Anyone planning on (or currently) homesteading for their retirement?

[CBnCO]

I've been contemplating the homesteading idea quite a lot lately, so an opportune time to share some thoughts. It's continually amazing to me how wasteful and contrived modern society is. We work our whole lives for little pieces of paper (now digital credits seen when logging into your bank website, on an ATM receipt, or credit card statement) and aspire to own mostly useless stuff. And, at the same time we spend little time working on rationalizing the human impact on our planet or our own natural survival skills. Pop culture, politics, wars, consumerism, and even technology seem very depressing when I think about the path humans seem to be on. What is most interesting is when you see a small condo in the city sell for $1M and with that same amount of money you can buy hundreds, if not thousands, of acres of fertile land that can sustain life.

That said, I agree with many of the other posters that the concept of single family homesteading seems very difficult and I wonder why we don't see more cooperative efforts. I'd love to live in a community where everybody contributed a little work to growing, raising, gathering, preserving, preparing; but, without the 24/7 responsibility of a wholly owned homestead. We've recently been helping our neighbor with some of their goats and quickly realized how much of an anchor this could become. I'd love to be able to take unencumbered weekend trips and then return to some homestead chores without the full weight of the operation on my shoulders. How about a "subdivision" attached to a working co-op farm..anyone ever seen anything like this?

[theadvicist]

Honestly, I would not consider homesteading as a retirement option. It sounds way too much like subsistence farming to me. Revolutions were fought to get people out of working all the hours the sun is up.

To me, retirement is appealing because of the lack of work. This would just be trading one type for another. If it's stuff you like, great! But I'd rather do easy intellectual stuff and get highly paid for it for a short time, then work like a dog for what works out at less than minimum wage forever, just so I can be free of going to the office for those few years. Especially when you add ageing into the equation.

That's not to say I don't get joy from good old-fashioned hard work etc. I am considering a couple of lambs in the spring to raise for meat. I looked at it this year but decided I needed to do more due diligence. But to me it will be a hobby with the fine result of yummy meat. Kind of like how I enjoy sewing and therefore get to benefit from new clothes. It would not be a strategy in and of itself.

As for the end of civilisation as we know it thing, I've often thought, hmmm, we're in a really lucky position having a lot of land to grow produce and livestock, if the worst happened. Then I think, hmmm, if there is no 'civilisation' and therefore no law and order, surely people will just steal my lambs and cabbages? So really we're all in the sh*t so I have decided not to waste to much thought on what I believe is a remote possibility.

[Khaetra]

Honestly, I would not consider homesteading as a retirement option. It sounds way too much like subsistence farming to me. Revolutions were fought to get people out of working all the hours the sun is up.

To me, retirement is appealing because of the lack of work. This would just be trading one type for another. If it's stuff you like, great! But I'd rather do easy intellectual stuff and get highly paid for it for a short time, then work like a dog for what works out at less than minimum wage forever, just so I can be free of going to the office for those few years. Especially when you add ageing into the equation.

That's not to say I don't get joy from good old-fashioned hard work etc. I am considering a couple of lambs in the spring to raise for meat. I looked at it this year but decided I needed to do more due diligence. But to me it will be a hobby with the fine result of yummy meat. Kind of like how I enjoy sewing and therefore get to benefit from new clothes. It would not be a strategy in and of itself.

As for the end of civilisation as we know it thing, I've often thought, hmmm, we're in a really lucky position having a lot of land to grow produce and livestock, if the worst happened. Then I think, hmmm, if there is no 'civilisation' and therefore no law and order, surely people will just steal my lambs and cabbages? So really we're all in the sh*t so I have decided not to waste to much thought on what I believe is a remote possibility.

+1.  My ex and I thought about doing this many year ago, getting a small piece of land and growing our own.  Knowing the way things worked out now I am so glad we didn't go that route!  I am happily retired, enjoy travel and not really having to do anything.

[happy]

I would love to homestead in retirement but as a single woman in her late 50s, I accept its just not possible. So I currently do my own version of "moving towards" homesteading on a 1/3rd acre urban bush block.  I bake bread and cook from scratch, stockpile, grow veges mostly organically, am slowly expanding my preserving skills, make my own cleaning products and soap, line dry, collect firewood off my property and use it to heat as much as possible in the winter. I compost and shred and try to keep as much green waste as possible on the property. House is insulated and I am mindful to maximise passive heating/cooling techniques if I can. In the future I'd like to add solar PV and water tanks, and upgrade my smokey open fire to a woodburner, as finances permit. I'm doing about as much as I can manage whilst still working part-time, so I can  imagine how much work more complete self sufficiency would require.

