Home school problems

(1) Aligning it with the school year means, first, that it is not aligned with the growing season, and, second, that the growing season is freed up for farming. The latter is convenient, the former is not.

End of September (or earlier) to mid-June. We could harvest in the end of September, and start harvesting in mid-June. We could grow cool-weather crops to maturity in the third quarter (end of spring). We could plant cover crops if we started mid-September, and we could plant winter grains end of September. We could keep a cow, breeding her in October, with calving in May or early June. We could do a lot of food preservation, fermentation, and "home ec" type stuff as the harvest comes in. Spring would see a lot of seeding and planting and bed preparation, including field work with the oxen.

We would miss grain harvest, corn harvest, bean harvest, summer vegetable harvest, and even a lot of spring vegetable harvest.

The summer camps could be based around: (1) haying, (2) grain harvest, (3) corn harvest.

(2) Where and how to find the land and infrastructure?

The ideal site would have:

• an acre garden in a several-year rotation between: 
1. fall/winter vegetables
2. summer vegetables (incl. potatoes)
3. corn and grains
4. legumes
5. pasture/ley
• enough pasture for a milk cow, a calf, a steer, and a couple oxen -- maybe 10 acres
• enough land for growing our own feed for
• a couple pigs -- maybe an acre
• twenty ducks or chickens -- maybe an acre
• buildings:
• heated classroom (or yurt/tent with woodstove)
• kitchen
• greenhouse
• small animal barn
• poultry house
• equipment shed / wash room
• cold storage for potatoes, warm storage for squash, and walk-in fridge for vegetables

Alternatively, we could have the garden and keep the cows on pasture, and buy in feed for the pigs and poultry.