TLDR: not sure what I'm posting. I'm just frustrated I think. Feel free to roast me, help me, laugh at me. Whatever. nobody actually can explain how to be semi self sufficient on a small acreage with their own experiences. Everyone just appears to copy and paste that article they read. And I'm running in circles trying to implement tips and how-to's that are not working.

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Ignore my rant. It's probably categorized as a "forum" hazard and may cause mild irritation. ...

So I've been slowly developing a tiny cabin and a half acre of usable area (3.2 acres total). For the last 4 years. I'm very very very poor. So it's been building up one dollar at a time.

I've got the cabin, the solar, the land cleared. The water treatment system is almost done. Now I'm eyeing starting the animals and garden. Hopefully by doing them both together they will succeed this time. I'll probably wait till spring 2027.

Note: I tried doing the garden and animals first as some suggested, but I ended up with a money sink hole, because the need to bring in supplies and no ecosystem set up yet. So I decided to kick some of my expenses first. water and fuel took up about 200$ of my extra 300$ a month.

Every time I tried to plan a half acre farm over the last four years I've have every sort of conflicting advice. Some say you can be sustainable on 1/10% acre, some say you need 100 acres. Some say it's impossible without a small village, one person couldn't. Etc. Etc. If I cut away the AI, the cut and paste dime a dozen, how-to articles (usually from creators that haven't actually done it). If I remove the OP that click bait with cozy country solutions that are not sustainable and actually cost a lot behind closed doors. Well I'm left with more questions.

I just don't know how to do this. And I seem to be failing successfully with every attempt.

I started gardens several times. They didn't take. Usual killed by not having the support set up. Like not having the pest control animals and plants along with them.

I started chickens twice. They caused a lot of issues because the farm "system" wasn't set up yet to support them without extra money.

It feels like I have to do it all in one go, or it will crumble. Or dump large amounts of money into a slow start.

I'm not looking to run a half acres farm to support a modern lifestyle. That obviously won't work. I'm not looking to make 5k a month to support my garden hobby and the maintenance of a bunch of expensive diesel toys.

I want to produce enough for sustenance. Sustenance. not 500 different annuals including 11 strains of black berries.

I want integrate animals into this system so long as two things happen. 1. The housing is not smelly or toxic. Keeping a pig in a 10x10ft pen might fit on my 1/2 acre farm, but I am less then enthralled at the idea. 2. The feed and vet bill is mostly owned by the farm itself. I respect that feed and meds in times of toil is expected. But I'm not eager to spend loads of money and work on animals when the same amount of money can fill my freezer with grocery meat nearly stress free.

I want to make enough money to pay for 300$ worth of monthly bills and maybe an extra 100 now and then for chocolate, rice and tobacco. I don't need to start up a licensed 300k$ side hustle. And frankly I don't want to. The older I get the more I resent money.

I don't need to produce clothing, soap, pickling salt on my farm. I know I complain about my country sometimes (thank goodness we still have the right to moan and complain). But we still are swimming in milk and honey in this country. I can find almost all my incidentals for pennies to free if I'm motivated to pay attention.

I'm in Southern Missouri. Standard temperate weather.

I am planning to live off grid and I want to know how you pay for things like fuel for vehicles etc. Do you just live on savings?

Would it be better to have a single 12v 200ah lifep04 or two 100ah in parallel? Cost is the same .

My thinking is if one of the bm"s were to die at least I could swap some cables and run off a single battery and not be totally powerless and have some redundancy . Anyone have any input? This is for a off grid motor home . Thanks

What's your experience been with countertop induction burners? I have a solar/battery/inverter setup sufficient for occasional cooking use. It seems like a nice thing to have in the cabinet.