Struggling with the university of hard knocks life

I believe we are all preprogramed to want and desire the American dream of home ownership. That wanting anything less makes you some how less American. Individuals who have deep vested interest in the market understand this. Which often results in the American dream having a steep and often unaffordable price tag. The pursuit of home ownership often comes with a hefty mortgage, and even heftier interest. A $100K home after a life of interest, repairs, and maintenance quickly turns into $300K. With a never ending recurring property tax payment due intill you die and sometimes is even due afterwards.

Many Americans never pay their homes off. Or worse they pay their homes off just to do a reverse mortgage to cover personal medical bills, a nursing home, and their own funeral expenses. Leaving their children often with debt vs. an inheritance. Some call it normal, consider it aceptable, but I call it madness. Why operate within an obviously flawed and immorally broken system?

I grew up in a lower class home on the edge of poverty. My parents struggled and made it to the lower ranks of middle class. At the cost of their health and irreplaceable time. Only to pass the boton of slavery to me, to start the game of life all over again with nothing. No experience, no advise other than just take things day to day... A boot and a smile, welcome to the real world son. They considered it tough love, a helpful learning experience, character building.. I call it what it is, sick and twisted torcher. Why is it considered normal to throw your own children out? Most children at 17-18 years old are ill-equipped by public schooling, have no parental guidance due to both parents having to work during crucial years of learning development.

It's the university of hard knocks life and thats were most of us get our real education. Getting beat up and thrown down by life's big roller coaster. The problem is we choose to repeat the same mistakes as our parents. We pursue something that is always just out of reach, a carrot dangled in front of our noses. Blindly we fall into the same debt enslavement trap and spend our entire lives supporting the economy; It is failure by design.

As a Father myself I will say, as long as I can take breath, none of my children will ever have to face the cold cruel world without my support and devotion. That I will spend my personal struggle building a sustainable homestead and they will learn hands on how to be self-sufficient and have the tools to support themselves if needed. I will hand them a boton of sustainability vs. a boton of entrapment and serfdom. This is the new age, not the archaic oil soaked wasteland of our parents generation. It's time for an evolution!

That is why I call my homestead, Homestead Defiance.

December 2012 - February 2013

(Update)

  This part of our lives we like to refer to as to be determined. Everything was put on hold after I lost my employment, (due to a business shutting down) like millions of other americans we struggled. Yet this temporary inconvenience also offered a unique opportunity to relocate closer to the property. We spent two months looking for another apartment close to an economic center near the property. With no jobs, no security, and little money... We loaded up a uhaul with all our belongings and was prepared to leave.

  February the night before moving we laid on the floor of our empty Ohio apartment discussing our upcoming adventure, the good and bad. The day of moving we balanced our checkbook so to speak and came to an abrupt realization, we were broke. There was not enough money in the budget to cover the fuel expense to make it to Tennessee. Out of money and out of luck we reluctantly surrendered to the idea of living in Ohio for another year. We searched frantically for a cheap apartment near by, we even considered moving in with family. At the last minute we found a cheaper apartment within walking distants of our old apartment (oddly enough) and moved in.

 After adjusting to our new apartment and putting almost every possession of value on craigslist for sale to cover the expenses of joblessness. We went into survival mode... and frugality, became a necessity. Even though I was a dreamer, I was also a reluctant realist and knew what had to be done. The homestead had to be put on hold, at least temporarily. We set a deadline of April 29th to plant our fruit tree orchard on the property.

February 2013 - April 2013

(New economy crazy world)

  April 29th came and went. We never made the trip to the homestead.

  For my wife and I generation, it is exceptionally hard just starting out with a family in this new age. Our parents generation destroyed what their parents built after world war II. Some may argue this fact, but for us it's an excepted and all too real reality. The "good old days" of working for an employer until retirement are over. Manufacturing jobs have officially made the endangered species list, service sector jobs can't pay a living wage, and the big corporations will only hire part time. To say this United States is in a recession would be an understatement. Many of us are at or below the poverty line and we personally are a part of that particular statistic.

  With some time off from working allowed me some time to study up on homesteading. I find myself asking the hard question of why? There has to be an alternative to struggling day in and day out? Why work within a obviously broken system. My wife started working three part time jobs to equal one full time job that still has not been paying a living wage. I had to sell everything I had of value to make the ends meet and found myself taking on the role of a stay at home Dad.

  The trap seems to be set and we have been caught in the jaws of this failing monetary system. Every trip to the grocery store reminds us of how broken things have become. The packaging for food has increased in size, yet the contents have shrunk, and the prices have gone up. A dollar does not buy what it used to 10 years ago. The overall cost of necessities is smothering.

  Frustrated my wife and I purchased a white board and dry erase markers. We hung it next to the front door. In big letters above the board is written, Tennessee or bust 2014. Below we have started making a list of solutions, budget proposals, and general property ideas. It has been decided, we will be moving at the end of this lease to the property regardless, come hell or high water.

May 2013

(Current)

  So we are in May and I recently celebrated a birthday. A reminder I am getting older and need to become more focused on my families plans, before I grow to old to do so. I updated this blog, made a website, cleaned up my youtube account, and am now ready to begin documenting my families attempts to become homesteaders in this modern world. My goal is to help others by our story. You can follow along and learn from our successes or possibly our failures. May it expedite your future personal attempts to find a solution to make your dreams a reality.

It's time to survive sustainably in this transitional economy...






 

December 12, 2012

  After many email correspondence with the realtor and starring at a computer screen looking at property picture after property picture... A property in North East, Tennessee stood out over the rest. A small tract, only 5.05 acres in total. Yet the tract had been partially cleared, with a seasonal creek, good southern exposure, and at least 2 tillable acres. (2012 spring ad picture below)

  We were happy to find the property asking price surprising affordable. To the degree my wife and I have compared it to the similar cost of not eating out twice a week and saving the money for a few years. I have heard many people complain that purchasing land to homestead is not within their grasps, due to budget constraints. Although this may be the case for some, if you can afford to eat out and have a large pizza once or twice a week, you can afford a small tract of land.

  On December 12th with a Tennessee or bust mentality, my wife and I loaded up in the truck to make a spontaneous four hour drive. It was an adventure to say the least. The old 160,000+ mile ford truck we have fondly nicknamed Bruiser didn't let us down. Believe or not we averaged 16.91 mpg on the old tired 302 V8.

  After arriving we instantly knew that this was the tract we would call home. We were tired from the trip, yet were excited to explore our future homestead. The property had great access with a paved road, it had a roughed in drive way, cleared homesite, and a nice second growth forest in the back with a seasonal creek.

  We spent two hours exploring the property. The property was clearly marked with yellow survey stakes and the trees on the property line were spray painted. After a short conversation, we decided to purchase the property. We left the property the same day to make the four hour return trip home. We ended up driving a total of nine hours in one day and covered over 520 miles. We ended up closing on the property the following week.

  Click Here <---- Youtube video property teaser.

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