A whole different way of things.

After 25 years of the Thunder 5 Ranch Inc. and doing 17 acres of produce and market garden, Cattle, Hogs and raising and processing 20,000 chickens per year. And running two food trailers and owning and operating 3 farmers' markets........... I AM LIKING THIS RETIRED LIFE! I still work hard but it is a lot of different working for myself and for myself than it was working hard to provide so much to the customers. It is rare that a small farm like mine survived for 25 years let alone did well enough that the operator could mostly retire in 2020 at age 52 and dissolve the Corporation 25 years to the day on December 31st 2023 and Fully Retire at age 55. Gotta pat myself on the back for being able to achieve that in todays world!

What I have always wanted and what my plan was when I left the Military in 1996 after 11 years was to find a nice quiet little Homestead and just live out my life in peace and quiet. Truth be told I did not want to leave the military My plan was 20 years and then call it a day, the medical review board did not agree and decided I was too banged up and shot up to continue to be a asset in the field. I disagreed with that assessment then and I still disagree with it all these years later.

So my plan of a Homestead in the middle of nowhere came to pass and I was selling my surplus at a little podunk farmers market 30 miles away. And it did not take long before I had more customers and demand than I had acres to produce enough to meet that demand and 1998 the Thunder 5 Ranch was incorporated and got big for a Farm to Fork direct marketing outfit. 72 hour days were not uncommon LOL. Everything changed in July of 2020 Covid Mania and the supply chain malfunctions were killing my Farmers' Markets and the Food Truck business aspects of the T5R. When you can't get togo containers and condiments for the Food Trailers it gets hard to run a food trailer LOL. Then the Covid restrictions and rules that changed almost faily and finally my wife had early onset dementia that was progressivly getting worse and really could not be left alone for any real amount of time. So I decided in July 2020 to sell the Farmers' Markets, shut down the food trailers and only do direct sales from the on farm store. November 4th 2022 my wife was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer and on October 29th 2023 she passed away. And on December 31st 2023 I dissolved the T5R Inc and fully retired.

My wife was a Government Employee so yeah I got the Survivor Pension and Health Insurance for life. I found NewHome in Missouri in May 2025 and put it under contract and closed on it in June 2025 I had been selling off 40 acre tracts of the old farm since 2020 and was down to my original 40 acres and my good friends and neighbors there asked if they could buy it. So I sold it to them for a lot less than I could have gotten in a auction with the out of state hunters bidding it up into the crazy range LOL. They did a first time farm buyers loan through the FSA/USDA so it took a while for them to have the money to pay me but we closed in Late August 2025 on them buying the last of my old farm.

22 Round trips of moving trailer loads of stuff to NewHome at 6 hours driving round trip and the last 6 Months of building everything I want here for my new life as being just a small self sufficient and sustainable little homestead at least as self sufficient and sustainable as a person can be.

We are slowly building a flock of around 60 chickens. These are some white leghorns RK had marked down to $2 per about 3 weeks ago 29 of them there. We also have 14 Easter Eggers and 15 Sapphire Gems in the Brooder tank in the Cabin Add on that just are not big enough and feathered out enough to make it out in the Chicken houses cold. The POS neighbors a mile down the road let their big pits run free and they dug under the chainlink fence and killed all of our 5 month old hens except one. Also killed some rabbits and most of the Ducks and Muscovy. When the neighbor refused to compensate us at fair market value for our losses and destruction of several rabbit cages..... I filed and pressed charges and as is my right eliminated the problems to protect my livestock.

What is left of the Khaki Campbell Ducks and Muscovy's after the Dog Raids. 3 Khaki Hens and 1 Drake out of 20, and 2 Muscovy Hens and 3 Drakes left out of 15. It is enough assuming we lose no more to rebuild the Duck and Muscovy flock in the spring.



The Rabbits fared much better when the dogs dug under the wall and we only lost 3 rabbits and the dogs destroyed 5 cages trying to get the rabbits in them. I really like how the old barn Rabbit add on turned out




We have around 4 acres of open on the Valley floor. Going to fence 3 acres of it in and get hair sheep early summer. We both like Lamb so hair sheep are a good fit for us and are easy to keep. The last acre is going to be Garden and Orchard.


