Not Happy with SS?

[Farmfresh]

the comments from people ... when they look at you like you have lobsters coming out your ears

I used to hate that stuff as well, but I have found over the years that as people find out more about how I choose to live my life they become suddenly interested ... often asking me lots of questions or even for lessons in some area. My life is never boring!

What I really dislike is how hard it is to buy land and get set up in the first place. In my area we are constantly competing with housing developers for any larger land tracts, which shoots the prices sky high. Also their is so much zoning and government regulation on land use that you have to move at least a county away before you can really use the land as you like. The days of a small family farm really seem to be dead around here.

I have been wanting a small farm my whole life but those land prices - combined with raising three children and my hubby's sensible desire to maintain good employment - has made the goal stay just out of reach.

If I had been able to move to acreage when I was younger and had fewer health problems I could have been able to accomplish so much more. As it is I am just hoping my small slice of heaven will be available before we totally retire or I am too disabled to be able to raise the animals I have always wanted.

 

[BeccaOH]

I hate having to go to work on the only sunny day in weeks, then having to fix fencing in the rain on my day off. Darn mortgage! The bank won't take goat's milk and eggs in exchange for my mortgage. Shoot.

Amen!

 

[justusnak]

For me, its the comments like " why do you work so hard, when you can buy it" or, " are you REALLY THAT POOR??" I do love however....the fact that I have 2 sisters, that are "citified" now, because of their jobs, and chosen paths of life...and that they BOTH are now asking ME how to can things, and asking ME to raise them a hog, and will PAY ME to do it! Yup, I am turning them around...and helping them to feed thier families....even if they are buying the veggies to can!

 

[farmerlor]

Personally I like being a hippie. But like others have said I don't think there's any way to be totally self-sufficient and that grates a little. Some things I guess I'm just too broken to do anymore like milking and other things I just don't have enough time to do like making fiber. Other things are too expensive like the turbine or solar panels I need to get off grid. So yeah, I guess it's A. S. S. for us.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Sadly, in today's world, you have to go to work so you can have your homestead.

 

[FarmerDenise]

It is hard to take a vacation. You need to find someone to water the plants and take care of the animals, if you can even afford the $$ to go on a trip. I'd love to go to Hawaii for a couple of weeks and laze on the beaches, be served meals and drinks and not have to clean up after, go out and not having to say "I have to be home by 5:30, I need to feed the animals" and generally be a tourist. Most of the time I don't mind the work and the restrictions of having a farm that feeds us.

I also don't like the friends who think that because we grow it ourselves, it is free and they expect handouts or say things like it's only $9.95. When you only have $100.00, $9.95 is a lot.

I also don't like people who think it is ok to steal from people who grow food. They also seem to think it doesn't cost the grower anything, so what's the harm.

And it is awfully hard to pay a mortgage, car insurance etc with eggs and tomatoes. I tried to put them in the return envelope, but they just didn't fit .

 

[dragonlaurel]

Having to explain to people that homesteaders are NOT hippies.

- I learned so much about SS life in my hippie stage. Except we did Not sing kum bay ah.


And it is awfully hard to pay a mortgage, car insurance etc with eggs and tomatoes. I tried to put them in the return envelope, but they just didn't fit .

- Wonder if they would take honey and cheese? We make fresh bread too.

 

[Ldychef2k]

I was part of the "Jesus freak" movement. Sitting in fields singing worship songs, wearing long dresses and braids in my hair with feathers and bells and flowers. Eating a lot of tofu !!! It's funny, through all those years I was livving an essentially hippie lifestyle while in Bible college and being a future Reagan Republican ! It defies every stereotype there is !!!

 

[Iceblink]

It is hard to take a vacation. You need to find someone to water the plants and take care of the animals....

I also don't like the friends who think that because we grow it ourselves, it is free and they expect handouts

FD, I think you hit the nail on the head. My friends are constantly telling me I am crazy for working so hard, then they turn around and expect free eggs and veggies! NO! I would never ask them to go to work and give me the money, why should they expect free handouts from me?

Also, I feel really tied down. I want goats in the spring, we built a barn, improved the pasture, and I still hesitate. I love traveling, and finding a farm sitter has proved impossible. Never mind one who will come milk twice a day. I can sympathise with all the people who ran from this lifestyle just as fast as they could.

 

[Farmfresh]

A little like the story of the Little Red Hen. Nobody wants to do the work, but everyone wants a slice of the good bread. (By the way I ALWAYS LOVED that story as a kid. Go figure.)

That whole FREE or reduced to friends thing is why I no longer have 50 laying hens. (well one reason) I made a nice profit with my free range eggs, but some people thought I should just "hook them up" for free. Well free don't pay feed bills.

With my three or four hens I can say "just enough for me" and they get it.

Also by keeping good books I am able to raise plenty without having a huge glut that I need to move. Saves me lots of work and THOSE people don't get used to handouts. Kind of like those rules about never feeding the bears!