Homesteaders

[flocktastic]

Hi,

Just wanted to introduce myself...I live in North Texas and am married. Together, my husband and I have quite the blended family - he has 3 children (daughter, son, daughter) and I have a daughter and son...& together we have a son. (Ages are 19, 18, 9, 6, 5 & 18 months)

My husband grew up farming - that's what most of his family has done for generations. My dads family was the same way but as an adult, my dad moved to CA after getting out of the Air Force and eventually he and my mom had me. I spent summers at my uncles big farm in Oregon and I loved it. I always hated going back home. I loved the farm and everything about it.

Later in life, I divorced & decided to move to are as because I'd always loved it here. Eventually met my husband.

They have had 64 acres that has been in the family for over 100yrs and that's where my husband grew up farming along side his dad and grandfather. My husband is one of the hardest working, honest men I've ever met. His childhood stories of farming, all the way up into adulthood, have always intrigued me.
My husband also helped build his parents house that is on that land...unfortunately, his father died suddenly 4 yrs ago at 57 of a massive heart attack, in that same house. My mother in law let everything go...she was depressed. Everything was left the way it was the day he died. My mother in law gave away goats, chickens, etc to family. My husband stepped in and has been cleaning up all the unfinished projects - everything and anything that was left and needed to be handled, fixed, etc - he's been doing. The fields had been dormant and for the first time, towards the end of 2014, my husband was able to sew the front pasture with wheat and it was a good crop. My husband's papa is so happy and proud that we're cleaning it up, taking care of everything and building our home there. It's a legacy really and means a lot to each generation.

We have been renting a small house in town because we've been working to clean up and fix everything out there...& we're finally to the point where we will start building our own home out there. My husband will do almost all of it himself (with some help from cousins and friends) he has built homes before and is very skilled (he's also a diesel mechanic )- one of the handiest guys I've ever met.

The ground is being graded and surveyed soon and were so excited but still have a long road ahead of us.
We have 3 cows and 2 calves with my mother in law (she doesn't live out there full time anymore)
We also have 4 horses and a little filly.

I have a flock of chickens (10 hens...soon to be more!) and a sweet rooster.

We have a big garden - we just planted onions, corn and a couple berry bushes the other day. More to come as the season progresses of course.

I've been working on simplifying our life - when we combined two homes there was so much "stuff" and no reason for it. It was overwhelmingly. We have been downsizing continually. You could call it a mix of minalism and simplification. I enjoy organic and as natural as possible. Especially food products. I love having our own eggs, veggies and fruits and knowing where they come from and we will be working up to slaughtering beef cows and various other meats eventually.

My husband is just finishing up with a nice set of pens he's built and welded himself. They look great & I love bragging on him!

He also built my newest chicken coop from scratch and I love it.

We're very into gardening, our animals, re-using and re-purposing materials, living the simple and productively...working hard & loving life!

I've got so many things I'm looking forward to trying - making our own detergents, lotions, soaps...id eventually love a milk cow and goats will be handy for all the briars out there (which is why my father in law had goats too) among other things. I've got so many ideas and things we want to try and do, I can't possibly even list them all right now!

Hoping to share and learn from others on this forum.

 

[duluthralphie]

I find the "what can we eat" discussion interesting. We come up with so many reasons not to eat good sources of protein or food.

I am as bad or worse than the next person. I am a semi-germophobe, I will not even eat at potlucks or church dinners because I do not know how the food is/was prepared.


But back to the discussion.

Pigeons, too dirty, look at the garbage they eat. Of course, they eat mainly grains and a few bugs not much different than out chickens. DO you think Chickens would have a cleaner nest if we did not clean them?

Pigs, Look what they eat but most of us scarf down bacon..

Beef, a main stay and they do eat grass, and are relatively clean.

Horses, Very few if any Americans eat them, just because of the romance we have with them, but clean animals and lots of protein..

Doves, I ate them as a kid, not much there, cannot believe it would be different than a pigeon,

Cats and Dogs? Never for most of us, again because we have attached emotions to them, but they would be good protein and are eaten in some cultures.

Insects, Not Me, but many cultures do eat them.

Crabs, we love them and they are the garbage collectors of the ocean.

Lobsters the same thing..


Muskrats? I ate them once as a kid a neighbor had muskrat, mink, and beaver prepared for a trappers dinner. It was not bad. I am not going to rush out and bake one, but I know I could eat one.

