We just moved to Waynesville MO, anybody out there?

Hi! This is Piper, Froukje & Rowin. We just moved to Waynesville MO (Pulaski) last week. We're here to caretake and help develop someone's homestead. It's sort of a clean slate (read no plan for the future) and a bunch of animals involved. We're now on high speed learning about goats, cows, pigs, rabbits... and making plans 😀 We do like a challenge.

We would love to connect with other premise/homesteaders in our area, especially if you have young kids--Rowin is 2 years old.

Also does anyone know were to get bulk feed and food? Are there local buying clubs ?

Looking forward to see who's around here!
~the Pipers

I'm not sure about Waynesville specifically, but there may be some permaculture types in Rolla and almost certainly in the Springfield area.  It may be a shot in the dark, but finding and contacting your local university extension office may bear fruit.  

Also, communitycommons.org is a free site in partnership with the University of Missouri (or had its initiation with the university, I don't really fully know the back story).  But it's an excellent mapbuilding resource- sorta like Google Earth, but with the ability to add agriculture- oriented data layers.  You can find the soil type boundaries for anywhere in Missouri and their associated features- whether there's a claypan impediment to water movement, suitability for hay and other agricultural crops (I know blackberry, elderberry, and most common garden vegetables are on there), and suitable tree species for the soil type.  There's a ton of information which may help you build a plan.  

Good luck!

their associated features- whether there's a claypan impediment to water movement, suitability for hay and other agricultural crops (I know blackberry, elderberry, and most common garden vegetables are on there), and suitable tree species for the soil type.

Hiya Tom, I'm located in Boone County and would find that information mighty useful. Had a look a the site though, and seems like there are hundreds of layers available, and no idea where to start. Do you happen to know offhand what layers would give the information you've described? Or know a good way to get it?

Thank you!

You can find the soil boundaries by clicking the "Add Data" tab and then searching for "soils"- I think the actual name of the data layer is "SSURGO Soil Boundaries by Map Unit, NRCS 2016."  Once the layer is loaded you can click within the map and it'll bring up a little dialogue box which will include the soil's name as a weblink.  You can click on that and it'll bring up the soil properties.  

If you click on the "add data layers" tab and then "Browse Data by Topic," then navigate to Environment->Cropland->Suitability, you'll find different layers there that show suitability for different plant groups.  It's fairly coarse, but gives a good general idea of what sort of crops work well.  

Hope it helps!

I'll give it a try. Thanks Tom!

Welcome to Missouri ... a hotbed of permaculture and homesteading and off-grid living.

There is a permaculture group in St. Louis that I have communicated with on occasion. There are pockets of people from east to west, south of the river that you can loosely tap into. We have a group in Kansas City that has connected together virtually and occasionally in person when the weather is good. Regardless of your location, we invite all those in Missouri and eastern Kansas to connect with our Kansas City area homestead Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1707573296152799/?ref=bookmarks

There is also a Kansas Permaculture Institute: https://www.kansaspermaculture.org/

Tom, Dan, thank you both! This is real helpful. We'll check it out.