When we were initially planning to move here to the homestead we posted about what we thought we would miss and, more importantly, what we thought we wouldn’t miss. We thought it would make a good post to update our thoughts on those subjects.
We Miss:
- Living close to our family and friends
- Having a good building supply company close by — especially now that we’ve started building housing for our livestock. The closest store is about 20 miles away.
- Having access to more stores – you have to adjust your shopping when there’s not a JoAnn’s or Office Depot down the street. The closest super WalMart is over 40 miles away. As a result we’ve learned to live with less. We try hard to buy local but do turn to the Internet when we have to.
- Having access to a larger library network — I DO the Johnson County Library and especially the Friends of the Library Bookstore at the Antioch Branch.
- Freecycle.org and Craigslist.com – we really found a ton of great no cost/low cost stuff through these sites before we moved but I think the recycling/reselling concepts work better in a big city because there’s more population to access. DUH!
- Internet access at home — Currently we only have access to the Internet if we go into town and use one of the local hot spots or the wi-fi at the library. While the Internet is a great resource which we use when we can, it’s also easy to get caught up in the surfing time warp.
We Don’t Miss:
- Mortgage payments 😉
- Utility bills — while we are purchasing the occasional propane tank for the camp stove and paying a monthly water bill (basically the minimum amount), believe me, it’s a LOT less than what we used to pay 😉
- Our J-O-B-s — although we enjoyed what we did there’s just something different about getting up in the morning and working on a project that will help us become more self-sufficient rather than working for a paycheck to “buy more stuff”.
- TV – in fact we seldom even think about it. Although we must admit that it would be better to watch the Kansas City Chiefs and Missouri Tigers football games than to listen to them on the radio but, hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. It’s also better when they win 😉
- Big city traffic 😉
- Having to drive around in the snow to get places. Our new lifestyle allows us to stay at home when the weather is bad. Just put another log on the fire and read a good book.
- The weight we’ve lost 😉 — the homestead “diet” works well. Work hard and eat what you want!
Now that you’ve been reading about our experiences for the past year I’m going to ask everyone again… what you you miss most if you decided to become modern day homesteaders, move to a small community, and live off the grid like us?
Hickory Hollow Homestead 