Homesteaders

[newbie32]

Apples are funny. They can't grow from seed. They are "created" from crossing the genetic material of two different kinds of trees so that may make their needs a bit different, but here is a simple write-up on their cross-pollination. We do have two different types of tress on our property, though at my previous home the two trees produced very similar fruit so I guess I always assumed they were the same type of tree, but maybe they are just different enough. :-D

Okay so it would be a good idea to make sure there are honeybees close by. I have considered raising honeybees when I get my property anyways. It is a little intimidating because I don't like to get stung LOL

 

[Raech]

I take all of my summer, Bennings, and butternut squash, and steam and puree it. Pour it all into pint sized ball jars and freeze. Then, periodically over the year, I pull one out and add that veggie to my meals (just about any and all of them). That way I am (and my family is too) always eating my veggies even if I am eating a meal that doesn't ordinarily have veggies. We use a few while they are fresh for grilling or whatever is going on at that moment, but after that, I puree and freeze everything. HTH.

That helps a lot, thank you. I asked my grandpa and he told me how to do it for dinner in the oven, with butter and brown sugar. I wonder if I use my rice cooker steam tray thing, if that will work to steam it, or if I should just cook it in the oven and bag it up that way, it looks like orange mashed potatoes after I scoop it out of the skin. I don't use glass in my freezer just because it could fall since we barely have any room to open the door where the big freezer is, but I can definitely vacuum seal it. A harvest pie would be good too, just tell him it's pumpkin lol.

 

[mylittlechicken]

I am new to a building up a homestead (when you even can call it a homestead on 1.5 acre).
I got inspired by a family I watched a clip on youtube. Since then I started to plant vegetables, fruit trees and so on.
Just wonder what you all made become a homesteader and how your beginnings were. I also would love to see some pictures to get more ideas for good layouts.

 

[newbie32]

I am new to a building up a homestead (when you even can call it a homestead on 1.5 acre).
I got inspired by a family I watched a clip on youtube. Since then I started to plant vegetables, fruit trees and so on.
Just wonder what you all made become a homesteader and how your beginnings were. I also would love to see some pictures to get more ideas for good layouts.

1.5 acres is plenty. I wanted to homestead when I realized the country was not doing so good. I want a back up plan and I want to be self reliant- no starving here! I have yet to plant anything. The weather here is still in the 100's and the desert wont grow as easily as other areas. I plan to get a few potted plants within the next few weeks.
I started with chickens. I plan to breed my Orps for meat and eggs and hopefully never need to buy either again! My next venture-after I get at least an acre for myself (currently on 1/4 acre) is to get dwarf milking goats. Milk, cheese and perhaps butter would be available. I of course would breed my own so I will have an endless supply=no more buying goats if I breed my own.

I plan on planting my trees first above all other planting because they need to grow longer.I will definitely get a nut tree (like pecans or hazelnut or something). The nut trees will produce year after year and there bounty does not need to be canned or freezed. They just need to be kept dry. So if SHTF you will always have food. Try and dig a well out if possible, it could save you. Plus a windmill for pulling the water out AND creating electricity!

 

[mylittlechicken]

My Husband started with the idea of self sufficient, he bought this emergency food but that taste like crap. Since we moved out here we finally have the possibility. That means I do most of the garden stuff.
I wish we could have goats too, to make cheese and get milk. But our neighborhood association don`t allow it.

 

[akelley]

We're on one (rented) acre; it totally counts!

So far we're getting chickens (in October), and DH is going to build me some raised beds this winter. He hunts, and we get as many fat squirrels as we want; just pick them off with an air rifle through the window.

DH is looking into meat rabbits, and we're planning on culling our flock heavily, so there's more meat for us.

This is my second year canning; I'm looking forward to canning my own produce next year.

I have always been attracted to the homesteading lifestyle (I wanted to BE Laura Ingalls Wilder growing up) and now we're financially able to make it happen!

I'm looking forward to seeing how this thread goes; it's nice to have other homesteaders to chat with!

 

[newbie32]

We're on one (rented) acre; it totally counts!

So far we're getting chickens (in October), and DH is going to build me some raised beds this winter. He hunts, and we get as many fat squirrels as we want; just pick them off with an air rifle through the window.

DH is looking into meat rabbits, and we're planning on culling our flock heavily, so there's more meat for us.

This is my second year canning; I'm looking forward to canning my own produce next year.

I have always been attracted to the homesteading lifestyle (I wanted to BE Laura Ingalls Wilder growing up) and now we're financially able to make it happen!

I'm looking forward to seeing how this thread goes; it's nice to have other homesteaders to chat with!

Squirrel eww cause of rabies and cause they are cute. Chickens yes! Rabbit YES! with an acre you could get dwarf goats too. and maybe a couple pigs!!!

