Starting our LeStrand homestead

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Sun, 08/09/2015 - 14:23 #1

Member for

9 years 4 months
LeStrand Homestead
Last seen: 08/30/2015 - 10:20
Joined: 08/09/2015 - 14:00

Starting our LeStrand homestead

Hello everyone,

 

Carl and I have 5 acres of which whilst he goes to work else where, I would like to make the land work for us especially since the price of food in the supermarket is killing us in the hip pocket.

We already  have in place fruit trees and have just planted about 15 olive trees.

I would like to make our home like a sanctuary, and produce food for our family and am happy to share the excess with others.

Having only 5 acres though, I was thinking of buying 2 Lowline females, 1 pig, 2 Suffolk sheep, 10 chickens a mix of sussex and wyndottes.

I am not sure though if this amount of animals would infact have a negative or positive impact on the land as I also need to have the land produce food for the animals so that it can be better sustainable as feed is expensive which we would be cutting our nose off despite our face for the purpose of us having expensive supermarket food bills.

 

Your feedback would be appreciated as I step forward with my thinking and research working out how best to do this.

 

Regards

 

Jenn & Carl

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Sun, 08/09/2015 - 19:36 #2
rmcpb
Last seen: 03/08/2018 - 21:05
Joined: 10/22/2012 - 11:13
Welcome to the forum Jenn and Carl. For what you describe I would suggest that you look into permaculture for self sufficiency. A good place to start is http://permaculturenews.org Cheers Rob.
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Sat, 08/29/2015 - 12:15 #3
Farsideb
Last seen: 03/08/2018 - 21:05
Joined: 05/16/2014 - 11:55

Hi Jenn,

 

Where are you and Carl located.  If you have cows and sheep will your farm be able to supply  their fodder during winter months or   or will you be buying it in.  It can be expensive having to purchase food for cows and sheep.  

 

My partner and I have recently purchased 10 acres.  We are in Tasmania and we are starting very slowly.  The chickens are in place for eggs at the moment and maybe later down the track for meat as well.  We've just purchased our first ewes, only 4 to start and we will see how we go from there.  We are lucky to have a paddock that will produce hay for us in spring so should be okay in winter with just minimal supplements.  

 

We've started our veggie patch and orchard which we have fully enclosed to keep out possums, wallabies, rabbits etc.  total area of 900 square metres so plenty of room there as well.  

 

We were able to do a course through a government body on small farm holdings that went through soil types, grasses, fencing, water etc.  This was a really useful course, maybe see if there is one in your area.  

 

Good luck.   

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Sun, 08/30/2015 - 10:20 #4
LeStrand Homestead
Last seen: 08/30/2015 - 10:20
Joined: 08/09/2015 - 14:00

Thank you for your responses as it is truly appreciated.

I have gone to the permaculture site, and yes it was useful.

We live in Victoria, close to Melbourne airport.  

Where did you do the course as my husband and I would be interested?

Only having 5 acres, how can we make this a viable living space to keep stock on it and feed the stock off the property rather then buying in expensive hard feed?

We want the stock as our own food source, which also leads me to the question how many head of stock on "5 Acres", could/should we have to make this viable?  (Loline cow, Sheep, Chicken, pig)

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