6 Months Off Grid | Creating a Homestead on Abandoned Land

for years my family and i were renting a small farm in a tiny village in france here we grew organic vegetables and made our living by selling them to the local community from the beginning we knew that this was going to be temporary as we always had dreamed of owning our own little farm a place that we could call home so when it was time for us to take this next step we sold our belongings bought a small campervan and set out on a journey to find home a place where we can put down our roots and create an abundant and simple lifestyle somewhere in the countryside exactly six months ago we found it after traveling several months through france spain and portugal we came across a great opportunity a small three-hecta plot of abandoned land in the countryside somewhere on the iberian peninsula although a lot of work had to be done we immediately fell in love saw the potential to turn this neglected land back into the paradise that we've always dreamed of and in this video we share all the progress that we made in the past six months the land has got these beautiful large grenade boulders on the top slope and this is the view that we have from this point on the land going a little bit down in elevation there is a decent sized plateau of roughly one hectare with relatively flat ground here we will be able to develop most of the infrastructure for our new homestead from this plateau our land continues with a steep slope down where it meets a small creek at the bottom of the valley lots of different features challenges and opportunities most of it is overgrown with hardy mediterranean shrubs and what are the remains of an old olive grove and some cork oaks that had been burned out some 10 years ago despite the area being known for its dryness on the land there is a spring fat well that overflows and creates a seasonal stream for several months of the year providing us with enough water to get this place back into abundance there was only one major problem we couldn't access our new property the old road that used to be here was inaccessible completely overgrown and a serious need of rebuilding but before we started to go ahead and put the cart before the horse we first needed to make a rough design of the land so we got to work the goal of the first couple of months was to make the land accessible and start to work on some of the most important projects we sat down and made a list of all the things that had to be done for this process we used a design framework known within permaculture as waspa it is an acronym that stands for water access structures plants and animals this design framework is a useful guide and lays out the order of importance when it comes to the design implementation once we had a rough design sketched out on paper and had a good idea of where we were going to place things it was time to get our hands dirty since we were not able to park our camper van on the land which functions as our temporary home fully equipped with a small kitchen shower toilet and electricity generated by two solar panels on the roof we decided to start with the access we called a local guy with a tiny excavator and got to work after looking for the best place to construct this new road we decided to put it right here on the main ridge line we started by removing the vegetation and a layer of topsoil then we had a couple of trucks deliver a mixture of gravel and rock dust to form the base of the road after we had laid down this first layer we compacted it using a granted compactor and applied the small layer of gravel as a finishing touch for the road with the new road installed we were finally able to move our home on wheels on the land and start to truly experience living here up to that point we had been camping for several weeks on a nearby place until we could access our new land so when we could finally move on to it we were super excited and without wasting time we started to directly reforest this area so that we can stabilize the ridge reduce erosion and grow an abundance of fresh food along the sides of the road at this point we were already nearing the end of winter so the gap was closing to get our trees in the ground before it was too late the great thing in the mediterranean climate is that you can experiment with a lot of different fruit and nutrients we can plant both temperate climate trees as well as some of the hardier subtropical trees so we try to experiment with as much diversity as possible and see what type of trees perform really well in our particular area so far we planted a lot of different stone fruit like cherries apples apricots peaches and a bunch of others as well as many different citrus trees figs olives chestnuts avocados hazelnuts pomegranates and many many more including a bunch of different nitrogen fixing trees as well as other support species digging holes for the tree seemed to be quite a challenge though the bedrock was only 20 centimeters below the soil and in some places even less so initially i started to dig holes with a pickaxe and a shovel but after a while let the mini excavator take over to do most of the hard work [Music] we can't wait to see how this system will evolve over time hopefully in the near future as we're driving onto the property we will be surrounded by a thriving food forest that will provide us with large quantities of food with the new road in place and the trees planted it was time to start working on the next project at this point with a rough idea of where we would want to build a house in the future but we lacked quite a bit of flat ground surrounding the area so we first needed to fix that this is going to be our home base with the help of the excavator we started to clear a lot of the dense shrubby vegetation and started building a large terraced area this process went quite quickly and once we had this place prepared it was time to move on to the more important projects on the land and that includes water in the area we now live in water is a very scarce resource and driving around in the area in summer makes you feel like you're in a semi desert yet what most people don't realize is that we receive just about as much rainfall as places like my home country the netherlands the only difference is that most of the rain falls during a couple of months of winter and it's our job to make sure and try to capture as much as possible of it so that we can store it for the months where we need it most for this we have a couple of options since there are no buildings on the land for now it is impossible for us to capture any of the rain and stored in water tanks one of the best options we had was to store it where it will be most useful for our perennial food systems in the soil so we went ahead and started to work on rain water harvesting earthworks first we started to dig out a pond below our spring fed well that turns into a seasonal stream there is a natural depression where a lot of water collects during the wet winter months this was the perfect place to start building a pond but before starting the work we wanted to know what the ground looked like in the deeper layers so we dug a test hole we found a decent amount of clay in low i suspect that due to erosion a lot of the topsoil from the ridge eventually ended up here below this layer of clay in loam we found a lot of schist stone which is basically a type of rock that splits and cracks very easily not the best type of soil to build a new pond but with the amount of clay content that we found and with the idea that we would introduce ducks which helped to naturally seal any leaks with their droppings over time we went ahead and started today we ran into quite a few challenges as we were building to them as the soil was very saturated