My sister moved to Tennessee and she's running into a lot of issues with being able to sell things from her property. She says thr Mennonite communities have it completely locked down (at least her area in NE Tennessee). You can't sell ANYTHING without a special permit, license, or certification. It would cost more than they could make. Though there IS a good homesteading community and they've made a lot of great friends. I live in SE Iowa, but have the opposite problem. I can sell just about anything I want and only need a license to sell dairy or baked goods (both very easy to get and very cheap). I can sell just about anything [including canned goods, live plants, and up to 999 chickens live or butchered] without a special license or certification. HOWEVER, people out here don't seem to care much for quality. I offer farm-fresh, free range, pasture chicken eggs for $2/doz and can't sell them. Why? Dollar General and Walmart sell eggs for $1.30/doz. They don't care about quality. There is also not a very big homesteading community here. I'm surrounded by big farmers who farm thousands of acres and almost none of them have a family garden or even know how to grow a garden. It's all just big monocrop on tractors.
I resonate with your comment. In the Missouri Ozarks there are a lot of homesteaders, but it still seems like people don’t care as much for quality by and large. And don’t get me started on the nearby Mennonites. 🙄
So, how are the Mennonites paying for their permits and such? Are they doing such high volume that they can afford it and still make a profit to use that money to support their families, too?
@@dawnfoster6530 Yes, they are. Also, I believe they get some kind of special exceptions or allowances because of religion or whatever. I'll have to ask her again, but they make a LOT of profit. They -as a statewide collective- can easily buy legislatives.
@@BaughbeSauce Yes, they are usually wealthy from what I'm told, and it would be incorrect to assume that they live humble, wholesome lives when it comes to food production. At least around here they are in cahoots with commercial agriculture more than almost anyone. They built a commercial poultry barn right next to my property. I'm certainly not happy about it since this was supposed to be my serene little homestead. And they just keep building these poultry barns on every piece of land that they buy around here. Good luck trying to change legislation to keep the barns away, because somehow commercial agriculture gets a free pass on almost everything in Missouri.
Perhaps an interesting thing to investigate is homesteading for retirees. There are a lot of boomers that might be interested and we have our own unique issues and limitations.
Texas has water problems. We started out there, but it was a real struggle. Indiana is a good place to farm and raise kids, but we wanted a longer growing season and milder winters for our older years, so Arkansas is our “just right”.
How did you go about finding your homestead in Arkansas? We've just begun out search, but we are not sure what the best area would be to look and not sure how to figure this out fairly quickly??
@@cjhawk03 well we were confined somewhat because my husband got a job in Arkansas. That narrowed the search area for us. We are not as remote as we might have liked, but it’s still a nice rural area. We wanted to live in the Ozarks. It can be a little harder to find land in the more populated areas of Northwest Arkansas, but it is not impossible. We could have more acreage if we lived further from the corridor (Bentonville to Fort Smith) but that land is more valuable because the area is experiencing growth. There is crop land in the state. I am not as familiar with those parts. If you look at the towns from Fort Smith to Little Rock, that area is skirting the mountains. We had specific needs for a house due to some family medical issues, so we went with a nicer house and 7 acres. We have enough land for raising our livestock and gardening. Our neighbors are letting is cut hay on their land. Ideally we’d like 10 more acres to feel completely secure feeding our livestock. Of course I don’t *need* as many goats as I have.
Watch the TH-cam channels like JunktoJems, O'Rourke Little Field, Possum Run, Bobblehead, Our Mountain home etc. Possum Run is in the Quachita mountain range. possum Rin is next to Our Mountain Home. My fave are JunktoJems.
That was a fun video! I like your comparisons of data and you pulled from a wide spectrum of interests. Key point seems to be that homesteading is not about earning an income. 🤷🏻♀️ I’m a fan of believing we ALL need to be doing a bit of survival homesteading on out properties with some crops and small livestock. Good luck to you! (I found your music background to be unnecessary- you’ve got the voice and stage presence to hold your own 👍🏻).
Thanks for the kind words. I think a lot of people confuse homesteading with small farming. One has the intent to provide for your family, the other is to make a profit.
