Living on a homestead is a dream life for many folks. The only thing that could make owning your very own patch of sustainable land is perhaps to be able to earn a living working without having to leave it, as well. We stumbled across a great article on Practical Self-Reliance that inspired us to delve more deeply into the subject.
Homesteaders with a desire to work full time from their homestead truly do not need to skim another list of casually thought out ways they could earn enough money to pay the bills courtesy of their land – or at least by ditching the regular 9 to 5.
You can make an extra $1,000 a month on a small homestead and not just a little extra cash to buy seed or feed with, as long as you are willing to roll up your sleeves and put in the time.
As an added bonus, many of the ways you can make money working from your homestead will enhance your self-reliance skills set in the process – making it a win – win scenario.
Top Ways To Make $1,000 A Month On A Small Homestead
#1. Produce Stand
Setting up a farm-side produce stand to sell what your grow, raise, and make on your homestead is legal in the vast majority of states. As long as the stand remains on your own property many laws governing vendors licenses, agricultural, or health inspections typically do not apply – a big money saver for small scale homesteaders.
#2. Healing Herbs And Oils
Growing herbs takes up very little space but can earn a homesteader a large profit. Not only can you raise naturally healing and rare heirloom herbs, you can also cultivate non-native varieties because herbs can easily be cultivated year-round in a tiny greenhouse or in the home beneath a grow light.
You could take this homestead money making opportunity a bit further and create your own essential oils and natural perfumes from the herbs and any flowers you also grow on the property. Selling herbs, seeds, essential oils, and natural cosmetics or perfumes online at website venues like Etsy, would increase your homestead-based selling power.
#3. Herd Share Service
Launch a herd share service to sell your excess dairy cow or goat milk. Raw milk is not legal to sell in most states, but selling a share of an animal or a herd, is. The individuals who purchase a share can milk the animal or collect raw milk that stems from it and use it as they desire.
#4. Livestock Breeding
Breeding and selling livestock have long been a money maker for farmers in the United States. To increase the demand for your animals, and the price, consider raising heritage breeds.
Heritage breeds of chickens, ducks, turkeys, goats, sheep, hogs, and cattle are in demand by homesteaders and farmers who do not want commercially raised, cross-bred, hormone and antibiotic injected livestock. These vulnerable populations of traditional farm livestock do not grow as quickly as their peers raised on factory farms, but are typically far more hardy and independent animals that can survive with limited human intervention.
It will generally cost more to purchase a breeding pair of heritage livestock and might take longer to find them, but the profit margin should be a lot higher…and you would be doing a good deed in the process. Joining the Livestock Conservancy group will put you in touch with other breeders, potential customers, and educate you about each breed.
#5. Predator Protectors
This breeding, and possible training, work from homestead income earner will help other livestock owners protect their animals from four-legged predators. Breeding miniature donkeys or livestock guardian dogs can earn you an extra $1,000 a month once you get the program up and running after a single breeding season.
Miniature donkeys used to be considered only farm pets, but that all changed once homesteaders and farmers learned these little cuties have quite a penchant for kicking the stuffing out of coyotes. Chasing and kicking a coyote or a fox seems to be a favorite sport for these small powerhouse members of the equine family.
Keeping mini donkeys will not take up any more space than that needed for livestock guardian dogs, as long as you can stockpile the hay they will need to eat if adequate pasture space is not available on your homestead.
#6. Beekeeping
This might be the best homestead money making venture for folks working within small spaces. Not only could you sell the honey the bees make, but also the bees themselves as part of a breeding operation. In addition to these possibilities, you could also earn $1,000 a month by building and selling beehives as well as renting out established hives to other growers seeking to pollinate their crops and fruit groves.
Related: How to Start a Beehive
#7. Agricultural Salvage
Put that old barn wood, rusty barbed wire, rusty tin roofing, and other vintage tools and materials that exist on your homestead or you find “going junkin’” in your area, to work for you. Selling just one hand-hewn barn timber would likely earn more than $1,000 from eager buyers. Selling agricultural salvage via the internet to upscale decorators or couples seeking to revamp or build using old-fashioned authentic materials will generally garner higher prices than selling them locally if you homestead in a small town or rural area.
