Do you dream of one day owning a
homestead of your own, a place where you can raise animals and gardens
to provide good, wholesome food for you family? No more city councils
deciding if you can raise chickens or not. No more neighbors
complaining about some animal or other of yours. The dream of owning
your homestead need not remain a dream; it can become your reality.
There is a
difference between owning a homestead and living a homestead life.
People can buy a farm but that does not make them farmers. Your
dream homestead also may not look anything like your dream when you
first find it. I believe that being a homesteader means living the
experience of
creating that homestead. You get to design, build, fix, move and adjust
the homestead so that it works best for you. In doing so, you will
become a part of that homestead and not just a property owner. The
fulfillment of homesteading will come in the testimonies you give about
overcoming the obstacles you faced and the home and life you created.
You can take all
the great ideas you have been reading and talking about and put them to
use on your very own homestead, once you finally have it. You don’t
need to wait for some magical day to appear, or the perfect opportunity
to fall into you lap. You can place yourself upon the path of
homesteading opportunity now. You may have change your perspective,
shed some biases and possibly have the vision to see that diamond in the
rough.
During the current
economic downturn, affordable housing has not necessarily remained
affordable for many. Job losses numbering in the hundreds of thousands
each month give us cause to wonder if we can hold onto what we now have,
much less wait long enough for
that magical homestead. In harder
times it is not uncommon to feel a greater desire for self-sufficiency
as well as increased fear of the unknown. I believe that there is no better
time to find that affordable homestead than the present.
Banks and lenders
are fearful of foreclosing on high-risk loans already made. Property
values in many areas continue to fall. Homeowner’s are unable to sell
homes and new buyers are unable to get the loans they need. Thus
the foreclosure cycle spins faster and faster.
By turning these
negatives into advantages you can own your homestead now. Many rural
areas that would suit a homestead well are littered with abandoned, run
down or unkept mobile homes with land that would work perfectly well as
a homestead for someone who can see the diamond in the rough.
I realize that a
rundown “trailer” is not the object of your desire. Look past that
mobile home and look at the land. What do you see? Is there room for
the pasture you need? Is there room for gardens, crops, animals, a
barn, a pond etc? As you gaze through the three-foot tall grass growing
in and around the appliances that always seem to be left in the front
yard, run through the list of characteristics you have dreamed your land
would include. Chances are if you look for them, this forgotten and
abused land has the potential for you to create them. Forget about the
trailer for a moment and just picture your homestead sculpted into this
land.
Now open your
eyes and look at the ugly mobile home again. Chances are it is an old
singlewide that looks terrible but looks can be deceiving. That old
home probably has all the infrastructure in place that you need to
start your homestead but previously could not afford to install
yourself. That home is probably has its own well, septic and electric
already set up. You don’t have to keep the mobile home on that land.
You can either have it moved or demolished (some areas do not allow
old mobile homes to be moved). Once that home is gone, you can build
or install the type of housing you prefer. If your newer home is more
modern it might need an upgrade to the electric service but maybe
not. So many articles and books are written today teaching how to
use less power or how to create power that an upgrade may be totally
unnecessary. Even if you go so far as to live totally off the grid, the
available power during the construction of your homestead can make
things much easier. Remember, you are carving your dream out of this
clay and it will take work.
