Living a Self Sufficent Lifestyle seems easy but what do you all do for a living? (real estate, farming)

[SaraR.]

Originally Posted by Submariner

None of us are wealthy.
I live in an extremely low COL area. I know a lot of homesteading farmers, who are able to support their families entirely from their farm activities. 4 to 5 acres of veggie garden and a medium greenhouse, playing the vendor in roadside Farmer's Markets every week.
I have a military pension and farm income, with these incomes together, I ride the federal poverty line like I was a circus performer up on the high-ware.
Good point
You can't carry a lot of debt, doing this. The interest charges would eat you up quickly.

It starts with your property taxes. No matter what you do, you need to raise that much cash every year. For my 150 acres of land and a large house, my annual property taxes run $850/year.

If you produce all of your families food, fiber and heating fuels each year, then how much extra you need will be greatly reduced.

We put in a solar power system for our home. It is a good tax deduction, depreciates 1/7th each year. And my daily driving sedan recharges off our solar system. So it reduces how much gasoline I need to buy.

I hope to get an electric tractor soon. There are a few of them operating in my area.

Yes, an electric tractor sounds exciting but expensive I assume. Never heard of them until now

love your life. We have 180k debt in the form of a mortgage but nothing else. Just the home I posted. However it will be finished by the summer for sure, whether we pay someone or complete ourselves.
50K invested into our house as a down payment 2 yrs ago, may loose that upon selling but oh well.

Pro's to Off grid house

* 1k month lower housing costs. no more mortgage
* no real town. We currently live in a tiny town but it is a town.

Just one commercial building open p/t acting as the post office, bar and restaurant.

* 1/4 of the town is down & out. A plus in a sense when we are old and need to pay for assistance.
a negative in that half of those grow dope, are stoned alot, and/or are true criminals, A few real hardcore criminals up there but I beleive they will be gone soon to prison for 5-10 yrs at least.
Grand Theft, meth, etc.
* More hicks, don;t relate well to them but hang around and like them still. They lie alot which is the hardest. Gossip is pretty bad there compared to our current town
*`Closer to civilization. Almost everything you need is 35 min away except church which is 1 hr away
*Closer to our son
* Allowed to have animals. We currently live in a sub division and dogs are fine but I like farm animals.
* Not cooped up for 3-4 months due to heavy snow. However the air isn't as clean at this lower elevation
* Both towns are close to bodies of water. This one a major river which starts in Sacramento and passes thru. Great blackberry picking, crappy fishing. However we could catch some trout to place in our pond. It takes a while but is possible.A Resevior is 20 min away stocked w/small mouth bass.
Off grid town has less good bike riding. Just one road mainly in and out. This town has better biking & hiking trails though the off grid town has good ones too. Both kept up by the Forestry Dept/ or State Rec Parks. Both towns are near a few campgrounds, our current town has inns, resorts, a few restaurants, small store and more campgrounds.
* Better water in our current town yet the artesian springs in the off grid town are free. No water costs
* Really enjoy our current town and friends versus this new town. Population of 125 full timers here with 3x that of vacation homes. Off-Grid town has about 60 full timers, 20 part timers. Yet has visitors such as OHVers, and day visitors who drink & eat at the bar over summer. More fishermen
* Off Grid town has less Cops. Did I say less Cops? Cannot believe we live way out yet people here act as if they live in a City.
* Off Grid towns mail delivery is only 3x a week. Sorta difficult when you sell online. Maybe we'll plan our outings 2x a week to coincide with the down days. And the other post office is a real drive, unfortunately.
* Can have animals! Previously raised chickens (not to eat) so look forward to them as pets. Goats, ducks in the pond.

Shoot some deer from the deck to feed the animals. Maybe a bear or two...if they disrupt our animals.

[Electrician4you]

Originally Posted by terracore

"By definition, someone who is "self-sufficient" doesn't need to work/earn money."

Even cavemen bartered. Money is just a form of bartering. I think the definition of self sufficiency is in the eye of the beholder. We probably "could" be self sufficient if we wanted to but one of us being employed full time provides a quicker means to accomplishing the goal.