So I lived in Idaho for around 12 years, in southeast Idaho, we did a homestead there and we had to bring in a lot of soil for gardening because the soil there is so full of rock, especially lava rock. So for those considering Idaho that is something to think about. Plus they don't get a lot of rain! So it's dry, dusty, windy and with all that brings the chemicals used for the potato fields (they are everywhere). There is a lot of crop dusting and it just spreads all over. It gets on your property, it's in the air, gets in the irrigation canals which means the water too. It's not all bad, the homeschooling is great, the people are wonderful and it is relatively safe. But on that note I should mention the state is growing fast, which is rising the costs of everything, it's bringing in more crime the traffic can get backed up (not big city like). But as always there are pros and cons, do research and make the best decision for your family and you! We are doing that currently I and have decided to move from Idaho to Missouri. So it's all personal preference.
Thanks for adding your perspective. It helps. I've heard about the potato spraying. That really sucks. I've heard details on the specific needs from McDonalds potatoes, and the amount of pesticides used to produce their long, stringy, fires is insane! I imagine many of them come from Idaho. Good luck in Missouri!
There's also North Idaho and East Idaho which are pretty awesome too and not as hot and dry. You can forget the rest of the state! (I also live in the SW and have found gardening to be a challenge because of the hot dry summers. I would love to see what it's like to live in North or East Idaho before ruling out the whole state!) By the way, Idaho is closed. 😛
I started homesteading when we lived in northern Maine. Winters were long, cold, and dark. But land was cheap. My off farm job, brought me here to GA. The weather is perfect for homesteading here. But I do miss Maine.
I would love to have fiber optic. I work from home as a web developer. My 10mbps works fine most of the time. lol. Love the humor and great advice in this video.
You might want to check out Tennessee. In addition to low property taxes and no state income tax, parts of the state have amazing internet. In our area of southeast TN, we opted for 2.5 gigs but it is feasible for residential customers to get as much as 25 gigs. My husband has a remote job in tech and it has been great.
@@LinusMarais I greatly appreciate the advice! I wouldn't mind living in Tennessee for sure. I'm mainly hesitant due to the fact that I found a really good deal in 2015 on a nice place here in Missouri. I can't find anything close with today's real estate prices.
@@homesteadingwithPJ I do a bit of proofreading as part of my job so things like that catch my eye. Very good video overall, we’re considering Michigan because I have family there and land is around $2k an acre cheaper than where we are now.
The reason these homesteaders have a college degree is because they were convinced they needed it. I wonder home many have figured out they wasted their money.
Excuse me I have a question? Would it be possible to do a video that covers all 50 states and how small farms/homestead would do there and why… also I enjoy your channel very much
Good luck! Colorado is very dry, has poor soils, it's very expensive, and zoning regulations are very limiting as to what's allowed and what you can do. The worst issues are it's a sanctuary STATE for invaders, our government has been taken over by California liberals and they're steadily enacting the same laws that ruined California. So... yeah. I'm moving to a red state next year.
Homeschool children have always been -- as a whole -- BETTER socialized than public schooled children. Unfortunately, that misconception about lack of socialization, which was common when I was homeschooling my children forty years ago, still seems to exist. There are exceptions, due to the variety of different kinds of families, but as a whole, they really are better socialized. If you think about it, you, like myself and many others, will find that you can often tell which children are homeschooled without asking, because the homeschooled children are almost always more comfortable talking and interacting with adults than public schooled children (or any child who attends an age-segregated classroom school). They are, in fact, usually more comfortable interacting with all ages of people. Children raised in age-segregated classrooms are usually uncomfortable interacting with any age group outside of their grade level, and may interact in inappropriate ways.
Hi PJ; We live in NC and have been driving 7 hours up to mountains almost every weekend to look at different properties (we got home at 3:30 this morning from another quick trip up there). Do you have any specific suggestions of where to focus our search? We have been looking around Andrews, specifically. Local food farming is number one on my list too.
New England is 6 states, not 5. Of those 6 states Maine has the lowest land prices as well as the lowest property tax rates and a lot of small farms and farmer's markets.
Minnesota is beautiful! If you already live there I'd hunker down, there's really no need to uproot your entire life because so many types of homesteading can be done where you are. On the other hand, if you've done the research and want to give Minnesota a try go for it! That's what we did with North Carolina. Just do the research and figure out what works best for you! Good luck on your journey!
I get that a lot. I've never lived there though, so I feel a little like an imposter talking about it. Even though I have lots of family in Alberta, (near Calgary) I've never even visited. Maybe one day!
