Anything can be taken away. If my skyscraper burned to the ground, I'd be left with nothing. No way to feed myself, no skills to help me recover from the disaster. Where as, if my hut on my acreage burned to the ground or got washed away, not only would I still have a way to get food and water, but I could, most likely, find natural ways to build a shelter, etc (if even only temporarily). Add to that, that most people who have land and fend for themselves are helpful and friendly. I would probably have neighbors I'd been trading with who would be able to help me recover where in my skyscraper loft, I probably never even knew any of the people there personally and, more than likely, they would be in the same situation after losing everything and wouldn't be able to help me anyway. A final point is, if we live a simpler life and prioritize things like growing food, preserving food, etc we usually have very little that attracts miscreants who want to take everything we own. If there was a disaster on my acreage, looters would be very disappointed with what they would find. :)
You did not mention the state and climate where the land is. State laws regarding many things, even in the middle of nowhere. are a problem. Is the land outside of any incorporated city or other governmental control? Can I shoot my guns on this land? Can I build a tall windmill for a well and electricity without BS from a nearby city? Can I grow cannabis on this land along with food crops, and 2 acres really isn't enough to raise crops and animals to feed more than maybe 2 people at best. I already live on a 1/4 acre in a rural area, and I know I could not raise enough food to survive on that, much less livestock for meat. All these types of questions aside, let's say I can do anything I want on this land as if it were a sovereign country. The main reason of wanting the land is not for myself, so much as for my children. They are grown, but it gives them a place to call home. And the last place I want to live now or when everything collapses is in a city full of unprepared hungry people.
I get your point... but when are people going to start saying "F" the state? I met a guy some years ago who went to ask the city if it was "legal" for him to replace a light switch in their home (it was illegal and he had to hire an electrician). I *never* ask for a permission slip from the government to do anything I want on my property and I live in a town. If they want to come and fine me... go for it! We have to change our mindset... all of us... and stop getting a permission slip from someone wearing a sewn on badge and carrying a clipboard. Again, I hear where you are coming from... but if we all started telling these people to "F" off... we would win.
I do agree with you in many ways. It has long been a favorite saying and practice of mine since I was a teenager, "it's easier (better, quicker) to beg forgiveness than to ask permission. And that's only if you get caught. I only ask if I deem that the authority in question would likely see and know what I did (fence in my front yard) and if that authority could cause me sufficient grief (cost, labor, jail) if I went ahead. Nowadays I think like that. And I had to have a permit to put in a fence of any kind, but they denied it because I drew in a fence in front too. This town of 500 people has an ordinance against that. But I am 63 now, not 17. And I've been thrown in jail enough times as a teenager to be a little more careful when I tell them to F off. I've always been more likely to do whatever I want to do regardless of the law, and just keep quite about it, pretend to be following the rules, while doing everything I can get away with. You just have to learn which rules you can ignore and get away with.
The hypothetical offered some info that does answer some your questions.
"You get gifted 2 acres of off grid undeveloped land (which you would “legally” “own”) along with 200,000.00$ USD 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨...
I also live on a 1/4 acre currently. While I personally am confident I could feed myself and my wife with what we grow, I engage in unusual stacking of functions and vertical cultivation methods (eg. we also grow our own mushrooms using free local materials in spaces outside and inside where plants would have more trouble producing abundant food and I train high productivity vines up fruit trees we have, along fences, brick walls and we grow food in our front yard as well).
I do remember a time when I was not confident I could feed two adults with this amount of space, then I decided to learn from those that called this land home before me and apply decentralized mycology simultaneously. When I changed my thinking to transcend the self imposed limitations that conventional gardening methodology had created in my mind, I started seeing ways to further optimize nutrient cycles and stack more functions in multiple dimensions (and we do not even have chickens, which is theoretically possible as well).
