This is great. Intentional community building. I bet this guy sleeps well.
We have started a co-op of sorts out of an 1950s building on 4 acres in the rural midwest. We are decades behind the author but have similar goals but with less husbandry.
Finding kindred spirits in this world really does help with the loneliness of anticipating collapse in an otherwise utterly distracted world. Keep on farming and keep on writing Jeff.
I'm an early 40 something trying to escape. It's hard. I have a lot of education but not a lot of money. I'd love to jump to this lifestyle now but can't find a way that I feel is responsible for my kid.
Part of the problem is trust and leverage. I need community to make this work but we live in a mentally ill society and picking the wrong people can be catastrophic. I feel that I can't change lifestyles without having financial leverage in case the people don't work out as I'm afraid of going back to the 9-5 world with less than nothing if it doesn't work out.
How did your younger helpers find you? And how did you both vet each other and find you could trust the other?
We found each other by a series of flukes. Syd, to whom I gave the old farm, has been my farrier since the mid 20-teens. We met at a 4H dog training club. We had years to learn our friendship. She helped support me after my wife's death, and I helped support her after her divorce. There would be no way to build a friendship and working relationship like ours by looking for it, I don't think.
The other woman is one Syd found in her life, and my trust for Syd was the basis of her entry into our lives.
Syd and I have never been romantically involved. Our involvement started with dogs and donkeys and built from there.
She has a daughter who comes here every day that Syd works. She'll turn 8 this month. My wife cares for her during the day while we work on the farm, but that, too, just happened by accident. She - the daughter - is home schooled.
I honestly don't know how to advise you. Obviously you could come visit us, but nothing we have here was built on purpose. Well, I built the farm on purpose over 41 years, but the human relationships were much more in the "just happened" category.
That's the way to do it. I have some good friends I trust but they're all focused on the ambitions of the existing paradigm. I appear on the outside to be that way too because saying anything against the business as usual narrative is a buzz kill.
But my intuition has told me otherwise for years and it does have it's way eventually.
If gas cost and infrastructure permit, I might take you up on that visit offer if it works for you.
Let me know when and you'll be welcome. How old is your kid? My "granddaughter" (not a biological status) will soon be 8. She's sharp as a tack, but as my wife said yesterday, "If you put tape over her mouth she'd explode."
You have a good looking place and it is so nice to see someone doing the old school things to steward it so it gives sustenance to critters, two legged and four.
A few days ago, saw some comment on line about how can we mow our yards if we can't get gas for the mower. 🙄 Guess their knowledge of the scythe is limited to that thing the Grim Reaper is always depicted carrying. Folks, that is how you mow the grass and historically harvest grain crops. There is also this thing called a broom you use to sweep the clippings off the sidewalk. Much quieter than those damn blowers.
They could also just ditch the lawn for native prairie plantings, herb beds, veggie patches and so on and not worry about mowing much of anything.
If you want to walk across your lawn where I live you have two choices: mow regularly, or wear ticks as decoration.
I choose A. We plant veggies and flowers around perimeters where we can't reasonably mow, but the open spaces we regularly walk across, we regularly mow.
I never made peace with a scythe, although I'm somewhat ashamed to admit it. I mow with a 4' commercial walk-behind mower rather than a rider.
I've got plans for a donkey mower. Made 1 attempt so far but it wasn't successful. Yet.
The transition within the UK agricultural sector highlights a critical systemic shift where Brexit acted merely as a catalyst for a pre-existing trajectory shared across Europe. Rather than creating a new direction, it accelerated an underlying move toward a "post-subsidy" landscape that internalizes environmental externalities.
This acceleration mirrors a broader, cross-sectoral trend: the entry of institutional investment funds that redefine land as a financial asset—primarily for carbon sequestration and green-offsetting—rather than a primary asset for food production.
This is wonderful. Well planned, smart, and obviously a TON of hard work. I don’t think a lot of people now in America are quite cognizant of the amount of hard physical work it takes to do what you are doing.
Side note: OMG sorghum syrup. Love that stuff! The Hy-Vee in town no longer sells it. ☹️ Luckily I gave up added sugars a couple of years ago, but it would be nice to have a jar or two for special occasions.
The hard physical work has been exactly that, hard physical work, sometimes almost to my limit. But.
At 78 I'm still able to do hard physical work, not as much as even ten years ago, let alone 30. My blood pressure would be typical for a healthy 40 year old, active person. The farm is not the only thing that has gained from it all. My old body couldn't be this well any other way. Part of the reason I never stop is because I'm not ready to die, and I think stopping would kill me.
This is great. Intentional community building. I bet this guy sleeps well.
