Comments on: How Much Land Do You Need?

By: Margie

Margie — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 07:31:24 +0000

I live in Northern Nevada, so the amount of land one has isn’t nearly as important as how much water is available for use and how you use it. A domestic well only allows for so much, and an agricultural well is spendy with water rights and such.
We have an acre now that’s too small and not zoned for the livestock we want.
We were considering 40 acres, and we’re still young enough to work it… but we’re probably going to opt for 10 well-managed acres instead. Simply because we won’t be able to effectively irrigate and use any more than that… even with rain barrels and cisterns to capture the brief and minimal (about 8″ per year) seasonal precipitation.
We’ll have five years to prepare the land before we actually move onto it… which is going to be key to our success. We’ll have five years where 90-100% of all of the water use will be for irrigation instead of sharing it with livestock and humans.
In five years, the fruit trees we plant will be established and won’t require as much water. We will have five years’ worth of winter wheat and legume green-compost (along with the manure of the assorted wildlife in the area) worked into the soil. This is important because the soil here is sandy clay loam with very little humus. We use companion planting and inter-planting crops to get the best use of water. We plant in ditches with soaker hoses in the bottom and straw covering them to avoid evaporation.
Every step and measure on this five year journey will be laborious… as will every year after, I’m sure… but such as it is when trying to carve out life in the high desert.

By: Ya Basta! » How Much Land Do You Need?

Ya Basta! » How Much Land Do You Need? — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:48:46 +0000

[...] via: Casaubon’s Book [...]

By: Grant

Grant — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:50:28 +0000

Looks like I’ve stumbled across this article a while after all the other comments have died down. Masterfully written and lots of great comments follow.

My wife and I decided to shoot for a self-sufficient lifestyle a couple of years ago. We bought 750 acres in Tennessee with the intent of developing a self-sustaining community as a means of supporting ourselves on our own plot of land. This summer we have grown about 80% of our food requirements and canned a lot more for the winter in a very small intensive garden. It’s been a lot of work getting it going, but we expect that it will get easier as the soil improves through composting, we get smarter about how to do things and we increase our reliance on perennial crops. We planted quite a few fruit trees in the spring and plan to add a lot more in the fall.

Although this area is blessed with high average rainfall, recent weather changes have given us concern about availability of water. We installed a rainwater collection system that made a huge difference not only for our potable water supply, but also for irrigating our garden.

One of the things we have learned from experience is that it’s really hard work if you try to be self-sufficient alone. You just can’t do it all. Thankfully, we have had a lot of help from farmers in the area and we have an organic gardening coach for the development’s community garden. We look forward to more people moving here so that we can create a more productive sharing of labor and produce.

We have divided lots into 2 to 8 acre plots, most of which are about half wooded. I thought your comment about the need for control of your own well managed forest was very astute.

I also agreed with the comment that it’s hard to live in a communal situation, so we are emphasizing private ownership and independence with ample privacy as a foundation for healthy inter-dependence.

Thank you for this informative and intelligent posts. I’m putting a link to this from our private HOA website.

You can check out our little development at http://www.sewaneecreek.com. or email me at grant@sewaneecreek.com for access to our private website

By: Land « Rebel Pigs

Land « Rebel Pigs — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 11:24:37 +0000

[...] land to purchase, when, where and so on. Then in my ravelry Homesteaders group, I followed a link to Casaubons Books that really dug into the issue of how much land and how to decide. There is so much more to [...]

By: Max

Max — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 22:29:37 +0000

Your estimate of strength falling with age is not necessarily true. I’m just as strong at 55 as i was at 25- maybe stronger. Weight training and some form of high cardio workout 4 times a week will extend your peak lifetime far beyond your pessimistic view.

Max

By: Greg K

Greg K — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 18:35:42 +0000

I don’ t know what to say to those wanting a large lot, except if your rich you can probably afford it. Homesteading and food production for “peak oil” or other disasters is a huge undertaking, because you are planning for other unknown self sufficient contingencies and it’s almost impossible to plan for them all.

