Good morning. My husband and I came over with our 2 daughters to Whangarei from Saskatchewan, Canada last May. We are currently living in town, but would really like to get out. We have been looking at properties to buy to put a house on, and am looking at options to make a yard set up reasonably priced. We are also looking at going off grid, as one property we have found is perfect, but no power, and a house would be put towards the back of 20 acres. Absolutely any ideas or suggestions would be really appreciated. No suggestions too weird. We like to think outside the box.
That is the question of the day My daughter wants chickens to sell eggs. I would like a few beef calves. With all the space, I want to utilise it. Majority is pasture, with some trees. Probably put a garden in. My husband works 60 hours a week, so just thinking of ideas of what we could do with it.
20 acres is a useful block and you could easily raise 10-12 beasts on that. If you buy good beef weaners and sell to the works at about 18 months old, you will get good prices for them. If the land has moderately flat areas, then you could also shut up for hay to take the beef animals through the winter. Good paddocks, yards and management is the key to successful beef market.
Other ideas may be some kind of horticulture, but a lot depends on time and youth to manage that as it can be hard work Fruit, flowers, nuts, truffles, or native trees are all options worth doing some homework over.
There is also a good farmer's market in the Whangarei area, so possibilities exist.
Did you know, that what you thought I said, was not what I meant :S
if your husband works 60 hours a week, I doubt he wants to do too much much in his spare time! When I started off with my 20 acres, I leased land to local butcher and that worked well until we got our act together. Chickens and sheep are easy, a vege patch is not too bad as long as you can keep the chickens etc out of it! Selling eggs is not very profitable, better to eat your own and give them plenty of green feed for the omega 3.
Fruit trees are easy as long as you keep them small
Don't make yourself a slave to the block and don't be worried about just sitting back and doing nothing! You can always sell standing hay to someone, or just mow it. Things tend to happen when they happen, that is part of the joy of having your own space.
5 acres, Ferguson 35X and implements, Hanmay pto shredder, BMW Z3, Countax ride on mower, chooks, Dorper and Wiltshire sheep. Bosky wood burning central heating stove and radiators. Retro caravan. Growing our own food and preserving it. Small vineyard, crap wine.
Welcome to northland!
You may want to look at wind turbine setups (depending on your location). We are grid tied, but given our wind just south of whangarei, we could probably do a fair bit of generation.
If you are after egg layers, it should be easy to find red or brown shavers fairly close by - they will give your 2-3 years of pretty solid egg production.
4.79HA of volcanic soil (1/3 hill to be planted in deciduous forest someday), brewing, orcharding, gardening, blacksmithing, 2 Dexters, chooks and ducks to come + a bit of everything else.
Plant Manuka and get into the honey business
Free range pigs
Off grid, a combination of solar and wetback, ....because you have the Manuka for firewood
Great advice from tonybaker, we bought a block just over a year ago, and rushed around trying to do everything in a short timeframe - never quite got close to accomplishing all our 'small projects' as they always take longer, and there is always something else... We had a 5 year plan, but I think we have decided it is more of a 10 year plan. It took us a bit to realise that it's ok to take your time and just enjoy living off the land.
Although we reared chicks from eggs and now laying, got a few sheep, a couple of donkeys, and watched a lot of YouTube videos on 'how to'... Fruit trees, vege gardens, and plenty of weeds... But we laugh everyday at ourselves...
If you are looking at going off-grid, perhaps I can help - I have a small company that provides renewable (wind, hydro, solar) and storage solutions...
This site is fantastic and has helped us with a lot of info...
Welcome Canuck! This forums great for learning! I learnt a lot after joining this forum, since there's so many great experienced people on here who are willing to lend a helping hand by giving advice in the form of writing. I'm sure you'll find these forums really beneficial too!
We're on 88 acres, of which 23 is in forest (mostly pine, some native). We moved on last December, and we're just loving it! Nothing beats a moonlit light, the canopy of stars, fresh morning air and all the animals!
If there's one piece of advice I can give you, it's this: don't buy too big a block of land! It's a lot of work, and it's stressful when you have too much grass and not enough stock, unless you don't mind grazing other people's animals (and charging them for it)!
We're off grid, using solar panels and wind turbines. If you want to know more about that, I can share details and cost with you, so you'll have some ideas.
For gardens, we're following this book: The Permaculture Home Garden," by Linda Woodrow. It's a time-saving, easy to set up, and little work garden, if that's what you're after.
Wishing you luck with your lifestyleblock endeavours!
My daughter wants chickens to sell eggs. I would like a few beef calves. With all the space, I want to utilise it. Majority is pasture, with some trees. Probably put a garden in. My husband works 60 hours a week, so just thinking of ideas of what we could do with it. 
