We did this. My wife has a masters in microbio, and I worked at IBM on their C++ and for Fortran compilers for about 8 years (yay std::atomics). I still do remote contract work to help pay for upgrades to the farm. Would be nice to get one of my side-projects finished and start pumping out some income streams, but it's not a big rush anymore. I have a point of sale system built with React and Haskell that integrates with big payment processors, etc. that I sell to local businesses. Maybe one day i'll productize it and sell it as a package, but honestly my bills are paid and I don't feel the need to make more money than I do right now. Why take on the stress?
Why'd I switch to rural life? Quality of life. When we had kids and got a glimpse of what life would be like with daycare, two people commuting, etc, we got scared and made a plan. It's been 5 or 6 years and still enjoying selling expensive pasture fed eggs etc. I like working from home and having no childcare expenses. Everyone is happy and healthy and we have time to raise our kids.
I remember the limp office parties when we reached GA on some new release, and we'd eat cheap cake. Then I think of how we practically dance and shout at the sky in joy when we all finish digging up all the potatoes. The comparison is stark. Modern life is a dystopic hellscape from this perspective.
I grew up in a rural community where farming was basically the only industry. It's easy to talk about how awesome it is when you basically are selling insanely overpriced boutique goods (organic, free-range, etc) to yuppies who are willing to pay triple for their calories. Once enough people do this, the prices fall and you're just another farmer, scraping by.
I grew up working on farms. It's not romantic to me in any way. Being outside is nice, but there's a reason the kids doing this grew up in suburbs and cities: they have no idea what agriculture really involves when you have to achieve economies of scale to make it remotely profitable.
> I like working from home and having no childcare expenses.
I worry that with a young child, we'd still have childcare expenses - except that instead of paying with money, we'd be paying with our time.
My wife and I discovered, like many parents probably do, that raising a child is fucking hard. We love her, we wouldn't trade her for the world, and it's fun, but it's the kind of fun you have while camping, or hiking, or sparring. It's fun, but it's exhausting, and we would both be complete wrecks if we had to do it full-time.
My FiL was a farmer. He farmed 88 acres in NE Indiana. He raised chickens, eventually 40,000 at a time.
The work was hard beyond belief. To make the farm pay, he bought used farm equipment from farmers who failed, built his own buildings, mixed his own feed, and did well in marketing to find buyers.
He used USDA Extension advice and research on chicken breeding, nutrition, and disease control. When he started, progress in these three made chicken raising suddenly a hot field. But eventually the business mostly moved to the US South with warmer winters and cheaper labor.
He then was able to get a good job in the local county seat: He became the head of the local Rural Electric Membership Cooperative (REMC). In part he got that job because he was respected in the community from his participation in the church, the Bank BoD, Lions, the school board, etc.
For the land, he leased that year by year to someone with good, large scale equipment farming 1000 or so leased acres.
At one time, 90+% of the US population lived on farms. Now it's 10-%. Farmer productivity has made fantastic gains.
So, now, it's tough to make much money farming. One approach is specialized products for high end markets, maybe pheasants, ducks, goat cheese, mushrooms, etc.
There's a lot nice about farm living, but life can be nearly as nice in rural areas still near a town and with work not in farming. A good Internet connection can eliminate some of the effects of a lot of geographic distances.
Here's a question about adjustment to rural life, because I have been daydreaming about this for a long time: Are you now isolated from existing friends and family? That's really my one big worry.
I'm super burned out on software, and currently facing all the same concerns it sounds like you did before, it just frightens me the idea of being further removed (geographically) from the few family and friends we have left.
So you started in 2011-2012. What happens when the next downturn comes and people stop buying "expensive pasture fed eggs etc"?
This is my fear about doing something like this. Boutique farming seems like it would similar to the oil industry in how especially sensitive it is to economic cyclicality. Having spent the past 5+ years farming surely complicates the process of getting a job in tech during a contraction.