On the dream list is up to 5 acres, off grid, permaculture design, with a house cow ( or possibly milking goats if a cow is not feasible), chooks, bees, and 2 horses for driving. Now that is fully a dream list, and I doubt whether it will ever be realised unless I met the perfect Mr to do it with. Most likely I'll get the chooks, but not the rest. I'm not heavily into travelling so being tied down with animals is Ok for me.

[sser]

Want to second the Frugalwoods blog: http://www.frugalwoods.com/

They just moved to their homestead : ) I'm sure they'll have a ton of good advice and it will be fun to follow them.

Their blog is also one of my favorites - packed with information, inspiration, humor, and good writing. Definitely check it out!

[Fishindude]

Full on homesteading in this day and age is pretty impractical, and very few in America are truly doing it.   
Everyone has some reliance on outside sources of goods, even if you're in roadless Alaska.

Most of us however could implement certain aspects of homesteading and self sufficiency into our lives, it just depends on how far you care to take it.   Things that are pretty easy to do include; wood heat, gardening, fruit trees, foraging, fishing and hunting, canning, freezing and preserving foods, alternative energy sources, chickens & eggs, home butchering, learning to build, fix and repair things yourself, etc.   

It starts getting tough when you do things like; try to get completely off the energy grid, quit working all together, raise livestock, get away from gasoline powered equipment and automobiles, etc.  Amish are probably the ones living closest to a homesteading lifestyle, however many of them "bend the rules" for convenience too using things like automobiles, power tools, air travel, etc. if and when needed.

Use the parts of the homesteading lifestyle that you like and have some fun at it.  Most revolves around food and shelter, and there is a lot of satisfaction in having a hand in providing high quality, healthy foods and keeping a roof over your head vs paying to have it all done.

[cheapass]

if there is no 'civilisation' and therefore no law and order, surely people will just steal my lambs and cabbages?

Not if you shoot them first :)

[Syonyk]

Full on homesteading in this day and age is pretty impractical, and very few in America are truly doing it.   
Everyone has some reliance on outside sources of goods, even if you're in roadless Alaska.

Sure, but there's a big difference between "Being able to provide for most of your own needs" and "Can't survive the weekend without restaurants."

Most of us however could implement certain aspects of homesteading and self sufficiency into our lives, it just depends on how far you care to take it.   Things that are pretty easy to do include; wood heat, gardening, fruit trees, foraging, fishing and hunting, canning, freezing and preserving foods, alternative energy sources, chickens & eggs, home butchering, learning to build, fix and repair things yourself, etc.   

One other aspect here is that there's increasing evidence that "industrial food" isn't particularly healthy for humans - so knowing where your stuff is coming from has value beyond just keeping yourself fed.

It starts getting tough when you do things like; try to get completely off the energy grid, quit working all together, raise livestock, get away from gasoline powered equipment and automobiles, etc.  Amish are probably the ones living closest to a homesteading lifestyle, however many of them "bend the rules" for convenience too using things like automobiles, power tools, air travel, etc. if and when needed.

I suspect most Amish, given the lack of "conveniences," would be just fine...

[shelivesthedream]

Amish are probably the ones living closest to a homesteading lifestyle, however many of them "bend the rules" for convenience too using things like automobiles, power tools, air travel, etc. if and when needed.

I really love the Amish. I find them totally fascinating. I have read several books and watched several documentaries about their history, religion and lifestyle. However, there are a fair few things that make their lifestyle possible that non-Amish would find it extremely hard to replicate.

- Intense peer pressure. Different Amish groups have different rules and different levels of flexibility (e.g. electricity in the carpentry workshop but not the house, patterned clothes are OK or not OK). But the one thing they all have in common is massive pressure to not deviate from the community's rules. As a homesteader, you might we weighing up ploughing with a horse vs a tractor and looking at expense, effort, pleasantness of the job... They have all that but they also have to add losing contact with all their friends and family into the equation. Maybe some Amish don't think the no-tractor rule that important and would love to buy one, but they love their friends and family more.
- Higher purpose. I guess non-Amish could replicate this (see Erica's post upthread), but all Amish believe that they are living like that for reasons above saving money or saving the environment or whatever. They will put up with a lot of trouble to keep their lifestyle.
- Skilled community. How many of you could muster up enough skilled friends and neighbours to raise a barn in a day? How many of you were looking after chickens since you were five? How many of you have a dozen neighbours who know how to make anything you could need? And, on a related note, how many of you would keep your children out of school from age 13 so they could do all the house and farm chores that homesteading and working your carpentry (or whatever) business requires (without being paid, of course)?

I think the lack of a skilled community to call on in times of need is a major barrier to homesteading today. The internet helps a lot in being able to look up how to do just about anything, but it's no substitute for trading pig-killing with your neighbours or being able to ask your friend to help you fix your roof in return for pumpkin pie.

