Homestead mailing list

["Lynn Wigglesworth" <lynnw AT chilitech.net>]

From: "Viking" <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>
> Are there things I miss?  Sure.  I miss being able to go to specialty
> grocery stores on a whim for something exotic like Dungeness crab.(well,
> it's exotic in these parts, anyway<g>)  I miss things like being able to
> call Dominoes on those days when I just don't feel up to cooking.  (I'm
> hungry right now, can you tell?)  But do I regret moving here and living
> this life? ABSOLUTELY NOT.  I wish I had followed my heart earlier in
> life.  I wish I had made the jump you are about to make when I was 25
> instead of 35.

Bev; Once again you've said all the things I was thinking. City folk don't
understand the luxury of being able to pee in the backyard instead of
having to take off muddy boots to go in the house :-). I was 40 when I
made the move...should have done it at 25!  It's not an easy lifestyle,
but I'm happy with it. I was miserable as a yuppie (are yuppies still
around?). Today I'm healthier and happier than I've been in 20 years. I
know what you mean about always being 'different'; even today I've joined
some internet groups of non-homestead people. They can't begin to fathom
my lifestyle, and I don't even try to explain it (they keep telling me
that I need to take a long vacation somewhere nice. Bwwwaaaahhhhhaaa.. I
can barely pay the electric bill, and who's going to weed the garden, take
care of my kids, put the cows back in when they escape, gather the eggs,
let the dogs out, harvest my stuff, and go to the Farmers' Markets to earn
my living for me? Farmers don't get a vacation plan).

I have a couple extra challeneges...2 kids who hate farming but still like
to eat and buy 'stuff', and no one to help out. I never did get much farm
help, but now I have to do it ALL by myself.  Dragging myself in to make
dinner after working all day getting the beds prepared and planted was a
real challenge this spring...add a school event in the evening, and I'd
have to prop my eyelids open to pretend I was awake! That's one truism
I've learned about farming...you work hard, and if you sit down, you fall
asleep.

Things have settled down now, with the planting done and the kids out of
school. But the biggest problem is money; it's ironic that I worry so much
about money, because I'm one of the least materialistic people I know. But
I'd fight like a mother bear to keep the farm.

Homesteading is the perfect 'retirement plan' because there is a steady
flow of retirement money. If you do have  income, from retirement or one
person working a 'real' job, or you have a lot of savings and can buy and
setup your property for cash, homesteading is fun. You don't HAVE to earn
any money from the homestead/farm so you can experiment, play around with
ideas, etc. You can actually take time off to be sick or injured without
losing the farm (you might even have health insurance!).

We never had much money to begin with (we were poor yuppies), but when I
divorced, I had to give my ex a huge chunk of money so I could keep the
farm (we didn't have a large mortgage and the farm was assessed at almost
double what we paid for it, so there was LOTS of equity to split in
half...I refied and my mortgage payment more than doubled) so I still need
money. I've been living on child support and what I can earn from the
farm, but that just isn't cutting it. I have to figure out how to make
more from the farm (my goal is to gross $10,000/year from the farm, so
it's not like I'm looking to become Conag); if I can't, I'll have to get a
'real' job (there are only minimum wage jobs locally, so that's a full
time crappy job...I'd rather farm). I'm constantly living on the edge...if
I get sick or injured or my 17 year old truck dies, I don't know what I'll
do. I just have faith that things will work out, and so far they
have...the solutions have come along just when I need them.

I can't cut expenses much more...we're living one step above Ghandi now
(well, by American standards). As things wear out or break, I'm not
replacing them, so our material 'stuff' is dwindling. Not that I mind, but
I feel bad for the kids, who didn't choose this life. They are great about
it and don't complain (much).

Lynn Wigglesworth
Peasant Farmer
Tioga County, PA