Homesteaders

[rancher hicks]

I was born into a homesteading life, so I consider myself lucky. We currently have 20-odd acres, between 20-50 chickens and 2-3 ducks at any given time, a horse, a dozen Nigerian Dwarf Goats, which we milk in summer, a garden that provides a year of tomatoes, zucchini, rhubarb, and whatever else suits our fancy, a small fruit and berry orchard, a rainwater catchment system for the garden, and enough land left to loan out to local ranchers in exchange for winter tractor equipment parking in our Quonset and winter trapping rights. We hunt our own food, several deer per year, along with wild ducks and geese, pheasants, turkeys, and grouse. The house is partially heated in winter by a small woodstove. We get the wood from dead trees in our shelterbelt, and from neighbors. Recently we built a seed starter greenhouse for my mother with recycled materials appropriated from a remodeling project. Our chickens (and goats) have always been totally free range, and out in the boonies, we have only had brief occasional problems with predators, a fact I attribute to our solid coop and our heavy trapping activity in the area. We can all of our own tomato products, beans, pickles, etc.

All in all, I have a happy and self-sustaining life.

Definitely need to get into selling some of our produce.

One lifesaver is a small farm tractor, couldn't do anything without it, cleaning barn, moving bales, saved my back anyway.

As wet as it is here, I really need to see more of that rain catchment system.

As for the produce perhaps you can barter with it for something you don't provide for yourself, or donate it to families in need.

I'm considering putting some type of green house/ grower system over the septic tank. It's shallow and snow never covers it. I figure if it's warm enough to melt the snow then if I cover it with black plastic and set some beds on top and cover those with a tent of clear plastic I may be able to grow some greens during the winter time.

Any thoughts on this idea? Right now the chickens go there and scratch in the shallow soil and stuff I have dumped on top of it.

 

[boskelli1571]

Well.............the log splitter has died on me! The nut flew off the end and the piston is now totally tweaked

Called the company - I'm 1 month over warranty

Mental note 'never buy anything made in China' again. Anyway they are going to ship a new piston, hopefully before Christmas. The fact that I now have to split everything by hand makes me appreciate how tough the old pioneers must have been! Sue

 

[rancher hicks]

Well.............the log splitter has died on me! The nut flew off the end and the piston is now totally tweaked

Called the company - I'm 1 month over warranty

Mental note 'never buy anything made in China' again. Anyway they are going to ship a new piston, hopefully before Christmas. The fact that I now have to split everything by hand makes me appreciate how tough the old pioneers must have been! Sue

Did they not send you a renewal notice for your warranty? We receive one for our washer and dryer and they have been a blessing as we've had to use them more than once. Of course be sure your warranties cover parts AND labor.

I may be sorry I didn't keep up with our snowblower one, but we do have one on our dishwasher.

In either case I hope the part was not too expensive.

 

[boskelli1571]

No - no notice was sent - I found humor in the brand name tho' Welbilt

Fortunately the piston was only $30 + shipping/handling. My neighbor is an engineer, so I'm hoping he can fix it, otherwise I have to drag the **** thing into town. It's only a 6 ton splitter by it's heavy!! sue

 

[Butterflyhigh]

I was born into a homesteading life, so I consider myself lucky. We currently have 20-odd acres, between 20-50 chickens and 2-3 ducks at any given time, a horse, a dozen Nigerian Dwarf Goats, which we milk in summer, a garden that provides a year of tomatoes, zucchini, rhubarb, and whatever else suits our fancy, a small fruit and berry orchard, a rainwater catchment system for the garden, and enough land left to loan out to local ranchers in exchange for winter tractor equipment parking in our Quonset and winter trapping rights. We hunt our own food, several deer per year, along with wild ducks and geese, pheasants, turkeys, and grouse. The house is partially heated in winter by a small woodstove. We get the wood from dead trees in our shelterbelt, and from neighbors. Recently we built a seed starter greenhouse for my mother with recycled materials appropriated from a remodeling project. Our chickens (and goats) have always been totally free range, and out in the boonies, we have only had brief occasional problems with predators, a fact I attribute to our solid coop and our heavy trapping activity in the area. We can all of our own tomato products, beans, pickles, etc.

