What Kind Of Small Farm Is Right For You? So, you're planning a small farm, but you're not sure if you want to have a hobby farm, a homestead, or a small farm business. What do you do? How do you decide on the best fit? Consider Your Goals The first thing to think about is, what do you want out of your small farm? For example, are you an entrepreneurial type who gets warm and glowy when you envision creating value-added farm products and selling them at farmers markets, or growing vegetables on acres of farmland and selling them in bulk to restaurants? Set Goals for Your Small Farm Hobby Farming Hobby farming is for people who have another primary source of income and want to have a farm that doesn't have to produce income or support them by providing for most or all of their needs. Hobby farmers can put a lot of money into their hobby farms, or they can run them more like a homestead in that they want to minimize how much money they use as an input. How to Start a Hobby Farm A Small Farm Business How to Start a Small Farm Business
Sustainable home can be built in four days using only a screwdriver French architectural firm Multipod Studio recently unveiled a new sustainable house prototype that's lightweight, recyclable, and promises to be an inexpensive purchase and extremely efficient to run. The suitably-named Pop-Up House also boasts another notable selling-point: all that's required to assemble it is four day's patience and a standard electric screwdriver. View all Pop-Up House measures a total of 150 sq m (1,614 sq ft), and the interior features a large combined open space that contains kitchen, dining and living room areas. Elsewhere in the home are two bathrooms, a master bedroom, two additional bedrooms, an office, and a terrace. The structure is simple to build and comprises a spruce wood frame, laminate veneer wooden floor, and expanded polystyrene insulation blocks, and everything is held together using wood screws. At present, Pop-Up House is still in the prototype stage, so finer details on the home are lacking. Source: Pop-Up House Share
How To Start Homesteading You might live in the city or the country. Your homesteading plans might be pie-in-the-sky dreams or you may be ready to start right this minute. Wherever you are right now, you should know that you can take a step toward your homesteading dreams today. It can be hard to figure out where to start. Start Now You can start homesteading right now, today. Pick one or two projects that you can start in the next month or so. If that seems like too much, start smaller. Read and Learn Besides starting a small project or two this season, take the time to read up about homesteading skills. List Your Priorities Once you've soaked up as much information as possible about how to homestead, you'll be itching to start planning your homestead. Find a Homestead For many of us, finding that "place in the country" is a key part of homesteading. Remember that you don't need 40 acres, or even 10, to have a homestead. How to Buy Land for a Homestead or Small Farm Plan the First Year
Flat-pack NOMAD Micro Home promises inexpensive off-grid living Canadian company NOMAD Homes has produced a new concept micro-home that measures just 100 sq ft (9.2 sq m), ships as a flat-pack, can operate off-grid, and is said to be easy-to-build. The firm has turned to Indiegogo to raise funds for manufacturing, and eventually intends to sell the base version of the home for under US$25,000. View all The micro-dwelling shoe-horns a living area, kitchen, bathroom, and upstairs sleeping area into its small physical footprint, and is offered in three versions, with included features depending on price. The base model sports kitchen cabinets, shelving, plenty of storage space, laminate flooring, lighting, and prewired electrical outlets. Construction materials include metal structural insulated panels and galvanized metal siding, with baseboards and trim made from MDF. The NOMAD Micro Home is currently the subject of an Indiegogo campaign. If you're so inclined, the video below features the obligatory pitch. Source: NOMAD Micro Homes via Indiegogo
Nine Things to Consider When Looking For Your Survival House image from Seattle Municipal Archives You don’t need a bunker in a remote location in Idaho or Montana to have a home that is able to withstand an emergency situation. However, there are a few things you’ll want to consider when choosing where to live as your home is an often overlooked but important part of your preparedness efforts. If you’re looking to relocate (or just want to run your current location through a survival checkup), here are a few important things to consider that affect the security and survivability of your home. 1. 2. 3. Weather hazards can encompass large areas, so are sometimes difficult to avoid. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Bonus #10. My home is my castle (albeit a very small castle). Casa GG displays a considered approach to energy-efficiency Spain's Alventosa Morell Arquitectes recently completed work on a prefabricated energy-efficient residence that's located in the Montseny mountain range, to the north-west of Barcelona. Named Casa GG, the home was built in just four months – however this fact belies the impressive effort that went into studying how best to minimize energy-use before construction even began. View all Measuring 111 sq m (1,200 sq ft) of usable floor space, the single-story Casa GG is a simple rural dwelling that sits nicely amongst the surrounding trees. Inside, the house sports a plain interior finish. Before ground was broken on the project, Alventosa Morell Arquitectes liaised with the Meteorological Service of Catalonia in order to gain detailed information on local weather conditions. The house sports a rainwater catchment system and solar hot water system, while hand-operated aluminum venetian blinds cut down the solar heat gain from the windows in summer months. Source: Alventosa Morell Arquitectes
