[As for people that live in McMansions...that chit doesn’t come cheap, either,
We live on just over 1/4 acre on the edge of the burbs. Plenty of space for a large garden, the kids, and the dog. 30 yards from an 80 acre open-space maintained by the county.
The best of both worlds. Can raise up to ten chickens here... but no goats.
My commute is a long as it takes me to get down stairs to my office.
Like you, my farmer's-daughter wife and I made plans to get here; and we worked and sacrificed for over 20 years to execute that plan. It wasn't easy. We lived in a mobile home in Santa Ana for nearly a decade while we saved our pennies - and solaced ourselves with visits to my wife's family farmstead.... 2000 miles away.
We avoided the creative financing traps because my dad taught me how to use, and not abuse, credit. Others weren't so lucky to have a wise parent for dispensing such an education.
[ and I’ve YET to meet anyone that has their wealth tied up in a house that didn’t work for what they wanted JUST as hard as I’ve worked for what I wanted.]
Several miles away is a recent development we call The McMansion Ant Farm. 6000 sq ft monsters with no yards, packed together as tightly as the building code allows; many financed "creatively"... some now bank owned.
The folks who live in them have a right to make that personal choice; but it just seems foolish to me. Considering the heating costs alone, together with the inability to grow food; the result is complete dependency upon, and subjugation to - the hive.
I especially feel sorry for their kids - urban rats packed into their wooden cages; obese and numbed by X-Box and Ritalin.
And what happens to those kids while one or both of their parents are camping out in the F1Pity?
Queen's Castle destroys Pawn... Check.
Good for you!
I’m glad I had the opportunity to raise my boys on a farm. I grew up on cement in Milwaukee, WI. I learned to love farm/country life from summers spent as an indentured servant on my Aunt’s farm, LOL! I milked a lot of goats. I hate goats.
I did a lot of Real Estate flipping in the years coming up to buying our 2-acre “farmette.” Two city homes and one suburban home were “home” prior to where we’ve been now for the past 13 years.
I have 50 laying hens (I sell the eggs) and am petitioning Husband for a milk cow, but I will settle for two sheep. :)
Husband is taking the afternoon off and we’re going to the County Fair to check out the animals.
I’m pretty sure I can get two small sheep into the back seat of the car for the ride home, LOL! (Just kidding!)