[maxduckworth]

What you said about the work required to keep buildings from degrading and the forest at bay is so true, but it's something you don't realize until you live it.

The other option I've been playing with is to treat homesteading like a hobby. Outsource all the non-core homestead work and insource the gardening, animal husbandry, etc (which is harder to outsource anyway), all while keeping a remote tech job.

[lb1lf]

-Except the 'remote' part, this is basically what I've done - I work for an engineering company 2.5 miles from home, then tend to the land with my father-in-law on weekends (and evenings if something comes up!)

We grow some fruit and veggies, tinker with the property, trying to improve a little here and there, leaving it in a slightly better state for the next generation (We live here as my wife's family has been living here quite literally since the dark ages; when Columbus wore diapers, my wife's ancestors had already tilled this plot of land for at least a hundred years)

I'd go nuts if it was all I did, though - farming is lonely, hard work. I'd much rather do engineering. Different strokes, &c.

[mitchell_h]

I've tried the outsourcing part before. Unless you have fields you can lease out or some other basic need of other farmers, it really doesn't work. Especially today with the shortage of "blue collar" workers. The costs to have someone clear land, dig ponds, run water lines, etc is either too much or you simply can't find someone that's reliable.

I've seen a few folks move from the city in the last 5-10 years and try the "we'll just hire a landscaper to manage the drive way and cut by the trees". It didn't work out well. 10s of 1000s of dollars a year to have someone reliably do it, or they simply couldn't find someone.

[elliekelly]

I can’t for the life of me remember the name but there’s a site that’s kind of a Couch Surfing/Airbnb/Craigslist mashup where people can post a room or a property available in exchange for a certain amount of work each day/week/month. Some people will post a typical home for a week on the condition the occupant feeds and walks the dog while they’re away but a lot of the listings were for rooms on a farm in exchange for a few hours of work each day. I used it once in Spain with a friend and it was a ton of fun. It was really hard work even though I suspect it was “easy” work by farming standards.

Perhaps someone here knows the site and will chime in with the name because if you have a spare room or two and enjoy meeting new people it might be an affordable way to get a bit of help.

[keiferski]

https://wwoofusa.org/ ?

[cko]

Also workaway.info. One summer I participated in two consecutive ones - one in Romania, one in Austria.

[datavirtue]

The same can be said of large houses. They look fantastic and wonderful but many people don't think about the scale of maintenance. A smaller/modest house can have it's roof replaced for $4500...that fancy house down the street: $25000 for the low-ball.

[0x445442]

Heck most people won't even figure in the extra cost of electricity for a larger home, never mind understanding upkeep is a fairly consistent fixed cost that’s proportional to the size of the home.

[dustymcp]

Man the cleaning in itself is pretty crazy on big houses..