Whoever designed their website does nice work....very professional.

However, to calling what they are doing "homesteading" is kind of a stretch.

IMO and experience, Ben's thinking is more realistic on all points.

How did the neighbors feel about you guys eating "woofs". Gives hot dogs a whole new meaning...

I couldn't help myself.

Oops, my mistake. I meant to say "meows".

-Blast

Thanks for the link. I'm always interested in other people's experiments in this direction. Makes me feel less of a lone wolf. Keeping a time- and labour- intensive enterprise like this going takes a community of like-minded people to help, admire and encourage.

I have urban friends who want to dabble with this sort of thing, but when I look at their places, they have bit elms lining the streets and privacy fences in their back yards. Translation: not enough direct sunlight for food production.

On the other hand, there's that nice, open utility corridor just down the street, and if they could get permission from the city ...

I know that the newer advances in solar, hydro, and wind energy might reduce or eliminate the need for a woodlot, but generally, the further north you live, the bigger your woodlot needs to be. I've read that 25 acres is about the minimum a family of four would need to provide needed heat year-round.

I believe they are called "wolves" or "coyotes" depending on the specific breed...

I do agree with the rest of your post... We are setting up our 0.2 acre with a dwarf-fuji apple and a dwarf Cox's Orange Pippin apple tree (that was hard to track down) they cross pollinate and their crops over lap just a little so we have a longer period of apple harvest vs. a ton all at once. We also picked up an orchard mason bee box to help with the pollination (works better than "miracle grow"). The garden is small right now - only 12 foot by 35 feet but it will grow over time as we get the hang of doing it our selves.

I have a bunch of rhubarb growing along the side of the house we never use - it loves it and I don't have to mow there now.

Planted a bunch of herbs in the mow strip instead of grass because the CC&Rs say we need a 'lawn' but do not specify exactly what a lawn is.

We are not self-suff. with this set up but now we buy roughly 15-20% of what we used to. (Oh we also hunt/fish/crab/clam too)

Some of our neighbors have a handful of chickens as pets... they don't like the eggs so they give them to us. We give them the green compost for the chickens to eat.. so it balances out.

I like the way you think! Any response from the HOA?

-Blast

"Some of our neighbors have a handful of chickens as pets... they don't like the eggs..."

Let me guess... the yolks are too yellow and they don't look insipid enough, like store eggs.

Sue

Yeah, and they don't TASTE insipid enough, either. I mean, these eggs have FLAVOUR. Eggs aren't supposed to have flavour, right? What's next, tomatoes with flavour? Really, who wants that?

(This from Doug who grew up on farm eggs and has a closely guarded source for same.)

I've seen the website and enjoyed it. I don't think that a family with less than 5 acres could be self-sufficient. However, it certainly makes sense to take small steps reduce total dependence upon society. One could always acquire and practice useful skills required to greater self-sufficiency. Besides, if I work harder with my outside skills, I could burn off more calories and lose weight in the process.

Just a dumb question. How much square feet in 1/5 of an acre?