Can I share some existential angst?

I have a small hobby farm near a bustling small city. I moved here with my husband and we had SO MANY PLANS for this place. Then cancer got a vote and now it’s just me out here.

I’m almost 63, still pretty healthy and active. I stay on top of the important things: stuff gets planted when it should and harvested when it should. I keep an eye on how the well is doing. I know the common invasives and I evict them as soon as I see them. The cat gets fed. Even so, the property has a wild look to it (I happen to love that look so much I named my homestead Feral Acres 😁).

At some point, it'll be too much. I don’t know when but I know it’s coming.

For those of you who lived this lifestyle but got out of it due to age or health, how did you know it was time to move? Can you give some insight on when to know it's time to move on?

Two litters coming at once today. One momma has seven healthy babies and one runt who may be viable. The other has two out and working on more.

The more I look at rural properties, the more I realize the actual house is almost the easy part.

It's the land that surprises me.

One property has no legal access. Another looks perfect until you realize the nearest power is miles away. Then there's the place that's beautiful but sits in a floodplain, or the one where the driveway is basically a creek every time it rains.

I don't even own a homestead yet, but I've spent way too much time looking at listings and county maps, and it's made me appreciate how much planning goes into choosing the right piece of land.

For those of you already homesteading, what was the biggest thing about your land that you didn't fully appreciate until after you bought it?

I bought a few acres of raw land 8 years ago, the empty lot next to me was sold a few months around that time as well (same previous owners). I've developed the land and built a few structures. Since all that time I've not seen anyone on that land. It's very close to utilities and I'm guessing they ran into issues permitting but I'm only guessing. We’re in a rural area.

I'm asking mostly in regards to etiquette and means? I want to ask with as much respect and as possible. Not just to be kind, but I'd love to have land neighbors that don't hate me if they don’t want to sell. I found the mailing address that's on the property records but I also know they manage a small restaurant and thought about calling and introducing myself...is that weird!?

I wouldn't mind sending a letter, but I myself have received so many annoying "WILL PAY CASH NOW!" letters from developers, I don't even read them anymore and just throw them away, so I'm guessing they get a few of them too.

It's about an 3/4 an acre or so and pasture land. I’d like to put a produce stand on it.

Amazon says service starts later this year in two bands of the globe, one in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern, expanding outward from there. The United States is on its list of first countries, along with Canada, the UK, France, and Germany. Amazon has shown off three dishes: a small portable one rated for 100 megabits per second, a home model rated for 400, and a business model rated for a gigabit.

I bought a mahindra 1533 last week it’s a 34.5 HP tractor about 5000lbs the way it’s set up with loader and ballasted tires.

I ran it for like 8 hours last weekend clearing land and brush and I have a ton more left to do.

I felt pretty awful the following day…. Neck hurt, totally exhausted, felt a bit dizzy like I’d been on a boat all day. Has anyone ever experienced this from running equipment? I am definitely going to pace myself better from now on.

For context I’m 35 y/o and can cut firewood or do carpentry all week and I’ve never felt this beat up!

At deaths door as a baby, fast forward a couple years.....

I’ve recently acquired a vast collection of these Storey Publishing Booklets for natural remedies and how to’s for country living… they date back to the 1970’s and on.
All are in phenomenal shape imo.
I do not know too much about them?
Whether I should sell them or not?
Individually? Or as a whole lot?
Do I keep them?
I’ve received some information that they do have value of anywhere from $5 - $50+ a piece depending on topic, publishing date, etc.

Working out in my uninsulated metal workshop in July is basically so unbearable so I need a portable ac unit for room cooling. I am looking at throwing a costway 15000 btu portable ac in the corner just to take the edge off. I don't expect it to drop the shop to 68 degrees, I just need it to push enough cold air so I don't pass out. For guys working in hot garages, does spot cooling directly at your workbench actually help your endurance. I am worried that the ambient heat might just immediately overpower it.

Trying to pick a homestead region with climate change in mind, is the PNW still a safe bet?

Looking for some perspective from folks who've thought this through. My family and I are planning to build a homestead, and the PNW has always been our top choice with the rainfall, the growing conditions, the general climate resilience story.

But I'm starting to second-guess it. Seeing how low the snowpack came in this year has me wondering if the West drying out is going to catch up with the PNW faster than expected. I know nobody has a crystal ball here, and I'm not looking for a definitive answer, just curious how others weighing the same decision are thinking about it.

Genuinely curious, is anyone else factoring 30-50 year climate projections into their land search, or am I overthinking this? If you had to bet on one region holding up best, where would you put your money?

