leaving the rat race behind!

[UncleCook81]

My wife and I have decided to drop out of the rat race and return to our roots. We have acquired about 30 acres in a rural area where we want to put down those roots. We know it won't be easy, my father always told me "rarely do the things in life worth doing come easy" However I want to trade this crazy suburban/city life of consumerism for the hard work and self sufficiency of growing our own food and making our own way. I want to mark my day with blisters and sweat rather than junk and debt. This site seems to have some very good information and a good since of community I will most likely need all the advice I can get. Cheers and Happy New Year!

Uncle Cook

 

[Muhammad]

Welcome to TBN.

 

[two_bit_score]

Welcome to TBN. Good luck on your new endeavor!

 

[DIRTROAD]

Good Luck!!! That is my ultimate goal also.

 

[Billys Goat]

Greetings Uncle Cook. My wife and I sold our 5 bedroom 3 bathroom home with a big note at a loss in 2009 and picked up a wreck of a house on 27 acres a little over 2 years ago, the appraisal subtracted $5600.00 from the property value to demolish the house but we decided to save it and we are glad we did. After replacing 40' of beam, 32 floor joists and a complete gut and remodel our old farm house is habitable and nearly complete. After the first of the year I'll pick up our Kioti DK55 Utility Tractor and start working our land. My wife ended her corporate employment last July, we will continue with our home based service business as long as it suits us and/or until we attain self sufficiency. I look forward to hearing about your trials and tribulations and to sharing details of our endeavor.

 

[bironacad]

Welcome!

My father left the city after a heart attack put him on the shelf and he was convinced that it saved his life and after living there for awhile said that he wished he had done it sooner, even if it meant being poorer, go figure.

Best of luck!

 

[Thomas]

Welcome,and fingers cross pulling hard for you both.

 

[rekees4300]

Uncle Cook welcome to TBN. It would prudent to do your urban-to-rural conversion in small, gradual steps. As they say "don't quit your day job". Rural living can be a challenging, humbling experience. Don't be naive and plunge into a situation that could ruin you financially and emotionally before you KNOW it's what you want.

 

[creekbend]

Welcome aboard. Best of Luck.

 

[Billys Goat]

Sound advice rekees4300, we paid our way with my wifes corporate employment for a couple of years with a daily round trip commute of 160 miles and we continue with our service business. We are into $100,000+ cash now and increasing...

 

[Davinator]

Best of luck and a tip of the hat to all those who are working to change their lifestyle to a simpler way! Maybe some day...

 

[UncleCook81]

all very good comments and advice, this hasn't been a spur of the moment decision at all we have been planning at this for years. we moved from a metro area of over 300,000pop. to a somewhat smaller setting of about 15,000pop. with some ranches and sheep herding being part of the local economy. My wife grew up very rural never living in an area with any more than 2100pop. our acreage is in an even smaller community but there is a full service town about 30minutes away. I have not quit my day job yet and commute a great distance to work which I would love to do without, I would rather be dirt floor poor than in deep debt to credit cards and stressed about the Joneses next store. My father has his own small acreage and is flat broke yet couldn't be happier he is a fine example to me about what really matters to me in life. Thank you all for the well wishes, I too hope that you all achieve your goals!

 

[Combustix]

My wife and I started several years back We have to boys 8-10 now but much younger when we started. We started with meat rabbits and chickens. the chickens we for eggs at the time. We also started a 30 x 30 garden and small greenhouse. We then added ducks and geese for meat and eggs as well. once we had all this down we moved to goats first dairy milking about 4 in a rotational basis to keep us in fresh milk and make our own cheese. We've added meat goats last year as surprisingly goat meat is very tasty. We know have 12 goats total and have kidded out our third set. What we don't put in the freezer we sell. During our goat start up we also started raising broilers a one time deal. First go around was 50 birds. Last summer we went with 90 and sold 50. Pretty much gives us a years supply of chicken for free. We are looking into a sustainable flock for chickens as well as turkey our next adventure. Also just got done doubling the size of the garden to 60x60.
We have done this all over the space of 4-5 years with a lot of research into each aspect, books, web info, local growers and farmers. Let me tell you it has been a lot of work but very reward able. Our feed bill vs old grocery bill is about half, which is good with two growing boys. My wife has gotten into canning and preserving as well as making her own bread. What we don't grow or raise we buy from local farms I.E. berries for making jelly.

