Any Homesteaders out there in chainsaw land?

[sawjunky23]

Hey gents,
Any homesteaders out there? I know a lot of great guys on this site and wanted to see if any of you have gone thi route? I know a lot of you are big gardeners and farmers. Any of you doing the organic, offgird/semi-off grid, or solar thing?

 

[zogger]

I tried to back in my 20s but after several years improving a cabin and the surrounding woods and lot, the owner of this big spread wouldn't actually sell me the place. He offered a 99 year lease, but I just moved out instead. I grew over 90% of my own food, cut all my heat and cooking wood by hand, did extensive "ruth stout" method gardening, maple sugaring, all that stuff.

Where I am now, after a large amount of time living and working back in town, getting hurt, losing all my equity I had in a house, etc, I am back to living in someone else's cabin on their land and working for them. I am semi retired, and work part time, albeit 7 days a week. We'll see what happens if/when I can't work much anymore. He said I could stay here forever, but my past experience with millionaires is..they are salesman, say whatever it takes to make a sale and everything is a sale to them.

Be that as it may, I do have some solar now, a two panel and do-dads array, and a past larger experience with solar and alt energy though. And back in the day, ton of friends in the ole hipster back to the land movement and stayed and helped at a variety of farms and communes and whatnot. It was cool, and much fun. Cut a lot of wood with mostly old heavy saws and hand split even more. Hard work, but still nifty. Much less legal BS and permits back then to move onto raw land and go for it.

My biggest regret is not ever locking in land ownership back when it was cheap.

My fondest memories are getting to live a lot of places that people pay big bucks to just go on vacation for a week or two. That and all the beautiful hippie girls back then. Man..just man. Yep....

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

Hey gents, Any homesteaders out there? I know a lot of great guys on this site and wanted to see if any of you have gone this route? I know a lot of you are big gardeners and farmers. Any of you doing the organic, offgird/semi-off grid, or solar thing?

not living off-grid... nor homesteading... but definitely living with a pioneering focus! well, at least to my way of thinking... the old homeplace is still on my place... 'the bunk house'.... I have renamed it: The Off-Grid Cabin... probably built in the late '30's or early 40's... still dry inside... sits back off the old farm road for the area... now long abandoned fully grown over... I filled in the drive off of it, it runs along a fence line down into one of my woodlots... and makes a turn to the R over seasonal creek via a bridge. bridge long gone... but still some of the old timbers and some of the metal fasteners remain in the bank. one has to know where to look... sometimes I just stand there looking at the old road... I can still see the Ford Model A's driving along it... no doubt a T truck or two... as well... loaded with bales of cotton ~

 

[sawjunky23]

I tried to back in my 20s but after several years improving a cabin and the surrounding woods and lot, the owner of this big spread wouldn't actually sell me the place. He offered a 99 year lease, but I just moved out instead. I grew over 90% of my own food, cut all my heat and cooking wood by hand, did extensive "ruth stout" method gardening, maple sugaring, all that stuff.

Where I am now, after a large amount of time living and working back in town, getting hurt, losing all my equity I had in a house, etc, I am back to living in someone else's cabin on their land and working for them. I am semi retired, and work part time, albeit 7 days a week. We'll see what happens if/when I can't work much anymore. He said I could stay here forever, but my past experience with millionaires is..they are salesman, say whatever it takes to make a sale and everything is a sale to them.

Be that as it may, I do have some solar now, a two panel and do-dads array, and a past larger experience with solar and alt energy though. And back in the day, ton of friends in the ole hipster back to the land movement and stayed and helped at a variety of farms and communes and whatnot. It was cool, and much fun. Cut a lot of wood with mostly old heavy saws and hand split even more. Hard work, but still nifty. Much less legal BS and permits back then to move onto raw land and go for it.

My biggest regret is not ever locking in land ownership back when it was cheap.

My fondest memories are getting to live a lot of places that people pay big bucks to just go on vacation for a week or two. That and all the beautiful hippie girls back then. Man..just man. Yep....

I like your style Zogger.

 

[sawjunky23]

I just bought an acerage in the country after owning a couple places in town. I worked up a spot for a nice sized garden in the back lot, I also have plans to get some laying hens and a few rooster, I hunt, fish and trap a lot and eat a lot of game through-out the year. I have an interest in solar energy and may put up some panels in the future. I am not off the grid by any means as I plan to keep my electricity and indoor plumbing but I eventualy want to get set up so I could run without if need be. The funny thing with solar and wind energy is that many people pursued it to get away from being dependant on the government, so the government goes and gets their fingers in alternative energy. Seems no matter what a guy does to get away from them buggers they find a way to get you back under their thumb.

