I have been seen a couple pop up from time time. I down in NE Louisiana but wouldn’t mind the change. Are there any here that can give good sound advice on locations, the pros and cons. I have been doing a lot of research but I feel like I’m bumping my head into a wall. Any real help is appreciated

Most true Amish will only sell to other Amish.

We moved onto one 3 years ago, it was within walking distance to our family business, and made sense to make the move from our home farm to this one.  

Ours had no electric anywhere on the property other than a line that ran through the pasture to the neighbors.  Insulation was poor.  There was an indoor bathroom.  The well pump ran off of compressed air or small gas engine, as did everything else that required "power".  There was a diesel air compressor that was used to fill an old 1000 gallon propane tank for a compressed air source.

It would have been less expensive to tear down the old stone farmhouse and build new, but we chose not to as we really wanted to keep the old stone house.  We gutted it, spray foamed the walls, ran electric, ran new plumbing, new doors & windows, replaced the slate roof & rafters (the roof was over 100 years old, and many of the nails had rusted away leaving leaks); basically did everything except rebuild the structure.  The Amish in our area seem to take pride in the poor condition of their homes & out buildings.  The next county over is exactly the reverse, the Amish farms there are beautiful.  Our house is fixed up and ready to go, the out buildings are being repaired as time and funds allow.

It was nice to have the ability to plan out the entire house including an addition for a garage.  It is electric efficient now, and the outdoor wood burning boiler can heat the pex pipes run under & through the floor.

In short we bought the property for the location, it was expensive to fix up, even with our family doing a lot of the labor.  I can not imagine what it would cost today with the far higher prices & material shortages - probably more than double our cost.

I would make the same decision again, but only because of the location.  The farm land is poorer (fields & pasture both) than the old home farm, but the large garden is great.  20 years worth of horse manure will do that.

Our children are well motivated to do well in their school, as the one room Amish community school is still located on our property.  They have been told they could always go there instead (you can imagine sounds of children screaming if you wish)

In our case The neighbor was putting 150 acres of solar panels against their land, and the family I bought from made the decision to sell the day they were told about it.  While I would prefer fields, I prefer panels to a housing development.

If ya don’t mind my asking whereabouts are you located and roughly what was the total cost?

Rural PA, $450,000
House, large barn, large shed, large animal lean to, small hog pen, 200 head calf barn on 44 acres.  Fencing overall was in poor condition.

All buildings were in fair to very poor condition, no electric to any buildings, but electric did cross a pasture for access, pastures were poor, fields were good.

Again, neither property condition nor costs were the motivating factor, location to our family business was our priority.

The farm we moved off of was better in every way except location, but farming is not our main family income.

The property was offered to other Amish and one other neighbor before we found out about it.  No one was interested in paying that much for it in it's condition at that time.

Living on the new farm allows me to spend more time with my family, both at work and at home.  The money I invested in this property so that I would have the opportunity to spend more time with my family was well worth it to me. I would have paid more if I needed to so that could happen.

If not for the location, I would not have paid this much for the property.  It has taken a lot of time and money to fix up the house, buildings, & fencing, and after three years of work we still have a long way to go.

Thanks for the input. I truly appreciate it!

The last thing you want to see around here at a land auction is an Amish man bidding on the property you want. If they want it they are going to get it. I would say that any land that they are sellling is going to sell for a premium.

not if you are the seller.

Some around here, when they're selling, log every tree, sell off all the topsoil, then all the sand/ clay/ gravel underneath.
Scorched earth.

Have divided up.original farms so.much, kids head to Missouri, KY, etc

I would rather send a child to that one room Amish school than to a school that promotes socialism, sexual-confusion, climate change (it's geo-engineering that's happening, not climate change), and other leftist sh*t.

What is your intended end goal? Take on a life like Amish if TEOTWAWKI happens? Are you under the impression that you need to have an Amish farm to do that?

I think it would be much easier to do it the other way as long as you were building the home/barns and could influence the designs of a modern structure but with flexibilities to be used in a primitive manner.

The Amish will be no better off than the rest of us in TEOTWAWKI. Many are far from self sufficient.

Our children are fortunate enough to have a private good quality conservative school to attend.

I agree with you completely on your first two ideas, but disagree conditionally with the third.  In general I believe their familiarity with a basic, labor intensive community based lifestyle will help them during a time of self sufficiency.  The lifestyle that some of them live and the mindset of making do with what is available (as many others also have) would be helpful during hard times.  While none of us would thrive, they very well may be better off than most other Americans.