Couple good forums such as back yard chickens and goat beat are like this one with lots of great info. Lots of research and lots of work but it has all been worth it. Best of luck to you and enjoy your new lifestyle:thumbsup:

 

[bironacad]

Uncle Cook welcome to TBN. It would prudent to do your urban-to-rural conversion in small, gradual steps. As they say "don't quit your day job". Rural living can be a challenging, humbling experience. Don't be naive and plunge into a situation that could ruin you financially and emotionally before you KNOW it's what you want.

Yes I have been doing it in stages and more time there each year as it is an adjustment, can't run out for a pizza, planning is involved, lol. Best Wishes for the New Year!

 

[paulwestski]

My wife and I started several years back We have to boys 8-10 now but much younger when we started. We started with meat rabbits and chickens. the chickens we for eggs at the time. We also started a 30 x 30 garden and small greenhouse. We then added ducks and geese for meat and eggs as well. once we had all this down we moved to goats first dairy milking about 4 in a rotational basis to keep us in fresh milk and make our own cheese. We've added meat goats last year as surprisingly goat meat is very tasty. We know have 12 goats total and have kidded out our third set. What we don't put in the freezer we sell. During our goat start up we also started raising broilers a one time deal. First go around was 50 birds. Last summer we went with 90 and sold 50. Pretty much gives us a years supply of chicken for free. We are looking into a sustainable flock for chickens as well as turkey our next adventure. Also just got done doubling the size of the garden to 60x60.
We have done this all over the space of 4-5 years with a lot of research into each aspect, books, web info, local growers and farmers. Let me tell you it has been a lot of work but very reward able. Our feed bill vs old grocery bill is about half, which is good with two growing boys. My wife has gotten into canning and preserving as well as making her own bread. What we don't grow or raise we buy from local farms I.E. berries for making jelly.

Couple good forums such as back yard chickens and goat beat are like this one with lots of great info. Lots of research and lots of work but it has all been worth it. Best of luck to you and enjoy your new lifestyle:thumbsup:

How many acres are you doing all of that on?

 

[TripleR]

Good luck with your endeavors, some on here have been successful; bp fick has some good write ups on his experience in making money on small acreage.

 

[Combustix]

How many acres are you doing all of that on?

I have 20 with about fifteen in woods. The egg chickens are in a 50x50 pen, the ducks roam free as we seem to loose them when we penned them, the broilers are pastured in a 100x100 pen and the main goat pen is 120x120, the egg chickens get free range after they are done laying and I have a Gallagher, easy fence I set up for the goats, but a lot of the time I just let them wonder, but need to keep on eye on them, I'll find them on my work bench, on,top of the cars, are nibbling the rubber protectors to my hydraulics on the tractor. The broiler fence is only up for about 8-12 weeks then when we process the broilers I take the fence down. Planning on extending the goat pen this spring.

 

[paulwestski]

I have 20 with about fifteen in woods. The egg chickens are in a 50x50 pen, the ducks roam free as we seem to loose them when we penned them, the broilers are pastured in a 100x100 pen and the main goat pen is 120x120, the egg chickens get free range after they are done laying and I have a Gallagher, easy fence I set up for the goats, but a lot of the time I just let them wonder, but need to keep on eye on them, I'll find them on my work bench, on,top of the cars, are nibbling the rubber protectors to my hydraulics on the tractor. The broiler fence is only up for about 8-12 weeks then when we process the broilers I take the fence down. Planning on extending the goat pen this spring.

Nice set up!

 

[Soundguy]

sounds great, welcome!

 

[UncleCook81]

Yes I have been doing it in stages and more time there each year as it is an adjustment, can't run out for a pizza, planning is involved, lol. Best Wishes for the New Year!

haha absolutely the truth! Proper planning is a must and no late night pizza or beer runs, but that is part of the challenge that I find rewarding and hope you do as well! Even the little changes we have made over the last few years have opened my eyes to the way of the world (at least in the urban USA) of how demanding our society can be and the instant satisfaction many seek. I hope many out there will take a step back this year and look at the big picture and plan a little more and stress a lot less! Best wishes to you in the New Year as well!