Cristobal Cristo

Ivan,

Surrounding a metal stove with bricks will not solve your problems. The energy has to be extracted from the exhaust.
I would suggest the following:

1. Cutting opening in the wall between 10 and 16 m2 rooms and building a BBR masonry heater. I saw such solutions.
Please remember that masonry mass provides energy through radiation which would be blocked by a masonry wall. That's why masonry houses usually have separate masonry heaters in each room.
If we know your location, wall thicknes, insulation in the roof, wall openings, we could calculate the heat loss and adjust the power/size of the heater.

2. For kitchen you could build a cooking stove with a small bell to get more heat in the room.

Water will add complexity for a new builder, but it can be done. It would make sense to add it in the kitchen stove.

I think rain harvesting is feaseable if you have no other choices - no or bad well water, no streams/ponds, desert climate with low precipitation or restrective well drilling regulations. I would consider a property without a well only if I knew that the area has good water, sufficient amount and not too deep (the deeper the well the more expensive and usually lower yield).
If well is avalable try to look for a minimum 50 l/minute yield. The more the better. In the time of extreme drought, lower yielding wells may simply stop yielding anything.

Land size needed depends on soil/climate combination. For orchard, vegetables and a few animals 2 hectares is sufficient assuming that land is fertile enough to produce sufficient amount of vegetation for the grazers. If you plan on having more sheep/goats - the more terrain the better. It's better to have a smaller plot with excellent water, soil and microclimate than ten times bigger with rocks and aridity.

Water and soil are your main objectives, because they are bulky ingredients. Everything else can be relatively easily adjusted, but if you start with low quality soil and low water it may result in major frustration. I have tons of water and deep soils and I struggle to produce any vegetables, but at the same time have more and more fruits and quite a lot of sheep.

Are you still considering the citrus orchard?
Maybe if you share a list of your land finds it will be easier to help you.

Water is the deal breaker in hot arid summer climate. Of course dry farming exists, but in arid Mediterranean it's limited to olives and almonds. At the beginning I was really excited with the prospect of growing without water, but it was a complete failure for me. Even with water things fail on a regular basis.

Light traffic may be acceptable, as long as there are not future plans to turn this road into a highway or expressway. I personally would not like to be adjacent to even light traffic road. My cats are free roaming and I would not like to see them dead.

I would not like to have high voltage power lines over my head, but if they were 200 m away (but not closer) I would probably accept it. Proximity to power lines is not only possible radiation problem (current physic says it's low energy due to low frequency, but life is way more complex than that), but also the fact that it will have easements around and future extension of the power lines would encroach even more on your land. Even if it had no easements, if the state decides to widen the energy corridor they will do it.

Flat terrain is better than slope, but it depends on the steepness, orientation, soil, etc.
-southern/western slope will be more perpendicular to the sun rays
-steep slopes will have shallow soil and shallow soil will not hold much water
-irrigation on steep slopes is problematic; despite using pressure control emitters, the top trees on my 5 degree slope get 2 times less water than bottom ones
-if the slope is steep it's dangerous to use tractor

Occasional flooding at the bottom is not a problem as long as you are aware of it and you build higher enough. I'm saying "enough", because there may be always more intense flooding in the future. Valleys are an asset in the mountains - usually they will have deeper and fertile soils and more underground water. At the same time, please be aware that a well by a stream may have salty water. I would never buy a property with bad water.
Valley bottom may have clay rich soil which can be used for building,
Some valleys may also experience temperature inversions resulting in freezes but also cooler summer nights.

Having some trees or any source of shade is greatly helpful if not critical.

Justin Henney wrote:1. Is it worth adding a large stratification chamber to the conventional wood stove in my basement to capture heat and distribute over longer periods of time? Or is the stratification chamber only useful with the RMHs because of the high temps they achieve in the barrel?
2. As I consider future options, does anybody have reasons for or against trying to use my current wood stove as the firebox for a batch box RMH? This might be a wild question, but I figured I'd throw it in here in case anyone has some input.

Justin,

Is your objective to heat the basement or entire house?

1. If the exhaust temperature is high, probably a barrel could be added. I specifically said "barrel", because building a masonry bell would not make sense in this case as the bell takes more labor than a proper firebox.

2. How the current wodstove would become a BBR firebox?

P.T Heinonen wrote:Thank you for this. Considering my inexperience, would you recommend this or ready made NHL 3.5 for this renovation job?

It will work.
NHL in US ix prohibitively expensive (+ shipping cost), so I provided a universal recipe for high calcium lime (3 times cheaper and no shipping cost), to which pozzolanic agent (calcined clay, brick powder, pumice) can be added to make hydraulic lime.

I understand that they would like to be able to sweep out the ashes on the straight path through such a opening instead of digging in the firebox. I would only suggest to carve some two finger cavities in the face of the brick, so it can be pulled out with two fingers, without attempts to pry it out (that would chip it sooner than later).

I think west facing is better than south facing slope that I have. It's a scorching frying pan in summer. You will have less sun than I do and lower temperatures. Proximity to the sea will add humidity. It should be great.
Oranges indicate a gentler climate that will allow you to be more successful in gardening.
I can not grow oranges due to too many freezes that also translate into very late freezes and cold spring nights, hampering any vegetable growth. When the nights get warmer the days are already too hot and it's too late. With producing orange orchard you should not have these problems.

Dareios Alexandre wrote:The property does have a well and it's a big one too! The trees are all on drip irrigation. It's a beautiful place.

It seems like there are a lot of positives:
-it has a serious water supply
-it has mature trees so there is shade
-if citrus is growing it means the soil can not be bad and it does not have serious freezes; you will have a long growing season
-it has an irrigation system to which you can add more emitters (after some calculations) and start growing right away
-last but not least, it's beautiful

The only negative I'm seeing in the info you have provided is the use of sprayed chemicals, but it would not diminish the positives (unless they were using heavy metal based compounds in the past).

Please make sure you are not in a flood zone if it's in some valley. In the mountains an innocent and idyllyic looking valley may turn into a lake when it pours.

I agree with Rico on RV. My post would be banned if I expressed what I think about them.
I would still get an RV and build a mini (20 m2) house first. It will give you experience and confidence. It will be used in the future as a guest house or maybe you will realize that it's sufficient for your new life. I would say that homesteading in a place with a great climate needs a small house (30-70 m2) and sufficient number of accessory buildings.

Dareios,

2 hectares of citrus is more original than an olive orchard in Greece :).
Please take into consideration that citrus will be on irrigation and olives rather not. It would take around 10 m3 of water per one drip irrigated session, or more. It means there is water. Make sure it's good water and not something that you will have to filter or that will deteriorate your soil.
Mature citrus can be grafted. There is an orchard that I drive by that was renewed by bark grafting 3 years ago. The trees were cut  50 cm off the ground, they had diameter of 15-20 cm. It's already producing.
There are so many varieties of citrus that can be tried.