---

I've been thinking more about my homesteading dreams with this thread, and I've realised that what is really important to me is that it is FUN. Not that every day is a riot of joy, but that when something becomes more trouble than it is worth, I want to be able to stop doing it whenever I want. I want to make sure I have the money for the essentials (rice and beans, flour, electricity bill, that kind of thing) so that I never HAVE to do some homesteading thing I hate just to survive. If I find out that milking a cow is akin to torture, I want to be able to sell the cow and buy milk from the shops. Because of MMM, I think this is a pretty reasonable goal. Stash for the essentials, homestead for the luxuries and warm fuzzies. My goal with any homesteading-type project (my allotment, beekeeping, making clothes as opposed to buying, etc) is always just to break even. I'm not going to pour money into a black hole just to have slightly fresher vegetables, but if I can break even on a project and learn and have some fun while doing it, that's enough for me.

[Syonyk]

- Skilled community. How many of you could muster up enough skilled friends and neighbours to raise a barn in a day? How many of you were looking after chickens since you were five? How many of you have a dozen neighbours who know how to make anything you could need? And, on a related note, how many of you would keep your children out of school from age 13 so they could do all the house and farm chores that homesteading and working your carpentry (or whatever) business requires (without being paid, of course)?

It depends on where you live.

I've lived places where most people worked on their own stuff, and I've lived places where people could not understand why I'd spend a few hours working on my truck to save a few hundred dollars, and, besides, where did I learn to do that anyway?

[Catbert]

For those interested in knowing what its really like to live on a farm you might want to dig through the archives of this blog:

http://www.farmgirlfare.com/

She doesn't post much anymore and most of what she posts now is repeat recipes.  But if you start at the beginning (2005) you can see posts of what its really like to live on a 240 acre Missouri farm.  Lambing season when you get no sleep...too much/too little/wrong time for rain...snake bits that lay you up for months...cute animals...

[homestead neohio]

I really love the Amish.

I live fairly close to several Amish communities and it must be interesting to be Amish.  They rely heavily on local non-Amish and "tourists" for the cash part of their economy.  An interesting paradox for a lifestyle synonymous with self-sufficiency.  It is very common to see Amish workers on building sites >1 hour away from the nearest Amish home.  The towns down in "Amish Country" are built up with lots of shopping and places for people to eat way too much fried chicken, and on Saturdays they are jam-packed. Agree they'd be just fine without this, and better off than most other communities in the US during a geopolitical meltdown or whatever.

While I don't have the extent of skilled community they do, I have found some people with homesteady skills locally.  Last fall I learned how to kill and butcher a hog on a neighboring farm.  There is a farm 45 minutes away implementing permaculture design, they have an earth bermed greenhouse Mike Oehler style.  There are more resources available everywhere I look.  It helps that my expectations for finding new, local resources are low.

I've been thinking more about my homesteading dreams with this thread, and I've realised that what is really important to me is that it is FUN. Not that every day is a riot of joy, but that when something becomes more trouble than it is worth, I want to be able to stop doing it whenever I want. I want to make sure I have the money for the essentials (rice and beans, flour, electricity bill, that kind of thing) so that I never HAVE to do some homesteading thing I hate just to survive. If I find out that milking a cow is akin to torture, I want to be able to sell the cow and buy milk from the shops. Because of MMM, I think this is a pretty reasonable goal. Stash for the essentials, homestead for the luxuries and warm fuzzies. My goal with any homesteading-type project (my allotment, beekeeping, making clothes as opposed to buying, etc) is always just to break even. I'm not going to pour money into a black hole just to have slightly fresher vegetables, but if I can break even on a project and learn and have some fun while doing it, that's enough for me.

Sounds like a good attitude.  I similarly have no interest in making cloth from natural fibers, then turning it into rough and ill-fitting clothes when I can have plenty of clothes for $10 in an afternoon at the thrift shop.  Do what you like, but you don't have to live 1830s (unless that is what you like).

[cerat0n1a]

I've been thinking more about my homesteading dreams with this thread, and I've realised that what is really important to me is that it is FUN.

I love John Seymour's books - he was the figurehead for the self-sufficiency movement in Britain in the 70s, when a lot of ex-hippies moved to smallholdings etc. I've spent years trying many of the things his books teach. When you read stories of his life, though, you realise that some compromises have to be made. Even on simple stuff - I can provide more than enough fruit & veg for the family for 6 months of the year, but there's a huge difference when you know that if some pest or disease wipes out the crop, the supermarket is just down the road. And certainly in Britain, there are things that you're technically not allowed to do yourself any more - slaughtering your own pig, for example. Not something I'd fancy doing anyway.

[cheapass]

And certainly in Britain, there are things that you're technically not allowed to do yourself any more - slaughtering your own pig, for example.

