Who doesn't love a good homestead tour, right?!
Yesterday I shared our Permaculture Design for our 7.5 acre property and today I wanted to give you the overview of the land itself. The possibilities, struggles, and the plan for our homesite and food production.
The property is located in central Texas where it doesn't get a ton of rain, about 36 in annually. US average is 39 in. Although we of course get ZERO in of snow!
Wild Food
There is already some food on the property. Lots of mesquite trees in which the bean pods can be turned into flour as a SUPER FOOD. And many wild dewberries, which is very similar to a blackberry. The dewberries are delicious!
Plus we see many small game animals tracks and some hog tracks as well.
Water
I try to learn a new lesson everyday.
And the biggest lesson that I have learned with purchasing land is, make sure that water is already on the property. Duh, right?!
We are connected to a county coop water line at the north end of the property. But if/when we ever purchase another piece of property, I have learned my lesson: There has to be a stream, brook, river, lake, or water well already on the property. On this piece of dirt, a well would cost $22k digging 800ft. And there is no guarantee of even hitting water.
We do plan on doing rain catchment on every roof we build.
And there is a small water tank in the south end of the property that we will turn into a 1/4 acre pond. Which I believe will cost around $7,000-$10,000.
Our Forever Home?
It is not. This is the perfect sized property for us to cut our teeth with homesteading. There is a small town 5 mins away with amenities that we will certainly need from time to time.
10 years down the road I would love to upgrade to a larger piece of land that we can do more larger game hunting on. I love the idea of raising livestock and we plan on doing that. But if we can stock a years worth of meat in our freezer just from a deer in our backyard, I'll take that any day!
But of course...is this earth really our forever home anyway?
If you enjoyed it, please UPVOTE, RESTEEM, & FOLLOW our adventure!
Ok, you got a follower in me. Nice to see a healthy homestead. Resteemed to 2.4k people. Welcome to Steemit!
Holy cow!!!!! Wowzers! Thank you sooooooo much!!!! Wow wow wow! I am so new at this that I honestly don't understand it yet. But I know that is very generous and I thank you.
Have a great weekend and thank you for following our adventure!!! :)
It looks like you have a nice setup. I know a little about Permaculture, but I am interested and what to learn from what you are doing. Thanks!
Good luck, and I really mean it.
I've been there and done that --- young kids and all.. You got a lot of ass busting work ahead of you... I like the seed pods... I also like Moringa oleifera .. Nice!
Oooooo!!!! You definitely get an upvote (I'm new so still learning if that is not correct) for the Moringa mention!!! We have a tiny Moringa tree in our suburban back yard.
Really hope it'll grow well at our future homestead. Which is 2 hours north of us now.
I'd love to hear more...what experience do you have with moringa? Are you a part of the "Moringa The Better" Facebook group?
"Moringa The Better"
No, not part of that group, but I'll check it out.. I grow Moringa at one of my bugout ranches in a food forest..
I'm a retired farmer --- among many other things--- who has lived a very, very fulllife. My kids are grown. And I spend a lot of my time looking after my Native American Stepfather who is also a WW2 combat veteran... Now in his 90s
My humble advise to you is simply ," go for it" but don't bite off more than you can chew....
Happy trails!!!
You are my hero! I don't yet understand what happens when I upvote...but I have a feeling that every golden nugget advise you give me I am going to upvote it!! haha. Thank you!!!!! This is some of the fire I needed today to work my tail off and like you said... GO FOR IT!
Thank you very much, and have a blessed weekend! :)
You might want to double check that 800ft water level. Fresh water can be found in most of Texas west of I-35 under 450ft unless you are up on the high plains and drilling into the Ogallala Aquifero or in deep west Texas past Midland. As for a dry hole, find a local water witcher. Check in with the nearest feed store. The older the better. Those old timers sitting around BSing can tell you a lot. Good Luck...
Great comment, THANK YOU!!!!!
Yea, we got 4 bids plus I spoke to a "county water agency" place thing...sorry I don't remember. But they all said that around 300ft there is water, but it is gross and smelly and nasty. So they won't touch it.
Then 800ft is 2nd nearest. Every driller at of 4 said this. And the average cost was $22k!!!
Oh well. <- pun was unintended. Thank you so much for being here with us deacontom!!
Ouch! Well you can do one of two things now. Set up a cistern and water catchment system to maximize gathering all the water you can that falls on your land.Or... Get licensed as a water well driller, team up with others in your area in the same predicament. Then together rent a well drilling machine and drill all the wells you want. Just saying... Good Luck!
