My husband and I are considering moving out to 20 acres that is at the end of a old dirt road, has no electricity,
water, septic, phone, etc (this would be why it's cheap enough that we can buy it). It's half an hour from a medium sized town that is farm friendly, and it does have a river and a creek running through the back half. Already talked to the county, and they rather laxly would prefer a 50' buffer, and in extreme years, like 2007 when I-5 was shut down, slightly less than half of the 20 acres will flood will flood. I figure that leaves me with ten acres to farm which
should be able to give me a modest income, and then the other 10 acres can still be foraged from. County also said we could take water from the river to irrigate, but a well and septic can be put in at some point.
His back ground is suburban, but with some
gardening. I grew up on 5 acres, organically managed, raising all sorts of animals and plants, but not with an eye towards making money or sustaining our self significantly (grew our own eggs, meat, and raspberries, but most aside from those was just supplementation). I have a degree in biology, love ecology and have spent the past couple years doing
yard work, working on farms, and
gardening. We talked a lot before about living with out electricity, etc; but we've been renting with roommates so that doesn't work so well... We've looked into non-electric means of washing clothing,
composting toilets, rainwater catchment, etc. Right now we're talking about whether we want to build a tiny house, ala tumbleweed, or get a bus or horse trailer and refit it.
Now to the
land;
The upper portion is now mostly grass, with some scotch broom. The lower section, with the river and creek, has a lot of canary reed grass (a non-native invasive species), and not much
native riparian vegetation at all. The banks on the river are vertical. Part of what I aim to do with the lower portion is to reintroduce native, edible/useful species, such as hazelnuts, roses, alder, etc. Part of what I love about this property is the ability to work with and help repair this wetland ecosystem, while still having enough land to make a living.
For the upper farm portion, I've got about 3 acres of what the county called 'prime' farm soil, and 7 of what was termed 'poorly drained', but the previous farmer dug a sizable ditch, and I didn't notice any plants that liked wet feet growing. We're going to drive out again tomorrow, and I'll take a closer look at that point.
What I would like to do is plant an orchard of
trees that grow well here (plums, apples, pears, Asian pears, fragrant spring tree, etc), vines that do well (some types of table grapes, kiwis, raspberries, blackberries etc) over the prime land; incorporating chickens and ducks as best I can. More typical market (and shorter rooted) garden crops such as winter squash, salad greens, brassicas, asparagus, etc in the 7 acres. I also have some goats, and I'd like to get them keep them off of hay- we have a mild and short enough winter that I think I should be able to accomplish it with well planned pastures. I am also considering growing oats and corn for our selves.
I have lots and lots of ideas, and have done a lot of thinking, so this is just a rough outline of some of my ideas. What I would like, is to be able to grow most of our own food, as well as growing enough other crops to make a modest living off of the land. We do have a house in town that we're intending to rent out; we should be able to make enough to cover the
mortgage +, and pay for repairs and maintenance.
Sooooo, advice? Huge glaring blindspots? Suggestions?