# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > General Homesteading >  Our New Place

## your_comforting_company

So we signed on a new place about a month ago. It's all woodsy, filled with huckleberries and wild grapes, among other things, Huge oak trees, yuccas, and even a few snakes and gopher turtles.
There is nothing on the place yet, just woods. We have done a little bit of cleanup, but not much. I'm going to use the back part as an annex for my apiary, to raise up weaker colonies in a place with less competition. I've talked to the nearest neighbors about allergies, etc. and they are excited to have managed honeybees coming around to help pollinate their gardens.
The Front of the property is open enough for some gardening (but as of yet we have no way to water). The plan is to pull through the front gate, go past the garden, past the thick part of the woods, and home will be back in there where you can't tell from the road that anything is there at all.

Rather than bore you with details of what isn't there yet. I'll share a link to the whole album, and just post a few of my fav shots of the place. We have great hopes for this place, as it's only a short walk from one of the nodes on our OSP.

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Future apiary site
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Front end of the property
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The whole album is here.

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## randyt

That's awesome, do you plan on moving there?

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## Rick

> That's awesome, do you plan on moving there?


DOH! There must be a marble in your T. 

Good for you, YCC. I'm glad you guys found a place that will work for you. Looks like a nice piece of woods. It's also good to know your neighbors appreciate what the bees will do for them.

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## randyt

ya, ya I know what you mean but some folks have two places, one where they work and primarily live then a get away. Look at Hunter, he has that nice cabin but lives somewhere else.

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## Rick

Well, we're not all RICHEY RICH like the Hunters. In my next life I'll be born with a silver spoon, too.

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## jake abraham

very nice I'm glad you found a place

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## BENESSE

WOW!
Neat plot of land, so many possibilities. So glad for y'all.
Can't wait to see the transition.

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## crashdive123

Nice place.  Glad you found what you were looking for.

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## COWBOYSURVIVAL

Looks to me like the land is going to be the lucky one.

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## hunter63

Another "Place"....LOL, Outstanding.

YCC very cool, you gotta start somewhere.....seem a good start.....Now the fun begins!

Boils down to priorities, any one can do it, but must be high on the list of what you and your family want to do.....and if you stick with it, it comes true.

Congrats, man.

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## Thaddius Bickerton

Looks like ya have a nice patch of ground there.  

If water can be worked out it has all the makings for a decent homestead.

And bees, I'm hurting for bees over here in Alabama.  Mr. Roberts (the local bee keeper)is like 80 something and says he is quitting after this spring.  He is the fellow I gave two swarms to last year, and I just found another this morning out near the little barn that He came and got this afternoon.  He swears I have some sort of bee summoning power.  3 swarms in two years,  That is pretty amazing, and I did not go hunting for them, just happened all near the house and small barn.  Go figure.

Anyway he is offering to teach me to keep em, but I'm hoping I can convince someone else in the area to keep em so I don't have to mess with em.  Bees are important, and I may have to take it up, but I'm just not really wanting to take em on at this point.  I keep hoping that my buddy, Rip, will take it on.  He does some side butchering for me, and gardens, but bees would have a lot of pluses for him.  He would have a nice product for the market stand, would be able to do things like put hives out at farms I guess, and it would get him interacting with people again.  Ever since his Mrs. passed on and them no kids, he is pretty much a hermit.  I try to keep him coming over to our place, but more and more stuff will keep him from just giving up.  We been friends for 40 - 50 years, I'd hate to loose him to soon.

Oh, and if he takes up bees, I get honey.  He can trade it to me for meat and such and still butcher for me also in trade.  I get out of taking up bees.  I win, he wins, Mr. Roberts gets to retire and can still trade for honey and help Rip out with the bees, he wins.

Anyone fool enough to not want bees near their land is silly.  Good on you for talking with the locals,  some city folk can be real strange sometimes.  (I do keep a few epi-pens in the big first aid kit.  One just never knows if they will come in handy.)

If I was to offer a suggestion it would be to get water first ; then put in a root cellar / storm shelter on the place.  You can store food from the garden in it, make it into a cool place for the summer heat and winter cool and just all around secure stuff on sight when you cannot be there.

Water and a root cellar were the first two things I put on my homestead.




> ETA:  I just thought of something I have been meaning to attempt this year, and I ought to get some honey pretty soon in trade for that swarm.  One word:  MEAD!