That said, we do not plan on staying here, as urban suburban living does not align with how we could best be of service to life on Earth at present and future generations. So while I am grateful we have a chance to steward (and legally "own") land at all (as many have less than us, or none at all) we will certainly be looking to steward a larger area so we can introduce more layered forest ecology into our space for providing food, medicine, educational spaces for classes/workshops, stabilizing hydrological cycles, building soil and providing habitat for our non human kin as well.
Thanks for sharing your experiences, challenges and concerns. I wish you many bountiful harvests and may your children's great grandchildren come to know your foresight and love through directly experiencing the enriched landscape you leave behind for them.
You're way more ambitious than I am. I'm disabled, can barely walk, with a cane or walker. I can plant trees, that's only one hole, I can dig it on my knees with a short military shovel. Vegetable gardens are another story. I am unable to till anything, so right now I have several carboard boxes flattened out with bricks on them and laying on the spot in my backyard I want to plant some berry plants this spring. The carboard kills the grass, and I will put soil and amendments on top of the cardboard in the spring to plant bare root blueberry and blackberry plants between my fence and shed, a perfect south facing spot and the white wall of the shed reflects the sun back on them. By the time the roots get to the cardboard, it will be almost gone, having become plant food and part of the soil. I am also financially challenged nowadays, living on disability payments from SS, so I have to scrounge sometimes. I have mulberry trees planted because I threw a couple of mulberries from a tree by a friends house in a pot last year, and they sprouted about 20 little trees, two of the best ones are in the ground now. I did spring for a couple of apple trees on sale in Nov, because we don't get freezes until late Dec, and got those in the ground before Thanksgiving. But that's pushing the limit's of my physical abilities now. I do want a couple of almond trees too, will also have to buy them. I may consider doing a chicken coop in another couple of years, I want to get trees going first, as I have no shade on my house. The land around here was used to raise hay before they made lots, and they never mowed without baling, no trees, so no topsoil, no organic content in the soil, just hard clay. So everything I plant the holes get backfilled with soil amendments, not the dirt I dug up until the top. If things collapse, I have lots of talents I can barter for other foods. I'm an amateur gunsmith, very knowledgeable on many things and survival skills, and I am building an alliance of like minded people who live around here (most people in rural TX are like me), and I have a very large inventory of weapons and ammunition I can also barter with. Weapons I also mean knives, axes, hand tools, things like that. and I collect rainwater, TX promotes that, I water my trees with it, and my indoor plants, pure clean rainwater. My roof can fill 4 55 gallon barrels in about 15 minutes of good rain. When the temps are going to get below freezing I make sure they are only about 2/3 full so they have room in case they freeze. I'm just so glad I have gotten out of the city and suburbs finally, and am living in the area I had planned to bug out to.
I am by myself, but I easily feed myself for at least half the year in a place with a 3 month long growing season and a garden that is only around 300 square feet (in ground and raised beds). I typically produce (in a good year) way more than I can keep up with. I've found it's a myth that we all need huge acreages to feed ourselves. I dry, can, and freeze my harvest for winter goodies. I've been saying for a long time... if everyone would at least grow just even *one* thing they eat, we could change the world.
The answer was very obvious for me no thinking involved. At present i live in a city and feel detached from nature and i miss it terribly. The sooner i can get back to nature the better. Without it we are or have become disconnected from ourselves, in many cases we no longer look after ourselves. At present i am on. a iourney to change this.
I've lived in cities as well. But, I was always able to find nature. I grew lots of flowers and vegetables in pots on my patio or balcony (depending on the apt I had) and those things attracted birds, bees, etc. I would find nature just sitting on the patio and watching bees on the plants. When I would drive to work, there were always a few parks and open lots where animals and birds had made their home. I'm just saying this to point out that cities don't take over nature... they just make it more difficult to see nature. But, it's still there... if we look for it. Good luck Jennifer!
You had me LOL in your disclaimer at the end! Your question reminds me of the funny sit-com Green Acres with Za Za Gabor. “I get allergic smelling hay! Darlin’ I love you, but give me Park Avenue!”
