Question about land

[omegabrock]

As many know, I am in the process of buying land to build a house. I am closer than ever and am actually starting the plannig phase. My question is an old topic but I think my specifics need to be addressed. I want a decent sized garden. (If possible, enough for a family of 4 to get most of what we need along with being able to can). At least 1 horse, some chickens and a couple of goats. I also will build a range. Assuming that is the minimum, what's a good amount of land to start looking at? Range, I would prefer to be able to have 200+ yards (I think that would fit on a square 10 acre plot depending on location and terrain). If this isn't enough information to go off of, let me know

[Slippy]

Omegabrock,

I would first start with your local zoning and ordinances. That will determine what you can and cannot do on your property, as stupid as that sounds.

My land is zoned Agricultural so shooting and hunting is allowed. Some counties in your state my have a minimum number of Acre Requirement for hunting or shooting sports.

As far a garden... My personal recommendation is to start small and slow. You can always increase the size of your garden but I guarantee you can get overwhelmed if you start too large. We've got a few small raised beds (4'X10' and 4'X12') and some 2'X6' Stock tanks that we grow veggies in and we manage them pretty easily with peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and some herbs. Then we have a larger garden, approx. 60'X15' and it is pretty manageable for me and Mrs Slippy but with everything else we have going on, we are NOT ready to bite off more garden than that.

Good luck,

[omegabrock]

Oh yeah. Will definitely start off small, but that's the end goal. I have seen land zoned for agriculture or residential and never thought twice about the differences. My first choice in location is actually in a pretty relaxed county in terms of regulation. I don't think you even need a permit to build actually but I will definitely double check to make sure we can shoot and hunt

[OSFG]

I would suggest in addition to zoning laws etc, that you also get with an outdoor range master who might have knowledge on safety danger area diagrams by caliber and load so that you can ensure the round types you will fire will not unintentionally exceed your property. An example is .50 ball ammo used by the US has a 7200m max range. Just because it hits earth doesn't mean it stops....anyone shooting tracer rounds can attest to this. Rounds routinely hit and then ricochet skyward down range. I killed two cows in Macedonia shooting US .50 cal on a range that could only support other than NATO .50 cal which was nearly 1000m shorter max range. Sorry so long winded.

[omegabrock]

No worries about being long winded, it's something I have overlooked

[OSFG]

No worries about being long winded, it's something I have overlooked
So your saying I do that all the time??? LOL:eek:

[omegabrock]

Lmao. It's always fun to read but I meant I overlooked if the round would exceed my property

[Sparkyprep]

I live on 10 acres, and I can tell you that it is a lot more land than you think. I raise cows for personal use, and I am up to 8 cows, chickens in a coupe, two very large barns, two houses, a range, a decent sized garden, and plenty of room to spare. I am considering digging a small pond for fish and ducks.

My neighbors have 5 acres, and three horses, hogs, geese, goats, a shed, and one house. For a family of four, 10 acres is more land than you will ever need, and probably overkill, unless you are farming for profit. On my 10 acres, we support my family of four, plus my mom and dad.

[omegabrock]

Good insight sparky. How is your land in terms of shape and dimensions? What about your range and garden?

[omegabrock]

And a reason I put out 10 acres is because it's the most prevalent size

[Sparkyprep]

My range goes out to 100 yards. No long-shooting. My land is a perfect square. Being Florida, of course it is entirely flat, except for the drainage ditches that I dug. My pasture has very few trees, all slash pine. The land was originally covered in palmettos, which have been cleared entirely. My yard, and my dad's yard have quite a few large water oaks that he, I, and my grandfather planted. (The ones I planted are only about 10-12 feet tall. One that my grandfather planted long before I was born, is close to 70 feet tall, and bigger than the house.

[omegabrock]

Awesome. Thanks sparky. That's exactly what I was looking for too

[Sparkyprep]

726

What a portion of 10 acres looks like out my bedroom door.

The fence in the foreground separates my yard from my pasture. The next fence out divides my two pastures. The treeline in the extreme background represents the property line.

[omegabrock]

I think I need to go out and look at a 10 acre plot lol

[Sparkyprep]

My point is, be careful what you wish for. It's a lot of work to take care of that much land. Keep in mind, to mow and weed eat my lawn, it's an 8 hour job.

[Coppertop]

Be careful of just picking a plot size and going forward thinking you can have what Sparky or anyone else has. Where I'm at, we need 20 acres PER cow to run half a year and feed hay the other half. A ten acre plot here would handle 1 or 2 sheep during the Non-snow months. I have been through a management intensive grazing school for this area and even in their teachings, we can't get much better than that in an average year. I know that Sparky gets a lot more grass and rain than we do.