Holy cow!!! That is some of the best "outside of the box thinking" I have ever heard! I'll have to think about that. πππ»
And yep! You know it, we will be having lots and lots of rain catchment. Instead of drilling a well, $20k of rain harvesting can go a long ways for what we need. Haha.
Very nice, I just found you guys on you tube and watched a lot of your vids and subbed you -then I saw you here-cool-upvoted....keep on keep keeping on!
Oh well thank you so much!!!! Yep, still trying to figure Steemit out. All I want to do now is keep making Steemit posts...but I also need to edit my YouTube videos also! Haha.
Good problems to have right?
Thank you @rena64, glad you're here with us in both places!!!
You are doing great over here on steemit! I am still wading in the shallow end getting toes wet! I love your new homestead site! Ya'll are going to do great! How is that baby and mommma doing!?
Yay!!!!! Hi there @Wholesomeroots!!!! I feel so honored to have you comment on a post of mine. Thank you! Y'all are real farmers...we are just trying to get out of suburbia. haha. Hopefully this time next year we will be asking you all of the goat questions!
Baby girl is perfect! Perfectly awake all the time...but perfect. lol Kelly doesn't do great with lack of sleep...so we are adjusting a bit. That is why I am so behind with video editing lately.
Thank you again and we hope to talk to you more often either here or Youtube. :) I just followed you!
glad you are here too! It's fun so far!
would love to have such good setup and land only have .75 of acre how much did it cost in texas?
You can do a lot with 3/4's of an acre! Don't cut yourself short. Depending on regulations where you are, if you can garden in your front yard and have some rabbits and chickens in your back yard then you could grow 50-60% + from your house!!! You CAN DO IT!!!!
Where we bought property the value has already began to increase a lot. So it was already an up and coming place. But for us we were around $6000/acre.
I am actually working on a two EBooks, one is about "How to Buy Land". Which in there I talk about...
The internet killed the cheap land star! Meaning that as soon as the internet came alive, purchasing quality raw land at an affordable price means can much harder once someone could hope onto Lands Of America and find what they want.
But don't give up! Grow your own food where you are, that is what we are doing in the suburbs until we can move this fall.
Thanks for being here!!!
Thanks :)
Im in Ireland so regulation is non existent unless its for business so thats not problem.
gonna try set up a Forest garden like in this video
Not my channel! Video is thanks to user PermacultureMedia
Wow im amazed the price is so similar to here thought would be much higher.
I dont think thats true for everywhere many good places in Euorpe will get land $1000/Acre or less as in Catalonia Spain, Northern Italy.
Its great your writing the e-books cant wait to see finished product!
Good stuff, I have seen you guys on youtube and am happy to see you cross-over to Steemit. I will be following your great content and look forward to upvoting your hard work. steem on
Thanks a bunch!!!!!
That is great! We are starting with 11.5 acres. We have the land cleared to a point, we will have to go back and do some cleanup on pieces of it. We have a well on property and starting with AirCrete for building. It is lots of hard work but so worth it in the end. I like the pond idea, just walk out and catch some dinner.
YES!!!!! That is the dream for sure! I just love the thought of my kids fishing in their own pond with ducks quacking all around.
So amazing fun!
Love it. I am on a small homestead make good bit of my power from solar and grow some of my food. Did like this so much I resteam it!! God Bless.
Oh well THANK YOU!!!!! You are so awesome! I really really appreciate that. πππ»
What part of the planet are you in? Just curious about the solar aspect of it.
We here in Texas struggle some with solar because YES, we get some amazing hot sun. But it is the humidity and over heat that is a struggle to deal with because AC takes up so much power.
Basically our AC runs 24/7 from May-October. ππ»ππ»
Sc and yes It's the same here. today it's 99.01F and 98% humidity. We do a lot of small things like running small windo ac's not one big AC. But yes with out spending 10 grand on solar we can't go off grid as off now.. That is in this house. It;s a old 1889 single wide mobile home. With that tho my brother. Has a house that is 100% off grid and his solar was about 6 grand. But his place is new and we built it with that in mind.
His walls are all 2 feet wide and spray foam insulation. He runs 2 mini splits AC.
Awesome to catch you at the beginning of a massive journey. Following to keep up and see it take shape. We're blogging our home build process in a series on our blog. It's called The $20k Homestead. Maybe you'll find it interesting? Either way, I'm excited to see what you do!
