It was sometime in 2008 I believe that we really gave thought to building a farm. It was a few years later reality set in and we focused more on a homestead.
Neither of us had ever lived on a homestead and we had no clue where or how to begin, except we knew we needed a home to start with. We had limited funds and no credit, But we didn’t give up hope.
In 2013, we obtained 28 acres with a pond. It was something we never thought we could do, but we made it happen. Every penny we had went to sustain the basic bills. And that was still a struggle. We had some assistance from private individuals and we were able to find some items free or cheap. In 2015 when the world was introduced to our lives we were still scraping by, with 100% of our funds sustaining life, and 0% for building the homestead.
By 2016 we had a set aside enough extra funds for gardening and some other projects but with the escalation of harassment we decided to move. Unfortunately thanks to the harassment the property owner backed out of the sale at the last minute because they didn’t want the harassment to spread to the other properties for sale in that area.. also unfortunate was that because we had made so much progress on the purchase of the new property (they backed out on the actual day of signing) we had spent an entire month dismantling the homestead to prepare for a move. The homestead was put on hold for about a year. I am actually surprised we moved forward with it to be honest.
In 2017 we used the money we were going to move with to put a down payment on a larger cabin and finish out the inside. In 2018 our income was just enough for the land, new cabin payment, auto, food etc. basic bills. Which is a lot on its own. In 2019 we decided to settle in for long term and moved the cabins and made some changes to the layout of the property. All of our income is pretty much tied up in basic bills. Food storage, garden and chickens is the priority of course.
Our plan is to have the cabins and property paid off in 4-5 years. If we continue as we have been that is possible. When that happens all that income is freed up to build more. For now we use what little extra we have to work on what we can. I am criticized often for having a half-assed homestead, or not “good enough” homesteaders but really we are doing pretty good all things considered. I never thought we would even be able to buy property, not even a discount dumpsite. But we are doing what we can when we can. I am discouraged at times, especially seeing this outside my bedroom window. We estimated this pile has been here since 2011. We will be tackling it this month the best we can without a tractor, its remnants of a mobile home, metal framing, carpet etc. The people who lived here admitted they just dumped their trash here. For years. Piles of of it. This is just one of many we have found. Clearing some trees this past week we found another pile that is mostly covered still. Who knows what is in it. I wish we could afford a big tractor.
We have been working hard to build our off grid homestead to be self sufficient, but we are still in the baby stages. We can get by short term, but I wasn’t ready for this yet. I am worried. I don’t know any business owner that isn’t. I know my family will be ok, we have overcome so much already. But the officials are talking about us not being open till May. And if I am allowed to open in May, many of my clients will have also been out of work, business will be affected. This is a huge financial set back.
Of course I can’t call mulligan, but I think it gives us a wonderful view of what to plan for should this happen again and we have another almost zombie apocalypse.
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