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BACK TO THE LAND'S
Ways to Survival or Self Efficiency
Beginner's Guide to Homesteading
One Homesteader's Point of View
Submitted By Harry Kingman
HOMESTEADING TIPS: some things that we have learned along the way.
Here is a picture of our old homestead. We have both been interested in homesteading for a long time. We can probably tell you a lot of ways not to homestead; but we definitely got it right when we bought the old homestead. We had a lot better start there, and we did well over our 7 years there. We could sure tell you some real horror stories from places that didn't work out! We definitely learned some things over the years. We bought the old homestead complete with a big old "fixer-upper" farmhouse - and spent the next 7 years fixing it up... and it was a never-ending project.
However, One of our major homesteading goals was to eventually become debt-free. When progress began to encroach upon us there, we sold the old homestead and bought another acreage in the southern Missouri Ozarks, almost to the Arkansas line. In the process, we managed to accomplish our goal of becoming debt-free.
Here is a photo of our new homestead and where we will be living for now.
We intend to buy a sawmill in the near future and build a house that overlooks our pond. With tax returns, we paid off our Blazer this last spring (before we sold off the old homestead). Without mortgages or vehicle payments, building a new home will be more financially feasible for us. The good thing about building it ourselves is that it can be done as time and money allow.
Here are a few homesteading tips followed by a short history of homesteading, our homesteading "philosophy", and some other links of interest.
Tip 1: Buying property: Never buy property sight unseen. Most companies that sell property like that do so on a contract basis and will end up reselling each parcel over and over. This is not to say that the companies are disreputable. However, if you buy a property on contract and decide to change your mind later, thereby defaulting on the contract, you just lose the money you have invested in it. People will buy property like that because the payments are quite low. The dream does not always coincide with the reality they find when they see the property. Once they have seen it, though, they often don't want it. In reality, they figure out how much work it will actually be to clear a section of property of trees, brush, and forest in order to build a house, plant a garden, put in a yard, etc. It is also a lot of work to bring in utilities if they are not available and can be quite expensive.Most rural electric companies require an easement to be cut for the light poles also. An easement is a 20-40 foot swath either along one side of the road or the other or directly through the woods. If you cut the easement yourself or have friends and family to help, it will take a while to cut down trees, clear brush out of the easement area, and cut up the wood from the trees and remove it. If you have someone else do it, it will be pretty expensive. Some companies and/or individuals charge $50-$100 per tree for this. (Then they will turn around and sell your trees to a mill for lumber or cut it up and sell it for firewood). Sometimes, inexpensive property can turn out to be quite a bit more expensive than it seems in the beginning. The real estate companies or individual sellers are not required by contract terms to refund your money, so they sometimes end up selling the same property on contract many times over (making a bundle in the process). A reputable company will tell you about things like roads, utilities, etc., before you buy. ALWAYS heed their warnings so you can be prepared for what you will find. Also, there are some companies who will allow you to trade one property for another and not lose any of your contract equity.
Always, always, ALWAYS look at a property before buying. If possible, get a tent or a camper and camp there for a week or so to see how you will like it. Take lots of pictures so you can compare properties while making your final decision. The woods are full of things like ticks, bugs, spiders, snakes, etc. Reality is often different from your dream. If you don't want to start from scratch, then buy a property with utilities on it, a well on it, even a house or mobile home on it if necessary, even if it's something that needs lots of fixing up. You will be much happier in the long run than buying a bare piece of raw forest land and finding out later that you can't handle the reality of all that work, expense, bugs, snakes, etc. Also, if you finance through a bank or other mortgage company or pay cash outright for the property, rather than buying on contract, you can resell the parcel yourself and get your money back out of it.
Tip 2: Utilities: It is better to buy a property with utilities on it (water well, electricity, etc).Water: If it doesn't have a well, secure your source of water in advance to be able to haul water. It is better to have more than one source secured. Barrels and 5-gallon jugs or containers are useful for this. Check with local well-drilling companies regarding the cost of drilling a well. Your well may or may not also include the price of the pump, sheathing the inside of the well (required by law in some states), and the water pipe. A well will cost you a minimum of $1,000 and sometimes upwards of $2,000 or $3,000, depending upon how deep they have to drill it. A 600-ft deep commercial well on our new place ended up costing us over $4500, and that was without the cost of the pump. We went with an all stainless-steel commercial pump for the big well, and the pump, pressure tank, installation, etc., actually ended up costing us a bit more than what we paid for the well. We went with the commercial well and commercial pump in order to be able to use this as a community well for the rest of our homesteading community members.
