Are you living in the country, off grid or dreaming about it?

[Thystle]

A poll to see what brings you to this forum. 

[SweetSilver]

DH and I are gardeners, and even in the city we had a sizable edible landscape.  Our ability to store our harvests have always lagged behind (details, details).  We finally built our house on the property we bought 15 years ago.  Things grow really fast here, and our early attempts to establish a food forest while we were absentee owners ultimately became a wasted effort (not to mention $$).  We simply could not keep our plantings clear, and we weren't around to pull in harvests on some late-ripening fruit trees and those wound up being torn apart by the bears that move through here in the fall.  

We moved to a nearby town 7 years ago, attempting again to do something here while we raised the kids.  No luck.  So, once again we planted an edible landscape, veggie garden, and started keeping chickens in our little yard.  Now, 15 years of being on a 2-year plan, we are here.  The chickens have their coop, integrated with the future veggie garden.  DH and I are forgoing our own bday and Christmas presents to put in a big order with Raintree Nursery.  Waiting for the rains to return so we can seed the bare spots with grass.  Loving being here--FINALLY!

We did connect with the grid, though, after much research and debate.  Both would have been equally expensive (for the size system we wanted).  In the end, the fact that nearly every tree on the front end of the property would have needed to come down for solar (which would still have left us firing up the generator in the fall/winter/spring) solved the debate once and for all.  That was not why we moved here.  We love this property for the trees.  

[JamieCatheryn]

I've been dreaming of it for years but am less than 2 months away from my country home now - we found the place and are in the process of buying.

[scruffy too]

I'm in the country.  I would love to be off-grid, but I'm very happy where I am now.  The growing season is SHORT but I try to make the best of it.  I've had chickens for 7 years and recently began incubating fertilized eggs.

[mommariffic]

We are soooo not "off the grid" but we do live in the "country" in North West NJ. I hesitate to even call it that because we are an hour outside Manhattan, and a hop-skip and car ride to the highway but it sure feels rural. There's a lot of horse farms + acerage here and we were turned on because we could afford the rent + it's close to my parents + DH's work if he needs to commute. 

The house is pretty simple/no frills but the land is beautiful. We have a few acres of fields and a barn and we are currently raising goats and bunnies. We are hoping to get another animal to include and I'm debating on either a pig (piglet) or a mini Jersey cow. The goats we have are males and while they are loads of fun to play with and watch, they aren't doing much but keeping the lawn "mowed.." and the rabbits will eventually breed and be used for meat. 

Last year we didn't get to do too much gardening because it was out first spring in the house and I was overwhelmed and still unpacking! Next year I'm hoping to create an "edible landscape" in the front, because right now it's very plain and I don't feel like putting in all these fancy bushes and things. My goal is to do a mix of herbs + wildflowers. We use herbs a lot and I'd love to have a colorful yummy variety -- I'm doing to do "themed" plots; healing, cooking etc. We are going to do raised beds and I have the seeds ordered that I haven't used last year, and I plan on only growing what we will eat. I need to be realistic here! I'd love to plant an orchard but I have to again, be realistic because it's a rental and while we plan on staying here for years, I don't wanna put too much into it. 

I love the idea of being off-grid but I'm terrified to actually try it. Right now I'm happy with where we are, and what we plan to do. 

[gonyere]

We live in the house I grew up in that my dad built over a period of ~10 yrs and has updated massively over the last 3-4. We moved back 'for the summer' in 2007... and never left :p We're the last ones on a dead end dirt road, closest neighbors ~7/10 of a mile up the road, past our house it becomes a jeep trail that dead ends into a lake another ~1/2 mile down. This year we had the biggest garden in years (possibly ever) and it did OK - we've always had problems, though over the last few years we've identified the problem: black walnut trees. LOTS of them. Some people have told us to just 'cut them all down!' - but ya know, if we did that, we'd be living in a field... and we're not interested :p So.. yeah. We got a fair number of tomatoes (though only canned a couple dozen quarts), lots of peppers (mostly picked, the last few dried), some green beans and LOTS of spaghetti & acorn squash and 8 nice pumpkins :) We also have kiko meat goats (currently 3 - 2 does & 1 buck, used to have 3 does but one didn't produce 2 yrs in a row, so we ate her xD). We've had chickens, ducks, horses & ponies in the past as well, and still talk about getting chickens again.. Personally, I still have delusions of having a horse again, but I doubt it'll happen anytime soon, if ever. :shrug:

[sk8boarder15]

