dan brier

Hello, trying this again

I recently took the plunge and bought 4 acres in a small town in east Alabama. I’m building my life (quite literally) and would love to share the journey with someone special.

Some info about me:
- Born/raised in South Florida (suburbs)
- Previous occupations in aircraft maintenance & software development
- Self funded, no debt, minimalist lifestyle
- Agnostic (religion)
- Politically neutral but left leaning
- Want a family, currently have no kids, but I have a puppy
- Fully committed to getting self sufficient to include (but not limited to): energy, water, waste, food, bartering
- INTJ personality
- Hobbies and interests: mostly centered around gardening (composting, regenerative, permaculture, market gardening, organic, etc) and nerd stuff (tabletop gaming, various forms of media, collecting, etc)
- No smoking, alcohol, or drugs; but I am quite interested in exploring psychadelics

A little about the property. There are 12 acres for sale next door, if you want to go bigger. I’m building everything myself. To date, there is a 10x10 shed and a gazebo. Next up is a tiny house. 10m bike ride to a town with all essentials (including a hospital and court house). Chose east Alabama primarily for weather (Zone 8, good rainfall) and lack of building codes/permits/zoning (i’m outside city limits). So basically, can build anything we dream up. There is also a mountain spring fed creek that runs on the property, originating on my neighbors. The land is mostly forest or recently cleared forest. It is also sloped (but not steep).

My goal over the next 5 years is to get the property fully functional, comfortable, and productive; and to start a family. Gardens, chickens, nature, kiddos, and close partner.

Thanks for looking, I look forward to getting to know you!
Dan

Thanks for your inputs Alder.

1) noted on Gooseberry/currants. I'll probably attempt much less of them knowing they are likely to fail.
2) Great note, added a rabbiteye note on my list. I'll also try to target drought/heat resistant species when possible, since I prefer to dry farm.
3) Noted on apples, will look for heat tolerant.
4) Will come back to subtropical later, I want to get the important stuff in the ground this year (I also have priorities with construction, solar, rain harvesting, outhouse, etc), so I expect I'll have many years to try the warmer and cooler loving plants!

Great points.

1) American Chestnut - I have no idea, just putting together a list, but I will keep an eye out for disease resistance because of your feedback.
2) The soil in my area is notorious for being acidic, so I'm not very worried about that. However, I am aware that many plants change the soil, so I will try to keep the acid lovers together and isolated.
3) Good callout on lack of nitrogen fixing. I will add peanut and sugar snap peas to my list. However, there is an abundance of invasive Kudzu in the area, so I suspect nitrogen in the soil is already at a decent level (at least starting out). I also have a cover crop mix including field peas in some of my ditch/swale beds.

Thanks for your inputs!

Hi everyone. I'm starting my food forest this year in East Alabama. I've compiled a short list of species I think are important. I'm looking to the community to see if you have any opinions or recommendations about my list (things to add, remove, consider, etc.)

The property is on a light slope. It was previously thick forest (with an abundance of kudzu) which has been mulched down to stumps and groundcover. It has sat over winter, so I expect spring to be a boom of native plants if I don't get desired plants in the ground. The trees on the land were mostly pines.

I was thinking of avoiding non-edible species, but perhaps this is a silly idea.

Thanks for any inputs, cheers.

I am agnostic. I do not accept or reject any religion.

Hello, 38M looking for female. PM inc!

Nevermind, looks like you have messages disabled, feel free to PM me if you like, or check out my post in the singles forum. Thanks, good luck to you!
Dan

PM inc. 38M, I've got 4 acres in east Alabama.

PM inc

Hello,

My name is Dan. This year I started my dream project in East Alabama (town of Ashland) to make my own homestead on 4 acres. I'm in early construction phase, and would love to find someone to share the journey and my life with.

I'm building everything myself, funded by myself. I have no debt and good credit.

My end goal is a food forest, a compound with a handful of small buildings, for me (us), visitors, and aging parents. There is an additional 12 acres for sale next door, so if you want to go bigger, we can! I'm mostly self studied with some volunteer experience in a variety of topics, like: permaculture, regenerative ag, animal husbandry, composting, korean natural farming (knf), fermentation, etc.

I'm originally a suburbs boy (miami), previous military, and wanted to transition to a more holistic life in-tune with nature and regenerative principles. I've done volunteer work on 4 farms in the last few years, so I'm not totally green, but by no means am I an expert.

So far I have built a shed (temporary living quarters), a gazeebo, and I am working on the first tiny house (eventually will be the guest house). There is a mountain spring fed creek on the property, where I get my water from.

The town is a bike ride away, complete with hospital, school, grocery stores, hardware stores, a couple restaurants, and more. It is a cute town with low crime. To the north is the southern tip of the appalachian mountains and lots of nature to explore.

The area also gets a good amount of rain and pretty decent conditions for growing. I'm on a slope and use trenches to collect runoff (like swales). I haven't started very far into planting other than getting 11 trees in the ground and some covercrop. The focus has largely been survival and construction.

I'm a bit of a nerd mixed with blue collar. I'm not afraid of doing things myself, and learning construction has been pretty fun. My previous occupations were aircraft technician and software product manager. I would love to start a family and live a simple life being self sustainable and be free of the rat-race that most people are caught in. E/INTJ personality, once described (and agreed with) as a 'mirror empath'. I'm a bit of a jack of all trades.

Anyways, I'm probably forgetting a ton of things, but maybe we could discuss more while we get to know each other.

I look forward to meeting you!

Dan

Hello,

I bought 4 acres in a small friendly town (Ashland, Alabama) a couple months ago. Since then I’ve started by building a 10x10 temp living structure (future shed) and clearing. Soon I will be building the first residential structure and gardens.

I’m looking for someone to share the journey with, and hopefully fall in love, have kids, and grow old together.

About myself:
- INTJ/ENTJ
- Grew up Miami
- Jack of all trades, I try to do a little bit of everything that interests me
- Love nerd things and nerd culture
- Listen to most music genres, but am specific about which artists
- Really just want to live a happy, fun, frugal life with someone where we spend our days in the gardens or taking care of the kids & animals, with the occasional escape
- Background as military aviation mechanic, developing defense software, and volunteer organic farm work

My vision for the property is to have several small structures. A tiny home for us, a guest house for visitors, an outdoor kitchen, an outdoor bathroom, a gazebo, etc. there would be an annual garden and an orchard. I want to use nature for pest control (raptor perch, owl boxes, frog/dragonfly pond, etc). I am open and desire to collaborate with you on the topic. There is a mountain spring fed creek on the property. I intend to rain harvest, capture my own energy, and process my own waste (dry toilet + incinerate). I believe in regenerative, permaculture, composting, intercropping, rotations, successions, etc.

There are 12 more acres for sale next door, so if you are looking to go bigger, it is possible.

The town is Ashland. It is a small town with everything you need, but probably not everything you want. There’s hardware stores, grocery stores, restaurants, retail shops, thrift store, legal services, a hospital, a couple gyms, etc. Population 2k, and very close to another town population 2k.

One of the main reasons I chose this spot is because of weather. It has all 4 seasons, but winter is short and mild. We should be able to grow 10 or possibly 12 months of the year. There are also no residential building codes, and i am outside city limits, so we can do whatever we want without much interference.

There’s lots more to talk about, and I look forward to meeting you!
Dan