Nick Vic

I'm in Chicago so about 100 mi away. I love going for long drives and it would be fine with me to leave early in the morning spend the 3 hour drive to get there and help out then maybe grab a hotel or something near by and make a weekend of it.

Life has caught up to me a bit recently I have s pressing deadline for work and a vacation coming up from this Friday until the 4th. I plan on talking to my better half about coming too. She loves gardening and planting and all the same kind of stuff and I'm sure will jump at the chance.

Maybe sometime in Mid july we could setup a day.

Thanks ,

Nick

Not in the Sauk valley area but I would love to help out on weekends if you need it. I'd drive down and lend a hand for whatever you need, the working fulltime bug has me bit too.

With the arrival of summer here I've been digging into this more.

Going to see if I can find some place to volunteer on the weekends I plan on looking at the local portion of the forum for that first.

As far as saving and income I plan to keep my current job. The next 7 months are paying off debt and dealing with that then socking away as much cash as possible to save for land and the house to build on it. This is a long term idea around 6 to 7 years is when I actually see myself making the purchase and starting to build. My job will let me work remotely for a good portion of the year so I will be set for money since I will have a job I can do from home.

I want to look into finding a butcher shop so I can learn to process a whole cow or pig.

Hi all,

I'm Nick and I'm 22 going to be 23 this Saturday. I currently live and work in the huge city I grew up in and I am sick of it. I never had a yard growing up and I currently live in a condo where I spent my Monday evening raking trash from in front of my building into the gutter while I wait for street cleaning. I am getting sick of it. I have a lovely girlfriend and her and I have been kicking around the idea lately of buying some land and building our own place. We do our best right now growing what we can on our patio and in the parking space at our condo. We plan to put some hydroponics in our pantry this fall to give that a try too.

I've been reading up lately on everything Homestead related. I currently work and go to school for Engineering. MY hope is I can work from home(stead) for 7 to 8 months a year and then go back to the city for the other 4 to 5 months. This is the kind of schedule that a curretn employee I work with has. He goes back home to europe for 7 months out of the year and just stays in the city for the other 5 when he is needed. I hope to switch to that kind of schedule in about 2 to 3 years with my current academic pace finishing my degree.

What I have come here to ask you fine people is what I should be planning for in the mean time. Money will hopefully not be an issue I don't make much now but I hope to double it in 2 years when I get that oh so coveted piece of paper. I also plan to rent out my condo while I am away (6 month lease every year finding a new tenant). I own out right now so in 5 or 6 years when it comes time to actually start seriously looking at land I will be in a good place to hopefully buy immediately when the right location comes along.

What can me and my girlfriend do now to start getting ready for this huge change? What resources are good and what should I be reading? Is there a best place to start or does it not mater as long as I cover everything.

Finally I think the hardest choice will be picking a location. I've never really left the place a grew up I don't know anything about other places. What's a good way to start learning about different places where homesteading is possible? We are going on two road trips this year and we are attempting to see as much of the country as possible.

Any other tips or pointers or just words of encouragement all welcome.