Sewer: A septic tank or some form of sewage arrangements will need to be made. Even if you put the septic in yourself (plans and specifications are available at most county waste management agencies), it will cost you at LEAST $1,000 to build. Open-air sewer lagoons are legal in Missouri in rural areas if you own at least 3 acres. Check with local waste-disposal authorities to find out what would be required - and what is legal - in any area you might think about moving to.
Electric/phone: It can become quite expensive and time-consuming to put utilities on a rural property. At one such parcel that we owned for a while, the cost of running electric poles was over $1,000 (split between us and a neighbor), and we had to wait over a year and a half because other property owners had to sign an easement for the power company. This is quite common with electric easements as there are many "absentee" owners who live elsewhere in the Ozarks. In Missouri, most electric companies also require easements to be cut in through the trees so that they can erect power poles. Please see above. The phone took less time (six weeks), but it was over $600 as they charged by the foot of wire after the first quarter mile. If you buy a parcel with no utilities, make sure you have some money saved up to bring them in or that they are fairly close by so the cost will not be prohibitive to bring them in. Check out the cost with the companies involved before you move onto your parcel. They will come out and look to see what you have, how far they will have to come in, and how much it will cost you. Make sure you find out from them everything that's required beforehand. In one County, for example, new electric services required a deposit and $100 per pole. In other areas, you much purchase a meter loop for them to install on the poles also. It's better to ask the company what's required up front, rather than find out MUCH later that you haven't got everything required.
Heating: If you are going to heat with wood, it is smart to have a backup, whether it be electric or propane. That way, if you want to go somewhere for a few days, your pipes won't freeze. Wood stoves inside are always either too hot or not warm enough. If you are comfortable, it is time to put wood in the stove. Wood furnaces, whether outdoor or indoor, are much more efficient. They also do not cause as much ash, dust, and mess inside the house (wood chips, etc.). An indoor wood stove must be placed on a fireproof mat and should be at least 18 inches away from a wall. The wall itself behind the wood stove should also be lined with fireproof material. Then the stovepipe which goes from the stove through the roof or wall to vent smoke should be triple-wall stove pipe, which provides a cushion of air between two separate pipes, which cools the temperature of the outside of the pipe considerably and creates less fire hazard. Firewood has to have time to cure after it is cut. Have a good chainsaw if you are going to cut your own. Better yet, have two or more. They do break down. If you are going to buy firewood, secure your source ahead of time. If you need it delivered, set that up too. Talk price in advance. Some people will raise their prices as the temperature goes down. You will burn a mixture of greenwood and cured wood for the warmest and longest-lasting fire.Our new homestead has another brand of outdoor wood furnace for heat in the mobile home, but we took our Li'l House Outdoor wood furnance with us also. The old farmhouse had propane wall heaters in it that we never used after our first 2 winters there, so we left those there and brought the Li'l House with us. We also went in September 2005 and purchased 2 more of these furnaces. We will be installing one in our shop office area and in 2 other homes in our homesteading community. I predict that, eventually, most of the homes in our community will end up with a Li'l House outdoor wood furnace heating them.
If you choose to heat with propane or electric, make sure you have a wood stove for backup heat in case your electricity goes off or you run out of propane. You can never go wrong with having wood heat, as long as it is properly and safely installed.
Tip 3: Working: It is always better to have a job to go to when you get there, no matter how much in demand your particular profession. Job markets are definitely slower in rural areas. You can send resumes by fax, e-mail, or mail; and most places will do telephone interviews now also. If you are going to work at home, make sure you have your work lined up already or have a market for it where you are going. If you end up with a mortgage, you'll have to work a job to pay for your homestead until you can make enough progress to make your homestead pay for itself. In other words, you have to support it until it can support you. Homesteading is never a "get rich quick" prospect.
Tip 4: Financing: There are many ways to pay for a homestead. The best way is to pay cash. Most of us can't afford to just pay cash outright. If you have a home in one place, you can sell it and use that money to buy your homestead. A better way to do this is to make an offer on a place "contingent upon the sale & closing of your home". That way, if your home fails to sell, you would not lose any earnest money you have placed down - and you won't be liable for buying the place if your own existing home does not sell.
