I’m a lucky duck.  When I decided it was time to pack up city life and settle onto a rural property, I had land to come to – a homestead site purchased by my family probably 15 years prior.

But what if you don’t have that plot to escape to and the economy has taken the wind out of your property purchasing sails?  Here are a few ideas to ponder that just might get you from city lot to rural acreage faster than you think:

Group Purchase

I considered this for years before we actually moved, as the property we’re currently on isn’t exactly my ‘dream’ land (though it’s getting closer as time passes).  Do you have friends with a similar dream of rural bliss?  Maybe relatives looking to invest in rural real estate?  Or maybe look into the rural land co-ops that are forming all over (though co-ops are not for everyone).  Start by making a list of everyone you know who might be interested in such an arrangement, then figure out what you would want out of the deal and what you could offer your ‘investors’, and go for it!

For us, group purchase wasn’t the right solution, but for you it just might be ideal.

Renting

I would recommend this for anyone – rent a home in the town you’ve chosen to settle into before you actually buy.  And not just for a couple of months, but for six months to a year.  There’s nothing like having your romantic visions of rural life shattered by neighbours engaging in illegal activity or finding out your well water is contaminated with arsenic.  Bottom line?  There are things about a community you simply can’t learn by visiting on weekends or even talking to the locals.  When we arrived in the town we currently live in, I’d been gone for 22 years and really hadn’t a clue how things ‘worked’.  And honestly, I couldn’t imagine what we’d do with ourselves to keep busy.

Now, two and a half years later, I can’t imagine living anywhere else, but I’m still discovering the depths and breadth of the community.  I haven’t even begun to tap into it, really.  But I’ve heard of many others who bought homes here, then discovered after a year or two that rural living just wasn’t for them.  Unfortunately, at that point they were stuck with houses they couldn’t sell and had to stay in a town they weren’t happy with until the real estate market turned around.  In other words, lots of stress that could have been avoided by taking time to figure out if it really was the ‘right place’ for them before making the financial investment.  If they’d rented, they could have just packed up and left.

Property Caretaking

This is a world I knew absolutely nothing about until I ran into a gentleman in a coffee shop one morning and started chatting.  Turns out there’s a whole group of men and women (often couples) who live in amazing locales, looking after the stunning vacation homes of the very wealthy.  Apparently many of these folks only visit their properties a couple of times per year, so the caretakers are essentially left with an amazing property all to themselves much of the year.  Of course, there are certain skills required, from carpentry and landscaping to business management and security, but for the right people, it’s an ideal way to have both your expenses covered AND learn about your potential new community.  You can find out more about caretaking here:  Top 10 Websites to Find a Property Caretaking Job 

Settling Recreational Property

Maybe you have friends or family with recreational property sitting unused?  Ponder coming up with some sort of agreement with them for you to put up a temporary structure (yurt, kit home on a platform, etc. – something you could move to a new property later, or sell them when you leave in exchange for rent) for a specific period of time, with options to extend your stay if everything works out.  There’s countless acres of land and untold numbers of buildings sitting unused most of the year throughout North America, I can’t believe more people don’t do this.  Of course you need to find owners open enough for such an arrangement, but it could easily work out well for everyone – you get to live in the country, and they have someone keeping an eye on things.

The Wrap-up

Of course, there are tax and legal implications for all of the above scenarios, but none of them are insurmountable.  The idea is to get creative with your thinking – there’s always, always a way to live the life you want!  Maybe not as easy as purchasing your own property, but in some cases, you may be better off ‘testing the waters’ first.  Then you’ll know you made the right decision and can settle into your new life with the knowledge that you know what you’re getting yourself into.

Then again, no matter how much preparation you do, it’s always an adventure.  But your dream life is within grasp – you just need to get out there and grab it.

Do you have any other ideas for getting onto a rural property without a big investment?  If so, please share them in the comments below! 

As an urbanite, I had this long-held dream of homesteading, of living off our own rural property, collecting eggs from our free ranging chickens, picking and putting up our own organic vegetables and fruit, and working from home. I think I even romanticized it a bit (ahem...). The reality of rural living, of course, was a little different.

I'll start by telling you that I’m an individualist at heart. Only recently have I learned to ask for help when I can’t figure something out. My usual modus operandi is to just hunker down in front of the computer (I design websites for a living, so there’s LOTS of 'hunkering' going on) and sift through blog posts and tutorials til I figure it out. Now, that works for website building, but for homesteading and rural living skills? Not so much.

Back in early 2009 when we moved into our little homestead (and for years before), I spent a LOT of time studying, reading, and taking courses and workshops on a zillion different topics related to modern homesteading, rural living, and self-sufficiency. Books, blogs, website forums, you name it… I visited and studied so many I lost track of who said what.

Then one day after we moved into our little cabin, I realized something: I didn’t even know how to start a fire. You know, so it would stay lit.

