A sample Homestead Plan
Sample plan
A real plan for a 20-acre parcel in Searcy County, Arkansas. Family of four. 1,400 sq ft house. Hens, goats, two cattle, a couple of pigs, bees, an orchard, wood heat. Every number comes from the parcel's own government data plus the household's answers about what they're raising and building. Change the answers under "Try changing the answers" and the plan recomputes. Yours will differ, because no two properties are the same.
Start my Homestead Plan free →Overview
This land in Searcy County can carry a full homestead for a family of four, but it asks for serious preparation before a single post goes in the ground. The total build range is $222,650–$433,913, and the two things that will make or break the early years are water in the dry months and clearing enough of the 91% tree cover to let the solar panels do their job. The slope and the north-facing ground add cost and planning time to nearly every system. None of that makes this a bad property, but it means the order in which you build matters as much as the budget.
- Water in the dry months: for 6 months of the year the rain falls short of what the household uses, so the tank and the well carry those months.
Nothing here stops you building. Each one is a condition of this land that changes how, or what it costs, and the plan below is already sized for it.
- Tree cover: about 91% of the ground inside your line is under canopy (Meta/WRI Canopy Height Map v2 (1 m)): clearing is a real line item here, and solar wants an opening on the sun side.
Site plan
- Trees cover about 91% of the land inside your line (91% of the wider area around it); no side is open to the sun
- Inside your line, the ground climbs 40 ft toward the E and drops 80 ft toward the NW: about 180 ft from the lowest to the highest point inside the line
- No stream, pond, or wetland on the maps near the house
- Wind comes mostly from the S (about 32% of days; this is the regional pattern, not measured on your land)
- Ground rises to the E (40 ft up) and falls to the NW (80 ft down): tank and well uphill, septic downhill.
- Solar goes SE, the most open sun-side ground (64% canopy).
- Orchard on the upper slope (NE) so cold air drains away from the trees.
- Woodlot where the trees already are (W, 100% canopy).
The line is the county parcel record (parcel 800-00305-000), 31 acres; records can be years out of date and this is not a survey. The plan is sized to the 20 acres you gave, not the record's 31; change the acreage in your answers if the record is right. The house pin is yours, and the ground, tree, water, and wind readings are measured around it. Buildings: no public map is reliable enough to show them, so the house pin you placed is what the plan uses.
The dotted outline is the same boundary as the photo above, corner for corner, seen from the house: your line is about 502 ft away at the closest and 732 ft at the farthest. It looks squeezed next to the photo because the near ground is stretched here and the far ground pulled in, so the whole parcel fits beside the things close to the door. Every direction is true, and everything is placed inside the line. Directions and distances are measured from the house, and the rings are spaced evenly rather than drawn to scale. The feet are common practice and the usual code minimums; your county's own setback table wins where it differs, and the septic designer and well driller measure the real ones. Wildfire risk is high enough here that the house needs a cleared 30 ft around it; the Buildings card says how. A sketch, not to scale. Each piece is placed by the slope, the trees, and the water around your point, plus common-sense spacing rules and the sun. Not a survey. Z1 to Z4 on the tiles: how often you would walk there, from every day (Z1, beside the house) to rarely (Z4, the woodlot).
Your home
A 1,400 square foot house plus 4 outbuildings, including a coop and run at 168 square feet, a barn with dry storage for about 5 tons of hay at about 322 square feet, a woodshed, and a shop and storage space of 400 to 1,000 square feet, runs $162,920–$294,160 including driveway and clearing. The 91% tree cover means clearing is a real line item, not a background cost. Every 100 square feet left off the house saves money twice: once to build and again every winter in heat and solar.
Why it mattersThe ground freezes about 10 inches deep here, so foundations must reach below that per building code, though an insulated shallow foundation avoids the deeper dig where the county allows it. Wildfire risk here is moderate, so nothing that burns goes within 5 feet of the walls, trees get thinned out to 100 feet around the house, the roof should be metal, and the woodpile stays at least 30 feet from the house. In a dry October you would feel the difference between a thinned perimeter and one that was never touched.
- Frost depth: the ground freezes about 10 in deep here, so foundations must reach below that (building code IRC R403). Where the county allows it, an insulated shallow foundation avoids the deeper dig.
- Wildfire: risk here is Moderate (USFS). Build : nothing that burns within 5 ft of the walls, trees thinned out to 100 ft, a metal roof, and the woodpile at least 30 ft from the house.
