Homesteaders

[newbie32]

I grew up on the outskirts of a small town. Mom always had a large garden and friends who were farmers. I sorely missed the countryside when we moved into a mid sized city.I always liked the idea of being self sufficient, and my husband practically grew up on his grandparents farm when he was little. We started small- with a garden taking up a quarter of our rented urban house. We shopped at the farmers market and I learned to can and make wine. My friend had a place out in the country, where she had a community garden, where I grew potatoes, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, beans, etc... in addition to my home garden. We moved up north so I could complete my degree, and we rented the schoolhouse on a acre.

We homesteaded for 4 years on that rented acre. We had a large garden, and soon added chickens, ducks and geese that free ranged over the property, and the orchard next door (with permission) although they rarely went to the orchard except when over ripe fruit was dropping. The last year we were there we added 4 sheep (2 icelandics, 2 shetlands) to the menagerie. Their pen was a 1/4 acre and we had 4 - 12' steel cattle panels we moved around our yard daily for them to graze, we later changed it out for 8 homemade wood corral pieces that were lighter and easier for me to move. We didn't have to mow our lawn that year! We did discover that 4 sheep on an acre was too much in a drought year and we often used the orchard next door for grazing space.

Just recently we bought our current homestead a few months ago. It is a 5.4 acre farmette, almost 3 of it wooded. No garden this year since we are focusing on getting up fencing and reading the barn for the animals we already have. Store bought tomatoes are the worst! I did manage to can several jars of black raspberry jam, and have blackberries waiting in the freezer to be made into wine. We also have gooseberries, mulberries, elderberries, wild grapes, walnuts, and maples on the property. Now we only have the two Icelandic sheep and they have 2 half acre pasture lots we rotate them through. We have plans to add another pen and another ewe. Hubby who was orginaly reluctant about the larger animals wants to buy more land next door and get horses!

Congradulations on your newly purchased farmette!!! I agree that the buildings come first but you already have great food sources-jams yummy! And walnuts are going to be easy breezy to dry and store. Its the maples that really get my cravings going though-homemade maple syrup

 

[newbie32]

This thread is so cool! Thanks, Newbie32, for showing me the light, haha!

I'm only 21, but the dream has always been to have enough land to do the homesteading thing. I live with my parents now on a 1/2 acre, which is enough to do what we want. I'm already scheming for next year. Hopefully, if Dad can get the tiller fixed, we can have a garden next spring. I've already started de-weeding (by hand, no chemicals here) and I'm starting up my compost pile with the old chicken bedding and manure. I'm going to get some cow manure from my Tio, so that'll be free, as well. Hopefully, after sitting a couple months, the garden area will be ready to use.

Hopefully between now and then, I'll have a steadier income (I'm a freelance graphic/web/multimedia designer, with an Associate's Degree) and can afford to pay for some quality heritage vegetable/fruit seeds. Down here where I live, the soil has a bit too much clay in it. And the heat can be insane, so I'll see what I can do. Oh, I've got so much plotting going on. Dad has no idea what's coming, haha!

You are very welcome! LMAO I am sure your dad will be super happy to have fresh veggies! I wish I was more determined at 21. If I had been then I would already have my land. It is awesome that you have free poo to help with your garden LOL. I asked someone in an earlier post how they stored their poo for it to be ready for gardening and never got a reply. How are you planning on it?

 

[LBejaran]

You are very welcome! LMAO I am sure your dad will be super happy to have fresh veggies! I wish I was more determined at 21. If I had been then I would already have my land. It is awesome that you have free poo to help with your garden LOL. I asked someone in an earlier post how they stored their poo for it to be ready for gardening and never got a reply. How are you planning on it?

Well, you saw my coop. Every other week, I rake through the dirt and gather all the manure/bedding. It's raked out into the dead leaves we have underneath our oak trees and it just gathers there. It was too dry for awhile, but since it's been raining lately, it's been breaking up more.

So yeah, essentially just clean up your coop and put it all in pile, haha! It's been easy for us, but if you don't want a pile, you can gather it in a bucket/canister until you can utilize it. Just be careful when handling it. It can get pretty gross, haha!

 

[LBejaran]

It looks like all this rain has done wonders for the soil! I am finally pulling out some weeds and they aren't fighting back! I'm going to need to get started on some proper compost (I want to test the soil, but I'm not sure how), but we'll see what Dad says when he gets home.

 

[newbie32]

They have little soil testing strips at your local nursery. You could try Lows or Home Depot too. An earlier poster said you need to let the poo sit for a full year-anyone else hear that? I had a bucket for a few weeks and it was so overrun with nasty flies that I just dumped it in the trash barrel. Hundreds of flies went flying everywhere

and it was a small bucket!!!


Sorry I believe the poster I was referring to was on my thread-the other homesteading one

 

[LBejaran]

They have little soil testing strips at your local nursery. You could try Lows or Home Depot too. An earlier poster said you need to let the poo sit for a full year-anyone else hear that? I had a bucket for a few weeks and it was so overrun with nasty flies that I just dumped it in the trash barrel. Hundreds of flies went flying everywhere  and it was a small bucket!!!