As far as supporting yourself on a small amount of land. Apparently many can support or at least augment their life with a small amount of land. In Cuba supposedly the people use a lot of small gardening for food growth. It’s not ideal, because it’s always good to have backups.

Also many who try to do a hobby farm fail, because they fail to work hard enough or don’t know what to do at what point of the season. So they bit off more than they can chew. If your looking to be off grid, that is off the artificial grid, without many fertilizers and soil amendments, then you are looking at a very difficult task. If your hoping to be sufficient and rely on just what you grow and are afraid of others, then you definately would need redundancy and some kind of emergency backup. Some things like a flood could wipe out your ability to farm or garden for years. So you still need a social network with others or a government that will help or something in the event you run into trouble.

Self sufficiency requires a lot of work and a lot of money if your trying to maintain all the old technology.

To me redundancy is a big thing, that is having duplicates of what you’d need or backup plans for failure scenarios. Obviously more skills and even outside jobs or ability to store and trade what is needed for future problems is a key. Also being in an urban area could mean gangs trying to take your food by stealth or with force. So there’s not blanket solution. We can only live as peacefully as we can with all men.

By: Nobodyspecial

Nobodyspecial — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 01:27:07 +0000

I doubt a couple of acres would cut food production for a small family. One needs grow a balance of various crops, including fruits, vegitables and an assortment of foods that be stored long term without refrigeration. This includes beets, potatoes, dried beads and grains. Extra food must be planted to accomidate bad harvest cause by bad weather, pests, or disease. Relying on a single season of crops is a disaster in the making. Additional land is also required to support an wood lot for fuel as well as construction material (Fence posts, building repair). A substainal wood lot is absolutely essential in north regions such as Maine and vermont.

I would also be concerned about living in a nieghborhood where all the other neighbors have the same sized property. In which case, neighbors with bad luck, or just not willing to participate in agraculture, may choose to liberate your crops for there own consumption.

Unless you are able to afford to buy sufficient land, or can find a lot that is adjacent to a large undeveloped land that you could take advantage of, I wouldn’t not try to homestead on a small lot consisting of a few acres. You best option, would be to relocate to a urban region where you can take advantage of mass transit, and gov’t services. In the event of a major crisis, The gov’t is far more likely to provide services in urban regions than in rural or suburban locations.

By: lydia

lydia — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 21:44:38 +0000

I am in my fifth year of making my tiny 3K square foot city lot into a paradise. There was nothing here but a tiny house and lawn when I bought it. I busted up all the sod and planted roses and flowers and a 444 square foot vege garden in the front yard. Planted four apple trees, put in a green house, wood shed, woodstove and tool shed. Every year I amend soil in the raised beds and garden beds. I compost all food scraps, dryer lint, cat hair and whatever else will rot. Today I went 2 miles away to a cabinet shop and acquired 14 huge bags of clean wood sawdust. Makes great mulch and soil additions. The best part, it was free except for the cost of gas. They have to pay to get rid of it, so it is a win/win.

Now, your age thing-yes, makes a lot of difference. I started at 47, and am now 53. I am tired more these days doing the same amount of work, even though I am in good health and like to do physical work. I have no one else to help, so I bust my hump all the time. But do I need large amount of land ? A nice blue sky dream, but not practical. No spouse or kids to help. The dogs just think I am crazy and offer no help at all……

By: Shane

Shane — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:09:14 +0000

Hey Susan

I am in the Sunshine coast hinterland, and making new contacts is always welcome. Even if you are outside of visiting distance we can always share seeds and experiences by post. My email is void_genesis at hotmail if you want to get in touch.

Shane

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:40:05 +0000

Oh! And I meant to add that we still have a pretty big garden on the 1/4 acre. There would be room for a few dwarf fruit trees, but there’s a lot of landscaping that was done by my husband’s grandma and that I don’t have the heart to tear out.
I’m considering getting a few hens too!