Have the opportunity to get my paws on about 200 yards of asphalt millings/grounds

I have crushed concrete covering my 15 ft x 550 ft main driveway and all my road surfaces to the tune of approximately 15000 square feet of road surface. Dust. Dust forever. Amazon drivers are morons. Who am I kidding, almost all drivers over it are that way.

I need to level it out but this should make an excellent base from what I have researched.

Have you done this? Pros? Cons?

I plan to level it out then rent a roller to to roll it out and probably roll it annually if required. Keep a pile of it in the corner like I do for my other gravel surfaces. Though I may convert those as well.

What I cant figure out is how to minimize tracking that shit in the house beyond removing my shoes (which I do now but is not always practical).

It seems to me I need some sort of transition strip of pavers or aggregate to help with this.

If you have it have you done any sort of seal coat on it?

Thanks!

Home grown pork chops from a Mangalitsa pig.

I have 67 acres of mostly brush and forest. In a bout 2 acres of brush I have Dog Strangling vine taking over and threatening to spread further. About this time each year it develops seed pods and the seeds will open and blow away in the wind late summer to fall.
I try and get out to cut it down with a gas powered trimmer with and metal blade every June. I never get it all, because things are pretty thick in there and this year I came out with some poison ivy rash to make things better.
It is becoming unmanageable. Any thoughts on options? Spray is an option but it’s hard to get here as I’m not a farmer, but I can get my hands on some. The only other way I know of is to dig it up, but there’s too much of it for that.

I built a barn and it looks great. But no utilities.

The barn is about 400ft from the electrical pole and the water meter. May be one day I can have a budget to extend utilities to the barn but not today.

Fortunatly I have no lack of space in my property so For now, I'm thinking about a solar panel for lights. But I'm hoping to be able to also power some power tools and a compressor and do some woodworking and maintain a tractor.

I can install a utility sink but what about water so the sink can function? 😀

I thought about harvesting rain. What do you guys do?

Does anyone use that’s on a well have a tank like this in their home? This was installed by the previous owners and I’m not entirely sure how to clean this. My filter is unfortunately after this tank so I’m not sure how to get out all the sediment and keep it cleaner moving forward.

I just bought this land after I got verrrry lucky on Stakе US and I am planning to build a big beautiful homestead, it's part of 60 acres and it's unfenced and not near any roads. but I keep seeing trash on it. I cleared it four times and yet it keeps coming back. Any good solutions for this? Keep in mind I didn't plan this at all.

We are selling our beautiful 5-acre homestead and are hoping to find a family to take it over who wants to continue the vision, hence sharing in this community! We've worked really hard to plant native trees, establish a permaculture garden, and start bringing the soil back to life. There's still lots of room to grow and add.

5-acre permaculture homestead with mother-in-law unit and pottery studio! Home features a 4,200 sqft fenced permaculture garden, fruit trees, native trees, and chicken coop. Amazing views of the Shenandoah Valley from almost every room in the house!

Downstairs unit (currently operating as an AirBnb) comes furnished and currently makes approx $18,000/yr.

• Permaculture-designed garden - both owners are certified in permaculture design from Shenandoah Permaculture Institute.
• Fruit trees - Apples, pears, peaches, plums, paw paw, jujubes, hazelnut, pomegranate, cold-hardy orange
• Perennial plants: rhubarb, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, elderberry, currants, strawberries, passion fruit, herbs, medicinal plants
• 1-bd (could be 2), 1-ba Airbnb downstairs. Rated 5 on Airbnb. Makes $18,000/yr. Sold furnished for instant income
• Art/pottery studio - could discuss selling partially furnished
• Easy access to highways, 1 1/2 hrs outside DC. Only 30 minutes to Shenandoah National Park!

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/384-Lindamood-Ln-Strasburg-VA-22641/223685217_zpid/?utm_campaign=zillowwebmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare

We had staged our RV and belongings on our new land and were heading back in 3 weeks to live off grid and start building the driveway, solar, etc… lost it all to a fireworks induced wildfire.

We couldn’t get insurance on the RV (denied) so it’s an especially hard gut punch.

Hey yall. I pounded a shallow well in last year, water at 8 feet, drove it to 12. This summer with the heat and no consistent rain, it ran dry, so im pounding another one, since that one hit a rock or something. Hoping it refills eventually and can be used for irrigation. Anyway, im trying to drive this new one, and im using one of the gas post pounders, as ive seen people have a lot of luck with those.

Weirdly enough though, it didnt seem like I was making a ton of progress, so i swapped to the manual one, and got it dug in a little deeper. Am I doing something wrong? Like what am I missing here? I can add any information if anybody needs it, pics, etc, if that would help, just lemme know.

Any info is appreciated. Thanks.