Sure, I’d read about it, watched some online tutorials (if you can believe it), but I’d never actually started one myself. It was a complete mystery to me, and to be honest, freaked me out a little bit. And because I was so afraid of looking stupid, I remember distinctly being a bit offended when my dad came down and showed me how to build a fire like I was a little kid who’d never lit one before. But truth was I hadn’t, and of course, didn’t want to admit it. I told him I ‘got it’ and then tried to start a fire after he left. It petered out so fast you’d have hardly known there was a match near the thing. Needless to say I had to go back and ask him for another lesson - clearly all that book/web learning I’d done didn’t apply to our particular geography, climate and firewood. So after feeling like a schmuck for not knowing how to do something simple like start a fire, I’m here to tell you that there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that will get your skills upgraded fast than working with a mentor.

I’ve been incredibly lucky when it comes to mentors. Not only did I find one, but in our little corner of the world, I managed to connect with many. My dad turned out to be a HUGE source of skill-building information and lessons: basic carpentry, wood heating systems operation and maintenance, how to look after a shake roof, basic plumbing, water well maintenance, back-up power systems… it’s crazy how much that man knows! I never really appreciated it before, but I sure do now.

And then there is Robin Wheeler, who I’m very much blessed to know. She’s the author of Food Security for the Faint of Heart and Gardening for the Faint of Heart, and she has been an absolute godsend when it comes to connecting with the people who have the skills I need to know. Through Robin’s Sustainable Living Arts School, I’ve learned how to make saurkraut, prepare herbal wound ointment, grow perennial food plants, and store up vegetables and fruit for winter.  And a whole bunch of other skills (like how to build an outhouse – important when the pipes freeze).  Her knowledge is both vast and deep, and without her I wouldn’t have developed the confidence to go down this road.  Actually, I think I’d probably be living in an apartment instead of in our cozy cabin in the woods.  My friend Liz has also turned out to be a fabulous resource, with all her wisdom on growing food and making things look stylish while staying low on the consumption scale. And then there’s our former raw dairy agister, Alice, who showed me that women can run one heck of a business, homeschool their children and maintain a relationship and social network.  Valuable lessons, all.

These are my most prolific mentors, and the ones I have seen and talked to often, but there are so many more – on blogs and websites across the internet, the modern homesteading heroes are there, sharing their knowledge and clearing the way for others like us. So if you’re thinking of moving to the country, or you’ve already moved and are wondering ‘what next’, I can highly recommend finding yourself a mentor. Look in your local community guides for workshops, or ask at the farmer’s market for those who have the skills you’re looking to gain. Weirdly, I’ve also found the local coffee shop where all the ‘elders’ hang out in the morning is a brilliant place to connect. If you start talking to people, generally someone will know someone who can show you exactly what it is you want to learn.

So here I am, two years into my homesteading journey. I’ve learned so much and feel infinitely more confident about my abilities than I did. But there’s so much more to learn, and I’m sure I’ll be learning during this entire journey, maybe getting proficient at a few things, maybe even to the point where I could say I know what I’m doing! But there’s one thing I know for sure – that my mentors will always be a huge part of my journey, and that without them, I’d be floundering around, making more mistakes than necessary and probably getting frustrated and possibly even giving up. But that’s not going to happen. I’ve got too many amazing people around me.

And my fire building skills since I swallowed my pride and asked for a repeat lesson? We haven’t had a chilly night since.

Who are your mentors?  I’d love to hear your stories …

I'll admit it - I'm a neat freak.

And having a dislike of house dirt while living in the country is, let's say, a bit of a challenge.

Dirt sitting in places it shouldn't be drives me crazy (dirt outside where it grows lovely things does not, fortunately!).  Same goes for clutter.  And I'm not ashamed of it, much to the chagrin of those around me who enjoy a more, shall we say 'lived in' approach to home care.  There's just something that feels right to me about a clean, uncluttered house.  Not everyone has the same obsession, and that's OK.  I'm comfortable with my need for clean!

Now, living in a country house while building a self-sufficient lifestyle can invite a lot of dirt, muck and clutter - not so comfortable for someone who likes things orderly.  Where we live on the west coast of Canada, it rains 1300 mm (51 inches) a year, more or less... mostly it feels like 'more'.  That means a lot of mud and crud.  Add to that my parents' dog (I do love you Katie!) bursting through the door looking for her favourite buddy, bringing sand and muddy paws in with her, and you've got a recipe for constant cleaning.  Then there's the biggest challenge of living in a small rural home - the lack of 'space'.  All those beekeeping books, Mother Earth News and Grit magazines have to go somewhere... not to mention all my son's dragons and dinosaurs.  Without some attention paid to storage and organizing, the house could get incredibly cluttered incredibly quickly.

So how does a neat freak stay sane living in a country home, without spending hours a day cleaning or completely giving up, living in filth and tripping endlessly over stray tyrannosaurs?

