Before we go much further, I want to say That all the preps I have talked about are designed for the single family, that said if you are prepping for a commune situation, then you have to expand these figure by the number of people you are supplying.
Though I should point out that I have seen farms in SW Virginia families that have 11 or 12 members, living perfectly well on 7 or 8 acres. It just takes good planning and excellent farming techniques. Which you can learn.
I have been told that some intend to stay in the cities or think that they can prep for a year on their own. By the next year everything will be back to normal. Not going to happen. Think about it. The last major depression last 10 years. That was without the feds trying to disarm and control our lives as they are today. A major depression now could last decades. Plus then you have to worry whether some other country will attack us during our weakness,
WWIII.
I mentioned in the first part about having two retreats. One is the home you live in (if it is located in a safe usable area). The other is your escape retreat. It must be just as prepared as the other. Yep I know some of you are saying "Hey I ain't running". Well my friend having places to go and rest, rearm, and know while your out there fighting your kids are fairly safe, Ain"t running. I have three retreats, but not because I am loaded, I'm not. I have two here in New Mexico and one in SW Virginia. The one in Virginia is my grandpa's old farm. If I can make there, which I doubt, when the SHTF. But it is a good place for my folks, who go there for the summer to keep it up for me. My uncle does it during the winters. The other two are within 50 miles of each other. My main home is remote, but the retreat needs day light pumped in. Ok maybe just a little. So you can never be too prepared.
Here is some things that you should do to set up a productive homestead.


1. Make sure that every inch of the property can be used to your advantage, by that I mean the more you use the less time you waste maintaining unused land. Keep your wood lot clear of under growth.
2.the garden area must be large enough to support your family, easy to cultivate and if your in a temperate area, run the rows north-south. in hot arid areas run east- west to shade delicate plants. More on gardening soon.
3. Pastures must be cross fenced to allow you to rotate your stock from field to field. this prevents overgrazing. I goofed up my first year out here and allow some overgrazing in my fields during the drought. It took a couple years with patience to get my fields to recover. First the went to weeds, Normally I would burn the fields and that allows the grasses to come back. When you burn though, you attract attention. so I had to mow the weeds for a whole summer once a week. I had to water the fields because of the drought. The next spring I got lucky and the drought ended. I still mowed the weeds and the grass slowly recovered. Although I must also mention that after the weeds died that first winter, I went out and burned in the night, right before the first big snow hit. We cover this too.
4. Plant your veggy garden handy to the kitchen and your root cellar too.
5. compost heap must be between the garden and barn. more on that later.
6.Trees in the homestead area should not crowd each other but should provide privacy. Cover this during security section.
7.shower, bath, and dressing rooms should be accessed from outside also, but don't have them unprotected.
8. Barn should be lee of the house, and close enough for you to supervise, and protect your livestock.
9.lots of storage, this would also help during a raid. you should have escape plans for each building.
10. A good work shop with all the tools ( more on that later).

I will end the list here for now. I have to get some supplies today. see you soon.