I’d say hands-down the 2 acres, and I’d like to be snarky about those who would choose otherwise. Maybe I’m feeling particularly generous these days, so I will say instead, how interesting those who find so much appeal in the artifices of man, and what great achievements we have thanks to those types. I love the ballet and old architecture and oil painting and maybe those arts require a mastery over nature that I don’t yet understand fully.
Yet, darlin’, if I can’t play in the dirt, I’m sure as dead, and don’t I know it!
The land. Actually the description of the life in the skyscraper, especially the ‘never leaving the city’ bit made me shudder a little and feel slightly sick. There’s no contest. It’s the dream. I dream of those two acres and a bit of money to put to hard work alongside my hands and those of those (!) who would support my endeavours. I think it’s the human way and most deeply yearn for such a life and connections, even if it takes them years to realise it. Indeed it is the life of “wanting for nothing” (material) that so often lies at the root of discontent and we know that those who pursue it almost universally end up empty vassals of depression and regret, seeking something they are struggling to find. We need work and purpose to be happy and to be healthy and we need connection to the land to be both also. So choosing the land option delivers on every front - basic needs and health on many levels. Add in faith and meaning, and a bunch of little feet trampling those acres, and there it is, life in all its beauty. And if many of us were doing it alongside each other - what a vision that would be. Healthy communities and families busy nurturing life. It’s a gorgeous image.
The land - I’d feel trapped in a skyscraper (I’ve been there, minus the credit card and opulence), without any sense of meaning to my life and so separated from the living world. On a plot, the possibilities are endless to create, to share, to build, to grow… Your body and mind are healthier. You tap into the natural part that is within each of us. You learn to not take more than you need. Nature doesn’t have infinite resources. You can’t learn that with a no-limit credit card. I’d probably get bored in a skyscraper anyway, haha.
I'd go for the homestead, but I could still enjoy myself trapped in a city with an unlimited budget. there's a lot of apartment-compatible plant options if you don't have to worry about cost
2 acres isn't enough. I have 8 right now, only 2.5 of which are really usable. I want 4 or 5 with water and irrigation rights (all of you looking to buy that is the most important thing to determine up front), and easy to fence. That enough space so I could run more sheep, chickens, ducks, and rabbits, and continue with my zebu cows (hoping to restart my dairying). I'd like to be able to raise 8 or so free-ranging pigs at a time in their own area, although I've done that many alongside cows and it's worked out well enough. I'd like bigger garden than a 10th of an acre. Still, I manage to raise about 30% of my veggies and most of my fruit, plus all of my meat. And just so you know, when I started 15 years ago, my soil was so compacted that the tractor roto-tiller bounced. Thanks to Mark Shepherd and Regenerative Agriculture, my soil now stores water and supports all of my critters.
Correct, 2 acres is not enough for one operation (run by 1 or 2 able people). The real challenge is to find a healthy sized community (200-400, I don’t know) that lives, works and shares 2 acres per person. Having 2 loved acres surrounded by people who do live in highrises most of their time but have carved up the countryside with million dollar plots, mowed, plowed, sprayed and jet-engine-leafblowed, oh and homes heated and ACed, while sitting empty for months! at a time , is less than a drop in the bucket in our ambition to heal the Earth.
Sorry for the downer, it could serve as a motivation to put up with a LOT OF HARD WORK one would be facing if one were to join a bunch of 2 acre plots into an organic whole. (I know I lived in intentional community 😢) It maybe easier to live in community with plants and animals on 2 acres than it is living with 200 people on 400 acres. I fear the latter is a prerequisite for the former to be of lasting effect ….?
I live in just about that sort of idealistic world. I'm surrounded by (mostly) like-minded people on similar-sized acreage, doing sort of the same thing, all by accident. (And with water in of all places Arizona.) One of the most important things I've learned over the last years is the value of an interactive community.
