Wow, talk about taking the wind out of my sails! You're right of course, and it wouldn't be fair of me not to better explain myself.
When I say "farm," it's a considerable exaggeration. It remains to be seen how much of a considerable exaggeration it actually is.
For starters, I only have twenty acres of field. That would be a pretty small farm, but I think it would still qualify. I've got another 70 acres of forest, and I could clear that and potentially farm it too, but it'll probably never happen.
Then, there's the fact that I am not looking at turning my "farm" into a business. It doesn't need to turn a profit in order to be successful. In fact, I don't need to grow more food than my wife and I will eat. If we do, it will likely be when I'm ready to start bartering food for . . . for other things. That day isn't here yet.
So, if I only need enough food for two people, it's not really a farm, right? Agreed. It's a GARDEN. That's how it will start. In fact, my plan for the next two or three years is to have a 100' x 100' Victory Garden and to follow the guidance given in Crockett's Victory Garden to the letter. The book was published in parallel with a PBS series based in Boston, so I figure most of its week-by-week guidance should apply to my property as well. My land is less than 100 miles from Boston.
Only after I know what plants I can grow and what vegetables I actually like will I begin expanding the thing, next focusing on learning to smoke, can and dehydrate, with the goal of getting ten years worth of food set aside.
During all of this, I'll be planting fruit and nut trees, hopefully getting a small orchard growing on most of the land. That should keep me busy for five or ten years.
Yes, I will have animals, but it would be another exaggeration to refer to them as "livestock." I'm thinking of starting with chickens and rabbits, then goats and sheep. I'd like to eventually slaughter one cow and pig per year, which probably means raising two of each in any given year (I hear that cows should be two years old before they're butchered.) Pigs too? I don't know.
A small dog for the house. Two large dogs that would live outside. Some outdoor cats to keep the mice away.
And that's about it.
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