Red,
Several years ago, hubby and I decided that the "retirement" home we had purchased back in 1996 was no longer in an area that we wanted to retire. We searched for and found a 12-acre former working homestead located in a very rural area but close enough to get to a small town for supplies. It's about 2 hours from where we currently live.
It's got a small, rickety (built in 1941) farmhouse - livable, but needs work, a great well, a working septic system, small garage, summer kitchen/canning shed, propane tanks, rabbit pens, chicken coops, hog pens, 2 fenced pastures, water supplies ran to all animal areas as well as peach, pecan, pear, apple, blueberry, blackberry, grapes.
We've got approximately one year before being able to pack our bags and move full time. We would like to sell the city house, but that depends on the state of the real estate market at the time. If the house won't sell, we'll keep it for rental income. For income, I'm retired military but have a full time job as a 9-1-1 / fire / ambulance dispatcher. Hubby will retire from the military in less than a year.
Once there, we intend on 2-3 freezer beef a year, a couple of feeder pigs, chickens for meat/eggs, perhaps a couple of goats for milk as well as raising a large garden.
In the meantime, we're learning how to garden, can, dehydrate, make-your-own-convenience mixes, stocking up on basics, reading all the self-sufficient books/websites that we can get our hands on, saving up as much money as possible. Little by little (weekends mostly) we're fixing up the farmhouse to make it comfortably livable.
Net
Several years ago, hubby and I decided that the "retirement" home we had purchased back in 1996 was no longer in an area that we wanted to retire. We searched for and found a 12-acre former working homestead located in a very rural area but close enough to get to a small town for supplies. It's about 2 hours from where we currently live.
It's got a small, rickety (built in 1941) farmhouse - livable, but needs work, a great well, a working septic system, small garage, summer kitchen/canning shed, propane tanks, rabbit pens, chicken coops, hog pens, 2 fenced pastures, water supplies ran to all animal areas as well as peach, pecan, pear, apple, blueberry, blackberry, grapes.
We've got approximately one year before being able to pack our bags and move full time. We would like to sell the city house, but that depends on the state of the real estate market at the time. If the house won't sell, we'll keep it for rental income. For income, I'm retired military but have a full time job as a 9-1-1 / fire / ambulance dispatcher. Hubby will retire from the military in less than a year.
Once there, we intend on 2-3 freezer beef a year, a couple of feeder pigs, chickens for meat/eggs, perhaps a couple of goats for milk as well as raising a large garden.
In the meantime, we're learning how to garden, can, dehydrate, make-your-own-convenience mixes, stocking up on basics, reading all the self-sufficient books/websites that we can get our hands on, saving up as much money as possible. Little by little (weekends mostly) we're fixing up the farmhouse to make it comfortably livable.
Net
