Living on a farm

[Cocolove]

My ideal lifestyle would be living alone on a small farm where I have minimal work, live frugally, and grow most of my own food and sell some things for what I need. If you are familiar with Joel salatin's visionlogic farming that's what I'm going for but on a smaller scale. Anyone have any ideas on this? where do i start researching?

[RichardY]

If you are looking for minimal work, I wouldn't have thought farming to be it. Forest gardening, might be easier with a small nursery.

Even if you automate, if you're not watching it things can go out of hand. I heard a story from a shepherd in Portugal, about a chicken farmer that went on holiday, when he came back all the chickens were dead, as the water had stopped working.

For income, location & market is important. There's an Urban farmer, Curtis Stone, who grows salads in Kelowna, Canada. But that's one of the most expensive cities. 

[SFRL]

On 6/28/2019 at 4:32 PM, Cocolove said:

My ideal lifestyle would be living alone on a small farm where I have minimal work, live frugally, and grow most of my own food and sell some things for what I need. If you are familiar with Joel salatin's visionlogic farming that's what I'm going for but on a smaller scale. Anyone have any ideas on this? where do i start researching?

Sounds awesome. Don't know about the minimal work part though, seems like a lot of work, but if you enjoy it, it might not feel too much like work. 

[Shaun]

I'd say it's better to work hard totally for yourself than be a wage slave in a massive company where you matter less to the CEO than dirt.

[Cocolove]

I used the word farm loosely. I want to have plants and animals on a piece of land. 

[archi]

search for sustainable  gardening/farming (i.e. you want continuous delivery of products, seasons repeat), automated (you want to enjoy it and concentrate on consciousness work too, i.e. go beyond survival), find group of like minded people  (i.e. it is easier to maintain, learn and progress) etc. good luck   

[Autumn]

This has always been my dream lifestyle as well. Grow lots of food and cannabis (as well as all types of other healthy herbs and medicines), enough for all year round.

[Girzo]

I assume you have never lived in the country. "Minimal" work. 

If you sit on a bag of money and do it only as a hobby, then yes you might do with minimal work. But as a way of survival? That won't do with minimal work.

[RichardY]

You could try woofing or volunteering on farms. Vancouver island is nice, I was there 5 years a go or so, worked on a small Lavender farm for accommodation while backpacking around. Unless you're going to marry someone rich or go full out autarky(self-sufficiency), what market you sell to is very important.

@CocoloveI suppose if you want to live the good life regardless, you need a budget in mind as your seed capital, and a time frame.

 

[flume]

@Cocolove Hi, lovely to see other people interested in sustainable farming here.

First I’d say don’t underestimate what it takes to be totally self sufficient.
You’ll need to have a lot of experience and you’re gonna have to make a ton of sacrifices.
Especially in colder climates it can be a huge challenge to realise.

So being totally self sustained is probably aiming a bit too high, especially in the beginning. Work part time, see to make passive income or work from home. If you wanna go all in consider selling some of your produce or starting a CSA. You’ll never be rich though. You also don’t have to grow everything yourself, there are lots of alternatives and in-between steps. Look into community gardens and food coops for example.

Where to start? On a farm;-) From your post I can’t read how much experience you have in gardening/farming but I’d say start on other farms for sure and see how you like it. There’s lots of different ways of living sustainably, no two farms are the same. Get a feel of what you like, not only in theory but in practice. Farming is very hands - on. I can seem romantic until you have to work 12h days in a physically exhausting job just to see half of your produce go to waste because it doesn't rain enough. Only if it's a true passion you'll be able to take those kinds of setbacks.

It’s beautiful and rewarding if you love it and you’re willing to put all of your energy into it.
But I don’t know a lot of people that would actually thrive doing it.

[Cocolove]

@flume I have near no experience.

@Girzo What about like just growing a few things and selling some to get basic necessities for living. I'm looking at this as a way to support a really really simple lifestyle. I'm not claiming that I do know a method of doing this but that's what I plan on researching. What about monks and shit, like the stereotypical ones that live in a cave and everything close to that. I'm not looking to make a lot of money or anything just to literally survive.