Other commonly in demand agricultural salvage and authentic homesteading items include wood fence posts, hinges, interior doors, light fixtures, cast iron cookware, and manual tools.
#8. Composting
Help other homesteaders and backyard gardeners enhance their annual yield by selling composting material and homemade bins to store the nutrient-rich dirt. You could also raise composting worms and the housing units they need to live in once placed inside a bin or barrel, to increase the amount of money you can make from this type of homesteading business.
Related: How To Make A Lot Of Compost This Winter
#9. Event Space
You do not need double digit acreage to make money renting out space on your homestead. Agricultural tourism is a rising trend across the country, opening up a vast array of home-based income for homesteaders. In a growing number of states, agritourism activities are covered by standard insurance policies as long as some common-sense warning and/or premises policy signs are posted.
Common event space rentals on homesteads often include: barn rental for weddings, barn backdrops for photo shoots, herb and medicinal garden areas for social gatherings, and hands-on homesteading activity space for youth and civic groups.
#10. Sell Eggs
This is an oldie but a goodie for a reason. Selling your chicken and duck eggs at a local farmer’s market or you own farm stand can earn some of the money you will need to achieve your $1,000 a month goal. Yes, it would take a whole lot of eggs to make that much money in a single month, but if you have a large flock that lays quality eggs, hitting your desired amount from eggs alone, could indeed be possible. Consider breeding Easter Egger chicken to increase sales around the holiday – along with selling chicks and ducklings, too.
Related: How to Keep Eggs Fresh for a Year with Isinglass
#11. Workshops
Make money sharing your knowledge with not just other homesteaders, but youth and community groups as well. You could host seed saving, dehydrating, beekeeping, etc. workshops on your homestead or also at regional expos and events related to homesteading and agriculture. Writing and making videos showcasing your homesteading skills can also help you earn a minimum of $1,000 a month after waving good-bye to the rat race and daily commute.
Purchase only the essential materials needed to start your business during the early months, if you do not already have most of them on your homestead. Increase your purchase list only as you start to see some sales and interest in your products or products.
#12. Homemade Gifts
Turn a hobby you are passionate about into part of your homesteading business. Make homemade dolls or Waldorf toys, stuffed animals, picnic tables, backyard game systems, quilts, embroidered items, rustic signs, vinyl printed shirts – the options are nearly endless.
One of the advantages of turning a hobby into a small business is the you already own the necessary tools and supplies to get started. Upgrade your equipment or buy additional tools and materials after you begin to make some sales.
Homesteading Business Start Up Tips
Marketing of your homesteading business is essential, but does not necessarily have to be a substantial expense. Use social media to create accounts and showcase your products or services. Put a personal touch on the business by sharing your own personal journey with potential customers. Buying a handmade baby dress or rocking chair from a local resident should leave the customer with a warm and satisfied feeling that buying commercially manufactured items made overseas and sold by a big box store, simply cannot provide.
The same basic principles of business apply to your homestead endeavour. Learn as much as you can about the supply and demand of your product or service before investing too deeply in your new dream.
Making $1,000 a month from a small homestead is entirely a viable goal. But, you should not quite your day job the day a great idea strikes you. It can take several months to a year to establish yourself locally and/or online as a professional homesteader – small business owner.
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To make $1000.00 per month with eggs, you’ll need a really big flock, and that is a lot of work. Around here $2.00 per dozen is about the going rate for free range organic eggs, since most everyone I know has their own chickens and eggs.
Honey goes for about $20.00 per quart, and to harvest 50 quarts (12.5 gallons) you’ll need quite a few well producing hives, that really only produce a batch once per year in the fall, so you’ll need to produce at least 150 gallons to hit that monthly mark.
For #9. (Event Space), don’t forget you’ll need someplace for the visitors to use the toilet, so you’ll need a lot of bathrooms, Porta Potties or outhouses.
Assuming like us, you’re homesteading in a rural area, you could well be surrounded by others doing the same, and with the exception of bees, everyone I know has chickens, livestock, and their own vegetables.