Yeah, I spend each winter contracting for funded startups and the vision of new tractor implement or some new gizmo makes it easier to work on the stuff.
I guess the big part of better lifestyle is just giving up on ambitions. You know that you are not building next billion dollar company and you also know that you are not going to buy new BMW every year anyway so there is no pressure in keeping with Jones.
Hello, Here at Open Agriculture Supply (https://www.openagriculturesupply.com/) we are a company working at the intersection of technology and agriculture, using the Open Agriculture Platform from MiT to deliver the next generation of Food Production, Agricultural, and Agtech products to reality. Given your unique background in both software development and agriculture we would love to work with you to help develop and refine our own products as well as support you with any potential needs, ideas, and development activities you may have in mind. Please contact us at [email protected] if you would like to talk further. Happy Farming!
> Maybe one day i'll productize it and sell it as a package, but honestly my bills are paid and I don't feel the need to make more money than I do right now. Why take on the stress?
I really admire that you made something "useful" with Haskell! When you say you're making enough does that include savings for retirement? That's my biggest worry as someone who just started saving for retirement (I'm 27).
> Modern life is a dystopic hellscape from this perspective
Hellscape, yes, but that hellscape also has funded your farm and that is something that I'd keep in mind. It is pretty big luxury to be able to (financially) go and live on the countryside, doing farming more as a lifestyle rather than means to livelihood.
You can say that again. Cities are, for the most part, where humanity (i.e., compassion and community) goes to die. I’m seriously contemplating migrating someplace where people aren’t 80% deplorable jerks, like suburban Oregon or New Mexico.
Plus, all of the learned helplessness and ostensibly “incapable,” self-absorbed bullshit job people whom are disconnected from anything but a narrow specialty of bullshit... if food prices spiked for any reason, they’re boned.
> Then I think of how we practically dance and shout at the
> sky in joy when we all finish digging up all the potatoes.
I grew up on the small farm. Got to deal with pigs, cows, patatoes and hay. Do not miss it at all. What's more I used to want to have a houe in the countryside. Then somehow that desire completely wanished.
I am doing pretty much the same. I am currently an engineering student, working part-time as a programmer. Although the job market for programmers is excellent in Europe, I bought an apple orchard (via loan) pretty close to the capital of the country where I live. Due to the proximity of the capital city, I can sell my product at a decent price and earn more than an average senior dev here. I also enjoy being outside and collaborate IT with agriculture. I am planning on purchasing drones to calculate NDVI and other useful stuff. People working 160 hours a month at a desk requires nature, peace. They love my U-pick programme as the venue is beautiful and close to the capital (less than 15km).
> I am planning on purchasing drones to calculate NDVI and other useful stuff
As someone who works at a company that uses Drones to do NDVI, look into EVI. And getting a proper calibration plate, or a light sensor you understand, will allow you to make the results much more accurate.
Are there good spots in Europe? I was in Belgium and wasn't satisfied (too corporate jobs or underpaid jobs) so I moved to the US and now can afford on one salary an apartment near Venice Beach in LA, CA with my wife and two kids whule having a family life. Living on one salary, even just with my wife at the time, was impossible in Belgium.
This is great and I'm planning to do the same. Currently working as a software programmer but figured I can move to a tropical country and have a higher quality of rural life. However I don't know how to get started on using computer assisted agriculture to grow sweet potatoes. Do you have any recommendations of courses or resources that can help get started?
Do you have a blog or something with more details? I have a dream of doing something similar, although growing vegetables, and would like to know more. My email address is in my profile if you don’t want to make it public.
Hello, Here at Open Agriculture Supply (https://www.openagriculturesupply.com/) we are a company working at the intersection of technology and agriculture, using the Open Agriculture Platform from MiT to deliver the next generation of Food Production, Agricultural, and Agtech products to reality. Given your unique background in both software development and agriculture we would love to work with you to help develop and refine our own products as well as support you with any potential needs, ideas, and development activities you may have in mind. Please contact us at [email protected] if you would like to talk further. Happy Farming!
