I don’t know if you’re like me but sometimes, I have a desire for more space so I can have a larger garden. The urge to want a self-sustaining garden on a large acreage is appealing and a few people have gone the way of purchasing large acreage and establishing their homestead.

Currently, iceberg lettuce is tainted with Cyclospora and jalapeno peppers with salmonella has left me wondering if anything that we’re ingesting is even safe. Again, we turn to the self-sufficiency model and growing our own food sounds like the safest thing. And again, the desire for more land.

I recently went through this myself where our house and the space we have is not sufficient for our needs. As we conducted our search, we laid out some parameters. We wanted to stay in Los Angeles County and at least 10,000 sq feet of land with a decent house with two bathrooms was our baseline or it was not worth the move.

We stumbled across several properties that suited our needs but as we dug further, we discovered a huge section of L..A. County along the San Gabriel Mountains cannot be insured for fire or fire insurance through the state was excessive. Not one to stomach such a risk, our wants no longer mattered. These were outside factors that made a move too difficult.

I heard this good podcast episode from “This is Uncomfortable” titled, “Confessions of a former homesteader,” dated July 16, 2026, and wanted to share it with you.

This family looked for a situation where their children would be raised surrounded by nature and at an area where they could afford. The couple quickly realized that being out in a rural area meant less take home pay. The property taxes were lower but it meant fewer basic perks such as having a local library which is important in the fundamental development of their children. Life took its own course and health conditions made it difficult for the family to live on their homestead. Through further education, a parent was able to get a better paying job to get them out from their situation. The life experiences and advice given in this episode is too important to ignore.

(Click on the highlighted title to listen to the episode.)