Off grid land ownership, with some cash to help one along. Wow! It's what I've wanted all my life. Nearly succeeded, but I didn't do necessary homework and it all went belly up. Now I can only hope for miracles (in which I firmly believe) as all my money is just about gone, and I'm not as fit as I was 20 years ago. I couldn't imagine living in a hi-rise; avoided cities as often as financially viable throughout my life.
If you change legally own to lawfully own then it's a no Brainerd. Legal ownership of land is what most people have in the US. I would go for allodial title.
I'm living in an intentional community on 4 acres after living 30 years in Los Angeles. Boy, am I glad I listened to my inner guidance. We are not yet self sufficient but our path is headed that way.
Grew up on 30 acres, raised two calves from bottle to slaughter a year for the first 15 years of my life. The only thing missing was chickens because my mom had an aversion to them due to growing up caring for them in an abusive situation. We had a large garden, hung our laundry out to dry in the summer, a wood burning furnace in our basement, ground our own feed from corn we gathered from fields after the combine came through. It was a lot of work but made me a better person. My husband will inherit 150 acres when his parents pass and our plan is to live this life once again. WITH chickens as there is nothing better than a farm fresh egg or raised chicken. Besides the beef that is. 😉
The land of course. To remain connected, with bare feet planted firmly each day in the life giving soil to what matters most, and steward that land into a sanctuary for the wild things and the wild humans among us, while also growing that two acres collaboratively with others of the same mindset until there’s a vast stretch of flourishing space honoring our place in the web. ❤️
Like the old song” Don’t fence me in”.
Neither my body nor my mind.
Air, Sky, trees, fields, water…
Green friends
Comforting…
Cities vibrate too much
Anything can be taken away. If my skyscraper burned to the ground, I'd be left with nothing. No way to feed myself, no skills to help me recover from the disaster. Where as, if my hut on my acreage burned to the ground or got washed away, not only would I still have a way to get food and water, but I could, most likely, find natural ways to build a shelter, etc (if even only temporarily). Add to that, that most people who have land and fend for themselves are helpful and friendly. I would probably have neighbors I'd been trading with who would be able to help me recover where in my skyscraper loft, I probably never even knew any of the people there personally and, more than likely, they would be in the same situation after losing everything and wouldn't be able to help me anyway. A final point is, if we live a simpler life and prioritize things like growing food, preserving food, etc we usually have very little that attracts miscreants who want to take everything we own. If there was a disaster on my acreage, looters would be very disappointed with what they would find. :)
You did not mention the state and climate where the land is. State laws regarding many things, even in the middle of nowhere. are a problem. Is the land outside of any incorporated city or other governmental control? Can I shoot my guns on this land? Can I build a tall windmill for a well and electricity without BS from a nearby city? Can I grow cannabis on this land along with food crops, and 2 acres really isn't enough to raise crops and animals to feed more than maybe 2 people at best. I already live on a 1/4 acre in a rural area, and I know I could not raise enough food to survive on that, much less livestock for meat. All these types of questions aside, let's say I can do anything I want on this land as if it were a sovereign country. The main reason of wanting the land is not for myself, so much as for my children. They are grown, but it gives them a place to call home. And the last place I want to live now or when everything collapses is in a city full of unprepared hungry people.
I get your point... but when are people going to start saying "F" the state? I met a guy some years ago who went to ask the city if it was "legal" for him to replace a light switch in their home (it was illegal and he had to hire an electrician). I *never* ask for a permission slip from the government to do anything I want on my property and I live in a town. If they want to come and fine me... go for it! We have to change our mindset... all of us... and stop getting a permission slip from someone wearing a sewn on badge and carrying a clipboard. Again, I hear where you are coming from... but if we all started telling these people to "F" off... we would win.
