Hi everyone. I guess one of us needs to start off the discussions, so I will introduce myself a little.

It is indeed possible to live lightly on the land, and actually improve rather than destroy the natural balance and health of a piece of property. After all, we are one of nature's critters, too.

In the early 80's I bought an old homestead that was run down and very neglected. The place seemed gloomy and depressed, and the realtor almost refused to drive way out there to show it to me. I fell in love the moment I stepped onto it.

A year later, the ancient fruit trees were overproducing, as were the old grapevines (which "never grew a grape" per the prior owner), the tangled mess of overgrown weeds were history thanks to my goats, the slug invasion had succumbed to the ducks, the old roses were blooming like mad, berries hanging in bucketfulls, clover was knee deep, honeybees were back, etc., etc...and new trees planted all over the place were shooting up. The place glowed, swallows and hummingbirds flew in and out of my kitchen, people started to stop to take photos of it, and dozens of deer, pheasants, herons, wolves, and even 2 black bear had happily moved in with my livestock.

I never used a single chemical, and did very little to disturb the soil...basically I enhanced and encouraged what the land already wanted to do. My animals were chosen to compliment the land, not harm it. Within a few years I was only going to town to shop for a few groceries about once every 8 weeks, and didn't even like to do that. Was I lonely? Oh, hell no! In 1988 I had over 500 visitors in just a few months, simply from word of mouth (to "see my horses", yeah, right). They wandered around almost in a trance, as if the place just couldn't be real.

The secret is to choose your location for one thing, and one thing only; the land. It needs to be the right piece of ground, or you are just butting your head against a wall. You can find this in the most unexpected places, like a little oasis tucked up in some river valley. You need to analyze how sheltered the place is in winter, the aspect and topography, the soil, prevailing winds (look at the trees for clues here), what natural resources are completely inside your property lines and how renewable they are, water, water, and water....all of the things that money cannot buy nor effort correct (improvements should not be a factor - you can add those, you can't add things like good southern exposure). Find a place that you don't want to change, just build a nest on.

Then, look carefully at the locals who live well with their land, and listen closely to their advice (with closed mouth and open ears). They've been there, and you can learn from their trials/errors/successes.

Right now, my partner and I are looking for property in the Pacific NW, with the intention of doing it again. We hope to move this summer....

:-)
Grandma