On the Mountain side of the property we have about 9,000,002 Squirrels and a very healthy Deer and Turkey population. So I put the Henry .45-70 lever gun to work putting venison in the freezer and the 20 gauge double barrel to work snagging squirrels as wanted and is a great turkey gun loaded with 0 or 00 buckshot. I carry the Vaquero .45 single action just because If you are like me and prefer old school single action wheel guns the Ruger Vaquero is a great choice to replace those old Colt Army and Navy's


The view out of my office window as I am sitting here making this post. My good Neighbors cabin is on the other side of the valley where the pine trees are.


We are getting to be good friends with those neighbors and help each other out quite a bit. They invited us to spend Thanksgiving Day with them and their family. We have a lot in common and work well together as friends and neighbors. Always a plus out here in the sticks


A lot has Changed in my life over the last two years I have no regrets about selling the old farm and buying Newhome. Leaving Illinois and all those extreme taxes and corruption behind was one of my better life choices. Just no way I could sell and leave there before I was done working and fully retired. My search for the right place to move to was not a easy task. #1 and no compromise on this was I had to be at the end of a dirt or gravel road. Everything else I could compromise a little on like having neighbors closer than 1/2 mile LOL. Everything here is scaled way back to a fraction of the old farm. But I am not trying to scratch a living out of the land here, just be a little homestead living in peace and quiet.

Not going to just spend the winter laying up on my ass at the computer staring out the window The Previous owner of the Cabin was a DIY type that really did not know anything about doing stuff Like the rewiring job is a nightmare so I am going to be spending a lot of time in the attic rewiring the rewire job LOL. I mean having all of those drains come together in a chain of Ts on one 2" drain line and no venting.......... Yeah what could go wrong Not a fan of electric lines running behind and under water lines either LOL. Most impressive is there is no water main shut off on the water line inside. It is out at the well and it is called unplugging the well pump and closing the pressure tank valve.


One of my personal favorites found so far is 12/2 wire on two 15 amp breakers to power one dryer outlet. I guess they took the approach of if it works it must be right. Sigh this dryer does call for a 30amp on 10/3 on a two pole 30amp breaker. LOL I guess two 15amp breaker = 30amps LOL. and 12/2 is close enough to 10/3


When they rewired they used almost all 14/2 on 15 and 20 amps breakers no matter which room a circuit went to or what the load on the circuit would be. I knew this when I made my offer on this place. One look in the breaker box and the wire nightmare in the attic was a automatic me reducing the offer by $10,000 off the asking price. And another - $10,000 for a collective of various other things that would have to be fixed. The seller jumped right on my $230,000 offer Cash, No Contingencies and no inspections. Well one contingency and that being the title search came back with a clean deed and no liens. NEVER buy a property with a lien against it! You will buy the lien as well as the property. I would have required a survey of the property as well if there was not already one on file at the Courthouse. A clean Deed and a accurate filed Survey are mandatory for me when buying a property. Dealing with old liens and property line disputes without a survey in hand just SUCKS.

I think I did pretty good 40 acres, a old barn that was in good enough shape to be restored, a 2 bedroom cabin in sound structural condition built in 1991. Enough area to build everything I wanted to build and enough open acres to do the garden and pasture I wanted. Great hunting on the side and top of the little mountain and creek running across the front of the property being the North Property line. And at the end of a dead end mixed gravel and dirt road. My own appraisal of the place was $260,000 with the obvious things repaired. I had my bank do a pro appraisal of it after I bought it just incase I wanted to break my no debt rule and take a equity operating loan against it. That pro appraisal came in to $375,000 and was updated after everything I have built and improved to $488,000 Trust me I will never go into debt like I did in 2025 to buy this place and my new truck EVER AGAIN. It was cheaper to go into $296,000 of debt with a fairly low interest operating loan against the old farm than to do a early $300,000 withdrawal from the Roth IRA A LOT cheaper. I stressed like hell until the sale of the old farm closed and that operating loan was paid back in full and the new tundra was paid off. I hate debt and credit!!! I had not had a credit card or any kind of debt since 1996 after 90 days of being in $296,000 of Debt and how much stress it caused me........ I will never go into any kind of debt again. I like my perfect ZERO Credit Score and No Credit History!!!! When my credit gets pulled and it says "UNSCORABLE" it makes me feel secure and smile. Total financial independence and freedom is a very powerful thing. Paying interest is just throwing your hard earned money away, not paying interest and saving what you would have paid in interest builds wealth.

