I’m in east Texas zone 8b and we moved here about a year and a few months ago. You’re not kidding about prioritizing infrastructure. We are living in our RV while we build our home. Last year we built our off grid solar shed, got hooked up to water (had to trench 1200 ft!) and set up a rain water collection and automatic irrigation for our garden beds. I was able to grow lots of fun foods for us while building. Summer was the hardest though. It was just too hot for us (which is funny since we moved here from the NV desert, but it’s a dry heat lol). We spent lots of time inside w/the AC. I’ve never sweat so much in my life. Lots of plants didn’t grow. It was too hot. My tomatoes were phenomenal though but got only one solitary squash the whole year! Lots of green beans and peppers and lettuces/chard/collards etc and boy I learned a lot about gardening in zone 8b sandy soil.😮 This year is fun so far. That freeze in Dec killed every single plant (including fruit trees) except my garlic and one parsley plant. 😮 I am starting over! Nice to see another homesteader nearby! I’m in the piney woods though. 😁We love it! What a journey. I am learning to be patient and wait for things like building my chicken coop and getting chickens. It is especially hard right now with the egg situation. 😏Still, the house is the main priority and the garden needs to be a side project or side hobby (on autopilot) while we build. We just started the foundation and it’s so exciting! We formed a FB group with other land owners in our little neck of the woods and it’s so cool. Our neighbors next door have been helping out and sharing some of the work and cost to get the water to both our properties. They also found out who provided water to our area as well (we tried having a well dug but several thousands of $$ later they found no water in two places we tried) so that was a huge help. They also helped us figure out the power situation as well which will be important later on.
Great tips! I would also add when you are assessing the sun exposure on your land, do it during the summer when deciduous trees will have their leaves. In the late fall, winter, and early spring, deciduous trees will not cast their true shade like in the summer when they have their leaves.
Closing on a five acre property next month. First thing is driveway, large out building, house site cleared, septic, well and temp power. Now I can move the camper and start the garden, chicken coop and house.
" start as big as you can start..." This is SUCH good advice. Our culture is pretty impatient~ (i've been guilty of this, esp with my central FL garden). What you said about standing back and observing the arc of the sun, in all seasons, is important when planning a garden. Such a good video, Eric, thank you.
Best newbie info video I've ever seen. 100% agree on all of that. I wish I'd seen this 4 years ago and would have put together a better plan... but I'm getting settled in my tx homestead and starting my garden this season. Prepped up with 3 years stored. 4 cats. 2 guard dogs. Well. Creek. Pond. Water storage. And no debt! I'm blessed and thankful. Would love to see your list. I kept my Things DONE... IT FEELS GOOD TO READ!
💯 I have spent last couple of years doing all this.. still trying to just get the property infrastructure set up.. main issues and still learning… water purity, pest/ disease and preserving..
Starting on a new to me property. 2 acres with house, two stalls, and a coop and run onsite. Need to learn how the sun moves and where the snow stays on the ground. Will build a greenhouse next to the house to extend my growing season. First time dealing with deer so I will have things to learn. I will take it slow with animals besides chickens. Mainly I want to build community in my new area. Thanks for the ideas about drawing things out as I have to deal with slopes.
Great video! I’m a big list guy as well. We bought 30 acres almost 2 years ago. Lots of work to do. I have solar panels (26) that I want to put up as well and a greenhouse that I need to construct. Love your sound thought process! Keep up the great videos.
When planning out a homestead, or even the layout of a highrise apartment, you should mentally picture what you want it to look like when it is finished. Or, as the saying goes, imagine what you want written on your tombstone or in your obituary, and work backwards from there to make it happen. Same goes with planning the layout of your property. One problem with Google Earth is that many of the images are, or can be rather old. I often use it to find a shipper or receiver's layout to know where the truck entrance is, if I've never been there before. About 10% of the time, it shows a cornfield. Find a friend with a drone that can take video and have them fly around the perimeter of the property, if there isn't a recent view. It might help if you know where the utilities are buried. You can get different colored carpenter's chalk (for plumb lines) to mark where they are, then get pics and transfer that to a plot plan. As always, great advice.