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## your_comforting_company

Thanks guys. Great suggestions and our next move is to get a hand-pump well installed, whether we drive it ourselves, or if the price is right, We'll let Sonny (a local we've known all my life) drill it for us. A water source will definately be at the top of the list. Right behind that, will be a small garden area. I'm thinking I'm going to have to learn to keep a few carpenter and/or bumblebees around for all the huckleberries. We hope the front end will be productive with huckleberries muscadines and bullaces for jellies, jams, and (eventually) wines for the farmers market. The back end will be a small apiary next to our campsite. Honey and wax are great barter items. The front has the most open sky to the south, as you can tell, most of the rest of it is under canopy of those huge 60-80' tall trees.
Ultimately, this is where we intend to build our earthen dome home, so the garden will be the roof. We've been looking into designs but so far can't turn up any contractors who know how to accomplish it.
Right now, our long term goal is to move out there, unless something even better comes along. When we camped out there, all you could see at night was the neighbors security lights WAAY off in the distance, and they shed absolutely no light into our camp. Wooded, Secluded, Canopy, and lots and lots of wild foods already growing.

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## your_comforting_company

Just so we are clear.. we have no intention of cleaning this up in the traditional way, where there is nothing but grass left. That's just not the kind of folks we are. 
I hate cutting grass.
We feel really blessed to have found a place where we can let the wildflowers grow, eat squirrels and rabbits, and even sight in our guns without being in the middle of a neighborhood. It's 9 miles from the town where we currently live, and about 5 from the closest store. Not many neighbors and none of them are close by. I can't speak for my wife or kids, but I'm ecstatic!

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## Rick

YCC - When I was a kid we had a couple of older Italian brothers that were neighbors. Their passion was roses. Bumble bees frequented the flowers all the time. These guys would hold their hands next to the flowers and the Bumble bees would just walk onto their hands pretty as you please. The brothers said the Bumble bees licked the salt from their skin. I don't know if that's true but I've seen them do this hundreds of times and they never got stung. They tried to get me to do it but being a kid I was just too scared. But I thought it was cool as heck. I actually tried it last year but couldn't get a Bumble bee to hold still long enough to try it. It's on my list of "to do's" this year. They just held their hand flat and the Bumble bees would hop aboard. They would hold their hand next to a flower when they wanted to get rid of the bee and it would walk over to the flower. Just thought I'd share that since you want to raise them. 

I take it you have no water source on your property since you are driving a well?

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## gryffynklm

YCC, Congrats!!! The place looks great. That ear to ear grin on your faces says it all. Sounds like you need a GA Jamboree............ I'd put in a few days to get stuff done.

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## Sparky93

Is this the kind of house you are talking about?

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www.simondale.net/house/

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## hunter63

Our original plan for our 'south facing hill side was to build a earth-ship, earth bermed home.
Articles in Mother Earth News back in the 1980's had a series of called My Mother's House;
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Green...lar-House.aspx

We saw this house at the Mother Earth Village, in 1984, was built as a demo of a lot of methods to be self-sufficient....including the hassle of getting a permit....They did it by pulling a permit for a "basement".

In the end the log cabin won out because of cost (didn't want a second mortgage) and permit issues.

So does the new place have a "perk"?(septic)....Electric access?

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## your_comforting_company

No water, Rick. not for human consumption anyway, but there are several ponds and 2 Creeks nearby that the bees can use. Sounds neat with the bumblebees. I do my honeybees like that in the garden when they visit.

Not sure I have much room for many people yet, Gryff. There's barely enough room for our 4 tents at the moment, but we put them under the young trees that weekend and while the wind was blowing 25+ mph that night (a storm came through) we barely noticed a breeze blowing because we hadn't cut out our edge cover. It was splendid!

Sparky, that's exactly what I have in mind, just maybe a little bigger!

H, We are hoping that all we have to get is a "storm shelter" permit. Our code enforcer used to be a carpenter that I did a lot of roofing for, so we might get a few strings pulled.
The biggest "perk" for me is that there is absolutely nothing but woods out there. No water, electric, or septic. There was some land down the road from this spot that has no trees or anything, just open dirt, and they wanted more for that than the one we got. So I guess we got it cheaper than dirt. We don't mind if it takes a few years to get it like we want. Hope to go Friday to check water-tables and figure out whether we want to drive a tap, or have one dug. 

