Dear folks, We live on 2 acres outside of a medium size town. My husband works full time and I homeschool our 6 children. We have the usual run of chickens, goats, dogs and ducks. In 2 years my oldest will start college and I am now seriously looing at ideas for a homestead business. It has got to be something that will make at least $10,000 a year and I can have fully operation in about 2-3 years. I would prefer it to be agricultural or hoemstead based. We are scanning the internet for all kinds of alternative ag.ideas, but I figured you folks are the ones that are already doing and might have some good insights. If this idea fails, we will go to a more traditional home-based business, but I sure would like to use my land if possible.Any ideas? Thanks, Renee'

-- Renee' Madden (RM6PACK@ail.com), June 26, 2000

Answers

I hope you don't consider this a blantant sales attempt. Several years ago I put together a self-published book on "Home to Make Extra Money in the Country". Jd gave it a very nice review. I still have about eight copies left. Price is $25 postpaid with a money back guarantee. Includes over 300 possibilities. One example: raise doves which are taught to fly back to their coop from a distance. Then rent them out to weddings. As they are released as the bride and groom come out of the church, they will probably beat you back home. I doubt any single thing will consistently earn you $10,000 a year, but putting together several might. If interested in a copy of the book send payment to Ken Scharabok, 1645 West Blue Creek Road, Waverly, TN 37185.

-- Ken Scharabok (scharabo@aol.com), June 26, 2000.

bed and breakfast, bees,back to yer roots courses (baking bread,etc.), We do a variety of things (cheese making, bread baking, bed and breakfast - which is on hold as we are still hoping to get govt. money from damage due to earthquakes, pork products, and lambs)...BUT we still can't really get by with all these things (well we have until now but I am tired of working my butt off and never having any money) which is why I started a full-time job with the hope to eventually find a part-time job.

-- kelly (kellytree@hotmail.com), June 26, 2000.

Here's some of the things we do now or have done in the past. Husband has just started a handyman type repair business. I write articles for two major newspapers and my office is at home (I send the articles in via computer.)

I have taught guitar and piano lessons in the past. You cook teach a variety of things such as canning, photography, cooking, etc. whatever you know how to do. And you wouldn't have to teach lessons every week. You could set up a workshop, say once every two months....something like photography you could teach a class of from one to ten on a Saturday morning...What about how to knit? how to spin? etc.

We also raise Angora rabbits. My son fixes up awful old cars and then sells them for a small profit.

My husband is going to start doing a little writing for the newspaper I've worked for for 20 years,,,he's going to cover some sporting events for them.

Buying and fixing up old furniture and reselling it. Also, there's a guy here on the local radio swap shop every day who has something he's fixed such as a VCR, old lawn mower, etc.

think about what your area needs that you don't have. what about starting and selling plants in the spring? we're going to try and have a small greenhouse next spring.

what about tutoring other children, even public school kids. somebody might need help with reading, or math, or whatever you might be good at and you could tutor them one or two afternoons a week to make some extra money.. other homeschool families might like you to help their children in whatever subject is your best....

we're trying to expand and have as many areas of revenue as possible so all our money isn't coming from any one thing....that way if one thing is "slow" we'll still be all right. hope this helps!

-- Suzy in 'Bama (slgt@yahoo.com), June 26, 2000.

Hi Renee' Have you thought about pastured poultry? I would highly recommend Joel Salatin's books "Pastured Poultry Profits" and "You Can Farm". In Joel's opinion, one of the best investments a beginning farmer could make is to invest money in a commercial kitchen, then make value added products from your farm and garden. Grow zucchini and make zucchini bread to sell. Can raspberry jam, etc. Have you ever checked out the internet auctions? You can make some money buying stuff at yard sales and thrifts and selling on the internet auctions. I agree with those who said to look for several things that could each make $2,000 - $3,000 a year instead of one thing that could make $10,000. I read a book a few years ago where the author said you should have 10 businesses that each supplied about 10% of your income. That way you may make extra from one business if another one isn't doing so well. He did window washing for businesses, doggie pooper scooper for people in town, newspaper route, etc. Also a good way to take advantage of seasonal activities. Good luck. I'm sure we'll all get alot of great ideas from this thread. I know we can use some, too!

-- Deb (andersland@webound.com), June 26, 2000.