So as I do every month I am doing the books my total Monthly Expenses are Star Link $120, Electric $115, Trash pick up (I do a 2 yard dumpster) $80, Website Server and business emails $30, Prescriptions $28 in co pays, Gas and Grocery $125 . I prepay my phone, auto and home insurance a year at a time in advance so don't count them in the Monthly bills, and just got the property tax bill for $469 which is 6.8% of what my property taxes on the 40 acres in IL was. If I used ZERO Electric in IL. my electric bill would be $140 per Month for the Service availabilty fee and taxes on the service. Almost never had a electric bill in IL. less than $325, here I use more electric and the bill is 1/3 of the IL. bill. Overall I saved $18,000 per year in mostly taxes by moving 150 miles west and across the big river into MO.

My total recurring Monthly expenses are $498 now. The Survivor Pension I get from my wifes passing is $2580 per Month and tax exempt. When I turn 60 I automatically get the Survivor SSD which will be another $3800 per Month income and am already doing better than good on just the survivor pension. I will never have to even take a disbursement from my Roth IRA for the rest of my life and there are NO RMDs with a ROTH. SO I cashed out and dropped my whole life insurance policy I had since 1986 and am just calling the ROTH IRA my life insurance policy now.

LOL I spent more money in 2025 than I have spent in all of my adult years combined. All total between NewHome, all of the building and upgrades, a new truck, a new car and a new trailer and yeah some new guns and more ammo............ I Spent $587,000 over 2025 and am still going into the New Year of 2026 100% Debt Free. Not bad for a kid that left home dirt floor poor and joined the army in 1985 and am a whopping 57 1/2 years old now. Anyone that tells me the American Dream is Dead IMO is just lazy and not trying hard enough. All a person can do living as a dependent on the tax payer and expecting a free life will achieve is existing and nope will never have anything real. Anyone living in perpetual debt will have more but will always be a slave to that debt. Those who reject normal and carve our own way through life have the chance to be totally and as truly free as possible slaves to no one or no thing. $2580 direct deposits into my checking account on the 18th of every Month like clockwork and $498 give or take (The Electric bill varies $20 either way month to Month) Auto Pays out over the 2 weeks following that deposit. On the 5th of every Month I transfer $1500 out of my checking and into my savings and leave $500 for us to go out to eat and dink around with. After 2 years now of doing this I have a $32,000 emergency back up reserve of cash in the savings account. You can't do that carrying a Mortgage, vehicle payments, and credit card debt. If I had financed the Tundra and made the 75 payments on it I would have paid $22,000 more for the truck in interest........ And had a $750 payment every month for 75 Months........... And that would have been putting $36,000 down and financing $36,000! I did finance it because I had to have a new truck right then. And I made ONE $750 payment and said screw that I and paid it off from the money from the farm closing a day before the next payment was due!

My goal from the time I left home was to be able to retire at age 55 and have enough to invested to live the rest of my life comfortably from 55 until Dead Time. I did NOT want to be my Grandpa working like a Hebrew Slave barely scraping by and falling over dead on the job still working at 93! Young enough to enjoy life and the fruits of my hard labor in retirement, doing what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it. Dee passing away two years ago was not part of that plan and I would have preferred for us to be enjoying this retirement together as planned. That obviously was not in God's plan If you ever want to hear God laugh tell him your plans A lot of folks believed I depended on Dee financially over our 25 years together and nothing could be further from the truth. I was the CEO of the T5R Inc and made my living from the farm and its different aspects. My retirement was funded soley by myself buying into various investments, fixed rate annuities and a Traditional and a Roth IRA. Dee worked both for the State and Federal Government and had all of the retirement benefits and pensions that came with 30 years of Government Service. The State pension and health insurance went fairly smooth. 2 years later we are still debating the Federal survivor Pension. The Feds Move at a snails pace on everything and the debate is there is a State Pension and a Federal Pension and I can have one or the other but not both until I turn 65. My lawyers will eventually get the Federal Pension or I can just wait until I turn 65 LOL. and I am not losing any sleep over it one way or the other. At this stage another $3200 per Month from the feds is not going to make or break me.


