HomesteadingCalling all back-to-the-land mamas and papas! Do you revel in creating a self-sustaining home for your family? Or are you just starting out and looking to dish about the best ways to achieve sustainability? Come on in and share!
Synopsis ('cause most people won't care to read the whole, detailed description): 80 acres, 1 live creek, 1 seasonal creek, good trees to enjoy, lots of deadfall for heating; fantastic pastures; established homesite and several old outbuildings that need to be torn down; well, storm cellar; electricity will need to be run in several hundred feet for now, until DH can get his windpower setups going.
Now for the long version:
Imagine a rectangle, length-wise = west to east (I'm originally from the west coast, so everything starts from the Pacific for me LOL).
A live creek (doesn't dry out) runs from the southwest corner to the northeast corner. A secondary, seasonal creek runs into it from the northwest corner, meeting about 1/3 way into the property. I thought it was all scrub cedar at first, but there is actually a wonderful variety of deciduous and coniferous trees! Some are rather old...we know of 8 that DH and I (together) cannot reach around. There is a LOT of deadfall, it hasn't been maintained for at least 20 years, so it needs to be cleaned out a little bit...make it easier for animals to have water access. Between the current deadfall, as well as a couple of deadstand trees, plus whatever deadfall in future years, we should have a sustainable amount of firewood for heating for at least the next five years (I'm thinking substantially longer, but we're focusing on the first five years right now). The live creek even contains fish, small though, since the creek is not very deep. DH is planning on damming up a small section by 4 feet to allow for a small "swimming hole" for the kids and give the fish a chance to grow. We're not sure when we'll do this, and we have to observe for awhile, since it looks like spring rains really turn this creek into a gullywasher.
The pastures have been tiered, so it slopes up from the west edge, the top tier is about 1/3 way in, then it slopes back down (valley is about 2/3 way in from the west), then back up higher to the homesite, where the land plateaus. The homesite is on the southeast corner, and overlooks it all. There is a "small" pasture right behind the homesite (~3 acres?) that DH and I are debating whether to put my future milker(s) [1 cow or 2 goats] back there or a garden (since it's the only pasture separated from the large one).
Driveway comes in the south side, a few hundred feet in from the east edge, runs in front of the homesite and opens up to the two "roads" that lead to each end of the property. Coming in on the driveway is the homesite, windmill/storm cellar, "garage", and "shop"...the garage and shop are dilapidated and need to be torn down, as they are a serious hazard to have around. We're planning on building a new garage and shop.
There is a windmill and water tower setup. The windmill blades are long gone, but DH has a windmill setup already that he can transfer over (he's been experimenting with windpower the last year or two). The top is collapsed in on the water tower, and this past weekend, he had to rescue a buzzard that had fallen in (the tower is about 25 feet tall, with concrete walls). Electricity will have to be run in from the road until DH can get his windmills setup for power.
We're going to build a garage this year, before the Boilermaker season starts. Next spring, we're hoping to start on the house. We're bouncing back and forth on staying in our current home while building the house, or putting it up on the market next spring, moving our belongings into the garage and living in the trailer while working on the house. I think we're starting to lean toward the latter. Meanwhile, that means gearing up for a rather large yard sale early next spring!
We're excited!
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Renee~mama of 3, wife of 1
Last edited by Rident_Mama : 06-28-2008 at 04:04 PM.
I second the living on site simply because driving to and fro to care for another site may become a pain!! Hopefully, if you decide to sell your current home, it will go quickly!
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Tracey, Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth ~1 John 3:18
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Could you build a garage which is habitable (insulation, water, heat, etc)?
That's kind of the plan. We're probably going to be gone during the winter for the next two years, so heating is not an issue. We are planning on having the garage finished first so that the kids have a safe place to play while DH and I work (and we're considering putting a bedroom and bathroom in there too).
That's wonderful! Do you have any pictures? It sounds perfect. I love big, old trees. We don't have many of those up here. I refer to them as real trees.
Rhea
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Princess Ayeka riding Takoda
Little Washu ~ Homeschooling mama to 3 and loving it. : )
"What I'm certain I don't want," she finally said aloud, "is to find myself someday in a new century, an old bitter woman looking back, wishing that right now I'd had more nerve."
Sorry for taking so long about posting pictures...software issues, bleh.
Anywho, here's our property!
The writing is hard to see with this size of picture...from left to right...
"Road runs along the ridge"
"Edge of Property Starts Here"
"Shop"
"Garage"
"Homesite"
"Entry Gate"
"Road"
Here's video too (same stuff, just bigger): View My Video
Oh , it is beautiful!!! Congratulations again!
Is that another farm behind yours? To the left of the trees, second pic from right? Looks like a white something or other... or is it a barn?
So you have neighbors?
Yes, they are neighbors, but as close as it looks in the picture, it's actually quite a ways off. DH has been down there a few more times than I have, and has had three sets of neighbors come and introduce themselves to him...he says that they're all really nice. I'm looking forward to getting to know them!!!
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