Homesteaders by necessity ?

[solarman]

How many people are just one or two paychecks away from being homeless these days ? I know several people caught in the mortgage crisis and facing forclosure right now. Heres a lady's story (she lives near me) about how she ended up being a homesteader by necessity and the lessons she learned and you may relate to:

http://www.off-grid.net/2004/09/16/on-the-ropes-and-off-the-grid/

I started as a homesteader by necessity but I think in the back of my mind I always wanted to simplify my life and live like my parents and grandparents did. So if you are a homesteader by necessity share your story and lessons you learned from the experience- you might just help someone else facing this situation right now ?

Solarman

[Drawbar]

I'll be perfectly honest with you, I am not a homesteader by definition anyway and grew up trying desperately to get away from it.

We grew up on a dairy farm and had the usual chickens, cows, pigs and sheep. Not small herds and flocks mind you like most homesteaders, but large quantity herds and flocks.

We skimmed the milk and made butter and sold it to a local store and sold chickens, beef and pigs as needed for income, but as we got older the income was there and moves to other occupations allowed us to slowly buy more and more food.

The thing is, we were homesteaders but did not really want to be, it was just the way it was. It was what we did. Thankfully we had enough income leasing out the farm land to others that we got by for 30 years in relative laziness.

Now the price of property taxes and the cost of living is catching back up with us. My Dad never planned turning the family farm over to me very well, and now we are scrambling at the last minute to do this. Suddenly I am going from a mere 400 acres to 1600 acres and the realization of that is downright scary.

My little ol Machinist job will not be enough to pay the taxes and keep up with the upkeep. So now I am forced into making the land earn its keep, even if its only for taxes and stuff.

I am involved deeply with creating a workable, viable farm plan and intend to use beef to hopefully pay the taxes on this place and keep what little we have left of the family farm (its been in the family for generations)

In a way I guess I am being forced into Homesteading just by the cost of living and cost of fuel.

[WileyCoyote]

You have a golden opportunity here, IMHO.
Are you aware of the folks on here who would love to have access to your instantly available knowledge and expertise, who might even be willing to become shareholders in your property for a chance to actually do what you are being forced to do on your land?

Think about that...
I am in the process of buying 60 acres in a county and State that is losing population, to practice my homesteading dream. A small operation, true, but soon to be viable based on the expertise I have garnered over the years in animal husbandry and agriculture. 60 acres is all I need and all I can manage. There are some here who do it on considerably less. And more who might be willing to do it on set-aside acreage, for a trade-off on learning from you and being farmhands for mutual gain and security.

People are getting tired of the poisoned fruits and vegetables from South America, and the poisoned fish and wheat products from China, and the general junk from everywhere else. While beef ranchers don't understand that huge, tender, locally grown cheap cuts of beef make "townies" eyes and mouth water, any more than the Idaho potato growers understand that their huge potatoes are never seen or experienced by most folk, a conglomerate of shared enterprise might be a viable alternative for you... and profitable for all concerned.

Just my thoughts.

[Drawbar]

I worked for 10 years as a railroad machinist, and once when I was out in Minnesota and just talking about home. The guy looked at me and said this. "What are you doing here? Do you know how many people would love to have what you got. Go home for God Sakes."

The truth is, until he said that I never realized what I had because...well...its all I have ever known. We did not consider it homesteading...it was life growing up.

Cows, chicken, sheep...hell I grew up watching cartoons on Saturday while churning butter from the cream skimmed off the milk that the jersey cows gave. At the time we just wanted a better life...it never occurred to us kids, or my parents that we had it good just as it was.

Now that I am older, I want my daughter...at the very least, to have the family farm. At the same time I want her to grow up feeding the cows and sheep like I did. Haying was a blast too, in fact most of my happiest memories are during the first 22 years of my life that occurred on the farm.

I hope I don't get kicked off this board for saying this, but I am not really fully into the whole self-sufficiency thing. I have lived self-sufficiency and know full well how hard of a life that is. Its not for the faint of heart that is for sure. I am not sure I want to go 100% Self-Sufficiency, but I would like to allow the land to be a bit more productive.