@@homesteadingwithPJ I appreciate your honesty, although I think you should take the plunge and consider incorporating Canada in some topics you feel more comfortable about with the disclaimer you have never lived there. Clearly, you are quite knowledgeable. One caveat, Canada has a very diversified climate although some regions are similar to the U.S. (e.g., Maritimes and Maine, Alberta foothills and Montana, Prairies in Canada and U.S., etc.)
I was looking at Eestern OK, down around the river and up by the top hat. It didn't look too bad but it looks like everyone gets prairie madness and leaves eventually. The western panhandle section looks like it's all dry and surrounded by big ag with nothing but row crops on irrigation. It also looks like decent tax rates and regulations, only thing that's kinda turning me off of it is what the cops might be like.
My sister moved to Tennessee and she's running into a lot of issues with being able to sell things from her property. She says thr Mennonite communities have it completely locked down (at least her area in NE Tennessee). You can't sell ANYTHING without a special permit, license, or certification. It would cost more than they could make. Though there IS a good homesteading community and they've made a lot of great friends.
I live in SE Iowa, but have the opposite problem. I can sell just about anything I want and only need a license to sell dairy or baked goods (both very easy to get and very cheap). I can sell just about anything [including canned goods, live plants, and up to 999 chickens live or butchered] without a special license or certification.
HOWEVER, people out here don't seem to care much for quality. I offer farm-fresh, free range, pasture chicken eggs for $2/doz and can't sell them. Why? Dollar General and Walmart sell eggs for $1.30/doz. They don't care about quality. There is also not a very big homesteading community here. I'm surrounded by big farmers who farm thousands of acres and almost none of them have a family garden or even know how to grow a garden. It's all just big monocrop on tractors.
I resonate with your comment. In the Missouri Ozarks there are a lot of homesteaders, but it still seems like people don’t care as much for quality by and large. And don’t get me started on the nearby Mennonites. 🙄
So, how are the Mennonites paying for their permits and such? Are they doing such high volume that they can afford it and still make a profit to use that money to support their families, too?
@@dawnfoster6530
Yes, they are. Also, I believe they get some kind of special exceptions or allowances because of religion or whatever. I'll have to ask her again, but they make a LOT of profit. They -as a statewide collective- can easily buy legislatives.
@@BaughbeSauce Yes, they are usually wealthy from what I'm told, and it would be incorrect to assume that they live humble, wholesome lives when it comes to food production. At least around here they are in cahoots with commercial agriculture more than almost anyone. They built a commercial poultry barn right next to my property. I'm certainly not happy about it since this was supposed to be my serene little homestead. And they just keep building these poultry barns on every piece of land that they buy around here. Good luck trying to change legislation to keep the barns away, because somehow commercial agriculture gets a free pass on almost everything in Missouri.
Hello, fellow Iowan!👋 Central Iowa here. Doing my best to homestead in town with 2/3 acre.
I do not talk to my chickens like a crazy person. I talk to my quail like a crazy man.🙃😂
Perhaps an interesting thing to investigate is homesteading for retirees. There are a lot of boomers that might be interested and we have our own unique issues and limitations.
Amazing idea. Writing it down to the board where I keep all the ideas for future videos.
Michigan homestead here. Really enjoying it, even the winter is enjoyable.
You are so funny! I like the mix of good solid info you provide with your sense of humor. Keeps me watching and learning.
Thanks for the kind words!
Texas has water problems. We started out there, but it was a real struggle. Indiana is a good place to farm and raise kids, but we wanted a longer growing season and milder winters for our older years, so Arkansas is our “just right”.
How did you go about finding your homestead in Arkansas? We've just begun out search, but we are not sure what the best area would be to look and not sure how to figure this out fairly quickly??
@@cjhawk03 well we were confined somewhat because my husband got a job in Arkansas. That narrowed the search area for us. We are not as remote as we might have liked, but it’s still a nice rural area. We wanted to live in the Ozarks. It can be a little harder to find land in the more populated areas of Northwest Arkansas, but it is not impossible. We could have more acreage if we lived further from the corridor (Bentonville to Fort Smith) but that land is more valuable because the area is experiencing growth. There is crop land in the state. I am not as familiar with those parts. If you look at the towns from Fort Smith to Little Rock, that area is skirting the mountains. We had specific needs for a house due to some family medical issues, so we went with a nicer house and 7 acres. We have enough land for raising our livestock and gardening. Our neighbors are letting is cut hay on their land. Ideally we’d like 10 more acres to feel completely secure feeding our livestock. Of course I don’t *need* as many goats as I have.
