/homestead/
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You are currently reading a thread in /out/ - Outdoors
You are currently reading a thread in /out/ - Outdoors
This thread is for people who would like to live, or are already living, completely off their land in a self sufficient way.
I haven't been here too long, but I've seen a lot of people on /out/ talking about trekking deep innawoods and living there. I think this is unpractical for many reasons which should be obvious to most of you.. Homesteading is a viable and healthy way of life that will provide the same satisfaction of being close to nature.
So a little about me: I've been given a plot of land on my parents farm (roughly 5 acres) to use and live on. I'm about to start felling trees to make a log cabin. I have the crete foundation down already. My goal is to make enough from a honey/egg farmstand that I can supply the small amount of costs needed to live for the things I won't be able to immediately gather myself. I'll be hunting all of my food on my property as well as growing crops. Fortunately, I live in a flat and hot state with long summers so growing crops will not be challenging. How is your /homestead/ going?
>>735434
>roughly 5 acres
>hunting all of my food on my property as well as growing crops
choose one
Make believe is fun, especially on the internet
>>735463
You can grow a lot of food on 5 acres
>>735463
5 acres is easily enough to run a subsistence farm for one man (or even for a small family for that matter) unless the quality of the land is strip mine-tier bad.
That said, what's left is not going to be a huge amount to hunt on unless you live adjacent to public land.
>>735434
I live in an awful place for homesteading.
Here is probably the biggest tourist trap in Canada. All the available land is hundreds of thousands of dollars if you want more than an acre and even finding something outside of a subdivision full of cabins that rich faggots live in 2 weeks a year is difficult.
I'm going to end up moving fairly far away when I finish saving, sadly.
>>735434
With all the knowledge of humanity at your finger tips, you bet you can subsist on only 5 acres.
The largest factor will be your habits, diet, and amount of work you are willing to do. Do not rely on 1-3 things for either food or income. Always be a jack of all trades in how you farm. Things come in cycles and you have to roll with those cycles to stay afloat. Otherwise, 1 killing frost this time of year can sink you. Also, learn all methods of food preservation as soon as you can, get the equipment you need for it, and start practicing with bulk bought food until you get up and running with your own farm.
>>735482
If where you live is stunting your dream, move to a new location where you can be free and have peace of mind.
>>735434
i would love to buy about 5 acres and just live off the land. i envy you, op.
>>735469
>You can grow a lot of food on 5 acres
I tried to explain this in a previous thread but was schooled by some organic farmer that has 7 acres. I was put in my place and therefore have succumbed. You now need 23.5 acres to be self sufficient.
>>735463
The 5 acres is my plot, but I have an additional 50 to hunt freely on and thousands more of state forest backing this property.
There's a lot of doubt about what you can grow on 5 acres itt but I think y'all are picturing vast fields of crops meant for mass production. For me this will be more than enough. I'm actually surprised there aren't more of you doing this as much as I see people talking about living off the land on here
>>735579
Good words of wisdom brother. while I don't know everything I need to know yet, I'm taking this as a learning experience. I plan to rely more on hunting than farming for my livelihood for the first couple of years so I can feel out my crops. I don't have much experience in the matter other than helping my friends out on their farms and having small backyard gardens growing up.
>>735868
Lots of talk and no action, I wouldn't listen. I've seen what can be done with small amounts of land.
>>735806
Land is cheaper than you think. You can get 50 acres in Montana or Washington up in the mountains for as little as $1000 an acre. That's my end goal.
>>735896
hhhhmmmmm......
>>735898
That being said, land IS that cheap if you can put in the work to build a cabin. Houses are the true cost but a grand will do ya if you're willing to gather the logs and resources. That's the fun part though. Building permits and such aren't really a factor either considering you're a couple hundred miles out in bumfuck
>>735900
i have been looking at cordwood construction. i already have a background in construction and in architecture as well.
>>735900
something about this size would work for my needs....maybe a bit bigger, but not by much.
>>735896
Montana is out of land I checked. :)
>>735904
not according to realtor and also craigslist.
>>735905
Pls don't come here. We're full.
>>735906
unless you own the whole state, fuck off.
