Homesteading and living simply

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JimR-OCDS said:
BTW, living simply doesn’t mean just moving out into the woods and living in a cabin

People live simple lives in cities as well.

It’s a matter of attitude and what you see as important in life.
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Its all relative, isn’t it? We live in an apartment and take the train to work… that’s simple (from a energy / resource consumption perspective) compared to living in a house and driving to work… yet not nearly as “simple” as what the OP is describing.
 
You have not selected a location? Since you created this thread under Catholic living, I would add the requirement there is a viable Catholic parish within a 10-15 minute drive.
 
My water comes from a well. I live outside of town, so there’s no way we can get municipal water. That said, we do have some issues filtering it. Still plenty healthy to drink, though.
 
Your fees will depend on that. Being a lifelong horse owner and having worked with racehorses, if you want to throw ideas around let me know.

The primary thing is good horse safe fencing. Electric fencing is good, you can run it off solar , but again need back up battery power,
 
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Get the water tested and put in a back up bore and rain tanks.
 
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Ok the biggest myth with generator power is sensitivity of equipment. This leads to generator makes charging another thousand dollars for supposed technology to help. All you require are cut off switches and if needed , a regulator.

Get one run on diesel, or petrol. In the Outback here, and on many farms all you have are huge generators. The biggest pain is turning them on and off and keeping them fed and oiled

If you are blowing fuses your generator is not powerful enough or you plugged too much in to it
 
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Oh yeah I forgot to reply to your comment on solar panels.

There are refrigerators designed to run off of solar energy. Like this one.

 
I’ve had the idea of doing horse boarding for many years. Not exactly sure how I can get my foot in the door though.
 
It’s about offering paddocks. Or more, owner care or your care

I am in Australia.

You can offer here, anything from straight paddock agistment with only paddocks available and the owner to feed, and rug the horse, to full board with you feeding and rugging and dealing with vets and farriers.

You can offer yards, stabling , an indoor or outdoor arena, jumping and cross country, communal or individual paddocks.

What horse experience do you have ? That’s the best starting point. And what veterinarian and riding facilities are available close by.

If you haven’t bought yet, consider those. An equine vet hospital close by and various riding facilities close by.
 
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Roseeurekacross said:
Ok the biggest myth with generator power is sensitivity of equipment. This leads to generator makes charging another thousand dollars for supposed technology to help. All you require are cut off switches and if needed , a regulator.

Get one run on diesel, or petrol. In the Outback here, and on many farms all you have are huge generators. The biggest pain is turning them on and off and keeping them fed and oiled

If you are blowing fuses your generator is not powerful enough or you plugged too much in to it
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Ok, I didn’t know about those 1000$ for having a more sensitive load adapting converter - neither did I know about the workaround. My grid has 99.9% up time and a generator is only used in rare emergencies, so I claim no expertise on using generators, except I did run into the mentioned problem.

@unitive_mystic, if it’s a cloudy day or nighttime you aren’t going to have any electricity. [You mentioned Alaska, did you notice they aren’t even rated in the solar energy maps?] Depending on where you are you won’t have energy for weeks or months at a time. That video you linked, how much did the 10 battery array cost (the vid guy conveniently forgets to mention how many days it took for the array to charge up - and the UPS alone would take over a year to pay for itself)? And how long before the batteries have to be substituted? Say you’re buying 10 batteries every 2-3 years (because anything electro-chemical does wear out, and even if you’re substituting the acids and electrodes that’s not environmentally friendly and has costs)…Rest assured, the power you’re generating ain’t never gonna pay for that compared to grid price of KWh (fixed costs beyond consumption the utility company charges are actually A deciding factor). FV panels are also rated for 10-15 years before loosing efficiency.

Let me phrase it another way: how many KWh does it take to pump 10000 gallons 50 meters uphill and distribute that over an acre (10000m^2)? Mass/energy problem. And what sort of sunlight (W/m^2/h) does that require? Cause that guy in the vid showed a small cabin on a sunny day with an overkill of a system.
 
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JimR-OCDS said:
These were the people he was suppose to fear, according to his naysayers. 😃
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Don’t get me wrong guys @unitive_mystic, I’m not playing antagonist nor naysayer. I think the idea is brilliant and I’m in no way against it. I’m just raising practical problems certain to come up eventually, sooner rather than latter, as to avoid unexpected surprises further up the road.
 
It is good to be aware about the problems now rather than come across the problems in the future unexpectedly. I agree with getting prepared in this way.
 
I have only two words of advice for you brother: plant beans and cabbage.

Also, find an experienced electrician and farmer to critically debug your business model.
 
There are two types of solar panels. One made for places with lots of sun, one for climates with more cloudy and overcast weather.
 
Well, when I was young, I’ve grew up and lived in a small city and and desired a simple life in the country as well. My first 12 years of marriage were in that city. However, like yourself, I desired to live a simpler life. I’m a big fan of Henry David Thoreau and have read many books about others who did move out into the woods, so to speak. I once even looked at farming. However, for the past 35 years, my wife and myself have lived out in the country, at a lake. I prefer it here, as long as I can physically make it work, The older we get, the less we can do on our own and we need others to help us and they don’t work for free.

Yeah, there is less demands on some things, but more on other things. Living off the land is hard work. It’s also expensive as the cost of land, even in rural areas is not cheap. Also you need to own at least a four wheel drive pickup, perhaps with a snow plow, which cost a lot more than a car. Then of course if you’re going to grow your own crops, the first time you turn land by hand will quickly make you desire a tractor with a tiller and other functions. Those aren’t cheap either. Go price what they cost yourself and see.

Then despite believing you’re invincible, you’ll still need access to healthcare. In the country, there is virtually none and you have to travel back to nearest city to see doctors and if need be, ER’s.

Don’t get me wrong. Living a simple life in the country is nice, but it can be done in the city as well. It’s the attitude that makes the difference.

All I can say is, do your homework before you make the leap and especially pray to follow the will of God over your own agenda.

Jim
 
FYI, my wife and myself also watch the Vet shows like the Incredible Doctor Pol.

It didn’t take long for me to see had I decided to buy a farm way back when, I would’ve bankrupted myself and killed the animals that I tried to raise. I was clueless about what it takes to run a farm.

Jim
 
If someone has to choose to live simply in either a city or the country, I don’t know why they would choose the city.

In the city you can only go so far until you bump into things that will limit your freedom no matter how much you simplify your life.

In the country your kids are safer and have room to do all sorts of activities. At the same time you can be self sustainable

In the city your separated from the land, and people are just forced to live close to eachother, when in the country more authentic communities are formed because you actually value your neighbor’s help.

I don’t know but I feel like if simple living gains popularity in our culture, rural life and self sustainability will be the default.
 
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