Now I know a lot of you will probably feel quite Douped when I tell you our house sits on LESS than half an acre.. Yes you heard that correctly,,hehehe..thats what we own :) My father owns 2.5 acres here too ( vacation place) within a stones throw, literally), so we use that for our Main Garden and about 15 Beehives.
this is where i take the opportunity to remind all you small homesteaders
ITS NOT THE SIZE OF THE DOG IN THE FIGHT ITS THE SIZE OF THE FIGHT IN THE DOG!!!
hard work, is what it boils down to, you can do just as much on .5 acre as someone does on 4 or 5 (minus a cow or horse,, but there is still room for a goat, trust me we have thought about it,,lol!!!!!)
Now mind you, although we sit on such a little peice of property, there aint no rules in edgemont. Here you gotta travel 12 miles of bumpy windy gravel road to get to a paved road in the country :) so as you can imagine, anything flies.
Since our purchase in 2006, we have managed to fit 600 and counting sq feet of garden space, raspberries, strawberries, 4 blueberry bushes, a peach tree, a woodshed, a green house, a 3 chamber compost bin, 2 chicken coops, a chicken tractor, approx 25 chickens, about 10-15 beehives, a solar shower. and hmmm am i forgetting anything??, Nope i think that covers it.. although in the future we will be building our greenhouse from glass off our backporch to give more room for gardening, and will be building a summer kitchen this fall , along with about 6 solar panels this spring!.
Its all about planning, hard work ,and determination. You dont need 5-10 acres to do all of this!!
Planning is key..
so i thought i would take this opporunity to INSPIRE!
3 rules to live by when working on a small peice of property :)
Rule #1 : plan plan plan. plan ahead, think of your homestead in its finished stages, so you dont end up putting , lets say a chicken coop in a sunny spot that could be used for a garden or some fruit trees
RUle #2: STAY ORGANIZED, or you will look like a real hillbilly, trust me,, we are constantly battling that,,lol
Rule #3: appreciate what you have,, you dont need more, use what you HAVE!!! I couldnt imagine having much more to do,, we have our hands full! as a wiseold man once told me " You could work youself to death on 2 acres. :) Obviously it isnt as Squeezed together as in the photo,,lol,, we have room to run and play!!
rule #4: its not the size of the dog in the fight, its the size of the fight in the dog ,, that is the golden rule ;) work hard, ive seen people do more on once acre than people that own 20.
Ok here is my awful drawing,,lol, but you can get an idea... again not so squished as in the photo,,
Like I said, in addition to this diagram we use part of my fathers land for our main garden ( the big one) and our 2nd beeyard, but even minus that , there is still a lot of produce, fruit and honey going on at our place! her is a photo of my dads land that we use/ourgarden and bee yard there:)2.5 beautiful acres... we have hopes he will sell it /pass it on to use one day :)
The only thing when considering a tiny homestead is room to roam.. and privacy, that is definetaly a personal and lifesyle choice!!!but here in the Pisgah National forest there is 192,000 acres of untouched beauty at our fingers tips, and besides weekend folk and people passing through to see Wilson creek, its the most private place on earth <3 p="p">
*Norah playing in wilson creek right behind our home
Blessed to live here, homestead here, go off the power grid here, and learn how to make it all happen in a smaller than usual space !
Much love and get INSPIRED!!!