>>735434
What growing zone are you in? Look into establishing a small scale fruit/nut orchard. A few mature fruit and nut trees can provide you with a significant amount of calories with almost no input once they are well established. In the meantime before planting, you should start preparing the soil on your site (for orchard or annual gardens) using some basic soil amendments and nitrogen fixing cover crops. While you wont be 100% self sufficient, some chickens, fruit/nut trees, and a sizable vegetable garden is a solid food production base to fall back on. Hunting to supplement meat production is a great move, especially considering whitetails are essentially invasive these days. My final piece of advice is to get started on something sooner then later. Best time to plant a tree was 10 years ago. Good luck
>>735906
I noticed a lot of people from Montana don't want outsiders moving in but I say to hell with y'all. I'm not some yuppie scum coming in to build a vacation home
>>735901
You're better off than me! I looked into cordwood but I figured I'd be better off just using full logs for practicality and cost reasons. They look so beautiful though.
>>735906
It's assholes like you that need to move to the bottom of the ocean.
>>735910
they dont want anyone diluting their 7 generations of the same dna.
>>735909
I actually have 3 apple and pear trees on my parents land, they do me well. I planted them when I was a child. I'm not sure if I'll be here long enough to reap the rewards from freshly planted trees though. I hope to be doing this in a larger scale on a big plot of land in about 6 or 7 years. Who knows though. Might as well plant em in case I stay.
>>735906
i think im going to buy some land in montana. then if you want me to move, i will sell you the land for $100,000 per sq foot......otherwise, HOWDY NEIGHBOR!
>>735868
>You now need 23.5 acres to be self sufficient.
I'm an organic farmer with 30+ acres, of which I only use 3ish acres for farming. On those 3 acres I have 2 houses, a barn, 2 parking areas, 2 driveways, toolsheds, a dog run, and misc other things taking up ground space. Of the farming being on that 3 acres, there is a farm pond, 3 gardens, orchard, berry field, chicken coop, and chicken run. About 1/4th of that 3 acres is nothing but hillside and woods, where I tap maple trees for syrup. I plan on making more raised beds, putting up greenhouses, mushroom cellar, and polytunnels.
To eat, I have fish, chicken, eggs, and whatever veggies I grow. There are also tons of wild greens. I have nearly every device needed to preserve food in every way known. With this I can preserve all my food when I have more than I can eat. I can also trade food with family, friends, and neighbors for things I'd like or to be neighborly.
I am self sufficient most of the time, but I grew up with a modern diet and from time to time, I buy a Snickers bar, pizza, or box of fish, just for comfort food/sentimental reasons. I know full well what I have to do to become 100% dietarily self-sufficient (my grandmother was 100% self-sufficient). It is a bit more work, but the area of land isn't that much and can be done on 3 acres. The only thing is growing chicken feed. That in itself actually takes quite a bit of effort and more land, but most of my 3 acres is actually just yard grass. Having the chickens run the entire berryfield and orchard greatly helps reduce the need for extra feed and helps keep pests off those plants. I get over 1 dozen eggs a day.
I can't even imagine farming a full 23.5 acres in as intense manner as I do these 3 acres. In the manner in which I farm, I think 2 people per 3 acres is about right for effort done. With more effort, more people can be fed with only 3 acres. It all depends on your methods, nothing more.
>>735915
>I'm not sure if I'll be here long enough to reap the rewards from freshly planted trees though.
Plant anyway. Even if you move away, someone else will enjoy them. You may kick start someone else's desire to farm and be self-sufficient to whatever degree.
>>735906
Your state would go bankrupt without tourism family.
>>736062
He's referring to people moving and living there permanently not, about people coming there to sight-see for a short time during a specific season.
>>736053
>>736053
Thank you. I think most people who say that they cannot survive from a limited amount of land have not done proper planning to maximize their space. Could you go into more detail about your chickens? How many do you have? A dozen a day seems great, but I eat about 6 eggs a day. I would like to sell off 6 dozen a day. How much land would I need to do so? Like I said, I can dip into the surrounding land if need be. One day the rest of this land will all be mine so they don't mind if I do my business far away from the house and take up more than the 5. They're just happy it's getting some use.
