Can I go back to the land by myself?
I am a Unix sysadmin/security guy, so my
job tends to be stressful with long hours. I currently dream of
homesteading on 10-20 acres in the Ozarks in northern Arkansas.
How easy do you find it to provide various necessities that can't be
earned through sweat equity by freelancing? Are you able to
maintain enough income to provide the store-bought things that you need?
--- Shannon
--- Shannon
Some homesteaders have gotten their lives
simplified to the point where they barely buy anything from the
store. We're in a sort of halfway house --- we do buy flour,
cocoa, sugar, dairy, tea, and some meat; keep two cars running; and pay
for high speed internet and electricity. On the other hand, we're
extremelly minimal in most respects and can live well on the poverty
line income for two people. If you're obsessed with clothes,
sports cars, or all of the latest electronic gadgets, you're obviously
going to have to make a lot more money. Read more....
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Question:
In what ways has the "Walden Effect" life differed from what you originally had envisioned? What was romanticized that turned out to be totally different or more difficult? What unexpected pleasures did you find?