Homestead mailing list

[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

In a message dated 1/19/2009 10:28:22 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com writes:


> > Yes, I know... more for our smoke house and freezer. We are going to be 
> > feeding all of our security's family, our family and the 16 families that 
> > reside at the sanctuary.
> >
> And selling the 'excess'? On  8 acres?! No way.
> 

Yes, alas, no way.  

Eight acres, if all of it is arable or at least culturable, will produce a 
very great lot of food.  But only after it has been developed for years and 
is 
cleverly managed by a lot of experience.

 Many a case, some on this list, have been where one couple moves onto eight 
acres and it is ten or twelve years before the acreage and themselves are up 
to enough production to support all their food needs.

I can visualize an established and productive farmstead tenatively branching 
out into extending shelter to a family or two at a time.  I can also 
visualize 
an established and self-supporting shelter tenatively expanding into some 
food growing.  And either eventually getting to the sort of operation you 
have 
planned.  But farmsteading eight acres presents its challenges and obstacles. 
 
Likewise starting up an organization to shelter families presents its own 
challenges and obstacles.  Starting both at the same time presents more 
challenges 
and obstacles than the sum total of the two individually.

Might I assume a minimum of two people per family of the 18 families 
numerated above?  Raising a diet for 36 people on eight acres is eventually 
possible.  
But realize that even if the whole place is devoted to intensive agriculture, 
less than a 100' x 100' plot is available per person.  Think of all your for 
your individual self coming from 100' x 100', this includes fruit trees, bee 
hive, goats, chickens rabbits, etc.  as well as vegetable and perhaps grain.  
It is possible to raise just about all the food for one person on that much 
space but only after the ground has been improved for a decade of committed 
composting.  Even then the diet it will produce will be sparce, very little 
if any 
meat, dairy, and eggs.  Deduct from that square footage areas that cannot be 
cultivated, roads, buildings, parking, etc.

I am a strong advocate of homesteading as an economic basis and so I very 
much endorse the idea behind your proposal.  Perhaps you can be the one who 
shows 
us how this can be done.  


James