Homesteading Vision: The Dream

Since we purchased our land, all I've wanted to do was go and permaculture the crap out of it! I have been waiting years to get started. While there are so many things that I want to do, I need to stay focused and work on what needs to get done first.

Over the past couple of months, I have written several posts related to the one you're about to read. I covered our homesteading motivations, land criteria, the purchase of our land, and our main homesteading goal for this year. If you haven't read any of them you may find reading them worthwhile; they certainly will help better understand our goals.

Our Homesteading Vision: Motivations

Our Homesteading Vision: Land Criteria

Renegades Homesteading Property: A Slice of Heaven

Renegades' Homesteading Resolution For 2018

Photo by Jakub Kriz on Unsplash

Big Dreams

We have some pretty grand plans for our 50 acre property. It is quite diverse already with a mix of bush, pasture, and water features. If I didn't dream big, doing very little with the property would be easy. Unfortunately, I'm a sucker for punishment and want our property to be an example of what can be done with permaculture. I don't want it to just be nice, I want it to be magnificent.

Our long term plans for the property include developing several income streams so I will be able quit my regular job and farm full time. The three alternative streams of income I am most interested in pursuing right now are:

• A Few Acres of Mixed Orchard - A hybrid between Stefan Sobkowiak's Permaculture Orchard and some of what Mark Shepard is doing on his New Forest Farm. I have a slightly colder climate than either of these projects and will have to adjust my plant selections accordingly.

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• Rotational Grazing Paddocks - I haven't decided yet whether I will be doing cattle, sheep or goats. I will have to do an analysis of the profit potential of each enterprise. I've worked with cattle a bit already and they are fairly easy to manage but with all the bush on the property I would have more acres of forage available for goats.
• Woodlot and Tree Crops - With all the wetlands on our property, pussy willows might be a profitable enterprise. I am also taking a hard look at some other crops like Sea Buckthorn and Hybrid Hazel.
• Nursery - The hundreds,if not thousands, of trees I will be planting will be extremely expensive if I buy them all. This makes developing my own nursery almost a necessity. If I go to all the trouble to set up a nursery to start the plants I need for myself though, doesn't it make sense to raise a few extra to sell?

We also realize that we won't have the time or energy to do everything ourselves. We plan to look for partnerships, I believe Joel Salatin calls them fiefdoms. These would be good opportunities to function stack the land while allowing people that don't have their own land access to farming opportunities.

• Bees - With an orchard and other trees producing plenty of flowers it only makes sense to have bees, however, I am not particularly interested in keeping them myself.

Photo by Ariana Prestes on Unsplash

• Sheep - One of the grazing animals I have been toying with the idea of having are sheep, but I don't want to sheer them and try to market the wool. I know there are hair sheep that don't require this extra care but for some reason I keep leaning towards goats. I would be willing to take care of them day-to-day though, if someone wanted to do the sheering and figure out how to market the wool.
• Cidery - I would definitely be willing to custom grow cider apples if I could find someone to partner with to handle the brewing. It would have to be a very well thought out contract though. I don't want to get stuck with a bunch of apples that are hard to market.

The above ideas are the just the for profit enterprises. It is still going to be a homestead so there will be other projects we will probably do on a smaller scale.

• Vegetable Garden - While I don't find growing vegetables to sell super appealing, I definitely would like to have some substantial gardens to feed our growing family.
• Chickens - I have some experience with laying hens; I built a chicken tractor and moved them daily. To be honest, it was a lot of work, more than I am willing to do for just our own needs, so I think I will set up some sort of coop and run instead. The set up will most likely have several permanent paddocks I can rotate the chickens through.
• Trout Pond - One summer, when I was a kid I was able to fish a private trout pond my auntie and uncle had access to. While I didn't do very well, that day my brother caught two massive rainbow trout. One of them must have been 10 pounds! The potential of these small fisheries stuck with me ever since.

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This is an aerial view of our property. It must have been taken when it was fairly dry because you can actually see where water moves though the land. I have also extensively looked at topographical maps of the land and determined where the best places to add ponds would be.

Here you can see the potential pond locations I have identified. The one furthest left is the least likely to be made. The other 3 are closer to the yard site and at a higher elevation.

• Walking Trails and Camping Spots - Both for our use and to help lure friends and family out to visit. We have a few good friends that also have children and, since we will be living at least an hour away from them, having fun activities to do will encourage them to make the trip.

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Quite a lofty list of projects, I know. To just jump into them would be a great way of getting burnt out and discouraged. I have also learned from experience that jumping into farming endeavors without proper infrastructure, is a recipe for frustration and wasted time.

So how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! The first thing we need to do is get the yard and house set up. Once we are living on the land full time we will be in a much better position to assess and proceed with the above ideas.

 
Stay tuned for Part 2 where I will be discussing the projects that are scheduled for this year

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