# Who are the one acre homesteaders?



## msjuris (Jan 16, 2011)

I've seen a few people mention that they, like myself, are raising goats on a one acre lot.

On our little one acre of heaven we have a small (8 trees) orchard, a few gardens (rose/herb/vegetable), 40 chicken (meat/layers), 3 goats (an adding), 2 dogs and 7 cats.  Plus the husband and two kids.

So who else is on an acre (+/-) and what are you doing with the limited space?

Marcy


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## AlaskanShepherdess (Jan 16, 2011)

Currently on this list in a  3 generation home. Grandma and my Uncle, My parents and adult brother and sister, my husband and I (till this summer).

All together there is 6 (soon to be 4) cats, 1 German Shepherd, 5 Nigerian Dwarf goats, 40 or so chickens and a couple ducks. A large garden, and nearly 40 small apple and cherry trees.


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## crazyland (Jan 16, 2011)

We bought just under 6 acres but part of it is marsh so we use only 3. 
We are still working out all the kinks on who goes where on our property.
I want to get more chickens, Only have about 20.
Going to keep the 4 dogs and 3 cats. 
Not going to get more ducks, geese or guineas. Like the number I have now.
Going to get more goats. I have 1 nubian mix and her daughter, one ND and her ND/Myotonic daughter, another ND and a wether.
We will be using 1/3 of it for the goats and 2 horses. 1/3 is the house and dogs. 1/3 has my peach trees and grass we haven't decided on.


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## Calliopia (Jan 16, 2011)

We have 1/2 an acre total for 4 adults, 1 child, 4 dogs, 2 cats, an orchard, a garden, a greenhouse, 3 goats and 14 chickens.  Amazingly it all fits.


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## crazyland (Jan 16, 2011)

Calliopia said:
			
		

> We have 1/2 an acre total for 4 adults, 1 child, 4 dogs, 2 cats, an orchard, a garden, a greenhouse, 3 goats and 14 chickens.  Amazingly it all fits.


LOL That is Amazing!


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## scrambledmess (Jan 16, 2011)

We have 2.5 acres.  I am sure it would seem huge compared to an acre.  As of tomorrow, we will have 6 goats, 15 chickens, 36 eggs in an incubator, 4 cats, 2 dogs, 2 parakeets, a fish, 2 adults, 5 children, 3 apple trees, and a small garden.  I would like to plant more fruit trees, increase the garden, plant grapes, plant some blueberry and raspberry bushes, build a small barn, and fence in at least 1.5 acres of it.  I wish I had a magic wand that could get it all done, right now!


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## chandasue (Jan 16, 2011)

We're on a smidge over 3 acres but a bit over a half acre is shallow pond/marsh so it's unusable. Tentatively have 2 goats (soon to be 3 and crossing my fingers for a buckling and wether this spring), 12 chickens (I have had up to 36 at a time), a dog and cat of course. The garden is pretty good sized at about 20'x60' but I could use a second garden but that means more fencing to keep the goats and deer out... Orchard consists of 4 plum trees but they're not doing well with MN winters, and newly planted 6 apple trees that I'm impatiently waiting to produce...

Edit to add that I could easily do all of this on 1 acre with the right topography and layout. And I could do SO much more with this if I didn't have crappy neighbors...


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## iamcuriositycat (Jan 16, 2011)

Me! 1.15 acres inside city limits. Currently: 19 ducks, 5 quail, 2 goats, several indoor critters, three little boys, and my husband & I.


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## Beekissed (Jan 17, 2011)

One acre...


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## ksj0225 (Jan 17, 2011)

We are kinda, we have 5 all together with the house in the middle so a little over 2 acres on the right are all we are using right now.  We need to fence in the other 1 1/2 on the left side of the house.

Chores, chores, chores.... list, list, list  ARGH


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## Calliopia (Jan 17, 2011)

Yeah our little 1/2 acre holds a lot.  The good thing is that it is ALL usable. It's on a very gentle slope with a couple of good flat spots. 

The goats are on 1/10 of an acre approx and the chickens have an old shed converted into an aviary and will soon have a 15 x something scratch yard off of the back. 

I do a lot of condensed gardening in raised beds. And we're working on making most of the landscaping edible  -   either for us or for the animals.  And most of our indoor plants are herbs or lettuces. 

I already have a spot designated for the greenhouse and that's being put up next month hopefully.  

I also dehydrated fruits and veggies all summer to supplement the goats through the winter. 