Farming is no way to make a living. I'm glad that these people are finding success, but I come from a farming community and family and for decades farming has only been affordable if you also had another full-time job. Although microfarms for trendy produce might not be so bad.
You're right, most farming is a race to the bottom; more crops and produce for lower prices has been the goal for years. This article however is more about exclusively-priced artisan goods, probably even without an intermediate party / wholesale. I can imagine that, as long as the economy stays good, some people can make a decent living with that. But it really depends on, on the one hand, how long they can do it with minimal overhead (like wholesale), and on the other hand how long people are willing to pay a premium for organic / local produce.
Some commentators here have difficulty of understanding how small farming can be profitable. It's relatively easy to explain.
They are not selling just the product. Just like microbreweries, small farms sell for people who want more than just a beer or lettuce. They want to distinguish themselves and buy the feeling of authentic life and values. Consumer pays more for "small farm" even if the product is not any different from neighboring farm product that is not marketing itself as "small farm".
Modern consumer marketing sells identity, lifestyle, and values. There is no reason why small farm products can't create value from association and self–identification just like Pepsi is not selling sugar water or Nike is not selling sneakers. Everything that is sold using words classic, authentic, natural, original can be more expensive for segment who wants those tings.
Traditional farmers who produce standard grain or milk in bulk quantities are selling for different market segment.
I did bought few small vineyard plots 5 years ago. It is good lifestyle, especially as I live in the city and commute to countryside few days a week.
It is hard to make living this way, you have to spend astronomical amount of money just to buy basic infrastructure and land required to even start. Then you are very dependent on weather and without good planning you might end up broke very easily.
In my case I basically bought into (less then) minimum wage job, that require huge ongoing investments and sustained work all year around. I like this lifestyle and I am not fool, so I still keep working as a developer (during off season as well as part time work) and have diverse streams of income that can sustain my family.
What I can see on forums and discussions around the internet is romantic view of this lifestyle with bankruptcy down the road. Trust me, this lifestyle is not easy and you should spent more time with Excel then you are comfortable with.
The TLDR; is that roughly 2,000 more people in the 25-34 age group started farming, which is a roughly 2% increase. Doesn't really sound like news to me, not yet at least. I'd like to interpret it as the younger generation getting back to their roots and more connected with real stuff (where food actually comes from, getting hands dirty, that sort of thing), but 2,000 people doesn't make a wave. I hope this number continues to rise and that as a society we become more _real_ in coming years rather than less. I.e., I think our society has lost something important the further we've gotten from our roots.
Their are no "three-acre farms," at best it's a garden. My old boss operated a 80 acre micro farm while holding down a full time job. It was a hobby that at best broke even, but he had fun.
PS: They might say be operating a stall at a locally grown market, but it's the stall not the farm that's generating income.
I spent some time working and living on a farm run by someone under 35.
I'm not sure how much their personality and lack of managerial skills ultimately contributed to their inability to turn a profit, as they certainly had cashflow, but it also occurred to me while I was working there that the kind of farm we had (10 - 20 acre, general organic produce) was a nice thought but without extensive community support (something they never bothered to foster) they aren't likely to survive. It costs a lot to maintain farm equipment and pay salary.
Niche, high-efficiency, high-automation, vertical farms are something worth exploring, and I have read about the success of others doing things this way. It's something I continue to think about.
One way to engender a thriving locally run community of farmers would be to establish autonomous chapters of a larger organization that provides consistent expectations among the communities they operate in.
The farms would offer membership plans, which would be actively solicited and advertised. The membership plan would include discount access up to a certain weight in produce / meat / dairy each month, in exchange for a small fee and a few hours a month of unpaid labor, such as indoor/outdoor farming, planting, solicitation and selling goods at local markets.
Importantly, the organization would be nonprofit and all proceeds would go back into the farms. Market research needs to be done to establish the optimal ratio of acreage to service radius, but I think it is an idea worth exploring.
