You don’t need a lot of property to make this happen. Get your ideas flowing about making a living on your homestead. These 53 ways will help you get started.
Living a simple life to your liking, contrary to the cookie cutter mold that the majority of society is following, may require some strategic planning and creativity, but it is very possible!
My family and I embraced an off-grid traditional homesteading life in 2010. Living such a lifestyle is a breath of fresh air and provides a freedom beyond your imagination!
There are many things that you can explore as you start to make income on your homestead, remember, you may need to progressively work your way into living your dream. That may require you to work away from home for a while as you get everything in order on your homestead. Making a plan, having goals, a budget and working toward both will help you move forward.
Early on in my life God was lining and setting things up so that I would be well prepared and set to live the life we are living. I grew up in a home without a computer and never really got a lot of time on computers, but felt very driven to learn how to program while I was in high school. Directly out of high school I was hired by a programming firm where I was apprenticed for a year and continued working with them for 11 years prior to having my children. Then once I had children, through my knowledge, I was able to create my own web design business in an effort to enable me to be home. My profession is what allowed us to embrace our off-grid lifestyle because as long as I had an internet connection, I could work from anywhere.
As we lived in an 8’ x 14’ canvas tent for 8 1/2 months on our raw wilderness land while we built our home and homestead. I was able to keep the business running via satellite internet and either a small solar panel, the truck, or a generator. The internet is an amazing source of income or extra income which we will talk more about later.
The varied skill sets that you bring to your homestead may be a very viable source of income which was also true of my Mountain Man.
Become a Jack of all Trades
My husband Glen is a “Jack of all trades and a master of many”! He is my MacGyver – I always say he could make a pistol out of a paper clip. He has a very mechanical mind and is a very gifted man. This allowed us to be able to build our home ourselves and save a lot of money. Keep in mind it is not just the income you are bringing in, but the amount of money you can also save for yourself by doing many of the projects yourself. Glen is also a blacksmith and makes many of the things we need in his smithy, but he is also known to fabricate things such as our homestead plow and our sawmill, just to name a few.
Consider ways that you can incorporate your hobbies and the things you do for pleasure. Once you have identifies a market, these can be a great means of extra income.
Contrary to many peoples beliefs, bartering is still alive and can be a great help for achieving goals on the homestead and saving money. When I say bartering, I am not just referring to good, but also services.
20 ways we make a living on our homestead
- Web Design Business
- Writing – for freelance magazines, blogs, and your own books
- Selling things on eBay and Etsy
- Selling by-products from our animals such as meat, eggs, and goats milk
- Selling Metal Art
- Contracted to make varying metal wares and custom furniture
- Milling Lumber
- Backhoe work
- Educating on our lifestyle
- Making custom paracord items and leather items
- Making soaps, candles, recipe cards, woven coasters and gift baskets
- Host a Weekly radio show (Mountain Woman Radio)
- Selling ad space on our blog and websites
- Data entry work
- Welding & fabricating
- Crafted items
- Trapping – selling the hides
- Selling natural health items, dried herbs & things from our garden
- Traditional Cabin Building (this took us off the homestead but for limited times)
- Construction Work (this took us off the homestead but for limited times)
#TrayerWilderness #PositivelyEncouraging #EmbraceOffGrid
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