how many acres and what is on it?

[knuckledragger]

I hope that this isn't an impolite question (like what is your annual income?), but my reason for asking is that I am trying to figure out just what can be done with a given amount of land. So...

How many acres do you have and what do you have on it? (how much pasture? how many buildings/what type? how many and what kind of animals?)

Also, how much is pasture, how much wooded, how much in gardens, how much is rolling/flat/sloping, etc?

Don't answer this if it is impolite (feel free to correct my ettiquete as well) but I was just trying to get ideas. By the way, we have 20 acres, all wooded, gentle slope.

[bookwormom]

hi knuckledragger, I like your post, because I like to talk about homesteading and all it involves.
we have 40 acres. It means privacy most of all. our neck of the county is hilly and wooded. mostly it is steep and wooded. we have about 5 or six acres clear, one nice bottom. I would post some pictures if I knew how to do it. Husband tried to help and he could not figure it out either. ( you know, a picture is worth a thousand words).
we have three gardens and I am working on a fourth one. two are quite large, the second one is not much at all right now, mostly due to drought and bad soil. I made one garden below the goat shed , as it has southern exposure, it is steep of course, so I made a retaining wall out of tires and filled the area with brush and rotting wood, covered with woodchips, then old straw and soil. I am attempting to grow watermelons there this year. My new garden is being developed the same way. It is an area that was quite eroded, I need to haul more woodchips and am waiting for some topsoil. afraid it will also need a bit of a retaining wall. things always get bigger than I originally thought. WE hope these gardens will be more drought resistent. we built our house, husband calls it the humble house, it is very plain and simple. we heat and cook with wood, i n winter, for summer I have the luxury of a summerkitchen, which we put under a very large overhang on the north side of the house. It is a cool place, in more ways than one.
we are far from finished, but getting there. we need to do a lot more fencing, (first you get the sty, then you get the pig to quote Grandma Moses). so we do not have a lot of animals yet.
we still have tile to lay, a bathroom to finish, a shop to finish, paint floors, put in a sink and the like. we got the shelving in the rootceller done, can not have too many shelves. Husbandplowed and tilled an area for me to establish an herb garden. It is triangular in shape and I want to make a big spiral inside of it. along the drive way edge I planted rugosa roses already. I had the area planted in green manure cover crop, but this drought is too much. four or five of the wild flowers I planted made it up to now.
well, the pond is about half dried up, the one by the house. we have another big pond and a small one that is mostly mud, we need to put a few pigs in there.
we have worked to establish quite a few trails on the place. I think we can walk more than half an hr, mostly through woods. all done by hand. we do not have an ATV (or a TV for that matter)
Like most homesteaders we are shooting for selfsufficiency, I sure would like to meet someone who has made it. if we had to live off the place so far we would have to starve.

[esoxenvy]

I have 108 ac in Upstate NY with a smaller 3 bedroom ranch home on it. The land is mostly cleared and is presently used for hay. The house is currently rented out to a great family. I am looking forward to eventually putting up a second house on the property to live in myself; there is about 1\4 mile of roadfront.

[TNDadx4]