If you hook a harness up to that dog and hook that up to some kind of driveshaft in the middle of your chicken coop, you could generate power or pump water or something. :)
We are moving to our cabin that we have been building thru the years oct 1st , even though it’s not quite finished yet but high rent is forcing us out! Thank you for your video!🥰🥰
Great advice! It is easy to get overloaded. One of the best books on growing food I have found is The Intelligent Gardener by Steve Solomon. It really helped improve our soil. Much better production.
All good advice, but I would add; look at your property during rainy weather, especially after a heavy rain. Where is the water flowing? Where is it pooling? You may think that sunny spot is great for the garden, but if it turns into a swamp after rain... you either need to fix that somehow or choose another spot.
@@CountryLivingExperience FEMA flood maps are so far behind. And they don't take into account how heavy rains affect even minor elevation differences. There isn't much real elevation difference in my area of 8b, north of Houston. But it turns out that 85% of the run-off from the surrounding properties drains down to my pond, which is on one corner of the property. That means all that water comes across my pastures and through the drains that cut through. I had to adjust where I put my barn to not have to build a road with drainpipes across the drain to get to it. Which meant I had to build up a pad for it to be level.
@@CountryLivingExperience FEMA maps will give you general flooding issues based on past flooding, but the only way to know on your specific property is to watch. Preferably, observe your property for a year before deciding where everything goes if there is any question. I bought a place one time with a gentle slope. But it was during a dry time, and grass was overgrown. First big rain, and the oily seeps started. Dug a small pond to build up the area. When we had one of those 5" in one day rains, my back pasture had 15" deep water across it. Could not tell where my pond was. Another property was pretty flat, so I created a slight drain to funnel the water through to the front. Then, the neighbor built a berm/drive with too small of a drainpipe at the road, and all the water backed up on me.
This year I'm doing everything I can to obtain better paying work(since living off of $300/no will never get my daughter and I anywhere) so we can move closer to having an easy to move tiny house and then land, and out of HUD housing. Hopefully before everything collapses. Getting rid of credit card debt is step 2 after finding better paying work.
@@CountryLivingExperience Lord willing I'll finally find something remote so I can ve home with my autistic daughter that doesn't require a degree. If it's meant to happen, it will. 🙏
This video hit the nail on the head for me. We are making preparations to move onto a 3 acre homestead we bought last summer as soon as we sell our current house. There is no house on the property but our son lives less than 1/4 mile away. We'll move into his basement until we can build a house. I've been working through everything you mentioned and came to the same conclusions. Retired engineer here , so I laid out the property on graph paper and cut out paper rectangles to scale for the house, other structures and the raised garden beds so I could move them around like paper dolls until I figured out the best locations. We have access to county water & a major river 1/4 mile away. We get 62" of rain so water catchment is high on the list. 100% agree that today "Go Big" is the best approach. In my case that means putting in as many raised beds as I can as soon as I can so we don't miss the growing season and the education that comes with it. I have the equipment for a 6kw off grid solar system in my son's out building. Will add more panels and batteries as the budget allows. I already have the other things you mentioned. I used the Next Door App to get recommendations for sources and have lined up a bulk compose supplier and free wood chips for my BTE garden.
Living in someone else's home is , sadly , NOT a plan. It will drag down your self esteem . The owners will lose patience quickly. Not good. Get a shed, get a tent , do what you need to do , as an adult . It is not your son's responsibility to pay for your dream.
