Member-only story
When going green gets you taxed off your homestead
For the past decade, I’ve been living in the Northern mountains of New Hampshire. It’s not a big place or a fancy place, but it soon became an integral part of our lives. It gave us safe shelter from the outside world; it’s our office, church, school and grocery store all rolled into one. In short, we bothered no one and no one bothered us.
When my wife and I took on this property it needed a lot of work. But over the years we had slowly transformed it into the super-efficient homestead you see before you. Now flourishing on all sides with organic gardens and fruit trees, it’s fair to say we have worked every inch of this land. We were intentional about living this way, living simply while growing our own food is important to us. With a small flock of chickens and several sheep, this little gem soon became the absolute epitome of sustainable living.
We simply grew what we ate and ate what we grew. Living this way meant we didn’t need a huge income. Given that our savings had been all but wiped out by an earlier illness, this lifestyle fitted us rather well.
Here’s where it gets tricky.
