Kit Henson

I didn't get to read through everyone's posts, but I got through about half.

One thing that stuck out that I hadn't seen mentioned is that industry tends to clump together, even without major zoning. You may not have an actively polluting industry in that area now, but that can change quickly. You'll want to check with your state environmental quality website to see if there has been any applications to build new facilities.

Crime with the abandoned homes nearby can be a real issue. And trucks (especially when they engine brake) can be incredibly noisy. These are both things that can be mitigated, though, with enough work

You had mentioned not wanting your kids to miss out on homesteading while you keep looking for the "perfect homestead." Is your intent to stay here or later move to a bigger or different property? Land values will struggle to increase with the industry nearby and selling the property later will be difficult if you ever plan to move to a different property. The current owners seem to be struggling with that themselves.

Trust your instincts. You know the situation and your wishes best.

Best of luck,
Kit

I'm also having a great with the squash bugs and squash vine borers. They managed to take down all the squash I planted and some of the early volunteers, to include my butternut squash.

Over the weekend I successfully saved a volunteer mystery summer squash that came up later than all the others from a vine borer through surgery. Today, though, I was out and I noticed they're absolutely enamored by some of the sunflowers I have blooming out there... I'm not sure why; a Google search didn't give me much.

All my squash have fallen to squash beetles or the vine borers this year, none of my peppers germinated (I had to buy starters), and I can't harvest a tomato before a bug or bird bores a giant hole in every fruit... :/ It's a rough first year for my garden.

Hi everyone, I've been looking at colonies and pastured rabbits for a while and came across this thread. Super interesting!

For those with experience with colony-raising rabbits in a paddock system and provide artificial underground warrens, do the rabbits keep them clean, like they would for the ones they dig, or do they end up leaving them for you to clean up? I don't want to allow them to dig their own because we have heavy clay that will flood with a good rain storm, but I still need to locate housing underground for temperature management (we have hot summers). Does anyone have thoughts or experience on this?