Building Your Homestead Paradise, What Would it Look Like??? #homesteading #ifyoucandreamityoucandoit

Now, I know that I'm not going to be able to make my dreams come true in the next few days, but I am always looking at available properties to start our homestead. We currently have a home just 10 minutes outside Minneapolis, but obviously with what we want to do, we know we will going farther out than 10 minutes. Anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours is in the realm of do-ability for us. Close enough to get back and see family, far enough to live in fairly quiet solitude while being able to work our land with all the animals we want, like chickens, other fowl, goats, maybe some pigs, a dog or two, not a cat person but I hear they can help on the homestead.

My old, most favorite chicken, Sol. A Black Sexlink. RIP

We have a small wishlist when it comes to what we want to accomplish.

• Grow our own food. From fruit trees to vegetables and everything in between. We do live in the northern climate, so our options are somewhat limited to what will survive the winter.
• Animals to take care of, love, and have an equal partnership with. I don't want to run a slaughterhouse, but if we can give good lives to our livestock, and in turn they provide us with their bounty, I'd call that a fair deal. What animals do you recommend?

• Acreage. 2-25+ acres. We want land for multiple reasons. Enough to have our animals roam free for the most part, enough to have a large enough garden, and large enough to be away from neighbors for privacy. Is there a thing as having too much land?

• Preferably, water, sewer, and electric would be on site. I have no issues being off-grid, but the property would have to be pretty perfect. Is there such thing as a turn-key homestead? We would like to be off-grid completely at some point, but being up & running asap is pertinent.

• Some type of living quarters, whether it be an old farm house, RV, trailer, cabin, just something to lay our head and protect us from the elements. I have found it to be quite difficult to get a land loan, so this is almost a necessity.

• A body of water. A river, a lake, a pond, a creek, anything with water. I understand that makes the property more expensive, but we want ducks and might even try to do a little fish eco-system if it proves doable and efficient.

Here are two examples of properties we would highly consider, so you have an idea of what we are looking for.
#1 and #2

This would be Heaven on Earth

Budget is really going to come down to location. I can make more money staying closer to the metro area, but with that usually comes a little higher cost of living. Being out in the sticks would be cheaper, but job opportunities and pay decrease as well. We would love a lower mortgage than we have now, so anything under 200K would be ideal.

So fellow homesteaders, help me out. Am I asking for too much? Not enough? As of now, our family consists of my wife and I, our daughter, and soon to be born son. We plan on adding at least one more child down the line.

I have read up on Salitin and other homestead prophets, but I want to hear from the Steem Homesteaders mouth. Help a brother out! Much love y'all