It’s the city folk and wanna bees you concentrate on! Facebook and a web page brings us more “townies” than we can handle
Survived on my own,
Perhaps you live closer to town than we do, or have fewer farms and homesteads in your area. Here the “big” towns are 50+ miles away and there are many farms run as more than agricultural businesses, which hold money making events on a regular basis. We live here because we like country living, where your neighbors are not 10 feet on either side of you. We can plant a garden, chop down a tree, light a campfire, or shoot a gun and nobody even cares. For us, that is the ultimate in freedom.
You must know everything.
Wannabe,
Assuming you’re responding to me, since I can’t tell because of no attribution, I do know a lot about a lot of things; but, I’m pure ignorant on other subjects.
With two engineering degrees and more than 40 years as a working stiff, I know a lot about electronics and computers and still work with computers and radio communications as a hobby in retirement.
Growing up in a prepping family in the 1950’s & 1960’s and doing it on this paid off homestead for 35 years, I know and have learned a lot; but, I’m always open to new knowledge.
The more homestead articles and blogs I read, the more people I find who spit out their thoughts as if their going to save homesteading as an industry and make want-a-be homesteaders successful. This reminds me of a book I bought years ago “1,102 Businesses You Can Start at Home”. That book was a sore disappointment! There were no more than 4 or 5 sentences (most had less) telling about this ‘great opportunity’ that could make you rich.
It is not my intention to pick on this article or insult its author…but please people…when you spew ideas out in just a few sentences or a short paragraph…you’re wasting people’s time. You don’t give enough valid details to help anyone really get going.
So many homesteaders, just like so many wanna-be small business people, jump into their grand money making idea with very little, if any, research into what their ‘big adventure’ takes to be successful. What will it be like to do their business idea? What is their business plan? Is it written down as a guide…a plan to follow?…because if “fail to plan, you plan to fail!” Over 20% of small business start-ups fail in the first year, and 50% more close within 5 years. Even start-up homesteaders fail in their first year. They too should take a ‘Business 101’ class to learn the basics of running the operation.
agreed, I love my Homestead, going more than 5 years on it. Weve made some side money with eggs, pigs and goats but never even broke even. By the time fences were built, feed was purchased and loss from predators i know were in the red. However this is not my income and more a way of life. If your going into homesteading for profit your in for a hard lesson. Eggs have been the most successful being we get 5 dollars a dozen for free range eggs but we usually just give them to family and friends who help us out. Makes a good exchange. If you can make some dough im all for it but don’t expect it to pay the bills. Still thanks for the article,
Planner,
Back in 1984 a fellow engineer and I started a small business. In 1995, he wanted to move to AZ and I sold out my portion of the business to him. That business is still thriving. Those first 10 years before his move, we both worked regular jobs (as engineers for the same company), had regular paychecks, benefits, etc.
Our business was run as a nearly full time sideline, easily taking 30 hours or more per week, with each of us doing all of the required jobs, from order taking, packing and shipping, accounting, etc. It could well have failed; but, we ended up with a product that hit the right market at the right time and were successful; however, it was never “easy” money.
It depends on why you’re homesteading. My wife and I just like country living, and from our marriage in 1982 until my retirement in 2017, this was mostly just our house, where like anyone; we raised our kids and did mostly normal family things. She was a farm girl who grew up not far from here, and I had always been someone with the prepper (or survivalist, or self reliant) mindset, so when this place came on the market in 1986, we purchased it. We had rented it from 1984-1986 and knew all of the warts that needed to be fixed. We never thought of this place or our lifestyle as the grand money making adventure, just an old large house, with great barns, in a place we wanted to live.
The downside was long drives to work from as short as 25 to as long as 40 miles one way. The upside is that staying in one place allowed us to purchase this Fixer upper and chip away at it as we could afford to.
Somewhere in the middle are our utilities with our own well & septic that do occasionally require maintenance; but, have no monthly bill. Electricity and telephone are pretty much normal. Our biggest issue over the years has been internet, starting with dialup @ 56Kbps, then satellite, moving to a WISP (wireless ISP) @ 3 Mbps, and finally DSL @ a whopping 5 Mbps.
Distance and some lack of convenient resources are probably the biggest downsides.
