Me and My Goals, and Contact Info
Hello,
My name is Shannon, and it is my goal to one day own land and have a homestead. My life right now is practice for that big event. I figure that, if I learn some things now, I will have less to learn then.
I am a single mother of two. Zowie is 19 and comes home from college breaks. She is a Psychology major, and works for Team maine on campus. Skye is 21, and is living up north where she works at an Inn.
I am building a freelance writing business, and enjoying every second of it. It is coming along nicely thus far, and I have even been able to write a few homestead related pieces. I also work at the Comfort Inn in bangor.
I like to walk, take photographs and read, and I am not afraid of a little hard work.
My Ultimate Goal:
To own my own land for homesteading, and to live off-grid. At least for the most part.
Warmest Wishes,
Shannon Buck
Shannonlbuck@gmail.com
http://howtolivethefreelance.com
PO Box 756
Milford, ME 04461
USA
Andi said
Hi Shannon,
I just found your blog. I haven’t had a chance to read much yet, but I’ll definitely be back! I’m a single, homeschooling mom, too, and I live in a trailer on my parents’ property. It looks like we have a lot of the same goals.
Andi
Ed Burley said
Hi Shannon,
My wife and I (and our 8 children) live in a mobile home park here in Michigan. Due to debt on our double-wide, it is not feasible for us to sell it and move to the country. Fortunately on our lot (where we have lived for 5 years), we have extra space because we are at the edge of our park. Since we are wanting to homestead, and are unable to move at this time, we’ve decided that we are going to “Trailer Park Homestead.”
That’s how I found your site. What a bunch of great links you’ve provided. We’ve spent most of today making plans, dreaming big. You’ve become a valuable resource for us, and I thank you for that.
BTW, we are also homeschoolers. I work full-time as a foster care supervisor at a private non-profit, and my wife stays home and cares for and homeschools the kids. We want to homestead to whatever degree we are allowed by our park management.
ed and dana
Shannon Buck said
That is so great! And I’m glad that my blog has been useful to you. What a great opportunity you have to do something good for your family.
Note that, if the landlord does not agree to you having a garden for food, you can always do container gardening.
Some great homeschool lessons:
Composting and building a compost bin
Vermicomposting
Herb gardening, and making the plans to do so
sewing projects like curtains, etc
Happy homesteading! Maybe you’ll consider creating a blog as a family homeschool project. If you do, please give me the link. I would like to follow what you are doing. And I will link to it from here.
Shannon
Ed Burley said
Shannon,
The other side of this homesteading endeavor is that our dear friends just qualified to buy a home on 10 acres out in the country. It’s our intention to approach them about raising chickens and Dexter cattle. I figure that we can put up the money, they can do the feeding and “harvesting” and when the time comes we can split the meat and eggs.
I am looking into energy saving devices for the double-wide; bikes and trailers for my wife and I (kids already have bikes, except for the two little ones, who would ride in the trailers) so we can limit driving our vehicles to inclement weather; solar, wind, and wood solutions for replacing the utilities we currently get from the government-controlled monopoly of “public utilities.”
We garden currently at a community garden across town, but are planting again our garden on our lot. We are also asking our Park Management about installing a greenhouse (or several small ones) in order to expand our growing season. My wife came up with some good ideas about re-routing our drain pipes off the roof gutters into rain barrels in order to provide water for our garden (rather than paying for the water currently supplied to the house), and a bunch of other ideas to break free, as much as possible, from the government-controlled corporate interests that mess with our economic future. Buying stuff at yard sales, Goodwill, and Salvation Army stores (rather than paying retail to the corporate giants) is another part of our plan.
There are just so many ideas that a family can use to get themselves free. I do hope to generate some income through writing a blog or articles for Homesteading magazines. Oh, and we could sell homemade shampoos and lotions, as well as some of our produce at the local farmer’s market.
Man, I’m excited. It’ll take a while to up and running like we want, but we’re getting off to a good start.
Shannon Buck said
That all sounds great. Will you be canning and freezing all of your food? I want to learn to can. Cold frames are also an excellent idea for extending the growing season, and are smaller than greenhouses and portable. Just in case management won’t allow even small greenhouses.
I shop yard sales as well as thrift stores, and I love the Goodwill.
Ed Burley said
We are looking into a variety of options. Dehydrating, canning, freezing, and maybe even vacuum-packing some food. We have both a community garden (on the other side of town), as well as a “garden” in our own yard; but, the rest of the stuff is still in the brainstorming stage. This might take a couple years to get in the full swing of it.
Getting the gardens up to speed this year (we have having horribly cold spring and early summer weather right now), as well as buying some used bikes and other used equipment is first on the list. We’ll prioritize the rest of the stuff as we are able.
Shannon Buck said
It sounds like you have a good plan. All of these efforts will be great educational experiences for your children, and they will have the necessary skills to survive in the world as adults.
Jyotiprakash Patel said
Hi Shannon,
I saw your goal list & I am so glad.
Its seems like we have the same goal…
So could you please give me your email id so that we can
stay in touch.
My email id – patel.jyotiprakash@gmail.com
Shannon Buck said
My contact information is lidted on the blog here. Feel free to contact me any time.
lighthouseherbs said
Hi Shannon,
I just found your blog and I can tell you that with your positive attitude, there is no reason you can’t reach all of your goals. I am a 66 year old grandmother of 2. They are not home-schooled, but they are in a great school district that teaches values as well as educating them.
I was a single mother of 1 and I raised him in a trailer. I now own a nice house in Ohio with 4 acres in the country. Hopefully, you won’t mind if I add a link to your blog from mine. I have been using herbs for over 60 years and I have a blog about herbs and there uses, I list an herb of the day, recipe of the day and various herbal how-to’s. I have no doubt that you will be an inspiration to many people, and I will keep you in my prayers.
Susan
bethanial11 said
Hi! I just found your blog; I was doing a search for single mom homesteaders; wanted to make sure it could actually be done as I’m diving in! Looks like we have a lot of the same dreams and goals. You should check my blog out – I just posted yesterday on how I made reusable wipes
Shannon Buck said
Thank you, and I will. It certainly can be done. We had a huge transition this year, as my younger daughter went off to college. I also had surgery, so my homesteading plans were sort of put on hold until I could handle things on my own again.
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Newton Pracht said
Great website you have here but I was curious about if you knew of any community forums that cover the same topics discussed in this article? I’d really love to be a part of group where I can get suggestions from other knowledgeable people that share the same interest. If you have any recommendations, please let me know. Kudos!
Shannon Buck said
I do not use forums, personally, though I am sure they do exists. Maybe some of the other readers will know of forums that will be helpful.
Rosemary said
Hi Shannon,I just found your blog and I can tell you that with your positive attitude, there is no reason you can’t reach all of your goals. I am a 66 year old grandmother of 2. They are not home-schooled, but they are in a great school district that teaches values as well as educating them.I was a single mother of 1 and I raised him in a trailer. I now own a nice house in Ohio with 4 acres in the country. Hopefully, you won’t mind if I add a link to your blog from mine. I have been using herbs for over 60 years and I have a blog about herbs and there uses, I list an herb of the day, recipe of the day and various herbal how-to’s. I have no doubt that you will be an inspiration to many people, and I will keep you in my prayers.
+1
The Blues said
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