The Cost of Land.

Living in Northeast Ohio like I do, I know that the closer to suburbia you live the more expensive land is. As Medina, Brunswick, Strongsville, and Cleveland begin to grow into one large urban sprawl, I see the effects of it in the realty section of the local newspaper. In my mind it is sort of like this clematis plant I used to have. It was at our old house and every year I would mow down this clematis plant (not the one pictured) and by the end of the season it would invade the yard and start crawling up the house. The "city folks" of the area remind me of my old clematis. Clematis is beautiful, and intriguing and the flowers smell great on it. For the most part, most of the city folk in our area are nice enough, kind, and even smell good (wink) but they can become invasive and have a tendency to crowd into an area and then overflow it.

As that has happened around here, the prices of land have skyrocketed. When I was a bright-eyed high school graduate 16 years ago (gasp, I have a hard time thinking of myself as older than 16 now) the price of land was around $4,000.00 to $5,000.00 an acre. I thought that was terribly high then. I mean we are talking about the late 80's here. I even remember when gas was .76 when I first started driving, after falling from "high" prices of 1.20 from the late seventies and early eighties. The thought of buying land never occurred to me then and it would have seemed way out of my reach anyways. Well, for what my priorities were.

Fast forward these sixteen some years. Many of the local communities have enacted local zoning laws that require a minimum of two acres to build a house. It is an effort to slow the urban sprawl supposedly. A two acre "lot" now starts at $55,000.00 in the area. So land is expensive for the most part and we have to live with the fact that it isn't getting any cheaper. So we know that when we buy a house that it will be WAY more expensive for the land and house that we want and that is just a part of living in the county where we minister. But let me tell you where my real complaint is.

I have a real problem with these 2 acre requirements to build a house. I mean the philosophy of everyone having space is good. But here is the problem that happens anytime a government gets involved with managing the lives of the people. What started out as good is no longer good. What started out as a buffer for urban sprawl has actually added to the problem. You see these two acre plots have so many deed restrictions when developers put them in that the true philosophy of everyone having their space has been destroyed. So let's say Joe Shmoe from Medina (only 30K in population) decides he is tired of the city life and wants to own some chickens. So he decides that although his job is in the city that he is going to move 10 miles out into the "country". He has read all about the "Have-More" plan and decides that the level of comfort he would have is to get one of those 2 acre plots and build a nice little house and a chicken coop. So as he is preparing to sign on the dotted line he reads a deed restriction that he can't have more than one chicken per member of his family and that it is for the purpose of participating in an agricultural club like 4-H. He most certainly will NEVER have any hogs on his land as there is a complete BAN on those pesky creatures, but he is allowed to have a pet horse. Of course, there is no where around to ride it because he only has two acres sandwiched between his neighbors $220K "farm" that has 3 rabbits and a turtle on it. So he has a choice, sign on the dotted line, have a small house between the "suburban farmers" for 160K or move on out a little further where he CAN have some chickens. Of course he never wants to grow anything or have neighbors that raise those smelly pigs anyways so he is not opposed to those "swine restrictions" on the new land. And this procedure is repeated and repeated until effectively there has been a leap-frogging of people and prices. So he doesn't have to worry about the city anymore but now he has to worry about a new problem, "keeping up with the FARMER Jones's". Eventually he has as many restrictions as the city did, a longer drive, and a whole heck of a lot more grass to mow. He decides to move back into the city because the price on the city houses with the city lots have remained steady where they were.

Voila, that is where we come in. But that will have to wait, because this is indeed a long post.

The Modern Homesteader

The Balance of Life.

What is the balance that we seek to maintain? I am an ordained minister. I believe that all the things on this earth are temporal, including this skin we wear. And I have to admit that my life is a balance that I seek to maintain. It is a balance between the here and now and the everlasting that I seek to find. Now without getting overly "religious" in my post, I need to expound a little bit on this idea.

We all live a life of self-imposed limits. Everyone of us. Somewhere in our life and lifestyles exhibit it. Some limits are imposed by governments, societies, or cultural norms, but many of our limits that we live with day to day are not imposed by anything or anyone but ourselves. If you are the free-spirited, "non-heaven-believing" type of person, your first impulse may be to deny that you have self imposed limits. You may say that you do whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want. But is this true? Do you eat as much as you want of things that are bad for you? Do you always sleep as much as you want to, or do you force yourself to get up and feed the animals or clean the stalls? Do you skip milking the cows or goats for a week or so, if the fancy strikes you? I would say probably not, and no one MADE you get those animals, or have those stalls. So we all choose to live with self-imposed limits. Does it seem that I went out of my way to make this point? I don't think I did, but I don't know.

