Driving through the countryside of Arizona, New Mexico, and anywhere else in the Southwest has you wondering who the hell lives out here. It’s hard to fathom their reasons just by passing through. But should you have the opportunity to stay and meet some of them, you realize they’re a diverse group of people and you can’t pool them all into the same archetype. They may share similarities, but they each have their own unique reasons for doing what they do.
Some rural residents living on just a few acres are part-time farmers, ranchers, off-gridders cutting costs, and others have enough wealth to enjoy country living without ever turning a profit from the land.
People live on a few acres in the country for all kinds of reasons:
- solely as a residence
- reducing the family’s food costs by gardening
- pursuing hobbies and recreational activities
- living off-grid to meet food and energy needs
- generating extra income by selling produce or raising animals
For whatever reasons brought them out here, these are the types of folks you’ll find:
1. The Rural Residents
These people make just enough from their land to preserve their lifestyle. They may also work in town or commute to the nearest metro area. Their primary draw is the wide open space. Many treat their few acres like an extension of their backyard.
In some cases these are city folks buying up old farms to retire on. In others, retired farmers who rent out part of their lots for agriculture. Either way, they want to protect what they’ve built.
A lot of California transplants buy land out here dreaming of farming, drawn in by the seemingly unlimited sunlight but fail to research the soil quality or irrigation sources before signing the papers. Many end up holding onto their land as an investment, hoping to sell it at a profit down the road.
The situations vary, but one thing most country folks share is a drive toward self-sufficiency.
2. The Hobby Farmers
These folks try to generate income from their land as a secondary source. They have other income keeping the lights on, but they work a few acres to pursue what they love. For some that’s growing firewood. For others it’s cultivating micro-greens to sell at the local farmers market.
Then there’s a situation where a warehouse worker who moved to a farm to enjoy the benefits of country living. He raises goats, but between long shifts at work he rarely has time to manage the operation himself so he ends up contracting out the labor and barely breaking even.
3. The Gardeners
These folks are primarily interested in growing their own food to cut down on grocery bills. They may sell some of the surplus, but their land is mostly dedicated to an extensive vegetable garden, some livestock for meat, and a row or two of fruit trees.
Five acres is plenty for a couple or small family to supply most of their own food. Some even put their kids to work at a roadside produce stand or selling eggs to neighbors. A little hustle and a good lesson all at once.
4. The Off-Grid Homesteaders
These folks are working to eliminate their reliance on outside services such as energy, water, professional contractors. Most are drawn to natural food and limited use of heavy machinery. If they can do it with their own hands, they will. They build their own structures, from the house down to the chicken coop. They avoid chemical fertilizers and pesticides whenever possible and advocate for natural solutions to agricultural problems.
It’s more labor-intensive, but the goal is to supply high-quality, naturally grown produce for their family and some for nearby metro areas at the lowest cost possible. And because it doesn’t travel far or require heavy packaging, it often ends up fresher and better-tasting than anything shipped in from overseas.
This life is not for the faint of heart. When a pest problem shows up, there’s no service to call… you grab a hoe and handle it yourself.
Problems & Failures of Rural Living
You could call most of these folks successful. If peace, quiet, and a good place to raise a family was the goal, they’ve found it. Land provides a real sense of security against inflation, and if you’re producing something worth selling, it can supplement your income in meaningful ways.
But the grass isn’t always greener. Rural living has its own set of hard lessons:
- A couple discovers their plans to grow crops in the Arizona desert aren’t going to work out after already draining their savings on a 40-acre parcel.
- Ten acres of decent farmland sits idle because the owner underestimated how much time and energy hobby farming actually takes.
- A naive buyer learns too late that the scenic hillside on their lot is useless for growing or developing anything.
Most of these failures trace back to romanticized, uninformed ideas about what country life actually looks like. People don’t always know a parcel’s soil type, the local wildlife, the plant diseases, the weather patterns, the county zoning policies… not until it’s too late.
So which one of these are you? Drop it in the comments. We’d love to know what brought you out here.
Fair winds and following seas
💜 Dog House Pirates
Leave a Reply