Step 1: Planning and wishing

I've lived on a hobby farm twice.
The first time I was only lucky not to make the same mistakes as here, just other mistakes. At this second farm, it's not MY farm, and stuff has been made already....

But by the term "learn by doing" and "don't make the same mistakes twice", I think I should share a bit of my thoughts when planning.

And since we're moving soon (hopefully), I'll plan as we just took over the place and had to start from the beginning. (And a fresh start is not always a bad thing, when there's too many mistakes done already)

For now it's just a dream. It won't become realistic unless we make a plan and hold on to it.
First we need to sell this property, and buy another.
We have no influence on the sale. But each of us better make a list of what we wish for in at the new place. Not all expectations can be met ofcourse, but we have to have an idea of what we want.
So
1. Fall cleaning, pictures and video
2. Put up for sale
3. Brainstorming of wishes for a new/excisting property
4. Collect wishes and prioritise
5. Look at me places
6. Buy and move
If you follow the blog, you know, that I'm working on fall cleaning and taking and editing pictures/video.
Well then a cold got me, so I had to take a bed rest break in that for a while.
I think I'm ready tomorrow again, but I can work on my wish list during breaks. It's important to write it down at the same time as you remember it. Otherwise you'll probably forget.

Don't keep focus on the bad stuff. Remember the positive as well. What are you happy about with the present place?
Anything that comes to mind.
Since you have no real interest in the first two subjects, let's make a "wish list" for the new place, then you'll get an idea of what I mean (I hope ;-)

My Wishlist

The property must be close to the ocean.
Distance from the kitchen to the green house and the kitchen garden must be short.
The Henhouse should be made inside a brick wall building, so the hens won't get slaughtered by wild animals.
There must be water closely nearby the henhouse, otherwise we need to transport that heavy load all the way there several times a day.
There must be a lot if older fruit trees like apples, pears, plums, cherries, and hazel but bushes would make me very happy.
There must be a large green house, or a satisfying place to build one.
Pool, I don't know. There's a lot of work to maintain it. You have to check the water daily, and who wants to do that work, when you live close to the ocean(?)
Big open kitchen with room for 12 persons for dinner at least. If there's soace for washing machine and dryer* in the kitchen, it would be great.
Hallway with lots of closer space and table space for shopping baskets, backpacks etc. Room under the table for washer and dryer* will be nice, if there's not enough space in the kitchen.
A winter garden, sun room if you prefer, would help a great deal during winter time. Maybe as a front to the kitchen door or even at the main entrance if it's made very nice. This is also possible to build ourselves if the outside area allows it and it goes with the building.
No first floor, no staircases!
Well, staircases acceptable if build as 2 straight stairs with podium in the middle. No steep staircases, no round staircases.

As you may notice from the description above, there's a lot of distance and placement questions when it comes to planning.

So the first task is to determine WHERE everything should be placed, to be as practical as possible. For us, "where" is a bigger project that others who already live, where they wish to live.
But we can risk to be here another year, so here where we live it is also a question of Planning practical Places, just as it  is for you :-)

All in all we have to figure out;

Where? (the place for it, an approximate sketch is perfect)

What? (Kitchen garden, Tools, Mashinery, Animals?)
How much? (how much should we grow of each type of vegetables and fruits to be as self sufficient as possible)
How to make it real? Correct the garden plan to make it fit the description on the seeds. (Almost all plants comes in several types) and the recommendations can differ a bit depending on the sort.

For now we sort in our dreams together - all of us - and then its time to plan in the next level: "where and what"