this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2026
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quote: "Otteson and his wife plan to sell their home in Redmond and move somewhere with lower costs of living, such as Vancouver, Wash., or Hillsboro, Oregon".
Not surprised one bit as this has been an ongoing trend for techies in the SF Bay area to Seattle for decades.
It'll be less a problem with small offgrid farms and more an issue for rural to suburban areas with full utilities because most of these people have no clue how to farm.
As someone who has never farmed, I don't understand why people think they'll retire through farming, arguably one of the most back breaking jobs with least pay to produce stuff that costs the least out of anything... And is due to become more and more difficult as climate change gets complex.
This is not the type of manual labor you want to learn how to do and invest in as you're older?
But yeah maybe managing some chickens and an herb farm, whatever that's not a big deal. I just would expect to only be supplementing what groceries you buy as a hobby, not homesteading. Don't get fucking acres of farmland that you won't know how to use... Grow some rosemary and thyme, maybe potatoes. Fuck even one fruit tree is a lot of work. Try that out first. Potatoes! Try stuff you can do with a balcony first. Maybe a goat if you're really wild.
But these are hobbies, not retirement income.
I assume people just mean having a small garden maybe a few chickens not full blown farming.
You're right about some things but theres a few misconceptions here.
Farming is not back breaking work. Unless you grow a crop of potatoes or strawberries and try to harvest them yourself.
Here with a not-very-big farm you could grow hay to sell as fodder. Thats a few days on a tractor to seed then a few days on a tractor to cut and wrap.
You could also just lease the land to another farmer for them to run their livestock.
On a farm any larger than a few house blocks you e got a huge asset that kind of cant avoid producing value in some way.
The other aspect of retirement is that the objective usually is to avoid spending money rather than making money. You're right that growing a few of your own herbs is not going to save much money.
If youve got room and time then growing most of your own food doesn't really require "homesteading". Get a cow butchered, give half to the neighbour, that and eggs and chickens can be your protein for 6 months, then the neighbour gives you half their cow and so on.
The keys are time, area, and rural contacts. Yes you wont have the latest gadgets - you'd have e to pay for those from your pension - but the lifestyle is very survivable.
I think most people think about it more if the second way you described (as kind of a small retirement hobby, not to earn much money).
Tech workers spend all of their time working on abstract problems that have no end and spend all their energy to produce something intangible that must indefinitely be maintained.
They see farming as the exact opposite of this: something they can work on with their hands in the dirt, that eventually bears fruit that you can hold in the palm of your hand, and even eat yourself and personally benefit from.
This is much more an urge to return to nature and the feeling of actual accomplishment rather than an actual business plan. It doesn't really matter how it goes financially because they already have enough money to retire.
Absolutely this. It's why I love working on my old cars as a hobby. There's just something therapeutic about getting your hands dirty for a tangible outcome that you can then enjoy after a week of daily standups
They are taking early retirement. Shit, I'd be on a hobby farm now if I could afford it.
Hillsboro has a pretty high cost of living
Yup. They should go to 'Methford', Oregon instead...
That comes with it's own disadvantages :)
Even worse: They’ll turn the small farms into suburbs.