Cimarron Layne

Timothy, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your homestead journal from start to finish today.  I've been on the road for over a year, so have really missed digging in the dirt, playing with chickens and dogs, and spreading chips all over the place.  

I'm moving to my new homestead in KY next week, and though it is nearly fall I'm going to plant a bunch of stuff in 5 gal buckets and hopefully get a greenhouse built before first frost so I can keep a few things growing all winter.  I might have to pick up some grow lights and utilize the sun porch instead.   Either way, I'll grow something.  Time's a-wasting.

Good luck with your harvest.  

"Too Much vs. Simplifying" is the story of my life.  Started with nothing, gradually built up to "too much", got disgusted and downsized to simplify my life, only to rinse and repeat many times.

When I retired the first time in 2005, I got rid of almost everything so I could live on a 39-ft (12 meter) sailboat which didn't have room for more than the supplies needed for a long coastal cruise.  After a year of that lifestyle, I came to the conclusion that I was too claustrophobic to live in a tiny space at sea miles from the nearest path in a forest or a mountain to climb, so I sold the boat and bought an RV to travel on land.

That lasted nearly 5 years by which time I'd run through most of my retirement funds, so I went back to work, bought a house and again accumulated furniture, kitchenware, tools, etc., etc.  Retired again in 2016, downsized to a large van camper and set off for parts unknown.  After spending a couple of years doing fix-and-flips, I found a 30-acre farm that I thought was my final dream home.

But after 6 years of fixing, building coops, pig, and goat sheds, cutting swales, planting fruit and nut trees, berry bushes, grape vines, and accumulating more tools and equipment, my age caught up to me, and I couldn't manage all the physical work anymore, so I figured it was time to scale back and simplify my life again.

Sold the farm, packed everything that I couldn't part with into a 14-ft box truck I'd bought because I couldn't use a U-Haul.  You have to know your destination for that, and I didn't.  Drove from VA thru TN, KY, AR, OK, MO, UT, and NV intending to find a compatible community to join or a smaller homestead that I could manage on my own, but I didn't find what I was looking for.  While out in NV, a house in Maine that I'd sold in 2019 with seller financing came back in my hands after the buyers defaulted on the loan, so I drove my "stuff" back across the continent and spent last winter re-rehabbing that house to resell in the spring.  Coldest winter in about 20 years.  Pipes burst, basement flooded, and lots of other problems to cope with.  Not fun.

Finally found a buyer and packed my stuff back in the box truck (minus some furniture I left behind) and drove back to KY to spend some time with my older brother who'd been trying for decades to get me to move closer to him.  I looked at dozens of small farms, rural homes, and even apartments before I finally found a 4-acre property that met most of my criteria about a half-hour from his place.

I'll be moving in next week, and I guess the cycle is starting again.  I am already starting to accumulate more used furniture and fixtures.  All the while trying to keep it as simple and undemanding as possible.  At 80, I just want to putter in a garden, raise some chickens and dairy goats, and do some woodworking to supplement my retirement funds for as long as I can still stand up and walk about the land.  God willing, that'll be another 20 years or so.

Congratulations, Cal.  We all have to start somewhere, and I think you made the right decision.  Start where you can with what you have available and build gradually to abundance.  Certainly beats the "woe is me, the world is too mean to me" attitude that seems to hold so many people back.

If money is tight, you need to be inventive.  Find an old barn or garage that you can tear down to salvage materials for sheds, chicken coop or chicken tractor, rabbit hutches, or whatever else you may need.  Look at Craigslist, FB Marketplace, Freecycle, and other sources for free stuff.  If you have a truck or trailer, advertise for garage, storage shed, or basement cleanouts.  Usually, you can get paid to haul away other people's junk and drop off things you can use at your place before taking the trash to the dump.  I've found amazing things on those gigs, some items I was able to resell for cash.