Watch the TH-cam channels like JunktoJems, O'Rourke Little Field, Possum Run, Bobblehead, Our Mountain home etc. Possum Run is in the Quachita mountain range. possum Rin is next to Our Mountain Home. My fave are JunktoJems.
Correction Bobblehead is next to Our Mountain Home. Jen at Our Mountain home is super smart, resourceful and helpful.
That was a fun video! I like your comparisons of data and you pulled from a wide spectrum of interests. Key point seems to be that homesteading is not about earning an income. 🤷🏻♀️ I’m a fan of believing we ALL need to be doing a bit of survival homesteading on out properties with some crops and small livestock. Good luck to you! (I found your music background to be unnecessary- you’ve got the voice and stage presence to hold your own 👍🏻).
Thanks for the kind words. I think a lot of people confuse homesteading with small farming. One has the intent to provide for your family, the other is to make a profit.
I agree; the music is a distraction.
So I lived in Idaho for around 12 years, in southeast Idaho, we did a homestead there and we had to bring in a lot of soil for gardening because the soil there is so full of rock, especially lava rock. So for those considering Idaho that is something to think about. Plus they don't get a lot of rain! So it's dry, dusty, windy and with all that brings the chemicals used for the potato fields (they are everywhere). There is a lot of crop dusting and it just spreads all over. It gets on your property, it's in the air, gets in the irrigation canals which means the water too. It's not all bad, the homeschooling is great, the people are wonderful and it is relatively safe. But on that note I should mention the state is growing fast, which is rising the costs of everything, it's bringing in more crime the traffic can get backed up (not big city like). But as always there are pros and cons, do research and make the best decision for your family and you! We are doing that currently I and have decided to move from Idaho to Missouri. So it's all personal preference.
Thanks for adding your perspective. It helps.
I've heard about the potato spraying. That really sucks. I've heard details on the specific needs from McDonalds potatoes, and the amount of pesticides used to produce their long, stringy, fires is insane! I imagine many of them come from Idaho.
Good luck in Missouri!
There's also North Idaho and East Idaho which are pretty awesome too and not as hot and dry. You can forget the rest of the state! (I also live in the SW and have found gardening to be a challenge because of the hot dry summers. I would love to see what it's like to live in North or East Idaho before ruling out the whole state!) By the way, Idaho is closed. 😛
I started homesteading when we lived in northern Maine. Winters were long, cold, and dark. But land was cheap. My off farm job, brought me here to GA. The weather is perfect for homesteading here. But I do miss Maine.
NH also has no state income tax and high property taxes, but the added benefit of having a winter for pest control, plus no drought issues.
I would love to have fiber optic. I work from home as a web developer. My 10mbps works fine most of the time. lol. Love the humor and great advice in this video.
You might want to check out Tennessee. In addition to low property taxes and no state income tax, parts of the state have amazing internet. In our area of southeast TN, we opted for 2.5 gigs but it is feasible for residential customers to get as much as 25 gigs. My husband has a remote job in tech and it has been great.
@@LinusMarais I greatly appreciate the advice! I wouldn't mind living in Tennessee for sure. I'm mainly hesitant due to the fact that I found a really good deal in 2015 on a nice place here in Missouri. I can't find anything close with today's real estate prices.
At 69, I have now lived long enough to hear of So Cal folk goin' a homesteading with their charcuterie boards packed and ready.
I really enjoyed this video. Informative, to the point and the guy in the video has a super friendly and like-able demeanor! ❤ love it!
Thanks PJ for sharing. Quite interesting.
Where I live in Iowa, it costs $12,000-$16,000 per acre.
Anyone else notice that both North and South Carolina are spelled wrong on the map?
I do now! Crazy how much goes into the editing process, and yet stuff like that slips through. Thanks for being cool about it 😉
@@homesteadingwithPJ I do a bit of proofreading as part of my job so things like that catch my eye. Very good video overall, we’re considering Michigan because I have family there and land is around $2k an acre cheaper than where we are now.
The reason these homesteaders have a college degree is because they were convinced they needed it. I wonder home many have figured out they wasted their money.
Montana land and cost of living is very expensive. Plus water is always a problem to solve for.
Tennessee and North Carolina resonated with me
Excuse me I have a question? Would it be possible to do a video that covers all 50 states and how small farms/homestead would do there and why… also I enjoy your channel very much
Thanks my family and i homestead in hawaii. Pros and cons.