We have started a co-op of sorts out of an 1950s building on 4 acres in the rural midwest. We are decades behind the author but have similar goals but with less husbandry.
Finding kindred spirits in this world really does help with the loneliness of anticipating collapse in an otherwise utterly distracted world. Keep on farming and keep on writing Jeff.
I'm an early 40 something trying to escape. It's hard. I have a lot of education but not a lot of money. I'd love to jump to this lifestyle now but can't find a way that I feel is responsible for my kid.
Part of the problem is trust and leverage. I need community to make this work but we live in a mentally ill society and picking the wrong people can be catastrophic. I feel that I can't change lifestyles without having financial leverage in case the people don't work out as I'm afraid of going back to the 9-5 world with less than nothing if it doesn't work out.
How did your younger helpers find you? And how did you both vet each other and find you could trust the other?
We found each other by a series of flukes. Syd, to whom I gave the old farm, has been my farrier since the mid 20-teens. We met at a 4H dog training club. We had years to learn our friendship. She helped support me after my wife's death, and I helped support her after her divorce. There would be no way to build a friendship and working relationship like ours by looking for it, I don't think.
The other woman is one Syd found in her life, and my trust for Syd was the basis of her entry into our lives.
Syd and I have never been romantically involved. Our involvement started with dogs and donkeys and built from there.
She has a daughter who comes here every day that Syd works. She'll turn 8 this month. My wife cares for her during the day while we work on the farm, but that, too, just happened by accident. She - the daughter - is home schooled.
I honestly don't know how to advise you. Obviously you could come visit us, but nothing we have here was built on purpose. Well, I built the farm on purpose over 41 years, but the human relationships were much more in the "just happened" category.
That's the way to do it. I have some good friends I trust but they're all focused on the ambitions of the existing paradigm. I appear on the outside to be that way too because saying anything against the business as usual narrative is a buzz kill.
But my intuition has told me otherwise for years and it does have it's way eventually.
If gas cost and infrastructure permit, I might take you up on that visit offer if it works for you.
I am going to DM you. I don't find Substack's DMs very user friendly, but look for one from me.
Let me know when and you'll be welcome. How old is your kid? My "granddaughter" (not a biological status) will soon be 8. She's sharp as a tack, but as my wife said yesterday, "If you put tape over her mouth she'd explode."
You have a good looking place and it is so nice to see someone doing the old school things to steward it so it gives sustenance to critters, two legged and four.
A few days ago, saw some comment on line about how can we mow our yards if we can't get gas for the mower. 🙄 Guess their knowledge of the scythe is limited to that thing the Grim Reaper is always depicted carrying. Folks, that is how you mow the grass and historically harvest grain crops. There is also this thing called a broom you use to sweep the clippings off the sidewalk. Much quieter than those damn blowers.
They could also just ditch the lawn for native prairie plantings, herb beds, veggie patches and so on and not worry about mowing much of anything.
If you want to walk across your lawn where I live you have two choices: mow regularly, or wear ticks as decoration.
I choose A. We plant veggies and flowers around perimeters where we can't reasonably mow, but the open spaces we regularly walk across, we regularly mow.
I never made peace with a scythe, although I'm somewhat ashamed to admit it. I mow with a 4' commercial walk-behind mower rather than a rider.
I've got plans for a donkey mower. Made 1 attempt so far but it wasn't successful. Yet.
The transition within the UK agricultural sector highlights a critical systemic shift where Brexit acted merely as a catalyst for a pre-existing trajectory shared across Europe. Rather than creating a new direction, it accelerated an underlying move toward a "post-subsidy" landscape that internalizes environmental externalities.
This acceleration mirrors a broader, cross-sectoral trend: the entry of institutional investment funds that redefine land as a financial asset—primarily for carbon sequestration and green-offsetting—rather than a primary asset for food production.
Thank you, Jeff. Be well.
This is wonderful. Well planned, smart, and obviously a TON of hard work. I don’t think a lot of people now in America are quite cognizant of the amount of hard physical work it takes to do what you are doing.
Side note: OMG sorghum syrup. Love that stuff! The Hy-Vee in town no longer sells it. ☹️ Luckily I gave up added sugars a couple of years ago, but it would be nice to have a jar or two for special occasions.
The hard physical work has been exactly that, hard physical work, sometimes almost to my limit. But.
At 78 I'm still able to do hard physical work, not as much as even ten years ago, let alone 30. My blood pressure would be typical for a healthy 40 year old, active person. The farm is not the only thing that has gained from it all. My old body couldn't be this well any other way. Part of the reason I never stop is because I'm not ready to die, and I think stopping would kill me.
I hear that!!! Sounds like you’ve still got a good run in you yet. 😊