All that being said the first thing one needs to do is live within their means and not take on any debt.

“Gold is the money of kings, silver is the money of gentlemen, barter is the money of peasants – but debt is the money of slaves.” (Norm Franz)

Our self sufficiency will happen the day our mortgage is completely paid off.

Christ....seriously.....The very definition of bartering is the trade of goods or services without exchanging money. Money is most definitely NOT a form of barter.

The reason money was invented was because there needed to be something better than bartering. Because bartering was a commonly unfair exchange and usually left something to be desired for both parties. You simply cannot work on a barter system for long.

[SaraR.]

Originally Posted by swagger

The question is legit, but struck me as funny when I read it.

By definition, someone who is "self-sufficient" doesn't need to work/earn money. I know there are things that typically still have to be bought, so the question makes sense, but my initial reaction was "but self-sufficient means.."

Yes it does seem funny, doesn't it.
A few take their RV 2.5 hrs away for 6-8 wks a yr
Work for Amazon in their warehouse during the holidays
Amazon rents an entire RV park w/shower for the seasonal workers in Fernley

Without paying enough into SS you wonder what these kinds plan is for retirement
Many wait until after retirement to live this way. Seems sorta sad to wait that long.

[SaraR.]

Originally Posted by Electrician4you

Christ....seriously.....The very definition of bartering is the trade of goods or services without exchanging money. Money is most definitely NOT a form of barter.

The reason money was invented was because there needed to be something better than bartering. Because bartering was a commonly unfair exchange and usually left something to be desired for both parties. You simply cannot work on a barter system for long.

Lots of $500 winners in this thread! We love bartering. Do alot of it here in our town. People just come over asking if we want this or that, seeing it in the yard. They are well off yet it's just it takes 1.5 hrs to get into any real town

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by SaraR.

Lots of $500 winners in this thread!

What $500 ???

[SaraR.]

Originally Posted by Submariner

What $500 ???

This one

[Zymer]

Our 20.5 acres is a long long hill in the forest.Great for goats.
Only two usable acres, and being in the forest, not the best for growing veges

Clear some of the land, use the trees for firewood, and create terraced garden plots to increase your 'usable' land. This method has been used for centuries, to farm land that is not suitable to 'normal' methods.

[Ultrarunner]

In all seriousness most of those I know off grid in California raised "Herbs"

This was the bread and butter of whole communities... using the term loosely.

Seven to ten miles off pavement deep in the Redwoods...

One was up visiting his Grandmother and I asked how things were going... I had even been down to visit a few times... truly off grid with spring water, small solar... wood heat.

Chris told me not so good... he was supporting his family nicely until Marijuana became legal... the price fell... too many in the business.

Asked what now and he said he bought an old backhoe and has been farming out and paying the bills that way...

[twinkletwinkle22]

For growing veggies if you don't have good soil:
If you have a sunny area but not good soil there look into "straw bale gardening".
Not a fad, evidence the Aztecs used this method.

Super simple, like hydroponic farming with straw instead of water.
title:Straw Bale Gardens Complete Breakthrough Vegetable Gardening Method by Joel Karsten
Read the book free online at archive.com.

There are straw bale garden groups on Facebook to see what people have done/are doing. It can be done with almost any type of bale (hay, alfalfa, not pine) hay is cheapest.

[craigiri]

The thing about all of this is that if more people did it - it would be harder to do. That is, there is not enough land and if farmers markets had 5X the number of vendors it would be harder to sell to folks and so on and so on.

We, in our late teens, started reading Mother Earth News and got the bug. We went first to WV and then to TN (1973 or so) and lived "on the land" as they say. We became part of a group that lived on one dollar per person per day. Outhouses, army tents with wood floors, wood stoves, etc.

Even then many of us worked in town as carpenters and temp. jobs for some money.

We did that for 3 years and, although we were in "the World" since, we based our lives and livelihood on the lessons learned. We went in business selling things that helped people be more independent (alternative energy, etc.).