Thanks for the links guys, I'm going to show it to the Fam tonight and see what they think!

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## Sparky93

I've always thought a house like that would be cool, I call them hobbit houses. Congrats on the new property and good luck in your future endeavors there!

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## 1stimestar

Oh it's beautiful!  Have fun building!

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## SARKY

Great find, I have always liked the idea of a living roof. I'm looking for some land myself in the NE corner of AZ. Want to put in a Monolithic  dome (2 story) with the first story in the ground like a basement then earth berm the second story.

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## oldtrap59

YCC. Makes me happy to see you and your family find a place like that. You said in the OP that there is nothing there yet but trees and snakes and maybe a few turtles. Well my friend it sounds to me like it is full of you and your families dreams. Can one really ask for more these days? Best of luck with your new purchase Buddy.

Oldtrap

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## your_comforting_company

Thanks OT. It is what I've dreamed of for a long time. I wish the spot were a little larger, but I'll take what I can get! Most "woods" around here are only woods because it is swampy land that floods when it rains. Otherwise it'd be clear-cut farmland. We consider ourselves very lucky. The kids love tromping through the woods-that-have-no-trails (the older ones wouldn't sit still long enough for me to get a picture of them) and having our own "camping area". I'm supposed to meet with the well-digger today to talk prices. If the money is right, we will be getting water out there in a few months. 
We truly could not ask for more!

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## Darkevs

Awesome place you have found!!!

Have fun making it yours and working with your land, not against it.   :Smile: 

The world needs more bees!

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## your_comforting_company

Update: Talked with the well-digger. The water table at our new place is very high, only about 35-45 feet down. Sounds reasonable. Here's the catch.
The ground underneath is very sandy and there will be a lot of sediment in the lines if we don't go down past the sand and actually penetrate into the aquifer. He recommended we go 100 feet down, and since we need casing and all, plus the mechanics for the hand-pump well, we are looking at around $5500. 
It'll be more than a couple months before we get water. On the bright side, I'll be making my last truck payment next week, so that'll be $400 a month extra we can put back. I figure by the time we get it cleaned up enough to actually get the drill-truck in there, we should have enough saved to put the well down.

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## COWBOYSURVIVAL

> Update: Talked with the well-digger. The water table at our new place is very high, only about 35-45 feet down. Sounds reasonable. Here's the catch.
> The ground underneath is very sandy and there will be a lot of sediment in the lines if we don't go down past the sand and actually penetrate into the aquifer. He recommended we go 100 feet down, and since we need casing and all, plus the mechanics for the hand-pump well, we are looking at around $5500. 
> It'll be more than a couple months before we get water. On the bright side, I'll be making my last truck payment next week, so that'll be $400 a month extra we can put back. I figure by the time we get it cleaned up enough to actually get the drill-truck in there, we should have enough saved to put the well down.


Check to see if any one has a well close by and see how deep, water quality, etc., at least I would. A deep well would be nice but it might be that you can start out with a shallow well and then upgrade.

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## your_comforting_company

He told me about a fella up the road, who is actually closer to the creek. That's the one he was talking about 100 feet and still gets sand.
It's funny that the well is going to cost over twice what we paid for the land haha.
As far as water quality, I've been drinking the water in that creek all my life and it's delicious. The underground water has to be good! My dad's well, near there is very good water and always nice and cold.

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## hunter63

My deep well/pump at "The Place" cost me $4500 bucks in 2005....185 ft w/6" case and grouted to 95 ft, and is state approved.....got silt for a while, but has been running clear for a couple of years.
Congrats, a little at a time, and it will get done.

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## Cast-Iron

Looks like a real nice piece of _terra firma_.  Congrats!

Just noticed your posts about the well.  My BIL does well installation & repair.  I've helped him with a number of jobs over the years from windmills to 5 hp submersibles.  I guess you could say I'm experienced, but not an expert.  My question to you is, why should sand or sediment be an issue for a hand pump?  Seems to me like your draw rate likely wouldn't exceed 3 or 4 gallons a minute.  And that's if you're really determined to "go for the record".  I look at greater depth like an added  insurance policy against man-made contaminants.  The price you were quoted is less than you would probably have to pay here, so nice score!

