Any small-scale farmers

or those with some experience out there?

My daughter's family has been home-shopping (preliminary stages, looking ahead) for awhile. Now all of us are seriously looking at finding a property that we could join together & do some small-scale farming on, with the long-term goal of gaining a lot of self-sufficiency. We've had a desire for this for a long time anyway; but now we're also looking toward the best possible future for their children, especially their autistic son. He's very high-functioning, but we frankly don't know how independent he might be able to be, especially in terms of dealing with relationships with other people.

We want to go into this armed with as much information as possible, so we're doing some heavy research. And it's essential that we be as financially efficient & wise as possible--we have limited resources. We'd also like to get varied input & comments from people with some level of experience. Any comments are welcome, but in these early stages some starting questions we have for discussion are:

1--The initial plan is just to have a place to live until we can get started with some careful planning. I know a good business plan is a necessity for ourselves; but would it make any difference at the stage of getting the home mortgage?

2--The total of family members living on the land would be 5. 2 of us would continue working full-time at regular jobs until it looks realistic to do otherwise, if ever. From what we've researched, it looks like 5 well-managed acres could support a family of 6 or so--to the degree of providing most of our real needs, perhaps with a little surplus to sell. Lesser plots could still make a significant dent in what we need to get from outside sources. Thoughts?

3--What specific features do you think are most important to look at on the land, for both home & farming purposes?

4--We hope to ultimately have a 3-4 bedroom house for them (enough space for an office included), & a tiny house for me alone. No mother-in-law living in! Neither needs to be too large, nothing elaborate. We would be fine with doing a little renovation & building ourselves; but we are frankly beginners in that arena & don't want to over-estimate what we're capable of. (I do have some experience with electrical work). What kinds of projects are fairly reasonable for beginners to consider until they've gained some experience? Any good learning resources you recommend?

5--Is it a good idea to look for scrap lumber & materials for building/renovating projects? Any cautions?

6--We're looking at raising both plants & animals. We're likely to be starting quite small & increasing what we do gradually. Any recommendations on what direction the earliest efforts should be toward? Any specific resources you know of that will be helpful?

Thanks for any input you're willing & able to give

 

I'm looking for a girl with some plow experience.