Lots of use from little land.......

[TanksHill]

Great thread. First off Amazon.com has several of that book I saw it as low as 75.00. I would snatch it up but I have spent my limit on books already.

I live on just under two acres. I have 24 hens and a roo. I have a small orchard I have been adding to yearly. I am up to about 24 trees some stone fruits some citrus and a few avocados. I moved my garden into what most people would call there yard. Easier access better control and flat land.

I have about an acre of hillside that in not used at all. That is where I hope to add goats and maybe feed out a calf. There is another coop there as well maybe for turkeys. It is unfenced though and probably will be for a while yet, Like Pam I would not be SS because I would have to purchase feed.

Dace referred me to a site once called Path to Freedom. They family lives in Pasadena City Ca. Emphasis on the "city" They have 1/5 an acre and grow 6,000 lbs of food a year. They have rabbit, chickens and a goat I think. It is very informative you should google it.

Oh and by the way I bet your future hens would love to forage in that redwood grove. Lost of good bugs under the trees. And grubs form the manure piles. Sounds like the perfect place for them.

 

[MorelCabin]

Dace referred me to a site once called Path to Freedom. They family lives in Pasadena City Ca. Emphasis on the "city" They have 1/5 an acre and grow 6,000 lbs of food a year. They have rabbit, chickens and a goat I think. It is very informative you should google it.

That is a great site!
Here's a little about them...WOW! All onjust 1/5 of an acre!

LOCATION
Pasadena, CA
(Northwest Pasadena, one mile from downtown Pasadena)

PROPERTY SIZE
1/5 acre (66' x 132' / 8,712 sq.ft.)

GARDEN SIZE
~ 1/10 acre (3,900 sq.ft. / ~ 66' x 66')

GARDEN DIVERSITY
Over 350 different vegetables, herbs, fruits, berries

FOOD PRODUCED
6,000 lbs annually
challenging for 10,000 lbs in 2008 (read more)

URBAN HOMESTEAD SUPPORTS
4 full-time adults, volunteers, and many clients

ENERGY USAGE
6.5 kwh day (and going down!)

SOLAR POWER PRODUCED
9000 kwh ( as of 10/20/08)

GALLONS OF BIODIESEL MADE (since 2003)
1,500 gallons (as of 2/12/08)

"EARTH IMPACT FOOTPRINT"
5.2 acres per person
Tally Ho 2008
PRODUCE
4,340 lbs (9/31/08)

EGGS
Chicken 921 & Duck 1028 (10/22/08)

HONEY
25 lbs (10/20/08)


Steps Taken
Everyday Steps

Growing 99 % of produce
- 6,000lbs on 1/10 acre

Food Preservation/Storage:
- canning
- drying
- freezing

In the Kitchen:
- baking/cooking from scratch
- yogurtmaking
- breadmaking
- cheesemaking
- sprouting
- cast iron cookware
- no dishwasher or microwave

Food Choices:
- buying in bulk
- organic
- local
- eating seasonaly
- reducing "food miles"
- fair trade
- vegetarian(over 17 years)

Raising Small Farmstock:
- chickens (eggs/manure)
- ducks (eggs/manure)
- dwarf rabbits (manure)
- dwarf/pygmy goats (milk/manure)

Composting Methods:
- making/using EM Bokashi
- vermicomposting
- composting food, garden and green waste

Fuel:
- homebrewing biodiesel
- running diesel car on biodiesel(~4,000 miles a yr)

Energy Conservation:
- "powering down"
- cut daily energy use in 1/2 12 kwh to 6 kwh a day
- 12 solar panels
- "green" power
- rechargeable batteries
- line drying clothes

Energy Efficient Appliances:
- washing machine
- refridgerator
- water heater(gas)

Energy Efficient Electronics:
- computer/printer/copier
- TV(no cable)/VCR/ DVD

Energy Efficient Lighting:
- compact fluorescent bulbs
- olive oil lamps
- oil lamps filled with biodiesel
- homemade soy & beeswax candles
- daylighting
- solar tube

Non-electrical Appliances / Hand-powered
- blender
- toaster
- grinder(s)
- popcorn popper
- solar oven(s)
- hand washer/wringer
- pedal powered grain mill
- straight razor
- handcranked radio
- mortar & pestle

