A Sunday Morning 5-Acre Homestead Fantasy, Right Here Where I'm At

I frequently dream about buying the little chunk of the farm that our trailer is on. It is approximately 5 acres with plenty of water seeping out all over it. It is inclined to the Northeast, meaning it gets little afternoon sun and little sun when the sun is very low in the winter. I know from moving the cows through here that the pasture is of fairly low quality, especially later in the season. All that aside, though, I like to imagine the homestead I would make if I were own it.

Perimeter of property

You can see our trailer on the left side, little white thing

It is about a 5-acre chunk, sloping to the East. The middle area is fairly open, and there is about  an acre of flattish land or so in the middle. There's a nice grove in the NW corner, and a bunch of gorgeous old cedars, maples, and a spruce along the Eastern side, down by where the swamp begins. It is bordered by the swamp along the eastern line, the road along the south and west, and a perennial creek along the north. The middle is pretty sunny, so there is maybe an acre of potential planting space, but it's also the best pasture.

We would always have more than enough water here, and would swale the land to control seepage. A couple of dairy goats and their edible kids could be moved around the pasture and periodically graze the willows and alders in the swamp. We would have coppice groves for goat fodder. We could keep a pig and feed it on household excess, and extra corn. Some dual-purpose ducks and or chickens for eggs and meat. We could shoot a deer every year.

The acre of garden space would grow corn and beans and vegetables. 1/10th acre of beans and chickpeas, 3/10 acre of corn and cereals, and 1/10 acre of vegetables should be more than enough for the whole year. The remaining half-acre could be used for herbal leys for the livestock. We'd dig out the many rocks from this acre over time and stack them to make paddock walls.

Among the coppices we'd grow our fruit trees, nut trees, fruit bushes, nut bushes, and useful plants for stakes, posts, and fuelwood. We could interplant nitrogen-fixers for coppicing, such as black locust, among the fruits and nuts, with the added benefit that the goats would love the branches.

We'd have the place set up real nice with certain tent pads kept away from the animals under the cedars so we could have a summer pig roast and invite all our friends for a long weekend every year.

We could replace the trailer with a nice little wood-heated home, or a newer trailer, with a woodstove, a carport, and a shop/garage.

It would be cold and dark and damp in the winter, but in the summer we'd harness the high sun and bright mornings to grow what we needed, even if our yields were lower than they would be in the open or on a south-facing slope.

Popcorn patch for the October market

April 1: Spread compost and till when soil is dry enough

May 12: Disc or harrow to remove weeds

May 25: Disc or harrow again to remove weeds, plant popcorn, cover with netting

June 25: Cultivate

July 25: Cultivate, hill

September 1: Design and print labels

August 25 - September 25: Harvest popcorn, braid, dry

October 1: Display in store

Cover crop version:

April 1: Spread compost and till when soil is dry enough; seed clover/grass mixture
May 12: Mow clover/grass mixture; strip till rows for corn, leave soil exposed to warm
May 25: Till strips again, mow, plant popcorn, cover with netting
June 25: Cultivate, mow paths
July 25: Cultivate, hill, mow paths
September 1: Design and print labels
August 25 - September 25: Harvest popcorn, braid, dry
October 1: Display in store

Corn patch instead of garden

Instead of planting a complex, homestead-scale, seed-saving staple-crop garden next year, I think I'll just plant corn.

Two to four types of corn, and make braids to sell in the October market.

This will streamline planting, cultivating, harvesting, and processing, and accomplishes three things:

1. I can learn how use the two-row planter, the cultivating bar, and the hiller (David will show me after-hours)


2. The garden will pay for itself this year, and also for a grain mill!


3. I will be able to focus entirely on one crop that really interests me right now: corn, and corn only

I could grow 1-2 varieties of popcorn (Tom Thumb and Dakota Black), a flour corn (Painted Mountain) and a flint corn (Cascade Ruby-Gold).

COSTS

Tom Thumb, Dakota Black, Painted Mountain, Cascade Ruby-Gold: $18-$25 apiece for half-pounds at High Mowing

Fertility: $200-300
Grain Mill: $250

Total Net (after mill): ~$400