My life now days is VERY Simple, basic, and mostly drama and problem free. Just a happy little homestead at the end of a dead end road doing my thang.

 

You've earned your little slice of heaven there ,, put a plan together, and stuck with it,, and you're earning the benefits now ,,, just as you planned .
Hard work and motivation has its outcome ,,, and I believe you have just about mastered that .

Carry on , sir ,,,

 

That's a hell'va story. It amazes me how many common people, not the Elon Musk's in the world, have such wonderful tales of perseverance and determination.

That Rabbit add-on looks really nice! Good job! I also like the look of that 45-70...

However, the most shocking part of this post is...YOU CUT YOUR HAIR AND SHAVED! I didn't even recognize you!

EDIT: One last thing, the biggest point to remember when obtaining financial freedom, which in my mind is true freedom, is eliminating debt and staying away from credit. Do that, however and whatever it takes, and you will obtain financial success.

 

LOL I cut it all off around mid November every Year and again at about the end of May. About every 6 months whether I need it or not! The .45-70 is a Henry All Weather. IT is a little on the short and stubby side and is ballistically challenged and drops like rock after 175-200 yds. 50-100yads is the sweet spot where it is most effective IMO. Can't knock it for knock down power and being a very terminal bullet in its effective range. I actually got it for a Elk Hunt I was planning with my best friend and then he died and the hunt just never happened. Since then it has proven to be a great brush gun for Deer. Most of those deer shots are 25-50 yards occasionally a clear shot at one in the 75-80 yard range. Pretty much a guarantee a chest shot is going to knock Bambi down and he is not going to get back up.

 

Nice Work! I'm almost there, except for 40 acres and a beard. You have become the spokesperson for a prepper/survivalist, which has become someone who has no debt and no dependencies on government at any level. Bravo!
I finally paid everything off 2 years ago and it is a great feeling.

 

Your wiring nightmare reminds me of helping a buddy re-wire the controls for his house swamp cooler (he's in Central Valley, CA, where you can get away with those). Takes 2 hots, 2 commons and a ground wire, to go up to the cooler from the switch (so you can control the pump and fan separately). Someone figured the easiest way was to run two 14/2 Romex thru the electrical conduit. Of course, without marking which wire was which, on either end. Oh, and the two were on separate circuits!

Finally resorted to killing the power, disconnecting the wires on each end, and having my buddy hold a 9V battery to the ends of the wires, so I could tell which was which on each end. Lots of cussing and fuming, but I finally got it wired up correctly (yeah, the old owner had ZERO idea how to wire the switch, and this was long before the internet made looking that shit up easy). Hero of the day!

 

1st: THANK YOU for you your service T5R.
2nd: Well done!

 

You cut your hair and shaved -your SO is having a bad influence on you Ha HA

 

Looking good pop's, You wear me out with this retired stuff, carry on and the new lady looks good for you as well!

 

Yeah, me too and it truly is amazing how fast one accumulates cash and the feeling to be free - well - as free as we can get under the current laws. What I have always found shocking is people who have swallowed the tale of, " but you can't write your home interest off your taxes so why pay it off" and I imagine with the new laws of $12,000 write off for American cars/trucks we'll see/hear more of that crap. Anyway, I get it. I don't owe anyone or anything a penny and get nothing from any government. Now, if we could get rid of property taxes and find a better method of taxation and get medical insurance or medical care to a reasonable cost... I beg your pardon, I was daydreaming.

 

Hypothetical if I did a traditional mortgage on this place with my ZERO credit score and $46,000 down 20% My Monthly payment would $1,297.77 over 30 years. I would have paid in reality $467,197.20 for my $230,000 home and property at the end of the 30 year term. Sure would have to write off a whole lot of interest to = $237,197.20 that was saved by paying $230,000 cash up front.

