Hi,

I'm a city dweller looking to move to the country in 5 years. I know it is going to be a tremendous challenge and I am looking for someone who has lived in the city and moved to the country to give me pointers about the transition. Also, I would like to talk to someone who can simply tell me about country living, gardening, and natural living. Please contact me at MelLucy@hotmail.com if you have some pointers. Thank you much.

-- Mel Lucy (MelLucy@hotmail.com), July 07, 2001

Answers

There is a big difference between living in the country, homesteading and living on a farm.

Living in the country usually means you have yard than when you lived in the city and your neighbors are further away. (Not really much difference).

Homesteading is what a lot of the people here do. They are looking for a relatively self-sufficient lifestyle.

Living on a farm is a whole different ball of wax. Farming is a business that you are attempting to make money at and it requires a lot of money to get into (don't I know it).

I suspect you are looking at homesteading and not farming. Decide now what your expectation and goals are. Do you want to raise all of your own food (garden, milk animals, chickens, etc???)? Do you want to be free of the grid? How do you plan to make money or will you have enough?

I am sure that others here will offer even more questions for you ask yourself and will be more than willing to help you with your questions. My suggestion is to go slow. Plan on adding a new "task" or animal at regular intervals (like once a year). This gives you time to know what you are doing with each thing and not overwhelming yourself with tons of new things all at once.

I was city raised and many years ago when I was a single parent, I moved to the country to a couple of acres so I could make ends meet and feed my kids. It helped that I had been reading Mother Earth News for a few years. I had milk goats, chickens and a large garden. We lived that way for a few years and did fine. I eventually went back to college, got a career, remarried (a farm boy) and moved to a big city to work. We have since bought a farm and live there now, so I can tell you that it is vastly different than how I used to live :)

-- beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), July 07, 2001.

See my first thread on The Code of Country Living, for a look at the realities of living in the countryside. I will be posting about 8 threads on the subject altogether.

-- Jean (schiszik@tbcnet.com), July 07, 2001.

Mel,

Start with the archives on this site. (The categories at the bottom of the page.) Sart at the top and work your way down. It will be a good beginning.

-- Mona in OK (modoc@ipa.net), July 10, 2001.

We live on a large acreage but my husband works off the place. I believe in order to "make it" farming, or homesteading. It has to be the right location. Most buy where land is cheap but then you can't sell your livestock at what it cost to raise them, then there isn't the people interested in crafts, like weaving, spinning, soapmaking and so forth if they can get it cheaper at Wally World. we make money off of our cattle, I want to make money of our sheep which I just sold several lambs to a slaughter house for little if any (maybe a minus) profit. Our blueberry u-pick will make money, but not to pay for a way of life. were on a five year plan so my husband can retire then and still have plus years of doing things. So.. we are putting in a Christmas Tree Farm (it is in) but will take years to take off, the u-pick. We need a orchard and a few homebusiness ideas to make it. E-mail Ken on the forum he written a good booklet on working ideas.

-- Debbie (bwolcott@cwis.net), July 10, 2001.

We were city ten burbs dwellers with a country life dream. For 5 years we have lived on our 4.7 acres in the country and now we are ready to get going with animals. I have 3 sheep with 3 more on the way,2 paddocks fenced in for them, 20 meat chickens ranging with 8 turkey poults (I know I know..blackhead..so far so good, and 2 pigs in a pen. Its been a busy ol' spring thats for sure. I am glad we settled in pretty good before we got started with the animals since my husband still commutes to the city daily so I do most of the animal chores etc. This way if I need a hand or advice I have made a good network of friends here in our area that I didn't have a couple years ago. I don't have much else in the way of pointers except to be rrealistic and prepared to go slow.

-- Alison in N.S. (aproteau@istar.ca), July 10, 2001.