I have 2 acres to work with. It is a slight rectangular shaped property with a neighboring house to the north and a horse-pasture to the west. Deep creek ravines are 10-20 yards into the woods on the eastern and southern borders.

We will be building a metal 'barndaminium' house on the land.

I have 16 free range chickens, two goats, two livestock guardian dogs, and one cat.

I want fruit trees, nut trees, garden area, shop/barn and a pond.

I'm having trouble laying out everything, including fencing to give the goats grazing access to multiple areas.

Anyone know of any resources or idea sources?

Google Earth pic would help

Pond will kill too much land, unless it's a Koi pond

Thats asking a lot of 2 acres, isn't it?

If you have 'woods' on the east and south, you're going to have a lot of shade in the AM, and from the south, maybe too much for fruit trees to be able to produce fruit?

How much of a footprint is your infrastructure going to occupy, with driveway access, fencing, and utilities?
"... fruit trees, nut trees, garden area, shop/barn and a pond ..."  Doesn't leave a lot of pasture, especially if some of your land is the woods/ravine you mention.

Goats can't eat driveway, and they're capable of cropping pasture right down to the roots and dirt if you don't give them enough supplemental.
You might not want them pasturing between your fruit/nut trees - I've seen them strip the bark off of trees when they run out of roughage, or are just generally bored.

ETA: Get friendly with your local Agricultural Extension agent.  There ought be an office for your area, possibly closely tied with a local college, depending on your area of the country, which you don't mention.
Land Grant colleges were specifically set up with Agriculture in their charter.  They might be where the Ag agent hangs out if not specifically in another office park.

It might be asking a lot, but that's why I'm having trouble laying it out!  

Here's the land:



I have the woods surrounding me to the east and south, but I am hoping to leave it as is.

How big of a garden area, how many fruit/nut trees?

Need to know your priorities. Are the wooded areas yours, or just not available for this project?

I think what you need to do is print out that image, make it fit a full piece of paper. Perhaps even have a printing place print it on a large piece of paper. Then cutout the footprint, TO SCALE, of what you want, down to the recommended room for the trees you want on more paper. Include cars and a tractor even (think sub-compact utility tractor). Keep arranging everything until you like it.

At the end of the day, as long as you don't put your garden/trees right next to the tree lines, almost any layout would work.

Why goats again? Goats are a major PITA.

 

Just a few random thoughts.

Many places want lots at least 5acres in size in order to have a septic. Do you have access to a sewer? If no sewer, will your jurisdiction allow a septic on 2 acres?

That appears to be in a nice area based on the house visible. Are there restrictions on what you can build on your property? In a lot of areas, a lot like that might be in an HOA or at least have restrictive covenants governing its use.

I would reconsider the barndominium. They are neat and I like them....but if you or your heirs have to sell it, it limits your market of buyers dramatically. Also lots of banks won't finance them unless you put lots of money down. Now if you are planning on a conventional type house with metal siding, then the above doesn't apply. We build a metal sided house and it looks like a normal house just sided with metal. Barndominium implies a shop garage and house all in one.

We already have two goats.

I own 8.5 acres, but I'm just trying to cultivate 2.2 of it. The rest is pretty wild and deep ravines prevent it from easily being used.

I used the term 'barndo' loosely. Probably more like what you said - metal frame and siding that looks like a traditional house.

I would put goats in the wooded areas if at all possible. No reason to waste good flat, open land on them.

If you remove the pasture area, and limit the goats space to just a barn and small confining area, you should have plenty of room.

Personally, I would put a front yard in, house after that and some landscaping to hide the operations in back.

Increases curb appeal, conceals your operation.

Oh, keep the barn separate from the shop if at all possible. Barns are a fire hazard.

Good advice!  Never thought of that.

rough thought of one possibility:

Attached File

Rat_Patrol has a good idea of the layout....as well as keeping the goats in the wooded area. I would recommend the layout that he has in the picture, only modifying it so that the house, barn, and shop are further back from the front of the property and more towards the rear. You may earn the ire of your neighbors by having a noisy shop and noisy animals 100 feet away from the back of their house.

Ask me how I know.

Just move everything to the back third part of the flat property, landscape the front along with some more fruit trees and I think you'll be set.

Goats would much rather be in the woods. In addition, they will clean out the brush and low limbs.

I've thought about fencing in some woods for the goats. Maybe I'll do that.

I want a visual screen between my house and the one directly to the north. I'm thinking about putting fruit trees lining the fences to the north and west to become visual screens.

I'm trying to think about maintenance, and so my mind goes to mowing, storing and moving the mower around, gate locations, etc...

I like forest gardens.
And goats are a PIA go dwarf if you must have them.

Looks like your neighbors are right on top of you.

In the picture posted I would put the house in the lower left corner with shop in the lower right.  Barn/coop in the middle right tucked along the trees.  Garden up front by the neighbors house.  Keep where you will be the most away from the neighbors.

I can't see that being enough land to dick around with a pond, in my opinion.

I can't see the lay of the land but don't build it at the low point. Build it at the high point so running water isn't a problem.

I'd do pigs in the tree lines with premier1 power net fences. They'll till up the ground and if you go with Kune Kune pigs they'll forage for about 30% of their feed and do way more to clear out the woodbine than the goats will just eating browse.

After playing around with some graph paper and laying out a house, garage/shop, barn, chicken coop and goat shed, I've narrowed my frustration down to cross-fencing.

It's not hard to fit the stuff I want in a little over 2 acres, it's optimizing the stuff so cross-fencing makes sense.

For instance, I want to be able to get my mower or even a small tractor to different parts of the land, be able to cultivate areas separate from the animals, and carve out a backyard in all of this that won't just be filled with animal poop.

Don't follow. Do what?