Talking with a lot of homesteaders and people that want to become homesteaders there is one common thing that many of them don’t consider and that is will they be able to continue this lifestyle when they get older. For the most part people that are successful in homesteading are younger. They are in their 30’s or 40’s and have decided that its time to get a place of their own and they don’t want to live in a major city or suburban area. The reasons that they live in a homesteading or rural area can be as big a list as you can imagine. Maybe they just like having a lot of property that is much cheaper or maybe they are raising a family and want a simpler life for them. Unfortunately you can’t escape the world by running off into the woods and many of the problems you might see in the city still exist in a rural community. The difference is that life can also be more difficult because you don’t have access to all the amenities that come with city and suburban living.
What Questions Need To Be Answered For Older Homesteaders
One of the first questions I ask when someone is considering homsteading is do you like to go camping? Now its not that homesteaders live in tents with just a backpack but life is harder when you are living in a rural homestead. If you are the type of person that considers staying at a motel without a pool or living in an RV for two weeks a year the same as camping then you probably aren’t the type of person that should be homesteading.
If you are the type of person that enjoys setting your air conditioning to 72F in July then you don’t want to live in a home that is off grid because your solar power system is going to have to be very large to support your needs. Its not that its impossible.
If you are someone that hires contractors to fix your home or only allows the dealer to fix your car then you probably don’t have the initiative or skills to live in a homestead where you will be relying on you more than anyone else.
This is the problem for older homesteaders even if you want and can do the work when you are younger there comes a time when life gets harder and you can’t do what you once could.
Do you have medical problems that require trips to the doctor or specialists that might not be available for a hundred or more miles from your home? This is a serious question to ask and although many people can care for themselves and their loved ones a medical condition that requires frequent or monthly trips to a specialist just so you can get your medication refilled and even if you aren’t having symptoms can be a real hardship.
What type of delivery service do you have to your homestead is another consideration. In many cases rural delivery of mail means going into town to pickup your mail at the post office or if it is delivered you most likely won’t have the major carriers delivering to your front porch. They will drop your mail at your driveway entrance which might be fine for some things on a nice day but it won’t be nice digging your packages out of the snow.
Do you have food delivery in your area if you can’t get out? Do you have ambulance and fire service that is able to respond quickly. Do you have police that can respond in an emergency? Are there any in home care agencies that could serve your home?
As you can see there are a large number of questions to answer even before you consider the management of your property and your ability to live in your rural home as you get older.
Are You Being Realistic About Your Abilities?
Some people just don’t understand that your abilities to solve problems is the biggest factor to success as a person living in a rural homesteading setting. They may have a garden in their backyard and maybe a couple chickens and they think that they can expand that to provide for all their needs. What they don’t understand is the difficulty in doing that when harvest times are once a year and the amount of space, electricity for freezers and other things that are necessary to store enough food to basically last 365 days until the next harvest.
Some things are relatively easy to deal with once they are set up. Your well or septic system should last you a very long time if it is properly sized, located and you don’t have unforeseen problems that you can almost guaranty you will have.
If your home is well built and you don’t experience a storm or other thing that causes damage then it should last a very long time however is it set up so that an older person can use it without problems? If it is not then you can expect that you will either need to make large changes or rebuild which is not really a possibility once you reach the age to need those changes. Some people think they can sleep in a loft in a tinyhome and you aren’t going to be able to do that when you are older.
If you have a 30 foot driveway now that opens up to a road that is plowed by the county how are you going to deal with a dirt road that is a half mile long in the dead of winter during an ice storm? And how well will you deal with that when you are older?
Final Note
There are many considerations for someone that is younger when choosing rural living and homesteading as a lifestyle. Those problems just get harder when you are older and if you have no idea what you are getting yourself into and no skills to bring to the table then you are going to guaranty your failure.
Many people who are healthy and younger and have grown up in these communities find the life too hard to deal with even when they are young. To expect that you can do all of this into your retirement age can be a dream that turns into a nightmare.
If you want this life then you should prepare for it. When you are younger you can get a hunting or camping cabin and see if its something you like or something you just want to visit for a few days a couple times a year. The difference between full time living and vacationing is dramatic. Like the saying goes “its a nice place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live here” and you need to know do you want to and can you not only survive but do well in that type of situation.
Unfortunately for most older people the opposite is true. Instead of moving into a homestead they are selling their homestead to move into an apartment in town or moving in with family if they are lucky enough to have them. If you spend your savings trying to live a dream that you can’t then you might find you don’t have the money to bail yourself out of trouble and reverse your choice later.