What Nobody Tells You About Homesteading 

Surviving Ringworm, Shawn James, and Bush Radical are some of my favorite offgrid youtubers. And in same climatic area as them. It can be done but it requires time and labor. Thought about an earth ship, but tires and berm make no sense. The time and labor on tires is way more than cmu block and insulation. 6 foot frost depths so no berm. Cheaper to buy insulation and better insulation than dirt.

My dads been living off grid fir almost 30 years now. He use to just isolate himself out there for months on end but now hes 82 and legally blind so he depends more on me and my mom coming out there to bring supplies and repair and clean up for him. For years i thought he was crazy, but now that im 46, im starting to think he was the smartest man alive. But its definitely not for the lazy or weak. Im planning on moving closer to him this year just so its easier fir me to get out there when he needs something but who knows, i may just pick up where he left off when hes gone.

One of the things that sadly stood out to me was the fact that you need to go to your local government for permission to do X on "your" land. Obviously that depends on where you live but who really owns the land you're standing on? You may pay off the mortgage but if you pay property taxes you never pay that off and therefore never truly own that land. America, land of the free...sure, in the places where the government says you can be free.

I'm a licensed electrician of 10+ years. I can fix almost anything and build anything. With saying that, that's only half the battle. Sure i can wire up an entire house and maintain any building, but i would need to be married to someone who has experience with farm animals and gardening to make homesteading a reality. My bare minimum knowledge on those two things alone would limit my ability to run a fully off grid homestead.

I saw you mentioned "slowsteading" in your thumbnail. They are prime examples of people irresponsibly jumping on the bandwagon.

Very well done- great message!

Even someone that deals with building codes can make mistakes. Here house needs to 25' off road and no more than 60'. I hand dug my piers. Put down my point well by myself. Even destroyed a chainsaw trying to cut post. Moose are scary. You can scare off a bear. Moose are so dumb they will attack a ford truck. Harvesting food takes little work. Those people didn't look into the laws and didn't do enough research. I agree that shed should be anchored. It's common sense in construction world. Water, food, shelter, first aid/medications, means of defense, and a plan. I have the land and selected a building site. Filed permit even though don't need to pull permit. I have built a skillion pavilion that will be cottage when I get walls up on it. My struggle has been transporting tools and materials to the property. My barrel grill and outhouse filled bed of truck. Getting my heavy cement mixer up there was pain. I have too many predators for livestock besides bees. But I have wild animals to harvest. And have been improving habitat for humans and animals. I need a trailer and tow vehicle. So can get boat, dock sections, heavy timbers, and wood stove up north. It's 30 minutes to gas station and hour to grocery store. Which when at camp we need to go to grocery store after 2 weeks of camping. I haven't built a spring house yet for food storage. But our flowing point well does help to keep things cold. We are getting certified organic this spring. We have a food forest of berries and fruits. So can at least make money to pay property taxes. Going organic I must pay money if gmo they would give me money.

Yes, everything begins with....a shovel...lol