Do you ever daydream about leaving it all behind? Wandering into the woods, constructing a cabin, living off the land? That idea of escape and desire for simplicity seems to grow more and more common as our lives increase in pace and urban areas overcrowd. I often find myself envious of, though inspired by, folks like this. Ones who made their dreams a reality.
As you know, this month on Re-nest is all about the handmade home. Well, there is nothing more handmade about a home than the lovingly labourious way John Coffer carved out his little piece of heaven. He made the switch from Floridian condo dweller to master of his magnificent 50 acre domain over 20 years ago and has never looked back. This beautiful short from Lost & Found Films tells his story, and is definitely worth watching.
While the privileges of wealth can make the transition from cityscape to country kingdom a smooth one, the very nature of homesteading means the serene and simple life can be sustained without an executive income. A little planning and saving at first can get you there. If, like Coffer you plan on mixing old technologies with new (solar panels, wind turbines, internet access), cash on hand is a requirement; however, these are investments into a high functioning, yet slow paced lifestyle that I for one could get behind.
The great thing is many of us already do practice elements of homesteading no matter what our locale. But what I really want to know is how many of you would actually wander off? Do you plan on retiring to the woods or are you eager to find farmland faster still? Is the city-sacrifice to great to leave behind, or is the countryside calling?
(Image: Lost and Found Films)
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This is my dream. My husband and I will move to a more rural area once I find a teaching job and we can afford to move house and have him stay home with our son. I want a large organic veggie garden more than anything!
Five years.
Five years until we can sell the house.
Five years until we are both out of debt (save the mortgage).
Five years until we taste a little bit of freedom out west, somewhere. Right now we're speculating Boise, due to the climate and the possible ability to find jobs. Once we're able, I plan on moving out there first to find a job, then he'll follow once he can sell the house. We'll be buying somewhere between 10 and 50 acres (depending on prices, what buildings are including, what fencing and irrigation, whether it has any sort of river or lakefront), and starting a small homestead farm. I intend to have a couple of horses, he wants some goats, and I'm stocking up information about chickens and bees.
Five years until I rid myself of the horror of living in a city. I didn't grow up in one, and I hate living and working in one...especially one where the crime rates are so high. I hate paying so much to this state and getting little in return - I live in a state where cost of living is ridiculously high. I hate living where so many rights are regulated or banned simply because people fear freedom.
Five years until I will be able to see the curve of the Earth both behind and in front of me. When that happens, I will finally be happy.
...No, I haven't been thinking about this for awhile...
I think about this all the time. Hopefully within the next 10 years or so I will be able to move toward this.
Everyday. Every freakin' day. My boyfriend and I have preliminary plans in the works to purchase about 10 acres (hopefully expanding as time goes on) and start a hobby farm. I've been researching various breeds of livestock and going there as my "happy place" when my sad, grey little cubicle gets to be too much. (And yet, not enough all at the same time.)
YES, like Tracie Lee, every freakin' day. I've got my yurt ordered, the Mennonite garage/shop, too. But I'm still trying to find land. I've got a deadline (my own) to be moved in before the snow flies. The serious snows of December, not the October ones that are fleeting. Wish me luck...
Great video, John Coffer! YES, I dream of this, and like Tracie Lee, every freakin' day. Only at this stage of my life I'm not so into the homesteading, like we did in our commune days in the early '70s. I lived that dream, then gradually went mainstream. Now I'm headed back to a simpler style. My 30' yurt's been ordered, as has the Mennonite garage/shop, but I'm still trying to find the land. My self-imposed deadline's coming up. I live less than an hour from John Coffer, he's in some beautiful country there. I wonder though, does he collapse all his tents and take them in for the winter? What a talent he is.
Yes! Each and everyday.@feinfenix - we also have thought about the Boise area. Don't know at this point where we will end up and probably in the next 5 years also. We have some requirements for the land - must have water - a spring would be nice. Viewing the video by Lost & Found Films - we want something a little more to our taste, but small - just get the house dried in and move in at that point and do the finish out. Looking forward to having several outdoor living areas and a screened in treehouse. A goat for a lawnmower! Want to incorporate alot of Usonion type elements to the dwelling. We will be 'retired' - however our land and house will be our 'work' - and what a joy it will be.
We are closing soon on a nice little house on 2 1/2 acres. Wish it could of been more but I'm happy with 2 1/2. Chickens, garden, small grape vineyard here we come!
Brings tears to my eyes! You can really feel the love John has for his home. As much I love living in the city (SF), I fantasize of a small ranch with my own garden, animals, and a self-sustaining lifestyle. So inspiring.
Chickens, orchard, bees, and a big vegetable garden. Maybe a house that's earth-banked or even fully underground. If I'm really lucky, a small wind turbine.
It'll be years before I have the finances to do anything about it, but I've been dreaming it every day for a long, long time.
Always, since I was a little one...I'm doing it gradually, I guess. I've left the big city for the suburbs, where I've managed to create a pretty quiet and peaceful existence. Walden is next!
I grew up in the middle of nowhere, wanted out and moved to the city. I know now what I'm missing. I hate urban living and I'm becoming increasingly depressed at the thought of being stuck in this nightmare. SOMEDAY! & Hopefully sooner than later.
DREAM LAND: http://www.landandwildlife.com/59653MORGAN%2DLAKE%2DROADLA%2DGRANDEOregon/61320/ORWildlife
It's interesting to me that so many people in the city have the opinion that it is very expensive to transition to the country. I've always thought buying in the city was the more expensive option.
