Can I do this alone? HELP

[aunt_fannie]

I am in the process of divorce. Am 53 yo female. In GA now but would like 2-3 acres in Nebraska. I don't know carpentry, plumbing, electrical but am will to learn. Mobile home, hut, or tipi fine with me as I do not desire to be featured in House Beautiful. Can garden and am willing to raise, slaughter and cook own meat.

Do need to be within driving distance of good doctors and hospital for health issues... diabetes andsuch.

limited income and tiny and i do mean tiny savings.

am use to making casual income and good at selling.

BUT in your opinion can I do this alone with my limited skills?

All I want is peace and dirt under my nails!

[Anon001]

Aunt Fannie,
It depends on what it is you want to do. Just keep in mind that a mobile home is like a car... it's value never increases, only decreases. What part of Nebraska do you want? Have you started looking for a place in Nebraska yet?

oh...and welcome to the forums.
Paul

[Native87]

Ga. to Neb. ? Heck of of move there. If you got someone there behind you in Nebraska..then I think you can. YOU need to be the one to say I THINK I CAN. good luck from Va.

[Southerngirl]

Aunt Fannie,
You CAN do this if this is what you want! You've joined a good group here to learn from so you have the desire to learn and that is what a lot of people lack, so you're ahead of the game there.
I am married but still a lot of what I want to accomplish here on our farm in OK I am doing alone. He works away from home a lot and just doesn't have the same "drive" as I do. So I'm using as many online tools as I can to learn how to do what I want on my own. I learn best by looking at pics of things people have done and posted online (like building their own chicken coop, ect), then I research it and find out what I need to get the job done. We also have friends that have skills that I know I just couldn't do or learn, so we trade out work (favors), it seems to work out so far.
Sounds like first thing is see if you can find some land in NE, get to looking online. Do you have any support in NE waiting on you, friends or family?
Whatever decision you decide to make I wish you well and be safe in your travels if it comes to that!
Southerngirl

[Anon001]

Aunt Fannie,
I will also say that I am about 25 miles south of the Kansas/Nebraska States line. If you end up near enough, I can offer a little help or advice......
Paul

[firegirl969]

Aunt Fannie,

If you believe you can do it, then I believe you can too! I hate to see you leave GA, but if I was going to make that move, I would consider finding me a small pull-behind camper and make the move in it. Pack it up and start west. That way, you do know that you have a home. I don't know where in GA you live, but we have lots of those free-ad magazines that you pay $1 for and I have found that to be the best way to buy and get a bargain. You may can find a mobile home or RV park to live in when you get to Nebraska while you search for your perfect homestead spot. Hope this helps and best wishes to you, firegirl.

Note-I do know how you feel, I divorced 4 years ago.

[CarolAnn]

aunt Fannie,
Have you considered looking for either a property manager job there, or as a caretaker for someone? Lots of people who have two homes pefer to have someone reliable to stay in one of them & keep things up while they're not there. Being apartment manager for a small complex involves selling (which you said you can do) and direction of the maintenance people, and often includes free rent as well as a paycheck!

You might check out www.craigslist.org for the area you've chosen - both for places to live until you buy, and jobs.
Heres one link:
http://omaha.craigslist.org/rej/1072068991.html

You can do it! I've been divorced for 19 wonderful years and my life has never been better; although getting here wasn't a picknic, I'd never want to go back to the bad old days! ;D

[Deberosa]

Of course you can do it! Just do what you can and keep adding as time goes by. It's amazing what one person can do. I started Deberosa alone. I waited for years worrying about whether I could handle 4.5 acres alone and I regret I waited so long!

YOu won't have a magazine cover place but what you do have will be yours!

Good luck!

Debbie

PS I am the same age as you!

[cwatson]

I am in my 40's and just learning alot of the skills needed to be self-sufficient. If you have a strong enough desire to achieve your goal you will achieve them. Make sure and write out what your goal is and remind yourself of what your end goal is when you hit hard times. You can do it! Your age is definitely not a factor.

[flatwater]

I dodn't know your religious bent but We will pray for you that God gives you the strength , courage and peace of mind to not only make the move but stay healthy in doing so. Do you know anyone in Nebraska ?

