carlie joelle

Hi Neil,

"But in the end, can't decide for you, especially when we don't know your goals."

Agreed. The best advice comes from those who have already been there, done that. We're a small family of 3, our needs aren't fancy. Michael's empire would be a dream for us. Organic, locally grown, sustainable is what we are after. We are early 40's, will look fpr a homestead where we could live for at least 20 yrs. Our parents were raised on wheat farm, dairy farm, had beef cattle, raised chickens and bees and are eager to pass that expertise on. Unfortunately they did not build homes, roads, ponds, or dig wells. We need to bridge that gap somehow.

We want to have a family milk cow and a steer to put in the freezer, a dozen layers, dozen broilers, 4 beehives and enough pasture & farm land to raise (some) of the feed. Enough garden space to produce our food, greenhouse, orchard. Forestry for privacy, windbreak/shelterbelt, heating using some of our own fuel (rocket mass stoves look darned good to me). Stocking ponds with fish might not be an option, it gets to -30 C and lower in the winter here.

Our realtor wants us to take the smaller parcel with pond and lease pasture for livestock. But I keep telling him I want to keep the manure! Too valuable to leave on someone else's pasture!

Hello All:

Michael: what I wouldn't give for 160 acres! We are in the heart of oil drilling/fracking country here. There is frequent media coverage of families getting sick who live further out from this site (where land is less expensive). We've researched these properties as "unlikely" to suffer the effects of oil & gas drilling. We feel the need to reduce our dependence and become as self sufficient as possible (which is how my DH and I were raised). Strangely, the municipality has no issues with drilling all over the place, but very sticky about getting permission for outbuildings like a barn, etc. Just trying to decide what was the HIGHEST priority in choosing a homestead.

"Don't think a well is any cheaper. We recently had to pull our pump and replace wire, pipe, and pump. Totalling up the monthly electric bill (deeper is more $$$) and the wear-and-tear expense, over 38 years.....Our household water still costs us $60-$80+ a month." --THAT IS HELPFUL!!! I can't get any hard data from other land holders here about homestead "infastructure" maintenance costs. Most have been on their acreages only 5-10 yrs and report "no maintenance" needed so far?? Thanks for your advice.

Regarding getting Amish to build home - WE ARE CONSIDERED THE AMISH up here. Seriously. No one here even has resource scarcity on their minds, think we are very, very VERY weird. The homes shown would be lived in until we could accumulate enough cash to build a zero energy home. DH is an architect (but a poor one) who does "green build" projects that return energy back to grid, so house wise I think we have some options (but have immense respect for the talent of those who have built their own - I AM envious!). Rocket mass heaters look amazing to me! I CANNOT get enough of the ingenuity here on this site. I feel grateful to have found it.

But building roads, ponds, installing cisterns are things I am VERY interested in, but am not experienced with (but could certainly learn). How did you all learn to do these?

Thanks to all for your wisdom and replies. I have to agree that water is going to be a huge concern in future.

The smaller 4 acre parcel is here: http://www.realtor.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?propertyId=12250897&PidKey=-1216988743

And the larger 14 acre parcel is here: http://www.realtor.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?propertyId=11926490&PidKey=-1915501249

Not sure if this helps the discussion, hard to get a sense of the topography from this, I know. A hurdle to overcome is getting permits from the rural municipality for outbuildings like barns, let alone ponds. I can certainly relate to Holzer!

We are Zone 3, 3640 ft altitude. The climate is greatly influenced by the elevation and proximity to the Rocky Mountains. Our winters can be uncomfortably cold; but warm, dry Chinook winds routinely blow into the city from over the mountains during the winter months, and can raise the winter temperature by up to 27 °F in just a few hours, and may last several days. It's a place of extremes, and temperatures can range anywhere from a record low of −49.0 °F in 1893 to a record high of 97.0 °F in 1919. Temperatures fall below −22 °F on about five days per year, though extreme cold spells usually do not last very long. Average daytime high temperatures in range from 75 °F in late July to 27 °F in mid-January.

Due to high elevation and aridity, summer evenings can be very cool. The average summer minimum temperature drops to 46 °F but summer daytime temperatures exceed 84 °F anytime in June, July and August, and occasionally as late as September or as early as May. With an average relative humidity of 55% in the winter and 45% in the summer we have a dry climate and humidity is rarely a factor during summer.

We are among the sunniest cities in Canada, with 2,405 hours of annual sunshine, with an average rainfall of 16.24 in of precipitation annually, with 12.62 in of that occurring in the form of rain, and 49.9 in as snow. Most of the precipitation occurs from May to August, with June averaging the most monthly rainfall. Droughts are not uncommon and may occur at any time of the year, lasting sometimes for months or even several years. We've been looking a long time for a location that provides land, water, buildings/barn. No one around us is much concerned about water (at this point!) and think we are crazy for insisting on this.

Hello All! My first post. I am a die hard Holzer fan. I read his books and built a hugelkulture bed on our urban lot IMMEDIATELY and have a burning desire to move out onto land and homestead on a modest scale. However, I now bring you a dilemma that is keeping my DH and I up at night. All things equal, should we invest our $$$ in a treed 4 acre parcel with ponds covering 40% of the lot (we are high and dry in central Alberta, Canada - Zone 3, windy, clay soil) OR should we go for more land - 14 acres wooded, east - west layout but NO WATER whatsoever on site (water is on a co-op piped in from the community, with some luck and $10-20K a reasonable well could be dug.

Please advise - I would greatly appreciate!