Is Rural Living a Hobby?

[riptides]

For small scale here in "Northern VA" it is breweries and wineries.

I just don't see making a living selling "self made", "local ingredients" alcohol, finger foods, tasting platters and sandwiches.

 

[California]

As far as profit from small scale farming, I guess it depends what's termed "profit", and also where you're at, and who's the clientele. I live in an upscale exurb area, and we're close enough to Chicago where the locals here like terms like "farm fresh" "free range", and "organic"

Similar here. Close enough to San Francisco that land is now priced as weekend getaways, not as farms. All recent buyers have torn out orchards and planted tiny vineyards for 'ambience', that couldn't possibly be profitable.

This 11 acre apple orchard was a 'one-horse-farm' in the best of times 90 years ago.

Grandparents bought it in 1950 as a retirement place that had a little income and contracted the various phases - cultivation, pruning, spray, harvest. Since then operation of the orchard has been contracted to a neighbor to run as part of his 200 acre operation and he's just making a living, he's told me many times hiring a working farm manager wouldn't leave him a decent living.

I've left this in apples because this is more beautiful than the soulless vineyards that now surround me. Income from the contractor covers some expenses so our cost of enjoying the place is minimal.

I don't pretend my hobby farming is profitable.

Photos: Picking apples to share with family and friends. Pre-Covid, also shared with a downtown food bank.

Digging out the volunteer Oak and Blackberries that are too intertwined with the orchard trunks for the contractor's discing to hit. Using my other toy tractor.

Life is good.

 

[stuckmotor]

This thread reminds me of a conversation I overheard a long time ago. One couple was telling another all about restoring the old house they'd bought. The second couple kind of cut them off by saying they didn't want an old house because they'd heard restoring it had to be the owners hobby. I guess for one person fixing a broken pipe or a fence is hard work and to another that kind of thing is recreation.
I sometimes wonder what became of the old house.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

As far as profit from small scale farming, I guess it depends what's termed "profit", and also where you're at, and who's the clientele. I live in an upscale exurb area, and we're close enough to Chicago where the locals here like terms like "farm fresh" "free range", and "organic", but don't feel inclined to venture to far for all that. My property is on a hill going down to wetland, not suited for crops, but great for water fowl. So I raise ducks, I love their eggs, I sell their eggs, people buy their eggs. That pays for feed, beer, etc. Not much beyond that. We've also done piggies here before, but just for ourselves.

My neighbors down the road had way more going on, would raise goats and sheep, some pigs, and a bunch of various fowl. They got sick of all the work w/o having much to show for it. Just not enough profit doing it on a small scale. For me with the ducks, it's just supereasy, I don't work too hard at it, and most importantly I enjoy it.

My dad farmed about 150 acres for 35 years, growing wheat, vetch, barley, sometimes oats. He could get his plowing and planting done in the evenings after work and on weekends. He would take two weeks vacation at harvest to combine. It was always a hobby for him. He was into the peace of the plow. Some years it paid the mortgage, most years it wasn't that profitable. Then Nixon took us off the gold standard and for the next 3 or 4 years he took the whole purchase price of the farm in profit every year. Then he leased the land out and retired.

 

[ultrarunner]

Christmas Tree farm is approximately 50 acres in trees in various stages with the rest of the land for ambiance...

It does OK and employs lots of locals Thanksgiving to Christmas...

Property Tax is pushing 30k so income makes it possible...

 

[Oaktree]

This thread reminds me of a conversation I overheard a long time ago. One couple was telling another all about restoring the old house they'd bought. The second couple kind of cut them off by saying they didn't want an old house because they'd heard restoring it had to be the owners hobby. I guess for one person fixing a broken pipe or a fence is hard work and to another that kind of thing is recreation.
I sometimes wonder what became of the old house.

Owning an old house is much like living in the country...it takes a certain type of person to want that. Many can't be bothered. I personally couldn't see myself living in a cookie-cutter house in a subdivision but there are many for whom life doesn't get any better than that.

I love my 200 year old New England farmhouse, even though whoever built it clearly didn't own either a level or a square.

Property Tax is pushing 30k so income makes it possible...

Eek! I take it Calif. does not have anything similar to our "current use" designation where parcels over a certain size in agricultural or open space use qualify for a drastically reduced tax rate?

 

[ponytug]

@Oaktree Personally, I would be open to the thought that I thought have been level or square in 1820.

I helped restore an old farm house from a little earlier that certainly wasn't level or square at the time it was restored, but it had been put together with care at the time, which suggested to me that things like shifting foundations had been it's undoing. Then again, I look at some of the walls in South Boston or the the North End, where the brick courses make it clear that the masons had neither levels nor squares, so perhaps not.

I do think that living in and restoring truly old homes is a labor of love. I also think that if you want it quirk free and without problems, you probably aren't the right owner. The same might be said of rural living in general. Animals get in, or out, the pipes break, and bingo, you are on deck. If you love it, it is great, if you don't, its an anchor. I love it.

All the best,

Peter

 

[zzvyb6]

I miss the crime, the trouble makers, the rude drivers, the self-centered shoppers, the noisy neighbors, the perps looking in my back yard, the need to lock my doors, the HOA letters about a weed in my driveway, the warnings from the city water department about a boil water advisory, and the 30 minute response time from a police call.

But, I do like peeing in my driveway and asking a stranger at my door "What do you want ?". My allowed dogs all agree with me...

 

[riptides]

I am going on year 16 of a restoration. It has come full circle in the fact that now the newer parts of the home rebuilt from the ground up 16 years ago, require maintenance. In the original part of the 100 year old house all looks done except two floors needing refinishing, a few handles on some closet doors and some trim.

I don't love it, but I don't consider it an anchor either...it is just something that needs work.

.....
I do think that living in and restoring truly old homes is a labor of love. I also think that if you want it quirk free and without problems, you probably aren't the right owner. The same might be said of rural living in general. Animals get in, or out, the pipes break, and bingo, you are on deck. If you love it, it is great, if you don't, its an anchor. I love it.

 

[Jchonline]

I guess it is both to me. I enjoy it everyday. I also enjoy Astronomy, Photography, Amateur Radio..but only when the work is done.