My journey to find the perfect homestead

Hi, my name is Thijs. As a kid, I was always outdoors playing in nature. I remember the feeling of this is right when I was surrounded by trees and the smell of pine needles. When I was a bit older, I watched The Lord of the Rings for the first time with my dad. I didn't know it then, but the movie planted a seed that would later grow into an intense longing to reconnect with nature.

After high school, I wanted to be a musician. I played drums all my life and dreamed of making it my career. But after many auditions, I got rejected from the bigger music schools. That was a dark time for me. Like many others, I didn't know what to do with my life. So after that "and now what" moment, I figured that I was decently handy with computers and, for lack of anything better, decided to study Computer Science. Everyone around me said, "it’s a really good market to get into." When I started looking into it, I was stunned by what I found: insanely high salaries, company cars, stocks, and more. I grew up really poor–there were nights my parents would eat old bread just to make sure my sister and I had food. Seeing those opportunities flipped a switch in my brain. From that moment on, I went full career mode. I got my BSc. in Computer Science and landed my first job as a solutions architect.

Ok Thijs, nice story, but what does this have to do with finding a homestead? Well, fast-forward a couple of years, and here I am typing this blog with my fancy job and education. Despite all the achievements, I always felt something was missing.

I love hiking. Over the past few years, me and my wife visited Norway, which you might agree looks a lot like Middle-Earth. Spending weeks wandering through the mountains and rivers made me feel like that little kid again. After years of sitting behind a computer in a crowded city office, there was again, this smell of pine. Anyhow this isn't just some sob story. But I realised what I truly value in life: being in nature.

The best way to fully experience nature is to live in it, right? Seeing all the cabins and farms in Norway made it clear to me and my wife that one day, we'd find our own homestead. So that's what I'm doing now–finding our dream homestead. In fact, I’ve been preparing and searching for over a year now. Friends and family have been really interested, asking how they could do the same and what to look out for. I also noticed a lot of people on YouTube and Reddit, asking similar questions to creators who are sharing their own homesteading journeys.

So to help others on this journey, I’ve started a weekly newsletter. In it, I share handpicked properties ideal for homesteading, each with detailed sustainability metrics (yes, I totally made that up) like solar potential, water resources, and nearby amenities. My goal is to give you all the information you need to take that first step toward your dream of off-grid living. If this sounds like something you’d like, you can subscribe. Maybe, one day, you can also find your little Bag End.