The Best Way to Turn an Economic Downturn in Our Favor is with Our 7 Rainy Day Hacks (Self-sufficiency Education)

How to Turn an Economic Downturn in Our Favor using Hack 1:

Today I was sweeping the floors in my house when I thought, let’s turn on the radio and listen to some music. I tuned into a station and immediately turned it off after only about 30 seconds.

How can I listen to commentary about some country music star buying a house and putting in all new furniture in it because he had the same leather couch for years and can now afford a new house to live in? 

While that may be relevant to me somewhat, because I’ve had my leather couch in my living room for 20 years, how can that be uplifting to me today when my heart is in such turmoil. 

Our economy is not looking good. What is coming in the very near future for our country? For our world? Have you heard the news lately? 

It looks as if our economy is about to tank and it’s going to be either a “hard recession or global depression.”

While this website is about “generating multiple streams of income while creating unique spaces and experiences for prominent guests and customers” it is also about self-reliance.

We want our website to serve more than just guests that might be looking for a unique place to stay in. We want to encourage people to do what we do (farm stay) and inspire people to be more self-reliant and get healthy while they do it eating from the fruits of their labor.

Recently, when I asked my son Brent and my grandchildren what they would like for me to blog about on our website they all had different answers. 

None were interested in the business side of the “farm stay” as they are currently living in London and do not have a homestead or even a place to have a garden. 

But they do plan to have something possibly in the future. Hopefully, the very near future. I’m grandma and if I let myself, I could worry to death about them living so far away from home with what’s coming.

What’s coming you ask? And how does that relate to what they and you would like to see me blog about?

My son Brent said he would like to see how Dean and I have our solar hooked up and he said “how to make good salads”. My older granddaughter Sophia, who is 17, would like to learn about raising chickens “because lots of people have chickens in London.” And my younger granddaughter Kiera who is 14 would like for me to write and video about how to bake.

Because both Dean and I want this website to be about providing a unique space and experience for our prominent guests and customers (like you), healthy eating, self-reliance, and how to start a profitable self-sufficient farm stay business on a homestead, we will write and stay in these parameters as much as we can. 

But my ultimate goal is to leave a legacy for my family about life on a self-sufficient farmstay, and how grandma and grandpa were business savvy. Maybe someday they can go back and read and watch our “How to Guides” videos. 

So, stay tuned my precious FarmStay Family. We are going to start pumping out some great content, starting with today’s topic “How to Turn an Economic Downturn in Our Favor”. 

I can just see my 40-year-old son’s eyes roll with this headline!

Let me share this as a side note and give a little context to this post. 

Dean and I were married for about 25 years when one day he said to me. “I’m not happy.” So, to make a long story short, I was shocked into reality! 

I had to change my mindset and allow my husband to be more himself. He needed to follow his heart and get into even more self-reliance, like solar energy, freeze drying, water filtration, EMP preparedness, etc. 

Preparedness does tend to be his area of expertise. 

On the other hand, I am the dreamer that loves to meet people and I tend to think everything will work itself out. After all, it was my idea to have a hospitality business in the upstairs master’s suite of our home, lol.

We have now combined the best of both our personalities and our lives have been enriched as a result. We are both letting the other pursue their dreams. 

He as a homesteader and preparedness guru and me as a hospitality host and entrepreneur. 

Merge the two worlds and you get a self-sufficient, "FarmStay Family" Business. 

Man, I’m so glad we had that conversation years ago! 

Lately, more often than not, both Dean and I talk about what would happen if the world went to pot and we were back in a great depression or worse. 

What could we do on this website and on location here at Prominence Homestead to inspire people to prepare? How can we better prepare?

I’ve put together a list of 7 Rainy Day Hacks. All they need is our action.

I read this blog post to Dean, and I asked him to do me a favor. "Remember the fortune cookie we would open up at the Chinese Restaurant and play the game with our family and friends by adding, “In bed” to the end of the fortune phase? 

Do the same for me here, but use the phrase, “And why we should”."

He did and we had a great discussion.

 
How to Turn an Economic Downturn in Our Favor (And Why We Should):

 
Rainy Day Hacks 1-7

Hack 1: Learn more about providing a place for people to stay on our homestead…

 
Hack 2: Learn more about gardening…

 
Hack 3: Learn more about eating more healthily, cooking, baking, and preserving food…

 
Hack 4: Learn more about alternative energy…

 
Hack 5: Learn more about raising back yard farm animals…

 
Hack 6: Learn more about getting “back to the basics” on EMP preparedness and water filtration...

 
Hack 7: Learn more about starting or joining a like-minded community…

 
Hack 1: Provide a place for people to stay on our homestead…and why we should.

 
In an economic downturn, we would want people to stay with us, live on our property, or at the very least park something to live on our property. 

This is exactly how Airbnb got started in 2007-2008. People literately slept on air mattresses in people's homes because it was too expensive to stay in hotels. 

We will need people to help us grow a garden and raise farm animals, etc., if inflation goes sky high and times get really rough. 

Besides, Dean has always taught me, “There is strength in numbers.”

Dean and I started with our master’s suite that is in the upstairs of our home at Prominence Homestead. Recently, we turned it into a short-term rental, and in an economic downturn, we are prepared to rent it out, if need be, as a long-term rental. 

You are able to stay with us now on our property as a short-term farm stay guest.

And we are in the process right now of getting RV’s and trailer hook-ups for farm stay guests and future off grid campsites. 

Getting a space prepared for others to be able to stay on our property would generate extra income right now to help pay for our next farm stay, or at the very least property taxes at the end of next year. 

I heard that not being able to pay property taxes was the reason that many people lost their properties during the great depression. I don’t want to be one of these people.

During the great depression, people had to lean on each other. I’m not 100% for sure if that is where we are headed, I certainly pray not, but if it did happen, we want our FarmStay Family to be prepared. 

We are preparing. 

Last weekend Dean and I got out the chainsaw and cut up underneath some of our trees to clear out for future campsites. 

As soon as it is clear enough, we will start burning the brush and look further into getting (or making) an off-grid toilet.

And right now, we are now contemplating the expense of a driveway, water, and electric hook-up for at least one RV or travel trailer to park on our property. Update: these were completed in December 2023. 

We have had guests that have stayed in our vacation rental tell us they would bring their trailers back and stay here if we had the hook ups.

We’ve got this! An economic downturn may be in the very near future. 

And the best part is, if it doesn’t happen, we still have several unique spaces and experiences on the property that will be generating income well into our retirement years, and if it does happen, we are better prepared than we were before.

If you're interested, you can Start a Profitable Farm Stay Business on Your Homestead with The 7 Farm Stay Hacks to Financial Freedom. 

 
Let’s do it together! 

Dean and Angie