I do agree with you in many ways. It has long been a favorite saying and practice of mine since I was a teenager, "it's easier (better, quicker) to beg forgiveness than to ask permission. And that's only if you get caught. I only ask if I deem that the authority in question would likely see and know what I did (fence in my front yard) and if that authority could cause me sufficient grief (cost, labor, jail) if I went ahead. Nowadays I think like that. And I had to have a permit to put in a fence of any kind, but they denied it because I drew in a fence in front too. This town of 500 people has an ordinance against that. But I am 63 now, not 17. And I've been thrown in jail enough times as a teenager to be a little more careful when I tell them to F off. I've always been more likely to do whatever I want to do regardless of the law, and just keep quite about it, pretend to be following the rules, while doing everything I can get away with. You just have to learn which rules you can ignore and get away with.
The hypothetical offered some info that does answer some your questions.
"You get gifted 2 acres of off grid undeveloped land (which you would “legally” “own”) along with 200,000.00$ USD 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨...
...𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝/𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐬 𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐨𝐧."
I also live on a 1/4 acre currently. While I personally am confident I could feed myself and my wife with what we grow, I engage in unusual stacking of functions and vertical cultivation methods (eg. we also grow our own mushrooms using free local materials in spaces outside and inside where plants would have more trouble producing abundant food and I train high productivity vines up fruit trees we have, along fences, brick walls and we grow food in our front yard as well).
I do remember a time when I was not confident I could feed two adults with this amount of space, then I decided to learn from those that called this land home before me and apply decentralized mycology simultaneously. When I changed my thinking to transcend the self imposed limitations that conventional gardening methodology had created in my mind, I started seeing ways to further optimize nutrient cycles and stack more functions in multiple dimensions (and we do not even have chickens, which is theoretically possible as well).
That said, we do not plan on staying here, as urban suburban living does not align with how we could best be of service to life on Earth at present and future generations. So while I am grateful we have a chance to steward (and legally "own") land at all (as many have less than us, or none at all) we will certainly be looking to steward a larger area so we can introduce more layered forest ecology into our space for providing food, medicine, educational spaces for classes/workshops, stabilizing hydrological cycles, building soil and providing habitat for our non human kin as well.
Thanks for sharing your experiences, challenges and concerns. I wish you many bountiful harvests and may your children's great grandchildren come to know your foresight and love through directly experiencing the enriched landscape you leave behind for them.
You're way more ambitious than I am. I'm disabled, can barely walk, with a cane or walker. I can plant trees, that's only one hole, I can dig it on my knees with a short military shovel. Vegetable gardens are another story. I am unable to till anything, so right now I have several carboard boxes flattened out with bricks on them and laying on the spot in my backyard I want to plant some berry plants this spring. The carboard kills the grass, and I will put soil and amendments on top of the cardboard in the spring to plant bare root blueberry and blackberry plants between my fence and shed, a perfect south facing spot and the white wall of the shed reflects the sun back on them. By the time the roots get to the cardboard, it will be almost gone, having become plant food and part of the soil. I am also financially challenged nowadays, living on disability payments from SS, so I have to scrounge sometimes. I have mulberry trees planted because I threw a couple of mulberries from a tree by a friends house in a pot last year, and they sprouted about 20 little trees, two of the best ones are in the ground now. I did spring for a couple of apple trees on sale in Nov, because we don't get freezes until late Dec, and got those in the ground before Thanksgiving. But that's pushing the limit's of my physical abilities now. I do want a couple of almond trees too, will also have to buy them. I may consider doing a chicken coop in another couple of years, I want to get trees going first, as I have no shade on my house. The land around here was used to raise hay before they made lots, and they never mowed without baling, no trees, so no topsoil, no organic content in the soil, just hard clay. So everything I plant the holes get backfilled with soil amendments, not the dirt I dug up until the top. If things collapse, I have lots of talents I can barter for other foods. I'm an amateur gunsmith, very knowledgeable on many things and survival skills, and I am building an alliance of like minded people who live around here (most people in rural TX are like me), and I have a very large inventory of weapons and ammunition I can also barter with. Weapons I also mean knives, axes, hand tools, things like that. and I collect rainwater, TX promotes that, I water my trees with it, and my indoor plants, pure clean rainwater. My roof can fill 4 55 gallon barrels in about 15 minutes of good rain. When the temps are going to get below freezing I make sure they are only about 2/3 full so they have room in case they freeze. I'm just so glad I have gotten out of the city and suburbs finally, and am living in the area I had planned to bug out to.
