I can't answer the defensive issue so someone else chime in.
5 acres is a nice size. That is supposed to be about the maximum that one able-bodied man with a pick-mattock combo can manage using purely manual labor (I think "40" is the figure if he has a mule to do the ploughing for him).
It is actually more than enough for yourself and your extended family and you could have some leftover to trade IF you are growing the right crops. The Irish reputedly fed 20 peasants per acre on potatoes. Potatoes are extraordinarily productive; that's why they are cheap. Be sure to eat the section right under the skin as that is where the protein is concentrated. They're only about 2% protein but that's enough to keep you from getting kwashiorkor (protein deficiency).
Anybody who wants to grow potatoes, get some Tom Wagner potatoes. Inquire offline. There are some logistical issues that need to be handled but I think we can take care of it. Might have to recruit some manual labor for digging.
Kentucky has warm enough summers to grow many types of sweet potatoes. Those have less protein than a potato, but far more vitamin A and are reputedly less glycemic despite their obvious sugar content! Might be nice to have both for variety. Their high caloric content would be good.
Other productive crops include some of the Brassicas like cabbage, collards, and kale (my cup runneth over), which by the way are all highly nutritious, being rich in Folacin, vitamin A, vitamin C, Calcium, and leaf-protein, strawberries (a plant that occupies 1 square foot will give you a few handfuls of fruit a year; not bad), tomatoes (make sure they ripen! don't end up with wasted green tomatoes), beets (I think these are roughly 2nd to potatoes), and rutabagas (which are more nutritious than their milder-tasting cousins turnips).
Think about it; there were reasons our ancestors ate so many potatoes and rutabagas. Most folks won't eat rutabagas anymore, but if you are a good cook you can actually make quite good use of out them. Problem was our average peasant ancestor just boiled 'em and ate 'em fairly plain.
Roasted root vegetables are pretty good; they slightly carmelize, and the dry-roasting dries them out a bit and concentrates their flavors.
I would not bother raising livestock other than chickens, maybe rabbits, and maybe some fish in a small outdoor pond--the problem being that there is no coldwater fish I can think of that is the equivalent of a Tilapia--an herbivorous fish that will live on your garden leftovers, and is an air-breather to boot!! But alas they can't take cold. Maybe carp are your next-best bet; I dunno. Not a fish expert.
In any case, there is a reason that "a chicken for the pot on Sundays" was a big deal. In real life, peasant farmers lived on exactly 1 pig per year per family; dried pork was a minor addendum to a mostly vegetable soup or stew with some bread. The pigfat was rendered with some lye leached out from wood ashes to create soap.
Chicken usually went to the landlord, and even that was mostly old hens turned into soup, and surplus young roosters.
