I thought I would start my manifesto, heheh.
My
permaculture small farm is at the very beginning stages. You might say I am at the observing stage, haha. I go for daily walks and do a lot of observing.
We have moved completely off grid to basically the middle of the woods. What we are doing is very difficult especially for us folks who are used to a high tech, convenient lifestyle. I now
think when I turn on the tap, or use electricity to watch TV. Every time I see someone taking a
shower or running the sink tap on TV I think, good grief look at all that
water they're pouring out, and they take their sweet time with it!
[The History]
One priority was reducing debt. I cashed in a 401k and paid cash for the property. I got dinged pretty hard with early withdrawal fees and taxes. Cashing in the 401k was a difficult decision, but I determined that I can either keep the money for
retirement and either take out a
mortgage I will pay for until I die (I'm 48 years old), or lose the benefits of a
retirement account but have my own property that I own outright, and always have a place to live that I can call my own. I feel good with my decision. I'm not debt free, but dammit I own my own
land and I'm glad. Also, I think being debt free and frugal goes hand in hand with
permaculture.
Cashing in the 401k was a decision my wife and I made together. We have 3 children, the oldest son is in the US Navy, the younger son is starting at Notre Dame this fall (at age 16!). We also have a 15 year old daughter. Family is important. My wife is in her 30's and has a good job as an ICU nurse. I have worked a lot of outside construction in the past and I'm fairly handy at building and fixing stuff. I was an electrician in the Navy years ago.
I am the son of Ohio Amish parents who left the Amish before I was born. I spent a lot of time as a boy with my Amish cousins playing in the woods and barns and living simply with outhouses and hand operated well pumps and riding to town in horse and buggy. When not with my cousins I still spent most of my time in the woods until I was a teenager. I met my wife in New Jersey. She was a true
city girl who had never even gone on a camping trip. The first time we went camping she would not roast a hot dog on a stick without putting tin foil on the stick I cut for her, and I laughed my butt off. That was 17 years ago and since then we have traveled a good part of the US (due to my job which was construction on military bases). Our daughter was born in the great state of Texas and my sons on the east coast. My wife has changed a lot over the years I realized the other day when I watched her butcher a
chicken. She is talking about hunting with me this fall.
I like to be self sufficient and not depend on the government or anybody else. In recent years my wife has started thinking the same way. Anybody who pays attention to the news can see that the direction our country is going is not good. Also in recent years we started paying attention to the food we eat, and when we realized all that was happening (processed foods, GMO foods, the Monsanto empire, big pharma) we dreamed of getting all that out of our lives. My parents had instilled in me the love of
gardening, but I never got serious about it. At this point I had food stored up in case the zombies come, but I knew that to be self sufficient I would have to get
gardening to work better for me. Then I heard about
permaculture and it was what I was looking for. And soon I found this forum and a LOT of things started making sense.
I sold my modern vehicle and with 1/6th of that money bought a 94 3/4 ton 4WD diesel pickup. The rest I spent on fencing materials and a generator.
[The Site]
Property is 20 acres in a nice rectangle in western Montana, 70 miles west of Missoula. Gardening zone 5A or 5B. Very hot, dry summers and fairly cold winters. Annual precipitation is 17-20". Terrain is fairly flat, some small slope towards the north end. Elevation is ~3000 feet. There is absolutely no surface water or springs. Beautiful mountains all around and the Clark Fork River valley to the south. There is an easement road that runs near the west and south edge of the property. There is one neighbor (a great older couple) who uses the easement. There is evidence of wild game, including elk,
deer, turkey, bears (grizzlies too), coyotes and wolves. It is timber country, with Douglas Fir, Ponderosa Pine, and Tamerack (Larch). Understory includes, lupine, serviceberry, ninebark, bearberry, Oregon Grape and grass.
The nearest electrical connection is at least a mile away. Cell phone service is spotty so we have a cell phone repeater We use cell phone for internet because we are still on the Verizon unlimited plan. There was a 520' deep well on the property and my wife and I put in a 1HP well pump at 500'. We got a Grundfos pump with a soft start feature so we can run it with the generator. We get 5 gpm but the well needs to refill after an hour or so. But in an hour we can get 300 gallons. I buried water line to 3 different points on the property with hydrants at each point.
[Where We Are Now]
We have a 1953 30 HP
tractor with a back blade and a post hole digger. Also a 1969 Case backhoe which needs a new crankshaft. In spring I moved our 24' camper to the site and I've stayed in it since. The wife came out a couple months ago. We fenced in a small area around the camper for our 5 dogs (what can I say we love dogs) and we also fenced in an area the size of a football field a little ways away. In this area we put our 40
chickens and 2 goats. I have been working on a log cabin
chicken coop/goat
shelter and yesterday we got the roof on. All materials are taken from the site (logs) or reclaimed (like some metal roofing I had from another building) except for some rebar. The goats free range outside the fenced area as much as they spend time in it. They stay close to home. There is so much browse for them that they don't need to be fed other food. We are feeding the chickens because some of them are meat chickens and they don't forage very well.
We use the generator to power the pump to
feed water to the camper and for the livestock. Also to charge the camper batteries, surf the internet and watch our Direct TV satellite system. Hey you have to have some entertainment after all this hard work.
We have taken an old 52 gallon
water heater, elevated it to about 5 feet with a timber frame and that is where we store water for the livestock. The camper has a 30 gallon tank. We fill both at the same time.
[The Plan]
Livestock: Paddock shift all livestock including the chickens. I would like to someday
fence in the 20 acres and have paddocks, but the 20 acre
fence is a huge commitment. A
dairy cow and meat cows, miniature breeds. A couple pigs for fall slaughter. I would like to get stock to breed with to reduce external inputs. Feed all livestock with on site resources.
Garden: Feed ourselves, and when in abundance, our neighbors. Food forest, annual garden, grain gardens. I like to make my own beer and it would be awesome if I could grow barley to make that happen. Also grain to feed our animals. Also, I just love wheat and corn, so I want it.
Housing: We currently live in a camper. We are going to build a wofati type structure this fall, and build a log cabin next year.
Water: We'll need a large holding tank to pump water to periodically throughout the day.
Electric:
Solar and possible wind power. Both options are expensive and not available in the near future. For now its the generator.
[Challenges}
Water. We have no surface water, and the well is deep and output is not optimal. Summers are dry, dry, dry.
Garden: Soil is ok but not the best. Irrigation, see above.
Fire: We are in prime forest fire country, and this is a concern of mine.
Livestock feed: Reduce inputs. Feed the livestock from the land, year round. Also keep livestock water from freezing during winter.
Electric: Need to power the well, a great distance from the home, and also the home.
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