I am by myself, but I easily feed myself for at least half the year in a place with a 3 month long growing season and a garden that is only around 300 square feet (in ground and raised beds). I typically produce (in a good year) way more than I can keep up with. I've found it's a myth that we all need huge acreages to feed ourselves. I dry, can, and freeze my harvest for winter goodies. I've been saying for a long time... if everyone would at least grow just even *one* thing they eat, we could change the world.
The answer was very obvious for me no thinking involved. At present i live in a city and feel detached from nature and i miss it terribly. The sooner i can get back to nature the better. Without it we are or have become disconnected from ourselves, in many cases we no longer look after ourselves. At present i am on. a iourney to change this.
I've lived in cities as well. But, I was always able to find nature. I grew lots of flowers and vegetables in pots on my patio or balcony (depending on the apt I had) and those things attracted birds, bees, etc. I would find nature just sitting on the patio and watching bees on the plants. When I would drive to work, there were always a few parks and open lots where animals and birds had made their home. I'm just saying this to point out that cities don't take over nature... they just make it more difficult to see nature. But, it's still there... if we look for it. Good luck Jennifer!
Of course the land, though 5 acres bordering forest would be ideal.
You had me LOL in your disclaimer at the end! Your question reminds me of the funny sit-com Green Acres with Za Za Gabor. “I get allergic smelling hay! Darlin’ I love you, but give me Park Avenue!”
I’d say hands-down the 2 acres, and I’d like to be snarky about those who would choose otherwise. Maybe I’m feeling particularly generous these days, so I will say instead, how interesting those who find so much appeal in the artifices of man, and what great achievements we have thanks to those types. I love the ballet and old architecture and oil painting and maybe those arts require a mastery over nature that I don’t yet understand fully.
Yet, darlin’, if I can’t play in the dirt, I’m sure as dead, and don’t I know it!
BTW it was Eva Gabor
The land. Actually the description of the life in the skyscraper, especially the ‘never leaving the city’ bit made me shudder a little and feel slightly sick. There’s no contest. It’s the dream. I dream of those two acres and a bit of money to put to hard work alongside my hands and those of those (!) who would support my endeavours. I think it’s the human way and most deeply yearn for such a life and connections, even if it takes them years to realise it. Indeed it is the life of “wanting for nothing” (material) that so often lies at the root of discontent and we know that those who pursue it almost universally end up empty vassals of depression and regret, seeking something they are struggling to find. We need work and purpose to be happy and to be healthy and we need connection to the land to be both also. So choosing the land option delivers on every front - basic needs and health on many levels. Add in faith and meaning, and a bunch of little feet trampling those acres, and there it is, life in all its beauty. And if many of us were doing it alongside each other - what a vision that would be. Healthy communities and families busy nurturing life. It’s a gorgeous image.
Oh - love the caveat at the end - made me laugh out loud! 🤣🤣🤣💖
The land - I’d feel trapped in a skyscraper (I’ve been there, minus the credit card and opulence), without any sense of meaning to my life and so separated from the living world. On a plot, the possibilities are endless to create, to share, to build, to grow… Your body and mind are healthier. You tap into the natural part that is within each of us. You learn to not take more than you need. Nature doesn’t have infinite resources. You can’t learn that with a no-limit credit card. I’d probably get bored in a skyscraper anyway, haha.