HECK YEA I am interested!!! Thank you for letting me know.
Ok so when you say "blog", are you meaning blog on your .com site or here in your Steemit blog? Sorry, I am still trying to learn every. Haha.
I am super intrigued about the series name, "The $20k Homestead!" Haha. Thank you @greenacrehome for being here with us!
This Steemit community is so amazing!!!!
Cool tour of your homestead @bettertogether. I really loved the drone shots! I'm following you and looking forward to future posts.
Well thank you very much cahlenlee! Hopefully there will be a lot more drone shots of our land in the next few months.
It got hot down here in Texas, and with a 1 month old and no structure out there the progress is slow moving at the moment. But the plan is to be celebrating Christmas on our land with a Ceder tree wrapped in lights this year!!!!! ππ π
Sounds like a great plan! How hot is it getting down there?
I love the tour! Looking forward to learning more about your homestead. We've got a little over five acres and we've been exploring the wild edibles. So far I've found wild cherries, hickory nuts, dew berries, blackberries, and lots and lots of kudzu. We're new to Georgia so have lot to learn!
Oooo, Kudzu. Our permaculture designer has mentioned Kudzu a lot. Can you tell me more about it? Also just followed you as well.
Kudzu is a legume, very high protein source! Great for goats! Problem is, it is an extremely invasive vine that grows a foot a day, literally! It is taking ver native habitats and covering homesteads in the south.
Ooooooohhhhh. Ok that is where I've heard of it. Got it.
whatever you do, don't plant it! Hope you guys don't have any to eradicate. It's not been fun at all
Ok gotcha! It's NOT what we want. Good to know. Yikes!!!!
Very cool, Lots of work to be done there so I hope your up for it!
hahahaha!! You are 100% correct in that. Like another wise person posted (@guide.prepper)...that I should not bite off more than I can chew. Very wise.
You got it, it is going to be so much work. I think we are up for the adventure for sure! And we know that they is no way we'll be able to do it all ourselves. This is one of the reasons why we are trying to be online so much. We need the "social capital" and to gain all of the amazing knowledge from wise ones just like yourself.
Thank you very much!!! :)
A little while ago my wife and I bought 1.25 acre, completely overgrown with trees. Took us about two years to get it cleaned up enough to build a house. We find out next month if the city council of the small town where our property is will allow us a building permit.
Oh I get really frustrated about local go*vernments. I really hope that you are able to get what you want, do what you want, and just love how you want to live!!!!!
Thanks again for being here!!
I really enjoyed your video. Good luck. Is it true everything is bigger in Texas??
haha. Pretty true yes. But of course I've always lived here...so not a lot else to compare it to. haha.
O and I follow you guys on youtube.. Yankey4 is the name..
That's awesome!!!!! Thanks a ton for hanging around with us!! πππ
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Envy you the experience.......I'm too old to start over now.....:) Best of luck!!!!
Oh don't do that!! π
I would encourage you to make a list and things you want to do in your life, whether now or in the past. And find a way to do it!!!!!
In fact I am so passionate about this that I am writing an EBOOK about the subject...
It won't let me post the cover image but it is called GET OFF YOUR TAIL AND DO SOMETHING: How to Get Out of The Rat Race and Claim Your Freedom
I basically and saying this...maybe you won't be living on your land farming. Who knows, I may die tomorrow and never get to do this anyway. But I am make the most out of today that I can!!!
If you want to grow your on good, well maybe you can have a potted fruit tree on the balcony of a porch apartment. If you live in a suburban house then you can do a little more. If you want to eat better, learn to cook, learn to bake your own sourdough, learn to ferment foods!!!
I only say these things because I struggle everyday with depression and feeling bummed out. But everyday I have to remind myself, "THIS IS THE DAY that The Lord has made! Rejoice, and be glad in it!"
Please stick around with us, I hope to chat with you many many more times here. Thank you Verdonne!!!
I grow my own veggies, herbs and some fruit trees also have chickens in the city.....but to have a cow and do some serious gardening would be wonderful.
Cracking bit of land you've got there. Think it would be a bit hot for me but then I'm more comfortable with inches (or even feet) of snow and lower temperatures. I don't operate well above 20C (~70f) being ginger, bald and fat lol.
You've gained a follower! As a prospective homestead buyer I'm always happy to read about others doing it!
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