7 Essential Ingredients Of A Great Homestead Property

Over the years we’ve seen all kinds of country properties, some that worked well and others that didn’t.

During that time a list of essentials has become clear – things you simply must have to make life work on a homestead property.

These are what we refer to as “The Big 7”. Here they are…

#1 – Acreage

When we first started looking for country property, I was thinking five acres would do it. That seemed like a lot to me. It was huge compared to where we were living.

Nevertheless, The first property we ended up purchasing was 20 acres, and I thought, “This is huge; this is much more than we need.”

But then I remember the morning that Laura came to get me. She pointed out the window, and there we could see pine trees falling. I walked out to the boundary of our property and had a nice chat with the logger who was working there.

Turned out the neighbor was logging around the borders of our property. All of a sudden, 20 acres seemed to get very small.

Something like that can certainly change your perspective.

So what is a good size in terms of the ideal acreage for your homestead?

It’s useful to consider this question in light of the potential for the family farm – also known as a small market garden. Five acres of agricultural land is optimal for…

• being profitable for providing enough land that you could actually make a living with it
• but yet still small enough that a family could manage the land.

But that’s just taking into consideration the agriculture issue.

What else do we need to think about?

Further in this article we’re going to talk about timber, and I’m going to be recommending that you go for a piece of property that has at least five acres of timber. I’ll explain why when we get to that.

So with 5 acres of agricultural land and 5 acres of timber, that means you’ll need at least 10 acres.

Now for some, that might seem like a leap. But I want to recommend it to you. It’s really not too much.

#2 – Access

Next on my list is Access.

I want the access to be less than ideal—at least for the average person. If it’s too easy to get there, then it’s too accessible to people that I don’t want getting there.

So I want it to be challenging, but I also need it to be realistic. There are some people who get pretty ambitious when it comes to access, and there are folks who can manage some very challenging situations.

For example, I have friends who live in a very rugged area. In fact, during the winter months, nobody plows the road and so they have to ride snowmobiles whenever they need to go to town.

That’s not for the faint of heart, and it’s certainly not something that I would recommend for most beginners.

You need to have an idea of what it’s like to have moderately-challenging access before you get yourself into a situation like that.

Evaluating the access issue can be a little tricky, so don’t let it fool you.

A road can look nice and packed during the summer, but in the spring, there are places where it might be nearly impossible to drive on. It all depends on how things were plowed.

It also depends on the season – it depends on how much moisture got into the ground before freezing.

In areas where there’s lots of snow and where it gets very cold, you’ve got to keep in mind that some of your most challenging issues surrounding access to your property are going to be happening not in the middle of winter, but actually in early spring.

Locals often refer to this part of the year as ‘spring break up’ or ‘mud season.’

When the ground freezes very deeply, it can become extremely soft when things start to thaw out. So it’s very important that you know what kind of access you’re going to have – year around.

But how would you determine that which any degree of certainty?

Well, you need to talk to people who live in the area, preferably people who use the same road, so that you can have an accurate idea of what it’s going be like at its worst.

As I just pointed out, your greatest concern is probably mud season, but you still do have to find out about winter access as well.

Here are some questions to consider…

• Does the road remain open all winter?
• Does somebody plow the road
• If so, what are the arrangements for that?

There are a couple of neighbors that keep our road open. We all just chip in and help them do that. They have the equipment to do it and it works out well. It gives them some work during the winter, and the rest of us are all happy to chip in because it helps everyone.

So, these are important things that you need to know ahead of time.

The general rule for access is that a north sloping access road, in other words, an access road on the north slope of the hillside is more likely going to be problematic than a south slope or even a west slope.

An east slope can be bad, too, much like a north slope. That’s because it might get only a little sunlight in the morning during the winter months, and remain in the shade the rest of the day which means it could be very cold and icy. Typically, these areas are the last to thaw out in cold climates.

So I prefer south or west sloping access roads.

Of course there are always exceptions. Our last country property actually had a north slope access, and most of the time it worked out okay. For whatever reason, it was not a problem, but it’s something that you need to be aware of and you need to make an accurate assessment.

It’s definitely something that’s easier to address before you get the property rather than afterward.

Our access road is 1.4 miles off the main dirt/gravel road that runs up our little valley.

Another thing that you’ll want to keep in mind is that roads like ours can tear a vehicle up if you don’t drive them carefully.

