How big is big enough?

[CatherineID]

We live on small acreage now. While I love where I live since it feels rural but is also walking distance to town, there are many times when I wish we had moved farther out. I get in a mood where many times I am tired of dealing with neighbors and, especially, city government. Lately my husband and DD have been doing target practice with the BB gun. We'd love to set up a gun range in the backyard but, of course, we're in the city limits and it is against the law. Besides the neighbors would complain (d@&$ CA transplants).

We are planning on moving. When we do it will be to a slightly larger piece of property but lately even that doesn't seem large enough. Okay, we might never set up a gun range on our property, but how big is big enough for you? One acre? Two? Five? Ten? Twenty? A quarter section? We have to keep it reasonable, price wise. I would love to own 80 to 160 acres but I don't think that is going to fit in the budget.

[TNDadx4]

Personally, I'd love to have 40 acres. That would give me enough for food for us (several large gardens) animals, wood for heating and cooking, woods for hunting. A spring-fed lake would be nice as well :)

Ideally, I would like to have enough to give each of my children a piece of the land to live on with their families when they get older.

[walls0stone]

319....THIS 319. and if one thinks about the use of all the rest of the space around here, and all the friends and neibors who get alonge...we have more than I could ever use.

[johnjmw]

319? Is that your acreage? Now that would be big enough. I have 79 in the country, but I still think that is not enough. It's just not quite big enough to get lost on yet. I'm still trying to figure out how to build there so I can escape the Cleveland area. I'm really tired of the city but my wife is not quite ready to believe that someone can be happy living in a remote area. Once I have a good cabin built and she vacations there a few times I think she will see my point of view.
John

[Drawbar]

How big is big enough?

Well it depends. You have to make some decisions and then get back to us. Like if you want to burn wood. Here in Maine you sustainably harvest 1 cord per acre per year. So if you have a big house and burn 10 cords of wood a year, you need at least 10 acres. (at the minimum)

If you want to raise livestock like sheep and cows, you get one cow per acre or 6 sheep per acre. Since you have to have at least 3 to maintain a self-supply, and up to 5 at one time would be feeding, add in 5 acres for pastures and another 5 for winter feed. (hay ground)

At this point you are already up to 20 acres. Add in 2 acres for the house footprint and barn, at least an acre for a garden and you are at 23. Add in some losses if you have bogs, steep ground, or no-mans-land (neither good forestry ground or pasture ground...and these areas add up to a lot of acreage actually) and you are in the 50-60 acre range. All in all, I wouldn't settle for less than 50 acres here in my native Maine anyway.

In my opinion, no amount of land is really big enough. I currently have 1634 acres and I would really like to buy 286 more. The problem is 1400 acres roughly is in woodlot with only 112 acres in tillable land. I would like to bump the tillable land ratio up a bit so I could do more active farming and the extra acres would give me an even 3 square miles of earth.

And the reason I type all this is to show people the problem with land ownership. And that is; no matter what you have, you always want more land, or better quality land, or land located in a better spot.

[whippersnapper]

Like most people have mentioned, it all depends on what you plan to do with it, and the land type and features. For me, I like to deer hunt, and feel 40 acres isn't big enough (they will pattern your movements in a few days, if you hunt every day. Plus, it is really hard to do any wildlife management , unless you have like minded neighbors with the same goals.

On the other hand, if you just want to set up a range to shoot and have a garden, 5 acres might be plenty.

My thought is you can never have too much land, as long as you can afford to keep it.

[MadTripper]

We have 24+ and it truly is enough for us. We have enough land to have our gardens and raise any animals we would like for food as well as provide hay. I wish we had more for hunting but the adjacent lands are available as well so it works.

On the other hand, having 300 or so acres and plopping right down in the middle is a nice idea but tough to find that type of property in our area.

Tripper

[AlchemyAcres]

Depends on your goals.

