Michael Schmitt

Look...I don't want to ruffle feathers. 50 years of extremely rural homesteading has left me with a treasure trove of knowledge. We have, on occasion, run traplines and caught a myriad of coons, foxes, coyotes when the pelts were valuable. When necessary, my son and I are alpha predators over thousands of acres of Ozark woods. We have increased the wildlife on our 160 acres 1000% in 50 years.

You got coons. Though once, a huge swarm of migrating squirrels blasted through. I shot 28 from one spot in the woods. There were hundreds moving around. THEY could also do this.

I just lost 10 bushels of pears from 6 trees in a 24 hour rainy/foggy period. Here today, COMPLETELY gone tomorrow. TOTALLY gone.
We trapped 10'coons in the garden last year.....6 'possums......killed 30 squirrels ...... and removed 10 armadillos. 2 acres of organic garden and orchard. This is a constant battle. We have 8 wire, ALL electric, 10 KV, hi-tensile fencing and the coons roll right through. Bears circle the fence, as do coyotes and foxes. Bobcats jump it with ease as does the mountain lion.

Nearest neighbor is 1/2 mile away....... 30 miles to town. NO person did this.

Hey.... a little addendum : We once brought 8 bushels of peaches home to work up the next day. We parked them in the 'mud' room that has an outside door. The next day, after chores, we grabbed the peaches and headed to the kitchen. When I picked up the last box I drew a blank....mental wipe out..... it was empty except for  100 or so peach pits.
Carpenter ants had swarmed the bottom box and completely removed all the soft material from a bushel of peaches in less than 8 hours.

First off....I have to temper my response. We moved onto a quarter section -160 acres of timber in 1974. We lived in a tent, built a log cabin, and built our "empire" with a sawmill, bulldozer, dump truck, and Hough Payloader. We sawed out a house, built miles of roads and ponds, built a huge shop.......well, you get the picture. Spending almost a Million dollars looks like about a thousand acres to me.

16.5" of rain ANUALLY is a hard row to hoe. You will have to be clever. Obviously, you will rely on the community water. 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.

Personally.....if I could command that $$$$$ to spend on a place......and I had to live a semi-urban lifestyle......I would buy as large a tract of timber as possible....with $$$$ funds left over for.........Sawing a timber frame pattern. Have local loggers pull up the trees, and a local portable sawmill operator to come out. Any Amish in the area....they can erect it professionally.Build a modest timber frame house with all the solar bells and whistles. Secure your water......a 20,000 gal cistern using roof water, first. Several deep ponds on the place, greywater reclamation tanks, OUTDOOR WOOD FURNACE !!!. I would cover the outside with metal....get the lowest tax rating possible, and I would deluxe the inside.....ALL wood, no sheetrock, saw it out from timber on the property. Solar hot water.....low flow and flush fixtures.

I would force my own hand to discard the most egregious energy and resource wasters that are going to be a part of the units that you are looking at. I'm not saying live Off-grid and no plumbing like I have done for many of my 40 years of homesteading....Just dump the stuff that will cost EVERYONE a fortune in the next 10 years. Life is not going to be easy for the urban/suburban dwellers in the coming energy/water/tax/inflation crunch. I'm not a "black helicopter"/apocalyptic person..... BUT, I don't make 1/5 of what most people consider "necessary" ......and, I have built an "empire" with what I have saved.

There is a lot more to making the "BIG CHANGE" ....don't worry, you will either make the change willingly, or the change will compress your life into a feverish scramble to pay for the amenities that are considered essential. SORRY....IT IS GOING TO GET UGLY.....SOONER THAN WE ALL WOULD LIKE.

http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg626/Upside_Downs_Farms/WEATHER%20OR%20NOT/f5f80ce9.jpg

Gotta have water.

...but there are alternatives to smaller with ponds. The first thing we did in 1974 was drill a well.....then we built a 1 acre 16' deep pond. We need both, but a cistern could replace the well. The pond is essential. DO YOU HAVE A PLACE ON THE LARGER ACREAGE TO BUILD A POND. Used to be that a dozer was best for pond building. I have a TD-8E.....BUT, I hire an excavator for depth. A good "Track hoe" excavator will outwork a dozer in many instances. USE THE DOZER TO BUILD THE DAM AND DRESS UP THE SLOPES.

You have not described the existing ponds.....shallow and broad is a PITA. You want DEEP. An excavator can dig a 20,000 gal cistern hole cheaply. The concrete can be done on site with easily built slip-forms. You are going to have structures.....roof is a great water collector.....

I am in the middle of all of this in NW Arkansas. We have homesteaded a rough mountaintop since 1974...don't get me started....I just had to log off 40 acres where the timber was dying faster than I could walk through it. The shift in precipitation is devastating our ecosystem.....and it is not just 1-3-10 years. tree rings show a dramatic shift over the past 200 years of established patterns.

ANYWAY....get clever.....I am clever, AND NOW I HAVE TO GET MORE CLEVER.... Go figure....I have had to shake off a lot of ideas that I held dear. PLAN FOR THE FUTURE...AND IT AIN'T GONNA' BE PRETTY.