[harvester]

ofcourse you can do it, and dont let anyone tell you different.
start out small, read read read, then ask tons of questions. its pretty easy in the summer time to hire a teenage boy to do the heavy bull work you might need done. they can come pretty cheap, ive hired them for cakes and cookies..
once you get established enough to start thinking about getting your homestead started. find the people that have the livestock you want or are interested in, and ask them for help if and when you need it, most are more than happy to help out.
if its just going to be you, then you might want to look into chickens as the first livestock you get. you would do well with two hens. thats enough eggs for you, and maybe a dozen or two to barter with. with only two chickens they will do quite well on your leftovers and scraps only needing a handfull of grains when there are no leftovers. my three hens lay me out of house and home all on grasshoppers and kitchen scraps. I think its been over a year since ive actually fed those birds chicken feed *and they are big beautiful shiney birds.
a garden would be the second item id get into, and get into it just as big as you possibly can. look into your roadside stand laws and farmers markets requirements to sell excess. can as much as you can and put up for winter storage for yourself, cutting down on your grocery bill. look around at what your neighbors are producing. trade your garden vegi's or canned goods for some of their product. i did this one time with pigeons i raised. some french woman wanted to trade me some squab, 5 of them, for something she had, i think it was houseplants i wanted..after that trade she came back to me twice a year and bought outright every squab i could produce for her..it was a good little sideline.
start out small, and very frugal. prioritize necessity from wants. you will do just fine, and dont forget to put faith in your fellow man, neighbor, new found friend or just work partner for help. most people really do have kind hearts.

[Deberosa]

I forgot one thing - take lots of pictures! When I would get discouraged at slow progress I would go look at the "before" pictures and see that I really had accomplished alot!

[Anon001]

I agree with Harvester. The only thing I would consider is doing the garden right away. Groceries can be one of your bigger expenses and if you garden you can cut your grocery bill to almost nothing. I spend about $20 per month and less at the grocer......

But, definitely start with chickens if you have no experience.

[jen_in_southtexas]

Deb,

I like what you said about looking at progress through pictures. Many a time when it felt like i had not put a dent in things whether yard work, brush clearing, cabin work, killing weeds, anything really, I would look at my pictures of before and how far I had come. That can be very inspirational.

Jen

[Gwynyvyr]

Aunt Fannie...
YES YOU CAN! I am 52 and had to start over in a tent when I was 48. If you are determined, you can do it. It isn't easy, but nothing worthwhile is ever easy, as they say.
Check out craigslist for the area you are going to...the camper idea is a good one, too.
Also, if you can afford it, you might want to get a membership at caretaker.org. I have gotten jobs through there.

[huckelberry]

hey auntie,gotta agree with the camper thing,i bought a real beat up camper for i left alaska,been livin in it for 7 months now ,montana winters are as bad as alaska..will start building soon...why nebraska???good luck,an yes you can do this.huck :-*

[WileyCoyote]

I am really interested in why you chose Nebraska. If I start to sound like I don't think you should or can, please forgive me; that is not my intent. I packed up and moved from SC to NE last May, just DH and me, no friends, no family anywhere nearby, just found a place and DID IT. Here's how and why we ended up here.

We looked for two years for a piece of property that we could handle, but that we could also make into what WE wanted. We estimated between 10-50 acres, depending on the land type. We wanted SEASONS, snow and rain and sunshine and we wanted farm country, and we wanted minimal population. We didn't even start to look in NE, but in ID (where my brother lives) WY, CO, ND, MN, and SD. The property in WY, CO, and ID was way, way too expensive. That narrowed it down to ND, SD, And MN. We couldn't find anything of decent size in MN. We started looking in ND and SD, and then happened to find one property of 60 acres in NE. Turns out the property in ND is getting pretty expensive too, and - they don't sell mineral rights with the land; right now shale oil mining is HUGE there. In NE ALL rights come with the property. Finally we settled on the NE property - on the edge of a small town, surrounded by cattle ranches, a potato farm, and a winery. The 60 acres seemed like a lot but the soil is not as fertile as it is in the eastern flatlands, and we wanted hills. The less fertile, the more land you need for cattle and crops. We do have the best water in the country in NE. (sorry, guys, but the aquifer is fed by Rocky Mountain snowmelt and runs through miles of sand, and has NO impurities).