There are definitely a few tricks, and I'd love to share a few of them with you.  I've arranged them by topic based on the things I find myself cleaning and organizing most often in our cabin in the woods:

Floor Dirt

It goes without saying that a house surrounded by gardens and gravel will end up with dirt inside.  But there is a way to keep it in check without having to haul out the vacuum every day.  I've got a simple Asian broom (since I have no broom closet, this looks nicer in the corner than the plastic variety) I use to do a daily sweep, and have a few colorful cotton and hemp rugs in strategic spots on the floor that I can easily shake outside, then throw in the wash when they get dirty.  I love wool rugs - I've got a few gorgeous ones in storage - but they're just not practical... unless you have a penchant for dry cleaning bills.  And it goes without saying that shoes stay outside or go in the armoire - they're definitely not worn in the house, nor left strewn about by the front door.  We'd be tripping over them, and the dirt would be everywhere.  Finally, an effective, attractive doormat outside the front door - one that can be washed - makes a huge difference to the amount of dirt that ends up inside the house.  With these tactics in place, I'm not constantly washing the floor, which is great, because there are so many other things I'd rather do with my time!

Cobwebs

If there's one thing that shocked me about moving to a house in the country, it was the cobwebs.  They seem to spring up instantaneously after vacuuming.  In fact, last fall, we really didn't need Halloween decorations.  The cobwebs appeared so quickly and so fiercely that it was all I could do to keep them from weaving themselves into new drapes.  Leave the 'clearing' for two days and I was living on the set of a horror movie.  So how does one battle the webs of armies of spiders you can't see?  I guess you could get rid of the spiders, but I kind of like the fact they're on patrol, catching all the other bugs that could actually do damage (ants, moths, wood bugs).  I won't use toxic insecticides, anyway, so I'm sort of stuck with them.  The best way I've found to deal with the cobweb draperies is with one of those cylindrical dusters (wool or polyester) attached to a telescoping handle you can buy at most hardware stores.  This allows me to reach up to the peak of the cathedral ceiling - way beyond where the vacuum can reach.  Then I just vacuum the duster off after each clearing.  The cylindrical duster works great for flat walls, but no so well on rough, hand-hewn logs, so for the walls I use the flat floor attachment on the vacuum.  This keeps us pretty well cobweb free for most of the year - in the fall, I just have to do double duty... or pretend we live on a movie set.

Bugs

Creepy crawlies creep a lot of people out.  When we first moved into our cabin, we were finding cave crickets in the oddest places, and there were wood bugs everywhere.  Maybe it was a 'spring' thing, but after living here for awhile, and allowing the spiders to do what spiders do, we seem to have less and less bugs.  We do, however, get big brown house spiders that give me the willies.  They have a habit of crawling on the ceiling right above the bed as we're going to sleep at night.  Needless to say, I've become a bit of a spider wrangler - into a plastic bucket with a piece of cardstock to keep them from escaping and outside they go.  Sealing up any insect access points, keeping food secure and ensuring there is no rot in your home will go a long way in keeping the bugs at bay.  Finally, screen doors are critical in our mosquito infested corner of the world, and they keep out the flies and other flying bugs.  I purchased some cheap wood screen doors that fit with the look of the cabin, and they've been more than adequate for the job.  Living in the city, we just didn't have many bugs.  Flies, and the odd ant, but that was about it.  In the country, it's a whole other story.

Mice

I've written previously about mice in the house, so won't expand on it (you can read the original article Reducing Your Kitchen's Attraction Factor here).  That said, do know that mice are ubiquitous in the country, and that they're actually sort of cute.  Messy, but cute.  Best way to keep them from making a mess in your house is to ensure anything edible is sealed up, vacuum regularly, check drawers and other places they might try to nest, and don't discourage predators like owls, hawks and other animals who like mouse snacks.  Of course, if you have chickens, some of those predators may not be welcome, but that's a balancing act for another article.  Some have suggested peppermint in sachets or peppermint essential oil in the corners mice frequent, but I haven't tried that yet.

Clutter

If you're lucky enough to have a larger home in the country, this won't be as much of an issue, but even still, living on a homestead can mean collecting books, storing food, and keeping your toolshed stocked with extra handles and equipment.  If you're a neat-freak like me, you need a plan and a method of keeping it all organized.  Inside the cabin, we use baskets, armoires, and under-stair storage to keep small items both concealed and easily accessible.  Outside, we built a new storage shed complete with hangers, racks and shelves for food and tool storage.  Bottom line - the more stuff you have, the more time and energy it takes to look after it.  I actually find it a blessing to live in a tiny home, as it keeps me from collecting stuff I don't need.  That said, I do have some lovely furniture in storage I'd love to have room for...  One day.

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Even though keeping a country house clean and organized is a bit of a challenge, especially when storage space is at a premium, it's well worth the effort.  And by following some of the tips listed above, it's easier than you might imagine.

Now, time for me to go remove the cobweb drapery from the ceiling fan.