Awesome thread man and Congrats. We've got 7 acres with 600 ft of river frontage in VA mts; We've been setting up a homestead style plan for about a yr now; IF you have 1 close by, check out a Mother Earth news fair. we just attended 1 this weekend in Asheville, NC.. awesome event with tons of info
for us, we're focusing on swales, hugelkulture, & forest gardens.. Just picked up 40lbs of shitaki and oyster mushroom spawn... great for the forest garden; should be able to do 60-70 4-6 ft oak logs with each giving us on avg of 2-3lbs of shrooms per year; We've already planted pecan trees, some grape vines, blueberries, and blackberries... we'll plant more of them along with fruit trees, paw paw trees, & a variety of perennial veggies like strawberries, asparagus, garlic, onions, etc. Elderberry is a great one as well.. insanely good for you and great in meads, ginger beer, and jams/jellies.
In addition we've got a whole host of medicinal herbs that we're planting... All of these things could easily be sold @ a farmers market as well as online like CL etc.
>>735915
>>736055
This, planting a trees is always a great way to leave behind something useful for future generations. If you aren't sure you will stay long then just don't break the bank on expensive, established trees. However, there are still multiple types of fruit trees that you will see yields for it minimal time. Peaches, apples, figs, and mulberries all fruit within the first 5 years generally. Not trying to overly push fruit trees on you, that is just where the majority of my horticultural experience comes from
100% agree; Also check your local Ag ext and CL for fruit trees on sale;
Hell I planted pecan trees knowing that it takes 1-15 yrs for them to bear nuts; It's all about setting up the next generation- in our case, It's all for my kids (both less than 3 yrs old)... my hope is that it'll be passed down to multiple generations..
OP forgot to mention Ginseng production; great cash crop for just being in da woods; takes 5-10 yrs for it to pop off but you can make some serious coin for little work; not to mention super good for you
* 10-15 yrs to nut ; I know.. no premature shit here 8-)
>tfw no 2 bed 1 bath cabin on 20+ acres of mountainous woodland with a trout stream/river that flows through it.
>>736196
Great ideas man! I'm about 3 hours away from Shenandoah actually. I didn't know Mother Earth news had fairs, I will DEFINITELY look into that. Besides /out/, that's my main reading when I'm online. I actually hadn't thought about growing mashies or medicinal herbs. Such a great idea. There's huge farmers markets and Amish markets around me.
Going for a hike, will respond to the rest later.
does anyone know about land prices in danmark?
>>735482
Something to note, related to this post: if you're in the position where you're looking for your land to start on, try as hard as you can to avoid a realtor and buy something from a local guy.
Ask around in the area you want to live in, look on kijiji/craigslist, put out ads in a local paper/bulletin board, talk to farmers.
It's significantly cheaper this way and it's easier to find usable land in low-demand areas rather than clustered around where all the foreigners want to be.
>>736190
I once had 30 hens and was getting about 2 dozens eggs a day. I recently scaled down to only 15 hens which are all young and lay 12-15 eggs a day. They are only on 1 acre of land and I could have as many as 100 hens if I wanted to.
If I'm able to keep racoons out of the feeders, everything is fine. But, if they get to the feed, they can clean it out quickly. That's the biggest problem when it happens.
>>736418
>>736418
Wow that's pretty great returns for such little space. Does their quality of life impact their production? I want to keep my animals as happy as possible while maximizing the returns. If I stuffed 100 into a single acre would they lay less per chicken or do they not mind the lack of space?
Does anyone here produce honey? When I was a child my next door neighbor had a huge colony and I was always envious. I plan on getting started next year. Any words of wisdom on the topic?
Other than Wranglerstar (because most everyone here has seen it), are there good Homesteading podcasts? I watched a few videos from Dirt Patch Heaven and some of them are pretty comfy but a few made me worry they're going to starve to death.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQX8pMIbPcs
>>736456
I rarely interact with them other than to fill the feeders and gather eggs. They roam free for the most part and don't quite cover the acre of land they are allotted. So long as they have roost space and green grass growing they should be fine. When you have too many, there's not enough nest boxes, roost space, and the grass is so trampled it turns to dirt.
>Any words of wisdom on the topic?
If you forget to lock up the chickens at night with a lock that a small child can't undo, you may wake up to a total massacre of chickens in the morning.
>Does anyone here produce honey?
I have one hive left, down from 4 due to CCD. I actually check it tomorrow to make sure it is okay. Chickens are easy, bees....fuck bees.
