21 Feb ’12
I can't help but laugh (mostly at myself), I sometimes walk a 1/4 mile or better to take care of our animals. I'm no expert, just a guy with too much land and time on his hands but my advice is do what seems to make sense to you. Start out with something semi permanent and if you like how it turns out make it a permanent part of the homestead. Go small before you go big. Try stuff out first before you commit 100% to it. Make sure it works for your situation. Make sure you can handle the daily chores that go with it. If it turns out to be more work than it's worth, it's not really worth the time you'll put into it.
For example, if you're going to do goats, do 1 or 2 and make sure you (and your fences) can handle it before you get 10. You get the idea.
21 Feb ’12
only billy goats stink, and you probably wouldn't have more then one anyway, if any at all. otherwise there isn't much smell from goats. source: spending time on my grandparents ranch with well over 1000 goats at a time.
i'm also interested in sources for planning a homestead, i too will be using 3 acres and plan on 1 dairy cow, a handful of goats, half dozen pigs, 100 or so chickens, orchard, pasture and of course my house.
5 Mar ’12
Thanks for the help guys. After some discussion last night my wife thought it would be a good idea to have our garden and animals closer to the house. Very good conversation and I think it will help us do work outside if it is so close to the house. She mentioned having chickens on a side of the house that is up wind -- I quickly tried to correct that.
5 Mar ’12
We have the John Seymour book. We liked the layouts presented but they didn't seem to help us too much. I'll look into the other book. We are in a very specific situation -- we built on a 3 or 4 acre meadow completely surrounded by woods so if we put gardens at the end of the field they will be partially blocked by shade during certain parts of the day.
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