Everyone tells me I'm crazy when I say I want to try and homestead in Colorado 😅
Me too! Land here certainly isn’t cheap, and weather is unpredictable but I still want to make it work!
You could do it! You'd need more land, but sturdy ruminants could make it work!
Good luck! Colorado is very dry, has poor soils, it's very expensive, and zoning regulations are very limiting as to what's allowed and what you can do. The worst issues are it's a sanctuary STATE for invaders, our government has been taken over by California liberals and they're steadily enacting the same laws that ruined California. So... yeah. I'm moving to a red state next year.
Homeschool children have always been -- as a whole -- BETTER socialized than public schooled children. Unfortunately, that misconception about lack of socialization, which was common when I was homeschooling my children forty years ago, still seems to exist. There are exceptions, due to the variety of different kinds of families, but as a whole, they really are better socialized. If you think about it, you, like myself and many others, will find that you can often tell which children are homeschooled without asking, because the homeschooled children are almost always more comfortable talking and interacting with adults than public schooled children (or any child who attends an age-segregated classroom school). They are, in fact, usually more comfortable interacting with all ages of people. Children raised in age-segregated classrooms are usually uncomfortable interacting with any age group outside of their grade level, and may interact in inappropriate ways.
Missouri and Arkansas are both good states for homesteading as well.
Also,. I've seen a lot of homesteaders in Ohio as well
Hi PJ; We live in NC and have been driving 7 hours up to mountains almost every weekend to look at different properties (we got home at 3:30 this morning from another quick trip up there). Do you have any specific suggestions of where to focus our search? We have been looking around Andrews, specifically. Local food farming is number one on my list too.
New England is 6 states, not 5. Of those 6 states Maine has the lowest land prices as well as the lowest property tax rates and a lot of small farms and farmer's markets.
Out west seems best
How Tennessee is 9th fastest growing I though it was 10th as Tennessee the only 10 I see 😂
Silly me had to read this twice to get it. But once I got it, I actually laughed out loud!
I might be moving to Montana soon. 'Gonna be a dental floss tycoon.
What about Georgia mountains?
I lived in Georgia years ago, and I can say "yes!" Georgia would be a great place to settle down.
Bro Florida though!
I lived in Florida for a couple of years. There's a lot of people homesteading there too.
They literally have a town called Homestead, I hear most wouldn't want to live there though.
Thanks for the video. Very interesting & helpful. Do you have any relatives inUtah with a You Tube channel?
Oh thank you! My dad has a TH-cam channel in Utah, but it's not about homesteading. It's about him building and driving his Shelby Cobra.
New England 6 states just saying !
thoughts on Minnesota?
Minnesota is beautiful! If you already live there I'd hunker down, there's really no need to uproot your entire life because so many types of homesteading can be done where you are. On the other hand, if you've done the research and want to give Minnesota a try go for it! That's what we did with North Carolina. Just do the research and figure out what works best for you! Good luck on your journey!
Where in NC did y’all end up?
Orange County, near Chapel Hill.
@@homesteadingwithPJ Why did you guys pick that location? We are interested in home schooling. Are there home schoolers there?
Missouri land is cheaper than West Virginia.
Really?! You have no idea what you are talking about…
Tennessee was probably the only state on here the actually made sense lmao
You should consider incorporating more Canadian aspects into your videos.
Also, Romania and New Zealand. And Uruguay.
I get that a lot. I've never lived there though, so I feel a little like an imposter talking about it. Even though I have lots of family in Alberta, (near Calgary) I've never even visited. Maybe one day!
@@homesteadingwithPJ I appreciate your honesty, although I think you should take the plunge and consider incorporating Canada in some topics you feel more comfortable about with the disclaimer you have never lived there. Clearly, you are quite knowledgeable. One caveat, Canada has a very diversified climate although some regions are similar to the U.S. (e.g., Maritimes and Maine, Alberta foothills and Montana, Prairies in Canada and U.S., etc.)
@@nicholasbaker8158 Thank you for the feedback. I'm sure one day I've cover more topics about the great white north!
Well, I'm excluded!
Homesteading doesn’t exist sorry.
Please elaborate.
I was looking at Eestern OK, down around the river and up by the top hat.
It didn't look too bad but it looks like everyone gets prairie madness and leaves eventually.
The western panhandle section looks like it's all dry and surrounded by big ag with nothing but row crops on irrigation.
It also looks like decent tax rates and regulations, only thing that's kinda turning me off of it is what the cops might be like.