Karen Lee Mack wrote:I wanted to update that we are still working on this and currently investigating how to set it up in order to protect everyone involved.
I have one serious taker that we are emailing back and forth on what our objectives would be.
If you are looking for beautiful lush area to homestead, it doesn't get much better than SW Georgia.
You just have to be able to handle rural redneck American community lol!
Hi Karen,
I'm wanting my response to come across as gentle and friendly. Your comment on being able to handle the redneck community strikes me as maybe you are wanting start your own community among an established community with negative opinions of the current residents. The "redneck" community, like any other group of people, have individuals who are distinctly different from other members of their community. They are not all the same.
Over 40 years ago, I was part of the "back to the land" movement of the peace and love generation of hippies. I traveled to 44 states looking for the right combination of privacy and economic opportunity to raise my family. I found it in rural KY among "rednecks". I was an outsider who didn't resemble or act like the residents. One fellow even asked me "what are you?" He was perplexed by my swarthy complexion and accent since I was from the upper peninsula of Michigan. I was as much of an outsider as the community had ever seen up to that time.
I had to earn respect in the community based on hard work and honesty. My children who were born here would always be considered outsiders to some because they don't have a generational pedigree in the community.
I found that when I moved here to go back to the land, the rural residents had never left the land and I had much to learn from the local residents. My notion of rural life came from Mother Earth News and Organic Gardening magazines. There were no computers to add confusion to my need to gather information about living a rural lifestyle. After I bought my piece of land I found that a serious immersion with an obsession to homesteading brought hard fought success after much error caused by my preconceived notions of what the lifestyle would be.
I found that the locals who lived on the land knew what to grow and what would succeed in the micro-climate of the area. In my readings, I thought I could grow whatever I wanted because that's what they told me in the magazines. I didn't realize how one must work within the confines of individual soil types and micro-climates. What I learned from the locals gave me experience from which to grow and work with the challenges that the magazines never taught me. Experience allowed me to experiment more and have many successes in gardening and survival. It takes years of real experience on the land to establish a base of knowledge for success. Clicking on the computer increases computer skills. The computer doesn't really prepare you for the mistakes that you will make every day in the real world of homesteading.
The new generation of back to the landers that I have met come with the attitude that they have a head full of knowledge that will make them succeed and a sense of arrogance that they know more than the rednecks around them. My feeling is that for a new community to survive alongside, or within, an established community, the newcomers much strive to gain the respect of the existing residents. I think to gain respect you must treat others with respect. Going in with an attitude that you may have something to learn from the previous generations that have survived in the local area would serve you well in an a place that you would like to make a home for you and your future generations.
I hope this speech from an old man doesn't leave you offended.