A local extension agent may be able to help you with figuring land needs with what you want it to carry- or vise versa.
Thanks

[omegabrock]

So is hay a good supplement for grass? If the land doesn't produce enough I mean

[Coppertop]

So is hay a good supplement for grass? If the land doesn't produce enough I mean

That is the only thing that will keep them from starving if you are out of grass or it's covered in snow. You need to supplement them with a protein (crystalyx or eq.) and salt during the year. Hay seems to get pretty expensive at times, so being careful what you stock your land with would be prudent. Having 5 head with grass year around is a HELL of a lot cheaper than buying and feeding hay to 10 head half the year. Look into Ranching for Profit or The Grass Farmer to get some ideas on stocking and MIG ranching (Management Intensive Grazing).

Like Sparky said, start small and work up.

[Deebo]

You guys are awesome. Can I hunt there?

[Sparkyprep]

Not much to hunt on my property, as it's all cleared. We do have a covey of quail that hang around. I've just seen them come back after being absent for 15 years. The fire ants kill the nests, I think. I don't know how many thousands of dollars I've spent fighting back the fire ants.

Copper top makes some excellent points about your land's ability to sustain livestock. I'm in South Florida. It hasn't snowed here in almost 40 years. I have green grass year-round. My winters only last about a week. Rain is normally plentiful here.

[Slippy]

728729730

Even though its been a fairly mild and dry summer especially for the SouthEastern US but its still hot. So after sweating my rear off this weekend I am ready for Fall. I saw Sparky's post about it not snowing in his area for 40 years and it got me looking for some pics from this past winter when we got a few really good snows.

Pic 1 is at the base of my driveway. Pic 2 is looking off my back porch. Pic 3 is my creek. Pic 4 is at the top of my driveway. Let it snow!

[TJC44]

Nice piece of land, Slippy, especially now with the pics of the range. I slipped up on the pics of the snow for a second.
pun intended.

TJC

[Arklatex]

Here's my 25 acre backyard.

[Arklatex]

Won't let me post pics from my phone for some reason...

[omegabrock]

newest update...go in tomorrow to see how much i qualify for and if it's enough to buy and build... /fingers crossed

[TJC44]

Good Luck.

[RWalls]

Heres a few pics of my land, right at 9 acres, about 1.5 acres is a cleared field, of course it was about a 3/4 field but I cleared off a bunch of growth. Things to consider: a good water source, quality soil, cleared fields. Clearing land has been expensive, so is digging a well. My property already had a well, there's also a natural occurring spring and a creek.


736
737

[Innkeeper]

If you want to move to the North I know where there is a really Nice 40 ac parcel with great deer hunting , lots of Grouse and squirrels, and big Potato farming area, but plenty of cows up here and a lot else. That is if I do not end up buying it up myself lol, but I have to close on this house first, that would be my retirement plot later, or a B.O.L.

[omegabrock]

we found an area that is about 5 acres, about 45 minutes away from the city, has a well and probably half of it is cleared out with wooded patches. there is a nice cleared out strip along the side of the property that goes the entire length with a creek on the other side. apparently deer and turkey are known to come around. it seems really nice...it's not completely fenced off so im not sure exactly how big the land is. i can tell you the size, but not where it starts and ends lol.

[omegabrock]

also, stopped by a gas station and asked what the local temperament was. it was some teenager. said it was pretty quiet, especially compared to the city. i asked about gun laws (i know, not the most accurate source) and he told me about half of the people he knows have gun ranges on their own land so that was reassuring.

[Sparkyprep]

Best of luck to you. Sounds like you may have found a good area.

[Innkeeper]

Sounds real good....enjoy and hey keep us updated.

[Coppertop]

That sounds great!!!! Keep us posted

[omegabrock]

746747

Just 2 shots of the land

[Slippy]

746747

Just 2 shots of the land

Good job Omega!
That looks great. Man, you had a goal and you are pursuing the goal. Good for you. Be ready for a bunch of crap during the loan process. the Dodd/Frank Financial Law enacted by Congress a few years ago has turned the lending institute on its head.

Keep us posted!

[omegabrock]

The lender is gathering all of the VA paperwork they need. Just waiting for her to tell me what other information I need to get to her. She said depending on how fast that happens, we could close sooner

[Innkeeper]

Awesome looking land, double check all your VA stuff, My process was delayed because the VA waited until My Congressman inquired on my behalf why 60 days after my retirement my VA Disability had still not gone through, 3 1/2 years in a WTB was supposed to make that seamless, was told after could take 30-90 days, at 60 Days I found out DOD never sent a document and the VA guy overseeing just never thought to request it, I found out today it was finalized I, it posted to my States records, but not to my COE yet , which I am thinking is because of Labor Day I do not want them actually to work 40 hours this week just to help out a few poor veterans.

