My Biggest Mini Homestead Obstacle

I know what you’re thinking it’s the fact that it’s mini right? NO!! Okay well sort of but not the way you’re thinking. When we started looking for property it became obvious that we could only afford a small property. We did not want to have a mortgage that was more than my husband’s housing allowance and in order to stay on budget the biggest we could get was an acre, specifically 1.06 acres. Once we knew it was going to be a small property I got to planning. I figured we could keep chickens and have a large garden and that was it. We eat mostly chicken anyway so that wasn’t a huge deal. We would get eggs and the garden could provide a lot of our fruits and veggies since we live in a mild climate.

(These are Spider Lilies and were here when we moved. I absolutely love them!)

But then something wonderful happened. I stumbled upon Permaculture. That’s what I’m going to call it anyway. Everyone’s idea of permaculture and execution of it is different but that’s what makes it amazing. Being able to adapt regenerative systems to any situation is beautiful. It wasn’t just permaculture though, over the last 2 years we have lived on this property I have never stopped exploring how other people homestead. Homestead learning is a passion of mine and the best way to do it in my opinion, is to watch others. When the Rhode’s family announced their Great American Farm Tour I thought, man now we won’t get to watch them homestead for a whole YEAR!! Bummer and why in the world would they do that. I stopped watching. Then about a month before they finished it I was bored and I binge watched the whole thing over a few days. I have got to tell you I am so glad I did. There was a wealth of information. They provided the viewers with a snapshot of who knows how many homesteads, with that many unique farming systems. If I haven’t watched it I highly recommend that you do!

(This tree is one of my favorite features of our property. It's so unique.)

This experience was invaluable, so much so I wish I had contributed to their gofundme for the project. It opened my eyes to just how much we COULD do on a single acre. For example weedemandreap keeps goats, feeder sheep, chickens and ducks on their 1 acre property and that’s all in the backyard! With proper management I don’t see why we couldn’t do something similar. The obstacle comes in deciding what exactly we want to do because we do have limitations. Should we get 4 Nigerian Dwarf goats for milk production? Should we get 4 goats and a couple feeder lambs? Could we get only one lamb if they live with the goats? Maybe we shouldn’t get goats at all, maybe we should get dairy sheep! This is the inside of my head right now, over and over again. Each scenario has pros and cons. Making it even more difficult is that I have no experience with livestock and have no idea how many we could sustain on our property or how much food we would have to bring in for them.

This is the problem with a small property, not that you can’t do much but that there is so much you can do, it’s hard to decide! Of course with a large property you could do all the above but I enjoy a challenge!

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