...really? Was it the slaughterhouse union's lobbyist that fought that one or what the actual fuck?

Can't let people have too much freedom!

[cerat0n1a]

And certainly in Britain, there are things that you're technically not allowed to do yourself any more - slaughtering your own pig, for example.

...really? Was it the slaughterhouse union's lobbyist that fought that one or what the actual fuck?

Can't let people have too much freedom!

No - mainly came from EU legislation, as a result of lots of sensible laws about humane killing and careful tracking of what goes into the food supply. Mad cow disease, foot'n'mouth, swine flu, bird flu etc. have led to quite a lot of controls on livestock. It's more that the law is written to suit commercial farms with little consideration for smallholders/hobby farmers. A lot of small scale slaughterhouses got closed down in the same process. Even moving a pig from A to B requires a licence for each movement, which has to be retained for 6 years. All pigs have to be identified (eg with a tattoo, or an eartag) too.

You can kill a large farm animal yourself, but in theory it's illegal if it's being killed for food. Very few people own guns here, remember, so even farmers will often have a vet dispatch sick animals.

[shelivesthedream]

And certainly in Britain, there are things that you're technically not allowed to do yourself any more - slaughtering your own pig, for example.

...really? Was it the slaughterhouse union's lobbyist that fought that one or what the actual fuck?

Can't let people have too much freedom!

I believe that you are allowed to slaughter your own pig at home if the whole pig is for your and your family's consumption (you cannot sell or give away any part of it), you dispose of the carcass appropriately (I think there are certain parts you have to burn due to disease risk), and you have the necessary skills to restrain, stun and kill the animal cleanly and without causing it any distress (I think you can get some kind of certificate but you don't have to). Which, y'know, isn't too unreasonable, but does require a fair bit of preparation.

I think some of the UK's overly-cautious laws around slaughtering livestock come from the EU (so MAYBE we will repeal them if/when we leave, but we probably won't get round to it) and some come from the foot and mouth epidemics.

I have some friends who raised two pigs and they didn't want to do the killing themselves as they didn't have the skills to be confident about it but got a butcher to come to their home and kill the pigs there. They gave them a bucket of food and he killed each pig with a single shot. The second pig didn't even look up from its food when the first one died. The butcher then took the carcasses away to process. It sounds much more humane than freaking them out by loading them into a truck and taking them to a slaughterhouse.

[shelivesthedream]

I've been thinking more about my homesteading dreams with this thread, and I've realised that what is really important to me is that it is FUN.

I love John Seymour's books - he was the figurehead for the self-sufficiency movement in Britain in the 70s, when a lot of ex-hippies moved to smallholdings etc. I've spent years trying many of the things his books teach. When you read stories of his life, though, you realise that some compromises have to be made. Even on simple stuff - I can provide more than enough fruit & veg for the family for 6 months of the year, but there's a huge difference when you know that if some pest or disease wipes out the crop, the supermarket is just down the road. And certainly in Britain, there are things that you're technically not allowed to do yourself any more - slaughtering your own pig, for example. Not something I'd fancy doing anyway.

I LOVE John Seymour. I love his attitude about not over-complicating things. He really makes you feel like you CAN do things if you just keep to the basics. However, I recently re-read 'The Fat of the Land' and realised I had forgotten all the bits where he talks about how rubbish things were. The house being cold, food running out, all the physical work, that kind of thing. In the epilogue which he added 13 years after the original publication he basically says that they were completely mad to have done it as they did and, while he enjoyed it all very much, he would advise anyone thinking of it to do it as part of a community and not as a single family - for all the reasons enumerated upthread.

[robartsd]

While I can romanticize about a rural homestead on acreage just about as well as anyone; however, I don't think that's really the life I want.

I do hope to have a garden that produces a large portion of the food my family consumes. I'm certainly considering that a small flock of fowl can provide eggs and fertilizer while helping control garden pests. I'd like to use rain barrels and grey-water to minimize usage of municipal water. I'd also like to make use of solar energy and wood trimmings to reduce dependence on off-site energy sources. All of what I really want can be accomplished on a large lot close enough to a city center that there are many jobs within biking distance. The book Paradise Lot really inspired me that the lot doesn't have to be all that large. We just purchased a small house on over a quarter acre and are excited to try some of these things.

[Rural]

We'll keep doing some of the things we already do, but homesteading for retirement specifically? No.


It's not just the work, or the problem of aging, though those are real. It's security. I've been in a self-sufficiency lifestyle in a drought year, and there's nothing romantic about real hunger. I'm all for homestead as a backup plan, but not as the first line of defense. I like my homegrown food and the meat we hunt and process better than store bought, but I firmly plan to have the stash to buy everything I need at a store in retirement - optional homesteading is a lot more fun than obligate.

