Although many of us dream of verdant pastures and orchards dripping with fruit when we consider going back to the land, there's one thorny issue that will send most homesteaders-to-be scurrying back to the city within the first decade --- money. Yep, even though we'd rather focus on lambs and tomatoes, the most relevant green object for many new homesteaders is dollar bills.
The trouble is that homesteads require a lot of maintenance time and are often located in economically depressed parts of the country, so finding a nearby job that can fit between the cracks is tricky. In my experience, the homesteaders who go the distance are the ones who turn into entrepreneurs, making money from their farms or homes so they can escape the rat race (and find time for what really matters).
But what kind of business should you start? This is the question Tim Young answers in his new book. He mentions hundreds of money-making suggestions based on bringing in income from your land itself (for example, with farm stays or hunting leases), using your skills to make a buck (perhaps by being a mechanic or online copy-editor), or producing a product (such as cheese or chicken pluckers).
Young combines his own learnings with the experiences of eighteen other homesteading families to produce a well-rounded account of your options as an entrepreneurial homesteader. When you pull it all together, the author has created a must-read for anyone dreaming of homesteading, or wanting to make their homestead more financially secure. Because you don't want to be one of those homesteaders who throws in the towel and ends up back in an apartment in the city, do you?