>>735868
I grow all of my staple crops and vegetables (basically all of my food except meat) in 1000 square feet. You just have to actually put thought into what you grow and the layout of your plants.
Of course, if you just plant xboxhueg rows or wheat you will need a lot of space.
I get that homesteading is a meme in the USA, but even if you're just "playing house" with the idea I don't get how 5 acres is somehow "living off the land". You can grow tomatoes in your apartment too, does that make you a homesteader?
I manage roughly 500 acres (~2 sq km) of inherited, forested land which is in the lower end for a land owner around here. Leasing it for hunting twice per year and having 50 acres of energy crops rakes in a profit, "homesteading" would not.
>>736720
Relax mohammed. We cant all live in cuckland and be forced to earn a profit so we can pay taxes to the diversification. Some of us just want to live off the land with 0 profits.
>>736726
If you prefer living in misery on a cramped little backyard that doesn't even constitute "land" , go right ahead. You're just playing house though. Homesteading is dead in your country, as it is here.
Alternatively you could earn money off your land by just having it.
>>736720
Getting all your food from your land and not buying it is the key here. A lot of homesteaders don't even have utilities from companies. They produce their own power and have a water well.
>Homesteading is a lifestyle of self-sufficiency. It is characterized by subsistence agriculture, home preservation of foodstuffs, and it may or may not also involve the small scale production of textiles, clothing, and craftwork for household use or sale.
>>736761
>produce their own power
>subsistence agriculture
ok
>having your own water well
>home preservation of foodstuffs
eh, this is pretty much default in much of europe
>>736783
>eh, this is pretty much default in much of europe
Same as USA. Only people living in cities/towns don't have their own wells and even some of them do have wells.
>>735482
Best luck.
One good things about places like that is washing windows, cutting firewood and pruning fruit trees for the rich before they arrive. Then pissing off for a month or two with the procedes. Mostly non-toxic, outdoor, solo work.
>>736329
Good advice.
Go where the local's hang. Bars, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Dunkin D's, diner, etc... they all have 40 acres of timber or corn that they're too old to work and want to ditch for retirement cash.
Talk shop or offer your skill to them for under market rate and they'll reward you.
Good way to learn if it's a place you'd wanna live too.
>>735895
Seems like you're in an area with oaks. The make amazing food, acorns, don't need to be tended and have been used for food by entire cultures (California Natives, see "tending the wild" by M. Cat Anderson and "Tree Crops" by J Russell Smith
Best luck brother!
>>736731
If you even read my posts you'd see that 5 is mine but I have an additional 50 around me to hunt on/general activities with a few thousand behind me in state forest that I can do the same with. You wouldn't know about quality state forests over there in yurotrash though. I don't know why you're so up in arms. I'm not really trying to make a profit. Im going to full solar energy/well so I can just enjoy life without having to rely on the gummnit/big business. I think this is a good goal for anyone. Getting closer to nature is something everyone should try to do, I'm just making it my life's priority.
>>736870
It depends, if there acorns from the red oak subgroup (Quercus rubra, Q. velutina, Q. paulustris, Q. cocciena) the tannins are really concetrated. Even with a lot of leaching.
>>736916
You can say that again. For me its worth it with bur oak and white oak (and swamp white although we had a terrible crop this past year) but the red oaks are too damn bitter for me.
>>736797
I live in Appalachian country and only know farmers to have wells.
Been looking into ginseng ever since some anon posted about it itt. After doing some research I've realized this shit just grows wild around me. Doing a test run for 1 season and then planting a few acres of it on my parents side. Their land is mostly woodland so it works out nicely. I figure I'll use the money from this to get some more land in a better area and do the same.
>>738094
Anyone rural has a well, unless there's no water, then they have a tank and buy water.
>>736902
>>736916
Leaching can take a long time, though I'll do it in glass once or twice a month.
However even bitter, red oak flour can leach in a few hours if set in a river in a pillow case with a metal hanger bent into a circle around the opening of the case (allowing the water in). I was amazed by the river method's ease.
Red oaks generally have higher fat to carb ratio than white oak (as you wrote they have high tannin ratio) and that is why I sought red rather than black this year.
>>736987
^^^^^^^
See above
