After lurking for a few weeks, I thought I would take this opportunity to
introduce myself. My wife and I currently live in a rural area near
central Arkansas, where we keep a few chickens, turkeys, rabbits, and
goats. We garden in a moderate way, and through the animals and the
garden, produce a large part of what we consume. We don't currently hunt,
but gifts of venison from friends and family who do so supplement our
diet, as well. We are both employed full time, but are moving into the
next stage of our lives. My soulmate and best friend will retire soon,
and I look forward to following her in a few years.
For many years, we discussed our dreams of a homesteading/offgrid life in
the Ozarks. A few years ago, we purchased some really rough Ozark land,
and have begun taking steps toward preparing a homestead to which we hope
to retire. About five acres of it have been cleared for our cabin,
outbuildings, garden, and fruit trees. Last summer, we began the process
of building a small cabin, and although the winter weather finally forced
us to delay our work, the upcoming spring will see us continuing our
labors. We hope the end result will be a simple offgrid homestead where
we produce a large part of our own food as we do now, supply our basic
electrical needs through solar power as we currently do in a very limited
way, get water from the spring, and harvest firewood from the wooded
mountain land on which we live. Because we will be an "older" retired
couple, doing all of those things as simply as possible is important to
us.
I would very much like to receive any advice or suggestions from anyone
who has walked the homesteading-in-retirement path. I look forward to
benefitting from the collective wisdom of the Steemit Community.
Sounds like a man with a plan! I too have a cabin in the woods, with a few acres. Mine needs a lot of work though lol I love it out in the wilderness
Best wishes !!
Welcome to Steemit!
Hubby and I are in the process of building a cabin too, that darn winter weather is delaying us as well. Tons of snow here this year!
I hit the follow button and I look forward to viewing your future posts! 😃
@leemlaframboise
#north-woods
@medic8553
I haven't had a problem with snow, but cold, wet weather finally forced me to just shut it down until Spring. I have plenty of other things to do at home to keep me busy until then.
Retiring with your soulmate... I heavily envy you. Congratulations! Hope to see more posts from you!
Hey deanoffgrid,
I lived 21 years of my life around Hot Springs, Arkansas. It was back in the 80's. I kept goats, chickens, pigs and raised a large garden. The Red Waddle hog was a fad, which I invested in. The pig could grow to 1300 pounds and could withstand extreme heat and sub-zero temperatures. Plus the pig was all lean meat (less about 10% fat).
But over time the idea faded. What part of the Ozarks do you live in? Just curious. Thanks for posting.
We currently still live in Hot Spring County, but I work in Hot Springs. We will move to our homestead when I retire in a few years. It is on what must be the roughest, most inaccessible piece of land in Van Buren County, in what should probably be described as the foothills of the Ozarks.
Welcome to steemit! If you are ever looking for a group, actually a community, of homesteaders/gardeners/self-sufficient like-minded people, I am the moderator of a group here... also the "un"official ambassador to the group.
let me know and I can post an invite link here for you!
Thank you very much. I would love to be a part of such a group. I have much to learn.
There is a welcome channel
Join Link: https://discord.gg/VKCrWsS
and the Front Porch is the main chat area. Welcome!
Hello, @deanoffgrid, and Welcome to Steemit.
Your dreams / plans to retire off-grid" are commendable ... and might prove to be a great idea as the economy crashes.
Hope you can make some major progress from spring onwards, and hopefully have a sufficiently livable homestead by next winter.
Below are a few basic points of advice re posting on Steemit.
Hope this helps for now. Good luck, and Full Steem Ahead!
Hi Dean, might I just say that you are living the life that I am always dreaming of. If you could write more about how you live so durable, or about a few typical days living in the countryside, I would love to read it. My boyfriend and me are sometimes thinking of buying a small cabin in the Slovenian mountains. But being a city-girl, I am always a bit lost on where to start. And I am also quite pathetic around insects. So yeah...
About living in retirement, I bet that living the way you and your wife live will surely prolong a healthy life! Doing physical work and eating healthy is already the best thing you can do.