Some things simply don't rise as fast or as high as other items in the same category. Egg prices rose higher and faster in past 6 months compared to beef. Yes, beef has risen but not like eggs. Same for "construction" related products. Wood prices have fallen quite a bit from their highs of 12-18 months ago but shingles are still priced almost as high as 12onths ago. Prices overall might dip down to level they were 18-24 months ago but that'll be a fluke. Just look at gasoline prices. They're down from recent highs but they'll undoubtedly head back up
7:01 please don't promote outdoor cats, they are detrimental to the environment, and also do not live very long when kept outdoors. There are several wildlife that will deal with rodents for you and don't require you to provide food. Not trying to sound snobbish, but I am an avid wildlife lover and have seen firsthand the damage cats have on the ecosystem. And also the damage that the ecosystem can have on outdoor cats. (And yes I have and do live on a farm, and we haven't ever had cats on the property that were ours, only cats that have been around here only caused problems.) Great video otherwise
The last person to receive title to land under the homestead act was 1988. The homestead act expired in 1979. There have been no homesteading since. You have a rural property, not a homestead.
You must be new here. The word homestead is now commonly used for those who have property that are trying to be more self sufficient. That has been the case for some time now.
That may be true on the Federal level, but states, counties, and even local communities can have homestead laws. When I moved to Maine in 2001, it was my first home in Maine. I found out that the state still had a 'homestead' clause for such a situation that lessened the property tax by half.
Oh my....I can call my sister rehead..teacher..best friend..bumblebees or whatever...I can call myself..intelligent...saved..blessed...and loved..so I think I can call my property....my house..my happy place...my farm or maybe even my Homestead...I figure that's my call....not history or any body else's...I have a few names to call that....??????....
@@PrayereeFarm not really sure what you're getting at. The modern definition of Homesteading is to live as self sufficiently as possible, with minimal help from others, including growing and preserving food, generating your own power, etc. The original Homestead Act was to incentivize people to settle land owned by the Federal government by giving deeds to land owned by the government to individuals in order to open the West. The Feds don't give land directly to individuals any more, but to the state(s) that land is in. The state can then issue deeds to corporations or individuals as they see fit. This happens a lot when military bases close. Definitions of words can change as they are used in similar, yet different, ways colloquially. Or are you still using the term "electronic tabulating machine" when you speak of your computer? After all, that is what it was originally called, historically speaking.
@@zuzax1656 Yes. There are states that have what they call a homestead tax exemption. It’s a misnomer, but they do call it that. This is different than the homestead act of 1862 where land was given free to settle the west.
You weren't kidding! Your dog made half a dozen laps around the chicken coop. So funny!
He is a trip.
😭😭😆😆
I’m in east Texas zone 8b and we moved here about a year and a few months ago. You’re not kidding about prioritizing infrastructure. We are living in our RV while we build our home. Last year we built our off grid solar shed, got hooked up to water (had to trench 1200 ft!) and set up a rain water collection and automatic irrigation for our garden beds. I was able to grow lots of fun foods for us while building. Summer was the hardest though. It was just too hot for us (which is funny since we moved here from the NV desert, but it’s a dry heat lol). We spent lots of time inside w/the AC. I’ve never sweat so much in my life. Lots of plants didn’t grow. It was too hot. My tomatoes were phenomenal though but got only one solitary squash the whole year! Lots of green beans and peppers and lettuces/chard/collards etc and boy I learned a lot about gardening in zone 8b sandy soil.😮 This year is fun so far. That freeze in Dec killed every single plant (including fruit trees) except my garlic and one parsley plant. 😮 I am starting over! Nice to see another homesteader nearby! I’m in the piney woods though. 😁We love it! What a journey. I am learning to be patient and wait for things like building my chicken coop and getting chickens. It is especially hard right now with the egg situation. 😏Still, the house is the main priority and the garden needs to be a side project or side hobby (on autopilot) while we build. We just started the foundation and it’s so exciting! We formed a FB group with other land owners in our little neck of the woods and it’s so cool. Our neighbors next door have been helping out and sharing some of the work and cost to get the water to both our properties. They also found out who provided water to our area as well (we tried having a well dug but several thousands of $$ later they found no water in two places we tried) so that was a huge help. They also helped us figure out the power situation as well which will be important later on.
