!!
A couple of years ago I would have told you to sell the house and buy the land and what you can with that money. But if you have a home owners association, and are in you're mid 30's, I imagine you owe more on it than you can sell it for in todays market, so no love there.
Firewood sales is all fine and dandy. I do the same for extra money, I also do handy man work. I have some skills. Problem comes when the guys that have no skills have no money!! And the guys that want wood have no money either!! It's getting VERY close to that right now around here!!!
I do have the land to go to, and the means to support it, but I don't think my wife would like that option, and she isn't willing to give up her job yet, nor will I ask her right now!!

 

[ktmsooner]

Have you ever heard of Dave Ramsey?opcorn:

 

[southernstyle]

My wife grew up in the sticks here in the north georgia mountains. So knows all about cooking on A wood stove, churning butter, and A pretty good mechanic too. She cant eat chicken and taters every day like me though, she wants taco bell or wendys sometimes but I think she would do well.

Every penny I can save I'm gonna stick back for A piece of land so we can have that one day. Only sad thing is acreage gets more costly each year..

We have several up scale subdivisions here that I am targeting to sell firewood. Most of them can afford it but just crank up the central heat. I want to convince them they need to save money and burn wood in there fireplaces...

Only time will tell how the economy will turn out, this weekend is "GoldRush" festival here in Dahlonega, Ga. we usually have about 200,000 city folk up lookin at the nik-naks and feasting on local grub. I'm curious if the economy is gonna hamper that...

 

[sawinredneck]

Look at the "upscale" apartment complexes as well. They typicaly buy the bundles of wood. Talk to the manager and set up a time to GIVE away a small pickup load of wood. I know this sounds crazy, but give a bit of wood and a card. Disscus with them that you would be more than happy to sell partial loads, but it would be cheaper for them to go in with their neighbors and buy in bulk for one delivery charge.
Then when they go home and burn you're wood, verses the crap they have been burning, be ready for you're phone to blow up!!

 

[stihlaficionado]

IMO you have to develop skill sets that are flexible enough to weather the ups & downs in life; economic & mental. Over the years I've worked both ends of the spectrum :as a professional and manual labor. The last 12 years have been spent working in a trade. I've had to move many times because the jobs available in the area were crappy.

In all that time the ability to roll with the punches has served me well.
That and many a choice words :censored:

Mark

 

[Crofter]

Do a google search on The Caretakers Gazette. There are a lot of caretaking positions where people want someone to occupy seasonal homes etc. Usually not a lot of pay unless putting up a supply of wood or some livestock maintenance is involved but free housing for a few hours work a day or keeping the roof shovelled etc. in snow country. Makes some good reading anyways

 

[stihl sawing]

Yeah, That would be a lot of peoples dreams. But like most it will never happen because most don't know where to even begin to live off the land. You gotta be durable and have a lot of patience to grow things and do it well. But i would love to try.

 

[StihltheOne]

Have you ever heard of Dave Ramsey?opcorn:

+1

 

[blizzard]

i hate to say it but you aint gonna get rich by sellin wood. most any other paying job would probably pay more if you can find one. wood selling is just not profitable (or at least in my opinion)

 

[ktmsooner]

Go to Dave Ramsey.com and check it out. It works, not a lot of fun at first, but worksopcorn:

 

[lh3]

cut losses

sounds like you need to cut your losses and move to an area with jobs... there are places left in the U.S. that have and will be buffered against economic downturn.

 

[A. Stanton]

Southern, you hit the nail on the head. Land is key. I like most wish we always had more. My advice for you would be find a nice chunk that is distressed with some wetlands or a piece of junk house/shack. Live in that shack until you can build a better place. Then once you have the better place built, rent the shack to some other dude, until you made your first million. Don't give up on that land idea, you are so right. You will be in atv/huning heaven. Without trying to sound like a hi-brow, read Peal Buck's the Good Earth. It's a novel about pre war China. The main story is about a peasant who stumbles about a cache of jewels and becomes a big time land owner/farmer.

 

[mtfallsmikey]

Dave Ramsey..cool

Kramer...idiot

Since I've been thru 2 divorces, retirement/wealth is not going to be in the cards for me, but I've managed to keep a small chunk of the family land. Go after that dream, young buck!...better to try and fail, than not try at all.

 

[Dale]

VERY FIRST thing you'll want to do is get away from an area that land cost $15,000 per acre... WOW. Here in SW PA you can get land in the $1,500-$2,000 an acre range.

 

[chainsawaddict]

Your thread reminded me of something that happened to me in third grade. I actually remember this really well. All of us kids were supposed to bring in a picture and cut our face out and then paste it on a picture we would draw of ourselves doing what we wanted to to when we "grew up." Kids drew firefighters, pilots, football players, you know, the usual. I drew a picture of an old shack and me carrying one of those sticks with the hankerchief holding my stuff. The teacher couldnt believe it. He asked me what I was going to be and I said, "I wanna be a hermit."

I was in the counselor's office for the rest of the week during recess. I stuck to my convictions and am pretty sure that by the end of the week the counselor wanted to be a hermit, too.

Good luck to ya, and keep the dream alive!!!:greenchainsaw:

 

[slofr8]

Problem with owning land is once you get it they just keep on raising the taxes until the locals with local jobs can't afford it.
I'll do whatever I have to to keep what little land I've managed to buy but it sure gets frustrating.
A very interesting series of books on living off the land is the Foxfire books. I've picked up a couple from Amazon. I believe it started out back in the '70s where a high school teacher had his kids interview their grand parents about their life. VERY interesting. I've read a few of the stories to my kids just to give them some perspective.
Good luck.