The balance that my wife and I seek is tempered by our self-imposed limit to live within this school district that we minister to. Of course we feel called by God and the limit that is imposed is us choosing to follow that calling. And because of this limit we are also limited as we seek a homestead. We used to own a house, but when I went into the youth ministry full time, we sold that house and moved into an apartment at the church. We have 3 kids and another due in February. It is a small apartment (for a large family) and we are now in the position to go in together with my parents to buy some land and will build a second dwelling on it for either my parents or us. That all depends on what the homestead is like and the house and set up of the land.

We seek to balance our work in the ministry with a healthy physical work around our homestead. We want our kids growing up around the work, the animals, and the lifestyle associated with "making it" on your own. And that is the balance we want to maintain. God is important to us. The most important thing. I am only thankful that He didn't call me to work in the city somewhere. As it is we are right on the edge of suburbia and near enough to all the trappings of it. This doesn't make me unhappy, but it sure makes land a premium. I am sure there are homesteaders out there who would never pay as much for land and a house as we are looking to. And don't think it's because we are rich. It will be a stretch and TWO families will be purchasing this homestead together. My parents and my family. It will be hard work but we are looking forward to it. We have looked at and bid on two separate houses. Funny stories those. Stories for another post.

So what's the balance you seek? What are your self-imposed limits? I would love to hear.


The Modern Homesteader

What is Homesteading?

I am sure you have heard the term homesteading some time in your life. In the broadest sense of the word it defines someone who took advantage of the Homestead Act of 1862. The Homestead Act extended for more than one hundred years and was repealed in 1976, with a special exemption that was held forth for the state of Alaska until 1986. It is estimated that 10% of the United States was "given away" to her citizens during this time. The true romantic wishes for these days again and curses that they were born a century late.

The term "homesteading" no longer holds the same meaning today that it did... or does it? Some people today view "true" homesteading as taking a piece of land and living completely off of it, not connected to the grid, not relying on anyone or anything but their own ingenuity or determination. Others hold that homesteading is a state of mind. These are both long swings on the pendulum of homesteading with neither being completely right or completely wrong. It is probably trite to say this, but homesteading is different things to different people, and (and this is the hard part to conceive completely for me) it is the same thing too.

In my opinion a "true" homesteader existed before the Homestead Act ever took place. Homesteading is the American Dream realized. With that said, I hope you understand that the American Dream is a common thread that is born in all "true" Americans. And a "true" American is not just someone that is born in America. America is a philosophy not just a place and that is really what homesteading is... a philosophy. A way of life. A choice. Just like America, it is the dream of "making it". And that's my whole thing I guess. I am saying our central philosophy, our maybe better said, the underlying currents in homesteading flows from the same spring deep within us. The only thing different between most of us is the "it" in the philosophy of "making it". We add things to "it" to define "it". We say things like "Making "it" on our own" or "Making "it" big" or "Making it organically". To me, homesteading is about making it and using it. I am seeking a place for my family to touch, and feel, and live, and learn, and see life. I don't want the disconnected life for my kids that this world teaches. I want to break them out of that mold and to know that God has given us the great ability to create, and build, and kill, and nurture and to see what those things are. I don't want them to simulate it in a video game. I want them to understand the somberness of a life and understand that death brings new life. That is the "it" to me.

How I go about "making it" is negotiable. I think that most "true" homesteaders have always been this way. When they began to settle the Great American West, I think they all had different "it"s. Different reasons. And there wasn't ONE way that was the right way. That line of thinking about absolute truth belongs to the realm of God and His word, not the way that we humans do things. I don't think they handed out a "homesteader's manual" and told them to do "it" this way. Some built soddies, some used log cabins, some grew wheat, others formed communities. But it was all negotiable. The whole goal was to "prove up" in 5 years. To show that you were "making it". That is the price the government put on one hundred and sixty acres of American Dream, and it is a price that everyone was willing to pay because it was a commodity that they were rich in. They were born with deep pockets of "proving up" and earned interest on their holdings of "making it".

So with that philosophy I seek to build a modern homestead. A homestead that uses the great wisdom of the past and the wonderful discoveries of the present. A homestead that hopes to build the future; the future in my family and the future of a new hope. The modern homestead will be one that uses computers and programs alongside hard work, sweat and blood. It will use new philosophies and old wisdom to "prove up" with the goal of "making it". I do hope to share our journey with you. I hope to learn a lot on the modern homestead and to discover the past as we seek the future. If your philosophy is to "prove up" and you are interested in "making it", maybe you could join me in the journey for a little conversation. I am green and bendable, but have deep roots. Let's walk together.

The Modern Homesteader

A Beginning of Sorts

This is the first post in our quest as we seek a new style of life. Homesteading. What is it? Why am I interested? Does it fit into my "life" (that which is known)? What do I hope to accomplish by it? So much could be said. Where do you start? Just at the beginning. I hope to document our small moves to a better life style.