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

My biggest regret is not ever locking in land ownership back when it was cheap.

well, zogger - before you pine too much, remember: land was never cheap back when. land has always been very expensive! it's all relative to the times. $3.00/acre land very expensive when dozen eggs were 9-cents a dozen... gasoline 4-cents a gallon... I remember a guy telling me a tale of how his family came into their land; had been handed down several generations now. old great Grandpa had bought all those hundreds of acres... at the ungawdly, unheard of price of, why he had paid $6.00 an acre!!! beautiful grass lands and rolling hills in the Texas Hill Country just a bit SW of Austin, Tx.... and went way into debt. but he put the land to work and it paid itself off. but the rest of the family was in a tivy... at such a stupid waste paying so much for the land! lol..... the current market price for the land at the time my friend told me the story... was about $1,000 - 1250/acre... and they had 350 acres!! depending on grasses and other ag attrubutes. besides, forever, is forever... you might try to get that in writing... and free beats most deals hands down, even if u have to work for the free. I still subscribe to the ol adage that 'possession is 9/10ths of the law!' sounds like u got a good deal there. I don't like it when the amenities at my place fail, but always lets me meet up with a new challenge... makes me think up a new way of doing things... sometimes I call my place just another... KOA campgrounds... lol . please keep us posted! ....

 

[sawjunky23]

well, zogger - before you pine too much, remember: land was never cheap back when. land has always been very expensive! it's all relative to the times. $3.00/acre land very expensive when dozen eggs were 9-cents a dozen... gasoline 4-cents a gallon... I remember a guy telling me a tale of how his family came into their land; had been handed down several generations now. old great Grandpa had bought all those hundreds of acres... at the ungawdly, unheard of price of, why he had paid $6.00 an acre!!! beautiful grass lands and rolling hills in the Texas Hill Country just a bit SW of Austin, Tx.... and went way into debt. but he put the land to work and it paid itself off. but the rest of the family was in a tivy... at such a stupid waste paying so much for the land! lol..... the current market price for the land at the time my friend told me the story... was about $1,000 - 1250/acre... and they had 350 acres!! depending on grasses and other ag attrubutes. besides, forever, is forever... you might try to get that in writing... and free beats most deals hands down, even if u have to work for the free. I still subscribe to the ol adage that 'possession is 9/10ths of the law!' sounds like u got a good deal there. I don't like it when the amenities at my place fail, but always lets me meet up with a new challenge... makes me think up a new way of doing things... sometimes I call my place just another... KOA campgrounds... lol .

I was talking to an old timer not too long ago and he was saying how he bought his 1 acre lake lot for about $1500. He said he had the opportunity to buy 7 of them for the same price and said there was no way he could come up with that much money. I laughed as know a similar lot around here will go for $50-100k depending upon the area. I am not a fan of debt/paying interest but it seems all of the rich people I know today were people who were not shy about going into big debt and buying up land when they were young. My dad always told me when I was growing up that land was the best investment there was becasue they don't make it anymore.

 

[zogger]

Yep, land, ain't making any more of it..well, the chinese are building up islands, but for most folks, go to buy it somehow. Around here, acres are, now, around one year's pay for me. during the bubble, they were two years. yep, that expensive.

My boss, a geezer, generation older than me, told me he got started by welding and doing mechanics, and buying up trashed houses, scrapping the wood for resale, then resaling the now cleaned lots. 35 bucks for a "fixer upper" or "tear it down" house back then, late 40s.

Here I have multiple garden spots, small flock of chickens, a few ducks, a small orchard and some grape vines (all of that we built/planted), and a ton of rescue dogs and cats, my main hobby. Wood cutting and saws comes next. I take care of a small beef herd and do a lot of outside mowing during the season, that's my main job. winter I enjoy the wood heat and hibernate as much as possible! hahaha! Past few days has been bonafide winter around here, eeek, have I wussed out with cold weather over the years.

 

[sawjunky23]

Zogger,
What is "bonafide winter"like in Georgia? lol, It was 27 below zero with wind chill here yesterday, something like that?

 

[066blaster]

I would say now days it's harder to live "on grid" than off grid.

 

[sawjunky23]

I would say now days it's harder to live "on grid" than off grid.

Care to explain?

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

I would say now days it's harder to live "on grid" than off grid.

thank goodness for off-grid threads... lol

 

[066blaster]

I would love to just live out in the middle of nowhere and grow my own stuff to eat. (I do that now for a living ). What I mean is , we have to abide by all the rules and ordinances, pay electric, phone, grocery, Internet, satallite tv, keep our house up to code and looking proper, car insurance, registration, buy our kids nice clothes for Schools, (we have 7). Basically all the the responsibilities that come around every month,,Haul garbage to the dump once per week, in my area you could never live off grid, it wouldn't be allowed. My wife and I camped out for a week on some of my dad's vacant land and someone called the cops on us, thought we were squatters.