[Syonyk]

I'm certainly considering that a small flock of fowl can provide eggs and fertilizer while helping control garden pests. I'd like to use rain barrels and grey-water to minimize usage of municipal water. I'd also like to make use of solar energy and wood trimmings to reduce dependence on off-site energy sources. All of what I really want can be accomplished on a large lot close enough to a city center that there are many jobs within biking distance. The book Paradise Lot really inspired me that the lot doesn't have to be all that large. We just purchased a small house on over a quarter acre and are excited to try some of these things.

Hopefully you don't have a HOA that objects.  I could have done one of those things where I used to live - chickens.  Garden, perhaps, but the back yard was all shade and all it grew was moss.

It's not just the work, or the problem of aging, though those are real. It's security. I've been in a self-sufficiency lifestyle in a drought year, and there's nothing romantic about real hunger. I'm all for homestead as a backup plan, but not as the first line of defense. I like my homegrown food and the meat we hunt and process better than store bought, but I firmly plan to have the stash to buy everything I need at a store in retirement - optional homesteading is a lot more fun than obligate.

Totally agree that "optional" is better than "mandatory."  But, even there, with a few acres, you can build up reserves over the years, and if you've still got a way to earn income (or investments), that can cover shortfalls easily enough.

[Rural]

It's not just the work, or the problem of aging, though those are real. It's security. I've been in a self-sufficiency lifestyle in a drought year, and there's nothing romantic about real hunger. I'm all for homestead as a backup plan, but not as the first line of defense. I like my homegrown food and the meat we hunt and process better than store bought, but I firmly plan to have the stash to buy everything I need at a store in retirement - optional homesteading is a lot more fun than obligate.

Totally agree that "optional" is better than "mandatory."  But, even there, with a few acres, you can build up reserves over the years, and if you've still got a way to earn income (or investments), that can cover shortfalls easily enough.

 True that, and maybe I was reading too much into the OP's use  of "for their retirement"  in the title. I took it to mean as a substitute for at least some of the stash, and maybe that's not what was meant.  For me, it's for redundancy, not necessity. Until we get to that point, I don't consider us FI.

[arebelspy]

True that, and maybe I was reading too much into the OP's use  of "for their retirement"  in the title. I took it to mean as a substitute for at least some of the stash, and maybe that's not what was meant.  For me, it's for redundancy, not necessity. Until we get to that point, I don't consider us FI.

For us it wouldn't be for redundancy, or necessity, but for fun.

That is, we're thinking about doing some sort of homesteading, but wouldn't be doing it to reduce costs, but for enjoyment.  If it ended up costing us money (e.g. we spent more on it than we saved), that'd be fine.

I think it could be an enjoyable thing.  :)

[Rural]

True that, and maybe I was reading too much into the OP's use  of "for their retirement"  in the title. I took it to mean as a substitute for at least some of the stash, and maybe that's not what was meant.  For me, it's for redundancy, not necessity. Until we get to that point, I don't consider us FI.

For us it wouldn't be for redundancy, or necessity, but for fun.

That is, we're thinking about doing some sort of homesteading, but wouldn't be doing it to reduce costs, but for enjoyment.  If it ended up costing us money (e.g. we spent more on it than we saved), that'd be fine.

I think it could be an enjoyable thing.  :)

In circumstances like that, it absolutely is. :-)

[hoping2retire35]

We have a few acres, currently trying to decide where to place our swiss style bee house. hope that link works.

https://ixquick-proxy.com/do/spg/show_picture.pl?l=english&rais=1&oiu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ciber.science.uwa.edu.au%2Fblog%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F07%2FIMG_0004.jpg&sp=c5c7845f0cba79a6b2a302f6681e2baf

[robartsd]

I'm certainly considering that a small flock of fowl can provide eggs and fertilizer while helping control garden pests. I'd like to use rain barrels and grey-water to minimize usage of municipal water. I'd also like to make use of solar energy and wood trimmings to reduce dependence on off-site energy sources. All of what I really want can be accomplished on a large lot close enough to a city center that there are many jobs within biking distance. The book Paradise Lot really inspired me that the lot doesn't have to be all that large. We just purchased a small house on over a quarter acre and are excited to try some of these things.

Hopefully you don't have a HOA that objects.  I could have done one of those things where I used to live - chickens.  Garden, perhaps, but the back yard was all shade and all it grew was moss.

