An acre, from the standpoint of a suburban house lot, is a fairly decent piece of land. From the standpoint of agriculture or leisure activities , it’s mighty small. Slightly better than 200 feet on a side. Not enough to buy you the kind of isolation from the neighbors you’d need for paintball or camping.
I’d say that the hardwood farm is one decent approach. The distance away sort of precludes anything maintenance intensive like xmas trees, an orchard, or an actual garden. I suppose you could plow it over and plant sunflowers.
Of course, it sort of depends on where it is. An acre of land in New England, if left to its own, is going to become woods fairly quickly.
An acre is 43,560 sq ft or approx 208 x 208 feet (if square)
Call the applicable municipal authority and confirm on the zoing. DO NOT use the tax listing data to confirm zoning, it’s often wrong or misleading . Once you know zoning that will determine the allowable range of uses.
Put a fence around it. Build a cabin and stockpile food and other necessities. Collect guns and explosives for defense and boobytrap the perimeter. Declare it a sovereign nation, fly a flag of your own design, and dare the law to screw with you lest you make defensive strike to protect the homeland. Believe me, they will be too scared to mess with you.
But seriously, what you can legally do on it depends in large part on the local zoning regulations. Check with the planning department for the area’s governmental entity.
This is what I am going through right now, found a .9 acre lot for a great price, the zoning for intended use is kinda fuzzy but planning is saying OK, I am putting in a request for that in writing so I don’t buy it and then have them tell me no. In my case its my wife and I along with my sister and her husband, carving out a little “Drach estate” between the 4 of us. Lots of room for some fruit trees, deck areas, area for the kids to explore and have many an adventure without ever leaving the property. Looking forward to the joy of trenching for sewer and water lines.
To the OP something like a small impromptu farm might be viable, just plant a bunch of assorted fruit and nut trees and leave it alone after a few years you should be able to buzz by and pick up enough fruit and nuts in an hour to make several happy neighbors and or free fruits for canning, jellymaking, or homebrewing if you are into that.
I don’t know about Michigan, but I think that in most of the U.S. there are very few desirable fruit or nut trees that do not require a lot of care (regular skillful pruning, weeding, proper fertilization, fungicides, insecticides, antibiotics, netting to protect fruits and nuts from squirrels, birds, etc.). I like the “valuable hardwood” idea or, if you are up for more of a challenge, you could cultivate mushrooms.
Being dead serious, I would cultivate truffles. Put a stand of hazelnut trees on it, inoculate them with truffle fungus about 5 years in. About 5 years after that, just rent a pig, and presto, truffles at $200 a pound or whatever they go for. If I ever get an extra acre of land that’s what I’m doing.
Well im also not talking about any kind of optimal yeild situation, its not like you are making a living on these plants. Sure you are going to loose alot to squirrels and such but in some ways I would think it would almost add to the experience having all the little critters around. Many other types of melons, fruits, berries whatever could be tossed around as well. just let them run wild, some will die out, some will thrive. If someone picks some…oh well. My only worry in a very rural area would be a bear moving in or something like a bobcat preying on all the little critters.
Just had a thought: are there close-by neighbors? How big a bastard can you be?
Because you could plow the acre and sow it in dandelion, crab grass, bamboo, chinese lanterns, bittersweet, and every other noxious and/or invasive plant you could think of. And, as a bonus, there would be no need to maintain those plants in any way. They’re all ridiculously hardy, let them fight it out among themselves…at the same time they try their damnedest to take over the surroundings.
After a couple of years of never ending battles against your invading horde, the neighbors would probably be ready to band together and off you a sizeable increase over the fair market value just to be able to nuke your ‘nature preserve.’