I'm very grateful for having started this project on a small property first because when we move in about 3-5 years we are going to sell our place as a fully functioning micro-farm complete with goats and chickens and I will have a MUCH better idea of the possibilities for even 2 acres of land.


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## sammileah (Jan 17, 2011)

i have a 1/4 acre  in a hamlet.   now i cheat.  part of our back yard not added in is RR i have a garden on it.   we also have a lot thats just under an acre that we have use of thats where the hay gets stored and 4 goats graze on plus 20+ chickens.  my goats and chickens share a 6x14 shed in the winter.
I have a 2 gardens, 2 dogs, 2 cat, 4 kids, 1 hubby, 4 goats, 20 plus chickens.  
I also coop garden with my neighbor.


I wish i had more.


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## msjuris (Jan 17, 2011)

Calliopia said:
			
		

> We have 1/2 an acre total for 4 adults, 1 child, 4 dogs, 2 cats, an orchard, a garden, a greenhouse, 3 goats and 14 chickens.  Amazingly it all fits.


That's enough inspiration for me to add more goats. 
And I thought I was pushing the limits on an acre.  I can double everything.


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## msjuris (Jan 17, 2011)

scrambledmess said:
			
		

> I wish I had a magic wand that could get it all done, right now!


I'd like one of those magic wands too.  It  just seems like the projects never end.  You'd think with smaller spaces, we'd have fewer projects.  Then again, I still have a few sq. ft that don't ahve anything on them yet.


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## msjuris (Jan 17, 2011)

chandasue said:
			
		

> Edit to add that I could easily do all of this on 1 acre with the right topography and layout. And I could do SO much more with this if I didn't have crappy neighbors...


ditto . . . topography and neighbors really impede upon what you can and can't do on your property.  

The only flat spot we have is in the front.  The whole back and side yards are sloped anywhere from 10 degrees to as much as 30-40 degrees.  Not fun in the winter carrying a 5 gallon bucket of warm water down hill 2x daily to the goat pen.  Its a good thing they are so cute.


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## julieq (Jan 17, 2011)

We're kinda on about one also.  We actually have seven here but the next door dairy blows their filthy pivot line on the pasture area, so we don't use it for the goats or horses either.  House, huge vintage dairy barn, vintage cement block dairy house, small shop and large chicken coop all here.  We have nine adult ND/mini goats, 13 buff orphingtons, two horses, multiple barn cats and our GS dog comfortably arranged.  Small garden area and huge lawn (which is really too big and takes too long to maintain in the summer months).   We're looking for a smaller CLEAN , more usable acreage, perhaps one to two acres, but haven't decided on Southern Idaho or Southern Nevada.


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## jason_mazzy (Jan 17, 2011)

I have 2 acres, but about 1/3 an acre fenced off for the chickens and goats.


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## Calliopia (Jan 17, 2011)

I have to admit we really lucked out with this house. The house divides easily into 2 sections that we share with a couple and their child.  It has several rather small bedrooms with large common areas. 

All our dogs get along (they had 2 and we have 2).  We have a 2 car garage that once I clean all my various accumulated craps out of it will house the hay storage and a rabbitry and a workshop. In addition to the freezers.   

I have 6 dwarf pear and apple trees outside along a fence line.  The garden wraps around and amongst the trees as they don't provide much shade.   We have several additional fence lines that will have berries started on them this spring and we hope to train grapes over an arbor leading to the orchard area. 

The yard was already mostly fenced in chain link so I just ran electric on the inside of that and cut off a section for the goats.  I lucked into an 18x10 shed free on Craigslist if I moved it with in 3 days so I pd 200.00 to a truck hauling guy to grab that with his flat bed.  We converted one of the old sheds into a chicken aviary with a small attached coop thing for them to roost in when it's cold. (basically stripped it down to frame and covered it in wire and hardware cloth. 

We have an old flat spot along the back of the property where a pool was and there are no trees around it so the greenhouse is going there.  The pool has been gone for 5 years now and weeds are growing again so I'm running with the assumption that all chemicals are pretty much gone.  I'm going to drop a load of manure and then topsoil on it just in case though.  

We have an area about the size of what we have for the goats out front that has trees and flowers and the kids play stuff and our picnic table etc.  The back yard has dog running space and the cats are inside only. 

It all works out if you are willing to plan a bit and carefully overlap certain things.


