Season 1: Episode 17: Homestead Privacy with Tim & Liz Young|Farming | Homesteading [PODCAST]

How can a modern homesteader expect to achieve personal privacy in the digital age? This week, Liz and I discuss the homestead we settled on and the steps we have taken to live a private, self-sufficient life.

Welcome to Episode 17 of Self-Sufficient Life! This week Liz and I tell describe the homestead property we settled on, and share what concessions we had to make since there is no "perfect" property.

Here's what we discuss about the property:

- How much acreage we settled on

- Woods vs pasture/open land

- House size/configuration

- Well vs gravity water

- Streams/water features

- Southern exposure

- Fruit trees

- Garden space and outbuildings

- To heat or not to heat with wood

- Proximity to populated areas

- Homeschooling/homesteading culture

We also discuss our overall objectives for homesteading. Those include:

- Living as freely as possible

- maximize free time

- having a property that requires low maintenance

- time to develop skills we're interested in, such as foraging, medicinal herbs and bushcrafting

- maximize time together as a family

- able to travel if desired

- Be as independent and sustainable as possible

- grow our own vegetables and most of our fruit

- grow and butcher or hunt for our own meat

- produce dairy and eggs

- Teach our daughter about animal husbandry and...you know...the birds and the bees

- Provide pollination and collect honey and wax from bees

- Use our land's materials for building projects

- Grow, harvest and produce as much of our own medicine as possible

Beyond that, we had an overarching goal that we began discussing in Episode 16. That is, to achieve and maintain a high level of personal privacy.

That's a hard thing to do in this digital age. But when a listener called in and asked about privacy, we decided to share our approach on achieving privacy in this episode.

Here's what we discussed:

- Why privacy is important to us

- bad guy takes license plate number (road rage, etc.)

- That privacy is about keeping our private life private. It’s not about avoiding taxes or even asset protection, although it helps with the latter.

- The importance of separating your name from physical residence

- driver's license

- managing FedEx, etc., deliveries

- home ownership titling

- deposits for utilities, DirecTV, etc.

- Setting up PO boxes BEFORE moving. That way you can complete the USPS forms truthfully with your two forms of ID.

- Providing no forwarding address

- Setting-up bank account before moving or keeping existing bank account

- Using passport for ID instead of Driver’s License. DL very seldom actually required.

- Using cash over credit

- Dealing with family who wants to know why they can't tell people where you live

- What is a lie (intent to both deceive and cause harm)

It was a spirited and interesting discussion, and I hope you enjoy it and find that it gives you a lot to think about as you prepare for your self-sufficient life. So grab some coffee and pull up a chair!

Show notes at theselfsufficientlife.com