We homestead currently, and prior to this we lived in a city. While in the city we 'urban homesteaded.' We kept the front yard as grass to keep up appearances/make the neighbors happy. We unfortunately were in a somewhat fussy neighborhood where that mattered. Some of our neighbors were 'Chem-Lawn' types. Over the years we dug dandelions and improved our front lawn with compost to the point where it was super lush, had a good root system, and was full of worms and bugs. When the drought came, our lawn stayed green and weathered it well, while some of the neighbors' chem lawns, with their shallow root systems and sick soil, died. We got a lot of questions after that from the neighbors about what we were doing, and strangely I look back on our LAWN as one of the best things we did at that city place! I feel like we educated some people a bit. At our city place we also had a huge kitchen garden in the back where we grew 20 different things, perennial fruit trees and bushes, and chickens. We canned and froze loads of produce. We had a seriously awesome compost system. You really don't need much space to accomplish a lot.
Then we moved to a country place on 6 acres, and we are totally loving it! It was an easy transition for us. One funny story. A couple weeks after we moved in, our downstairs toilet backed up. We snaked it, but couldn't fix the problem. Turns out our 9 year old son had found a cool white pipe sticking up out of the grass, had unscrewed the top, and dumped a bunch of sticks and rocks down it. Having grown up in a city he had no idea what a cleanout pipe is. DH had to dig out an 8 foot trench to cut away pipe and get at all the clogs. DS's punishment was to watch the entire repair job, and to pay for the replacement pipe out of his allowance (about $8). He now has a very thorough understanding of how septic systems work. :)
At our new place we still do a big kitchen garden, and we have a bigger flock of chickens. We are lucky there were some existing nut and fruit trees and perennial fruit/veg plantings. We've spent our first two years here adding to those. Our property is about 40% woods and 60% open/pasture/orchard. We are still figuring things out in terms of how much we want to mow, and managing various trees. We have the space, fencing, and facilities to add goats or even a small cow, but I doubt we will take that leap. As much as we love our place, we also like to travel. Chickens are easy peasy, and you can ask a neighbor to look in on them, but finding someone to look after 4 legged livestock is a bit harder I think.
We constantly have projects in the works. Right now we are finishing some serious reconstruction/improvements on our house, and we will probably add solar in the not-too-distant future. I am pretty far down the road learning about beekeeping, and hope to take that plunge in the next year or two. I have some half-baked ideas for a greenhouse with water-based thermal mass. DH has some half-baked plans to build a tiny house on the opposite corner of the property which could be rented out, or lived in by our kids when they are older. Always something to do, or dream about. :)
EDITED to add: Another new project this year will be bench grafting and budding apple trees. We have an outstanding old tree that we would love to propagate. There is a LOT to learn, and I am trying to find someone local who may be able to advise us. Otherwise, we will just try to educate ourselves, and then give it a whirl. I found a cheap local source for rootstock, so good there. Very excited about that project.