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## Oat Bucket Farm (Jan 17, 2011)

1/3 of an acre. We have LaMancha goats, chickens, 4 rabbits, three large garden spaces, two nut trees and three fruit trees.


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## themrslove (Jan 17, 2011)

Hubby and I are on 3/4 acre!  (Looking for more, though!)
We have 6 little goaties, 5 precious dogs, 5 chickens, and 4 little kitties! 
Moving soon, but we have been making it work for a  year like this!


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## mabeane (Jan 18, 2011)

Oh dear...we are old farmers who have been trying to sell our farm to move to a more manageable place acreage wise.  Our herd is a small ND group of five does and a buck. We are waiting for our first kids this year. I am embarrassed to tell you all of you could fit on our acreage and then some.  
At our age we are only using one side of the street (farm straddles a small rural road) plus the wood lot for firewood. 
This side has 13 acres, our house, barn and garage as well as our raised gardens. The other side has 60 acres or nice rolling landing as well as a large woodlot.
I wish we were 25 or 35 or 45 and could make use of this wonderful asset :/
 but alas we are in our late 60s and I experienced a 14 month near death illness and am thankful for what I can do.  

We would love to be nearer our children on a two to five acre place (I need my goats and gardens) with less to think about and less work to do.


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## chandasue (Jan 18, 2011)

mabeane said:
			
		

> This side has 13 acres, our house, barn and garage as well as our raised gardens. The other side has 60 acres or nice rolling landing as well as a large woodlot.


I wish you were in MN! I'd trade houses with you. We want a place with more land that my parents could maybe build a small retirement house on. _sigh_ Seems like we're always wanting something different than what we have. :/


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## Oat Bucket Farm (Jan 18, 2011)

One day we will find a place with 2 to 5 acres to settle ourselves on. Right now we are just very thankful we can have our little in homestead. We are within the city limits of a small town and we really have to work to keep our barnyard quiet and are really restricted on how many goats we have. There are other people in town with livestock. There are horses,donkeys,cows,llamas, and even one other place across town with goats. Luckily I have good neighbors, most of whom don't mind the goats and the others actually enjoy seeing them. The idea of moving to two or three acres is such a dream. I can hardly imagine what having so much room must be like. And to have 13 acres with another 60 across the road...all I can say is wow! I wouldn't know what to do with so much land.


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## msjuris (Jan 18, 2011)

Oat Bucket Farm said:
			
		

> One day we will find a place with 2 to 5 acres to settle ourselves on. Right now we are just very thankful we can have our little in homestead. We are within the city limits of a small town and we really have to work to keep our barnyard quiet and are really restricted on how many goats we have. There are other people in town with livestock. There are horses,donkeys,cows,llamas, and even one other place across town with goats. Luckily I have good neighbors, most of whom don't mind the goats and the others actually enjoy seeing them. The idea of moving to two or three acres is such a dream. I can hardly imagine what having so much room must be like. And to have 13 acres with another 60 across the road...all I can say is wow! I wouldn't know what to do with so much land.


We dream of a few extra acres too, however, we love our house so much that we can't leave it.  We are also on the outskirts of a small town and have learned that distance is our friend.  Our zoning officer retired last year and so long as we keep our head down and our animals contained, no one notices.  We are in an agriculture zoned district, but don't have the requisite 3 acres to have livestock   So we keep a low profile.  

I don't know what I'd do if I had as much space as mabeane.  I'd probably have so much work to do that I'd have not time to enjoy it.


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## RoeDylanda (Jan 18, 2011)

We're on a shade over one acre, but the whole town is zoned farm residential. Unfortunately, quite a lot of the property is a 40-55 degree slope! That's one of the reasons goats appeal-- they won't mind, and as long as I can fence in a way that keeps the dogs and foxes out, we're good to go.


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## Oat Bucket Farm (Jan 18, 2011)

msjuris said:
			
		

> Oat Bucket Farm said:
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Our city council passed ordinances about livestock basically making it impossible to keep livestock in town. Unfortuantely for the city council, nobody paid any attention to them at all. Its been over two years and everyone still has all of their critters. Although from what I have heard, it was started because of some people keeping three very skinny horses in a 20x20 pen. So they passed the ordinances so if someone is keeping a really nasty place or doing something like three horses in that tiny of a space or some such, then they have something to make them either fix it or get rid of the animals.

Still though, when we can find our couple of three acres outside of a town instead of in it, I will breathe a sigh of relief.


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