Homesteading as a Senior: Finding Balance through Planning Ahead

Reader Contribution by Bruce Mcelmurray

We have homesteaded at our remote location at 9,800 feet elevation in the Sangre de Christo mountains, where we heat our small cabin with a woodstove. We have resided here for 20 winters on 11 acres of heavily wooded property. We share our cabin with our four German Shepherd dogs. While we have space heaters to heat areas that our woodstove will not reach, like our partial basement and bathroom, the remainder of our cabin is heated with our woodstove.

That requires approximately 10 to 12 cords of firewood per winter season. Our winters are long at this elevation, plus we also receive on average around 260 inches of snow per season. This fairly adequately explains our life choice and circumstances.

Physical Demands

When we first moved here full-time 20 winters ago, we quickly realized that our lifestyle of choice was clearly leaning towards a lot of manual physical labor. As we reflect back, we can see that each year, it has become increasingly harder as we have become older. With the many cords of firewood to cut, haul, split and stack, there is almost 22 feet of snow per season to be moved by shovel, pushed, or piled.

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