A Rough Plan for Our Land

Homesteading here in the South is quite different from that which you will see in other places. And while it is VERY doable, there are many things we, as a family, have had to consider. Our land consists of 10.13 acres. We live on the top of a hill. Our hill top is flat consisting of about 3 acres. On this 3 acres sits our home, garage, tool shed, and the top animal pasture. I use the term pasture lightly, as there is not a full amount of grass. But this will be a goal for this year, is to cultivate grass on it for the animals. In this pasture we plan to keep our chickens, miniature donkeys, our great Pyrenees pups, 2-3 hogs and our sheep.

We also plan to plant our orchard and garden on this level.



The second level of our land, is about 2 acres. It is a very shallow slope down to the flat second level. This is where we plan to cultivate a second pasture, in the hopes that we will switch the sheep from pasture 1 to pasture 2 occasionally. On this tier, we will keep turkey, our beef cow and possibly the pigs.



The rest of our land is down at the bottom with a huge and very flat pasture. It is probably about 4 acres of good pasture where we plan to graze our cows when we get them.



Since we do not have an unlimited supply of grazing land, we have to supplement with hay. This is where the planning gets crucial. For while we would like to be self sufficient. We also want to be good stewards of our money. We are aiming to cut down costs by trying to cultivate pasture ourselves, support local feed stores, and off set feed costs by selling great Pyrenees puppies and excess eggs.


We are so new to this,but we are trying. This year is kind of like a big experiment to see what time of year we should do things. How much things cost & where animals should go.



Daddy and the boys built a cross fence to the 1st pasture! I am so proud of them !
I am so impressed with my husband! He can learn practically anything, just by watching it once!
This will ensure that all the animals are contained in sight, giving us the ability to move them where they need to be. This way we always know where they are. This will also give our live stock guardian dogs an idea of where their boundaries are.
We plan to cross fence the 2nd pasture as well.



As I said before, any animal we get, we would like it to either "work" for us. Or produce food for us. Around here, we do have predators such as :
Coyotes
foxes
raccoons
the very rare mountain lion & bobcat
Various snakes.

Our dogs will serve to protect our animals from these invaders.



We would like to use our land in the best way possible. Utilizing every piece we have. We have a lovely circular in front of the house. There is a huge circle of grass with a bit of decorative landscaping. In this, we plan to build an 8 ft. deer fence and make our garden there. This devastated my idea of a cute white picked fence. But reaping the fruits of our labor, was in the end more important than having to fight with a garden laden with deer and other "pests". Here in the South, we have A LOT of deer! And they jump really HIGH!!! So the 8 foot fence will be a necessity! I am confident we will make it look nice, as it is in the front of the house.

Future Garden Site


It is very hard for me to do all of this in stages. But I know that a Homestead is not built in a day. I want to thank my lovely friends Quinn & Michelle for constantly reminding me of this! When I look out at our land, I see all the things we need to do. And while it fills my heart with delight, at times, it overwhelms me. So thank you ladies for always taking the time to remind me to enjoy the journey and take it slow!!!