Coming from a very urban area, one concern had been what culture shock there could be moving someplace very rural to homestead. There are many conveniences that spoil you. Don’t want to grocery shop? Publix has online shopping and delivery in a few hours. Don’t want to cook? There is just about any type of food available at restaurants within a few miles of home. Don’t want to pick up? Uber Eats, Door Dash or others will bring it to you. Shopping? Target will deliver in a few hours and just about anything on Amazon is next day.

We have tried cutting back on all those conveniences and it was tough. They are addictive. We wound up with them creeping back in to our lives within weeks. So could we REALLY live without? Being away for a week isn’t a REAL test.

Then one of our dogs got sick. Very sick. In a pet ER for weeks and told she would not make it level sick. Luckily Glory beat all the odds and is fine. Unluckily those services are very expensive. Shockingly expensive. With credit cards run up we had to cut back drastically on all those conveniences.

A few months passed. We had not eaten out or had delivery. Turns out it wasn’t hard to make a break when you were forced to. As we were starting to get ready for a trip up to the homestead I looked at my wife and said “You know, it’s almost like the last few months have prepared us for not having Uber Eats and dining out all the time.” She agreed. The last two trips we have stayed on the property and worked. We didn’t feel the need to get out and away as much.

So for anybody wondering if you could make the switch from urban to rural, you can.

A rural and homesteading life leaves you with a lot to learn. Listening to people who have been doing it a while, there will always be something to be we don’t know. Spread out and separated by distance, a distance we seek, can make finding others to learn from hard. At least it did in the past. Now we have online and social media to bridge that gap. It is a resource we need to use more.

When I first began clearing through the clutter of the cabin I found years worth of magazines. Dusty magazines. In the past that, along with books, is what we had. But magazines don’t know what issues you face right now. It could take a library to cover all the topics you need.

The internet is a valuable tool. You can look up what you want whenever you need it. There are articles and videos. Of course you probably also get 4 very different answers for any question.

Social media is a tool we need to use more. It lets a community separated by miles be joined as neighbors. Right now, aside from my regular accounts, I have account for The Wards Farm on X and Facebook. I recommend having accounts for multiple purposes when you can. On X I am working to build lists and Follow Lists to grow the community. I can be found at @TheWardsFarm.

Being rural and separated by miles no longer has to mean we are alone. The internet and social media can allow us to become a close knit community all over America and the World.

Every story has an origin. As we learn more about Homsteading and “Hobby farms” we have learned about how many got started. For some it is something that runs in the family. For others it was an interest and a dream they worked towards. Our story is different.

My brother was one of those that had dreamed of escaping the urban life and homesteading. We grew up very suburban. He read and planned for years. When the time came to start his adventure he talked about all the different options he was looking at. A lot of it like “on grid versus off grid” were not things I could even envision . In the end he settled in the Missouri Ozarks and a property that was on grid. He talked about raised beds, plans for what he wanted to do with the pole barn, the workshop and more.

A couple years ago my brother passed unexpectedly. My first visit to the homestead was the day after we got the call from the Sheriff (a story for later). Suddenly we found ourselves responsible for a homestead while we worked through the issues of going through the courts in a state we did not know much about. South Florida is at best 18 hours or more away. I added some modern tools to manage the property by remote where possible and went up several times in my own while my wife kept the house and life going in Florida. What was originally supposed to take months dragged out into years. In the process we came to appreciate the farm and began to see a homestead future of our own.

Most of my brother’s dreams and goals had never been fulfilled. There were things he had talked about wanting to build, plus things like equipment for canning or other things we found. We have started to combine what we know, what we found and where we want to go into a vision for our future now. This will be our story as we find our way.