with water making it very soggy at times but after a short week of digging out topsoil constructing the dam moving a lot of earth and building a spillway the pond was ready to help stabilize the dam we applied the layer of mulch and seeded the cover crop normally you would first exceed the area and then apply a layer of mulch but we had a lot of hungry birds and we're losing a lot of seeds to them so to help reduce this loss we started to do it the other way around which turned out to be an effective solution at this point it was time for us to introduce our new friends but first we needed to construct some basic shelter for them [Music] once the portable coupe was ready we placed it right next to the pond and started to hurt our partners to the new home [Applause] to ensure their safety from predators we install the portable electric fence this keeps both the predators out and the ducts in with the pond created it was time to move on to the next project one of our big goals is to grow most of our own food and become more self-sufficient and self-reliant to help us with this and increase the resilience of this property we need to capture every single drop of rain and store it in the soil so we decided to start building swales soils are basically trenches dog on contour that capture any runoff and organic matter allows water to be stopped in the landscape spread it out from the wet valleys to the dry ridges and slowly let it soak into the soil there are great water capturing systems which are extremely important in this climate but also are great tree growing systems once we dig out the trench we place the dugout soil on the downhill side of the slope to create a berm and it is this berm that is a great foundation for starting food forests but before we started to dig any trenches and move around a lot of earth we first needed to know where to start so we built a simple a-frame level that allowed us to accurately identify contours on the land we started by identifying the key point in the landscape and identified where we could have the longest swell that was situated on the highest point on the land from here on out we could then move both up the hill as well as down the hill to create any additional swells following this same pattern as i'm moving along the contour with the a-frame i place a little bamboo stick in the soil so that we can visually see the contour and this becomes a reference of where we will have to start digging the prep work done it was time to start digging generally you would want all this work to be done by a larger machine than this one but we are on a very tight schedule and we're not able to find a bigger digger within the time period that we needed to have this work done so we went forward with the resources that we had available locally and started to dig the swells in total we ended up digging five swells for now we've dug a small one here on the top two medium ones next to the road the main large one on the plateau and one here at the bottom that is connected to the pond whenever it rains these swirls start to fill up completely helping to recharge the groundwater and in case it would overflow they're all directed to fill up our bottom pond we've planted several hundreds of trees and just like we did next to the road we included a large diversity of fruit and not producing trees as well as support species we seeded a diverse coffee crop including a lot of vegetable seeds and applied a layer of mulch to protect the soil from the harsh elements with the trees planted and the weather warming up quickly we were in a race against time to make sure that we could give them the best possible chance to survive their first couple of crucial seasons so we needed to install an irrigation system fast we got the components and started to install it we placed a submersible pump in our well connected it to an algae filter and a pressure tank and installed pipes and tabs everywhere we needed to have water for now we run the irrigation with our generator but in the future we will upgrade this and connect it to a solar system so that we can completely automate the entire water system on our land with a couple of additional filters which we plan to install in the future we could even turn our well water into safe drinking water of course this will have to be tested but would be a great resource for the farm in the coming months i'll be digging trenches for all the pipes so that i can lay them on the ground and protect them from the elements and up on this point we've been mainly focused on getting the big foundational projects and perennial food systems installed on the land with this work done it was time to start having a little bit of fun so we built a flagstone patio with an integrated fire pit and a seating area nothing beats a small little campfire on a chilly night with a nice cup of herb infusion observing the stars after a hard day of work although it was the first time we ever created something like this the final result turned out quite nice now we have a great place to observe the sky at night of course we will only use this fire pit outside of the fire season as we don't want to risk causing any wildfires in the area so in the summer we will be enjoying this place with a couple of small candles instead but we felt like something was missing we knew that all the foundational work was going to be taking up a lot of time and because we arrived here in late winter and had to install the water systems first there was not enough time left to start building out gardens summers are really dry and hot here so if you want to be able to grow our own vegetables and give our gardens the best possible start we will have to wait until early fall fortunately the climate here in fall in winter are perfect for growing vegetables so we will wait until the time is right but we love gardening and it started to itch nevertheless so to satisfy our desire to grow food instead of building large gardens we started to build a small raised garden bed around an existing olive tree we collected some rocks on our land laid them in a circle around the tree and filled it up with compost we then planted a large diversity of annuals and perennials installed a drip line and mulch it with pine needles that we collected from our land although not much it was a satisfying little project that we shared with our daughters and we can't wait to start building out the main gardens the reality is there's still so much to uncover and explore on the land and a lot of work must be done to make this into a thriving and abundant homestead but as they say great things start from small beginnings and that is the mindset that we have going forward on the new forum we are working one project at a time enjoying every little step of it and fully experience living life on an upgrade homestead we've achieved quite a lot already in a pretty short time and in the upcoming months we will continue working hard on developing more food systems raise more animals start new gardens plant more trees build more support buildings and increasing the overall comfort and everyday quality of life here on the land i'm looking forward to document and share the entire process with you of how we are converting this abandoned land back into a thriving farm and that is our story so far i hope that this little video inspires and motivates you to set out on your own journey into living a sustainable simpler and more self-sufficient lifestyle get started with the resources that you have on the place that you live and take it one step at a time that is the only way that we can realize our dreams

Channel: The Dutch Farmer

Views: 1,413,427

Keywords:

Id: yORlix6CV60

Length: 16min 29sec (989 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 03 2022