Can't say I don't get anything from the Government since I currently get and live on one Gov Pension and sooner or later will get another and then SSD Survivor............ I would be a fool to not take those pensions and the Maxed out SSD Survivor Benefits. Sometime after age 60 I will be knocking out $120,240 per year in pensions and SS. Right now though and for the next 2 years I am just a poverty stricken early retired guy trying to scrape by on $2580 per Month

 

Still working at 67, but heading for retirement. Mostly just adding to the padding in the bank accounts. House was paid off five years ago via popping the IRA for $46k and a $50k 401(k) loan. Got that at the right time, as it only cost $700 in total interest over five years, and that was all paid back to myself with the final payment last June. The IRA cost us $19k in taxes, but we would have paid more than that in interest and still owing at the end of five years. I'll give credit where it's due, and that's to my wife. She's been managing our funds for over 35 years. The only debt we now have is about $40k owed for parent loans we took out to help the girls with college. Real degrees, that they actually use. And those loans are tied to me, not her, so if I croak, they're forgiven. No liens on the house, and the vehicles are paid for. Our monthly expenses are a bit more than yours, but I'm pretty sure we're actually living well below our monthly combined SS income, so my paychecks are truly all bankable.

 

I'm also 67 and still working. In addition to salary, I have SS and some rental income, which totals about $3800 per month. I plan to keep working for the foreseeable future. The house and land are paid off, as is the car that I bought 2 years ago. I've saved some money for a few home repairs and such, and in 2026 I plan to finish my preps. After that I plan to continue adding to my savings, until I retire when my income will take a hit and be reduced by half. I'm a cheap SOB so I don't need much!

 

Been retire since I was 63- wife got down sized at 53 from the hospital (top of her pay grade hired someone for less money). When she got down sized we paid the house off and she quite nursing. 2 trucks and her Honda CRV paid off --zero debt. Her SS and my pension and small SS and 70% military disability due to (A/O) we are doing well. Wife has a 401K with half a mill in it. Our only expenses are electric, gas for the vehicles, GD property taxes, home insurance, food (plant a big garden). At this stage of our life we need very little. Looked at my wife and said what do you want for Christmas her reply I don't need anything. I said the same thing. Our income is about the same as when we were working.

 

Your biggest mistake was staying there as long as you did. Of course I guess you had your reasons ... but man,
what a fucked up state!

 

I have kerosine heater I got when hurricane Hugo hit and we had no power for literally 2 months. Since then I use it in the garage when it gets cold --ran out of kerosine and had a hell of a time finding it Georgetown Ice Company has a pump so I got 3 gallons about had a heart attack 10 bucks a gallon. Looks like I will be retiring the kerosine heater and going with a propane. Why the hell is kerosine so high?

 

I've used kerosene up until about 5 yrs ago,, it just got to expensive. I'm using propane now ,, Definitely cheaper,, but I'm about to go to wood ,, don't know why I've put it off this long ,, just lazy I guess.,,
I used to come home from work,, walk in the door ,, fire up the kerosene heater,, go to the kitchen,, wrap up some chicken,, steak ,, etc ,, in aluminum foil,, lay it on top of the kerosene heater,, go take a shower ,, get back to the heater,, and inside temps were about bearable,, and supper was done .
I've got 3 fire boxes ,, and just have to many other projects going to install them ,, this may be the year,,,

 

If you are shooting longer range than 200 years, get a flatter shooting rifle like a 6.5 Creedmoor. Good for elk or antelope. I'm told you can't get within 300 yds of an antelope without them taking off on you.

My brother owns the family farm in NE MO near Marceline/Brookfield. 3 farms in a row have been in the family since 1838. He just hunts on his now, barn is about to fall in, and the garage is as well. Had a house trailer on it for years but he sold that when he moved out of state. Tried to convince him to put a steel sided building on it for storage and put a nice bedroom in back, but he's happy to just drive the 30 miles over from his home. My thought was it might keep him hunting a bit longer as he ages. (He's 73).

 

I have a pretty good selection of reach out and touch something. My favorite is .300WM