Unincorporated part of the county with no HOA (house was built in the 1920's). I do plan to participate in the neighborhood association. The county ordinances allow animals up to 75 lbs each on SFH lots over 10,000 sf. There are four residential units on one adjacent lot and a 15-20 unit apartment building across the street, so I'll have to consider the neighbor opinions; however, the neighborhood already has plenty of roosters (and I don't plan anything that noisy). All this and still about 5 miles from downtown - plenty of properties within the city limits are further out. Within the city limits, residential lots are allowed up to 3 hens with a permit ($15 + $10/hen). As we were house hunting, we looked a properties with at least 1/5 acre that were in our price range and within 10 miles of downtown. An neighboring county assigns livestock points for mature animals and properties are given a number of points based on property size (though not very granular at urban/suburban sized lots). A neighboring city in the same county allows up to 6 or 7 hens without a per bird cost to the permit. None of the properties we found meeting our size/distance/cost criteria completely prohibited hens.

Rain barrels are fairly encouraged throughout the region especially with the drought we've seen the last few years. Grey-water is allowed, but must be professionally designed according to state law; I have no idea how easy it is to get a system approved. There is a small basement which might be close enough to the bathroom to install a composting toilet, but I don't think the current basement access would be adequate for serving it.

Solar electric probably wouldn't have a very good ROI for us right now, but I've seen some interesting active solar thermal projects on BuildItSolar and other websites. I could see building tanks in the basement to store solar heat for radiant floor heating and/or hot water.

As most of the wood I would have available for burning will be small diameter branches from pruning, I'd be interested in a "rocket stove". With the right planning, it could be the focus of an outdoor cooking/gathering area. I know air quality concerns limit wood burning quite a bit in the region, but rocket stoves are so efficient that they can be quite stealthy.

[Turnbull]

I come from a long line of farmers so my wife and I have always been semi-homesteaders.

We've always only eaten deer or fish from the creek for our meat supply. We had chickens for 8 or 10 years but have a friend that always has about 70 hens and sells us eggs for $2/dozen so it wasn't worth the hassle for us to keep them. Plus I'm working on my falconry license so having a redtail hawk and a yard full of chickens just wasn't going to work.

This summer we put about 250 lbs of organic blueberries into the freezers. It was very hard work but the taste, health benefits, and financial savings are incredible. We have a vegetable garden but a severe dry spell in June mostly burned it up. We also have apples, peaches, pears, and muscadines.

I'm a third generation beekeeper and keep about 15-20 hives at any given time. We sell and barter with the honey plus the bees help our garden and orchard.

Yes, it's a lot of work but I enjoy all these things as hobbies. The health and financial benefits are just icing on the cake.

[Sjalabais]

That sounds fantastic! The falconry license is for hunting rabbits etc?

[wenchsenior]

I come from a long line of farmers so my wife and I have always been semi-homesteaders.

We've always only eaten deer or fish from the creek for our meat supply. We had chickens for 8 or 10 years but have a friend that always has about 70 hens and sells us eggs for $2/dozen so it wasn't worth the hassle for us to keep them. Plus I'm working on my falconry license so having a redtail hawk and a yard full of chickens just wasn't going to work.

This summer we put about 250 lbs of organic blueberries into the freezers. It was very hard work but the taste, health benefits, and financial savings are incredible. We have a vegetable garden but a severe dry spell in June mostly burned it up. We also have apples, peaches, pears, and muscadines.

I'm a third generation beekeeper and keep about 15-20 hives at any given time. We sell and barter with the honey plus the bees help our garden and orchard.

Yes, it's a lot of work but I enjoy all these things as hobbies. The health and financial benefits are just icing on the cake.

Your red tail shouldn't bother your chickens too much as long as you keep them out of each others' sight-lines. Just bag a few rabbits for your young bird, and it will likely key in on those. Although I do know a few very successful falconers that have hunted ducks and pheasants with their RTs, it isn't the norm. However, if you ever make the [self inflicted crazy LOL] move to one of the Accipiters, you will definitely want to prevent the hawk and chickens from seeing each other, and not fly the bird anywhere near the chickens.  (If we ever live somewhere that it's practical, I have no doubt my [self inflicted crazy] husband will try to train a goshawk to go for grouse and waterfowl.)

[Turnbull]

Sjalabais, we mainly hunt squirrels with red tails in the woods here in the South. I do have access to some creek bottom fields near my house so I will try to flush some rabbits but there are way more squirrels around and it makes for a more dramatic chase as the hawk works around the tree and the squirrel goes up and down.

wenchsenior, goshawks are just about the coolest bird you can have in falconry. Hope your husband can get one someday. Unfortunately for me they don't like the warm humid weather so most people around here fly red tails. We have had a wild red tail attack a hen in our yard before. Any predator in nature likes chickens; they're dumb, slow, defenseless, and delicious.

I'll try to PM you soon. Glad to hear from a falconer on here.

