Hello from west Texas!

I'm not necessarily new to all of this, but not a seasoned veteran either. A few years back we sold a small farm that we managed poorly with a hodgepodge of different ideologies. We weren't successful at any of it, but seemed to whiplash from one thing to another. We dabbled with a milk cow, goats, chickens, rabbits, gardening, etc. Most of the time I did too much, too fast, got overwhelmed, and then got burned out. The convenience of being in town has been nice, but it feels like something is missing.

I'm ready to give it another go, and we have 14 acres we can do it on, but this time things are going to be deliberate. I have no intention of farming for a living and will continue to work full-time for the foreseeable future, but would like to provide for our family of five as much as possible, cultivate a love for the environment in our kiddos, steward the resources we have more wisely, and live a simple life of contentment instead of consumerism. I would love to live in an efficient, eco-friendly, off-grid house... but not sure if I can pull it off (or if my spouse is willing to let me try).

The major challenges in this region are the summer heat and irregular/low rainfall. Our land doesn't have groundwater, so rainwater catchment system with significant reservoir volume is going to be important for us. We can grid-tie to a water supply corp, but I'm trying to figure out a way to steer clear of this.

I think the permaculture mentality fits bet with the direction we need to go and I'm excited to learn from this community!

Welcome to the forum Blake! I enjoyed reading about your journey.

Blake, welcome to the forum!

Have you seen our Urban Gardening Forum?

Here are some threads that you or others might find interesting:

https://permies.com/t/108608/urban-suburban-permie-picture-thread

https://permies.com/t/166073/Crops-Survival-Garden

https://permies.com/t/197710/Backyard-Growers

https://permies.com/t/84041/grow-herbs-fish-cheap-Easy

Thanks Anne! I'll take all the help I can get... I'm slowly getting oriented to everything, but I will admit that it is a little overwhelming at first! I did follow your link the the urban forum and have been exploring. I even figure out how to 'watch' it!

One thing out here you can do to help capture and store water into the ground.  I am not sure how deep for you to dig to hit the caliche out here but me I have been using a pickaxe over the years and making several basins that fill up with water and soak into the ground and the areas are becoming greener every year that I dig them deeper.  Until I clear my debt to rent the equipment to dig faster.  I am doing most with no clay seal to actually allow the water to soak in and build up water tables.  but eventually I may end up sealing one up to work as a surface water containment later down the road.  but my big 150ft by 100ft play dug down 15 foot or more would store loads of water and you just have to watch where your water crosses your land to allow it to fill up easily off an inch of rain or so.  Even if your basins are just knee high the area around them over time looks totally different.  The pictures below are side by side.  as the untouched area is further past this basin in first picture.

I am in Gaines County to give you perspective on the land type that is around here.

It is going to be a tough going producing off land in West Texas (I am speaking of the part I have experience with, which is Brewster county). Not to say impossible but be ready to not have a rigid mentality about things. What I mean by that is - when we started our journey (not in West Texas), I was adamant about not using external inputs - at all. Pretty quickly learned to pick my battles and that my end goal should be no external inputs but the journey to that goal may include them

Water rights in your area - are there any cattle ranches nearby? If you start digging canals and collecting ground runoff into ponds - is anyone legally entitled to that water or is it yours? If you are OK to dig canals and make ponds - make sure they are some distance from your abode. Otherwise your pond will attract everything that lives around - including a ton of rattlers...

Blake Dozier wrote:I'm not necessarily new to all of this, but not a seasoned veteran either. A few years back we sold a small farm that we managed poorly with a hodgepodge of different ideologies. We weren't successful at any of it, but seemed to whiplash from one thing to another. We dabbled with a milk cow, goats, chickens, rabbits, gardening, etc. Most of the time I did too much, too fast, got overwhelmed, and then got burned out. The convenience of being in town has been nice, but it feels like something is missing.

I'm ready to give it another go, and we have 14 acres we can do it on, but this time things are going to be deliberate. I have no intention of farming for a living and will continue to work full-time for the foreseeable future, but would like to provide for our family of five as much as possible, cultivate a love for the environment in our kiddos, steward the resources we have more wisely, and live a simple life of contentment instead of consumerism. I would love to live in an efficient, eco-friendly, off-grid house... but not sure if I can pull it off (or if my spouse is willing to let me try).

The major challenges in this region are the summer heat and irregular/low rainfall. Our land doesn't have groundwater, so rainwater catchment system with significant reservoir volume is going to be important for us. We can grid-tie to a water supply corp, but I'm trying to figure out a way to steer clear of this.

I think the permaculture mentality fits bet with the direction we need to go and I'm excited to learn from this community!

Blake, thank you for posting on this. We did pretty much the same thing. Started out in TX on a completely raw piece of land as newlyweds, trying to go off grid, drill our own well, and build a house at the same time. My husband right he'd be done in 4 weeks.... And I was pregnant. 😮
And, we absolutely tried to make it work. But the burnout caught up with us, and we had to move off of it for sanity's sake. Oh, we tried to do it again many times after that, but each time we failed a bit more creatively than the last. 😄
I can look back on it and laugh now, but it certainly was not a laughing matter going through it.

We didn't "officially" move on to our property until 2020, and that was AFTER we decided for a builder to build our home and put in the amenities that come with that. And then came the animals.
I'll tell you, it was SO much rewarding being out and working with them, and then coming in to a finished house, with running hot water and a nice warm bed.

So, what I'm saying is.... You don't have to be extremely idealistic this time around. Starting a homestead can be exhausting and stressful for everyone- including and especially on the Mrs. Of the house. She will want to have all the needs met that help HER do her work as mother and wife if the homestead. I don't know how high her maintenance level is, but being able to cook a decent meal, bathe herself and her children, and wash clothes are very important to a homestead wife. Please take that all into consideration.
And don't try to do it yourself where you can more easily rent or hire on certain things. For some things you'll find your time is more valuable.