Don't try to do everything at once or you'll burn out fast.  Repair or replace what's broken, but make do with everything else until you know exactly what you need.  Then ask yourself, "How can I afford this?  What are my options?" and chose where you are going to spend your limited funds to get the most value possible.

Good luck and God bless.

I buy plastic shower curtains for a buck from Dollar Tree (well, now $1.25), replace them every couple of years, and use the old one to line wooden seed trays or cover something.

I also, in lieu of a squeegie,  wipe down the shower curtain, tub, surround, and ceiling after every shower with a washcloth that I ring out several times until everything is as close to dry as I can get it, so nothing molds or mildews even without turning on the vent fan, and the shower is clean for the next time I use it.

Yep, that takes a couple of minutes to do, but by that time my body has usually air-dried except for the crevices, so I can dry off with a hand towel rather than a bath towel, which in turn saves me a lot of laundry volume.  Seven bath towels has to be a load of laundry a day all by themselves.

Well, I've been in KY a couple of months now looking at a few dozen properties, large parcels for a community and small parcels on which I can go it alone, and most of them have been a waste of gas.  Sellers all think their few acres of dirt is worth millions, but the potential return on investment just isn't there.  Everything in my price range has been in need of major rehab (some are tear down and start over).  A lot of really abused houses or mobile homes with ramshackle barns and outbuildings, overgrown grass and brush, and poorly maintained woods.  Most I wouldn't even make a lowball offer on because I could see years of work before I could produce anything of value.  And I'm getting too old for that.

Then a couple of weeks ago I came across a brand new listing that is a gem.  Only 4+acres, but fairly flat with a small pond, clean woodlot, garden area, some silvopasture, small hayfield, well-maintained mobile or manufactured home (MH) with additions on two sides (more square footage than I need really), septic, county water, electric, and fiber optic Internet access, a large workshop and several other outbuildings.  Compared to other properties I'd checked out, it was underpriced and well within my range.  Not big enough to start a community on, but enough to keep me busy puttering in a garden and building stuff like chicken coop, goat shed, fencing, etc.   I immediately put a full-price offer on it before anybody could beat me to it.

Then I applied for financing with a lender who had already preapproved me for more than I needed.  In two days I was approved subject to an appraisal coming in at or more than the contract price.  I had no doubt that it would.  I was thrilled and started making plans for the many projects I envisioned.

Then the lender wanted a HUD certificate for the MH.  There wasn't one.  The sellers had inherited the property and knew nothing about it.  The decedent had bought it for cash many years ago and hadn't received or asked for a title or anything, just a deed for the land.  The county assessor's office had the buildings classified as real estate and assessed it for property taxes.  It wasn't registered with the DMV as a MH which would be personal property tax, not real estate tax.

Then the lender informed me that I had to have insurance on the property effective as of the closing date and a year and 3 months worth of premiums deposited into their escrow account.  There are only a few companies that insure MHs.  I contacted two of them and got quotes and applied with one.  The lender's estimate for cost of insurance was about $700 a year.  The policy I was issued was more than $1,600.  I requested they lower the coverage to just the value of the buildings since the land was not insurable and drop the optional coverages.  That got it down to $1,200 a year.  I submitted the policy to the lender.

So next the lender asked for an engineering report to certify that it was on a permanent foundation (which it appeared to be).  The engineer said he was unable to access the crawl space under the MH portion and didn't see any tie downs normally attaching a MH to the ground.  Well, NO, there wouldn't be if the manufactured home (not a mobile home) had been secured directly to the solid block foundation and bolted down like a stick-built house before the additions were added.  There were no wheels or axles or tongue, so I suspect the structure had been lifted with a crane and lowered onto the prepared foundation.  One of the additions has a partial basement / storm cellar.  The ridge line and eaves are straight and level, and the floors are all solid and level, so I'm sure it was constructed properly.  But the lender has federal rules to follow pertaining to MHs, and wouldn't budge unless I or the seller install tie downs.