We have now been mortgage free for more than 20 years
If anyone is planning to homestead for the freedom it gives them, then, life can be wonderful; but, if you plan to make it produce significant income, or provide most of your meals, then you are in for both disappointment AND a lot of very hard work.
do you raise food animals and grow a garden? MANY in Alaska live off the land if you aren’t making food ends meet you are doing something wrong, a garden in the US can grow enough food to feed and entire family,then you have a greenhouse, you can, then hunt fish trap and raise animals, have it all milk eggs, make your cheese, honey from bee’s.. don’t get it? maybe at first its not all there but after 20 yrs it should be
To Dig: “do you raise food animals and grow a garden? MANY in Alaska live off the land if you aren’t making food ends meet you are doing something wrong, a garden in the US can grow enough food to feed and entire family,then you have a greenhouse, you can, then hunt fish trap and raise animals, have it all milk eggs, make your cheese, honey from bee’s.. don’t get it? maybe at first its not all there but after 20 yrs it should be”
I am a bit offended by your comment: I have lived on my 5 acres for a bit over 20 years. Single woman a full time VERY PHYSICAL job and a few head of cattle. I had no TIME for doing those things although I would have LOVED to have had a garden. I tried one year, but it just got the best of me…also, I had no MONEY to do most of it either.
I did sell off calves for a few years. Now, I’m retired and have the time, but still not the money! I’m working on getting a garden little by little, Plan on chickens next summer. Adding a greenhouse made from old windows and screen doors. Bees: love to raise them but am allergic and neighbors use roundup all over. Would kill my poor bees….
Yes, your statement is a GREAT idea, but not everyone is able for whatever reason to do it. I divorced and bought this place, was BARELY able to keep it when the tractor I bought from a “friend” to do tractor work to make a bit of extra cash, was repo-ed as he didn’t keep up payments on it (I offered to take over the payments, but he said it couldn’t be done.) Was honest and went to the tractor dealer so they knew who had it to see about getting a “title” to it, not knowing that machinery that could cost thousands don’t have titles …they have something else but can’t remember what it is called…
So, I was out over $17,000. borrowed from my parents and no way to make extra money in the summer.
I’m still working to get all of the things you mention set up, but my own “5 year plan” didn’t go according to what I wanted. It is now a “25” year plan!!
One thing that the author just slightly touched upon, but is quite important is making sure that the business you plan to engage in meets zoning requirements. He mentioned holding events on your property. Well, in some locales in the PDRK, agricultural zoning precludes such things without a conditional use permit with lots of conditions.
A wannabe farmer decided to hold weddings and other social events on his farm, sunk a fair sum into facilities and soon after he started booking events and taking deposits he got a visit from the county planning department code enforcement officer. Seems that county zoning for agriculture doesn’t permit commercial events such as he was planning on holding without a CUP and he was in violation on several counts if he was planning on opening an event center. So many “farmers” or “homesteaders” were doing it that the county had to institute a whole set of regulations for parking, sanitation, food service, etc. etc. They shut him down until he applied for the necessary permits and went through the CUP process. He hired a lawyer, had a bunch of angry customers who had fronted deposit money which he had already spent. Long sad story, he is no longer in the event business and I don’t know if he even still owns the property due to the numerous lawsuits to get the money back plus having his lawyer hold conferences with the district attorney about not returning deposits.
On older Filipino man had been selling eggs from his chicken flock in a rural area for many years. His neighborhood became yuppified and his new “country folk” from the city didn’t realize that farming is really an industry.
They pictured Farmer Brown picking up several dozen eggs from a couple of hens with no rooster saluting the sun every morning. They didn’t realize if he was selling 10 or 20 dozen eggs a day, he must have over a hundred hens and who knows how many roosters.
They started complaining to the county supervisors because it was in the county and it was zoned semi-agriculture or some such allowing for homes but on bigger lots and limited husbandry. The supervisors kicked it to zoning who sent a letter to the egg farmer telling him he had to cut down on the size of his flock. Well, if he cut down on the size of his flock, the income he had come to rely on would be reduced significantly. I don’t know the outcome of the case, but it illustrates another problem in some semi-urban areas, when the city folks start to move in, you had better start looking for property further out.