That is awesome. Welcome to East Texas. Good luck with the gardening season this year (and the house)!
@@CountryLivingExperience Thanks! I will binge watch some of these videos lol.
Great tips! I would also add when you are assessing the sun exposure on your land, do it during the summer when deciduous trees will have their leaves. In the late fall, winter, and early spring, deciduous trees will not cast their true shade like in the summer when they have their leaves.
Closing on a five acre property next month. First thing is driveway, large out building, house site cleared, septic, well and temp power. Now I can move the camper and start the garden, chicken coop and house.
Awesome!
plant fruit tree's your years from your first harvest . i was planting grape vines as soon as the land was cleared
Yes. Those are important because they take long to grow.
" start as big as you can start..." This is SUCH good advice. Our culture is pretty impatient~ (i've been guilty of this, esp with my central FL garden). What you said about standing back and observing the arc of the sun, in all seasons, is important when planning a garden. Such a good video, Eric, thank you.
Thank you Judy. Glad it was helpful.
Eric you're always so helpful and a faithful man of God. I know I can trust your wisdom and experience. Thank you for all you do .
Very kind of you Judy. Thank you
Best newbie info video I've ever seen. 100% agree on all of that. I wish I'd seen this 4 years ago and would have put together a better plan... but I'm getting settled in my tx homestead and starting my garden this season. Prepped up with 3 years stored. 4 cats. 2 guard dogs. Well. Creek. Pond. Water storage. And no debt! I'm blessed and thankful.
Would love to see your list. I kept my Things DONE... IT FEELS GOOD TO READ!
Thank you.
What a blessing that you were able to get your homestead setup and running well.
Great way to break it down - doing it in layers.
Thanks
Love. My first and immediate thought is water and energy.
💯 I have spent last couple of years doing all this.. still trying to just get the property infrastructure set up.. main issues and still learning… water purity, pest/ disease and preserving..
Awesome! Keep going.
Perfect advice. This is what I was looking for.
thank you for this. I'm just starting on this journey (but debt free so actually a little ahead of some). You have provided a lot to think about!
You're welcome. Glad it was helpful.
Great advice. Thanks so much. I'm like you. I make lists and I like to draw things out. 👍🏼
Great info! Your pup was entertaining! 😂 God Bless!
Thank you.
He is always running around like a maniac.
Trailer/rv/shed, Well, septic, solar, garden, chicken coup
Starting on a new to me property. 2 acres with house, two stalls, and a coop and run onsite. Need to learn how the sun moves and where the snow stays on the ground. Will build a greenhouse next to the house to extend my growing season. First time dealing with deer so I will have things to learn. I will take it slow with animals besides chickens. Mainly I want to build community in my new area. Thanks for the ideas about drawing things out as I have to deal with slopes.
Awesome. This is going to be a great adventure for you. Sounds like you have a great plan in place.
Great video! I’m a big list guy as well. We bought 30 acres almost 2 years ago. Lots of work to do. I have solar panels (26) that I want to put up as well and a greenhouse that I need to construct. Love your sound thought process! Keep up the great videos.
Thank you. I appreciate it David
When planning out a homestead, or even the layout of a highrise apartment, you should mentally picture what you want it to look like when it is finished.
Or, as the saying goes, imagine what you want written on your tombstone or in your obituary, and work backwards from there to make it happen. Same goes with planning the layout of your property.
One problem with Google Earth is that many of the images are, or can be rather old. I often use it to find a shipper or receiver's layout to know where the truck entrance is, if I've never been there before. About 10% of the time, it shows a cornfield. Find a friend with a drone that can take video and have them fly around the perimeter of the property, if there isn't a recent view. It might help if you know where the utilities are buried. You can get different colored carpenter's chalk (for plumb lines) to mark where they are, then get pics and transfer that to a plot plan.
As always, great advice.
