newby from the south, looking northerly...

Hello and nice to meet you all. I'm from Guelph specifically, where I'm currently living with my partner Rachel. After she's worked her way through nursing school we plan on moving up to the southern Bruce peninsula where we have access to land to build a home on. Our goal is to build a permaculture system including; a naturalized food forest, using a couple clearings/grasslands for market gardens (using John Jeavons grow biointensive method) and raising animals, harvesting wood responsibly, hunting, ideally while still leaving 50% wild after resolving any issues created by infrastructure (it sounds like there's a drainage issue, who knows what else) . That's a long way off though with endless work to do, we're only in the very early preliminary stages now, just trying to learn as much as we can and what better place to start. So I thought I'd take a minute to introduce myself. I work in the trades, currently as a roofer, but am a generalist at heart. I have more experience and passion for gardening, but after years of working in indoor horticulture and hydroponic shops would rather keep it as a passion. One that feeds me that is...

I look forward to getting to know you all better, while soaking up all the knowledge I can to help us realise how much we actually have to learn to make our dreams a reality... With the least amount of self defeating trouble and toil as possible ideally, that's a long shot though

It seems like you are moving to zone 5b. So there is alot of things that you can plant.
Silvo pasture
Pasture
Fish
Honey-warre bee hive
food forest,
vegetable - one square garden
house.

So many topics to tackle.

It's zone 6a actually, which is kinda funny as it means we'll be moving up a zone by going farther north... Gotta love the lakeshore effects, if you're on the south shore that is. Which means there's even more possibilities and things to study, luckily I'm naturally obsessed with all things growing and Rachel has a growing interest in animal husbandry. We're also in no rush, we figure we'll start surveying the land, as well as observing water cycles through during the year, and possibly planting some trees next year, build gardens over the next 3-5 years as well as a small cottage. I'm looking forward to building the cottage, having worked in the trades for years I'm looking forward to building a eco-friendly, low impact building for a change. I'm sure any vague idea's we have now will change by the time we actually start work though. The goal is to be moving out full time hopefully within 5, so we expect lots of ideas to change between now and then so we temper our enthusiasm to rush out and work like maniacs... For now it's exciting finding a place like this with so much info, I find myself taking forever to read short threads because I end up on diverted looking up all sorts of new techniques/theories/technologies. Looking forward to getting to know everyone as I eventually start asking endless questions...