# How Much Work is Involved?



## HomeStead (Mar 5, 2010)

Hi everyone, I'm searching for land or a home in the country. I'm look at this piece:
http://www.landwatch.com/Oldham-County-Kentucky-Land-for-sale/pid/271568818

Can some of you tell me....how much work would be involved maintaining land like this? What if I just wanted to build a small house on the land or live in a RV on the land? Is it possible to own land with this much acreage and not have to put a lot of work into it? 

Honestly, i want to relax most of the time and don't want to be doing hard labor most of the time.

I'm asking this question to people who own land and know what it takes.

thanks....


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## simplegirl (Feb 19, 2006)

In my opinion that is way more land than I would want to maintain and we love working on our land. We have 9 acres and with our full time jobs we struggle to take care of it like we want. 

I don't know your situation but for us it would be too much.


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## LittleMrsAdams (Aug 31, 2014)

Not sure if this helps or not, but my parents live on 40 acres and don't hardly do anything with the land. There's an area right around the house that's sorta maintained but it's mostly overgrown trees/grass/underbrush.


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## HomeStead (Mar 5, 2010)

yes, great responses.....I welcome any/all opinions.

Yeah, i'd probably just maintain mostly an area around my house. I don't need the rest of it for profit/business reasons. It would just be for peace/ quiet, hunting/fishing, leisure.


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## willbuck1 (Apr 4, 2010)

Depending on the size of your yard it would be no more work than maintaining any other property. The more land you clear to use the more maintenance it requires.


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## HomeStead (Mar 5, 2010)

that's great...and that's what I was hoping.


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## DEKE01 (Jul 17, 2013)

If you are happy with the forest being a forest and doing foresty things like dropping branches and leaves, trees falling in high winds, trees rotting on the ground, then it requires zero effort on your part. Let nature take it's course and you can just watch and enjoy. 

It becomes work if you want to fence out 2 or 4 legged beasts, or if you want to convert the forest to something more ag productive. But even if you want to make this your permanent home and plant fruit trees, you can still do that in holes in the forest canopy without a lot of work on your part. You might end up having to fell a tree or two to keep sun on your shorter fruit trees but that can be done in an hour if you are happy letting the downed tree rot in place. 

Downed trees are homes to critters so if you like nature, let it be. If you are one of those folks that fears a poisonous snake or Sasquatch is on the far side of every log you see, then living in the forest might not be your cup of tea.

ETA: If you are buying this land to hunt deer, you are probably looking at a sustainable harvest of about 1 - 3 deer / year. At least in Florida, it takes about 20 acres that look like what I saw pictured to support one deer / year. Depending on other hunting pressure in the area, natural mortality, how many clearings are producing good browse, water availability, you might get more or you might get nothing. I have 170 acres and can take no more than 2 deer / year because neighbors and poachers kill everything in sight.


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## HomeStead (Mar 5, 2010)

DEKE01 said:


> If you are happy with the forest being a forest and doing foresty things like dropping branches and leaves, trees falling in high winds, trees rotting on the ground, then it requires zero effort on your part. Let nature take it's course and you can just watch and enjoy.
> 
> It becomes work if you want to fence out 2 or 4 legged beasts, or if you want to convert the forest to something more ag productive. But even if you want to make this your permanent home and plant fruit trees, you can still do that in holes in the forest canopy without a lot of work on your part. You might end up having to fell a tree or two to keep sun on your shorter fruit trees but that can be done in an hour if you are happy letting the downed tree rot in place.
> 
> Downed trees are homes to critters so if you like nature, let it be. If you are one of those folks that fears a poisonous snake or Sasquatch is on the far side of every log you see, then living in the forest might not be your cup of tea.


thanks! Yes, I would be comfortable just letting it be.....I could stake out favorite camping spots in the forest and just hunt/fish....


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## greenacresusa (Jun 20, 2005)

We have over 81 acres in the Ozarks and we will be building there when retired in less than 2 years. We will only have a little land around the house and barn to maintain. Most of the other areas are wooded with some creeks and a 1 1/2 acres pond. A lot of trails that we'll keep clear with a Bobcat brushhog. We will not have much in the way of flower or veg gardens either. 

We'll enjoy our retirement and cut back on our work. And this way we'll have plenty of privacy too!! 

So it can be done.


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## LoonyK (Dec 12, 2009)

I guess the main maintenance I have for my forest is fixing property fence where trees fall on it and creek fences that are blown out. But I have cattle that surround me, so have to actively manage the fencing.


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## crazyfarm (Oct 29, 2013)

We were hoping to increase our holdings from 40 to 80. It would not have increased our work load overly much as the additional 40 would have been grazing only. So 77 acres doesn't seem all that large to me. Totally doable. Of course, what do you want to do with it? Do you want to pay for land you won't use?


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## po boy (Jul 12, 2010)

DEKE01 said:


> If you are happy with the forest being a forest and doing foresty things like dropping branches and leaves, trees falling in high winds, trees rotting on the ground, then it requires zero effort on your part. Let nature take it's course and you can just watch and enjoy.
> 
> It becomes work if you want to fence out 2 or 4 legged beasts, or if you want to convert the forest to something more ag productive. But even if you want to make this your permanent home and plant fruit trees, you can still do that in holes in the forest canopy without a lot of work on your part. You might end up having to fell a tree or two to keep sun on your shorter fruit trees but that can be done in an hour if you are happy letting the downed tree rot in place.
> 
> ...


 About 50 of our 70 acres is wooded and all we have done is walk over it, post a few No Trespass signs and camped in the woods now and then. Owned it for 38 years. Deer and turkey love it.


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## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

The land can be little work, but if you have to heat with wood, then you're in for a lot of work.... You'll be all over that land looking for downed trees that are usable first. That takes clearing out to get to them, so it does become some work.. 

I figure for each acre I have clear, at least an hour a week per acre... I have more I want to get cleared. It used to be clear, and was allowed to become overgrown. Lots of invasive brush has taken over.... I figure to do that, probably 10-20 hours per acre to get cleared out... Some is just weeds, some is Autumn Olive, some is a lot of fences that need to be removed...


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## Robotron (Mar 25, 2012)

I keep the area around the house and buildings maintained. Nature can have the rest if need be. If I need some back nature and I will work that out. More land around you means less neighbor issues.


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## HomeStead (Mar 5, 2010)

thanks for the replies. It's good to hear from people who have "been there, done that"....


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