We’ve been feeling a bit itchy over the past few weeks, our constant attention drawn to the notion of our own quiet homestead and hobby farm surrounded by mountains, lakes, and trees.
So far, all of our efforts have stemmed from our life of modern suburbia with our backyard garden, canning veggies and fruits, and trying to live a more sustainable lifestyle in the face of looming Walmarts and McDonalds. What’s more, we moved into a community with a Homeowners Association, something we are now starting to regret. For years the association was a defunct pipe-dream of the developer, but once it was time to get their deposit for the subdivision back from the city, however, they decided they had to turn it over to the community. That’s when things started to get hairy.
Imagine a world where a self-elected committee decides that they need complete access to your property to ensure that you are observing and obeying the rules of the community that they choose to enforce without giving you the respect of honoring the rules of how they are to conduct business. That doesn’t sound like home-ownership to me, it sounds like renting from a bad landlord. But in the state of Utah, even landlords are required to provide written notice of intent 24 hours prior to any kind of inspection. The HOA currently believes they don’t need to offer the same courtesy to the homeowners of the community. How odd it that?
It’s things like this that push me more and more toward the rural homesteading life, where your neighbors are kind but mind their own, where the air is fresh and clean, and where neighborhood politics are far from a concern.
In this day and age, you’d expect that the community would be revolting, demanding change with fists raised in the air with pitchforks and the tar and feathers standing at-the-ready. Not so much the case. I mean, I have personally offered to pitch in some of my own money to help print out fliers and canvas the neighborhood in an attempt to get people involved, but no one else seems to want to participate. They’d rather just blog about it or complain to other neighbors. In the end we are left with a general air of, “What can we really do about it?”
If this was the life I wanted, to live in a subdivision where the Walmart drowns out the twinkling of the midnight stars, well… maybe I would do more than offer to help fight. Perhaps I would take up the banner and lead the revolution towards HOA dissolution. But, honestly, what does it really matter? I did my part, I offered, and no one else stood up with me. So let them complain. I go in search of my dreams.
So far, our search for a viable homestead has lead us towards Maine. We lived in Alaska for four years while I was in the military, so the cold shouldn’t bother us. In fact, Tara is more fond of the cold than she is of the heat, so I suppose that works out. Besides, cool weather compliments her knitting, so that’s always a plus. 
Sometimes I really do wish we were more spontaneous when it comes to life changes, but we’ve long erred on the side of caution when it comes to these sorts of things. So the plan would be to find an acceptable property, fly up and check it out to make sure it’s what we’re looking for, and then come right back home. Yep, that’s right… we’d probably end up enduring five more years right here with the HOA before selling and making the move. The idea is that over the course of the next few years we could pay off the property, build more equity in the house, learn more valuable gardening and homesteading lessons, and then sell the house as the market recovers. That is, assuming we will start seeing an up-trend and this isn’t just a precursor to some astonishing apocalyptic end.
Of course, there are some other options, like finding a good job in Maine that will help pay for moving expenses. But I’d just as soon count that as a bonus option rather than incorporating it into the plan.
How about you? Are you currently homesteading or have dreams to in the near or distant future? If so, please tell us about your experiences or what your dream location would be. We’d love to hear from you.
I live on a 300 acre farm in Vermont. I left the city and never looked back. No neighbors, no lights at night except the stars and a chance to breathe and think about what is important. Maine is beautiful but I hear there property taxes are even higher than ours which are as much as a person’s salary per year. You might want to do some research on that and I guess it all depends on how much property you want.
Anyway, I’m enjoying your blog.
Thank you so much for your response, Mountain Woman. We will definitely have to take a look at that. I was actually looking at some of the listings in Vermont last week and it is very pretty country as well. Are there any areas that you would recommend?
Depends on what you’re looking for. We’re in the Northeast Kingdom which is more rural but our winters are colder. Southern Vermont is more developed (although still rural compared to most areas) and the weather is warmer but it’s a little too populated for me. I love the wildness of the Northeast Kingdom and land is less costly up here as well.