You could take out a mortgage. There are as many types of mortgages as there are banks, it seems. Some banks will do what they call "non-traditional" financing, where they will finance a mortgage for you if you come up with 25% of the purchase price as a down-payment. If you do take out a mortgage, the shorter the mortgage, the less it will cost you. Most banks will do 10-year, 15-year, 20-year, 25-year, or 30-year mortgage terms. The 30-year mortgage seems to be the most popular. It is the best one, as far as banks are concerned, but is NOT the best option for the customer - that's you. The monthly payments are lower, which is why a 30-year note is attractive to many people. However, the few dollars you save in monthly payments is not worth all the extra interest you will pay over the life of the loan. ASK the loan officer how much you will pay in additional interest on a 30-year note as opposed to a 10-year note. You will be shocked to find out the answer. We asked about the different between a 10-year note and a 15-year note. The payments were not that much lower on a 15-year note. However, the interest just over that extra 5 years totaled up to more than $50K - enough to buy a nice RV or a whole new piece of property!
Contract sales are another option. Please see Tip 1. The shorter the contract, the less interest you will pay, AND the sooner you will reach a debt-free goal.
Some homes will come with an option of "owner-financing", meaning you will pay a down-payment and then make your payments to the person you buy the home from. That way they make the interest rather than the bank. As far as length of loan, the same information applies. The longer the loan, the more interest you will pay.
Tip 5: Housing: If you buy a parcel with nothing on it, such as to build a house on, make sure you have adequate shelter if you are going to live there during the process of building. It will always take more time than you think to build. Campers and RV's get pretty small and confined after a while, especially if it is storming out. Living in a tent gets really old really fast. They also lose their water-proofing after a few months. A small mobile home may work, but some development areas do not allow mobile homes. A mobile home that is 10 feet wide or less does not require a permit to be moved on public roads in Missouri. Other states may have different rules. Older small mobile homes can be purchased for reasonable prices also. Something comfortable to live in while building is a must. However, you don't want to get TOO comfortable - you may give up on the idea of building at all. Another option might be to build a small "garage" or pole building. They even sell kits for these. You could live in the small building until your home is finished.
Tip 6: Transportation: Make sure you have reliable transportation!! This is a must. It is always better to have something with four-wheel drive in a rural environment. If it snows, you might be stuck for a while. More than one form of transportation would be the most ideal thing. Gravel roads tear tires up fast, so make sure you have good tires. A truck is almost a necessity for hauling firewood, building materials, etc. A truck, van, or station wagon are the three best homesteading vehicles.
Tip 7: Finding Your Perfect Homestead: Above are just a few tips on getting started. You can find your perfect place in many ways. First, you have to decide where the perfect place is for you. People like different countryside, weather, growing seasons, etc. Compare cost of living in different areas, average wages for your type of work, etc. Send away for real estate brochures. Look in ads in magazines like Mother Earth News or Country Living. Go to visit the area you think you might like to live in. Drive around and look at signs. Talk to people. Talk to the utility companies. Talk to real estate agents in the area. Many are multi-listing agents and can locate your ideal property with a few computer keyboard strokes. Surf the internet yourself for property listings also. Talk to the prospective neighbors. Bad neighbors CAN be your downfall. Once you have found the perfect place, have your home built, your utilities in, have a job, etc., then the fun really begins.
Working a Homestead: Homesteading is hard work, but it is worth it to have some measure of independence in life. Drone was a painting contractor at the Lake area for several years. Now, he runs our kennels and the farm. I worked as a medical transcriptionist for 15 years, and worked at home on my computer for much of that time, including the last 7 years of that. I am now "retired" from that. It was not voluntary, but the doc said I couldn't go back to work. So, I try to do whatever I can here around the homestead, in the house, in the kennels and on the farm too, although my contribution in physical work isn't overly much, other than mainly paperwork.
Now, we raise and/or hunt most of our own animals for home butchering and raise or grow some of our own produce. He can butcher anything at home and produce quality meat. We've learned how to cure ham and bacon and make sausage. We have dehydrators and make jerky and dried fruits and vegetables. We finally got a band saw (for meat cuts) and an electric meat grinder (grinding by hand gets old). We've raised rabbits, chickens, feeder pigs, dairy and meat goats, bantam chickens, guineas, 2 kinds of geese, 3 kinds of ducks, 2 kinds of turkeys, & golden pheasants. We had a huge black raspberry patch out back at the old homestead. We froze raspberries and made preserves also. We also had gooseberries and asparagus. We got things done a little at a time, as on most homesteads. We planted a small orchard that was just beginning to hit good production of fruit, plus grapes, more raspberries, put in a strawberry bed, raised flower beds, etc.
