I know what you’re thinking it’s the fact that it’s mini right? NO!! Okay well sort of but not the way you’re thinking. When we started looking for property it became obvious that we could only afford a small property. We did not want to have a mortgage that was more than my husband’s housing allowance and in order to stay on budget the biggest we could get was an acre, specifically 1.06 acres. Once we knew it was going to be a small property I got to planning. I figured we could keep chickens and have a large garden and that was it. We eat mostly chicken anyway so that wasn’t a huge deal. We would get eggs and the garden could provide a lot of our fruits and veggies since we live in a mild climate.
(These are Spider Lilies and were here when we moved. I absolutely love them!)
But then something wonderful happened. I stumbled upon Permaculture. That’s what I’m going to call it anyway. Everyone’s idea of permaculture and execution of it is different but that’s what makes it amazing. Being able to adapt regenerative systems to any situation is beautiful. It wasn’t just permaculture though, over the last 2 years we have lived on this property I have never stopped exploring how other people homestead. Homestead learning is a passion of mine and the best way to do it in my opinion, is to watch others. When the Rhode’s family announced their Great American Farm Tour I thought, man now we won’t get to watch them homestead for a whole YEAR!! Bummer and why in the world would they do that. I stopped watching. Then about a month before they finished it I was bored and I binge watched the whole thing over a few days. I have got to tell you I am so glad I did. There was a wealth of information. They provided the viewers with a snapshot of who knows how many homesteads, with that many unique farming systems. If I haven’t watched it I highly recommend that you do!
(This tree is one of my favorite features of our property. It's so unique.)
This experience was invaluable, so much so I wish I had contributed to their gofundme for the project. It opened my eyes to just how much we COULD do on a single acre. For example weedemandreap keeps goats, feeder sheep, chickens and ducks on their 1 acre property and that’s all in the backyard! With proper management I don’t see why we couldn’t do something similar. The obstacle comes in deciding what exactly we want to do because we do have limitations. Should we get 4 Nigerian Dwarf goats for milk production? Should we get 4 goats and a couple feeder lambs? Could we get only one lamb if they live with the goats? Maybe we shouldn’t get goats at all, maybe we should get dairy sheep! This is the inside of my head right now, over and over again. Each scenario has pros and cons. Making it even more difficult is that I have no experience with livestock and have no idea how many we could sustain on our property or how much food we would have to bring in for them.
This is the problem with a small property, not that you can’t do much but that there is so much you can do, it’s hard to decide! Of course with a large property you could do all the above but I enjoy a challenge!
Update on Iris' Ducklings
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You know- it's true. Many people have different personal definitions of permaculture; I never really considered that before.
Even though you only have 1+ acres of land, you do tend to get VERY creative with gardening, raising smaller livestock and making it work.
I feel like as long as you are using all parts of your homestead in a way that feed into one another you're on the right path!
Love it!
I vote for Nigerian dwarf goats!! (Maybe I am biased though... I love my goaties!)
They dont take much space. You will want to rotate pastures though. They will clear out bushes and vegetation very well.
We are thinking about trying feeder sheep in the future as well, for meat. We always had a back up plan to eat any goat kids that didn't sell, but so far, they have all sold quite easily, which helps with feed costs.
My only concern with goats is that we will run out of browse. We do have a few areas that need clearing out but once that's done I'm going to have to come up with something
We ran out of browse. Our solution was to get permission from the various neighbors to trim weeds and branches from their properties. They all said to take as much as we wanted! Free brush trimming, yay! So each weekend, my hubby and I take his pickup out to the woods and trim bushes, branches and small trees, and make a big pile in their pen. Its a chore, but it is free. :D
That's always an option but not having many neighbors would make it difficult. Sheep seem more sustainable but they are bigger and apparently a pain to milk
True. I like the idea of running a feeder sheep or two with the goats, since they eat grass while the goats eat weeds. They seem like they could complement each other. Have to take care that they dont breed though.
We dont have a lot of neighbors, but they all have wooded areas that they dont use, so they dont mind us trimming them for us. Our little community is also surrounded by a huge company's pine forest, (Rayonier, they make wood and paper products), and these woods are frequently full of undergrowth, and make a good source of brush as well.
Sometimes you gotta get creative.
I also like to save money by using raked up leaves as bedding. Works very well, actually, and its free!
I have no idea how easy or hard it would be to milk a sheep. Ive heard of doing it, but our little goats are so easy to keep and the milk is SOOOO good, that I dont really care to try. Not now anyway.
Best of luck! Cant wait to see what you all decide to do!
My thoughts exactly! We'll have to figure out the best way to feed the goats after we've cleared our land. We use leaves in the duck coop and they work great!
Apparently sheep are hard to milk but maybe if you raise it from a baby and handle them all the time?
Maybe so... I wonder what breeds of sheep give more milk. I dont know if there is a 'dairy' breed of sheep, and like with goats and cows, if you milk a non-dairy breed, they dont give a whole lot.
But maybe there is a dairy breed...
We had Muscovy ducks too! My absolute favorite! I can't wait to have some again! They are just so cool and fun to have around. I love the sounds they make! At one time we had Swedish Blues and Mallards, and they would wake me up quacking by my bedroom window. That REALLY made me appreciate the quiet Muscovies. :-) Looking forward to reading more of your posts.
I get the feeling we won't enjoy chickens nearly as much as our muscovies!
Chickens are ok, but yeah Muscovies have a special place in my heart. :-)
I would vote for goats rather than sheep, just because they (in my opinion) have more personality! Although it is possible that sheep get into slightly less trouble, due to lack of personality. LOL
Haha personality is one way to describe it 😆
If you want me to resteem and give a upvote just send me 0.1 steem or SBD if you do please link your post in the bio.
Permaculture is a Wonderful thing. What's done the most for me is the ethics and principles. Great post @minighomestead! Thank You!! I have been following Justin Rhode's and his family since mr brown was itty bitty. Have learned a lot from him!
They have some very interesting ways of approaching problems! It's been very informative! Thank you for reading!
I have about an acre too and there is soooo much I want to do with it!
Some mini goats are most likely in my future. The thought of having milk from my own animals thrills me to no end!
Keep on dreamin... And doing!
I'm in it for the cheese and butter!!! oh and ice cream, definitely ice cream
I’m forever trying to figure out how to squeeze a little more into our 1/8 acre back yard. I’ve got the garden, chickens, bees and we’re adding quail this year. If my nieghbor wasn’t a complete @$$ hat, I’d get goat or two. :)
Oh my word that is a lot! Have you considered rabbits?
Yes, we’re thinking of rabbits. I’m so afraid of biting off more than I can chew, so we try to only add something new once we have our current situation under control and fall into a good routine of taking care of things. First quail, then rabbits. Rabbits will probably be next year.
I understand that. We've had the ducks for 8 months and are only just getting our next animal. Thankfully you shouldn't breed rabbits until they are older so it will just be feeding and what not for now
I definately want meat rabbits, but I've also been looking into Angoras. They'll be a bigger time commitment than space commitment.