Homesteaders

[wyoDreamer]

I grew up in northern Wisconsin - well north of Green Bay at least. Pickled Eggs were always on the shelves in the taverns, right next to the pickled pigs feet and pickled sausages. Never did see the charm in any of them, yuck! I did eat the pickles though!

Where we are now is nice enough, if you like brown grass, no trees and endless views. I miss green. A visiting friend commented that you can see so far that you can see the curvature of the earth. The area joke is: if your dog runs away you can watch him go for three days. Bada boom!

 

[UnlabeledMama]

Another wannabe here!

We live on 2/3 of an acre in town so not a lot of room, but we are trying to maximize our space. We have 18 hens and one rabbit that we will hopefully breed breed once we find a buck. We planted 2 apple trees, a pear tree and a cherry tree this past summer. We already have a scuppernog grape vine, 3 blueberry bushes and a blackberry bush. We are planning a big garden for this year - I just hope we get good rewards from it!

We do lots of cooking from scratch, line drying, cloth diapering, canning, etc as well. We are working at being more self sufficient and having less money going out!

 

[wyoDreamer]

Actually, where we live is just on the edge of where the landscape gets interesting. We are on the northern tip of the front range and the western edge of prairie. We can see most of the lights of Cheyenne, so over 16 miles from my doorstep to the western edge of town.
Here is a view from our back deck - see, a little brown and boring. But 10 minutes away, we start getting into the mountains.

 

[MountainMamaHST]

Beautiful!
Anyone ever try straw bale growing?

 

[HopefulSteader]

We are definitely interested in doing more on our own for our family. This is our first year with our chicks and I'm super excited to find our first egg! We recently purchased some land and I can't wait to have our mini farm.

I have canned salsa and apple butter (check out using your slow cooker, so easy!) and this year I'll be doing spaghetti sauce, salsa. sun dried tomatoes, corn, etc...I square foot garden and last year it went well but I was unsure of what to do with all the tomatoes as they ripend at different times. I'm ashamed to say many of them spoiled BUT I was reading how to freeze them to use. I'm looking forward to this years garden!

 

[HillbillyHeart]

I am also looking forward to getting the garden going this year. It seems that winter just won't let go here. I've been saving vacation time at work so I can take off later in the year to get canning done. Also waiting on warmer (and drier) weather to get started on the new chicken coop. I don't think I've ever been so ready for spring.

 

[MountainMamaHST]

I hear ya on winter being over! We need to finish our coops! I doubled up on my masters classes so I can have the summer to work at the house on the gardens. We at trying all sorts plans this year from regular till the dirt to srawbales and pallets!

 

[MountainMamaHST]

Hoping that can grow us enough

 

[primalchick]

Great thread! We are very into the "homesteading" lifestyle. Our farm is a full quarter section (160 acres) so we have lots of opportunity! Right now we still have lots of snow but it's melting at least Our garden goes in mid-May. We are expanding on it this year and going to start some tomatoes and peppers inside this week. I started canning and freezing last year and will again this year, and maybe dry some herbs too. We have 6 hens and a rooster, and 2 baby Silkies in the brooder right now, and I plan to let my hens hatch out their own babies. Keep the pullets and eat the Roos like we did last year.

It's just hubby and I. We own our own company so I just do books from home and look after the farm. We have one little inside/outside dog (Shih tzu mix). I just bought my starter flock of sheep. 20 bred ewes due to lamb in June. I'm planning to build up by keeping ewe lambs until I have 100-150 ewes. I'm very excited about this new endeavor! We also just got a Great Pyrenees pup (14 weeks old now) to guard them. He's been guarding the chickens too! He's great already!!

We also have 2 horses. Arabian geldings, I do endurance rides with them and hubby and I like to camp in the mountains and trail ride. Every year we buy a steer and toss him out with the horses on grass and butcher in the fall. I've decided I want a milk cow now and have been reading/researching and we are hoping to buy one this summer. I'm a certified AI tech so I plan to AI her every year and we'll raise her calves for our freezer. I already make butter and yogurt at home so it'll be great to have our own milk to do it with too!

Oh and we also buy a couple weiners (piglets) every year to raise and butcher too. Hubby wants to buy some sows now to breed and sell the extra piglets. He worked in a pig barn for a while so he knows how to AI them and all the care they need too.

Our home is a little old farm house we love We have a big wood stove in the basement for supplemental heat. It's amazingly cozy! And works out great for us as we just go cut dead fall off our land and my in-laws farm to use for firewood. Helps out with the heat bill a lot. I have a clothes line which is great in summer, and in winter I use a rack by the wood stove a lot.

We love homesteading! I've got hubby talked into building me a root cellar this summer. Fingers crossed he had the time!

 

[kian]

Another wanna be here! We have a garden that is ever expanding. I hope to grow about 75% of our produce this year. We have chickens (naturally!). I'd love to have the room for more livestock, but we're in the suburbs here. Standard suburban postage stamp lot. So, we'll do what we can! (oh and I also do can LOL)