Some Real Rural Side Hustles

Besides Jesse James bank robbing~

A cow standing on money (Substack AI Art)

I recently went down a “side hustle rabbit hole” after my brother told me he had made 15k flipping shoes after a year and a half. Most of everything was city or “home” oriented. Sure, I could start flipping shoes but that really isn’t something exactly rural to do as a side gig. I know of at least 3 that people do in my small town that are unique to a rural area. I’m trying not to rehash the same old lists out there. I looked and didn’t see most of these anywhere.

As a disclaimer, I haven’t been privileged to practice these methods so I have no idea what Uncle Sam expects when taxes roll around. This is not legal advice or tax advice get the drift? Now onto the first one:

Studding (or prostitution for animals)

You know why beef is so expensive in the grocery store? It’s because of Greenies trying to get two bulls to give birth to calves. Our poor walking burgers aren’t making love and blissful methane! Our beef stocks have been the lowest and I repeat the lowest in over 70 years.

Jokes aside when the market is good you can get a decent bull for 5k. It doesn’t have to be bulls though. People in the country pay good fees for hunting dogs especially when feral pigs are involved. Then there’s horses as well, a guy I know says an Arabian stud fee is like $500 a pop (he’s a bit of a braggart though; likes to talk big).

On the cattle side with the market the way it is I’d reckon you could charge a 100$ a pop—or per head—to let someone else take care of your bull for you. Not to mention give your cute little steak a little harem.

The downside of this is of course taking care of your cow or animal. This takes a little money and resources. I knew a guy who kept a baby bull in his back yard until he could get some fees though. So it can be done.

Hunting Varmints

I’m probably going to lose all of you; my dear conservative, anarchic or even liberal or libertarian pals for this next one. Are you ready? It’s a shocker.

Help Uncle Sam protect the environment.

The feds and state puts bounties on certain pests and invasive species but each state has its own rules and regulations. In salmon rich areas for example you can fish as much Northern Pikeminnow as you can get. How much you get per fish actually goes up as you go.

Feral hogs, coyotes or even deer culls (I.e. sick or freaks) have bounties in some areas.

Here’s a short list from my source for you on the things you could hunt:

• Nutria

• Pikeminnow (the fish I mentioned)

• Coyotes

• Beavers

• Feral Hogs

• Pythons (in Florida)

• Skunks

• Racoons

• Badgers

• Wolves

• Opossums

• Foxes

Raise an Animal for Auction

Auctions are subjective. There’s some group in my area that has kids raise rabbits for the fair and auction. Then local officials might buy them for like 3k$. You never know.

Farmer’s Markets

I have been to only one Farmer’s Market and I hope to go to more. My church and biological family swear by these things. The one I went to was an annual crawfish boil as we fundraised for our church. One brother from church spent several hundred dollars on a new leather holster he commissioned, there was also plenty of woodworking, trinkets, but the one I enjoyed was the knife guy.

He had beautiful Damascus steel Tomahawks and quite the collection. A rather profitable collection if he sold them all. My brother might have picked up blacksmithing thanks to him if my memory serves me right.

Then there’s the right from the crop corn and other vegetables. Fresher than Walmart or HEB. If it’s not “fresh”, it’s likely because they made it into a preserved homemade jam for the event.

Then there was the food trucks as well. One could travel around, sell hotdogs and maybe just maybe make six-figures.

An Honorable mention, Shooting Range

This might seem odd, but my bachelor party was a blast. No, like we went to a range and blasted some lead. The only quality shooting range is 2-hours away from where I live. I don’t want to have a 4-hour round trip to practice my (terrible) skills. All the other ones are private or club related and still quite the drive.

Sure, one might be able to ask their buddy if they can shoot out in their pasture but what if, say, one just moved down south to escape totalitarianism? Small towns aren’t welcoming usually and can be rather clannish. If your last name isn’t Bush or your wife’s maiden name isn’t Bush, then you could be in the market for a public shooting range.

Then if I’m throwing up smoke, one could allow Uncle Sam’s “militarized” police to practice and get you a steady income. I saw tons of cops at the range on my bachelor party but an indoor one might not be a “side hustle”. To go down the cheap side hustle route one could open a long distance or skeet shooting range on a land investment they already own and isn’t in much use.