Advice and Observations on John Victor's Problems
(Page 2 of 4)
Start with no more than a 50' X 50' garden (half that if you are really wise); plant only one hill of zucchini to eat tiny and fresh; try each preserving method (eating the results several days running, even if you must experiment on store-bought goods) before you invest lots of time and produce.
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A good second step is to take on bees. A hive or two makes an easy year's project and is a nice first move beyond gardening and into livestock. [EDITOR'S NOTE: See this issue's Homestead Handbook, on page 86, for an introductory course on beekeeping.] Then can come the home poultry flock; chickens may be left to selfwaterers and feeders for a week so you can get away to avoid midFebruary cabin fever. The Victors' 40 hens (at a homestead average of 150 eggs per hen the first year) would have provided four people with four plus eggs a day, or six folks with an egg a meal: too many to eat and too few to sell for a meaningful income. A rooster and a dozen hens will do for a family of four and could have eaten all summer long for free on the Victors' first acre-and-a-half homestead.
HOMESTEAD SIZE
My only major disagreement with John's conclusions is that I don't see any homestead as being either "too small" or "too big"; it's the homesteader's plans or ambitions that are frequently out-of-phase with the size of a particular parcel of land. Plan acreage and facility requirements for the ultimate place before you move from town. Provide first of all for the one essential element: enough land of the needed types — garden, field crops, woodlot, water supply, disposal, and pasture (I recommend at least two acres of open pasture for each large animal you intend to run).
And plan for self-sufficiency-as-you-go if you want to avoid the first big problem the Victors encountered: the bought-feed trap. A garden and bees fend largely for themselves. So can a family flock of chickens, if you let them free-range on a big enough place, and as long as you feed, water, and overnight them in a manageable size, nest-containing (thus egg-collecting) house that will close up tight enough to hold off nocturnal chicken killers such as raccoons, skunks, foxes, and coyotes. But bought hay costs a dollar a bale and up, and a horse or dry cow will eat one apiece every day or two. Grain costs a dime a pound and is consumed at a rate of two pounds and up (and up ) per beast per day. At those prices, your homestead horse-riding time costs at least as much as fancy stable rates, and (as John admits) milk costs as much or more in cash as you'd pay at the store — before your own labor is factored in. Only with home-raised feed (pasture being the simplest source) can you make out financially.
