Micah Maloney

Liv Smith wrote:Welcome to permies!

Best place to learn about the good things, and it sounds like you like to learn☺️

I definitely do! I have a massive email list of articles and videos about things I want to incorporate into the homestead and also methods of passive income, as well as having a few books on survival and primitive technology for making due with native materials (depending on what is on the future lot) until such a point as less crucial but still desired equipment can be purchased. I know the location specifically may be a lot harsher than most places people wish to homestead, but the sun and wind is great for power, the prices are inexpensive, fewer neighbors as close (unless I can get a community started later), and much of the harshness can be overcome with preparation, planning, modification, and also importing in certain things until things get going along far enough. Water is going to be the biggest concern, soil after that, but I do have some ideas on those two fronts at least. With recent droughts the monsoon season may be sparse, but proper structural design can maximize what does fall and get collected, aqua culture reclamation can regain what a garden would otherwise let drain instead of absorbing it, the possibility of finding a good spot for a well (or a pre-existing one on some parcels if there is already a dwelling there), collecting greywater (filtering, boiling, condensing, etc, for use on non-edible but useful crops), and the probability of having it trucked in once proper storage is created, until such a point as ample supply is generated and reused. Soil trucked in originally, and amplified with compost, etc. It'll be hard for a few years, but it'll cost less in the long run and be much more rewarding than our current lives, stuck under the thumb of one terrible landlord after another, and unable to build for ourselves due to the high cost of land, zoning restrictions and HOA that prevent agriculture, non-agricultural business, and residential from being in the same parcel, more restrictive building codes, and the inability to build, wire, or put in plumbing legally without a licensed contractor out here. The cost of a home quadruples from the labor, materials, and permit costs if we do it ourselves, and all of that definitely was a major influence on choosing New Mexico.

Greetings and salutations, one and all!

I'm Micah, a cis Caucasian male aged 34 currently, I'm a type 1 diabetic, and I'm presently living in Minnesota with my disabled parents. We're currently renting an apartment where there is little to no maintenance ever done, constant door propping and breaking, people dragging leaking trash bags through the halls, and all manner of other issues, in addition to being far more costly than if we had a mortgage on a house.

I presently am a sales associate for Electronics at my local Wal-Mart, and I have been with the store for 14 years, 15 at the end of August. We are researching and saving up for a potential move in February of next year... out to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where we would be renting an apartment or two until we find the lot where we will be building our homestead. Ideally my father would prefer something with a structure already on it, so that he and my mom can move onto it while we're building the rest, but I'm personally less concerned with that as much as at least having a decent price, and a location not too far from another Wal-Mart, as I can always transfer within the company until we've managed to reach self-sufficiency, and profitability from what is done on the homestead itself. I have some experience with plumbing, electrical wiring, electronic repair and diagnosis, design, architecture, gardening, and other skills, though many are a tad rusty from more than a decade of not putting them to practical use. However, I am more than willing to put in the hard work and research to do things properly, to build up to code with redundancies and room for expansion to our homestead design.

I am also an author (presently working on a dark fantasy action LGBTQAI+ romance series), a music producer (primarily using samples, but I also have a modicum of assorted instrument training), vocalist, an RPG system designer, a board and card game designer, a dabbling programmer, and I own or co-own a few geeky small companies.

My eventual goal is for a self-sufficient grid-tied (selling excess primarily) homestead where I can work on it and for myself on my creative passions and experimentation, though I know it will take many years, determination, and some lucky breaks for that to happen. Ideally, if I get enough land, I may also be trying to build a community of like-minded creatives who wish to build and work with me.