halfmoonhead:

tropicalhomestead:

motherearthnewsmag:

Start a 1-Acre, Self-Sufficient Homestead

Expert advice on how to establish self-sufficient food production, including guidance on crop rotations, raising livestock and grazing management.

By John Seymour

Illustration by Dorling Kindersley

I love John Seymour and this little picture was one of the first to get me thinking about homesteading. Some things I’ve learned so far:

1) Don’t wait until you’ve acquired your little patch of heaven to start. Finding land is expensive and time consuming. Start where you are, even if it’s just herbs in the window sill or a patio garden. Grow where you’re planted.

2) Living in the country is cool. Driving 45 minutes to get anywhere is not. Don’t limit your search to rural areas. Empty and abandoned land in urban areas can be a good deal AND you won’t bleed out before the ambulance reaches you. A less dramatic example: forgetting the butter doesn’t mean an hour + round trip.

3) About butter…yeah, you’ll be buying it. It’s incredibly cost prohibitive to to raise large livestock on a small scale. Maybe goats? No matter what size, remember animals are a 24/7/365 responsibility.

4) You would be a god among insects if you grew a 1/10 acre of wheat, harvested it, milled it and baked your own bread. Next level for sure. Just consider: 5 lbs of organic red winter wheat for planting costs $11.75. A FIFTY pound bag of unbleached flour is $18.25. Consider trade offs for time and growing space for every thing you plant.

5) Self-sufficiency isn’t about isolation. You can’t do it alone, no matter how cute the diagrams look. Sharing knowledge and harvests increases your knowledge and builds community. Isn’t the whole point to make something better?

6) Lastly, you will fail. A lot. But the tiny victories will blot them out again and again to woo you into a false sense of confidence so you’ll try the next crazy experiment. And it will be worth it.

^^^ Great insight and as someone living off grid/farming,  I concur.