We recently moved to 1/3 an acre in SE Portland, a GREAT property with a HUGE garage! We have 5 dogs that LOVE our long backyard. The house is right on the front of the long skinny property. We are hoping to become more and more self-sustaining over time. Its something that is valued in our neighborhood. Our nextdoor neighbor considers himself an urban farmer and has extensive gardens and chickens. The neighbor across the street is going off the city water soon (oh how I'd LOVE to do that, maybe next winter!) and also has a large garden. We are very new to gardening but we are preparing now, cutivating the soil making compost (TWO kinds, one for the garden, one made out of dog poop, thats only for bushes, trees, lawns), and hoping to start with some well loved veggies (carrots, tomatoes, etc..). We are looking into rabbits and chickens, but we have one dog that likes to attack chickens (so much, he digs under the fence to get to them) so... we have to work on that. 

We are hoping to be urban homesteaders more and more each year. 

[justmama]

Just dreaming and doing the best we can living in surburbia in a rented duplex.  We do have a decent garden and we are acquiring all the necessary skills.  Someday maybe.  

[moriahmoonstar]

Hello! I just found this forum(am pretty new to MDC) and so happy to meet you all. We live in the country, in Northern California. We bought a home on 5 acres 1.5 years ago in an agricultural area, 20 minutes from a small town. We were living in a yurt way out in the woods and were hoping to buy a beautiful piece of land and live off the grid but couldn't get a loan for it and didn't have the $ to buy out right. We hope to eventually own raw land and live off grid. For now we love our home, use wood to heat it, are planning out a grey water system for next year and are replacing our roof and setting up solar and a water catchment system. We thought we would have had more of these projects completed by now but its a slow process. We had a huge vegi garden last year and expanded it this year to provide for DH's family that lives locally and we are selling some of it. We have partnered with another organic farm and will be selling more next year, we have an extremely long growing season and also have fruit trees on the property that DH dreams of expanding into an orchard. The native soil is clay so it is taking a lot of time to prep the ground for the orchard, some day. We have chickens, 2 dogs with accidental puppies on the way, and our 1st baby is due in the end of May.

[Radiant Lotus]

I'm also a couple of months away from going rural.  Green space and room for gardens and some livestock has become more important to me since my little one, now 2 years old, came along.  I've found a home that's in my price range as a solo mom, is zoned to allow livestock with minimal restrictions, has a decent school system to fall back on if homeschooling doesn't work for either of us, has 6 acres including 4 that are wooded, and has lots of space for crafting and fermenting.  I have some butterflies about the distance from the city since I'm adding a 45 min commute to my job that I'll continue to work 3 days per week for now (and to the cultural hub that we're used to).  I struggle with isolation anyway, so I'm hoping that this won't push us over the edge.

I still can't wait to continue this gradual progression toward more connected and self-sufficient living in a space that makes it more possible.  

[1stimestar]

I live in a dry cabin but still have electricity so not all the way off the grid. 
 

[straighthaircurly]

We live in a 1st ring suburb and have our business a couple miles away. We have no desire to live in the country but found an infill lot that is 1 acre wooded lot on a lake where we are building a house that will be heated 100% by solar hot water and have a big enough PV system to meet most of our needs. We are planting with a permaculture approach so we can harvest a lot of food from our land.
 

[1stimestar]

Originally Posted by 1stimestar 

I live in a dry cabin but still have electricity so not all the way off the grid. 
 

Dry means no water and an outhouse.

[crazyms]

we have 10 acres of undeveloped property that we hope to move to soon. We are clearing the front part now and will hopefully start on the well in the next few weeks. The plan is to move out there in spring to start building with solar and composting toilet. I hope to have it set up to at least get chickens this year but we'll see. Just glad to be started at all

[babyfarm]

We live in the country - I guess you could say semi off-grid.  We have a well, but our water is still primitive and we use a humanure toilet.  We've been here just a year and only recently got the plumbing kind of working with a 12 volt RV pump.  We have 4 acres w/garden, dogs, cats, goats, rabbit, ducks & chickens.....oh, and the twelve of us....lol.  We are still clearing land, but we've finally moved on from the area right by the house, so it feels like a real milestone to be branching out!

[JamieCatheryn]

We're in the house now in this tiny town with 2.4 acres of our own. It doesn't feel remotely homestead-ish yet, rather luxurious instead actually, all DH's preferences with big rooms, electric heat, city water and sewer, nice furniture. And I don't have the rustic and self sufficient systems I wish I had not even a woodstove, but when I get gardens and fruit trees and chickens put in the yard next year it will be more like what I'm going for. We may still build a place after several years but with DH spoiled like he will be here it will have to be kinda big and pretty.