When I lived in the suburbs of Philadelphia in 2006 it would have cost over 200k for a single family dump on 1/8 acre if that. 400k for a nice, large home with 1/2 acre. It got worse in the city - 350k for a small, nice row home in a fashionable neighborhood with almost zero land. The city taxes made the price equivalent to 50k more. Plus the parking situation was terrible.
Living in central PA which is...out there, I have this 'country living' thing going on because I could afford it. You can get an extremely nice home on 2-5 acres for 250k. Ours is 1650sqft on almost 2 acres, 175k.
So I'm a bit confused about city dwellers thinking country living requires so much saving up. Unless you're a city renter, then I understand completely.
I used to ache for this, so hard. Every day, for years and years, I thought about it. The details, the dreams--we searched for property and came this close to buying places, twice. And now, well, I don't know. The city has grown on me. I like our neighbors, and I like HAVING close neighbors. The crime has gone down in our neighborhood a bit, and we fixed up our house a lot, more to our liking. We have a nice little established garden, and chickens. And now I have a hard time thinking about moving away from our friends, from a place where gardening is a social event that inevitably involves conversations with several neighbors and maybe a spontaneous trip to the park with friends and kids and dogs. And giving up our short commutes to work and school, and our easy proximity to everything else we do. But I do long for the rest of it still--horses and goats and early morning stillness and kids growing up in fields and barns and creeks.... So now I just don't know.
A few times a year, I have a deep yearning to run away from home and pull a Walden. My family has a little one-room cabin in the the big woods of northern Wisconsin that's perfect, providing one doesn't mind the outhouse and being stuck going nowhere in the winter. That's where I'd go, if it weren't such a hassle to get there from AZ; you can't pick up and go on a whim.
I just started homesteading in February. I rented a farm on five or so acres just outside of Washington DC, quit my job in May and now I farm / homestead full time now. It's kind of crazy, but it can be done. I was so tired of "waiting" to begin my life that I just said the heck with it and jumped in head first. There are sacrifices, but you can't make your dreams reality without a few along the way. I blog about it here: homesteadyear.com.
Due to age, health, and finances, my retirement daydream is to move to a small city rather than to homestead. My new community would be be flat, in the continental U.S., and have cultural variety, an RC presence, colleges and universities for recreation and employment, convenience, good medical facilities, and good public transit, like here. It would differ in being slower, quieter, and more progressive, with lower cost of living, less crowding, fewer natural disasters, and more unspoiled nature. My home life already feels much like my daydream!
I grew up in the woods. I LOVE the woods.
I still have trouble calling homesteading "green" because if we all did it, there wouldn't be any woods.
It's a terrible conundrum that has worried me since I was a wee little kid and first learned about urban sprawl.
But as for the question - yes, a million times yes, I would happily go back to the woods if I could.
I dream of a little land, just enough for chickens and a few fruit trees, plus a garden. Doesn't really take all that much - 1.5 acres would probably do it. But I am renting, so the financial problems are 1)the down payment and 2) the jobs. Rural jobs are few and far between. My husband is looking for a job and we are focusing on small college towns, but there are so many more possibilities in cities.
@Susan in Austin - have you been out there? does it live up to the dream? we're trying to plan a trip next year to verify it's really where we want to live
i keep looking at landsofidaho.com and wishing time would speed up a tad.
Not sure I'd call it homesteading, but I do dream of living a little more green: solar panels, wind turbines (the new tube kind), geothermal heating and cooling... But, I'd still want to be in a quiet neighborhood in the city.
My yard would have at least a vegetable garden. But I would love to have a few fruiting trees too: apple for sure and maybe walnut if I can find one.
I'm lucky enough to be in an area with great parks and plenty of green space. The trees are old, and tower over most of the houses. It's - for me - the perfect compromise.
No, not really. I would not mind moving to a small village in Europe, say Greece or Spain for a year. Live a simpler life, learn the language, do some gardening, hang out with locals, telecommute for my current work. However, living in a rural area here in US makes me shiver, medical care is bad enough in cities, leave alone the woods.
It's funny, when I was little I was the "poor ranch kid" at school, the ragamuffin in wranglers and thrifted blouses while all the other kids were sporting button fly jeans and l.a. gears. We barely eked an income from our commercial chicken operation. Times have changed.
This post resonated with me! I am one of few who found the love of her life early, and who's values and dreams match up with his to perfection. It's because of this that 6 months ago, my Sailorman and I were able to purchase 12 acres of completely isolated (we own a valley and the hills surrounding our little valley) forest and marsh property - with a 700sq ft cabin built in 2007 to boot!
The land is hardly "useable" for farming or ranching, but we are full of aspirations and dreams of excavating a pond, building a second house, and a small orchard and garden in the corner.
We are pouring our hearts and souls into our little homestead, and so far, listening to "our" bullfrogs at night is all we need.
(http://eatrunknit.blogspot.com)
Medusa - while i understand your point, that's easy to say when you don't live in a high crime area, where cost of living is disproportionately high. at least in our case, we want to get the heck out of Dodge for our own safety and for our future. there isn't much of one here.
In a few years, I hope to be doing the same, but I'll be keeping my city property as a rental/lease so I have the option of coming back if silence proves to be too much quiet. I already grow so much food here, and I trade some with a neighbor who keeps chickens so I get fresh eggs in return, but it's all the mechanical neighbor noise that's driving me away. I've taken to gardening at super early hours when I can hear the birds, instead of traffic or a booming car stereo, and if I have to garden during noisy times I've started to wear ear protection to dull the noise. In the meantime, I tend my garden here and I research areas to move to and tiny/small housebuilding.