"For only the second time in the last century, the number of farmers under 35 years old is increasing..."
Not surprising because this is cyclical- the only difference is that the cycles in the past were shorter because life expectancy was shorter. Farming is a job that requires(1) a huge amount of up-front capital to get started in terms of land and equipment. The recurring cost isn't as high, but you have to stay in the game for as long as you can to pay off the initial investment. So a lot of people got involved in farming 50 years ago as young people, and they are dying off/finally retiring. Some are handing over the reins to their kids, and some are handing over the reins to their grandkids. Some aren't handing anything over, but when they leave there is room in the market for young people to enter. All of this results in generational and bi-generational influxes of farmers.
(1) You don't have to have the capital up front, you can get a loan or you can sharecrop. Getting a loan means your break-even time is longer, and sharecropping basically makes you an employee.
I thought this was going to be about MMO currency. Very disappointed.
Really though, I'm not very surprised this is happening. Desk jobs can be pretty soul crushing. Sometimes I wonder how long it would take for me to learn Pennsylvania Dutch and join the Amish.
Hahaha. Wow, I grew up on a farm and I went to college and got an engineering degree to get away from it! I can't even imagine going the other direction.
I still remember bucking hay, mowing the tansy, running the irrigation truck, taking care of the chickens and dozens of other chores I hated. To me, it was not the least bit fun.
I wonder how many of these people romanticize the life style and after a few years will change their minds. I admit, I am probably jaded, but I think they are crazy :)
I've been working on a product to help Farmers and Gardeners so have been talking to many different types of farmers from Container Farms, to Aquaponics, to Indoor Greenhouses. The industry is vast and there's pros and cons for every type of system. There's no silver bullet.
This video is pretty informative for someone interested in this topic on the business side. It's titled "The 5 Elements to make $100k on a Quarter Acre"
ive considered doing something kind of like this but just grow enough food for myself -- so a garden rather than a farm. the draw for me is reducing my living expenses. modern houses make absolutely no sense because their design carries vestigial baggage from thousands of years ago, from a time when we didnt know about any of the physics or technology that we know about now. it turns out that you can build a passive and maintenance free house for about the same amount of money as a traditional house.
someone else commented about the fact that modern suburban life is a hell-scape. i couldnt agree more. people think you have to do it in order to live. but you dont, just buy land on the outskirts of the city and build a house on it. the city is right there if you want it. i dont want it most of the time, personally. but sometimes i really do.
there are also people in here who say how they know farming, the grew up on a farm and its horrible. i really think that there is a new trend on the horizon of people moving away from the city, but this article misses the whole point. they wont be farming, because farming does suck. theyll just be making their lives more secure and cheaper by owning land and a house instead of renting. this will continue to make more and more sense as solar power and electric cars and self driving cars become more and more reliable and cheap. i really do think we will see more and more people opting for city outskirts.
This is really interesting - and to put my own biased spin on it I think its not only farming.
I left my bigco desk job last summer (left == was booted out with separation package when our org got whacked). I started a small business with a former employee who is now my partner.
Its still a desk-job in a sense - I work at a desk on my computer. But that desk is nothing like a "desk job" at a big co.
In our small business, we're primarily a software company, HOWEVER, our philosophy is "this is our business; we can follow our interests and do whatever we want".
Interestingly, one of the things we're looking at is agriculture - and without putting to fine a point on it, sustainable agriculture is built in to that. So .. we're building some portfolio items that include control systems for plant care etc.
We're totally boot strapped, working off our savings and some IoT and cloud consulting gigs. Our goal, with some careful planning of our time, is to have those gigs pay for our porfolio item development which with some marketing and customer development could lead to better understanding of requirements for product development.
Re this article - I can totally imagine that some of our customers will be these small scale farmers - who need the right mix of tools (and prices) to help them operate. The tools/products for large farms are, IMHO, incompatible with their needs.
