Faith Farm

Where to start-part 2

Now that you've evaluated your financial situation and housing it is time to decide if you are going to have to move.  I know, move is a four letter word to many people-LOL.  For those of you who already have a paid for home with some workable land you are leaps ahead.  For me I had to move.  My house was to big and expensive and located in town.  At the point that the decision to move was made, we started looking into options.  Build? Buy smaller?  We knew the location so that was a big help.  We knew whatever it was it had to be paid for.  After a short time (very short) our options were clear.  We would have to start from scratch.  We had a camper so we decided to sell out everything---yes I do mean everything.  We replaced our new cars with older paid for ones, sold out everything from housing to equipment--if it wasn't part of the 'new plan'.....it went.  Talk about a tough thing to do!  But it was necessary.  It was late winter-early spring.  We set the camper on a piece of land and moved in.  We had 6 months to get a house set up before winter.  We started with a very basic one room design and built on from there.  Almost 6 months to the day we moved in the first part of the house.  Now this may not be an option for some but I told this so that you know that anything is possible, if you want it bad enough.  Easy? NO.  I won't lie about it.  It was hard.  But it was also very rewarding.  The thing about starting a homestead from scratch is you can build it as necessary and in the way you decide to set it up.  Small is the key---Only build the farm you need---nothing else.  Keep in mind your end plan---keep things in mind like heating and cooling.  Keep it as efficient as possible.  You will find that you will learn so much.  We knew nothing about anything when we started this.  I didn't even have the right clothing or shoes to work outside when we began-lol.  It doesn't take long to figure some things out.  Make a tenative layout of what area's you will need for gardens, animals ect.   It will probably change but keeping these things in mind will help in the long run.  Chickens, dairy goats, rabbits....are all good ideas to help you on your path to independence.  Think about water sources, heating options, possible solar applications, possible income sources, ect.  There is alot to think about and plan on,  so write it all down and date it.  I still have notebooks full of idea's and plan's that we made as we went along.  (you'll really enjoy these things later!)  You will find that you only have so much time to think things through and doing it twice is not good.  It is easier to change plan's then to start from scratch each time.  I hope this was helpful to someone!  Blessings>faithfarm

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{ 12:57, Tuesday, October 7, 2008 } { Posted by gabbie427 }

Great post!!!

God's Blessings,
Amy Jo

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{ 03:55, Tuesday, October 7, 2008 } { Posted by RedneckGirl }

Awesome Post!
Christy