Now that we've moved our entire homestead and our small homesteading community, we'll be starting all over on many of those things. We moved our kennels with us, plus our chickens. We gave away our turkeys, geese, and ducks to neighbors; so we'll have to start over with those in the spring again. At the new homestead, we brought a bulldozer in and built roads. We also had a pond built. We'll have to plant a new orchard, build new raised beds for gardening, flower beds, etc. We'll be planting new grape vines, strawberry beds, raspberries, etc., plus many herbs & other useful plants, bushes, flowers, etc. We'll be sharing our progress here also.
We do a lot of canning of produce and meat. We dehydrate veggies, fruits, and meat. We freeze a lot of food also. We hit the produce auction for organic produce quite a bit in the summer.
There's always work to do on any homestead. That's part of owning any home, though. Lee installed an outdoor wood furnace in our carport the first October we were there at the old homestead to heat the house. It did a fairly good job of heating that big old monster farmhouse over the winters. We had a few cold snaps that were bad enough that we lit the propane heaters also in the first few winters we were there. For the most part, though, that wood furnace did the trick. We moved it from one spot on the house to come in to the living room rather than the pantry, and that worked out much better for us. The last year we bought propane was in 1999. After he switched the location of the wood furnace, he installed a backup wood stove in the last addition to the farmhouse. We never had to worry about propane again.
When we originally started seeking to homestead, it was with the idea of intentional community of family & friends in mind. We built our community there at the old homestead. When we sold the farmhouse, we brought most of our community with us. Moving a whole community of folks was a large undertaking, but we got it accomplished.
Information on the Homesteading Act
Some Homesteading History: Homesteading started out as a means for the U.S. to settle large portions of vast empty wilderness. The need to populate vast areas of the open West dictated an ever more openhanded land policy by the Federal government in the mid-1800's. This culminated in the Homestead Act of 1862, a law that would transfer millions of acres to settlers virtually free of charge. The base price of public land was lowered from $2 to $1.25 an acre and the minimum purchase was reduced from 160 to as few as 80 acres. Heads of household, widows, and singles over 21 years who were citizens or had declared their intention to become citizens were granted the right to settle on 160 acres of unoccupied public land, which, provided that he cultivated it, he would own after living on it for five continuous years. An entry-man could commute a claim to cash entry and pay minimum price per acre but was still required to build a home and cultivate the land. Only half of the homestead entries filed before 1900 went to patent.
Some Homesteading Philosophy: We figure the original Homesteaders had to be a special breed of people. They had to be willing to fight.. They had to fight to cultivate the land, fight to build homes out of the wilderness, and fight to keep what was theirs. They used whatever conveniences were available to them and that they could afford (so using modern conveniences does not preclude you from being a homesteader). Many types of people went to homestead, and only half made it. There were always those who tried to take what they had worked hard to keep. There were predators, forest fires, killing temperatures, storms, floods, droughts, all types of things that they had to deal with - for the most part on their own. They had to be willing to fight to keep what they had worked so hard for, or they just didn't make it.
Today, homesteading has a similar meaning to us, although the land prices have definitely gone up from $1.25 per acre... You also can't just move on it, work it, and claim it as your own. I think homesteading is a combination of the improving the land, building something of yourself into it, and creating a home there. When you work a piece of land and make a home on it, it somehow belongs to you -- and you belong to it. You become the steward of that land and that home. If you keep it well, it will keep you well. Even if you live in a town or a city, you can "homestead" right where you are. It's more about your frame of mind than about where you live. It's how you think and act, rather than where you are located. I'm sure we've all seen plenty of places in the country (and the city) that aren't really homesteads. They are more junk piles, weeds, and rusty old cars than anything else.
Homesteaders (back then) often banded together and traveled for miles to help their neighbors, such as barn raisings, home raisings, quilting bees, etc. They would help each other with plowing, planting, and harvesting crops and hay. They also banded together in regards to protection. This gave them a sense of "community" regardless of how far apart they were in actual miles. It's a way of life, a state of mind, a method of thinking that requires a return to a simpler time when trusting your neighbors was the norm rather than the exception. It's also about being independent and self-sufficient but willing to lend a hand (or accept one) when it's needed. Every town & city in this country started out in the beginning as a few people, a community of folks who banded together & worked together for protection & survival.
Preparedness and self-sufficiency was a normal everyday way of life 150 years ago. They had to buy in large quantities, because they might not get to town for another 6 months or a year. They had to learn to put up their own food, raise & hunt for their own meat, take care of themselves. Learning to be that prepared and self-sufficient takes some doing, but it can be done. Old skills are dying out in many places, but they're good to learn on a homestead. Conveniences are nice to have, but it's nice to know you could do without them if you had to also. We'll buy our shoes until we have to make them. When we have to make them, we will.
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