That also means it can take a bit longer to make the trip, but I love it. I enjoy the scenery, and so the extra time doesn’t bother me at all.

By the way, sometimes the access to a piece of property may involve crossing another piece of property. You need to know that in advance.

In most cases you’ll want to have deeded access to your property. I say in most cases because there might be some exceptions.

For example, it’s pretty much impossible to get deeded access to cross U.S. National Forest land. However, the Forest Service will give you a permit however to travel over their roads, and this can work out fine.

#3 – Water

Next on our list is water – something that’s absolutely essential. There are two basic water source types –

• Underground (Well)
• Surface (Spring, Creek or Pond)

Generally, surface water is ideal because it takes the least amount of energy to access that water.

Of the various types of surface water, springs have some real advantages because you can enclose them at the source to protect the water from contamination.

Whatever your water source is, one of the most important questions you must answer is – “How much water do you have?”

I can’t overemphasize the importance of this. More than any other issue, I see too many cases where people have not done their homework here and found themselves in a world of hurt later on because they didn’t have enough water.

So you need to determine the amount of water, or yield of your water source whether it’s a well, creek, spring, etc..

And you’ll want to evaluate that yield in terms of the various seasons.

In other words, you want to know how much water you’ll have during the driest parts of the year. Creeks and springs can dry up during the summer months.

Sometimes, you really have to dig to get the answer to this question. You may have to ask people in the area. But make sure you do your best research on this point.

Now of course, the very best would be to actually be there during the driest part of the year. For most folks that’s not practical so you have to rely on research.

First, if it’s a well, get a copy of the well log which is typically filed when a well is drilled.

Of course you’re going to ask the person selling the property, (they may not tell you the truth) but you’ll also want to ask people in the area about their water source, and whether or not they’ve heard anything about the water source on the property you’re looking at.

I would also recommend talking to a local well driller to learn about typical yields for that area and if they happen to know anything about the particular property you’re looking at.

When it comes to yield, what do you need?

I recommend you don’t accept anything less than 5 gallons a minute. I understand, if you do the math and determine how much water you use in your home, you’re going to realize you can get along with much less than five gallons a minute. The problem is, agriculture can consume an enormous amount of water. So I really believe that you shouldn’t accept anything less than that.

I can’t stress the importance of this issue since not having enough water can turn what would otherwise be your country living dream into a nightmare.

#4 – Soil

For agriculture, the ideal soil will be sandy loam.

Loam is the term used to describe the proportions of three basic ingredients in soil – sand, silt, and clay.

• Clay is the soil that’s the finest, or smallest particles.
• Silt particles are a little bit larger, and…
• Sand a little larger still.

We’d like to see the mix of those three a little bit heavier on the sand side than on the clay side.

The good news is that it’s very simple to evaluate the soil on a property that you’re looking at to see what proportions of those three components are present.

For starters, do the “squeeze test” on your soil.

To do this, simply go out into the area where you would most likely have your garden, and dig up some dirt – about 8-10 inches deep. Then, grab a handful of this soil and squeeze it. If it’s too sandy, it won’t be able to hold it’s shape at all. If there’s too much clay, then it won’t break apart very easily, or depending on how wet it is, you might be able to push your finger into it, creating a dimple.

What you’d like to see ideally, is the soil sort of sticking together a little bit, and then as you squeeze it, it should just crumble apart, but not really lose its shape entirely.

An even better test is to take a quart jar, fill it up half full with soil, then fill the jar up with water and shake it thoroughly. After you let it set for 12-24 hours, you’ll be able to see the soil settle out forming layers in the jar.

You can then, by observation, determine the approximate proportions of each of those three – sand, silt and clay.

This is a much more precise way of evaluating your soil.

Remember, what you’d ideally like to see are roughly equal proportions of each of the three major soil components, with perhaps a slightly higher percentage of sand. That would be what we would refer to as sandy loam.

Naturally, if the soil is too far to the one side or the other—I’m talking about too far on the side of sand, or too far on the side of clay—this can be very difficult to remediate.

When I’m initially looking at a country property, I’m not so worried about a very detailed nutrient analysis of the soil, because I can generally amend it to deal with nutrient deficiencies, at least up to a point.

But, if it’s extremely heavy clay, or if it’s just very sandy, that can be difficult if not impossible to deal with.

#5 – Slope

Next, let’s talk about ‘slope.’

It may be that you’ll find a piece of land that is flat—and that’s fine.