These are budget sizes, not drawings. An engineer or builder designs the structure for the snow and wind here, and the county building office issues the permit.
Food
Food · Garden
Growing most of what this household eats takes about 3,250 square feet of growing beds, roughly a 45-by-70-foot patch, and about 4,550 square feet total once paths and access are included. The 215 here are enough for a full season of summer crops, and the calendar works in your favor: warm-season seeds go indoors around February 20, tomatoes and peppers go out around April 13, and fall crops get sown around August 20. Budget $830–$3,320 for beds, soil amendments, irrigation, and deer fencing.
Why it mattersThe soil mapped here is too acidic for vegetables at a of 4.6, which means lime or raised beds come before seeds, not after the first failed harvest. In April you would notice that unlimed ground produces pale, stunted transplants even in good weather. A soil test from the county's free farm-advice office, which costs $15 to $40, tells you exactly how much lime to add and saves you from guessing.
- Soil: the county soil map says this soil is too acidic for vegetables ( 4.6): lime it, or build raised beds, before counting on a full harvest.
Garden sizes are planning ranges, adjusted for this land's season and soil. A good year and a bad year, or a new gardener and an old hand, can differ by two or three times.
Food · Orchard
About 8 fruit trees suit this household, set in roughly a 20-by-30-foot patch at the small end of the range, using varieties rated for zone 7a, where the coldest night reaches about 3 degrees Fahrenheit. Plant them in year one, because fruit trees take 3 to 7 years to produce a real crop and every year you wait is a year without fruit. Budget $199–$672 for trees, stakes, guards, and first-year irrigation.
Why it mattersThe slope here faces north, where frost lingers into spring and returns early in fall, and that is the worst place for fruit trees. If any part of the property faces east or south partway up the slope, that is where the orchard goes. In April you would find that a north-facing pocket stays frozen a week longer than the rest of the land, which can kill blossoms on trees that are already budded out.
- This slope faces north, where frost lingers: put the trees partway up the slope on an east- or south-facing spot if you have one.
Tree counts are planning figures. Walking the land on a cold, still morning to find where frost settles places the orchard better than any map.
Food · Livestock & Pasture
The animal mix here, 12 hens, 4 goats, 2 pigs, 2 cattle, and 2 hives, needs about 5 acres of pasture, about 4 football fields, with an honest range of 3 to 6.5 acres depending on how much the grass grows in a given year. Winter feed runs about 4.5 tons of hay, about 9 large round bales or 182 small square ones, and that needs dry covered storage attached to or near the barn. Fences, housing, and the coop and run together run $2,263–$15,987, not counting the animals themselves.
Why it mattersBefore buying a single animal, call the county planning office and ask how many animals per acre the zoning allows for this parcel. Many counties cap it, and finding out after the animals arrive is a hard problem. The 2 beehives each need about 4 square feet of level, dry ground facing the morning sun, and the county's free farm-advice office can tell you which months the nectar flows here and whether the county requires hive registration.
- Animal limits: many counties cap how many animals you may keep per acre. Ask the county planning office for this parcel's limit before buying any animal.
How many animals the land can feed, estimated from rainfall alone: on purpose, the least exact number in this plan. Your county extension office or the USDA soil office (NRCS) can tell you what this exact ground grows.
Water
This household, including the animals, would use about 137 gallons a day on average, peaking much higher in summer. The 2,800 square foot roof could catch about 69,900 gallons a year, roughly 192 gallons a day averaged over the year, enough for the house but not the garden. A 1,500-gallon plain water tank, about 11 days of household use if the pump fails, bridges outages and dry stretches. Wells drilled near here average 450 feet deep, and the cost for well, tank, and rain collection runs $17,003–$39,726.
Why it mattersFor 6 months of the year the rain falls short of what the household uses, so the well and the tank carry those months together. By August the garden would be pulling from the well, not the roof, so knowing how much water the well gives, and how fast, matters before you plan irrigation. If the well comes in under 5 gallons a minute, add a larger plain storage tank and let the well refill it slowly overnight rather than fighting it.