hi knuckledragger, I like your post, because I like to talk about homesteading and all it involves.
we have 40 acres. It means privacy most of all. our neck of the county is hilly and wooded. mostly it is steep and wooded. we have about 5 or six acres clear, one nice bottom. I would post some pictures if I knew how to do it. Husband tried to help and he could not figure it out either. ( you know, a picture is worth a thousand words).
we have three gardens and I am working on a fourth one. two are quite large, the second one is not much at all right now, mostly due to drought and bad soil. I made one garden below the goat shed , as it has southern exposure, it is steep of course, so I made a retaining wall out of tires and filled the area with brush and rotting wood, covered with woodchips, then old straw and soil. I am attempting to grow watermelons there this year. My new garden is being developed the same way. It is an area that was quite eroded, I need to haul more woodchips and am waiting for some topsoil. afraid it will also need a bit of a retaining wall. things always get bigger than I originally thought. WE hope these gardens will be more drought resistent. we built our house, husband calls it the humble house, it is very plain and simple. we heat and cook with wood, i n winter, for summer I have the luxury of a summerkitchen, which we put under a very large overhang on the north side of the house. It is a cool place, in more ways than one.
we are far from finished, but getting there. we need to do a lot more fencing, (first you get the sty, then you get the pig to quote Grandma Moses). so we do not have a lot of animals yet.
we still have tile to lay, a bathroom to finish, a shop to finish, paint floors, put in a sink and the like. we got the shelving in the rootceller done, can not have too many shelves. Husbandplowed and tilled an area for me to establish an herb garden. It is triangular in shape and I want to make a big spiral inside of it. along the drive way edge I planted rugosa roses already. I had the area planted in green manure cover crop, but this drought is too much. four or five of the wild flowers I planted made it up to now.
well, the pond is about half dried up, the one by the house. we have another big pond and a small one that is mostly mud, we need to put a few pigs in there.
we have worked to establish quite a few trails on the place. I think we can walk more than half an hr, mostly through woods. all done by hand. we do not have an ATV (or a TV for that matter)
Like most homesteaders we are shooting for selfsufficiency, I sure would like to meet someone who has made it. if we had to live off the place so far we would have to starve.


Wow! All of that land, root cellar, etc. sounds great! I am looking to eventually have something similar eventually.

[Suzy]

This is a great question and not impolite at all!

We have approximately 15 acres. Our house is way too close to the road for us but directly behind it is all the animal pens (with two goat sheds); a small chicken house with the chicken enclosures (look on this web site for the article on how "we built John Silvera's chicken coop); and a small bunny barn.

Directly behind the house is my "orchard" which right now consists of a couple of grape vines; four apple trees; two pear trees, and a plum tree.

Right behind that is about four acres I hope to eventually have completely fenced in for my goats and other animals. To the "right" is about five acres of woods that is hilly and which is divided by an Alabama Power right of way. YUK!

The right hand (or south east) property line is bordered by a small "creek."

I would like to utilize more of the land for pasture and have a bigger garden and way more fruit trees but I can only plant a few trees each year as I have money!

best wishes!

[Eastex]

KD, we have 30 acres, wooded and some cleared. Most important is a small spring on the back corner. We have two small frame houses, one vacant, the other a rent house.

I will fence it this year and prepare it for livestock and crops for next year.

[GW]

I have 1.5 acers with no biuldings on it as of yet,hope to biuld a small cabin withen the next 2 years.Mostley wooded right now but hope to start clearing some of it this year.The land is on a dead end dirt road that has very littil traffic

[sprite]

I like the question too......

We have 40 acres, the top 15 are cleared but with nice trees and a small woods about 1 acre. We are now building a log house and it should be all closed in by Sept. and we'll be working on the inside this winter. The land slopes down to a yearround brook it used to be 12 feet wide, but last fall we have a beaver invasion and we have just about a 1 acre lake.

Across the brook the rest of the land was logged about 5 years ago, but it is recovering well.

We have lots of plans and I can't wait to be living down there. We also have down there a converted school bus that we use as a camp.

[elh]

We have 220 acres.about 100 acres in woods and creek bottom. we run cattle, goats, chickens and rabbits. have alarge garden & orchard. lots of deer & turkies - birds. three ponds with fish.looking forward to the day when i can stay home and not need to work off site.

[annabella1]

I have no land but, I raise earthworms in a tote in the closet of the bedroom I rent from my brother. I have a herb garden in the southern window in this room. I harvest rhubarb and mint in my brothers yard. He doesn't like either and has been trying to kill it for the last 5 years he has lived here. I take the rhubarb and mint to my moms senior citizen apartment and make rhubarb sauce and mint vinegar. I sprout wheat in my dresser drawer. I harvest asparagas from the old railroad right of way. I make dandylion wine, sometimes I mix it with wild grapes. I've been thinking about putting a rabbit hutch in the closet above the worms, but it would probably be too messy. :-/

[TNDadx4]

annabella1,

That is simply incredible! It really gives credence to the saying "no excuses".

Keep up the good work :)

[bookwormom]

quite impressive. I hope you do get a few square yards of land, the way you go at it you'll do wonders.

