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Two-site operating model — 5-acre home base and 120-acre farm

Purpose

Define how a single farm business runs when family and command infrastructure sit on a ~5-acre home base (SITE_HOME) and primary production and revenue sit on a ~120-acre parcel (SITE_FARM), separated by COMMUTE_ONE_WAY (planning default ~35 minutes one way—measure and log; do not plan on “it feels shorter”).

This page is operational, not legal or tax advice. It stays valid while enterprise mix on the 120 acres is still open: it describes where work and capital land, not which commodity wins.

Binding stance: COMMUTE_ONE_WAY ≈ 35 min is a structural tax, not a rounding error. Routine unnecessary trips are treated as margin and morale destroyers. Batching, low daily physical touch, and remote observability are first-class design filters—not optional optimizations.

Relationship to generic dual-site pattern

For a production-led two-site layout without the East Tennessee plan’s named sites, see:

Package overlays (stricter policy + disqualifiers):

Decisions supported by this page

Decision This page provides
Where to place CAPEX (homestead vs production parcel) Split tables; irreversible vs relocatable
What counts as a worth-it trip to the 120 Links to trip policy; distance-tax tiers
What is centralized at home vs distributed in-field Comms, broker, records authority, spares
Emergency response when distance and darkness matter Tier link to coverage matrix + runbooks
Whether an enterprise survives the split Distance-tax rules + disqualifiers

Operating picture

Site roles (non-negotiable facts from the business plan)

Site Size (planning) Role
SITE_HOME ~5 ac Residence; long-run smart operations center (network, broker, backups, workshop/lab, development). Not the primary commercial production land.
SITE_FARM ~120 ac Primary production decision surface: livestock, forage, crops, infrastructure tied to revenue. All major enterprise bets resolve here first.

Named anchors (local evidence) — SITE_HOME Claxton / Anderson County; SITE_FARM Demory / Campbell County. Detail: Claxton home base — site intelligence, Demory farm — site intelligence, Anderson vs Campbell — operating implications.

County / site Plan implication (tightened from vault sources)
Anderson (Claxton) 2024 NASS non-irrigated cropland rent $28.50/ac county estimate—ballpark for lease comps only; parcel soils not in corpus—run WSS on homestead AOI.
Campbell (Demory) NASS $27.50/ac same category; processed WSS AOI shows steep gravelly map units dominant—reinforces T0–T1 touch tiers for grazing vs T3 row-crop primary, and internal road / drainage as early CAPEX peers with fence/water.

What changed because of local evidence: County rent rows and Campbell terrain signal tighten V7 lease bands and earthwork/lane sequencing—they do not replace P90 drive logs or G1 soil/water proofs.

Functions by location

Function Preferred location Notes
Broker, dashboards, config store, backup target SITE_HOME Stable power; daily physical access for ops
Field gateways, tank/pump sensing, gate position SITE_FARM Edge; must fail safe when backhaul is down
Livestock handling, stored feed, equipment SITE_FARM Mass and mess stay off the 5 ac
CAD, 3D printing for jigs/repair parts SITE_HOME Design at home; install at SITE_FARM
Authoritative business records Choose one: SITE_HOME + cloud, or cloud with offline export Write the choice in Farm spatial model and asset registry standard or farmOS policy

Topology reference (diagrams, not a bill of materials): Two-site smart farm — network topology and WAN/edge reference (Mermaid).

Site Starlink / LEO broadband role Notes
SITE_HOME Primary WAN candidate or backup to fiber/cable In many rural parcels, satellite broadband is the first stable Internet—treat wireline as prove-it. If both exist, define which is primary and failover in a private runbook.
SITE_FARM Conditional uplink or deferred Often no trench-grade wireline: Starlink (or LTE) can be primary farm Internet when remote visibility and egress justify hardware + subscription. Defer a second terminal until Phase 1 comms/traffic proof—avoid duplicating “brains” without labor ROI.

Enables: batched trips with remote checks, VPN paths for admin, cloud/TSDB egress from field gateways, voice/maps when driving.

Must not silently become: a reason to skip physical water/fence checks; assumed bandwidth for camera mesh everywhere; only path for books without offline export; unexamined single-SKU dependency without weather/outage rehearsal.

What changed because of Starlink analysis: WAN is named (Starlink Mini vs Standard spec PDFs in electrical batch source-note) instead of a generic “internet TBD,” so distance-tax and trip batching can be tied to honest uplink expectations.

Distance-tax rules (explicit)

Definition — distance tax: The recurring operational penalty of not being co-located with production: round-trip drive time, vehicle OPEX, loaded labor while driving, context switching, inability to do “five-minute checks”, and morale cost when trips are frequent but low value.