Oh, please talk more about free-ranging goats! I would love to have two milk goats. I have the perfect place inside a barn for their pen that is bordered by a large open pasture. It would cost a fortune to fence it in (plus I've heard there is no suck thing as a goat-proof fence, haha). There is a more ideal spot for them on the other side of the property. It is partially wooded and has a more diverse grazing area. If I could allow them to free-range the ideal wooded/grazing area and put them in their enclosed barn at night....it would be great!

However, I have read that goats will jump and climb anything cars included. Also I would be afraid of them wandering off and towards the road.

Do yours wander away or stick close to the home? Are they horrible climbers, do they do any damage? I am SO interested in hearing how it works for you.

Thanks!

 

[rancher hicks]

No - no notice was sent - I found humor in the brand name tho' Welbilt

Fortunately the piston was only $30 + shipping/handling. My neighbor is an engineer, so I'm hoping he can fix it, otherwise I have to drag the **** thing into town. It's only a 6 ton splitter by it's heavy!! sue

Well I'll keep my fingers crossed

I buy most large things from Sears and make sure the warranty of course includes parts and labor but also that they come here to fix what ever it is. Lowes also have a similar warranty.

We are nearing a new set of machines. These are almost 7 yrs old and I can hear the washer getting louder.

I learned my lesson on a TV, don't by RCA or Magnovox or Philips. This according to the repair man. Anyhow the TV broke at 11 mos. but the warranty didn't cover parts AND labor and we were told the labor could be $150. Well heck we only paid $200 for it. Plus it was one of those older heavy things and I can't lift them. We'd just moved into this house so I took the blasted thing over to the old house, left it on the curb. Funny our washer and dryer had broken too just before the move.

Also funny is we had friends carry them to the curb too, only the washer still have all DW's rugs in it.

 

[rancher hicks]

Now here's a tip about Barnes and Nobles books. We've been a member for a long time. Since we buy a lot of books we find it worth it. You save 10% off all purchases, BUT during the year and especially at this time of year they send you e-mails for 20% or more additional savings.

We just renewed it $25. So far we've saved more than that already.

I just ordered "Dream Snow" by Eric Carle and saved $10 at least. Plus I got free shipping to my grandson in TX. Mostly at this time of year I use the coupons to buy Starbucks coffee and stock up.

Also if you have college kids they can use the membership for text books.

And if you forget your card you just give them your phone number.

I do get coupons to save on the Nook and all that but I prefer paper to plastic in my books too.

 

[boskelli1571]

That sounds like quite the deal Rancher!. I love books - won't go to a Kindle or such, like you I like the feel of a book - there's something comforting about it. I try not to buy new books, I am an avid fan of 2nd hand books. It's rare that we will buy anything new, with a little patience, you can get almost anything!

Sue

 

[Raech]

I was just telling hubby how he can't take me to Barnes & Nobles. He gave me a funny look because our town doesn't have one, but Spokane does, and Sioux Falls does in SD. I told him if he took me there I would never leave, he would find my castle and me sitting in the middle with a mountain of books. I have a feeling the children would be right next to me too. lol I am a huge bookworm, but I prefer the library, or Hastings when I worked, my "kids" would want to go there to check out stuff and we would read and do homework. We don't go to the library very often since I am rereading my books again and the oldest is on the computer.

So it got cold enough outside the condensation from my soup making froze my glass door shut for 3 days. It finally thawed but the funniest part is there wasn't any snow when it froze and now there is and its thawing.

 

[farmerkevin]

That sounds like quite the deal Rancher!. I love books - won't go to a Kindle or such, like you I like the feel of a book - there's something comforting about it. I try not to buy new books, I am an avid fan of 2nd hand books.  It's rare that we will buy anything new, with a little patience, you can get almost anything! Sue

Same here. I love going to the library where they have a "friends of the library" book store, and I get books for $0.25-$0.50 a piece. Been building my library this way. It takes some time to search through the shelves, but I do it. Picked up some plant ID books, western gardening books, gardening, cooking, etc books.

Craigslist is another source. People give hundreds of books away at a time. I go through them, take what I want, and then donate the rest to the library. Win win.

Thrift stores too.

My plan is to have books on the exterior wall of my room. Should be decent insulation

I am a big fan of Stephen king and buy them for $0.50 for hardbacks. Can't beat that. My favorite book is Christine. All I could find new were paperbacks. Found a great condition used copy with sleeve, for $0.50 at the library.

I've furnished my house free. I'm always looking on craigslist. I'm looking for bookshelves. Some day, I'll find some worth getting. It just takes patience