Some states have enacted statutes to eliminate that problem. Those laws usually state that if there is a pre-existing farming operation, don’t come complaining to the local authorities because the pre-existing farming operation takes precedence. That seems like good law to me. If you move next to a dairy farm, don’t complain about the fertilizer smell. You didn’t have to buy property next to it.
You might make a part of your living combining several ideas. That could help but making a full time living is harder just from a homestead. Becoming as independent as possible and living frugally may save you more than you’re likely to earn unless you happen to hit just the perfect notch market.
Interesting article but not very helpful. Many places are so regulated that a kids lemonade stand can be shut down. If I dig a hole they inspect what I’m doing so they are satisfied I’m not building an unpermitted ceptic system. I plan to drive them nuts with my next greenhouse build. A walapini-growing pit. I saved the usable rafters from an old mobile home we tore down. They will cover the pit and carry the plastic roofing material.
I grow food to be able to have really fresh produce. Same for my chickens, ducks, and rabbits. Extra is dried, canned, stored if possible, and extra given away. I’ll see what’s selling at the farmers market 25 miles from here and then decide if I want to sell my excess there or not. I have sold just weaned meat rabbits now and then. They are tender fryers at that age but I personally let them reach full size for our food source. It costs more in feed than buying chicken at the store but I know its healthy meat and there’s a satisfaction in providing for your self. I’m planning to add a homemade fodder system for fresh food for the fowls and rabbits and to cut down on feed bills.
I do sell some excess produce at a table out by the gate. Sometimes I sit there and sometimes it’s an honor box for the money. If someone doesn’t pay or someone takes the cash its ok. I usually give away excess from my garden if I can’t process it for drying or canning when its ready.
I’m planning to add a large strawberry bed. $18.16 for 75 plants with a mix of everbearing and June berries. That way runners will eventually fill in the large prepared spot and renew production naturally. I just have to provide water and straw for winter cover. I’ll frame a high bird cover. To start with I have a lot of plastic mesh I found once while picking up free cinder blocks. Eventually I’ll plan on adding a chicken wire cage a bit at a time. I find old little used or unused wire now and then and collect it for projects. A “new” chicken coop and large pen will come first. I have what I’ll need for that. Just waiting for warmer weather so I can work outside.
Its early March right now so 5-6 weeks to last frost here. Already trays of longer growing things are sprouting and growing by every window in the home. My hot boxes of cinder blocks and doors with double glass panes will soon be set up and more things will be started or moved out so I can reclaim a table to eat on. A short growing season of 4 months has to have some help. I noticed a tub that held salad plants last year has lettuce coming up where a couple of plants went to seed. Nearly 0 degree weather has kept them tiny but they are slowly growing. I look for things that aclimate here to save seed for future years. Those 18 plants will be worth keeping an eye on. I’ll see how they’re doing after the new snow later this week.
Living rural, for me, was a way to always grow a garden. I grew up helping my parents can and dry a years worth of fruits and vegetables. We dried fruit on the roof on window screens we found and collected. Later dad built a solar dehydrator that was efficient and far easier to work with. No climbing on the roof at age 80.
I still find it a satisfying way of life. I’ve owned my 3 acres since 1981. My home is now a 2015 repo mobile home built for zone 2. We were able to pay cash and move it here last year. So still blessed to be mortgage free. At 16×56 it isn’t too big. It has 1 bedroom and 1 bathroom. A large open kitchen, dining area, and Living room make it feel bigger. The laundry room at the back door holds a stacked washer/dryer set and pantry shelves. I could have put a freezer there but I’ve opted not to have a freezer so it was easier to take the home off grid solar and still have 3 days of power stored in the back up batteries. I do have a 9k generator but gasoline would be an extra expense I’d prefer not to use up very often. I haven’t used the dryer much. I prefer my clothesline outside or drying racks inside.