Symbols (placeholders—fill with evidence; do not invent local dollars here)

Symbol Meaning
COMMUTE_ONE_WAY Minutes one way; planning default ~35 until superseded by P90 from a season of logged drives
T_RT Round-trip drive time = 2 × COMMUTE_ONE_WAY (minutes)
τ_ctx Non-driving friction per visit (gear, fuel, boots, mental handoff)—minutes, measured
H_VISIT Productive on-site hours planned for a visit (work-order scope)
mi_rt Round-trip miles (odometer or maps worst-case)
$/mi Vehicle marginal cost per mile (your books)
σ Loaded hourly cost of operator time including drive (replacement wage or opportunity rate—policy)
trips_wk Expected count of SITE_HOME → SITE_FARM → SITE_HOME cycles in a normal week for an enterprise

Core formulas (cash + time sanity)

ID Formula / rule
DT-0 Forbidden optimism: Do not plan using COMMUTE_ONE_WAY below your logged P90 without a full season of drive logs and a documented reason (road change, move—rare).
DT-1 Minimum visit payload: Let H_block = (T_RT + τ_ctx)/60 + H_VISIT. A “trip” must carry H_VISIT ≥ H_VISIT_MIN unless Tier-1 emergency (see trip policy). H_VISIT_MIN is a family policy placeholder—set it high enough that junk trips hurt.
DT-2 Incremental split OPEX (for worksheet linkage): per Enterprise unit economics, Δ_OPEX_SPLIT_X captures trips, miles, time, cold chain, duplicate gear—not double-counted with haul rows (SPLIT-2).
DT-3 Split burden ratio: R_SPLIT_X = Δ_OPEX_SPLIT_X / max(contribution margin_X, ε) — enterprise X fails SPLIT-1 if R_SPLIT_X > R_SPLIT_MAX (placeholder ceiling).
DT-4 Trip frequency cap (normal ops): If a business model requires trips_wk > TRIPS_WK_MAX and no resident operator at SITE_FARM and no hired daily presence, classify as disqualified or redesign (telemetry, batching, enterprise change). TRIPS_WK_MAX is not generous—treat frequent driving as structural failure.

Morale and attention tax (non-cash, real)

ID Rule
DT-5 Junk trips (drive out for “peace of mind” with no prior work order and no open Tier-1 condition) count toward burnout and invalidate “low labor” claims in family review.
DT-6 Batching is not optional where physical work can be stacked: spread visits across the week without telemetry-backed reason → policy failure, not “being diligent.”

Distance-tax tiers (for ranking enterprises)

Tier Touch expectation Structural fit with ~35 min split
T0 — Episodic Long intervals; surge weeks predictable Fits if batched + telemetry
T1 — Weekly batch 1–3 non-emergency visit blocks / week Default target band for family ops
T2 — Multi-touch >3 planned weekly visits or unpredictable extras High tax—must show R_SPLIT acceptable
T3 — Daily physical Needs eyes/hands most days Poor fit without resident labor or crew—not baseline

Distance and batching (metrics table)

Metric Placeholder How to update
One-way commute COMMUTE_ONE_WAY = ___ min Log AM/PM; use P90 for planning
Typical productive visit ___ h on site Time study
Tier-1 alert conditions Listed in Instrumentation priority matrix + trip policy Keep short—alert fatigue = failure

Batch rules (strict)

  • Rule A: No SITE_FARM visit for trivial on-site work under H_VISIT_MIN unless Tier-1 open or scheduled surge block.
  • Rule B: Fixed days of week for heavy SITE_FARM work; surge weeks override the template explicitly on the calendar.
  • Rule C: Telemetry that only duplicates what a two-minute walk would fix without reducing trips is not “automation success”—it’s dashboard theater (see Instrumentation ROI).

Infrastructure split (living document)

Asset SITE_HOME SITE_FARM Notes
Internet / VPN termination Primary LTE fallback? Y/N
MQTT broker / observability core Primary Edge buffer only if designed Runbook — broker or backhaul down
Backup power UPS / small generator plan Pump/generator at critical loads
Trailer / load-out Secondary Primary

Known facts

ID Statement
K1 The 5-acre parcel is not the primary production site in this plan.
K2 The 120-acre parcel is the main production and revenue locus.
K3 Business intent is profit-first, then low labor, then resilience (Planning framework).

Assumptions

ID Statement
A1 COMMUTE_ONE_WAY is representative for batch planning until a drive log proves otherwise.
A2 At least one adult can reach SITE_FARM within acceptable emergency delay for the chosen enterprises (define “acceptable” in the coverage matrix).

Open questions

ID Question
Q1 Is overnight stay at or near SITE_FARM allowed for calving, hay windows, or security?
Q2 Seasonal road constraints (snow, mud, gate icing) on the route?
Q3 Exact boundary and easement facts—deed vs mental map?

Iterative updates (over time)

  • Replace placeholders with logged commute and visit durations (P90, not best day).
  • Revisit distance-tax tiers after every enterprise change—R_SPLIT must be recomputed.
  • If junk trips persist, treat as operating model failure, not a willpower problem: redesign telemetry, batch policy, or enterprise mix (disqualifiers).