The problem is, only 112 acres is tillable crop land, and 100 of that is tied up in along term rental agreement. (Its used for dairy cow production). The other 1488 acres (approximately) is forest ground.

As for your idea, I researched that a bit. We have a program here in Maine called Farm Share where people looking for farm land are united with long time farm families like mine, unfortunately the long term agreement ties up most of the tillable ground. I doubt too many people would be interested in only 12 acres of farm ground. Even if they were, I doubt they would want to invest time and money in planting crops or raising animals on land that they could never buy. I am not trying to sound selfish here, but this is a long standing family farm. There is not a day that goes by that I do not worry about losing it. Selling it is unfathonable.

If anyone is interested, thanks to the miracle of modern technology,you can see the 100 acres of tillable ground I have through this webpage on my website. The picture is of my daughter and I checking out calves this morning.

http://www.railroadmachinist.com/Wood-Fields.html

http://www.railroadmachinist.com/images/Alyson_and_Calf-small.JPG

[msta999]

You got a real little cutie there. Looks good beside the calves.

[Catalpa]

Wow, what I wouldn't give to have that kind of acreage. I grew up on a farm, too, and would love to live on one again.

With that kind of acreage in timber, you can probably earn quite a bit with some careful forestry work. Don't let someone come in and just higrade your woods; but you could thin out the diseased, standing dead, and mis-shapen trees and sell a lot of firewood.

Have you considered raising bison? There's some around here, and the meat is even better than beef. Lean and tasty. They can't keep enough on the store shelves, and it sells for a lot more than regular beef. If you specialize in grass-fed, no grain, no drug bison or beef, I believe you could quickly build up quite a good business. Folks are hungry for good things that aren't drugged half to death, or chemically altered after harvest, or shipped in from some third world country where they put raw sewage on the crops.

There's a local gal that raises 'beefalo'. Half bison, half beef critters. I buy a half a steer from her every year- and she has people on a waiting list. That meat is so fantastic that we can't eat store bought stuff anymore.

Good luck, and best wishes holding on to that family farm!

[Drawbar]

Its an interesting idea...Bison that is, but I figure beef might be better, just because I know, understand and have a vast history with cattle.

As for the forestry-beef thing goes, that is such a hard decision. I know forestry well and have always harvested my own 400 acres, but Dad harvested wood on whims. Some has been clear cut,some has been logged hard, and some areas have never been logged. Its that kind of place, its not the 1500 acres of pristine forest that's for sure, but it does generally have nice wood. (You can click on the following link for a woodlot tour)

http://www.railroadmachinist.com/Woodlot-One.html

The problem is trees take 40-60 years to grow, while cattle take 1½ years. Both have about the same stocking rates, or about 1 acre per cow, while you can harvest 1 acre per year sustainably with wood. Wood is averaging around 100 bucks a cord, while cattle you would get around 500 per cow. Math wise, cattle make a far better investment, but it really is hard to compare.

What I would like to do is experiment with a little of both. Do a little logging to help finance a beef operation, and then once the beef operation is profitable, shuffle between the two operations. Maybe graze the cattle in the clearcuts and see how they do on that grass? Maybe plant trees in the clear cuts and keep the cattle out until the trees grow up beyond the reach of the cattle., then let them in to graze? Cattle also have a tendency to graze in the woods...hell our dairy cows can't be kept out of the woods, it would be neat to experiment and see if through careful cattle rotation, you could get them to do a little pre-commercial thinning by browsing the brush down after a harvest?

I don't have the answers, but I think cattle and logging co coincide. Figuring out the rotational schedules and what and where and when to put them into the area has to be figured out. Then of course there are water issues, predators to worry about and of course the ever important weight gains.

[BIGGKIDD]

Drawbar,

Nice looking place you have there. I wouldn't have any idea how to work that much land either. We just bought 36 ac here in central Va. I will always work but the more I can acheive on our place the less I will have to work for others.