My place is just 17 and 2/3 acres.
That's more than enough to provide all the food I need, firewood (small 4 acre woods) and the area I need to produce stuff to pay the small mortgage. ($318.01 per month.)...oh...and the property taxes!!! Gotta make the Marxist's happy!!!!


~Martin :)

[flatwater]

Big enough is when you can locate one to twenty acres that is boardered by national forest or state land.
Flatwater

[Faye]

I have only 2 acres which is not nearly enough but will have to do unless I strike it rich. I would love to have enough that I did not have to have near neighbors.

[Catalpa]

I currently live on less than an acre, and I can have a garden and also target practice whenever I want, since I'm surrounded by farm fields. I have a ten acre parcel I'm going to move to as soon as I can sell this place. The ten is all I could afford to get, but really I think 40 acres would be a minimum to feel comfortable on. We had 500 when I was a kid, and the freedom was fantastic. I could never afford to replace the family farm, though, so I have to settle for my ten. And I guess I shouldn't say settle. It's actually a pretty nice parcel, and it's all mine....many folks may never realize that dream.

[Red_Diamond_Ranch]

Our neighbors place is a wee bit larger than ours, by about 41 square miles. It's been in the their family long before Oklahoma was a state. Ours is plenty big for us and we're looking forward to next year being a bountiful one. I'm 64, but in my head I'm still 24 and it's that way everyday. Now if I can just stop sounding like a bowl of Rice Crispies when I get up in the mornings (snap crackle and pop) LOL We are so blessed and comfortable here. I tell my Sons, life is wonderful and easy, just side step the piles of crap. Don't be stupid and stomp the piles. They don't always listen though.
We don't allow hunting on our land because most of these clowns can't tell a Deer from a Black Angus Bull.
I suppose you've noticed that I tend to drift off the subject. Sorry 'bout that. Must be this independent attitude I've always had. They called it Nonconformist whe I was young. LOL

[MNMOM]

We have three farms, that being because that has always been our business. The farms have provided for us nicely.

It all depends on what you want to do with your land. If you want it to provide food for your family, or if you want it to provide a living for you, or if you want land for recreational use.

[CatherineID]

We really just want privacy. Right now, my husband travels for a living so he isn't around much to care for the land. Since I have arthritis, I can dabble but on any given day I might be out of commission. Because DD and I want the freedom to travel, too, we probably won't have animals or do much in the way of farming. Hubby's hobby is wood working so we'd like to have a parcel that is only partially developed which includes a house with a small foot print, a couple of out-buildings, and the rest wooded. If we could wander around and hunt on our own property, that would be gravy. A small pond would make my dog extremely happy but fishing would be a thrill as well.

[EarthMother]

We have 27 and that would be plenty if my neighbor hadn't decided to buy the land next door and build just below us where I see their house every time I look across my 15 acres of hay field. These are really nice people until you do business with them. They'll skin you if given an edge. I was raised in a time when a man helped his neighbor, even gave him a little break if he could for a good relationship. He was honest, respectable and his word and hand shake were as good as any contract.... not so here anymore. ??? ???

[stilltryinat50]

Huh; I wondered where my sociopathic neighbors moved to....so sorry for you Earthmother. :(

[Drawbar]

We have 27 and that would be plenty if my neighbor hadn't decided to buy the land next door and build just below us where I see their house every time I look across my 15 acres of hay field. These are really nice people until you do business with them. They'll skin you if given an edge. I was raised in a time when a man helped his neighbor, even gave him a little break if he could for a good relationship. He was honest, respectable and his word and hand shake were as good as any contract.... not so here anymore. ??? ???

That sucks.

Its one of the unfortunate parts of life. Unfortunately no matter how many acres you have, you you can run into nasty neighbors and neighbors that block your view and whatnot. Even with the amount of land I have I run into this problem.

As for neighbor disposition though, I am the opposite way. My neighbor and I are in a running feud. It all started a few years ago when he shot a deer and needed help dragging it out. It was way out in my woods,so I had to use my tractor to get it for him. For that I got a few pounds of deer meat. Well where I live being neighborly is the right thing to do, no pay needed.

