Describe your dream homestead...

[Shayanna]

Saw mine listed on craigslist this morning, which got the dream wheels turning. My dream? Log cabin style house with big windows to look out over the fields. Large paddocks for beef cattle, meat goats with a few dairy does, maybe a trio of Icelandic sheep, a couple pigs, and all the chickens I want. Our own hayfield. want lots of garden space, a compost heated greenhouse, a root cellar... cheese cave/ wine cellar. Big wood cookstove, cupboard space galore. Solar power.. I don't want much. What do you want?

[rjwassink67]

A one story house that can't be seen from the road. Eighty acres of wood and twenty acres cleared around the house. On the twenty have a one or two acre garden, chickens, and maybe a pig. A good size stocked pond and a creek somewhere on property. I want to be able to drive tractor anywhere on property, so mostly flat with some rolling hills. The house should be high enough to never worry about flooding. Just for starters!

[Bret]

Where my cows settle with AI the first time every time.

Ok, and a wood cook stove.

[jwal10]

We are living our dream. 1 acre to make it easy. We have our goats for milk, fiber and meat, rabbits for meat, chicken for meat and eggs and pigeons for meat. We live inside the gates to private and public timberlands. We glean from these lands as needed/want with permission. We have a small farm (4 acres) with a pond for fish, swimming, boating and wild rice with a small apartment in the barn. We also have a beach cabin and a lake cabin , both very small. We live off grid and no propane. We use mostly hand tools, gardening and maint. We do barter work for whole oats from a neighbor. We have a wood stove for heat and hot water, solar for heat, water heating and elec. and micro hydro power. We have a garden and greenhouses with raised beds and hoops to extend the seasons. We live comfortably (with health issues) with everything we need....James

[simi-steading]

A place where I can live that has fresh eggs, meat, and veggies, and I don't have to lift a finger to make it all happen... OH.. and beer that's stocked in the tree stands for me..

[rjwassink67]

Yes, I agree wood for heat. We will use it in addition to another heat source, but if the power went out we want wood. We will have an old wood stove so we can cook on it as well if needed.

[MissKitty]

I want just what I have and thank God for him and our place all the time....

[Shayanna]

Definitely thankful for where we are. I remember trying to make every egg recipe we could fond because we couldn't afford groceries. I remember all the times going without running water and having a toilet that leaned to the right and gurgled in a disturbing way. But without dreams and goals we wouldn't get anywhere.

[Awnry Abe]

My dream homestead starts with a government as potent against an individual as an ant in a tin cup against a naval Destroyer. It ends with me not jacking up this speck of earth in The Almighty God's creation. But none of what he has given has anything to do with the temporal of homesteading, yet I digress.

Grass. My perfect homestead has lots, and lots, of different varieties of grass.

[Shrek]

My dream has finally become exactly what I am living and it only took 11 years to achieve it by adding a few small parcels within an acceptable radius of my home as I could afford them.

I have my multiple AOs with adequate security, gardening, foraging and fish and game and I can easily move between the facets as my solitude becomes infringed upon and still travel less than 30 miles if I want any social contact.

[karenp]

Some combination of the first and second poster, plus low taxes, conservative politics, and distinct seasons.

[Bubbas Boys]

Have to say we have our dream now. 5 healthy boys, 10 acres with no loan, still building this house but with our money no bank or anyone attached to any of it. Never thought it could really happen for us but little hard work and sacrifice and here we are. Oh and we ordering Kitchen Queen stove next month. haha. WE R BLESSED!!!!

[Westexas]

Love what we have now, without reservation, but in my mind's eye, all these cotton fields would be miles of rolling prairie with herds of buffalo and antelope. But then where would all the blue jeans come from?!

[farmerDale]

I am also glad with my situation. Those of us who are exactly where we are at should give thanks that we are. So many folks are searching, and that has got to be hard.

Thankful up here!

[Laura Zone 10]

The home:

3 Bedrooms, 2 bath
(1/2 basement)
About 1800 square feet.
The kitchen-living room area is a HUGE open all one room type space.
Very "square"...not a lot of fancy corners or wasted space.
Large, south facing "Florida" room
Metal roof

The land:
Neighbors a short golf cart ride away...not too close.
35 min from the beach
5 acres, 3 open 2 woods, creek running thru / spring fed pond
Couple of out buildings, in good shape.
Well fenced so the Jacks can just RUN

I am working on making this dream, reality, as we speak!

[rjwassink67]

Originally Posted by karenp

Some combination of the first and second poster, plus low taxes, conservative politics, and distinct seasons.

Yes, this ^ plus what I listed above.

[wogglebug]

Low enough and close enough to a river, lake or dam for a shallow well to be a certainty. Deep wells are always an expensive crap shoot.
High enough not to be in danger from floods.

Ideally with running water through it, and a big pond or earth dam.

Fairly level, gently rolling or sloped so it will drain (into the pond). Also so that freezing air will drain away rather than pooling and doing frost damage.

More remote and rougher areas, some fencerows and all paddock corners in woodland or isolated trees. Most trees to coppice well, so that five years after cutting they can provide another cut of good firewood, several trunks per stump, that is small enough in the round that it can be cut but won't need splitting. Scattered nuts and wild fruits, fruit bushes, a plantation pine lot; but ABSOLUTELY NO feral brambles, lantana, bamboo, privet, or other woody weeds.

Tight and high fences to withstand goats, deer, pigs and cattle.
Barbed wire only high on boundary fences, so it won't damage horse's hides.
Electrified fence run to reinforce other fences, and occasionally to control strip grazing
Small paddocks or fields for control of livestock, so they will eat ALL fodder rather than leaving the less desirable plants and just eating their candy. Each field with a watering trough fed by solar pump from central supply.

Good climate. That means snow is a rare wonder, rather than a six-month annual season or threat.
Reliable rainfall, some most months of the year.
I'd work with high wind and use it to advantage for a wind generator, but I'd prefer to do without it.

Anywhere from ten to a hundred acres with the right climate - less if I had access to woodland elsewhere. I could make easy money from more, but I could be self-reliant with ten to a hundred. The old basic forty acres and a mule would suffice, if the land was right.

THAT'S IT!

House, sheds, barns, orchards - I can do myself. I'm not the guy who can build the land though, and I'd have limited success shaping the landscape. I have to rely on a higher power for that, and if I could get all the foregoing I'd be more than happy to do my part.

[lindamarie]

we already have no neighbors for about 6 miles, off grid, pretty much self sufficient, a 3 mile dirt road/driveway, 3 locked gates, woods, a pond. Its blissful. What could make it anymore perfect....finding a way to keep our adult children from converging on us. We love them to pieces, but they have a habit of dropping in and not leaving sometimes.

[BamaSuzy]

My dream homestead will be this one when it is paid for (AGAIN!) in a little over four years!!!!

[ErinP]

Five sections of high prairie pasture and hay meadows
150± head of cows
Though that's my dream ranch, not a homestead...



Houseyard with plenty of trees but open space for a nice, big garden.
Two story house that looks identical to the one I'm building.
Big hills to tuck the house in to for protection.


I'm pretty simple.