- Water law: Arkansas does not require a state water-use permit for an ordinary household well, the well itself is permitted locally and the water goes with the land. The size at which the state wants a registration is about 50,000 gallons a day. This plan uses about 137 gallons a day for the house and the animals, up to about 312 gallons a day in the thirstiest month, 0.25 acre-feet over the year, and waters 0.1 acres. That is well under it. The registration programme covers NON-domestic groundwater users who could pump 50,000 gallons a day (about 35 gallons a minute). A household is outside it altogether. Read from the Arkansas Groundwater Protection and Management Act of 1991, administered by the Natural Resources Division; the Arkansas Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Division administers it.
- Garden water: the roof covers the household but not the garden, so irrigation comes from the well, surface water, or a bigger collection surface.
Rain figures are your roof area times 30 years of rainfall records; the tank size follows the Texas rainwater manual. Nobody can know how much a well will give until it is drilled, and any water needs a lab test before you drink it.
Power & Heat
Power & Heat · Power
The house would use about 11 of electricity a day, and covering that through December, the darkest month, takes about 4.4 kilowatts of solar panels, roughly 11 full-size panels. The battery holds 41 kWh, about 3 cloudy days of that use, and a 14 kilowatt generator takes over when clouds last longer than that. The box that turns battery power into house power is sized at 7 kilowatts, large enough to start the well pump with the fridge and lights already running. Budget $32,380–$65,523 for the panels, battery, and generator together.
Why it mattersThe ground here is 91% trees, so the first job is finding or clearing a south-facing opening big enough for the array before you buy a single panel. January lows reach about 3 degrees Fahrenheit, which cuts what a battery can hold, so the battery box needs to be heated or insulated or you should plan on about 25% more capacity than the base number. In December you would notice the difference between a well-insulated battery enclosure and a cold one within the first hard freeze.
The chart is by month; the battery works by the day. It carries the house through cloudy stretches inside any month (about 3 cloudy days of that use), and the generator takes over past that.
- Winter cold: lows reach about 3°F here, so plan a heated or insulated battery enclosure, or add ~25% capacity.
These sizes come from the government's PVWatts solar model at your coordinates and the household you described. They tell you what to budget for, not what to buy. A licensed electrician turns them into a design the county will permit.
Power & Heat · Heat & Firewood
A winter here takes about 2.5 of hardwood, roughly 5 full-size pickup loads, stacked 4 feet high by 4 feet deep by 20 feet long, to meet a seasonal heat load of about 36 million a year. About 3.5 acres of healthy woods, about 2.5 football fields, can grow that much back every year if managed for it. The stove and installation run $1,660–$3,320 for an EPA-certified unit.
Why it mattersThe north-facing slope means spring and fall run colder and longer here than the county average, so the firewood season stretches at both ends. Summers are hot enough that a small heat-pump unit adds 3 to 8 a day to summer power use, and the long summer days largely cover that extra draw. Cut or buy firewood a full season ahead, because green wood wastes about a third of its heat and a cold November is the wrong time to find that out.
- North-facing slope: spring and fall run colder and longer here than the county average.
- Summer heat: summers here are hot enough to want air conditioning. A small heat-pump unit (a ) adds 3 to 8 a day to the power the house uses in summer, and the long summer days mostly cover it.
Degree-day method on this property's climate record. Equipment sizing (Manual J), chimney clearances, and permits belong to the HVAC installer and fire official.
Waste & Septic
With 3 bedrooms, code sizes the septic system for 450 gallons a day, about 4 times what the household would actually use, and that margin is the building code's, not a mistake. The mapped loam suggests a standard gravity system would likely work, costing $4,980–$9,960, with the buried pipes that soak up the wastewater needing roughly 750 to 2,250 square feet of trench, roughly a 30-by-50-foot patch. Until a licensed soil tester's pit confirms that, budget for the costlier kind at $9,960–$18,260, because the soil structure the map cannot see can change the answer.
Why it mattersThe soil test that decides whether a standard system works, or whether you need a more expensive one, is also the thing that determines where the house can legally sit on this land. Getting it done before closing, or at the very start of Phase 0, protects the whole budget. Keep the well at least 50 to 100 feet from the buried pipes that soak up the wastewater, and place it uphill of them where the ground allows.
This is a first read from EPA soil tables and the county soil map. It is not a design, and it does not promise the county will approve a septic system here. Only the licensed soil test decides that; book it first.