Natural beauty/no makeup
Homemade Non-toxic Beauty Care Products
- toothpaste
- deoderant

Biodegrable/Non-toxic Cleaning Products:
- vinegar
- baking soda
- lemon juice

Natural Health Practices:
- homeopathy
- herbal remedies
- prevention

Water Conservation Efforts:
- low flush toilets
- toilet lid sink
- reusing laundry water
- limit toilet flushings
- limit baths/showers - mulching
- handwatering
- clay pot irrigation
- solar outdoor shower
- front load washer
- food not lawns

Hand powered garden tools:
- push mower
- broom, rake
- trowel, shovel
- hand clippers

Self-employed Working at home:
- honey business
- produce/flower business
- craft business

Crafts & Skills:
- winemaking
- survival skills
- edible landscaping
- sewing
- leatherwork
- fiber arts
- animal husbandry
- holistic care
- tinctures
- carpentry
- plumbing
- building
- haircutting
- bicycle repairs
- soapmaking
- candlemaking
- herbs
- urban farming
- website design
- photography
- self publishing
- video & graphics

Living Simply:
- making use or do without
- bartering
- monthly shopping trips
- reduce, reuse & recycle
- second hand clothes
- salvage/thrift store
- consume less

Passive Cooling:
- no AC
- wood floors
- blinds
- windows
- screen doors
- edible forest
- "living" screens
- solar attic fan

Heating:
- no central heat
- woodstove that uses scrap wood
- dress in layers

Walking the old paths:
- tithing
- day of rest
- stewardship

Saving seeds
Unschooling
Beekeeping

DIY Projects:
- solar oven
- cob oven
- solar outdoor shower
- depaved driveway/patio
- installed solar panels
- roofing
- sheds, etc
- animal enclosure, etc
- this website
- urban homesteading

Using canvas bags on shopping trips / no plastic

Transportation:
- biodiesel "veggie" vehicle
- 4 "car free" days a week
- walk
- bike
- carpool
- mass transit
- cross country train trips
- 2 airplane trips in 25 years

"Green" Home Upgrades:
- metal roof

Outreach/helping others along the path

CURRENT TRAILS

Growing 10k on 1/10

 

[me&thegals]

Yikes! That is incredible!!!

ETR, how about beekeeping? Would they have access to nectar around you?

 

[Henrietta23]

My biggest problem on my little 3/4 acre is lack of sun. We're taking down some trees but a lot that shade our property are on our neighbors' land. We do want a little privacy screening as well. One thing we're planning is to use more of our south facing deck for vegetables in containers. I just borrowed this book from the library and have been gathering ideas from it. I love that it gives instructions for building your own self watering containers. I have one that I bought a few years back. I love it but they're not cheap!
"Fresh food from small spaces : the square-inch gardener's guide to year-round growing, fermenting, and sprouting" by Ruppenthal, R. J.

 

[enjoy the ride]

FarmerChick-"Is there anyway you can harvest the redwoods?"

I doubt it- I went to each of the Redwoods I cut down when I put in the house and apologized to them. The wood stayed here and was incorporated in the goat and hay sheds and fencing.

Besides redwoods don't stay cut down- you have to grind the stumps out or you will have suckers that are 10 feet high the second year. Stump grinding is expensive. I am still wacking off sucker after covering the stumps with landscape cloth and burying them in dirt- luck goaties eat redwood too.

I am meandering a fence through the woods so that the goats can use part of it- they love salal and huckleberry. But is not good growing as redwoods form dense mats and little can thrive under them that grows fast. I do cut the blackberries that grow around for the goats.

I have alpine strawberries to spread around the front of the house - they are very drought tolerant and form a ground cover- I have red, white and yellow ones.

I have four semi-dwarf apple trees,one 20 year old 4 ft dwarf dwarf apple that I have moved from place to place, a local plum that is grafted from a very special unknown plum with a sweet skin, 2 asian pears (need a bartlet for pollinization,) a semi-dwarf peach and two minature peaches. I really want to expand my artichoke beds as this is my favorite vegie but it has to be close to the house as they don't overwinter well at my elevation. I have garlic overwintering and regular strawberry beds. And citrus on the porch. And 17 blueberry plants if I can get ahead of the birds this year...........................