Larry

[sbemt456]

Hang on to the family farm Drawbar, it wont be easy but it can be done. I have managed to hang on to mine, but it is just 100 acres, and it will be a struggle. The farm is now in the sole care of myself and my husband, but I am fortunate to have 2 grown sons who come home as often as they can to help out with mowing, maintainance, and general gardening and farm chores. My hubby still works in the oil fields but I am home on workers comp due to job related injury. We are by no means technically "homesteaders", or completely self sufficient but we do grow 95% of what we eat, and as long as feasible we will probably be on the grid, but with back up wood heat and cooking and our own garden and meat source.
The cattle and bison plan sounds like a good one for the amount of land you have. We dont try to even raise cattle on our farm for profit due to labor and extra expense of start up. You could use the timber to start the cattle business as long as you can provide feed from the land with your own machinery.
Oh and on a lighter note, have more kids, dont do like my dad and work that one little girl to death.LOL Ya know years ago when people had large farms they had large families just for that reason, free help.

Good luck and hang on for dear life.

stella

[Drawbar]

Thanks...

I have been researching another crazy idea I have and that is raising sheep. My Grandfather did it back in the day and did quite well at it. I got the idea from my wife who wanted a couple of sheep as pets. I grew up on a farm so pets is kind of foreign to me...they got to produce or they don't stay was our rule.

The problem I am running into is there really is no market for lamb chops or whatnot. I am not sure raising sheep for wool alone would be viable. Now would raising sheep for milk.

I am still kicking around the idea of raising sheep, but I need to find a market for the meat first. I think that is the only viable way of raising them.

[Deberosa]

I had a friend in Denver whose Dad was a sheep rancher and therefore she was a sheep rancher. ;-)

They seemed to be ALOT of work! Almost everything eats them or scares them to death so they need to be guarded. Lambing season was always brutal because they all seem to need help... If you don't get just the hair sheep there is the sheering, let alone finding someone to buy the stuff. Oh, and they destroy pastures if left on them too long!

I had an aquaintance want to give me her flock of 12 ewes and one ram a couple of years ago. I declined - they just seemed like too much overhead for not much use...

[Drawbar]

Deb, I am not trying to argue with you here, so pleaseeeee don't take it that way, just trying to figure out what is best for me and my farm, and the best way to keep it. To that end yesterday I had a long talk with a sheep farmer near me (less then 5 miles away) and he said that he first did beef, and then got into sheep and found sheep to be much easier. We talked about everything from the stocking rate here in Maine, to the amount of hay they consume and the meat prices and stuff too.

I was shocked when he said that not only are sheep easier to raise then beef cows, they get better money per pound. He gets 4.50 a pound for grass fed beef, and gets 7 dollars a pound for grass fed lamb...and cannot get enough lambs to satisfy his market. In fact we talked about providing him some lambs just so he could keep his customers happy. Its always nice to have someone willing to buy your lambs before you even have them!

To make a long story short, I was VERY encouraged by his conversation...one that lasted well over an hour. I was really considering a beef enterprise but must say, sheep farming is looking pretty good too.

Of course I am not arguing that sheep aren't a lot of work, but according to him, they were far easier then the cows. Either way ANYTHING has got to be better then dairy farming. I grew up milking cows twice a day, seven days a week for the first 21 years of my life. Anything has got to be easier then that. ;D

[Deberosa]

No problem, each has to find their own mix of animals. I got my information from a local farmer who raises sheep, beef, hogs and chickens. She said the only reason she keeps doing sheep is because she started with them and likes them - but they aren't profitable for her. Of course she has a lot smaller operation - only 40 acres total and that might have something to do with it. She has waiting lists for all of her product.

I know another couple here who raise Kaitadin sheep (hair sheep) and again they do it mostly to stay into farming (a very elderly couple) but have no trouble finding market for their sheep either. If I were going to do sheep I would do the hair sheep, they seem to be less bother.