However, a little bit of slope is actually better, at least if it’s sloping in the right direction, and by “better” I mean that it’s better for agriculture.

The right direction would be a southern slope or even better, a southwestern slope.

What you want to avoid is a northern, or perhaps, even worse, an eastern sloping property. In that case, the land will be sloping away from the sun for most of the day, which can be very difficult for growing food.

Also, it takes longer for the snow to melt and for the ground to thaw out on a northern slope.

(Note: This pertains to properties in the northern hemisphere. For properties in the the southern hemisphere, the ideal slope, in terms of agriculture would be a north or northwestern slope.)

There is one other important consideration when we talk about slope.

If you have a significant amount of land on a piece of property that is very steep, that is not necessarily a problem. For instance, if we’re talking about forested land in a steep area, that can be okay, but it needs to come into play when you’re doing your negotiations.

In fact, this actually could be to your benefit because if there’s a significant percentage of the property that is steep, it’s considered “unusable” in terms of building without doing major excavation.

Of course steep land is not great for agriculture, either. This “less usable” land, can bring the price down, so you can actually use that to your favor in your negotiations.

Perhaps this goes without saying, but in determining the direction of the slope, it’s a good idea when you go out to look at land to take a good compass with you.

Not that you have to be super precise about the exact direction of north and south, but it’s surprising how easy it is to lose your bearings and not get the direction right, or at least not close enough to be satisfied that you’re sure of the direction of the slope.

#6 – Timber

Next on our list is timber or forest. This is a valuable resource for two reasons. First, timber provides privacy. You can’t always guarantee that you’re not going to have neighbors within some reasonable distance to where you’re at, but you can have a buffer—and timber provides that buffer.

The other very valuable reason for timber is for firewood. That’s how we predominantly heat our home during the winter months. Wood heat is very affordable and sustainable, but you need to have enough timber for it to actually be sustainable.

Now I don’t like cutting down green, living trees, and they don’t typically burn well anyway. So how much forest would you need so that you could sustainably heat your home with wood – specifically just the dead wood?

You need a minimum of five acres. This can vary a bit based on the density of the forest and the type of trees, but in general 5 acres of forest should provide enough dead wood to heat a typical home for a family of four.

Of course, more would be better, but that gives you a starting point when trying to determine your needs.

Remember that we’ve already talked about the need for at least 5 acres of agricultural land. So with this in mind, you can see why 10 acres is really the minimum a family would need to provide for for both agricultural and heat.

Of course, once you get over 10 acres, it’s easier to make sure that you have that 5 acre minimum of timber—and maybe even more.

What about the type of wood? Every part of the country has certain wood types that are generally better for providing heat.

In our area, that happens to be tamarack. However, we burn a lot of pine because it’s easier to get. We don’t have much tamarack within easy reach of us, but there’s lots of pine. So you may not have the best burring wood, but could still make what you have work for you.

Keep in mind that certain types of wood also burn cleaner than others. For example, because we burn quite a bit of pine – which happens to leave more creosote in the chimney or stove pipe – we have to clean our stove pipe more often. That’s not necessarily a problem, it’s just something to be aware of.

#7 – Neighbors

Finally, we have the issue of neighbors, and this is a very important issue.

If I’m going to buy a piece of property, I prefer not to see my neighbors from my home. Actually, I’d like to not even see my neighbors from the property at all.

That doesn’t mean I don’t have neighbors. It’s very difficult to find a property where you don’t have neighbors, but you want a buffer, you want privacy.

There are some other factors to consider as well when it comes to neighboring properties to a property you may be looking at.

You want to find out who those property owners are. In fact, you want to know this even if there isn’t a home on that property.

If a logging company owns the property, are they going to come in and take trees out? When did they last log? If they logged recently, then they may not be coming back for 20 or 30, even 50 years, but you’d like to try and ascertain that.

There are several ways to find out who the neighbors are. If you’re using a realtor, the realtor can help you find out. But you can also go down to the county assessor’s office and look up the parcel map and find out who owns the property surrounding a property that you’re looking at.

Remember, there’s no perfect property…

Of course, there is no such thing as a “perfect” property.

What we want to do is find the best in terms of these seven factors we’ve looked at in this article. We want to find a property that “scores” well, if you will, using these seven ingredients and ask yourself about each of them with every single property that you look at.

A property with these seven ingredients will be the most suitable and provide you with many happy years of successful homesteading.