I would still say, avoid as many stairs as possible. Breaking something usually takes away all the fun.
In any case, good luck with all the efforts!
welcome to steemit. actually I am also new in steemit. I read your reviews. I am grateful to have an introduction here. unfortunately I want to see the homestay you tell me but unfortunately I can not see the photo where we could exchange opinions about it. I come from Indonesia and beginner in this steemit. maybe we can give each other opinion in this community. until we can be successful together. I hope it is. Regards. @sarine. please follow me and vote me. in @sarine
welcome! you'll be sure to find plenty of homesteading-related posts here on steemit! look forward to reading some of yours, upvoted and followed!
Welcome to Steemit! Explore + enjoy :)
Welcome to Steemit and good for you!
Feel free to check out my intro @byzantinehash and follow me if you like anything there.
Welcome to steemit! This is a wonderul platform with great people and communities! I followed you and look forward to your posts! Be sure to check the other aspects of the steem blockchain as well; Steepshot, DTube, DLive, Zappl and DMania. Be active and have fun! Cheers @stwbll
Hey, welcome to Steemit!
The homesteading community here is strong. I'd recommend connection with @papapepper asap, he's in MO, but runs a lot of programs with homesteaders on here.
**I'm @markrmorrisjr, I work with a lot of new users. If you haven't yet you're probably going to be dealing with some bandwidth issues. I just wrote an article on how to overcome it herefollow me and @dolphinschool for lots of free training on how to get started!
Very cool. My wife and I are heading that way as well. I look forward to seeing more of your journey.
Welcome to Steem Dean ! Hope to see more posts from you :)
Good day sir!
I admire your post. Your life is everyone wishes to have. Your wife is the luckiest to have you. I salute you for being great. More power to you and to your wife.
By the way sir, I wrote an article about love and marriage. I hope you have even a littlest of your time to visit my post, I know you have much thoughts that you could possibly share. Attached below is the link of my posts.
https://steemit.com/philippines/@azilana01/valentines-day-special
please read my introduction if you want to know more about me.
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@azilana01/about-myself
Thank you for such an inspiration. More power.
awesome! another addition to the family :)
Welcome @deanoffgrid to the platform. ")
i'm sure SteemIT is lucky to have you and i'm sure you will definitely grow in this community.
i'll be looking forward to more of your blogs. Happy Valentine's to you and have a great day ahead!
-kuya J
Welcome to Steemit and I hope you and your wife would be able to build your dream homestead sooner. Keep us posted :)
hello @deanoffgrid
I am new Steemit user.
Help me know more about steemit!
See you!
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@mawardisteemit/introduceyourself-iam-mawardi-from
Welcome to steemit .steemit is all about community building helping each other
What you will learn here :
Steemit is not only about UPVOTES & Money
It is about writing..
It is about reading..
It is about knowing people and their side of the story..
It is about learning..
It is about finding a path to follow..
It is about keeping yourself motivated to write better..
It is about broadening your thinking..
It is about spending your time productively..
It is about making you think from a different perspective..
It is about writing without any expectations of UPVOTES..
Upvoted your lovely introductive post :@ waiting eagerly for your new post ....keep steeming
Hello, welcome to Steemit. It's nice to read the ideas you have. I really consider that turning our eyes to the field, to the land that is where we come from is fundamental, an excellent initiative. I am already following you waiting to read how your personal project is going. A pleasure.
Permaculture is what you are looking for.
Let your farm age with you in mind that is what we are doing.
With the hard rocky soil on our future homestead, we will almost certainly have to do something above ground - probably raised beds and containers as we normally do in our current location. Any suggestions about permaculture or any methods with a reasonable chance of success would be greatly appreciated.
You could try the hugelkultur method if you have dead trees logs branches around, it is a good way to start raised beds. Soil can be built anywhere but it takes time to build a good garden bed. You also could start with wood chips if you can source them free or cheaply.
I have only recently encountered the hugelkultur concept. At a minimum, it appears to be worth exploring. Our homestead location is mostly wooded, and the materials are there for the taking. Thanks for bringing that back to the front of my cluttered mind.