Will, we ought to meet sometime. That sounds a lot like me.
7 Likes
Good to meet you fellow freak, been living the same for 35.
7 Likes
Maybe someday we will meet. I’d love to see that tracker in person - and your S10 when it’s done too!
3 Likes
Well, I hope I do as well as you are doing at it. If I can keep it up for 35 years, I hope the goal will have been met 
3 Likes
Don’t know if there is an end goal, it’s more of a life style. I wouldn’t know how to live with the stress of debt, and worry about a job that may end.
4 Likes
And me …
2 Likes
You should try farming you get to worry about how to pay for the job that never ends… lol
3 Likes
I farmed for 30+ yrs. no debt no worry, never keep more than you can supply for. Grass feed everything, chickens to cows. Work sustainable.
6 Likes
I have stayed debt free but there isn’t any extra cash.
I have mowed or brush hogged about 30 acres so far with about 10 more to go this summer. If I can cover those 40 acres twice this year I think they will be good enough for beef cows next year then I just need to find a plow to fix the middle of one field where the fire department dragged the water truck frame deep for the person renting the fields about 12 years ago I guess after they burned it and make a mess he couldn’t figure out how to plow an old corn field that was the story I got second hand. These fields where way nicer in 95 when I was last here with the dairy cows. Decades or poor mantance from renters sure has left a mess.
Oh well if I get the other 60 acres cut in time I will have some good hay to sell this year. I will bale my first 200 bales tomorrow just enough to figure out the new knotters I had to put on the baler as one broke right in 2 at the end of last year. I have finally gotten the mower running right and the d17 with its rebuilt motor has all the kinks works out should be a good summer if we get a little sun.
This will be my 4th summer and if all goes well i might make enough to fix my two broken tractors and do some repairs on the old farm house.
3 Likes
Extra cash comes from having other skills that people don’t and need, and will pay for. Find a niche that you are good at, capitalize on it. I always kept at least 1 team of horses to work(no fuel) but now we have a way to run tractors on wood. I sold fire wood, welded,repaired others equipment or what ever to make a buck. You will do fine if you make a solid plan and stick to it.
4 Likes
I loved gardening since I was 8 years old until I started making my primary living selling produce. Then it became very stressful. Now I make my primary income doing other things and sell produce as a “profitable hobby”. I enjoy it again.
I saw a man from Illinois on television maybe 15 years ago. The story was that his daughter had bought him a lottery ticket and he had won several million dollars. When asked what he would do with the money he replied, “I’m going to farm until it’s gone.”
Maybe that’s a “big farm” joke. Not sure. I found it humorous and possibly telling.
I encourage anyone with a heart to farm to go out there and do it though. It can be a very wholesome way of life. I can’t imagine raising a family any other way…
4 Likes
I met the neighbour from just north of my land on the road Tuesday evening heading out. He’s 63, cashed out of farming in the last 10 years, living modestly, effectively retired. So far as I know he hasn’t worked for a salary. That makes him one of the last free men in North America. Beholden to no master. I greatly admire that, and am shamed to say I cant say the same, at least so far.
We had a discussion, about the price and cash flow of modern machinery and commodity farming, the hamster wheel of finance. Our conclusion is that capitalists have no use for a truly free man, they appreciate and can only use slaves and peons.
Is it coincidence that almost no men live by their own means and skills?
I admire any effort to de-monetize or otherwise decouple from the strategy to have everything done through cash transactions by ultraspecialists.
3 Likes
Me too and to answer your question it’s no coincidence at all.
Everyone want a piece of the cake. Governments want tax money and businesses want a piece of the value you made by real productive work. Very few do that kind of work now days and relay on you to do it for them. Tradig money is no real work to me.
BUT - what I really went here to tell was the following:
We’ve had nice sunny weather the last few days so I decided to bag up some wood. My south wall chunk corn cribs were hot and dry as the desert. You could smell how hot and dry the chunks were shoveling them into the bags. I had a big smile on my face and felt like harvesting gold. I was clearly enjoying myself.
Son in law came by visiting. He said: “You’ve been doing this for a year now, do you really think it’s worth the trouble?”
Hm, I didn’t really know how to answer that. I was doing one of the things I enjoy the most and I get a question like that. I’ve certainly made no secret of what I consider being enjoyment but people still don’t understand. I turned here because I know some of you do.
12 Likes
I get questions like that all the time. A inlaw asked me a while ago “ok, you dont burn as much petrol in the car. But you burn more petrol produceing your firewood thain you wuld in the car. And you will surely destroy the engine!”
What do you say to such people? I dont know. Tell them l can make about 1000 miles worth of wood from a liter of petrol for the chainsaw? Tell them woodgas presents less wear to the engine thain petrol?
Ha! You become a daydreaming hippy. We have a saying, “speech is silver, scilence is gold” and l do just that.
Well, we went on a short vaication last month, the above mentioned inlaw was driveing behind me. At our arival, l sayd to him “look, l spent a hour makeing wood chunks, and burned 2€ worth of petrol for the trip. You burned 30€ worth of fuel.” Then, he was quiet
11 Likes
May be these questions betray the discomfort of the people who ask them ?
I think that unconsciously many people know that their way of life is not acceptable, but prefere to deny rather than to question their way of life
5 Likes
This is actualy a good point. My father is a good example of your theory (althugh he suports me 100% on my wood gas quest ) he eats crap food. Not catastrophicaly crap food, l wuld say averidge European kind of food, well, its crap for me. He has land, he has farms near by, yet he insists on pre packed preservative full food, all, from vegetables to bread to meat… only grows a bit of parsley . I told him why not try to eat more healthy, local, fresh, produce some of his own food… well, he says over and over again “son, you know, l ate so much crap in my life its not worth it. I am allready poisoned”
He is 45.
6 Likes
The son relationship is often difficult (I too often disagree with my 84 year old father. My 19 year old son is, in my opinion, too much in material consumption). It is difficult to make peace with those we love if our values diverge on such sensitive points
6 Likes
45 isn’t even very old, certainly well within time to do better. The bottom line is most just follow the easiest path in life regardless.
2 Likes