Homestead Planning with Bonus Morel Mushroom Hunting

Reader Contribution by Jennifer Kongs
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The Small Home, Big Decisions series follows Jennifer and her husband, Tyler, as they build a self-reliant homestead on a piece of country property in northeastern Kansas. The series will delve into questions that arise during their building process and the decisions they make along the way. The posts are a work in progress, written as their home-building adventure unfolds.

When planning a homestead, we’ve heard again and again that we first need to simply spend time at our place and get to know it. Before we dig in gardens, we should watch how the water moves across the landscape. Before we sited our house, we wanted to know how to best block cold winds and maximize our solar potential. For these reasons, we spent about a year just getting to know the place. (Many homesteaders wait even longer.) We started moving forward on the legal paperwork for constructing and financing a new home, but we spent time just getting to know our new home. Aside from the practical reasons for doing this, we have discovered some nice perks, including morel mushrooms.

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