First of all, let me welcome you to my website.
Who am I?
I am a 41 year old that is very keen to start life anew.
I am passionate about carnivorous plants, mostly Nepenthes. I like to play with my home servers. I mostly self-host things that make my life easier, cheaper and more private. Even though I’m a nerd, I do feel like I need to do something with my hands. I’ve been dabbling in basic woodworking the last few years, and I’ve built tons of plastic model kits in my time.
An interest that is still waiting for a time to express itself is mechatronics. I currently have too many other priorities, unfortunately.
What is the point of this site?
I will not only show the good things about this new life. My goal is to show you the good and the bad. If you’re thinking about making this journey yourself one day, you deserve the whole picture.
Why?
I like peace and quiet. The concept of regenerative farming really appeals to me, and I feel like this will give me a sense of purpose I’ve been sorely missing.
Let’s start with my life:
You’re not here for my life’s story, so I’ll keep it brief. I’ve been unemployed and on benefits for around 4 years at the time of writing. Despite having held multiple jobs in the past, I’ve struggled to build a stable career due to various challenges. I’ve been trapped in this cycle for far too long, and I know it’s time for a dramatic change. Besides employment issues, I lack a sense or purpose at the moment. Even when I was employed, my days were a blur with nothing interesting going on. I want to do something with my life, and leave this world a bit better than I found it. Farming has caught my interest a few years ago, and when I read about soil depletion and the attempts to reverse this, I was sold. For years, I’ve embraced a ‘prepper-lite’ mindset, and regenerative farming, and living on a farm aligns perfectly with that approach. In the Netherlands, buying a farm and doing what I want is way outside of my budget, and politics don’t seem to be in favour of farmers at the moment. I also feel that a completely different setting and environment might give me the push I need to change in the way I want to.
I was born and raised in Leiden, the Netherlands. City life has never been for me; too busy, too many people. Last year I’ve moved to a smaller town, and that already helped me relax more.
The so-called ‘climate’ here—cold, gray, and overcast for 8–9 months of the year—is not for me. I’ve told people that I run on solar power for the longest time, and there is truth in this. I enjoy the sun and rarely is it too hot for me outside. I’m way happier if it is sunny outside, and the long winters have an impact on my mood. After a vacation in Australia in 2012, I came home thinking: “What on earth am I still doing here?”
Besides climate, the last few years I’ve been getting more and more uncomfortable with Dutch politics (🤮). This won’t be a political website, but I won’t shy away from things either. The Netherlands is a country of regulations and taxes. It hardly matters who is in charge, the end result will always be more taxes and more regulations. Add the EU to this with even more regulations (and probably soon their own taxes). By no means is any country perfect, but the Netherlands is getting ridiculous and more and more unlivable.
I won’t go into more details, I think you get the picture; I don’t like it here.
How:
With all this out of the way, how am I going to start live anew?
As previously mentioned, I’m planning to emigrate.
How am I going to make money? Not through employment, that is one thing I now for certain. So, how will I make money? Well, I’m going to give freelancing a go. I’m a computer nerd that can do a bit of everything. Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is something I find really fun and interesting to do, so this will be my main focus. I found out that I just don’t like working for other people; I like to do things my way.
More than likely, I won’t be able to earn enough right at the start of my freelancing adventure to pay the bills. This would naturally be an issue. Until it can pay the bills, I can live off of the ‘inheritance’ I’m getting from my mom, who moved to a nursing home a few months ago, and my brother and I are in the process of selling her house (accepted a bid last friday!). This inheritance will provide enough funds to live on for a few months while I bridge the gap, but the main goal of this money is to fund the farm. If eventually I can earn some money from the ‘Homesteadlab’ (farm, site), that would be great, but that isn’t the goal.
I’ll be writing a dedicated post (or make a page) detailing my full plans for the farm and the things I’ll need to get there. I’ll also cover the reason for the name ‘Homesteadlab’. I assume the subtitle of ‘starting life anew’ has become more clear now; beginning a new life for myself, and reviving the land of my future farm.