If you hook a harness up to that dog and hook that up to some kind of driveshaft in the middle of your chicken coop, you could generate power or pump water or something. :)
Lol. For sure.
♥️Thank you for sharing your valuable time with us🕊🙏🏼
You're welcome
We are moving to our cabin that we have been building thru the years oct 1st , even though it’s not quite finished yet but high rent is forcing us out! Thank you for your video!🥰🥰
You're welcome. Glad you are moving out.
I want more land!!! I'm gardening, canning and growing veggie and fruit on large lot and I want to go BIG!
You'll get it. Keep your goal in front of you until it happens!
That's one hyper dog!😂 Thank you for the great advice!
He sure is!
You're welcome.
Yes water, food , But 3rd is a POWER source to Build your shelter...I.e. Best is a small SOLAR POWERED Tool SHED🌻🌅🗽
Glad I found your channel the other day. We're pretty much on the same page!
Awesome!
Great video and advice. Thanks.
Glad it was helpful!
On a farm or home stead it’s always a work in progress.
Absolutely
Great advice! It is easy to get overloaded. One of the best books on growing food I have found is The Intelligent Gardener by Steve Solomon. It really helped improve our soil. Much better production.
Thank you
Lots of good information but your dog going circles around the chicken coops makes me laugh. Good doggie!!
He is so crazy. He has worn an 8" deep moat around the coop.
All good advice, but I would add; look at your property during rainy weather, especially after a heavy rain. Where is the water flowing? Where is it pooling?
You may think that sunny spot is great for the garden, but if it turns into a swamp after rain... you either need to fix that somehow or choose another spot.
Good call! Yes absolutely. Additionally, I totally forgot to mention looking at the fema flood maps before even purchasing the land.
@@CountryLivingExperience FEMA flood maps are so far behind. And they don't take into account how heavy rains affect even minor elevation differences. There isn't much real elevation difference in my area of 8b, north of Houston. But it turns out that 85% of the run-off from the surrounding properties drains down to my pond, which is on one corner of the property. That means all that water comes across my pastures and through the drains that cut through. I had to adjust where I put my barn to not have to build a road with drainpipes across the drain to get to it. Which meant I had to build up a pad for it to be level.
@@lynnbetts4332 That is what I used when looking for my property. Is there something better?
@@CountryLivingExperience FEMA maps will give you general flooding issues based on past flooding, but the only way to know on your specific property is to watch. Preferably, observe your property for a year before deciding where everything goes if there is any question. I bought a place one time with a gentle slope. But it was during a dry time, and grass was overgrown. First big rain, and the oily seeps started. Dug a small pond to build up the area. When we had one of those 5" in one day rains, my back pasture had 15" deep water across it. Could not tell where my pond was. Another property was pretty flat, so I created a slight drain to funnel the water through to the front. Then, the neighbor built a berm/drive with too small of a drainpipe at the road, and all the water backed up on me.
This year I'm doing everything I can to obtain better paying work(since living off of $300/no will never get my daughter and I anywhere) so we can move closer to having an easy to move tiny house and then land, and out of HUD housing. Hopefully before everything collapses. Getting rid of credit card debt is step 2 after finding better paying work.
Yes, absolutely. Finding better paying work is certainly key.
@@CountryLivingExperience Lord willing I'll finally find something remote so I can ve home with my autistic daughter that doesn't require a degree. If it's meant to happen, it will. 🙏
Real estate is a good job to do without a degree.
@@CountryLivingExperience I'll look into it. Thanks for the tip!