Do I make $ off of any of this. No! But it’s a satisfying life. Any produce or rabbit kitts sold don’t begin to recover costs. I care about my critters and enjoy the whole process of caring for them and the joy of new life. I have a batch of hens that get broody every spring. I don’t bother with incubating eggs or keeping new chicks warm. The hens do a better job. We thrill over the birth of every new bunch of baby rabbits and watch as those chubby balls of fur grow up. Once in a long while one really catches my heart and it stays off of the menu. Once I had one that would play with my small house dog or the kittens and even would go walking with me on a harness and leash. Ok so I’m an eccentric old lady. Or maybe the “crazy rabbit lady”.
I will be selling my extra pie pumpkins and some winter squash. Few grow those things here because of the short season. Mine are already big enough to pot up for planting in 6-8 weeks from now. I start them in seed starter trays. I repot to 3″ news paper pots I make and fill with my homemade planting mix. Them just plant the whole thing when the weather is warmer. I pre warm the soil with plastic for a week or two before planting. You learn the little tricks of squeezing out the longest growing season possible. The pumpkins, acorn and butternut squash will keep well in a cool dark burried 55 gallon drum or a cellar. The gray Hubbard’s will keep most of a winter even in the house. They are from seeds shared by a native American family that grows and then stores them in the corner of their reservation Hogan. They add them to winter stews. It thickens a stew and you’d never guess there is squash in it. They just add it in 3/4″ cubes and let it cook on the back of the woodstove all day. Its a good source of winter vitamins. When you live poor and hours from a grocery store you learn to plan ahead.
I’m putting together supplies to take my second well solar. I have panels, 2 batteries, a charge controller and even two good sized inverters but I’m thinking I’ll keep it 12v. Just pump to a reservoir container, then a pond pump to the garden. I have a 235 gal water container here. Small 12v pumps are under $100. A pond pump for a backyard fish pond is under $50. I still need wire, fittings and pipe but once done it can be run with little expense. Living on a small social security income makes being frugal mandatory.
I still have a pressure tank bought “in the box” at an estate sale. I could divert some of the water there for in home use as that requires pressure. The older well is currently supplying the entire property. If I completely separate my home and garden from it, that saves me money in the long run but keeps it available as back up. A son and a friend both have families living here. As I can, I’ll take more and more off grid for everyone’s benefit. I have to keep power here from the local co-op but I can cut it down to the RV and a well and keep them off my back. The RV is usually my guest house. It’s self contained and you can cook or keep warm if the propane tank is filled.
Frugality is often better than a bigger income and it’s tax free.
Clergylady…I loved loved loved reading all your comments. I don’t know if you will see mine as this is now December 2020! I am so impressed with your vast knowledge and I truly hope you are all still doing good out there on route 66 wherever you are. If you need any help or looking for investors, contact me at my email directly monicacozac1975@gmail.com. Let’s talk and see what you are up to and how far you are with your plans. Hope to hear from you soon.
My property has a church but it needs reroofed and the ceiling repaired. Structurally its still good. I’m trying to figure out how to do that. There is a nice parking area. With the vegetable gardens and flowers mixed together, the grounds will be pretty spring to fall. It could easily, and legally, be a wedding destination venue. Or a small farmers market could be held there.
A neighbor takes in apprentices and students for garden and art work as well as destination air bnb renters that stay in a tiny travel trailer and a room in his main home.
For now we’re concentrating on repairs, going solar, family food production, a new chicken coop and pens and rebuilding my old garden and building up new planting areas.
I may look for funding to repair the church later this year. Right now it is our storage building until we’re settled into the newer mobile home and sell off excess furniture and STUFF. My parents lived here in a tiny home we built and furnished for them. I lived here until I had to leave 12 years ago for work.. My younger son lived here for 18 years until last year when he remarried and took a job in a city an hour away. I remarried 10 years ago and my husband had a home full of stuff. It’s all here to sort through. Keep some, sell some, donate or give away a lot. I don’t want to leave all that to the kids. Then I’ll start on fundraising to save the church. Actually the sale may be the start of the fundraising. At 72, husband 80 with major health problems and a couple of injuries I’m recuperating from, life is slower and things harder to accomplish. There is no stopping spot.
