Saw this a number of years ago:

Homesteader's Lament: "Why is it I spend all of my time, working at a job I dislike, to pay someone to do for me the things I would rather be doing for myself in the first place?"

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), December 01, 2000

Answers

How true this is, Ken. And a very good reason to get out of debt and stay out of debt. Might still have to work off the place a little, but probably not full-time.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), December 01, 2000.

I stay with my job for the health insurance. Took me better than 3 years to move to a "low priority" position, but I finally made it. I let the youngsters and the ones that don't realize their abilities run the rat race and fight for promotions. I know coworkers that live their entire lives in apartments, going to the job, just so they got a hole to live in,bed and tv to watch, so they can complain about the world and do it all over tomorrow.

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), December 01, 2000.

Sure did that lament for a bunch of years. About 10 years ago we decided we didn't like where our uncle sam was spending our money and got way down on the food chain and pecking order. Love it!!! We might work a bit harder physically but other people our age are paying high dollars to "work-out" at the gym and we just go shovel some of the brown stuff or put up some wood and get our heart rate up there where it needs to be. We just bartered an old travel trailer someone had asked my husband to "get rid of" for work on our 1979 truck that still gets us where we want to go (most of the time). But then, we don't go too much. Wish we had figured this out years ago.

-- Diane Green (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), December 01, 2000.

We were part of the rat race for all of our adult working life and could not wait for the breakaway to a more complete lifestyle. Sometimes you don't have much of a choice and stay with the yuppie syndrom just for some basic needs. We are retired now and spend our days enjoying the fruits of our labors doing what we dreamed of for all those years. Our country place is our salvation and we always feel refreshed and whole after a good hard days workout and indulged with nature at it's best. No gym or country club was ever in our lifestyle. We planned for years to live a simple way and enjoy our retirement. We needed the medical benefits for my wife and her medical care and that I'm sure is what keeps anyone from attaining their dreams sooner than the needs allow. Take care, we enjoy the Countryside mag. and forum. Seems almost like family. Jerry.

-- Gerald S. Rozanski (Grozanski56@cs.com), December 01, 2000.

What to do????We are in the same boat as most of countrysiders,reallly wanna do it but there are so many iffs.Our insurance company just approved an insulin pump for our son,at a cost of $5,000.The month to month cost of diabetic supplies is a few hundred dollars.We are on a 70 acre ,150 year old farm,and we try to do our best-self-sufficientcy wise.We had an interesting offer recently.The farmer who cash crops(rents our land) has given us an offer to purchase just our farmland not our home.We had been praying to be debt free,and this came.It would leave us with a 250 x250 that we would own and an additional 4 acresd with a life lease.I know thay answer seems obvious,but the house needs a lot of work and we are not sure wether or not to get while the gettin is good or to stick it out........I am so blessed to even be out of the city,I really should not be complaining.We were city kids with a dream,and we got this far.To all us wannabees don't give up!!!! love to all and killerdustbunnies...teri

-- teri (mrs_smurf2000@yahoo.ca), December 01, 2000.

Teri, what are you going to do if you sell your land and the farmer decides to flood it with chemicals or sell it to a developer? Just a thought.

-- Laura Jensen (lauraj@seedlaw.com), December 01, 2000.

My grandparents were homesteaders, in the truest sense of the word. Never carried any debt, ate what the shot or raised. Built their own homes from salvage and logs from their property. They died very young, of old age.

My parents have always drilled it into me that "the good ol' days" were not all the romantic notions that were in the story books I read. If the coyotes killed the chickens, you did without eggs. If the cow dried up and died, the kids did without milk. If a hailstorm- drought- tornado-fire - took out the crops, the family did without THAT too, plus the cash the surplus would have brought in. I still had to learn it the hard way some 20 years ago.

I like having the best of both worlds. My husband has a job that he really likes and is not hard work. It pays enough and has good benefits. The kids and I get to "farm" and eventually sell to market. We get to raise our own and eat homegrown, but when the deer strip the orchard, the horse gets into the garden or the rain rots it to the ground, we still have options to live with. We have room for mistakes that our ancestors did not have.

I may not be as tough as my grandparents, but I will live longer.

-- Laura (gsend@hotmail.com), December 01, 2000.

I think that everyone agrees that the major reason we who live so frugally work outside the home is for the health insurance. I have had some health problems this year that would have cost me many thousands of dollars if it wasn't for my insurance. I wish we could afford to buy it without having to work my butt off every day, but we can't. Guess that is just one of many facts of modern life.

-- Joe (Threearrs@AOL.com), December 01, 2000.

Teri: There are many reasons why we all have had our times of being in debt. If you have 70 acres I sure hate to see you give it up. Farmers buy and farmers sell, and the big factory farms are buying up the small farms as fast as they can. I don't know where you are, but in Michigan they are popping up where you would least expect them. If you hang on, every year your land gets more valuable. Get inventive. Perhaps a little down the road you will think of ways to make money yourself instead of let someone else use it up. (on your land I mean) Sick children, needs for insurance etc. are there around the corner for anyone. We work one job all the time off the farm just to keep insurance. It's just not a big job that takes up every bit of energy and leaves you used up at the end of a day. I will pray for your peace and success. diane

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), December 01, 2000.