Also, for the past several years I've really been interested in small-scale malting for beers and whiskies. ..I need some small number of acres to get started ..our bent for software could be applied to malting. "our company can do whatever it wants" :)
[+] [-] clord|8 years ago|reply
Why'd I switch to rural life? Quality of life. When we had kids and got a glimpse of what life would be like with daycare, two people commuting, etc, we got scared and made a plan. It's been 5 or 6 years and still enjoying selling expensive pasture fed eggs etc. I like working from home and having no childcare expenses. Everyone is happy and healthy and we have time to raise our kids.
I remember the limp office parties when we reached GA on some new release, and we'd eat cheap cake. Then I think of how we practically dance and shout at the sky in joy when we all finish digging up all the potatoes. The comparison is stark. Modern life is a dystopic hellscape from this perspective.
[+] [-] JPKab|8 years ago|reply
I grew up working on farms. It's not romantic to me in any way. Being outside is nice, but there's a reason the kids doing this grew up in suburbs and cities: they have no idea what agriculture really involves when you have to achieve economies of scale to make it remotely profitable.
[+] [-] pavel_lishin|8 years ago|reply
I worry that with a young child, we'd still have childcare expenses - except that instead of paying with money, we'd be paying with our time.
My wife and I discovered, like many parents probably do, that raising a child is fucking hard. We love her, we wouldn't trade her for the world, and it's fun, but it's the kind of fun you have while camping, or hiking, or sparring. It's fun, but it's exhausting, and we would both be complete wrecks if we had to do it full-time.
[+] [-] graycat|8 years ago|reply
The work was hard beyond belief. To make the farm pay, he bought used farm equipment from farmers who failed, built his own buildings, mixed his own feed, and did well in marketing to find buyers.
He used USDA Extension advice and research on chicken breeding, nutrition, and disease control. When he started, progress in these three made chicken raising suddenly a hot field. But eventually the business mostly moved to the US South with warmer winters and cheaper labor.
He then was able to get a good job in the local county seat: He became the head of the local Rural Electric Membership Cooperative (REMC). In part he got that job because he was respected in the community from his participation in the church, the Bank BoD, Lions, the school board, etc.
For the land, he leased that year by year to someone with good, large scale equipment farming 1000 or so leased acres.
At one time, 90+% of the US population lived on farms. Now it's 10-%. Farmer productivity has made fantastic gains.
So, now, it's tough to make much money farming. One approach is specialized products for high end markets, maybe pheasants, ducks, goat cheese, mushrooms, etc.
There's a lot nice about farm living, but life can be nearly as nice in rural areas still near a town and with work not in farming. A good Internet connection can eliminate some of the effects of a lot of geographic distances.
[+] [-] vogt|8 years ago|reply
I'm super burned out on software, and currently facing all the same concerns it sounds like you did before, it just frightens me the idea of being further removed (geographically) from the few family and friends we have left.
[+] [-] jacquesm|8 years ago|reply
As a precaution against hitting a bad spell. Money in the bank is an excellent anti-dote against all kinds of mishaps.
[+] [-] cvsh|8 years ago|reply
This is my fear about doing something like this. Boutique farming seems like it would similar to the oil industry in how especially sensitive it is to economic cyclicality. Having spent the past 5+ years farming surely complicates the process of getting a job in tech during a contraction.
[+] [-] dejv|8 years ago|reply
I guess the big part of better lifestyle is just giving up on ambitions. You know that you are not building next billion dollar company and you also know that you are not going to buy new BMW every year anyway so there is no pressure in keeping with Jones.
[+] [-] Ascetik|8 years ago|reply
Amen, brother.
[+] [-] iancmceachern|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unabridged|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rifung|8 years ago|reply
I really admire that you made something "useful" with Haskell! When you say you're making enough does that include savings for retirement? That's my biggest worry as someone who just started saving for retirement (I'm 27).
[+] [-] golemotron|8 years ago|reply
What is the retirement plan for a farmer?
