Homesteading in your 50s

by CarolCarolc
(Manassas Virginia)

My husband is 51 and I am 48. Healthy and well read in preparation for homesteading / farming. I would like to know your opinion of older folks changing direction toward homesteading for the rest of their lives?

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Carol, it is never too late to start a change of lifestyle, as long as you are healthy and active.

I am 55 and my husband is 56. At the moment he has had to work away to pay off the mortgage on the farm, and so I work the farm on own.

We have 4 dogs, 4 cats, 13 Finn sheep, 6 Angora goats, 23 ducks and 20 chickens!

In addition to the poultry and the livestock, I manage an orchard, a large vegetable garden, 300 olive trees and a small vineyard.

I do the canning of the produce in the fall, make apricot brandy, sloe gin and limoncello every year, do pickles and jams and marmalades.

We use the sheep and goats for their fiber, as I then process everything from start to finish: washing, carding, spinning and weaving into finished products.

Hubby comes home 30 days a year, and helps out when he can. So if this website gets a little neglected, from time to time, you know why.

If I can do it, you can do it!