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Can You Farm on 2 Acres
I often get asked ‘Can you farm on 2 acres?’ and the answer I give is ‘it depends upon the lay of your land’ because I cannot ‘see’ the land in question I can’t say one way or another
We are extremely lucky, every inch of our 2 acres is ‘farmable’ in one way or another. It is our aim to only have things on the property that either feed us or our animals.
It'a Tough Going
But, it is not the same for everyone, and each individual has to ask themselves a series of questions and really examine the lifestyle they want.
It’s where to start that stumps a lot of people, so I can only go on the questions we asked ourselves and by trial and error and an enormous amount of hard work, we have finally sorted out what would make us happy and financially secure.
Our Blank Canvas Taking Shape
20 Questions We asked Ourselves
1) Why are we here on the block?
2) What attracted us about the property?
3) What do we want to achieve?
4)What type of lifestyle do we want?
5) How are we going to make money to be able to stay at home?
6) Do we want to share our piece of paradise with strangers, when we moved to get away from crowds of people?
7) If we don’t want people, can we have animals?
How are we going to use the animals to make money (eg: Dry Stock or Dairy or something else?)
9) What sort are going to be manageable and how many?
10) How much do I have to invest to get the operation off the ground?
11) Is my land suitable for the operation I have in mind?
12) will I need to have special housing, equipment etc for the operation I would like?
13) Can I manage to run the operation on my own or will I need help?
14) Do I really want to work with someone else?
15) If I get sick or injured what will happen to the running of the farm?
16) Do I want a commercial operation or just big enough to make us comfortable financially?
17) Will I be able to have enough free time to pursue my hobbies, leisure activities and let things tick over without me there?
18) What can my property be used for?
19) Will I go organic or not?
20) Are any of these goals achievable?
If I can give you any advise at all, it would be, TAKE YOUR TIME, look around you, walk your land then walk it again, this time with a plain drawing pad and pencil.
Sit in the open and draw an outline of every thing you can see. I sat in each paddock and ‘sketched’ ( I use this term loosely!! I am NO Vincent Van Gogh!! 
) every building, structure, hill, dip, flat and stream, as I could see it.
Then, live on the land for at least 12 months before deciding or doing ANYTHING. this seems along time, by believe me it will fly by and it will be time well spent, because you will see the land in ALL seasons.
This helps you decide, what your property can be used for. For example it may flood in the winter, or your may have no bore hole or stream to divert precious water for the animals, these are important considerations.
Look At Us Now
It Took Time To Build Rome!
I really hope this has helped anyone who is considering or has brought a piece of paradise, we were SO lucky, our paradise gave us a picture of our life the moment we stepped onto it.
But, we have had several false starts, NOT failures, as Eddison said ‘ I just found different ways of NOT doing it’
Never give up and only look at the bits of work you are doing today, NOT at the whole farm and feel it may take you a lifetime to build a home, business and a future, it may but DO have fun doing it and be sure to be adaptable, your dream may come true in a different form the you originally planned.
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Time is the best healer. If you fall, get back up.
I am so happy to have found you! I was begining to feel quite downhearted. We have two wooded acres. We are goinng to cut the trees, my brother in law will make them into boards, my father in law, husband, daughter, and I are going to build our house with them. We want to be self sufficient as we can and have been working toward this goal for quite some time. Evry one says tow acres is not enough. Later we willhave more, but for the time being it’s two acres. I intend to peruse and use your web site extensivly! Thanks for being here! A great resource for garden by signs, too! Wow!
Hi! I contacted you recently about how t have a cow on 2 acres and could it REALLY be done. Well, I got inspiration from you and your answer. You told me not to listen to the naysayers. I odn’t have her yet, but we do have first dibs and the fist female born to a friends cow! Vry excited. i am an expectant mom again, lol. I was reading your post on gardening by the moon, and we do that, too. We also ustilize the signs, however, and have been very successful. We have had NO rain for 27 daysnow, though, and our corn is dried up (no home made corn meal!) It is especially hot, 107 today. It is very hard to battle both high heat and no rain. Good thing I put up lots of corn last year. At least we will have that. I could go on and on, but I’ll close. thank you for you web site and your encourage ment!
Paula in WAyensboro, Mississippi, USA