Next weekend Kat and I will be placing our house on the market with the hope that within the next six months it will sell and we can purchase a small farm which could look something like this.
We are planning our farm sort of along the line of the farm pictured in the article "Start a Self-Sufficient 1-acre Homestead we found in Mother Earth News. Although the farm mentioned in that article was only an acre we will probably increase it to two acres. We will need five to six acres to do this.
We will have 1 - 16 x 24 hoop and 2 - 16 x 48 hoops.
I plan to have ten worm plots and a compost area that will also use red worms. We will search for horse and cow manure that has been raised on uncontaminated hay and feed. The compost we will use to build the soil and hopefully even sell at the farmer's market.
We are going to build an outdoor wood fired oven to bake breads and pizzas in. We will market these at the Farmer's market and other locations. Depending on the location of our farm we will work with other farmers to create a year round market.
We plan to have a wood burning stove for heating the house and build a simple geothermal unit made from 5 - 8 inch black piping one hundred feet in length and using a simple home made circulating fan box to move the air.
We will order good insects to help with attacking bad insects.
We plan to run our bath and laundry water to a tank and pump it to the hoop houses. We will also capture the rain run off from the hoops, barn and house and divert to the gray water tank. That tank will have a sump pump that automatically turns on when a certain level is reached and that water will be pumped to other tanks or the pond.
We will sell products made from goat's milk and we are going to learn how to make our own goat's milk cheese which we will sell.
We might have one Jersey cow but haven't decided on that yet.
Finally we are going to partner with the local school and get involved with the FFA or other groups to promote local small farms.
To earn extra income I hope to become a distributor of chemical free products and feeds (similar to what Roaring Eagle sells).
We are going to be able to do this and still have at least one cabin to offer out to pastors, missionaries and wounded soldiers free of charge.
We will develop good relationships with other farmers and trade with them for services that we need from them. We are going to visit some farms and hopefully learn things that they are doing that is successful.
Our goal is for Kat to quit working in January, that is if we have the farm, and I will continue to work either full-time or part-time. As soon as we can we will replace our outside incomes so that we can both begin to do the farm full-time. My guess is that could be a year or two from now.
We have prayed about it and worked on our plan believing that God would make it come about. We believe with this plan we can have this farm close to KC or close to Topeka or close to Lake Ozark or even down around Springfield and the plan will be successful because it targets a wide
range of customers with products easily obtained through the farm we will put together.
Ambitious plans but I believe they are all doable.
The good news is once our house sells we should be able to do this without increasing our debt much more than what we have now and at the same monthly payment.
We believe that the above plan will not only provide us a sustainable farm but it will bring glory to our God who has provided the plan and abilities to us.
We will have 1 - 16 x 24 hoop and 2 - 16 x 48 hoops.
We plan to have an acre of Hay to be used for mulching but also for feeding our goats. We are thinking of trying to grow some blackberries in one of the hoop houses as well as out in a patch. We will use some raised beds both in the garden and one of the hoop houses and do intense
gardening in those plots.
gardening in those plots.
I plan to have ten worm plots and a compost area that will also use red worms. We will search for horse and cow manure that has been raised on uncontaminated hay and feed. The compost we will use to build the soil and hopefully even sell at the farmer's market.
We are going to build an outdoor wood fired oven to bake breads and pizzas in. We will market these at the Farmer's market and other locations. Depending on the location of our farm we will work with other farmers to create a year round market.
We plan to have a wood burning stove for heating the house and build a simple geothermal unit made from 5 - 8 inch black piping one hundred feet in length and using a simple home made circulating fan box to move the air.
We will order good insects to help with attacking bad insects.
We plan to run our bath and laundry water to a tank and pump it to the hoop houses. We will also capture the rain run off from the hoops, barn and house and divert to the gray water tank. That tank will have a sump pump that automatically turns on when a certain level is reached and that water will be pumped to other tanks or the pond.
We will sell products made from goat's milk and we are going to learn how to make our own goat's milk cheese which we will sell.
We might have one Jersey cow but haven't decided on that yet.
Finally we are going to partner with the local school and get involved with the FFA or other groups to promote local small farms.
To earn extra income I hope to become a distributor of chemical free products and feeds (similar to what Roaring Eagle sells).
We are going to be able to do this and still have at least one cabin to offer out to pastors, missionaries and wounded soldiers free of charge.
We will develop good relationships with other farmers and trade with them for services that we need from them. We are going to visit some farms and hopefully learn things that they are doing that is successful.
Our goal is for Kat to quit working in January, that is if we have the farm, and I will continue to work either full-time or part-time. As soon as we can we will replace our outside incomes so that we can both begin to do the farm full-time. My guess is that could be a year or two from now.
We have prayed about it and worked on our plan believing that God would make it come about. We believe with this plan we can have this farm close to KC or close to Topeka or close to Lake Ozark or even down around Springfield and the plan will be successful because it targets a wide
range of customers with products easily obtained through the farm we will put together.
Ambitious plans but I believe they are all doable.
The good news is once our house sells we should be able to do this without increasing our debt much more than what we have now and at the same monthly payment.
We believe that the above plan will not only provide us a sustainable farm but it will bring glory to our God who has provided the plan and abilities to us.