Now the lender wants me to up the insurance coverage to full replacement value (of a new MH plus additions and other outbuildings) rather than just the purchase price.  I'm putting 50% down and only asking for a 50% loan, so if the building were destroyed by fire or tornado or whatever, the current policy would provide enough to pay off the loan balance and demolish the buildings to rebuild on the lot, and I could get a construction loan for that.  But the lender wants me to spend my money for more coverage than I need.  It's not only frustrating, but disconcerting.

Over the past two weeks I've gotten quite an education on financing MHs.  It is nothing like financing for regular homes, which I've been through many times over the past 50 years.  Higher rates, fewer lenders, lots of rules and regulations.  I checked with several other lenders and they all said it was next to impossible to get financing for a MH that had been modified.  I think everything possible has been done to keep people from buying "affordable" housing.

If I had the cash to close without a loan, I'd do it in a heartbeat, but I don't have enough.  So, I'm going to sit down with the seller and his agent to propose seller financing though he has already said he wouldn't, and I hope that his real estate agent doesn't have a backup offer from a cash buyer who won't have to deal with a conventional lender.

Nothing is ever easy.  But hopefully it will all work out.  Wish me luck.

Well, after driving a couple thousand miles to see the TN property we thought was going to be home for the next decade or two, it turned out not to be what the pictures had indicated.  The amount of excavation work needed to convert forest to ag land would have set us back years, so I cancelled the purchase contract and got my deposit back.

I'm currently visiting my brother at his place in KY and he's keeping me busy with a number of projects he has saved up for me to help him with.  I'm looking for land with some existing infrastructure in TN and KY and have four parcels to look at over the next week or so.  I'll keep you posted.

I have to agree with Make a Mix Cookery.  It has everything I ever needed to make a mix for.
https://www.amazon.com/Make-Mix-Cookery-Make-Mixes/dp/0895860074

Hi, all, Cimarron here.

I'm working with a team of founders to develop a Permaculture community in south-central TN.  A little flatter than east TN and southwest VA where I farmed the last six years.  We are looking for experienced and serious wannbe homesteaders to share the land, labor, and expenses to get it productive in short order.

If this is of interest to any of you, please take a look at my post at: https://permies.com/t/373675/Permaculture-Community-Forming-Acres-South

My contact info is in the ic.org post in my signature below.

I'm a Senior homesteader. Waited until retirement to start my first homestead on 30 acres in SW Virginia. After nearly six years of trying to start a liberty-minded community there and finding a lot of interested people but practically none with the capital, skills, or drive that could advance the development, I became frustrated and sold the farm last summer and spent several months driving from VA to NV looking at existing eco-communities in hopes of finding one that met my criteria. None did. Either they were too socialist, too small, too steep, too dry, not permaculture oriented, had too many restrictions, membership cost more than the value they offered, or had some other negative attribute.

So I went back to the drawing board to design a community that I can love. Libertarian, Voluntaryist, Agoran, Permacultural/Regenerative Ag, in a temperate climate (zone 6-7), and with as few rules and restrictions as possible. A place where members can be free to live as they choose so long as they respect the rights of other members to do the same. No bosses or dictators but each person voluntarily working with other members to develop the community's infrastructure and resources. On any given project, the most skilled person will supervise the team, e.g., if we are building a solar array, an electrician should be in charge, not an herbalist. Likewise, the herbalist might be the best team leader for a hoophouse or food forest project. Community manager and other leaders would be elected periodically from the best qualified members, not necessarily the largest investors.

I currently have a 175-acre property under contract in south-central TN and am looking for prospective members and/or investors. I'm in immediate need of at least one investor (could be more) with $45K available to cover half of the 20% down payment and closing costs. I have the other half plus sufficient funds for initial site work, and I have applied for financing on the 80% balance. Closing is set for end of June.  I'll be moving there 6/8/26 to start prep work on temporary housing, and I have a few prospects who will move later in the summer and fall to help with the initial labor. If any folks on this forum are interested in joining us, please send PM with your email address, your skills, goals and dreams, and I'll send full details.