Maybe it's because of the heat around here. It's so hot here and the pile I've made is out in the open. It didn't get wet until two weeks ago when it rained. I've just watched the mixture of pine shavings, hay, manure and food scraps turn into a grainy looking soil. It helps that the chickens scratched it up for me. I'm planning on doing a hot method of composting. It's more work, but it's faster. I'm pretty sure cold composting takes much longer. The compost will be tilled into our garden plot and left to sit. We don't have any distinct change in seasons, so the heat should also help break down the compost.

I know that my sister knows more about these things (she works at Lowe's, so she has a wealth of knowledge at her fingertips). I think I could ask her.

 

[newbie32]

Maybe it's because of the heat around here. It's so hot here and the pile I've made is out in the open. It didn't get wet until two weeks ago when it rained. I've just watched the mixture of pine shavings, hay, manure and food scraps turn into a grainy looking soil. It helps that the chickens scratched it up for me. I'm planning on doing a hot method of composting. It's more work, but it's faster. I'm pretty sure cold composting takes much longer. The compost will be tilled into our garden plot and left to sit. We don't have any distinct change in seasons, so the heat should also help break down the compost.

I know that my sister knows more about these things (she works at Lowe's, so she has a wealth of knowledge at her fingertips). I think I could ask her.

I live in low desert of CA so maybe I should do a heat method-BTW WHAT IS A HEAT METHOD OF COMPOSTING?

 

[LBejaran]

I live in low desert of CA so maybe I should do a heat method-BTW WHAT IS A HEAT METHOD OF COMPOSTING?

Essentially, it's a perfect mixture of all your composting items that, over time, begin to heat up as they rot/turn-into-compost. This method also kills seeds from any weeds you use in your pile. The heating of the pile happens internal to as much as 140° F. As it runs through its cycle, it'll heat and then cool. When it cools, you turn the pile and it should heat up again. It allows for the compost to really be favorable for most gardening.

 

[naadarien]

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.

I was born and raised in Los Angeles, but my grandparents retired when I was 5 and they moved from LA back to near where they grew up in the Arklatex. So lucky me got shipped off to Texarkana (TX and AR) every year for part of the summer to spend time with them in the country. I loved it except for the heat, the wild and crazy storms and the Klan. I knew I always liked wide open spaces, the nicer people, and the freedom to own your own space. So I always wanted to have that. Someone mentioned wanting to be LEW. Yep that was me too.

Plus, since my parents were young when I was born, my grandparents watched me while the parents worked and attended college. My grandparents were kids of the Depression and I learned all of the things they did to protect themselves against any kind of calamity. Saving, living below your means, paying cash for everything, owing nobody anything (beyond a mortgage maybe), and hoarding food like there is no tomorrow are all things that are vivid memories in my mind. They liked being self-sufficient, and the pride and confidence they had about the security in their lives was well-worth copying. They did that and lived in the city. :-D

So fast forward 20 years and I was looking at buying my first home and LA wasn't for me. No postage stamp yards, covenants, and people in my business, and all for the highest price imaginable. No thanks. I bought a triplex in VT, lived in one unit and rented the other two until I could scope out the rural areas outside of town and find the place for me. In the meantime, I got married.

The hubby is so not a farm boy, despite growing up in this rural area but he's getting there. We both love the idea of homesteading though so we are working towards that goal. I have always wanted a 100% independent home: food raised/grown here, energy generated here (wood, wind, solar), owning less items but ones with multi-purposes. Some of that gives a little with kids. I have way more stuff than I wanted initially, though now that they are older, lots of things are being Freecycled or sold...but yeah...self-sufficiency is the reason to homestead. I also rather like challenging myself and seeing how self-reliant I can be. I am an engineer and I like seeing what I can fix, build, create on my own and this kind of life just kind of lends itself to needing those skills. I love it. Wouldn't trade it for anything...even if we do win that $400 million Powerball.

 

[naadarien]

I live in low desert of CA so maybe I should do a heat method-BTW WHAT IS A HEAT METHOD OF COMPOSTING?

ALL composting except vermicomposting involves heat. The heat is created by the release of gasses (energy; nitrogen, methane, etc) as the items in your pile decompose.

You should google composting and check out backyard resources. Your compost pile should NOT smell. If it does you have one or more problems: the wrong stuff (meat for example) decomposing in there, you are not mixing it enough and it is overly wet, or are not adding enough dry material to keep a good mix going. Lots of people use leaves for the latter but you can use paper towels or newspaper or DRY grass clippings (meaning you leave them sitting somewhere where they can dry out first before you add them to your pile).

There is some heat generated with vermicompost, but most of the decomp is really from the work the worms themselves do. This kind of composting is highly complementary with raising chickens. Earthworms and meal worms are a favorite of chickens...if you can stomach the worms yourself that is. I'm not there yet. :-D