Mike Jay wrote:Thanks Trace, I don't know a better word
I think that better word is
Retired!
I am just as busy now as when I worked full-time, but I do not feel compelled to try and cram all that I have to do into a 2 day or 3 day weekend, that is all. Because of that, the quality of whatever I do has gotten a lot better because I am no longer in a rush.
Really what all this boils down to is contentment.
EVERYONE, from people who sit in their Mom's basement and play Minecraft all day, to the hardest working workaholic ever; has 24 hours in a given day. What people do with that time is up to them, but playing video games just means the person is getting their fun up front, and will pay for the rest of their lives in other ways. The gamer is content at doing nothing productive, and the workaholic is always productive, but never content. Both are morally wrong.
The ironic part about homesteading is, in order to "make it", is NOT how much you accomplish physically around the homestead. I say that because doing "stuff" costs money. A homesteader has to have a few things going on granted to stay sane, but often times what I see is a lot of homesteader frantically thinking if they get this done or that, then they will be able to make enough money to thrive. But it really does not work that way. That is because producing anything costs money, so a person has to perpetually work and work to make money.
I wish I had listened to my own advice years ago, as it would have saved a lot of turmoil, but the best thing a homesteader with a traditional job should do, is use that job to get out of debt. There is no "complicated, simpler life", its just a damn simple life, and it is easier...and faster...to do then most people think.
Here is an example: if I have twenty chickens I have a few eggs for myself, and a few dozen to sell at the end of my driveway. Now I can either buy a bunch more chickens so I have even more eggs to sell, and hopefully make enough money, find enough buyers to pay for the extra birds, the extra feed, and the travel to town to try an sell so many more eggs...all the while maintaining a lifestyle with payments to a bank, or I can work really hard, sell crap I do not need, and pay down my debt so that on my little homestead, I can just be content with a few birds, and the few bucks I make in my little container at the end of my driveway is plenty because I do not have any bills to pay.
Everyone has a choice on which route they decide to take.