The people are about the best I've found anywhere, too - totally different from GA or SC. No one on Welfare (except on the Reservation 40 miles away in SD). Everyone works, not just on the ranches, but in the schools, in the offices in the towns, banks, medical clinics, etc. Every morning I expect to wake up in a black and white 1960's world, it is so much like Timmy and Lassie's farm or the Cleaver town here! There are no blacks anywhere in my area; I saw one in the town 40 miles away; he works as a cook in a restaurant. Where we are there are no illegals or immigrants, although there are some on the Reservation and in the larger towns. It is VERY dfferent from GA and SC, in both the climate - right now we are in our third blizzard, 40-50 mph winds are common, and it gets down to 35 below here some nights - and the lifestyle and attitudes. When I went to the little town board meeting, I asked them what the ordinances were, building codes, etc. Their answer was that they thought they had some ordinances once, but they couldn't find them and didn't know where they were. You can live in and put up pretty much whatever you want on your own property, as long as it doesn't infringe on your neighbors' property. Nice to know if you are wanting to have chickens or grow crops or run a cow or two, or even pigs!

Another reason I am asking why is that there are not a whole lot of small-acreage places for sale or rent here. Either houses on small lots for traveling farm and ranch workers, or town workers, or large thousand-acre ranches.

If you do decide to come, I am in the North-central part of NE in Cherry County. If you need help or advice, I'll tell you what I can and direct you to places where you need to go to find out things. *I can tell you that even with the blizzards, the cold, the 100 degree summers, the cactus and the sandburrs and the goathead burrs, that Nebraska is a beautiful and wonderful place to live, for both the area and the people. We don't regret it for a minute. Oh, and we both turned 51 last year!

[reedb66]

Hope I am not breaking any rules here but are you looking any where north platte ne? I have some friends that moved to missouri over a year ago from north platte and they had a mobile home out there on a large lot (about 2 acres I think) that they wanted to sell cheap .Under $4,000 cheap last I knew .They do some bartering to so maybe???I have never seen it so cant give you any more details but I could get you in touch with them . As I said at the begining of this post hope I didnt break any rules ,I am not looking to make any money just saw your posts and thought I would offer my 2 cents.

Reed

[kawalekm]

Henry Ford has a classic quote. "Either say you can do it or say you can't do it, because either way you'll be right".

What that means to me is that if you have to attitude of you can accomplish something, then you will do whatever it takes to reach that goal.

When we bought our land one of the first projects I accomplished was building a roof on a unfinished cabin. Carpentry experience was next to none. The only other thing I build before was the workbench in my garage, and then I accomplished this....
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/kawalekm/northwall-1.jpg

You can get a book that tells you how to do anything. After reading up on roof design, I designed my own roof, purchased all the materials myself, and put it up myself, rafter by rafter. It's been up for years now, surviving summer heat, winter snow, and windstorms that toppled 18" trees 100 feet away.

Getting back to you, why Nebraska? It is a very big leap for someone that doesn't have family already there. Is it because Nebraska is offering free land to newcomers? You might find something better just 100 miles away, instead of 1000! What about finding a property somewhere in the Northwest corner of Georgia, or Western North Carolina, or Eastern Tennessee? That's at least 40,000 square miles of rural mountain land just hours away. Can't you find something there that suits? You best stratage is to type out a cover letter outlining what you want and then mailing it off to realtors in the desired area.

In any case, keep at is and good luck to you.
Michael

[Photographer]

Aunt Fannie...
I'm 57, disabled and just bought 4 1/2 acres out in the northern arizona desert. I may or may not have help to get my own place up and going...But regardless, I'm doing it.
Spring planting season is within the next 2-3 weeks up there and even if I have to go there and live in a tent...I'm going.
I grew tired of the city and the neighbors.
Time to get back to the earth and have a life....maybe a hard life I don't know.
It dosen't matter,... IF you really want it, go for it!
I am!

[poisonivie]

You can do it!!! But heres a thought you might want to try goats instead of cows they eat less take less space and not as hard to handle. I bought a goat shes not pure but will give me milk and youngs to eat or sell for $25 at the sale barn. You can get chickens there old enough to lay too cheep for eggs and meat. wishing you the best!

[silvergramma]

fannie,, i'm about to be divorced and I've been wondering how am i gonna do it... well if yer meant to be there you will be there but you gotta start somewhere and at least start...
i was in right place right time and things started rolling... dont give up and dont give in..good luck