So the next time it snowed, I plowed out his driveway. Yep more meat. Now I HATE Venison but I hate being paid back for being neighborly even worse.

Just last week a truck hauling junk iron off his place got stuck so I went down and pulled out the truck. I am not sure what I'll get for that, but I really don't want anything. This guy only calls me when he is screwed,and has no more options left. In the mean time I run a gravel pit withing a few feet of his property and never once has he complained.

Its this 'feud" that is funny. Its a you-did-this-for-me, so I-will-do-this-for-you thing that is just out of hand. It culminated last year when he stopped by my house in a wicked snowstorm.

"I don't think I can get in my driveway with this 2 wheel drive truck," he said.

"Oh I think you'll be fine."

"I don't know Drawbar, its deep and my driveway is steep."

I knew what he was hinting at, but there was no need to go down there and plow his driveway out...I had already done it. ;) ;) That's just the way we live up here. Good neighbors get a lot of help.

[TNDadx4]

Big enough is when you can locate one to twenty acres that is boardered by national forest or state land.
Flatwater


This is great advice! To me, and I think to a lot of you, the ideal place would border on protected state or national land, that way you are all but guaranteed (I know that nothing is guaranteed) that the surrounding area doesn't change too much if at all.

When I go for my next piece of land, this is high on this list.

[bee_pipes]

Bordering on institutional land – be it parks or utilities – has its own risks.

One case in point is the Duneland National Park in Indiana. This is a nice place, on the southern shore of Lake Michigan – LaPorte County, I believe. Well, the park wants to increase its size and has started acquiring the surrounding land. They are supposed to pay the owners fair market value for the land, but some refused to sell. It was their family home, and some intended to leave the property to their descendants. The park service (I could be mistaken – it may be a state park) has still taken over the destiny of the property in question. The residents are allowed to continue living there, but when they die or vacate the property it will be transferred to the park.

Another case I came across in recent years was in Columbia, Tn. It was either the Tennessee Valley Authority or the Army Corps of Engineers that decided to build a dam on the Duck River. The dam was a classic example of a pork barrel project. Federal money was going to fund the project, the dam was not needed for flood control, was not going to generate electricity – it was solely for the purpose of impounding the river, creating a lake and increasing local business through a recreational facility. The properties along the river, some of them with titles that predated the civil war, were condemned, the people paid “fair market value” for the property and evicted. Someone somewhere came to their senses and cancelled the project (prolly they ran out of money or someone else’s pork got the funds). Now the TVA has a bunch of land they evicted people from, so they made it a wild life refuge. It’s a nice place to paddle and camp, but when you see those old foundations and homesteads, you have to wonder about the poor, law abiding folk that lost the family hearth in the name of the “greater good”.

I would watch buying property next to parks or other public lands. We have no guarantees in this life.

Regards,
Pat

[TNDadx4]

Those are good points. I know that nothings is guaranteed, but figured that land along "those" areas would be the least subject to development, etc. I've seem too much good land sold to make crowded subdivisions.

Also, now that you mentioned the TVA, I seem to remember another farm, in Coffee or Lawrence County, I believe, where the TVA is trying to build a utility eavesment across someones farm.

Maybe a land trust would help?

Purchasing near like minded people or Amish would've been my next choice.

Thanks for the info!

[333]

Peace,

My sentiment exactly when the 2, 33 acre lots in the foothills of the adirondacks bordering the park became availlable. I could spend the rest of my life working on it and then some , so I guess its more for posterity and their freedom I went that large. As for shooting range ...it really depends on what you want to shoot and then the quality of the back stop. I havent broke out the 105 mm yet (jking) but have had no issues with rifle practice. In fact the neighbors respond regularly ,like morse code, we say hello back and forth with muzzle reports.

Great info thanks every one.

333