My Husband started with the idea of self sufficient, he bought this emergency food but that taste like crap. Since we moved out here we finally have the possibility. That means I do most of the garden stuff.
I wish we could have goats too, to make cheese and get milk. But our neighborhood association don`t allow it.

Try and change that ordinance! Find people that want them too, tell them you will settle for dwarf goats, idk but fight it!

 

[akelley]

Haha Newbie32 a squirrel with rabies would not be food. We would kill it though, because who wants rabies running around in their neighborhood?

We've talked about doing a goat, but we have four dogs that would love to snack on goat poop (yuck). We'll do a goat when we have enough land to fence off a few different pastures. I'd love to have a milk goat. Plus, they're always on Craigslist for free down here...

Mylittlechicken you should definitely see if there's anyone else around you that wants to get the ordinance changed. If you find more like-minded people, you stand a good chance. Just ask the Hens for Houston people

 

[Raech]

Squirrel eww cause of rabies and cause they are cute. Chickens yes! Rabbit YES! with an acre you could get dwarf goats too. and maybe a couple pigs!!!



Try and change that ordinance! Find people that want them too, tell them you will settle for dwarf goats, idk but fight it!

My Grandpa and Dad shoot the squirrels and Starlings at their house, but they feed the stray cats that live there and we have yet to have a mouse problem, they eat all the cherries and walnuts from our three trees so I feel bad but at least I know the kittens are getting plenty of food through the year. I know squirrel is very popular in some areas but ours are really scrawny so we don't eat them. I have been threatening the squirrel that lives on our block "Nutty" that if he plants one more peanut or walnut in my pots I will shoot him, but my boys would be really upset, and the whole apartment complex feeds him, along with the neighborhood "stray" dog. Our town has an ordinance that you can have up to 6 hens, and/or 2 goats as long as they are clean and kept contained. It got changed a couple of years back because enough people signed a petition and went before the city and fought to be able to have them in their own backyard.

I got started "going back to basics" when I started seeing all the stuff about what China does to our food, and the recalls because of it. Plus I think that buying from my own country is important, and I just love the idea of growing stuff, and I found a man who can save it when my black thumb comes out. LOL But it really started sinking in that I could put up a lot of produce when I stumbled into my late Grandma's sewing/canning room and saw all the empty and filled jars. My Grandpa and Dad have a garden every year, and it really got big when we( my Dad and I) moved in my senior year, we started planting tomatoes, corn and the squash popped up from years before. Then Grandpa started telling stories of having bees, grape vines, blackberry rows 20 feet long, turkeys in a chicken house, 100's of acres for cows and hay, and the horses to cover it as well. It made me want to go back to those days, and bring the life back to a house that was so sad after Grandma died and the family started falling apart. I also want my boys to grow up being able to say that milk comes from a cow instead of Walmart, and "brown cows make chocolate milk, and the red ones(red angus) make strawberry milk." My lovely husband taught him that one, so the whole trip from the airport to home we heard that repeatedly.

Hubby is starting to come around to get horses as long as they are Clydesdales, and training the dogs to pull sleds; he is starting to understand why I say that they were bred to do this and its not fair for them to simple sit on the floor all day or running around the yard, they should do what they were bred to do(with proper training of course). He is ok with 3 hens for now, and just wants them for eggs; maybe a calf or two in the spring, once we get the property, for fall "harvest" time. He isn't too sure about killing something that we raised, which I understand completely, this is new for both of us, so it's going to be very interesting watching our story start to unfold over the next 10 years or so.

I know this is going to sound really bad(I hate thinking about it) but after my Grandpa passes, my Dad gets the property and wants us to move in to help with the day to day upkeep since he is a long haul truck driver so most of my ideas are based off of my Grandpa's property, which is 7 acres with a running creek and animal rights. Most of my plans are just to take it back to what my Grandparents had originally planned, like finishing the basement, adding the second fireplace and finishing the master bath. Then keeping everything the same outside, the garden won't change location, the chicken house with be rebuilt and the fruit trees, vines and such will be replanted in the same spot, or close to how it used to be. With the exception of the chickens instead of turkeys the property will be the same as Grandma and Grandpa had wanted it. But the shag carpet is going to be replaced with something else because it does not go well with a wood stove, let alone two on different levels. That is my biggest reason to starting on this path is that I want to raise my children as close to the basics as I can and I really want to see my "family home" in its glory. I have heard my Grandpa talk about how big it was when he bought the property, and seen him built it up to what it is today by his stories and actually walking the property with him and hearing how bugs and disease took most of the apple, and peach trees, and how a certain horse killed Grandma's favorite apple tree by eating the bark, that I just really want to be able to see what he did when he bought the property. This way my children and future generations will always have a piece of the past in their future.

Now that you know my deep dark secret/dream please don't be too harsh on me.

 

[Raech]

Sorry I didn't see how long that was getting.