sleuth
Lovin' The Homestead
I've been around a couple weeks but wanted to formally introduce myself.
My name is Craig, 35yo, married with 3 kids. Wife and I just moved from the Indianapolis suburbs to a small town of about 4000 in a rural county of Ohio. I grew up in the country but did not live on a farm, though I did spend a lot of time on my grandfather's 60 acre hobby farm as a kid. Never did any real kind of "homesteading" work though, but the adults were doing it all around me. My wife is a Pacific Islander, and bounced around the states and the Philippines most of her life. She's lived on tropical islands and in American cities most of her life, so she surprised me when suggested the move to the country when I changed jobs a little over a year ago.
I am an engineer by trade, and given my proclivity for solving problems and given the state the country is in, have been growing more and more interested in off-the-grid, self-sufficient living for the past several years. So we bought a 20 acre hobby farm and have been there just over a year. Some things I feel like pursuing are energy-efficiency & "green" living, gardening, and giving my kids a taste of the farm life so they won't grow up to think their food grows in the supermarket. I have so many ideas for projects, especially energy-related projects, but on a single income, they are difficult to pursue without going into debt, which I want to avoid.
Also, we want to use our farm for ministry. I started a Men's Bible Study last week, and we plan to have other ministries in the future.
Look forward to getting to know everyone. But here's a picture of part of my homestead. It's a 20 year old aerial shot the previous owner gave me, but not much has changed. There's a few more mature trees now, and the barn has a new lean-to build off the back, but that's about it.
My name is Craig, 35yo, married with 3 kids. Wife and I just moved from the Indianapolis suburbs to a small town of about 4000 in a rural county of Ohio. I grew up in the country but did not live on a farm, though I did spend a lot of time on my grandfather's 60 acre hobby farm as a kid. Never did any real kind of "homesteading" work though, but the adults were doing it all around me. My wife is a Pacific Islander, and bounced around the states and the Philippines most of her life. She's lived on tropical islands and in American cities most of her life, so she surprised me when suggested the move to the country when I changed jobs a little over a year ago.
I am an engineer by trade, and given my proclivity for solving problems and given the state the country is in, have been growing more and more interested in off-the-grid, self-sufficient living for the past several years. So we bought a 20 acre hobby farm and have been there just over a year. Some things I feel like pursuing are energy-efficiency & "green" living, gardening, and giving my kids a taste of the farm life so they won't grow up to think their food grows in the supermarket. I have so many ideas for projects, especially energy-related projects, but on a single income, they are difficult to pursue without going into debt, which I want to avoid.
Also, we want to use our farm for ministry. I started a Men's Bible Study last week, and we plan to have other ministries in the future.
Look forward to getting to know everyone. But here's a picture of part of my homestead. It's a 20 year old aerial shot the previous owner gave me, but not much has changed. There's a few more mature trees now, and the barn has a new lean-to build off the back, but that's about it.
from South Jersey. Looks like you have a really nice farm. I look forward to learning more about what all you do w/it.