My middle son has repaired his grandparents tiny home for his family to live in. Friends live in another mobile home I had here. Their kids helped with the repairs. My younger sons mobile home is still here. His 18 year old son wants to fix it up and move back. We get away with several residences on the property because it was once a 27 unit mobile home park back in the 1950s built for mining company employees. We took out all but 7 hook ups and updated it all in the 1980s and 1990s. The church was built in 1991. Its a 2×6 framed building on a cement slab. Teachers and our family lived here from when we first got the land in 1981. None of that could be done now with the changes in laws and regulations. If someone has dreams of freely using land you’d better check county and state laws and regulations first. We were blessed to get things done and be grandfathered in as laws changed.
If I can get the church repaired I’ll reopen it and renew my old tax exempt corporation. Everything you do today has demands on your time and money. Making a profit or a living is a business and that’s taxed and regulated most of the time. Learn a vocation and incorporate that into your lifestyle. Look for you’re own niche and make it yours. Look for a business that’s established and get in the position to some day purchase it. Become a farrier or some other county job. Do it well and you’ll build a business. Plan ahead how to survive till you have the clientele to make a living.
Maybe you will be a truck farmer/ bee keeper/ with goats for milk, chickens to sell chicks and eggs, rows of lavender and herbs to make soap and lotions with the goats milk, honey, and bees wax candles. You may have to combine many ideas together. Some would be entirely compatible worked together. Perhaps your roadside stand could become a destination store.
We have friends that farm two areas. They grow lots of fruits and vegetables for their country store. They sell wholesale ears of corn and pick up trucks of pumpkins in season to people who use the family farm name to advertise their roadside stands for nearly 100 miles around. You’ll see retirees, housewives, and teens with little stand in driveways and selling from trailers on roadsides. It all comes from those two farms. Good for the farm and helps suppliment many small income families each summer and fall. Two other farms are now doing the same with 5 and 10 lb bags of beans. There are local bean and pumpkin festivals. One at a city park on the day of the festival parade and the other at the county fairgrounds. Many crafts people sell there. It’s a trend that’s doing well about 100 miles from my home. Even the bigger car dealer now has an annual sales “fair” for local sellers with booths as well as promoting their vehicles and always a drawing for some vintage or new vehicle. That town now has a parade the same day.
Cooperation is building the area far better than each trying to work alone. Three tiny rural towns are also no longer dying. It all started with two brothers looking to make a living on two small family farms and seeking a way to help others as well. They built on the old area county fair/pumpkin festival. The Lions Club has a pancake breakfast the morning of the Bean Festival parade and they man an ice cream stand in a booth at the car dealers growing festival.
I’m seriously talking with a couple of neighbors about something similar here. We’re a tiny unincorporated village of roughly 150 folks along historic Route 66. We have fabulous artists, gardeners, old vintage car restorers and so much to offer right here. Why not promote our area and have some fun doing that? We are just three miles from a medium sized Indian casino/hotel/ gas station/ laundry mat/ and travel campground. Plenty of places to stay close by and restaurants there. Booths could sell things produced locally and sell food and cold drinks. A parade of antique cars could be put together by local families. Sometimes they just parade down route 66 just for the fun of it.
Being para military survivors is ok for tv shows but real life is daily living and planning ahead. Most country folks have found some way to make a living, grow a garden, own guns, and are willing to help a neighbor. Some go to church. Some don’t. Kids still go to school. Most ride a bus. Most hope to fall in love and be in a relationship. Everybody likes a good time. Most find satisfaction in a job well done. Most fail before they succeed.
Dream big. Live peacefully. Be interested. Dream of good things to be and do. Work hard. Stay interesting and interested. Die with a few more dreams….
When you quit dreaming or planning… You’re dead anyway.
While I was reading this, I had an idea. How about offering to do a prepper community share for like-minded individuals. People buy into your enterprise for you to protect while they do their thing. When SHTF or during natural disasters, they can come to “The Prepper Place”. You could do this in conjunction with a herd share service and a CSA.
Mini donkeys or regular size are NOT to be used for predator protection! This is a false narrative! A coyote can take down and kill a mini in a minute. Four coyotes in a pack can and has taKen down a full size horse! A mini might stomp a rabbit. Do not be deceived by those that push this idea. I can supply you with professional people that will dispel this crazy idea.
I love these ideas. I can work on the weekend and make some handsome money.