The build order, with costs
Why this orderThe build order here is driven by two facts about this land. First, there is no house, no well, and no septic system yet, so access, water, and power must come before anything else can function or be permitted. Second, the trees cover 91% of the ground, which means clearing for the solar array, the driveway, and the buildings is not optional work done later but the first physical job on the property. Phase 0 exists to avoid the worst surprises: the soil test tells you where the house can sit, the well quotes tell you what water will cost, and the county conversation tells you what permits are required before any ground is broken. Livestock comes last, in Phase 4, because the pasture, the fencing, and the barn all need to be in place first, and buying animals before the land is ready for them is an expensive mistake.
- Licensed soil test where the septic field would go ($415–$2,490)
- Boundary survey ($415–$1,245)
- Well quotes from two local drillers
- A first conversation with the county about permits
The soil test decides where the septic field can go, and the septic field decides where the house can go. Do this first, even if you already own the land.
- Driveway ($2,490–$6,640)
- Power ($32,380–$65,523)
- Water ($17,003–$39,726)
The driveway goes in first, even a rough one: the well-drilling rig and the delivery trucks need a way in. The last layer of gravel can wait until the heavy trucks are done. After that, nothing else happens without water on site and power for tools.
- Waste & Septic ($4,565–$7,470)
- Buildings ($160,430–$287,520)
Most counties will not issue a building permit until the septic permit is approved, so the septic comes before the house.
- Garden ($830–$3,320)
- Orchard ($199–$672)
- Heat & Firewood ($1,660–$3,320)
Trees planted in year one bear when you need them; beds built now feed next season.
- Livestock & Pasture ($2,263–$15,987)
Animals come after fences, shelter, and a winter's worth of feed storage exist, not before.
- A second water source or a bigger tank
- More battery or panels as you add appliances
- A plan for cutting the woods so they keep producing firewood
- Shop upgrades
The bottom lineThe first thing to do is book a licensed soil tester and get two well-drilling quotes, because those two answers shape everything from where the house sits to what the septic system costs. The single decision that will make the biggest difference over the life of this homestead is building the house tight and small: a well-insulated 1,400 square foot house costs less to heat, less to power, and less to build than a larger one, and that savings compounds every year.
Your first year, month by month
- If not done yet: the licensed soil test where the septic field would go, and quotes from two well drillers. Everything else waits on these.
- Ask the county what permits the build needs and how long each takes.
- Order seeds and send in the soil test. Dig compost and lime into the beds once the ground is neither frozen nor soggy.
- Start tomatoes, peppers, and other warm-season seeds indoors (about February 20).
- Order chicks for spring delivery and finish the coop and run before they arrive; 12 hens start laying about five months later.
- Plant peas, spinach, and lettuce seeds outdoors (about March 6); they handle a light frost.
- Plant fruit trees while they are still leafless (nurseries ship them this way, with bare roots). Stake each one, wrap the trunk against deer, and soak the ground after planting.
- Cut and split next winter's firewood now; it needs a summer in the sun to dry.
- Move tomato, pepper, and squash plants outdoors once frost is past (about April 13). Cover the soil with mulch and lay drip lines (hoses that water at the roots).
- Fences, shelter, and a water trough before any grazing animal arrives; bring them home once pasture is growing.
- Bring the bees home when the first flowers open (a starter colony, called a , is the easy way in). Feed them sugar syrup until the flowers are plentiful.
- Clean the gutters and the first-flush fitting (the pipe that dumps the first dirty rain) before the wettest month; every inch counts toward the tank.
- Plant another short row of beans, lettuce, and carrots every two to three weeks so they ripen in waves instead of all at once.
- Buy young pigs in spring; they reach butcher weight by late fall, so the freezer is full before winter.
- Building season opens: the driveway goes in first, because the well rig and every heavy truck after it need a way in. Start the septic permit at the same time; the building permit waits on it.
- Check the tank level and the well before the dry stretch; this is when rain falls short of what you use.
- Sow fall crops (about August 20): kale, carrots, beets, and a second round of greens.
- Deep-water young trees through the dry weeks; a young orchard fails in its first two summers, not its winters.
- Buy the winter's hay now, before prices rise; the Livestock card says how much.
- Stack and cover the dry wood close to the house; have the chimney cleaned before the first fire.
- Plant garlic around the first frost (about November 5); pull the last tomatoes and peppers and cover the empty beds with mulch or a winter (rye or clover) so the soil does not wash away.
- Before the darkest weeks: clear anything shading the panels, run the generator with the house drawing power, and check that the battery box is protected from the cold.
What we assumed
This plan sizes systems from this property's government data and your answers. Your Off-Grid Score does not change because of anything here. The score measures the land, not the build.
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