[omegabrock]

Damn that sucks. I have an old COE that I got a while back. According to my lender, all I have left to get is my divorce decree. The one I have isn't signed and I didn't want to pay $30 at the time to get a hard copy lol

[Innkeeper]

My 80% means I do not pay a fee, hence needing the new one, plus it is part of my financials, though they have cleared it on Just my military Retirement....I was hoping to close today, but with the delay due to the holiday looks like next week will be it.

[omegabrock]

What fee? I'm rated 70% but get unemployability which technically rates me at 100. As of now we are set to close 13Oct

[Innkeeper]

What fee? I'm rated 70% but get unemployability which technically rates me at 100. As of now we are set to close 13Oct

Your Rating exempts you it says so on your COE......it is my delay caused by SOP at the DOD(forgetting to send things) which has caused my delays.

[omegabrock]

Hope it clears up easy for you

[Innkeeper]

Thanks Next week, MY OEF/OIF coordinator told me her screen showed my 80%, now I am just waiting for it to generate on the COE or my letter to arrive, I should go check the mail, but being Friday it will not change things. :ughh:

[Montana Rancher]

As many know, I am in the process of buying land to build a house. I am closer than ever and am actually starting the plannig phase. My question is an old topic but I think my specifics need to be addressed. I want a decent sized garden. (If possible, enough for a family of 4 to get most of what we need along with being able to can). At least 1 horse, some chickens and a couple of goats. I also will build a range. Assuming that is the minimum, what's a good amount of land to start looking at? Range, I would prefer to be able to have 200+ yards (I think that would fit on a square 10 acre plot depending on location and terrain). If this isn't enough information to go off of, let me know

My only 3 points are these.

1. Make sure you have a well (not a local water provider) and make sure you can pump it without grid electricity
2. Make sure you have your own septic field.
3. Make sure you have enough land around your home to provide decent fields of fire.

[omegabrock]

1. it has a well, i will need to add a hand pump or something like that though
2. it has septic, or is septic field different?
3. there are some trees i will have to clear out, half of the land is already cleared and i want to keep *some* wooded area, i just want to make it less dense so i can see through a good chunk of it easier. i will also need to check out some perimeter defenses for the remaining wooded area

[Pauls]

It will depend on the altitude, the neighbors, and the type of terrain but I would recommend no less than ten acres. An acre is only 640 feet on each side of a square. You will want no less than 300 yards for a range and at least 2 acres for feed for the horse. To feed the chicken and goats... say a half acre and you will want to be able to have a covered run for the chickens and fences that separate the goat pasture into at least three sections. You need housing for all the critters and your family.

Ten acres will be within shouting distance of a neighbor with an adjoining 10 acre plot - you will be able to hear them laughing, cutting wood, and general living. We have 140 acres and can still hear the neighbors occasionally.

[omegabrock]

140 acres...damn that would be amazing. I get excited looking when I see 20 lol

[Pauls]

Well, when you consider that our 140 acres is on the south facing ridge of a mountain from 4300' to 5200' at the peak and it is mostly granite it isn't a lot of "usable" land. There are three decent building sites and the rest is evergreen trees with a small bit of pasture land spread out over a large area. We have two mine shafts from old gold mines that are pretty well used up but with some work they would make decent "emergency" shelters for storms or nuclear attacks. To put in a foundation you need to blast into the granite to get below the frost line and the growing season is very short. The ground doesn't thaw until half way through June and it starts to get cold again by the first of September. What we do grow we use raised beds for and foods that require the shortest growth times. Most veggies won't grow long enough to go to seed in one season. The carrots we grow for one season, remove from the ground and place in the root cellar and then plant them again in late June to get them to come to seed. We do grow som millet for grain and as it is a native plant it does very well. It doesn't produce enough to feed us all year but we use it as a substitue for rice. The land was worth what we paid for it (less than $800 an acre) but we messed up when we failed to check out the neighbors. Most of the people in the area support the small church in town and if you are not a member then you don't exist. The local church is a very radical Christian church (Calvinist) so if youare a member you are either "living in grace" or you are damned to hell. You can't choose to be saved as the Calvinists believe that God chose those who will be saved and those few are saved even if they don't try while the rest have no means to salvation no matter how they believe or act.

It is very important to check out the local population because they can be an aid or detriment to your survival.