[annabella1]

Thanx for the compliments. But I really have a dream for a little place with a couple of goats, a garden of fresh veggies and a porch swing. Now that would be heaven.

[Terri]

I have a little less than one acre at my house, and 5 outside of town.

I have Christmas trees, blackberries, a garden, chickens, a beehive, a garden, fruit trees, a greenhouse, and a few volenteers like milkweed (FRAGRANCE!) and black raspberries. That is at the home place. I only have asparagus and bees at the parcel outside of town.

I have ROOM for a couple of goats, but not the zoning!

(HAppy sigh) I DO love it!!!!!!!! Picked a ripe tomato today.......

[DM]

I have plenty of land to grow things on, hunt and even fish on, also a decent place to live on it too. But, i don't have anyone to share it with, so it's not near as much fun as it could be....

It sounds to me like you folks have some really nice places to live!

DM

[jlmissouri]

I have six acres, three heavily wooded, two in lawn & orchards, one in pasture. Four wells, a cistern, two large sheds, and a small shed. Peach, apple, plum, apricot, walnut, hazlenut, and pecan trees. Wild raspberries, blackberries, dewberries, gooseberries, mulberries, morel mushrooms, and plum. A gaurd dog for the chickens, and two cats. I did have bees, but lost them last year. I have not seen a more diverse or productive small plot of land naturally.

[JAK]

Back down to 1/4 acre and nothing on it but this damn house and mortgage. Obviously sold the wrong chunk of land, but things could be worse. Not complaining. Just kicking myself.

Some day.

[machinemaker]

We have 1 acre on a south facing slope at an elevation on 9500 feet. Its in a mountain pass outside of Denver with an amazing view of the continental divide. Most of the lot is lodge pole pines and aspens. We have a passive solar green house with chickens and rabbits. The animals in the greenhouse during the winter help to keep it above freezing year around. We have a small home that is heated with a wood stove, and we hope to go off grid with solar and wind in the future, thank you net metering. I have my shop and studio that I use for self employment about 50' from the house.

[Pigzzilla]

We have 3 acres. Lots of scraggly oaks, some kind of tall pines (jack-pine??) manzinita and a bit of buck-brush. cut and pulled out most of the buck-brush cause of the thorns. Also poison oak that we are killing off. We bought this land 7 years ago to retire to. Plan is to keep working in the city, build the house, maybe I will move there for the last year or so til Glenn retires. Most of my job is computer that I can do from home, so we don't lose the income for a while.

So far, we had a well drilled shortly after we bought the place. We installed the submersible pump, and pressure tank. Then poured a 6x6 slab and erected a "pump house/storage shed" over it. Run the well with a small portable 5000 watt genny. Then Glenn had to have some pretty major back surgery.

There is a fairly large open area near the well house -north east corner- that will be the orchard. And another open area -south west corner- that will be my fenced raised bed garden area. And the third open area, smack in the middle is where we will build the house.

Put in a sorta driveway and started getting ready to build 3 years ago. Drew up house plans and talked to the county about septic system. Talked to the power company, PG&E.

Then everything came to a halt. Again. Glenn had to have another back surgery. So now we are back on track. Healthy, and reasonably sane. In March, we built a 30x30 metal shop. We are in the process now of insulating it. Using the shop right now to store stuff for the house.

Construction on the house should start next week! We have all the permits for house and septic. And fees paid. Those suckers are unreal. If I could ever figure how to post pictures, I will bore you to death!!

The only real problem is with PG&E. Tried to get a price to get electric. There is a pole with transformer on the property across the road from us. There is also a pole & transformer at the far side of the propery next to us. Either one could supply power. But the folks at PG&E cannot give us a price to connect, a time to connect or tell us if we need to BUY a pole & transformer. They said we may not get power before the house is finished. I was told by the people that built down the road, they had to get both a pole and transformer, and were charged $17,000!!! No way.

We are getting a propane genny. A big one. And by the time we retire, in 4 years, we will have solar for daytime and the genny for nighttime. May even go all solar with storage if the technology improves the price any. Don't know yet how it all will play out, but are going to get the wiring done for both. Hopefully can be completely off grid.

Guess we better get a BIG yard bomb for propane!!!


Pigz