Our Homesteading Vision: Motivations

In a few recent freedom challenge posts, my wife Aimee mentioned some of our motivations for moving towards the homesteading lifestyle. While Aimee touched on some of the things we want in our future life, I thought a more thorough discussion, to clarify the vision we have for our future, was in order.

What do Aimee and I want from the homesteading lifestyle? What does our life ideally look like in 5 to 10 years? Read along to find out! While this is going to be mostly from my perspective, Aimee and I are on the same page for most of these reasons.

Photo by Jon Flobrant on Unsplash

Even before I met Aimee, I had been thinking about homesteading and running an organic or permaculture farm. I've long had a love for nature; being out in the fresh air surrounded by Gods creation just seemed to always make me happy. I believe the countless opportunities I had to experience and enjoy interacting with nature as a child primed my desire for a homesteading lifestyle. Unfortunately, like many people, the hustle and bustle of everyday life and working to pay the bills distracted me and kept me from moving in the right direction.

When I met Aimee though, I had a renewed motivation to homestead. She really was the woman of my dreams and I knew we would someday have a family together. I really envisioned us having a peaceful life, raising our children far away from the city and the craziness of it all. While it would be an uncommon path to travel, and some friends and family neither approved nor understood, I just felt like this was the right choice for us and Aimee agreed.

When I really think about and break down why, there are two sets of motivations behind my desire to homestead. The first set of motivations center around what I want in my life, lifestyle aspects to move towards. The second set of motivations are the negative aspects of life that I want to move away from. To end on a positive note, I am going to start with what I want to escape:

Negative Aspects to Move Away From

• Regular Job - For me, there is something very soul sucking about working for someone else. To provide so much value and only receive a small portion in return, especially when your efforts don't seem to be noticed or appreciated, can really be mentally draining. To big business owners, employees are viewed as a replaceable cog in a machine and oftentimes that mentality is mirrored in their treatment of people as well.
• Reliance on Established Systems - The power grid, natural gas grid, a low-quality and mass-produced food supply delivered just in time to the supermarket daily, are flawed systems to rely on. Not only are the costs of these services mostly out of your control they often come with strings attached which can be used as leverage points by people in power. Whether you are forced to accept a smart meter for using electricity or pay carbon taxes for natural gas the strings always exists. You might think that you use these systems but really they use you.
• "City" People - While there are plenty of nice people that live in the city, there are just as many assholes. I find living in close proximity to these people to be stressful; bad drivers, dirty looks, traffic cops, meter maids, tough guys, nosy blue hairs with nothing better to do than snitch on you to bylaw for not cutting your grass (or for not have any at all). No thanks! I would rather walk alone in the trees.
• High Cost of Living - Living in the city is expensive. Real estate is outrageous due to low interest rates and you don't even get much for your money anymore. The size of new house lots continues to shrink; where is the big backyard for the children to play in? I guess most people don't mind, their children don't play outside anymore. Water and sewer bills, electricity, natural gas, property taxes, food, daily commutes.... It all adds up. You end up having to work hard to pay someone else to provide your necessities.
• Zombies - Everyone knows that the city is a death trap when the zombie invasion comes! Seriously though, I see major economic, social, and possibly environmental upheaval in the future. We can't continue on the trajectory we have been heading for the past 100 years. The system is eventually going to break and being in a densely populated area, without any of your own resources, puts your fate in the hands of others. During the great depression farmers were hit hard too, but they never went hungry.

Are you ready for the Zombies? / Photo by Darkness on Unsplash

Things I want to Move Towards

• Fresh Air and Quiet - Currently, I work in the city but live in our tiny house on my parents land in the country. I can just feel my stress level rising as I drive into the city to work and dropping driving home as I get out on the open road. Where we live now isn't nearly as remote as where we are moving to. There is something beautiful about stopping to listen and hearing the birds chirping, the wind in the trees, or just nothing at all.
• Being Near Outdoor recreation - By homesteading out in a semi-remote area I would be half the distance or less to the types of outdoor recreation I enjoy. Hiking, camping, hunting, fishing; all things that I don't do nearly as much as I would like to. If the distance I had to drive was significantly less, these activities would be much easier to sneak into my life more regularly.
• Country Life for My Children - I don't think there is a better way to grow up than observing and learning from nature. Playing in ponds and creeks, catching bugs, building forts, and climbing trees are all educational experiences. Learning about and working with animals and trees, helping to grow the food they eat in the garden, would be rewarding tasks. What could be better? Certainly, this is preferable to TV and video games.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

• Growing Our Own Food - The food supply is increasingly saturated with low quality items and contaminated with toxic substances. We would know we were eating the most nutritious food if we had the space and resources to grow it ourselves, and it would be affordable too. Vegetables, fruits and nuts, raw dairy, and clean meat. I want to do it all! I know it is a lot of work but I think it will be worth it.
• A Functioning Permaculture Farm - I guess I am very ambitious: I hope to, one day, make my income from the land itself. Modern agriculture uses up and destroys the land by eroding the top soil through annual crop production and cultivation and I believe permaculture has the answers to this problem. We can heal the earth and feed ourselves, it doesn't have to be one or the other. There currently just aren't enough examples of profitable, functional permaculture farms to convince most farmers of this possibility.. Hopefully, I can lead by example.

I think I am going to stop here for today. This is a very complex and important subject to me and I feel I can do better justice to it by splitting it into a few parts. Stay tuned!

Having our #dreamscometrue is possible for every single one of us. Do you want to turn your dreams into a reality? Then join @senorcoconut on his mission to rally the community into realizing their dreams.