Let’s move to the Land!

[Kev]

Hey y’all.. I’ve had an idea for a while that I wanted to run by, or present to you good folks..

A lot of us aspiring homesteaders are in the same situation at the moment – land ownership is out of reach personally, and we’re starting to see that going in together is what we’re gonna need to do.. I’ve talked about this with many people, and there have been good discussions here as well..

There have been many ideas on avenues to acquiring land.. One of the ideas that has come up is to find existing landowners who would like to share their land (in whatever way, to whatever degree), and invite others in to use it to build a homestead, or enter into collaboration..

Just 3 examples.. 1) A landowner with undeveloped land that would like to offer it to a group of homesteaders to build it out as something more meaningful (maybe with an income-generating plan to help with property taxes, or to cover leasing, possibly leading to ownership)..

2) An existing rural resident that hasn’t developed their property much at all and has a vision, and would like to bring in a small group of folks to create a group homestead..

3) An existing farmer that would like to do the same – bring in others to help with the work.. Or, perhaps a farmer has a fair amount of unused land and says “Y’all can take the Back 40.. Go do your thing”.. In that case, income-generating endeavors and collaboration with the farm in general could be part of the agreement.. (I listened to Joel Salatin on a podcast 2 days ago talk about this very thing – that you could propose an income-generating endeavor to farmers as your pathway to the homestead life.. His farm, Polyface Farm, does this very thing with an entrepreneur program)..

Okay, so I’m going on about it a bit – but it’s just to show that there are so many different scenarios that could exist or be developed.. And I also think that finding existing landowners is probably the best avenue to take, or maybe a “fast track” to a homestead, as the land is already in ownership, and that big step is taken care of..

So I’ve had this idea for creating a website that’s specifically focused on connecting landowners with aspiring homesteaders.. I have not seen any online sites like this, that have this specificity – where a landowner can go to present themselves and what they’re looking for, with a means to connect with and find good and proper matches.. (In a sense, you could think of the idea as a sort of “personals” site for homesteading)..

I have some ideas on how it would look, in terms of features, but that’s a bit of the weedy details at this moment.. And I would want to steer it away from being too much of a generalized networking/socializing site, and more laser-focused on making connections in real life.. Of course, there’s such a wide spectrum where people fall in the path to making that shift, that there’s got to be a fair amount of leeway and an open door..

I wanted to present this idea to see what others think and what ideas others would have for such a site.. If any of you are like me, in this feeling that “I just need to meet that one landowner”, then you might see how this could be a valuable tool for making those real-life connections.. Nothing else exists that I see, so it couldn’t hurt to give it a whirl..

I personally don’t know anything about website design, and not sure I could go it alone overall.. This is another example of how collaboration is so valuable..

Your thoughts?? ?‍?

Discussion

[Dorothy]

I like your ideas. I had no responses on inquiry about land patent/sovereign ownership successes -im still hoping for more updated info on this as I think it’s relevant to sovereign land use issues and what your proposing as well. Hoping more info emerges:)

Dorothy

[Kev]

Oh yeah, very good point that land patents are part of the picture.. (I have a lot to learn about land patents myself, as in all of it)..

[Eliza]

I was relistening to the Bush alfacast (freedom cells bro) and he mentions a guy who offers a curriculum and then when you finish it connects you with people offering land – and I think three webinar curriculum is informative / pretty short and free? I’d been meaning to circle back but have been all wrapped up the last few days so my studies are slacking…

[Kev]

Ah yes, the John Bush interview.. That was summer of 2022 I think.. I’m gonna look that up and listen again.. Thanks..

[Hulda]

Awesome idea, Kev – I’m in for such a website! (BTW I’m in Northern California – SF Bay Area).

Do you have web design/hosting experience? I have minimal experience going back a couple decades (using Netscape web editor and GeoCities!) Wonder if @alfawarrior could help?

[Kev]

I have zero web design experience or know-how, even with any kind of template or hosting site that makes it easy for you.. I would be up for collaboration regarding the features of the website and lay-out, and all those details, etc.. The back-end and coding is gonna have to be for someone else who knows all that and how to pull it off..

[Gerald]

This would a fantastic thing! The creation of such is far out of my wheelhouse, but I’ll cheerlead for it. ?

[Michael]

Good idea, I have have a live mapping websites in the works that could be repurposed for this if need be.

[Hulda]

That would be awesome, Michael! Please keep us posted.

[Kev]

Hi Michael.. I actually had to look up live mapping to see what that is, as I’m not very tech savvy necessarily.. What I found is that it’s about satellite imagery and mapping out spaces for navigation, etc.. So do I understand then that what you would be suggesting is that such a website would have a feature where landowners could offer visual imagery of the land they own??.. If so, that’s interesting and I’d have never thought of that..

[hugh]

Great idea! That could actually be setup in this community by creating a separate group and laying out some operational guidelines. Maybe have 2 discussion threads per state: have land/want land.

The challenge will probably be recruiting land owners into the group. There would have to be a marketing plan around that.

[Kev]

Hugh.. That is a great idea, and at least one avenue that could be taken.. But yeah, directing landowners to the AV site to sign up would require a marketing plan to bring it to people’s attention..

[Author]

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