Allow myself to introduce myself...

Greetings from southeast Michigan.

I found my way here through seeing an blog talking about rocket mass heaters.

My wife and I have just signed a purchase agreement on a 10 acre farm property with a house to rehab, 2 barns, a chicken coop, a pond, woods, tillable acres, and boy do I have a lot to learn!

Howdy Doug, Looks like a nice place !

Wyomiles Hogan wrote:Howdy Doug, Looks like a nice place !

Thanks. it's been neglected but we just love the property and it's possibilities.

I don't know where to start asking questions.

What to plant? how to plant?

Will probably do chickens in a pasture.

Want to grow human and chicken food.

We want to work towards self sufficiency, so planting an orchard, gardens, possibly stock the pond with fish...

Hi Doug, welcome!

10 acres is a wonderful size. Big enough for lots of possibilities, but small enough you can get to know it all.

I would start by reading a lot, Gaia's Garden is a good start, Seth's books are good too.

Start small though, like nature does, unless you have very deep pockets. Better to have something right, than a lot of things wrong.

And I personally would be focused as well on the pond. A ready source of fish protein is a wonderful thing.

You may find a retired game warden that can give you pointers on your pond,My first thougts would be to see how deep it is and how clean or dirty it may be. You may want to dosome digging and cleaning before stocking . A managed pond is very important
I would start with a small pen or coop in the barn for the chickens. You need find oit what varmints you will be dealing with beofre letting them run wild
You could start asmall garden as the first thing to do it is cheap and cost very little to start and maintain. Maybe put it close to the pond and water the garden from it

Thanks, Chaz. Good advice on the pond. There appears to have been a deer convention around the pond. There are several large rubs and trampled areas back there. I fear a garden by the pond would just fatten the deer. The soil back there looks awesome though.

We have several raised beds up by the house that we will start with and an old chicken coop. I agree on starting small with the chickens. I've seen raccoon sign by the pond and a coyote where we are now 2 miles from the farm.

The pond is at least 5 feet in the center. I'll have to wait till next spring to find out for sure. The one place I checked on the bank, the muck is only about 4-5 inches deep.

I've thought about reclaiming rain water off the barn roof to a tank in the upper hay level. Then using that to water the garden.

I do want to get some things started like planning and planting the orchard. When is the time to plant tree? Spring or fall?

I would like to plant some corn and perhaps wheat. What is the permaculture way for planting? Is there a no till method? I have access to my brothers old Massy and a disc, but I will have to buy a plow.. I would like to knock down the weeds in the field this winter before it freezes. But since I know next to nothing about permaculture, I don't know if tilling would be the right thing to do.

Fred, is there a place to purchase those books where I don't have to give Amazon my $?

I can't wait to get started. I just got the well test back and it has Coliform Bacteria in it. Nice, hope it just needs a good dose of sanitizer.

One of the best features of the house is it comes with a Home Comfort wood stove!

Congratulations, this is going to be great !

Doug sent you a priv message did not want to take up board space

We've had the property about a month and a half. Part way into renovating the house.

I usually walk over the hill to look at the pond and will kick up 4 or 5 deer that seem to live either in the swail to the right or the thicket to the left. Today I slowly walked over the hill and saw deer starting to leave the thicket and they just kept coming. I counted 19 deer! Might need to rethink fencing the garden.

Did you get your water cleaned up ?

Wyomiles Hogan wrote:Did you get your water cleaned up ?

Not yet. I'm going to wait until closer to when we might occupy before dealing with it. I don't want the issue to come back from lack of use.