Building Sustainable Farms, Ranches and Communities This guide is written for anyone seeking help from federal programs to foster innovative enterprises in agriculture and forestry in the United States. Specifically, the guide addresses program resources in community development; sustainable land management; and value-added and diversified agriculture and forestry. Thus, it can help farmers, entrepreneurs, community developers, conservationists, and many other individuals, as well as private and public organizations, both for-profit and not-for-profit. The guide can also help USDA and other agency employees become aware and take better advantage of the enormous array of federal programs and resources available to their clients in supporting agricultural and forestry innovations. Website design and maintenance as well as distribution of hard copies of this guide are conducted by the Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas (ATTRA) project of the National Center for Appropriate Technology
Passion House M1 prefab home built to handle Nordic climes Passion House M1 was designed by Estonian firm Architect 11 (Photo: Architect 11) Image Gallery (17 images) Estonian design firm Architect 11 has unveiled a new prototype modular housing unit, dubbed Passion House M1. Intended to be the first (and smallest) in a series of forthcoming similar structures, Passion House M1 can be assembled within a couple of days, and is billed as a suitable home for Nordic regions. View all Passion House M1 could serve as guesthouse, summer cottage, beach house, or primary home. The house is constructed primarily from wood, with internal walls built from cross-laminated timber panels, and an outer stone facade. Architect 11 promotes Passion House M1 as being more like a traditional stone house, rather than a flimsy prefab build, and the firm reckons the home's low energy usage, coupled with an ability to handle heavy snow loads, makes it an ideal fit for Nordic countries – and presumably anywhere else with a similar climate. About the Author
Jackie’s Tips For Hardcore Homesteading By Jackie Clay Many of us have a garden and enjoy fresh vegetables during the summer and fall. Maybe we even have a few chickens for eggs and meat. But many of us may want to extend our homesteading to what I call "hard-core" homesteading. Luckily, most of us with a piece of out-of-the-way land can become nearly "store-bought-free," raising much of what we need in nearly the same way as did our ancestors. There is a vast difference between this type of survival homesteading and stars-in-the-eyes, back-to-nature, recreational homesteading to relieve stress and provide enjoyment. The survival garden It has been said that one can raise enough food for a family of four in a 50- by 50-foot space. When one needs a garden to put up food, not only for the winter but possibly for a year or two, we're talking about at least an acre of intense cropping. And if there are no store shelves to choose from, we will all need to take care of our own needs at home. You can't grow everything, everywhere.
ÁPH80 prefab portable home offers appealing vision of micro-living - Images The ÁPH80 will set you back from €32,000 (roughly US$42,000) (Photo: ÁBATON) Image Gallery (11 images) Spanish architectural studio ÁBATON has developed the ÁPH80: a prefabricated, portable micro-home, which is envisioned as the first in a series of upcoming similar dwellings suitable for up to two people. View all ÁPH80 measures a total of 27 sq m (290 sq ft), and features three interior areas: a lounge and kitchen space, a bathroom, and a double bedroom. ÁPH80 sports a ventilated facade with 12 cm (4.7 in) of thermal insulation. ÁBATON reports that the home is transported via truck and can be placed practically anywhere. That said, there's no word on whether or not a connection to the grid would be necessary for these amenities. The ÁPH80 is priced from €32,000 (roughly US$42,000). Source: ÁBATON via Inhabitat About the Author Adam is a tech and music writer based in North Wales. Post a CommentRelated Articles Just enter your friends and your email address into the form below
Concept Plan For A Sustainable Farm Here is a sustainable-living concept plan for a 1/4 acre home in an urban setting. I hope you can get some good ideas from it for your own home! Following this plan is a concept plan for a home on acreage. Below is a conceptual plan for a hypothetical sustainable farm that could be created on between 2-10 acres. Some things we have found particularly beneficial is siting the garden below our home so that we can collect the rain water off our roof and store it in a 500 gallon barrel to irrigate the garden. What sustainability means to me! More great ideas are available at Mother Earth News online:
Ikea's turns its flat-pack philosophy to improving refugee shelters The Ikea refugee shelter designed to provide refugees with better living conditions Image Gallery (6 images) A tragedy of modern times is the millions of refugees displaced by poverty, oppression, war and natural disaster. Most end up living in canvas tents of a basic design that are hot in summer, cold in winter, and only last about six months in constant use despite some refugees living in such tents for up to 12 years. On World Refugee Day in June, the Ikea Foundation unveiled a new flat-pack refugee shelter with a modular design and solar panel designed to help improve living conditions for refugees. View all Designed as part of a two-year project being conducted in collaboration with the Swedish Refugee Housing Unit (RHU) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Ikea's prototype flat-pack house is modular and easy to transport and assemble. According to Ikea, the house takes only four hours to construct and will last three years, providing better security and ventilation for its users.
Permaculture Design For Small Farms & Homesteads - Sustainable Farming Conventional agricultural ecosystems (i.e., farms) are inherently fragile: Their productivity can be sustained only if fossil fuel subsidies, in one form or another, are employed as inputs. Most farms entail, as well, other very serious environmental costs. Clearly, we need to create new food raising systems that will conserve soil, water, and nutrients ... minimize the use of fossil fuels, chemical fertilizers, and synthetic pesticides ... and lead to regionally self-reliant food systems. Alternative farming practices—known variously as organic, biological, or biodynamic methods—come closer to meeting such a criterion of sustainability. Nationwide, an estimated 30,000 farmers now rely on crop rotation, animal manures, legumes, green manures, mechanical cultivation, mineral-bearing rocks, and biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and tilth, supply plant nutrients, and control insects, weeds, and other pests.