How much land needed to homestead?

I have to say that how many acres you need depends a lot on how productive those acres are. Having 100 acres in Eastern Washington or Wyoming is a far, far different thing than having 100 acres in Western Washington or Pennsylvania. So what part of Idaho are you looking at? Is it level ground? What's the annual rainfall, or are you going to depend on irrigation? The local extension office or tax assessors appraisal department should be able to give you the carrying capacity (animal units (AU) per acre) of land in your target area, and that could be very helpful information in deciding how much you really need.

(By the way, Shrek has been on this forum and its predecessors forever, and is a very helpful guy, well-known and loved, with lots of great information, so please be nice and don't take things hard. Written communication has serious drawbacks, so we all have to try to imagine things are meant in the best possible way.)

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The basic message of liberalism is simply: The true measure of a society is how it treats the weak and the needy. A simple Christian message (Matthew 25:40). -Garrison Keillor

How much land needed to homestead?

exactly 9.5344832 acres...

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Are you sure it's not the same as pi?


pi = 3.14159265. THIS is the 'exact' number acres needed to homestead? or is that hectares?

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The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man.

Well said Shrek but just what kinda "Shrums" was he growin to make that kinda money?

We have 9 acres of land and most of that is woodland with about 2 acres in "yard" which is where we have our garden and animals. It is enough to provide us with a lot of our veggies, fruits, eggs and if we chose meat. All our heat comes from our using wood from our woodland. We cut only those trees that are in need of being cut and have plenty. I guess we could do much better than this but several things prevent us at this time. For about 5 years we did support ourselves without a job off things we did and it was very hard but in CT with the high taxes etc. that is to be expected. I would not want to do that here again unless we absolutely had to. That was before eBay. DH and I haven't had a "normal" job in decades. We are contract workers and do much better this way than if we were to get back inside. One of our contracts is with the postal service. Actually it is our only contract now as we gave up the one we had for 22 years due to the high gas prices and it eating up almost all of the profits. I can do better on eBay and not have to go out in the weather to deliver things in the very early morning before the roads are plowed etc. Getting to the post office each day to send out the eBay packages is not a problem as we work at the post office. I think that if you really want to you can homestead on 10 acres if that land has a good size woodlot and a place for your gardens. If you choose to keep animals that are large then that will make quite a difference and you will need more land to accomodate them. Small animals take much less room and they can be raised in a much smaller area than large animals can. If done right rabbits and chickens can provide quite a lot of meat for your family with much less area than a large animal can. Also a pig can be raised on a smaller piece of land quite well. We did it here and he was a good, big pig when we sent him to the butcher. Never again as I got too attached to him---never make a pet of an animal you are going to or think you are going to eat!

All of this is true. He is ALSO the salt of the Earth, and he is UNUSUALLY helpfull to people who are just starting out.

He is ALSO ornery. But, then, I expect that you are noticing this. I would call him VERY helpfull.....about 95% of the time. As for the OTHER 5% of the time.......

He grows on you. Honest!

How many large trees does it take to build a house? I honestly don't have a clue, but I would imagine that would be an important consideration. We have 6 acres and that is plenty of space for gardens, orchards, small animals, etc. but we don't have a woodlot for heat and even if it had been totally wooded I don't think it would have yielded enough lumber to build a house with.

Shi(t)take mushrooms were worth about $40 per gallon to him.

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"I didn't have time to slay the dragon. It's on my To Do list!"

I agree with most everyone here. But, living off ones land is difficult. We have 5 acres, have been here 6 years. I had that hope at one time. I have also found it to be impossible to do, even if I had 100 acres. Why? Well red tape, everytime I turn around there's something that stops me. I need insurance, to sell products (soaps, eggs, goat milk, etc.) or I risk losing everything we have worked so hard for. State regulations are another topic. I know states very, but really check into them. We raise animals, veggies and fruit, but we still have to pay taxes, house payment, gas for the tractor, cars, animal feed when needed. Not counting the repairs to fences, barns and other things. There is no way to make enough off this land to pay the bills. But we sure do love eating our own raised veggies, animals, fruit etc. To me that is homesteading. My family eats well and I don't have to buy from the store. But the husband still has to go to work, and I take care of the farm.

Yes, like a fungus. (just kidding, Shrek)

BTW, I think you meant Doris Day,
not Dinah Shore.