[+] [-] swlkr|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zokier|8 years ago|reply
Hellscape, yes, but that hellscape also has funded your farm and that is something that I'd keep in mind. It is pretty big luxury to be able to (financially) go and live on the countryside, doing farming more as a lifestyle rather than means to livelihood.
[+] [-] dailyvijeos|8 years ago|reply
Plus, all of the learned helplessness and ostensibly “incapable,” self-absorbed bullshit job people whom are disconnected from anything but a narrow specialty of bullshit... if food prices spiked for any reason, they’re boned.
[+] [-] rimliu|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] ruc0la|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mikewhy|8 years ago|reply
As someone who works at a company that uses Drones to do NDVI, look into EVI. And getting a proper calibration plate, or a light sensor you understand, will allow you to make the results much more accurate.
[+] [-] JorgeGT|8 years ago|reply
Have you toyed already with Sentinel-2 NDVI? There's a free API: https://scihub.copernicus.eu/twiki/do/view/SciHubWebPortal/A...
It would be interesting for instance to have a cron job warn you if the values get too low, etc.
[+] [-] ibizaman|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dreamsdreams|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] godzillabrennus|8 years ago|reply
I remember having a part time job.
All kidding aside, I can tell you aren’t American based on that statement alone.
[+] [-] lucaspiller|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] iancmceachern|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] spraak|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wu-ikkyu|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] googletazer|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robk|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] walshemj|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] MsMowz|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Cthulhu_|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nabla9|8 years ago|reply
They are not selling just the product. Just like microbreweries, small farms sell for people who want more than just a beer or lettuce. They want to distinguish themselves and buy the feeling of authentic life and values. Consumer pays more for "small farm" even if the product is not any different from neighboring farm product that is not marketing itself as "small farm".
Modern consumer marketing sells identity, lifestyle, and values. There is no reason why small farm products can't create value from association and self–identification just like Pepsi is not selling sugar water or Nike is not selling sneakers. Everything that is sold using words classic, authentic, natural, original can be more expensive for segment who wants those tings.
Traditional farmers who produce standard grain or milk in bulk quantities are selling for different market segment.
[+] [-] dejv|8 years ago|reply
It is hard to make living this way, you have to spend astronomical amount of money just to buy basic infrastructure and land required to even start. Then you are very dependent on weather and without good planning you might end up broke very easily.
In my case I basically bought into (less then) minimum wage job, that require huge ongoing investments and sustained work all year around. I like this lifestyle and I am not fool, so I still keep working as a developer (during off season as well as part time work) and have diverse streams of income that can sustain my family.
What I can see on forums and discussions around the internet is romantic view of this lifestyle with bankruptcy down the road. Trust me, this lifestyle is not easy and you should spent more time with Excel then you are comfortable with.
[+] [-] laughfactory|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Retric|8 years ago|reply
PS: They might say be operating a stall at a locally grown market, but it's the stall not the farm that's generating income.
[+] [-] kakarot|8 years ago|reply
I'm not sure how much their personality and lack of managerial skills ultimately contributed to their inability to turn a profit, as they certainly had cashflow, but it also occurred to me while I was working there that the kind of farm we had (10 - 20 acre, general organic produce) was a nice thought but without extensive community support (something they never bothered to foster) they aren't likely to survive. It costs a lot to maintain farm equipment and pay salary.
Niche, high-efficiency, high-automation, vertical farms are something worth exploring, and I have read about the success of others doing things this way. It's something I continue to think about.
One way to engender a thriving locally run community of farmers would be to establish autonomous chapters of a larger organization that provides consistent expectations among the communities they operate in.
The farms would offer membership plans, which would be actively solicited and advertised. The membership plan would include discount access up to a certain weight in produce / meat / dairy each month, in exchange for a small fee and a few hours a month of unpaid labor, such as indoor/outdoor farming, planting, solicitation and selling goods at local markets.
Importantly, the organization would be nonprofit and all proceeds would go back into the farms. Market research needs to be done to establish the optimal ratio of acreage to service radius, but I think it is an idea worth exploring.
