2004-12-20 - 9:44 p.m.

December 17, 2004

Quote for the day: Proverbs 28:19 He that tilleth his land shall have plenty�

Wanna be Homesteaders

My writing about Homesteading was important to me so I wanted to rewrite it to make more sense.

There was a time when my husband and I read every homestead book we could get our hands on, the more down to the grid books we found the more we loved it. We thought the Amish lived wonderful life�s. We read about making our own home out of tires or hay bales. We wanted to get back to nature, make our own foods, live off of solar power energy ect.

So after 16years what happened? Did we get older and the modern things started spoiling us? Camping without an inflatable bed would kill our backs! The last time we stayed in a tent we sweated to death in it longing for our air condition.

The thought of having to milk a goat morning and night every single day sort of lost its appeal to me so instead I did the smart thing and traded eggs with my next door neighbor and let her do it instead. Hehe its not having and doing it that matters to us I figured out its having fresh that matters more if I can trade hey I just did myself a favor.

I don�t have a garden yet we have only been here one year but instead I go to the local outdoor market and get my veggies from there instead at a very good price. I still want to make my garden but it will come slowly along with my fruit orchard already we have 5 fruit trees established and some of the land tilled.

We traded our 75-acre ranch for a 15acre ranch. A lot of people thought we were crazy to do that. The thought of having tons of neighbors around us with 1 acre really didn�t appeal to us, after they sold off the large ranch around us, nor each time it rained us getting our road washed out, we just didn�t have the time for that big of a place nor the money.

So instead we found a nice small 15-acre ranch with established pecan tree orchard, city water and well water with a canal around us. Water is very important around south Texas. My neighbors have 5-15 acres and they are all country folks too.

We traded stickers, brush and sand for Augustine grass and established coastal grass on 10 acres. We traded in broken down fences for a nice beautiful fence all around our property fence that not even coyotes and wild dogs can get through which saves our chickens.

The best thing is we got such a good deal for our ranch we were able to pay � of this new property off and have a second home for my parents to live in too. Our mortgage is only around $600 compared to the $1200 we were paying each month before.

Recently I have had a lot of discussions with friends on line or on the boards about being homesteaders too. I try to tell them the good with the bad, but the bad sort of goes in one ear and out the other with these people on the bad. They say the good will out weigh the bad. My hearts go out to these people. Hoping all the best that things go their way.

I have to put my foot down when they talk about raising some stupid animal like emus or alpacas and quitting their good job to do this without any experience, especially with no marketing skills in that area. The people that sell them this stuff are like the Amway sales people and their pyramid. The truth is there is no market for these animals unless you sell it to other gullible people.

Truth: Advice for Wanna Be homesteaders

1. There are no weavers out there to buy the fur from you on these certain animals. The very few weavers there are out there have their source or own animals. Angora goats hair are still in the warehouses from years ago the market is so bad for it.

2. No meat market for exotic animals. Unless your planning to open your own exotic restaurant you wont find a market for these animals. And if you plan to eat them after you raise them from baby�s good luck!

3. Over advertised -If you see it advertised on Tv or well-known magazine or newspaper chances are so did 1000 of other wanna be homesteaders thinking they are the only ones too. Do you really think you�re the only one in the market to do this?

4. Do you think by advertising they are going to flock to you? Do you really want these kinds of people that are looking for good bargains? Who will sue you in a heartbeat if you look at them wrong?

5. Spending thousands of dollars on equipment and animals thinking you will make it back on the long wrong is the worst thing you can do. If you do make it back it will take years!

6. Vacations and weekend trips are a thing of the past; unless you can find someone to do the load of work you do each day. It�s a lot to ask a neighbor especially if they have their own outdoor chores to do.

7. If your planning to live off the grid, which means as much as possible with nature without modern things, plan to not watch any tv, internet, or even read again especially the women folks. Also plan to age really, really fast.

Reality check:

1. Raise animals and fruits and vegetables that you know for certain that will sell and that you yourself will eat.

2. Advertise to people like yourself that you know that want good foods (church, friends, neighbors), and they in return will become good loyal customers and find you other customers in return. Tip: It took us 6 years to establish the customers I have now. They are worth gold! It takes time.

3. Baby steps on everything you want to try and buy. Start off small then enlarge as you go.

4. Know the animals time attention of the animals you want to buy. You bring home a baby lamb for example be prepared to feed it every few hours forget about being gone for long lengths of time. Chickens, someone needs to pick up the eggs daily, twice on hot days. If you get a cow or goat you have to milk it twice a day you CANT skip a day and you have to do it about the same time too.

5. Living off the grid is like a dream, where you never get tired, everything is perfect and after a hard day of work you will go to sleep knowing you had a good day the good out ways the bad. Truth of the matter is, as much of how wonderful it sounds to go back to nature your body sure will notice the change, animals die, crops fail. Sure, It�s a wonderful feeling when you get a chance to dwell on it, the good things. It�s a hard life, before your husband talks you into it find out exactly how much of that solar system your going to buy going to run in the household? Are you ready to say goodbye to dishwashers, sewing machines, washing/dryers/ hair dryers, instant hot water, conveniences of grocery shopping? Take a test, see how long it takes you to do something on the grid then add it up for the day, is all I am asking you to do before trying this. Oh and plan on paying for things still like taxes on cars and property, health insurance, insurance, dental each year they don�t go away even though your living off the grid.

Country life is wonderful! Tonight I sat outside with my husband and kids and hear the hum of the neighbors tractor near by plowing his field in the middle of the night cause farmers never quit! I can look at the stars with no smog and light and actually see them.

I have to watch where my son goes, cause it may not be the city with thugs and bullys that would hurt him a snake will snap at him in a heart beat, or wasp will attack them cause its what they do. Fire ants crawl up his leg and sting him. I cant get rid of them cause if I put poison down the chickens will eat it and die.

Take care, I don�t regret living out here, but somedays when I am trying to get the kids in the car to go into city for a nice 2 hour movie and the goats get out and are roaming about, or an animal dies and I have to go drag it in my good clothes to the dump area to burn it, or a storm comes and I have to get the kids back out of the car and get ready for the storm its times like this where I wish I didn�t live in country.

Then its those times where you see a baby lamb born and you see your kids running in the field laughing with a kite that makes me glad I live here. We have so much to do here, many structures to build our dream of raising special poultry for food has put on hold until we can get a roof on the processing center. We are however taking baby steps.

I love that I can put clothes in the washing machine and wash my dishes in the dish washer and in that same time I can write this *grin.

rain rain go away - ghosts