[Indio]

I would love to homestead in retirement but as a single woman in her late 50s, I accept its just not possible. So I currently do my own version of "moving towards" homesteading on a 1/3rd acre urban bush block.  I bake bread and cook from scratch, stockpile, grow veges mostly organically, am slowly expanding my preserving skills, make my own cleaning products and soap, line dry, collect firewood off my property and use it to heat as much as possible in the winter. I compost and shred and try to keep as much green waste as possible on the property. House is insulated and I am mindful to maximise passive heating/cooling techniques if I can. In the future I'd like to add solar PV and water tanks, and upgrade my smokey open fire to a woodburner, as finances permit. I'm doing about as much as I can manage whilst still working part-time, so I can  imagine how much work more complete self sufficiency would require.

On the dream list is up to 5 acres, off grid, permaculture design, with a house cow ( or possibly milking goats if a cow is not feasible), chooks, bees, and 2 horses for driving. Now that is fully a dream list, and I doubt whether it will ever be realised unless I met the perfect Mr to do it with. Most likely I'll get the chooks, but not the rest. I'm not heavily into travelling so being tied down with animals is Ok for me.

I'm in a similar position. Live in suburbia, doing the homestead thing with chicks, turkeys, ducks, bees. Grow lots of fruit, veg, berries. Have a well for chlorine, fluoride free water that makes my gardens grow like crazy. Would like to do this on a few more acres, but it took a lot of work to get to this point, which I don't mind at all. Gardening work keeps me young and agile. I get a better workout in gardening season than I get working out in the gym during Winter. Hauling 50 lb bags of chicken food and wood pellets has made me strong. With more land, I would be farther away from a social life. Living in one of those ag communities, where everyone owns their own home, but could farm together or alone, would be ideal for me.
Over the years, I've learned a huge amount about composting, caning, dehydrating, smoking/preserving, growing microgreens in Winter, foraging, which weeds/plants can be used for healing or eating, tinctures, soapmaking, harvesting wild yeast for local sour dough, etc. Basically, set up a permaculture life but don't share it with a significant other. In my area, it's hard to find someone with similar interests.

[jengod]

We do what we can, homestead-wise, in the backyard of our small urban lot: Chickens, rain barrels, vegetable garden and fruit trees, line-drying, composting, etc.

It's not enough to save us come the zombie apocalypse, but we are self-sufficient in little, satisfying ways: We don't ever need to buy garlic, green onions, spaghetti squash, rosemary, oregano, or flowers for the table. We enjoy watching the bees, butterflies and hummingbirds that come to visit our borage, sage and lemon verbena flowers. When the stars align, we can make whole dishes out of the garden using fresh chicken eggs, new potatoes, salad greens, eggplants, apples, boysenberries, etc.

My current project is guerrilla gardening the neighborhood a bit more: olive trees, pomegranate seedlings, figs, etc. will probably survive in some of the oddball strips of unsupervised public land around the freeways and runoff channels that cut through the neighborhood.

We added rhubarb to the parking strip this year and it seems to be going gangbusters. Maybe next year we can harvest some for my mom to use for her killer strawberry-rhubarb pie.

In short, it's mostly a hobby but even if it's not perfectly remunerative, it's terribly rewarding just the same.

[wenchsenior]

wenchsenior, goshawks are just about the coolest bird you can have in falconry. Hope your husband can get one someday. Unfortunately for me they don't like the warm humid weather so most people around here fly red tails. We have had a wild red tail attack a hen in our yard before. Any predator in nature likes chickens; they're dumb, slow, defenseless, and delicious.

I'll try to PM you soon. Glad to hear from a falconer on here.

DH did his MSci thesis (edit: and his post-Doc) on goshawks and adores them. I'm certain he will try to fly one eventually. Or possibly a Prairie Falcon because we are in the right landscape for them. But normally he flies Harris' Hawks because, like RTs, they are easy keepers. He can't consistently fly birds for pleasure because of time constraints, though he does occasionally take a bird to use for research projects. Lately, because he can't afford the big time investment involved in manning and flying his own bird, he's been getting falconer friends to lend him their birds for the season, or come and volunteer their services, for use in some of his research projects. If he ever does retire, I expect he'll go back to it with much more focus.

I've never been out squirrel hawking....I expect that's great fun!

[Sjalabais]

@Turnbull, interesting, do you eat squirrels? I can imagine that the hunt is highly entertaining. Sawa squirrel jump from tree to tree, very high above the ground, earlier today. Not an easy job for the bird.

[MayDay]

I do it as a hobby.  I want to keep doing it as I age, but OTOH I want to do stuff like go be a national park volunteer for the summer, so, that is a conflict! 

Ideally I would live right next door to, or on the same block as, someone who wants to trade some chores and help each other out while traveling.  Right now I have a friend who watches our chickens while we travel in exchange for free eggs.  Things like that help a lot. 