This video hit the nail on the head for me. We are making preparations to move onto a 3 acre homestead we bought last summer as soon as we sell our current house. There is no house on the property but our son lives less than 1/4 mile away. We'll move into his basement until we can build a house. I've been working through everything you mentioned and came to the same conclusions. Retired engineer here , so I laid out the property on graph paper and cut out paper rectangles to scale for the house, other structures and the raised garden beds so I could move them around like paper dolls until I figured out the best locations. We have access to county water & a major river 1/4 mile away. We get 62" of rain so water catchment is high on the list. 100% agree that today "Go Big" is the best approach. In my case that means putting in as many raised beds as I can as soon as I can so we don't miss the growing season and the education that comes with it. I have the equipment for a 6kw off grid solar system in my son's out building. Will add more panels and batteries as the budget allows. I already have the other things you mentioned. I used the Next Door App to get recommendations for sources and have lined up a bulk compose supplier and free wood chips for my BTE garden.
Awesome! Glad it was helpful. Sounds like you are well on your way to a solid homestead.
Living in someone else's home is , sadly ,
NOT a plan. It will drag down your self esteem . The owners will lose patience quickly. Not good.
Get a shed, get a tent , do what you need to do , as an adult . It is not your son's responsibility to pay for your dream.
I'm not joking with this question but what exactly has gone down in price related to homesteading or anything else for that matter ??
Some things simply don't rise as fast or as high as other items in the same category.
Egg prices rose higher and faster in past 6 months compared to beef. Yes, beef has risen but not like eggs.
Same for "construction" related products. Wood prices have fallen quite a bit from their highs of 12-18 months ago but shingles are still priced almost as high as 12onths ago.
Prices overall might dip down to level they were 18-24 months ago but that'll be a fluke. Just look at gasoline prices. They're down from recent highs but they'll undoubtedly head back up
@@willbass2869 I envy you and how far along you are in regards to homesteading. It's a real blessing for sure !!
Chickens ,???
What is your dog doing?
Trying to herd my chickens.
6 Quail!
💖💖💖💖❤️👍❤️💖💖💖💖
Good information, but your dog makes me dizzy. LOL
Lol. Thanks.
Thanks, everyone needs to Acquire as many satoshis as possible while uneducated people still accept dollars for them 😉
7:01 please don't promote outdoor cats, they are detrimental to the environment, and also do not live very long when kept outdoors. There are several wildlife that will deal with rodents for you and don't require you to provide food.
Not trying to sound snobbish, but I am an avid wildlife lover and have seen firsthand the damage cats have on the ecosystem. And also the damage that the ecosystem can have on outdoor cats.
(And yes I have and do live on a farm, and we haven't ever had cats on the property that were ours, only cats that have been around here only caused problems.)
Great video otherwise
The last person to receive title to land under the homestead act was 1988. The homestead act expired in 1979. There have been no homesteading since. You have a rural property, not a homestead.
You must be new here. The word homestead is now commonly used for those who have property that are trying to be more self sufficient. That has been the case for some time now.
That may be true on the Federal level, but states, counties, and even local communities can have homestead laws. When I moved to Maine in 2001, it was my first home in Maine. I found out that the state still had a 'homestead' clause for such a situation that lessened the property tax by half.
Oh my....I can call my sister rehead..teacher..best friend..bumblebees or whatever...I can call myself..intelligent...saved..blessed...and loved..so I think I can call my property....my house..my happy place...my farm or maybe even my Homestead...I figure that's my call....not history or any body else's...I have a few names to call that....??????....
@@PrayereeFarm not really sure what you're getting at. The modern definition of Homesteading is to live as self sufficiently as possible, with minimal help from others, including growing and preserving food, generating your own power, etc.
The original Homestead Act was to incentivize people to settle land owned by the Federal government by giving deeds to land owned by the government to individuals in order to open the West. The Feds don't give land directly to individuals any more, but to the state(s) that land is in. The state can then issue deeds to corporations or individuals as they see fit. This happens a lot when military bases close.
Definitions of words can change as they are used in similar, yet different, ways colloquially. Or are you still using the term "electronic tabulating machine" when you speak of your computer? After all, that is what it was originally called, historically speaking.
@@zuzax1656 Yes. There are states that have what they call a homestead tax exemption. It’s a misnomer, but they do call it that. This is different than the homestead act of 1862 where land was given free to settle the west.