The school I mentioned earlier, had a tryaxcle load of firewood logs delivered a few weeks ago.  A few men with gas powered chain saws cut it all up in part of a day.  A bunch of teenage boys with mauls split it as it was being cut.  The community mindset of working together at a common task, as well as being physically able to preform that level or work will always be an advantage.

The nonresistant/nonviolent lifestyle is another matter entirely.

I really have no one designed goal. I know from family that grew up in Lancaster County, PA that the homes are built quite solid. However I don’t have any frame of reference for the rest of the country.

Primitive manner is a very subjective idea, so I would say minimalist is more accurate. I am always open to suggestions.

I would like to clarify that the "us" I mentioned is those of us in here discussing this topic, not the average American. The Amish are no better off than those of us that prepare, they're worse off in many ways, better in others. But they're still 100% dependent on modern tools and infrastructure even if they don't own those modern things. The Amish around me do indeed grow a larger garden and preserve more food than most, but they still rely on the local grocery stores for the balance of their food. And they hire a driver with a van to take them to the grocery stores. They call that driver using the cell phone they keep hidden from the bishop or the phone they paid their non-Amish neighbor to install in his garage for them to use any time they need it. Some Amish (and/or Mennonites) own and use tractors now.


The community support is definitely a great advantage there but even non-Amish in rural areas still operate that way. Your story is a great example at how modern technology and convenience has eroded into the Amish lifestyle. They relied on someone with modern saws and a truck to get the logs to where they're needed, then they themselves used modern saws (and gas) to cut them. That is no different than me having some friends over to work on my big stack of wood.


The point I'm trying to make is that OP cannot simply recreate the advantages Amish have by owning an Amish farm. And the modern Amish way of life isn't a magic pill that will somehow get someone through tough times. Every advantage they have needs to be recreated through shear grit, determination, and hard work. You need to cultivate relationships with like minded people, learn to be more self-sufficient, etc, and owning a farm that used to be owned by someone that did all that doesn't do anything to help OP with those things.




That is not true in my AO. The homes are built with little regard for safety, code compliance, or longevity. Corners are cut to be cheap. They throw together a house in 2 days using community members that may or may not be familiar with the right way of doing things. My brother found numerous structural problems with his home as well as egregious violations of protecting the building envelope from the elements. Due to lack of a sump pump the basement was routinely under water (until he added a sump pump). The Amish didn't care that standing water in the basement was going to eventually ruin the foundation of their home. Every time it rain the wall/window by the kitchen would become saturated. Upon examination he found there was no flashing where the porch roof met the wall of the house and it was funneling water into the wall rather that away from it. The Amish just let it go like that for the 15 years they owned the home. My brother tore it apart and fixed the damage and repaired the roof the right way.


You can be minimalist without being primitive. You can wrap amazing modern technologies into a home that can help you be minimalist without trapping you into a home devoid of technology and conveniences. IE, rather than a home setup for coal heat and gas lighting, build your home around being more energy efficient and using solar energy for lighting. Wire the house for 12V LED lights and design in a location for battery storage and you're better off than Amish. Going out to an outhouse to do a #2 at 2 am when it's 0 degrees out sucks, the Amish that owned my brother's house used bedpans to avoid this. Every single spot where the bedpan was kept was deeply stained by the "misses" and spills and had to have the actual floor replaced. Do you really want to use an out house or a bedpan that you want to clean every morning? Or do you want to install an effective and efficient plumbing system that would allow the modern convenience of plumbing to be utilized in hard times? I know which one I'm choosing.

Well said. Thanks for taking the time to clarify.

I'm surprised that an Amish farm hit the market and available for purchase by the English; Amish numbers are growing and they've been buying up non-Amish farms around here that come up for sale.

It's rare but it happens more than you would think. Sometimes an entire group of Amish gets frustrated with certain things in their community and they will all leave an area together and relocate (sometimes to other states).  In those situations, usually those Amish don't care about "cultural norms" and keeping  the others in the community happy, they will sell to anybody willing to buy.

Keep in mind that the Amish lifestyle is largely sustainable because of the community aspect. Good luck cutting and transporting enough ice for your icehouse by yourself. Same with barn raising, helping with crops when someone is ill, etc.

Oh I have already been informed by sandwich maker 6 there will be indoor plumbing because she is not schlepping it to an outhouse to shit with a trash panda! So there is that. I appreciate all the feedback I do!

You can always do a composting toilet. No need for an outhouse.