Teri, As you said , your leasing your land now, thats income. Once sold, that income is gone, along with your land. If I were in your shoes, I would consider ways to maximize that income and maybe expand on the potential streams of income. How about Christmas trees or a rose and tree nursury. I have recently heard of a nursury in Huntland TN that is offering blight resistant elm tree shoots at resonable prices. If you haven't got it yet, get the e-book from Ken S. It has many possible opportunities with land as you have.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), December 02, 2000.

Hey everyone!or should I say hay!!!Believe me we have thought about our land and it's value,(not just the financial ones)for a while.And my husband and I keep wondering if we are hanging on to it out of pride.The simple fact is most of what we can do on 70 acres,or maybe I should say what we want to do ,we can do on 5acres.The offer has been available to us for sometime now,and right now we are not selling and for precisely the reasons that have been mentioned.I don't want those mega tractors taking out the fence rows,where the birds and foxes hangout(no I'm not a greenie,my son is a trapper)and I like to walk back to the bush and be able to say this is ours.There is no possibility of building developements,but farm buildings he could probably do but this isn't all the land they farm.They own or rent pretty much this whole concession.As for big farmers ,I suppose they are but they are local guys whose sole income is farming,that gives me some comfort.They lease the land dirt cheap(didjagetitteehee) so that isn't a huge loss.But this 70 acres was this city girl's( turned hick before hick was cool.)Dream.There's a looooong story about my broken engagement and losing this farm to my betrotheds family only to get it back 15 years later for a really really really cheap pricethis time married to my now husband of 20 years ......I call this farm...PROMISED LAND..well now that I have talked myself into never selling I should see were else I can go in this forum to ramble on and on about whatever til the cows I don't have come home to find out the barn is occupied by totally(nearly) useless miniature horses. love to all your so sweet.Go tell someone they mean more to you than....your new lemans catalogue .Killerdustbunnies teri

-- teri murphy (mrs_smurf2000@yahoo.ca), December 02, 2000.

Question--how can I get the "e-book", by Ken S., and what is it all about? I keep seeing so many of you recommending it as answers to so many problems.

-- Clare Baldwin (clare_baldwin@hotmail.com), December 04, 2000.

I'm just wondering if a few sheep in that barn full of useless minature horses couldn't be of some help. Then take up spinnin' and knittin' and presto, warm things for the family plus you'd be surprised how many folks would like to buy that stuff. Hope you hang on to your dream. It's not often that they do come true. God bless your ill son, prayers are with all of you. Hang in there, if you feel yourself slippin' tie a knot in the rope and hang on some more. This too shall pass.

-- Clare Baldwin (clare_baldwin@hotmail.com), December 04, 2000.

Clare: Write to Ken, his address is after the post he made to start this topic. I sent for it for a friend, who enjoyed the book as inspiration to be creative.

-- Anne (HT@HM.com), December 04, 2000.

Actually,about the horses.Iam a firm believer in...If you don't earn your keepyour outa here!!!We are expecting foals in april that if all goes well should be the only profitable goings on around here.It's funny you know,we have dear friends who have been farming for 15 years,they never seem to break even.They're good to their stock,maybe too good(:They are always just coverin gtheir costs for most stuff.This year their ST.Bernard had puppies to their other St.bernard( sort-of-unplanned cuz we thought she couldn't)...three weeks momma dog takes care of them three weeks you take care of them,shots at the vet voila! ! ! ProfitYes .they went to good homes Life does'nt always make sense lol teri.

-- teri m (mrs_smurf2000@yahoo.ca), December 04, 2000.

Dear Terri, I can't go into detail or even put up much of a logical financial argument....BUT FOR GOODNESS SAKE DON'T SELL THE LAND! It has a value beyond what the farmer might give you today.You will not like the feeling of it being owned by some one else.Even if the view does not change and the farmer farms it the same way he always has there will still be a psycological boundry of his and yours that was not there before.I am in a similer situation I own a 60 acre farm and because I don't yet have the equipment to farm it I allow a neighbor to farm it in exchange for hay and snow plowing.By far he gets the better deal.I could shave off a parcel here and a parcel there to buy equipment or to meet other expenses.But how much farm would there be after I did that?My 60 acres carries a mortgage and at the rate things are going my wife and I will be geriatric before we can burn the note but we make the payment every month and someday this will be a debt free place to leave to children.Even with the knowledge of the bank in the background,I am the lord of the manor and the king of what I survey.(humble though it may be)I'm not doing a very good job of putting it into words but, there is no better feeling than being able to own and control where and how you live.Think very hard about that feeling before you make any decisions about changing the stewardship of YOUR land. Good luck Terri!God Bless You ,Greg

-- Greg (gsmith@tricountyi.net), January 15, 2001.