 

[zogger]

Zogger,
What is "bonafide winter"like in Georgia? lol, It was 27 below zero with wind chill here yesterday, something like that?

Low teens overnight, frozen ground, etc. We get single digits here usually every winter, and one to three snows. I have seen it below zero twice in georgia, but that is rare. We get used to it being hot, for months and months, so when winter hits, it feels cold, real cold. Plus as you get older it is harder to deal with cold. As a young man I lived in new england, etc, it was cold in the winter like you are experiencing now. But, I have lived down here since the 80s, all my cells have changed! ha! born again southerner!

 

[sawjunky23]

I would love to just live out in the middle of nowhere and grow my own stuff to eat. (I do that now for a living ). What I mean is , we have to abide by all the rules and ordinances, pay electric, phone, grocery, Internet, satallite tv, keep our house up to code and looking proper, car insurance, registration, buy our kids nice clothes for Schools, (we have 7). Basically all the the responsibilities that come around every month,,Haul garbage to the dump once per week, in my area you could never live off grid, it wouldn't be allowed. My wife and I camped out for a week on some of my dad's vacant land and someone called the cops on us, though we were squatters.

I have heard of many states trying to pass ordinances saying you can't camp on your own property. I think when people want to go off grid the cities and counties get nervous seeing the loss of fees they can soak you with.

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

I would love to just live out in the middle of nowhere and grow my own stuff to eat. My wife and I camped out for a week on some of my dad's vacant land and someone called the cops on us, thought we were squatters.

OMG!

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

I have heard of many states trying to pass ordinances saying you can't camp on your own property. I think when people want to go off grid the cities and counties get nervous seeing the loss of fees they can soak you with.

you are probably right! however, I just don't see a mass exodus from the urban life-style... umm to rural. no, I mean 'off grid' we may enjoy cutting up firewood, heating with it, and cooking with it... but small group compared to the urban masses... they want it even 'cushier' than it is. well, that is how I see it... imo, 'we, as a group... are a breed apart!'

 

[sawjunky23]

you are probably right! however, I just don't see a mass exodus from the urban life-style... umm to rural. no, I mean 'off grid' we may enjoy cutting up firewood, heating with it, and cooking with it... but small group compared to the urban masses... they want it even 'cushier' than it is. well, that is how I see it... imo, 'we, as a group... are a breed apart!'

I agree with you that we are the minority.

 

[066blaster]

I have heard of many states trying to pass ordinances saying you can't camp on your own property. I think when people want to go off grid the cities and counties get nervous seeing the loss of fees they can soak you with.

It's the pee on township idiots that give us trouble, they adopted a bunch of stupid ordinances , because a bunch of city folks were moving out here. It's really hurting the farmers and people that have been living out here along time. My dad bought a 7 acre parcel a 1/4 mile from our main 70 acre farm, (out in the country). We started using it as farmland and they threw a fit, because it's zoned residential. Their mad cause when it's used for agriculture the taxes are only $17 a year on it. And when you build a house here it has to be minimum of 2500 square feet.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

well, zogger - before you pine too much, remember: land was never cheap back when. land has always been very expensive! it's all relative to the times. $3.00/acre land very expensive when dozen eggs were 9-cents a dozen... gasoline 4-cents a gallon... I remember a guy telling me a tale of how his family came into their land; had been handed down several generations now. old great Grandpa had bought all those hundreds of acres... at the ungawdly, unheard of price of, why he had paid $6.00 an acre!!! beautiful grass lands and rolling hills in the Texas Hill Country just a bit SW of Austin, Tx.... and went way into debt. but he put the land to work and it paid itself off. but the rest of the family was in a tivy... at such a stupid waste paying so much for the land! lol..... the current market price for the land at the time my friend told me the story... was about $1,000 - 1250/acre... and they had 350 acres!! depending on grasses and other ag attrubutes. besides, forever, is forever... you might try to get that in writing... and free beats most deals hands down, even if u have to work for the free. I still subscribe to the ol adage that 'possession is 9/10ths of the law!' sounds like u got a good deal there. I don't like it when the amenities at my place fail, but always lets me meet up with a new challenge... makes me think up a new way of doing things... sometimes I call my place just another... KOA campgrounds... lol . please keep us posted! ....

$3 an acre if eggs were 0.09/dozen would equate to about $75/acre, which is ultra cheap. An acre around here, just farmland, goes for around 10k.