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## your_comforting_company

Good Info CI. Mr. Teal's hand pump well drew about a gallon each pump. It will be our primary drinking and irrigation water for a while, so I want it to be done right. I also don't want the sand and sediment eating up the seals in the pump. I don't know much about the innards of a hand-pump, but I reckon there has to be stuff in there that doesn't like grit.
By this time next year we will have one. Sonny has done a lot of good well-work around these parts, and warranties his work. He's fixed my grandma's well a year later for free, so I'm probably going with him, even if he is a little more expensive.

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## Cast-Iron

Are you sure about the gallon per stroke rate?  You piqued my curiosity with that comment, so I found a little information from one hand pump manufacturer.

http://www.bisonpumps.com/output.pdf

Your production is largely determined by three factors; 1) cylinder size, 2) static water level, and 3) physical stamina.  If you will note for their 3" cylinder with a static level of 0, production is approximated at only 4.5 to 5 gpm with a stroke output of 20 oz..  This is more in line with the production I have seen with my limited experience. I would expect the water you are pumping will have been within the water column of the well casing long enough for most heavy particulates to settle out.  So with only modest levels of water extraction the grit shouldn't be much of an issue.  The pumping mechanics are similar to a windmill with a sucker rod inside of your drop pipe connected to a pump cylinder.  You will most likely have a maintenance issue requiring you to periodically pull the pump cylinder to replace the "leathers".

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## your_comforting_company

yet again. I made a nice long post, only for the page to "not responding". I'll retype the @$#^@#$^^%%^&& reply sometime or other.
annoyed.

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## your_comforting_company

http://www.baker-mfg.com/domestic_ne...and_pumps.html

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## your_comforting_company

We're going to have to wait on the hand-pump well. We will have electricity out there by early next week. Next is the shop, then the build! Our design and layout will include room for solar panels and wind generators. We decided to use more modern building methods due to time constraints, but we are keeping the house small, and spending more time and effort making it efficient and well-insulated.
We are so excited!
Also, the two oldest kids have graduated and moved out (for the most part), so the "clan" is a little smaller, making the "tiny house" more doable.

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## Tokwan

Congratulations.......

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## kyratshooter

YCC the tiny house is not only "doable" it is necessary.

I have found that adult children have a "homing instinct" that draws them to free food and shelter like a moth to flame.

Mine left, then came back, usually with an additional person on each return trip!  

First spouse, then spouse and kids!

I finally sold the farm and moved from the big farm house into the weekend cabin on the lake where the single room design made moving back home with the entire family impossible.

I did eventually buy a bigger place but it is 300 miles from the kids.

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## hunter63

Congratulation for sure.....nice to see the "plan" coming together.

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## crashdive123

Congrats.  So when is the barn raising party?

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## your_comforting_company

We have a few festivals coming up, so I'm hoping 3 to 4 weeks from now, we will stand up the shop, and if I get a chance to catch some fresh fish, a good ol' country boil. Plenty of room in the back to camp, so come y'all come on down!

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## your_comforting_company

We figure 1200 sq ft is more than enough for 3 of us for now. The youngest (15) says he's moving away to college for graphic arts, so in 3-4 years, it'll just be the two of us, in the woods in the middle of nowhere. Not a super-tiny house, but small enough that if they bring spouses and grandkids, they'll all be sleeping in the yard  :Wink:

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## your_comforting_company

I'd like it to be smaller, but the wife says she wants "space". I'm like "outside is full of space?"

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## randyt

most important building is a big shop.

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## Adventure Wolf

I won't lie, I'm jealous. My spread isn't that nice.

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## your_comforting_company

Well is in! We have some delicious water! In a few years I'll get a hand pump put in the back. 
Also formed up the slab for the shop. Gotta get caught up on work so I can get it poured. Couldn't make the shop as big as I wanted because some of the old trees have big root spreads. We really want to keep all the trees we can, which is going to limit our solar abilities, but we'll figure something out.  Update pictures coming soon!

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## hunter63

> I'd like it to be smaller, but the wife says she wants "space". I'm like "outside is full of space?"


"Happy wife, Happy life".......or famous words......."Build whatever you want....but it better have a flush toilet and hot water".

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## your_comforting_company

The mess room at the back door is going to be both our favorite. No more coming in covered in mud and blood, or stripping at the back door and walking through the house naked. Not that I mind it so much, but when we have company, they seem to be put off a little by it  :Wink:

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