I would consider that homesteading, indeed and homesteading can be done anywhere one wishes to be more self-sustainable. Acreage does help and it doesn't have to be a lot, just in a place where you will not have restrictions already in place.

My husband and I live a pretty sustainable existance and although we live humbly and our life is simple it is a good one. The skills you will need to be successful at it are something you won't learn at once......I've been learning over a lifetime. Be aware that the restrictions imposed on agriculture are becoming so severe, it may impact your plans on selling meat, and especially milk. I gave up my egg sales just because it got ridiculous.

My first in-laws lived on what amounted to an eighty acre subsistance farm. We bought little other than coffee, salt and flour and the rest was raised on site. If you don't know what you are doing, and how to do it, it can be a disaster with crops and animal husbandry. Start simple and ease into it as you learn. It will be a full-time job for your spouse and you'll spend all your free hours working too and it's part of it. So you better love what you are doing.

You will need equipment and you will need a home to be brought up to good repair. If you are doing it on a shoestring..........you need those skills too. You need outbuildings, a tractor you can pretty much maintain yourself, fencing. It all costs money.

No, farmers don't get rich........putting in a crop is expensive and you can be the best farmer in the world and have rotten weather or a disease outbreak and lose it all in two seasons. It has little to do with lifestyles.......go price a good tractor, a dump truck, irrigation, seed, chemicals, grain or hay elevators. Your assets are the soil beneath your feet when it comes down to it.

I am in an agri-business and most of our friends are farmers including my son. Eight out of ten of them have day jobs. You are realistic in your expectation to keep yours.

I garden and can and have fruit trees and brambles and a flock of chickens. I put up perhaps three hundred quarts of food a year, plus what we eat fresh. I would say that I produce about half of what we need and purchase the rest.

You can have that lifestyle..........just be realistic that most people don't because most people do not want the work involved when push comes to shove. I wish you the best of luck and hope your dream comes true.

You didn't say where you would be farming. The climate and the type of soil can make a big difference in what you can and cannot do. If you get someone's old farm, it's a good chance that the ground is already worn out. Fruit that grows in one area, simply will not bear in another.

The idea of living simply is a good one. I hope that you will be able to do what you want to do.

But, here's the problem. You will need money. And what you are planning isn't going to pay the bills. Your daughter is going to have to go to school. She will need clothes and shoes. And as she grows, even if your wife sews, or you shop at the Good Will store, she will cost more and more. Even school supplies can add up to a good deal now. Suppose she needs glasses, how will you pay for them? Will you have more children?

You are going to have to pay property taxes and buy gasoline for the farm machinery. You may have doctor bills and other unexpected expenses. This will last for as long as your child lives at home. Do you want to send her to college?

How would you feel about using Medicaid or charity if you had too. Are you the type that would hate having to ask for help? It used to be that the people in a farming area could help each other, but unless there are others around doing the same thing, you would be on your own.

I'm wishing you the best on this. It's a wonderful goal. Just be careful about the quality of the soil in the land you buy and keep your job.

You might try taking a look at the Homesteading forum here at the Garden Web.They ought to be able to answer a lot of your questions.

Here is a link that might be useful: Homesteading Forum

Actually - look for 'survivalist' and self sufficiency under Google - much of what you mention might be covered in such chat groups as those individuals might post to.

Yes - good luck - A cash crop won't hurt - even with regulations - strawberries, day lilies, bamboo for construction, tobacco in Kentucky -

Control your heat bill with solar and caulking - conservation. Heating with wood is fine so long as your property has trees you can sacrifice, but wood is expensive to buy, and the physical labor you're biting off to do every day, rain or shine, heat or cold, plus what you owe your employer will mount up.

Best of luck

Good luck to you!
I personally know two related homesteading families in Kentucky... they are happy and their children are real, not one superficial thing about any of them.

Good luck to you and may God bless you.

Thank you all very much.

You know, many people, I think, dream of simplifying to some degree. Finding those people, and maybe buying land and splitting up, would not only make the land more affordable but you'd have a few neighbors with the same goal that could share work and equipment, and swap food too if one farm won't produce a certain crop. Or a well went dry, etc.

Many of you may be familiar with intentional Christian communities. This would be a little like that, but with more privacy (the thing that seems to challenge ICC's so much).Hmmmm....