I'd go for the homestead, but I could still enjoy myself trapped in a city with an unlimited budget. there's a lot of apartment-compatible plant options if you don't have to worry about cost
2 acres isn't enough. I have 8 right now, only 2.5 of which are really usable. I want 4 or 5 with water and irrigation rights (all of you looking to buy that is the most important thing to determine up front), and easy to fence. That enough space so I could run more sheep, chickens, ducks, and rabbits, and continue with my zebu cows (hoping to restart my dairying). I'd like to be able to raise 8 or so free-ranging pigs at a time in their own area, although I've done that many alongside cows and it's worked out well enough. I'd like bigger garden than a 10th of an acre. Still, I manage to raise about 30% of my veggies and most of my fruit, plus all of my meat. And just so you know, when I started 15 years ago, my soil was so compacted that the tractor roto-tiller bounced. Thanks to Mark Shepherd and Regenerative Agriculture, my soil now stores water and supports all of my critters.
Correct, 2 acres is not enough for one operation (run by 1 or 2 able people). The real challenge is to find a healthy sized community (200-400, I don’t know) that lives, works and shares 2 acres per person. Having 2 loved acres surrounded by people who do live in highrises most of their time but have carved up the countryside with million dollar plots, mowed, plowed, sprayed and jet-engine-leafblowed, oh and homes heated and ACed, while sitting empty for months! at a time , is less than a drop in the bucket in our ambition to heal the Earth.
Sorry for the downer, it could serve as a motivation to put up with a LOT OF HARD WORK one would be facing if one were to join a bunch of 2 acre plots into an organic whole. (I know I lived in intentional community 😢) It maybe easier to live in community with plants and animals on 2 acres than it is living with 200 people on 400 acres. I fear the latter is a prerequisite for the former to be of lasting effect ….?
I live in just about that sort of idealistic world. I'm surrounded by (mostly) like-minded people on similar-sized acreage, doing sort of the same thing, all by accident. (And with water in of all places Arizona.) One of the most important things I've learned over the last years is the value of an interactive community.
I thought 55 would be plenty. Nope!
Oh, but you just made my morning. The possibilities are just endless.
Yup, you need a mule ( maybe some ag subsidies)
OR!: 27 FRIENDS
Off grid land ownership, with some cash to help one along. Wow! It's what I've wanted all my life. Nearly succeeded, but I didn't do necessary homework and it all went belly up. Now I can only hope for miracles (in which I firmly believe) as all my money is just about gone, and I'm not as fit as I was 20 years ago. I couldn't imagine living in a hi-rise; avoided cities as often as financially viable throughout my life.
Ho-hum, but then miracles do happen!
Concrete jungle not for me. My soul would die surrounded by all that.
If you change legally own to lawfully own then it's a no Brainerd. Legal ownership of land is what most people have in the US. I would go for allodial title.
Interesting, could you please elaborate on how you distinguish between "legally" and "lawfully" in this context?
I'm living in an intentional community on 4 acres after living 30 years in Los Angeles. Boy, am I glad I listened to my inner guidance. We are not yet self sufficient but our path is headed that way.
Grew up on 30 acres, raised two calves from bottle to slaughter a year for the first 15 years of my life. The only thing missing was chickens because my mom had an aversion to them due to growing up caring for them in an abusive situation. We had a large garden, hung our laundry out to dry in the summer, a wood burning furnace in our basement, ground our own feed from corn we gathered from fields after the combine came through. It was a lot of work but made me a better person. My husband will inherit 150 acres when his parents pass and our plan is to live this life once again. WITH chickens as there is nothing better than a farm fresh egg or raised chicken. Besides the beef that is. 😉
The land of course. To remain connected, with bare feet planted firmly each day in the life giving soil to what matters most, and steward that land into a sanctuary for the wild things and the wild humans among us, while also growing that two acres collaboratively with others of the same mindset until there’s a vast stretch of flourishing space honoring our place in the web. ❤️