I agree with Deb about internet auctions. I use eBay. Eventually you develop an eye as to what will sell for at least double your money and what won't. Pictures (images) with auctions are very important. I use a free hosting service. Some of the time I don't even get my money back, but on others I have done very, very well. An example is four old soda bottle caps I paid an average of $.10 each and they sold for $29. It is a lot of hassle, and what business isn't, but so far has produced at least nice pocket money. Go to yard sales and see what turns up. I know my neighbor found one item for $.50 and sold it for over $75. If you want to check out what people are selling go to www.ebay.com and just search on various items for examples.

-- Ken Scharabok (scharabo@aol.com), June 26, 2000.

A friend of ours cleans NEW houses - Just after they are finished and right before the open house. Windows, bathrooms, goop off of the tile floors, vac the rugs, etc. Check with contractors in your area that may want that kind of service. I think it takes them about 2-3 days to finish a house, so though it is not steady it could be fitted in around other things.

-- Vaughn (vdcjm5@juno.com), June 27, 2000.

Thanks everyone. These are wonderful ideas. I went through my old Countryside mags yesterday and started researching some ideas. It sounds like there are a lot of really creative people out there! Renee'

-- Renee' Madden (RM6PACK@aol.com), June 27, 2000.

i heard that since dove and balloon releases at weddings had become unpopular (because of bird poop and sea life harm respectively), people were making a lot of money raising butterflies for releases, to sell to classes, etc. Appearently, you can stock up on cacoons and when they hatch, you sell, keeping some for breeding stock. You have to have the appropriate feed weeds in your atrium, of course. I hear it is good cash once you get going. You could also go for niche marketing of produce (ie wacky or bizzare veggies (strange colored potatoes, so on, organic herbs and produce, medicinal herbs, etc) My mother always said that someone who could fix household appliances (driers, etc) and made after work house calls could cahrge pretty much what they wanted.

-- Soni Pitts (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), June 29, 2000.

I had also heard of people making good money raising butterflies, and they give several examples of how at www.wildranch.com

-- Lenore (archambo@winco.net), June 29, 2000.

Way back yonder in the dark ages, as I rode my dinosaur to Ag college.......

Okay, so it was really in the 70's, but at the rate Ag-business has changed since then, it sure seems like the dark ages!! I was going to school with mostly guys (I think there were three females in the class) and one of the things we had to do was stand up and tell about our "operation" and what we planned to do. All these guys were standing up and saying - "me and my Daddy, we got 1000 acres and we run hogs" "me and my Daddy, we farm 2000 acres and we show prize winnin' Angus cattle" etc... I stood up and said (only slightly facetiously) "Wall, me an' MY Daddy, we got 30 acres - we raise apples, peaches and strawberries". They were laughing and carrying on - until I wagered them that I netted more off one acre of berries than they did off 100 acres of corn - and won. After that they took me a little more seriously - even if the teaching staff DID think that there was something a little pinko-commie about anyone who read Organic Gardening, Mother Earth News, and, of course, Countryside.

Another thing we had to do was make out a year long cash-flow sheet with a time-flow sheet to go along with it. For those of you who don't know what a cash flow sheet is - it's just a plan of what income and outgo you will have each month of the year. I started out the year in January with very little income - I think I planned to have green plants and silk flower arrangements for local only funerals, ditto for Feb and Mar. In April, I projected income from Asparagus and bedding plants. May and June were bedding plants and eggs. June was also strawberries. July was raspberries and peaches, August was peaches and early apples, September and October were apples, pumpkins, ornamental corn and corn shocks, etc... June through Sept I also projected farm market income (eggs included), November and December were Christmas trees, wreaths and poinsettias and other Christmas florals and greens arrangements. I remember that honey was in there somewhere, too.

My time flow sheet showed what I would be doing in each month of the year - example, when I would start bedding plants, plant what crops, rob hives, etc... I would recommend that anyone considering raising something for on farm income work up both a cash and time flow sheet - it can really help you in the long run.

One other idea for on farm income would be child care - with six kids, I'd say you're experienced!! If you don't want to do it year round, how about summers only? If you can't handle kids, how about day care for elders? If you don't mind going off farm, advertise to do house cleaning - it pays pretty darn good and you can set your own hours. My Aunt used to do this, and when my cousin and I were out of school, we would go with her - either sit in the car or yard and read, or go in the houses and watch TV while she cleaned. How about driving a school bus? Or doing shopping for homebound folks?

I guess the main thing I would have to say is "Don't put all your eggs in one basket". Diversify, diversify, diversify - that way, if one crop doesn't work out, maybe another can pick up the slack.

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), July 01, 2000.