[Girzo]

Monks rely on their savings or generosity of society/family. People bring them food to their caves and sometimes they have a person who cooks and runs errands for them.

Just surviving from farming takes a lot of effort. Plus you need land and property and experience. You can try WOOFing or Workaway.info and visit some farm, see how it's done.

Do your own math, there are a lot of channels on YT talking about the topic.

But it's not an easy path. Making money online, owning a small business in the city, etc. are way easier ways of surviving.

[flume]

You could try and find a farm/ community that you like and volunteer there. They might let you live and eat there in exchange for working several hours a day in the garden or in the fields. Camphill - style! I did that for quite a while and it's a good way to find your own direction. 

In a bigger community it's also usually easier to spread the work and have a bigger variety of food of your own, not just some veggies from the garden and 2 fruit trees. I work (actually hope to work soon) on a farm where we're I'd say we're 90% self sustained. That includes everything from fruit (fresh and for jam and juice) veggies (all year round) to grains (for making our own pasta, rice, spelt for bread, buckwheat etc), herbs (for tea and spices), milk (and milk products like cheese and yoghurt), eggs, meat and fish. Even wood for furniture, bowls, etc. and wool for clothes and carpets. 

Just for reference, this grew over the past 20 years and there's around 30 people working there everyday. Again: it's a ton of work! But doing it that way (in exchange for living/eating there) you would bypass having to own something and saves you a lot of responsibility. 

[Cocolove]

Keeping this on this thread just because. I visited a farm.!!!

It was a husband and wife with 3 kids. The husband had a full time job and worked around 2 hours a day. The wife and kids did a few chores but overall, there was about 4-10 hours of work done each day.

They had around a 12 to 20 cows, that were fed (they grazed the pasture) varieties of different grasses that are best for cows. Grass fed and finished for those who know what that means

They had like 80 chickens, raised in the best way possible, eating bugs from the cows poop and organic soy free feed. They had acres and acres to run around the house and the whole farm. They had ducks, quail, geese, and they plan to get pigs.

They had apple trees and some easy crops.

When I was there I was like oh my god this is exactly what I want to do. When I found out how little work this took, I realized this is actually totally practical. It can be manageable to run a farm if efficient tasks are chosen, and random shit like housing and plumbing is outsourced to experts, so it wouldn't be totally self sufficient, but I would sell food so its cool. I could have my own small farm, and even upgrade and grow more crops if I got some friends to work with me (we're all getting out of high school and I know a lot of people that are interested.)

 

 

I still kind of really want to go to college though, even though it is expensive. There's so much to learn and it would be a great experience. I have access to some of the very selective colleges because I have a good resume, grades, and 99th percentile ACT (standardized test).

I also feel like I should get more life experience before I really go into this life purpose. I also like psychology and want to study it in college. If I got out of college and worked somewhere for like 4 years I could save up money so that I could really get the farm thing going (if I still want to) without debt or investors.

My top choice for college is probably Reed college. It's in Portland Oregon, it's super stage green (maybe some yellow) and has a meditation center. google it if you wanna take a look

Please ask questions and give me advice. Am I on the right track?

[Cocolove]

ba da BUMP

[FabulousKitchen]

@Cocolove have you considered paying mortgage for a tiny home to move onto a plot of land? That is not a super refined plan, but it seems feasible

[Average Investor]

I'd find a way to generate income with the property. Doing minimal work tends to produce minimal results in my experience. 

[PeachyEssay]

On 28/06/2019 at 10:32 PM, Cocolove said:

My ideal lifestyle would be living alone on a small farm where I have minimal work, live frugally, and grow most of my own food and sell some things for what I need. If you are familiar with Joel salatin's visionlogic farming that's what I'm going for but on a smaller scale. Anyone have any ideas on this? where do i start researching?

Where do you live? Also, do you have any experience with farming and animals? 

[Nahm]

@Cocolove Seen that new movie The Biggest Little Farm? Great movie. Very moving & inspirational. Beautiful really.