# Large family homestead?



## EArmstrong06 (Oct 26, 2013)

My husband and I have four kids ages 8 down to 2. We're wanting to save up money and start researching. My question is what size of cabin and land should we be looking at? I know we need at least a 4 bedroom but i'm not sure what size etc and clueless about the size of land lol. Thank you in advance.

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## Bellyman (Jul 6, 2013)

Depends on what you want and where you want it.

Do you want privacy? That requires a buffer zone around you. It can be your own land or something like national forest. Lumber company land gets harvested so bear that in mind if you find property up against that. 

If you intend to grow food (fruits & vegetables), probably 2 or 3 acres of well managed tillable and fertile soil can grow all you'll ever need. If you intend to sell fruits and vegetables, you'll need more of that same good land. (Land that's forest now might not be the best land for cultivation even if the trees and stumps are removed. I know of quite a bit of that kind of land that's heavily forested but quite poor soil. Just something to consider.)

If you intend to have livestock, that makes self sufficiency more of an issue the larger you get. A few chickens won't require a lot. A few head of cattle and a few horses will require quite a bit of hay and some grain as well as pasture. 

Do you want to settle in the north? or the south? If you intend to heat or cook with wood, you might want a few acres just for your wood. 5 to 10 would probably do what most would need, maybe more if in the very cold north or way less in the deep south. 

For me, I think somewhere around 10 acres is about the minimum it takes to achieve what I'm looking for. But I don't want much in the way of livestock. 

As far as a house, I can't say what you'd be comfortable in. I've known of families of 5 living in a 30' travel trailer. Too tight of quarters for this guy but they did it for a number of years. (My wife and I live in a 40' fifth wheel travel trailer that's under 400 sq. ft, but it's just the two of us. We've been living in an rv for over 8 years now. We're looking for our country homestead and yes, would like something bigger than 400 sq ft. Interestingly, though, after living in small quarters, we don't feel like we need a BIG house anymore.)

There are just so many variables that no one can really fill in but you. If you have enough money, you can buy your way into most anything you want. If you are poor like us, you'll probably have to be creative perhaps making a "silk purse out of a sow's ear". Skills can get you a long way in that department, too. I don't know whether you and yours have construction or farming type skills right now or whether you'll be developing them along the way. 

Continue to read and ask questions. General questions will likely get more general answers. Specific questions will likely get more specific answers. I know, right now, you're just starting to think about it so it's quite possible you don't even know the right questions to ask right now. No shame in that. They'll come in time, as hopefully, will the answers. 

Best of luck, and welcome to the nuthouse... er... um... the forum.  (Just kidding!!!)


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## MBackwoods (Oct 24, 2013)

I started out everything by determining our needs. We also have 4 kids ages 3-8. You can't really plan anything until you know what your needs are.(and budget) It would be like going to the grocery store buying groceries and then coming home and deciding what to make. You sort of need to know what you are going to be cooking before you buy ingredients.

For our family we decided on a 28'x34' log cabin. I measured everything from the washer and dryer to the width of the bathroom to see how everything would fit. I wanted all the kids to have their own space but I didn't want anyone to be alone. I found that in our old home in the city I had one room in the basement and who ever had that room had the most trouble keeping it clean. As a solution we will have 2 lofts on each end of the cabin connected by a walkway on one side with a shed dormer there to make it tall enough to walk. Each loft will have about a 6' high 7' wide dividing wall that will create 4 "rooms". Each "room" will have about 8' by 10' of space. More than enough room for beds and clothes. There will be a space about 8'x10' set up in the open part of the main floor as a play area. Pretty much all the toys will be kept there. One end of the main floor, the 10 feet under the loft will have bathroom, pantry, and kitchen/dining room. The other end,also 10', has a large master bedroom and a small TV area(we don't watch much TV). The center of the cabin will be open from floor to ceiling. 

I would also agree with Bellyman. We had a 1400sqft home before with a FULL basement and it was too big. I even had 2 washers and dryers. After living in a much smaller place we too feel like we don't need as much space. The 1400sqft w/o the basement felt pretty comfortable but we could do with a lot less.

As for the land, you have to know what you will use it for. We bought 20acres of woods and may be purchasing and additional 40 if things work out. We plan on having a huge garden, 2-3 apple trees, 1 cherry tree, large shop, hay barn, green house, 3-4 horses, half dozen cows, 2 dogs, and we'll try out several other types of animals; sheep and pigs etc to see what we like having. We could probably fit everything we needed on to 10 acres, but we wanted a lot of space and privacy and LOVE having our own piece of the forest.

Hope that helps you get started in the right direction.


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## justcoles (Nov 18, 2013)

Hey there!
Obviously as everyone said your starting point is determining the needs of your family, but I have found in my exploration that a lot of people over-estimate the amount of land you need. Obviously, if you want to heat your house with wood and would like to provide that wood on your land you are going to need more space, but other than that there isn't a need for sprawling acreage. From what I have read 10 acres of hardwood managed appropriately is enough for one family to heat their home in an area with longer winters, but if you aren't concerned about that level of self-sustainability then you can certainly make do with a lot less.
One acre for the growing of food for your family would be more than enough. I could show you countless examples of people doing so with less than acre and without intensive gardening methods. As far as room for an orchard goes, you could have it spread out on more land, or you could espalier trees around your house and as a fence around the property - obviously this takes some work to start up, but once established can be pretty much left alone. If you're interested in livestock, you'll need more room but still not as much as everyone seems to think. Even if your family would like a dairy cow or a couple meat cows there are ways to do it with less. There are many miniature cow breeds that would be perfect for a small family homestead - dairy cows that produce 2 gallons a day rather than 7, and consume a quarter of the feed. Meat cows that produce 60% of the meat of a full-sized breed with 25%-50% of the food. Do some exploring and you'll find that having what you want with less land is easier than you think.
My partner and I are currently looking at properties in the 7 to 10 acre range and I can tell you that will be more than enough for ALL the projects we have planned, including cows.


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