I currently have a pretty big garden but I am about at the limit of what I can stay on top of while still attending to all of life's other responsibilities, and also deal with preserving all that food!  And with what I currently do we are nowhere near preserving enough food to eat all winter! 

So it is a big hobby now, but it is because I love it and find it fun.  I'll quit if I ever need to. 

I have no desire to be completely off the grid.

[Turnbull]

@Turnbull, interesting, do you eat squirrels? I can imagine that the hunt is highly entertaining. Sawa squirrel jump from tree to tree, very high above the ground, earlier today. Not an easy job for the bird.

I will eat them but I hunt deer for our main meat supply. Most if not all of the squirrels we kill will be fed back to the hawk. I always say I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for squirrels since my grandparents might not have made it through the Depression without eating them. Of course they also ate groundhogs and possums so in that case I'd take the squirrels :)

Squirrel hawking is wild. It really makes you appreciate the predator and the prey. Squirrels are tough, acrobatic, athletic animals. I've seen them jump out of a tree fifty feet up when the hawk is after them and they hit the ground running. When they are transferring from one treetop to another it's actually to the hawk's advantage because there's no trunk for them to run around and hide behind.

[Turnbull]

Here's another great one my sponsor took:

[wenchsenior]

These shots are amazing! How old is your bird? Eyes are pretty pale, and the tail is paleish...it he a second year still?

[Turnbull]

These shots are amazing! How old is your bird? Eyes are pretty pale, and the tail is paleish...it he a second year still?

My sponsor and his friends are great photographers. These pics are of some of his birds over the past few years.

I'm just getting started so I'll trap one this fall that was born this spring. She won't get the red tail until she moults next summer. I'll release her in the spring because I don't have the time required to tend to a bird through the spring and summer. My winters are very slow as far as my work goes so it works perfectly for me to trap one in the fall, hunt all winter, and release in the spring. We are basically there to help the bird make it through its first winter. 73% of red tails don't live to see their first birthday.

I didn't mean to threadjack. I'll be glad to talk about falconry through a PM. I also want to hear more about your husband's goshawk research. Prairie falcons are great, tough birds too. I guess the grass is always greener on the other side, but I'm really jealous we can't have those two here in the South.

[wenchsenior]

Ah, yes, I see that last pic is of a different bird. And I agree, it's nice to get a fledgling solidly through its first winter. It's a tough world out there for any juvenile animal trying to make it to adulthood.

I'll PM you at some point in the next couple days with some info about DH's work.

[arebelspy]

I didn't mean to threadjack. I'll be glad to talk about falconry through a PM.

Nonono!  Start a new thread on it, please!  :)

I'd love to see a post with details about it (and repost those pics, maybe, for people that didn't see this thread--they're fantastic!), where you can teach us about it, and we can ask questions.  If, you know, you're so inclined!  :)

[hoping2retire35]

I didn't mean to threadjack. I'll be glad to talk about falconry through a PM.

Nonono!  Start a new thread on it, please!  :)

I'd love to see a post with details about it (and repost those pics, maybe, for people that didn't see this thread--they're fantastic!), where you can teach us about it, and we can ask questions.  If, you know, you're so inclined!  :)

ok, i will just throw in too. once i retire this is something I want to do. We live in city limits which means no fire*arms so that means my hunting is pretty limited. but I have wanted to do this for a while even before we moved. the horse stable that was here when we moved in has a nice tall stale that would make a great aviary.

[wenchsenior]

I didn't mean to threadjack. I'll be glad to talk about falconry through a PM.

Nonono!  Start a new thread on it, please!  :)

I'd love to see a post with details about it (and repost those pics, maybe, for people that didn't see this thread--they're fantastic!), where you can teach us about it, and we can ask questions.  If, you know, you're so inclined!  :)

ok, i will just throw in too. once i retire this is something I want to do. We live in city limits which means no fire*arms so that means my hunting is pretty limited. but I have wanted to do this for a while even before we moved. the horse stable that was here when we moved in has a nice tall stale that would make a great aviary.

It is a VERY time consuming hobby if you want to do it well, so I agree that retirement, or a big block of time is much preferable. I feel it isn't fair to the bird to do it poorly, and the early manning and training is demanding. Once the bird is trained, then it's more a question of having the time to properly condition it, and to regularly hunt it. And of course, appropriate places to hunt in, that are safe for your hawk. After all, these aren't pets, but (usually*) wild animals that you trap, and then essentially 'man' until they are comfortable with you and view you as a hunting partner. Ideally, we always want DH's birds to be able to revert and go wild and function properly as a wild animal again, after a few seasons of flying. Some people do fly captive reared birds, and some falconers 'imprint' their birds on humans by raising them from nestling/eyas age...but really dislike that practice (it's the biologist in me, I don't like to see the psychology of the birds so screwed with).