I love lavender and always toyed with the idea of having lots of it to attrack bees but frankly, bees have a bit of a challenge up here.
Due to non-stop rain and fog, I do most of the pollinating myself with my trusty paint brush as bees come after the fruit trees need to be pollenated.

Most of my area is set aside for the goats and horses (horses being a negative self-sufficiency) so I really do try to max the garden space I have by planting up the fences and in raised beds.

Henrietta23- I'm sun challenged too- beside the fog, redwoods are big trees even those like mine which are 4th growth. The sun barely clears the tops in winter.

Loving eggs, it's hard to let the idea of chickens pass- I keep thinking of Buff Orpintons-= it's only me so a few would do. But there are bear, and foxes and martins and skunks and racoons and ravens and eagles and hawks and mountain lions so I would have to make a cast iron coop. I do have easily available hot wire.




BTW- with the climate in Pasadena, (where the Rose Parade is,) they can grow all year long. We all should have such sun.

 

[lupinfarm]

we would have gone a bit smaller (8 acres is pretty small here) but you aren't allowed to have livestock on under 15 acres, now we have 8.5 acres and can have livestock but ONLY because the township neglected to inform the farmer severing the land that this was the case (land is severed between traditional homestead lines) and we got an acception to the rule.

 

[lupinfarm]

Horse can be very self-sufficient, if you can get yourself a small plough, even a small horse can pull a small plough and plough your veggie patch for you. Our haflinger x belgian (and he was more haflinger LOL standing only 15.1hh) could pull a plough and a carriage.

 

[me&thegals]

FarmerChick-"Is there anyway you can harvest the redwoods?"

I doubt it- I went to each of the Redwoods I cut down when I put in the house and apologized to them. The wood stayed here and was incorporated in the goat and hay sheds and fencing.

Thank you, thank you!!! My husband and I first saw the redwoods on our 10th anniversary trip a few years ago. I was completely overwhelmed by their majesty and beauty. When trying to see the tops of them as they stretched out of sight into the sky, I realized I would absolutely be a literal tree hugger if someone tried to take them all down. They are incredible. How lucky for you to live in their shadows!

 

[FarmerChick]

yea I had some nice trees on my property but I cut them...and left a few of the ones that could be left. It is so hard to clear cut. I know! But it literally all comes down to how bad you want to use the land. If you can meander the goat fence thru and let them have that space....that is good, but without the sun you can't grow pasture truly. So being a catch 22 the land is great but it doesn't provide for you in a way without being a true pasture.

But I hear you. I had an old ornamental crabapple that was so pretty and had it forever then it got scruffy and I had to cut it down, but I debated and debated. I loved that tree...why I don't have a clue..HA HA HA

With that many varmints wanting your chickens, lol, you will have to build fort knox. BUT you can let them free range during the day but pen them up at night. Just don't feed any feed other than inside the pen and only at the evening when you want them inside. A good stout dog pen with a small coop inside would serve you well.

It sounds like to me ETR from what you describe you are making almost total use of what you have. You sure packed in items onto the land available. And I know that pasture an paddocks are just that and seem like wasted space in a way but the horses have to have their area.

But I think the chickens are the way to go and put your effort into them. With eggs and meat and possible sales if you have enough, it is a great little self sufficient/green living action you are taking.


you seem to be at your limit on expanding in a way.

what are you trying to accomplish? do you want to start more ventures or just manage what you have better?

I saw great info on hydroponics. That was just neat. The amount of food grown in water with a small hydroponic system is unbelievable. You could put a small work/greehouse type situation in the redwood tree area if you have water run out that way......just a different type of farming but doesn't require land to spread out and till. well....just a thought..LOL

 

[FarmerChick]

oh and ETR
your horses are self sufficient in a way

for your sanity...LOL-LOL

I am a horse maniac and there is no way I am having land without my horses. It is my peace of mind, my resting stop, my love......and we all must have that in life. It keeps me balanced my riding.....maybe that is why I am unbalanced right now...LOL...when Peepers passed I lost alot there.

Tony and I discussed stopping the meat goat operation cause profit was so thin....and I mentioned why keep useless animals around....etc. etc............he said what about that horse being useless. I laughed and said if it wasn't for that horse you would be living a worse life buddy! HA HA