New home on half acre

Hello! Just got out of the military . I stumbled onto this site trying to get ideas on how to make more food for my wife and four kids. My wife and I juice. It is doing incredible things for us, but it's expensive and I want organic. This site made me realize we are made to be caretakers of this amazing planet, using our ingenuity to enhance and live WITH the land. This realization has baptized me. The problem is I am now going nuts. I want to work on it now. I have a new home on top of half an acre of lawn and it's driving me insane on where to start. I know I can make an amazing garden, just need help in design. I would go to school in a heartbeat, but my GI BILL I gave to my wife. I would get all the DVDs / books I could, but I just got a job and have had no income surplus. Is there something I could do now to sedate this earth spirit that has enlighten my soul!? I not a tree hugging hippy but, I could be considered a fern licker. This feels right. It feels what I was always supposed to do. Just live. In PA now it's snowing. Not very many permaculture people around here. I would like to talk to others with with same passion I have. Hope this is the right place. Thanks for your time. Oh! Mr. Wheaton, my wife makes a killer Lemon meringue pie. Lol

Howdy Wilson, welcome to permies! The best place to learn is here at permies! Take some time and look around. There are regonal forums where you could post to find permies in your area and a gardening for beginners forum if you are a beginner. I think you might be suprised by how much you can grow for your family on a half acre. Take a look at some of the project threads for inspiration.
Tell us more about what kinds of things you are thinking of doing.

I second Miles on the, "Welcome to Permies!' thing.

If I were you, I'd make plan on paper of the land you have and then follow many of the suggestions from folks here on what you want close and what can go farther away. As an old jarhead myself, i like to think of the forums here as drinking from a firehose - so much information - but eventually you will drink it all. I think I've read 7-12 threads total, which runs to around a thousand posts, videos and what not - still more to read and provide positive input on and shared experience. And with Paul around, it's still like a school circle with all the effing you can handle.

it is pretty easy to get excited about this stuff .
Now is a great time to start looking at seed catalogs. You might want to sit down with your wife and come up with a list of things you would like to grow.
Then you could do a little research into which are options to grow where you are, and when they should be planted. Some things, like peas, radishes and kale will start early, even before the last frost, while others you may want to start indoors and wait until last frost to plant them.

Point is, now is a good time to be planning out a garden and getting seeds ordered. You can get lots of advice on what things to plant togethe, and which things should be kept away from one another. Lots of things to consider, like how much sun does your yard get and where, what sort of soil do you have- sandy? lots of clay? Wet or dry?

Most of all, enjoy!