Gabrielle Carlson

I'm just wondering if you found the right situation yet?  I almost have what I think you are looking for, just one major drawback;  I'm on the western side of Floyd county, about 10 miles from the traffic light.  

I would love to find the right folks to move here and help develop my 28 acres into a great little permaculture food forest.  I'm a single woman, about to turn 70 and simply do not have the capacity to do much of the work myself.  I don't know what the carrying capacity of this property might be for livestock but it has about 8 acres of woodland, all of it across a creek which runs through the roughly rectangular parcel and about 18 acres of open pasture, with around 1.5 - 2 acres of "yard" surrounding the house.

The upstairs of the house is in the process of being made into separate living quarters with one bedroom, a full bath and a large open space with kitchen, living and dining space.  There will soon be a large deck with outside staircase giving separate entry to the upstairs.

Anyone reading this who might be interested in learning more please contact me.    

Hi Scott,  I too have a place with 28 acres about an hour Sw of Roanoke in Floyd county with an abundance of water.  It has a farm pond of about 1/3 of an acre with very steep sides and an island in the middle.  There is also a creek that cuts the property in half and runs for around 1,200 ft.  Several very small branches join up just inside my property line and all the water that flows here originates no more than about a quarter mile away so my creek is very near the headwaters.  I also have at least one seep that originates on the land and eventually makes its way down to the main creek.  

Although I retired here more than a dozen years ago I only began to learn a bit about permaculture a few years ago, just at the point when I learned that my very generous pension could be cut by 60% or more.  So I have spent the past 4 years working hard to save as much as possible as I wait to learn if my income will eventually be drastically cut.  It will probably be at least another year before any decision is reached by the folks who administer my plan.  If it's not cut I'll have plenty of funds to go ahead with lots os work, assuming that I can find a few good people to  hire since at age 70 I do have some physical limitations on how much I can manage by myself.  

In the mean time I hope to come up with a detailed plan on what to do, plant, etc.  I am hoping that I can at least get a good foundational planting of trees going, since about 20 acres is open pasture and that someone else can carry on when I'm gone.

Wishing you great success on this rainy, rainy day and going forward into the future.
 

I retired here a dozen years ago from Oakland, CA and was fortunate enough to be able to purchase a nice home on 26 acres.  The place has about 1,000 ft of year round creek which runs north/south and splits the roughly rectangular parcel in two, with 2/3rds of the land on the far side of the creek from the road and house. Most of the place is pasture but 8 acres of trees are located on the other side of the creek.  

During my first half dozen years here I was heavily involved with our small, all volunteer humane society.  Two years ago I started volunteering at Plenty! our community farm and food bank   https://plentylocal.org/  and find it both rewarding and enjoyable.