Would you rather lose a 10 acre dream homestead or be stuck on 1/10 acre forever?

If you enjoy these questions, feel free to go check out the index at https://permies.com/t/238000/Permaculture-Edition There are links to all the individual questions.

Would you rather build your dream homestead on 10 acres, but lose most of it in a storm or be stuck with a homestead on 1/10th of an acre forever?

I would take an apt over 1/10 acre.  I have lost a homestead and recovered.

I would keep the storm ravaged homestead.

Even with destruction, lessons can be learned and future disaster mitigated within our control.

What is that quote, better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all.

Growing up in a rural area, I would feel very stuck with only 1/10th of an acre... so I would rather build and lose and rebuild.

I'd rather have the dream homestead. The one wrecked by the storm would be a good plan to work toward and an opportunity to avoid some mistakes I made last time.

I'm currently on less than 1/10th of an acre and there's plenty I can do here, and I'm pretty content with what I have Time is still more of a limitation than space to what I can produce.

We grow a dozen different types of fruit trees and shrubs, a full medicinal and tea garden, perrenial vegetables, a couple of areas for annual veggies (even though that's not my strength). Even the top of my shed is used for Boston Ivy, which I use for basketry. In a small lot, everything is an "edge" and permaculture thrives on edges.

I still see a bunch of places and think "wait, with the right system I could grow something there". There's the mushroom logs I want to put in the full shade area, my daughter's balcony that would be great if I can figure out how to water things up there, the neighbours' fence that would just be perfect for beans, the little corner where I could raise quails...

I can't really do grains on a large scale, or large amounts of storage staples like potatoes. But those are easy to get from organic farmers.

Definitely the homestead. If it was a dream it has great bones, I'd already know what works there. And whatever my time there and the storm taught me I can use to make it better.

Gimme that dream homestead, please. I've lived on 30 acres (currently on 29), in tiny apartments, and on everything between a postage stamp & 6.5acres, and on a 17 acre farm. I could not imagine anything less than 5 acres, any more. I start losing my marbles fast, when I'm crowded. I'd sooner live in a cave on 10 acres, than on a suburban plot, in a fancy house.

I have lost a 200 acre dream farm so I am perfectly fine living on only one acre now.

I felt kind of guilty about how easy life has been for me lately, but in reading through Acts in the bible, and seeing how the Apostle Paul faced so much, then in the last two years of his life he suddenly had it easy, From that example I realized my guilt was misplaced.

I have endured so much in 50 years of life. Three different types of cancer. Divorces. Betrayals by wives. Financial troubles at times... so much so that a town had to give me a special town meeting to push paying my property taxes back by six months as I dealt with cancer. Losing an infant as a still born. My parents home burning to the ground right next to my house. Losing my 19 year old sister to a car accident, and finally surviving a suicide attempt.

After all that, yes it is nice to have it easy, and hopefully just help other Permies become a GERT so my experiences were all for not.

Yes, you guys can do it, and no it does NOT take 200 acres to do. Opportunities (and trials) come because you make opportunities materialize. People can do this. I proved it. It was NEVER easy, but it can be done with persistence.

In the minority, but I'll take the 4,300 sq. ft.  With a small house and even another tinyhouse on the property we'll still have room to grow things if we use the space efficiently.  I mean its better than a balcony, so it would be movin' on up for us, plus said tinyhouse owner would pay us space rent and there'd be enough space to grow enough for all of us to enjoy if we're careful.