[+] [-] olympus|8 years ago|reply
Not surprising because this is cyclical- the only difference is that the cycles in the past were shorter because life expectancy was shorter. Farming is a job that requires(1) a huge amount of up-front capital to get started in terms of land and equipment. The recurring cost isn't as high, but you have to stay in the game for as long as you can to pay off the initial investment. So a lot of people got involved in farming 50 years ago as young people, and they are dying off/finally retiring. Some are handing over the reins to their kids, and some are handing over the reins to their grandkids. Some aren't handing anything over, but when they leave there is room in the market for young people to enter. All of this results in generational and bi-generational influxes of farmers.
(1) You don't have to have the capital up front, you can get a loan or you can sharecrop. Getting a loan means your break-even time is longer, and sharecropping basically makes you an employee.
[+] [-] jrs95|8 years ago|reply
Really though, I'm not very surprised this is happening. Desk jobs can be pretty soul crushing. Sometimes I wonder how long it would take for me to learn Pennsylvania Dutch and join the Amish.
[+] [-] zw123456|8 years ago|reply
I still remember bucking hay, mowing the tansy, running the irrigation truck, taking care of the chickens and dozens of other chores I hated. To me, it was not the least bit fun.
I wonder how many of these people romanticize the life style and after a few years will change their minds. I admit, I am probably jaded, but I think they are crazy :)
[+] [-] ggm|8 years ago|reply
Tractors destroy kidneys. White finger disease in any vibration. Farming is not kind to the body.
Satisfying, but not kind. Kids go there. I welcome it. If you're over forty think hard before commitment locks you in.
[+] [-] ixtli|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ohazi|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] antoniuschan99|8 years ago|reply
This video is pretty informative for someone interested in this topic on the business side. It's titled "The 5 Elements to make $100k on a Quarter Acre"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvIQgyPkmoY
[+] [-] clubmg|8 years ago|reply
It's amazing to me that for all our modern tech and conveniences it's not made us happier in fact the old ways seem much more enjoyable and appealing.
[+] [-] wheresmyusern|8 years ago|reply
someone else commented about the fact that modern suburban life is a hell-scape. i couldnt agree more. people think you have to do it in order to live. but you dont, just buy land on the outskirts of the city and build a house on it. the city is right there if you want it. i dont want it most of the time, personally. but sometimes i really do.
there are also people in here who say how they know farming, the grew up on a farm and its horrible. i really think that there is a new trend on the horizon of people moving away from the city, but this article misses the whole point. they wont be farming, because farming does suck. theyll just be making their lives more secure and cheaper by owning land and a house instead of renting. this will continue to make more and more sense as solar power and electric cars and self driving cars become more and more reliable and cheap. i really do think we will see more and more people opting for city outskirts.
[+] [-] andyidsinga|8 years ago|reply
I left my bigco desk job last summer (left == was booted out with separation package when our org got whacked). I started a small business with a former employee who is now my partner.
Its still a desk-job in a sense - I work at a desk on my computer. But that desk is nothing like a "desk job" at a big co.
In our small business, we're primarily a software company, HOWEVER, our philosophy is "this is our business; we can follow our interests and do whatever we want".
Interestingly, one of the things we're looking at is agriculture - and without putting to fine a point on it, sustainable agriculture is built in to that. So .. we're building some portfolio items that include control systems for plant care etc.
We're totally boot strapped, working off our savings and some IoT and cloud consulting gigs. Our goal, with some careful planning of our time, is to have those gigs pay for our porfolio item development which with some marketing and customer development could lead to better understanding of requirements for product development.
Re this article - I can totally imagine that some of our customers will be these small scale farmers - who need the right mix of tools (and prices) to help them operate. The tools/products for large farms are, IMHO, incompatible with their needs.
Also, for the past several years I've really been interested in small-scale malting for beers and whiskies. ..I need some small number of acres to get started ..our bent for software could be applied to malting. "our company can do whatever it wants" :)
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] k__|8 years ago|reply