Now in an ideal world, every homestead would contain an equal amount of gently sloped and flat land. Every homestead also would be south facing, have great soil, an ample water supply, some gentle shade trees, beautiful fields, a big red or white barn and plentiful outbuildings.  Now in the real world, your homestead could be like mine, north facing land with a sharp 25-degree slope to it, with your house situated on the very top of the south-west corner of the 5-acre land. Our house also sits on some of the only flat land. Everything uphill from us is technically not our land but are easements for the road or power company. The easement land is also the sunniest and flattest land around so consequently, our garden, rabbit pens, turkeys, woodshed, and driveway are there. And pretty soon the chickens will be too. Sometimes while hauling things around my homestead I dream of flat land of ‘Oh how it would just be easier if the land was just flatter’. But as we all know, the grass is always greener somewhere else.  Living on a sharply sloped homestead HAS presented unique challenges but it has also created great learning experiences and presented opportunities that wouldn’t exist if the land was flat.

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An old-fashioned root cellar in a hill at Jess’s house. It was built when the Oregon Trail was active.

Here are some truths about homesteading on a sloped land:

1. The 4ft chicken fence is plenty high unless that 4ft is downhill and then chickens fly right over the top. And they always fly downhill. Always.
2. Wheelbarrows are the enemy. Maybe they are good for flatland or wide rows with no tree roots. But otherwise, they are horrible. Get a tiny, weeny amount of slope and that thing tips over dumping the contents the wrong direction. It is maddening, I’ve wanted to throw my wheelbarrow down the hill multiple times.  Or hey there is a small tree root and that thing that is supposed to protect the wheel gets caught. And then it tips over. Wheelbarrows are assholes.
3. Chicken tractors don’t work. I dare you to find a design on the internet that will work on sloped bumpy land that won’t allow a fox or dog in.
4. Water drainage should be a no-brainer on sloped land, but I moved into a house and drainage system that somebody else designed so somehow the water flows exactly where you don’t want it to, under your house or woodshed, and through the rabbit poo, draining it into the driveway.
5. Everything needs to be carried uphill, at least 75% of the time. I’m pretty sure that’s breaking some law of probability.
6. The house somehow blocks the sun from your planned garden space.
7. The best spot for your animals and garden are uphill of the water catchments draining off of your house.
8. There is an ongoing ‘discussion’ with your husband about what you want to build on the only flat land available, so consequently, nothing gets built there.
9. At some point, you are going to have to mow or snow blow uphill, a lot.
10. If you cut any trees down, say for a firebreak,  the trees fall downhill of the driveway, even if you fell them uphill, and you still have to haul them up.

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Those are the negatives though. There are also a lot of positives to living on a slope as I’ve learned.

1. You have an awesome view!
2. If you have snow there’s a sledding hill for your kids or for yourself, I love sledding.
3. It’s much easier to throw a wheelbarrow on a slope than on flat land
4. If your house is situated correctly you can gravity feed water down to your garden or animals.
5. There is a possibility of making an old-fashioned buried root cellar in the hillside. I really want to do this.
6. On a south-facing slope, you would get wonderful sunlight all over your property.
7. Drainage is actually easier to design on sloped land than flat.
8. Downhill of my chicken yard, the fertilized dirt filters through the chicken wire making truly spectacular potting soil. Thank you chickens.
9. Gravity helps when you have to haul things downhill.
10. You become a master croquet player.
11. You could potentially make a storage pond for water.
12. You get a lot of exercises climbing up and down your property all day.
13. You learn to build french drains like a pro.
14. You learn to build some truly creative water catchment systems.
15. Underhouse Storage!

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The view from my kitchen table.

These are just a few of the things I’ve learned from living on a sloped homestead. Share your experiences with us and what is your favorite thing about living where you live.