Rabbits, I do not eat, I have tried and can't. My problem is we had a jack rabbit explosion when I was young and the rabbits ended up with some pussy looking sores and were said to be be carrying some disease. I bet if I was hungry enough I would eat one. I know my reason is a parent induced phobia.

I bet we can all add to the list, as homesteaders I think we should waste not and want not, but I am not sure I could eat them all...


I read a book 25-30 years ago about what we eat and why it varies from culture to culture. Heck, here in the USA we even made it illegal to sell horses for human food that we exported to other countries, just because we "love" them. All illogical but very human.


Flockastic Welcome.....

I am bringing this all up just to give us some food for thought,,, (pun Intended)

 

[KlopKlop]

Hi,

Just wanted to introduce myself...I live in North Texas and am married. Together, my husband and I have quite the blended family - he has 3 children (daughter, son, daughter) and I have a daughter and son...& together we have a son. (Ages are 19, 18, 9, 6, 5 & 18 months)

My husband grew up farming - that's what most of his family has done for generations. My dads family was the same way but as an adult, my dad moved to CA after getting out of the Air Force and eventually he and my mom had me. I spent summers at my uncles big farm in Oregon and I loved it. I always hated going back home. I loved the farm and everything about it.

Later in life, I divorced & decided to move to are as because I'd always loved it here. Eventually met my husband.

They have had 64 acres that has been in the family for over 100yrs and that's where my husband grew up farming along side his dad and grandfather. My husband is one of the hardest working, honest men I've ever met. His childhood stories of farming, all the way up into adulthood, have always intrigued me.
My husband also helped build his parents house that is on that land...unfortunately, his father died suddenly 4 yrs ago at 57 of a massive heart attack, in that same house. My mother in law let everything go...she was depressed. Everything was left the way it was the day he died. My mother in law gave away goats, chickens, etc to family. My husband stepped in and has been cleaning up all the unfinished projects - everything and anything that was left and needed to be handled, fixed, etc - he's been doing. The fields had been dormant and for the first time, towards the end of 2014, my husband was able to sew the front pasture with wheat and it was a good crop. My husband's papa is so happy and proud that we're cleaning it up, taking care of everything and building our home there. It's a legacy really and means a lot to each generation.

We have been renting a small house in town because we've been working to clean up and fix everything out there...& we're finally to the point where we will start building our own home out there. My husband will do almost all of it himself (with some help from cousins and friends) he has built homes before and is very skilled (he's also a diesel mechanic )- one of the handiest guys I've ever met.

The ground is being graded and surveyed soon and were so excited but still have a long road ahead of us.
We have 3 cows and 2 calves with my mother in law (she doesn't live out there full time anymore)
We also have 4 horses and a little filly.

I have a flock of chickens (10 hens...soon to be more!) and a sweet rooster.

We have a big garden - we just planted onions, corn and a couple berry bushes the other day. More to come as the season progresses of course.

I've been working on simplifying our life - when we combined two homes there was so much "stuff" and no reason for it. It was overwhelmingly. We have been downsizing continually. You could call it a mix of minalism and simplification. I enjoy organic and as natural as possible. Especially food products. I love having our own eggs, veggies and fruits and knowing where they come from and we will be working up to slaughtering beef cows and various other meats eventually.

My husband is just finishing up with a nice set of pens he's built and welded himself. They look great & I love bragging on him!

He also built my newest chicken coop from scratch and I love it.

We're very into gardening, our animals, re-using and re-purposing materials, living the simple and productively...working hard & loving life!

I've got so many things I'm looking forward to trying - making our own detergents, lotions, soaps...id eventually love a milk cow and goats will be handy for all the briars out there (which is why my father in law had goats too) among other things. I've got so many ideas and things we want to try and do, I can't possibly even list them all right now!

Hoping to share and learn from others on this forum.

Welcome aboard! Always happy to see new people join the conversation

 

[duluthralphie]

Welcome aboard! Always happy to see new people join the conversation

Hey Kloppers, I watched the video Bee posted and think I can make a pea sheller out of an old washing machine in our basement.....

However, that idea was nixed by my DW, when she said I could not touch that washer let alone tear it apart..

So I am back to buying the one you pointed out...Can you believe she would not let me make one for free?

 

[KlopKlop]

Hey Kloppers,  I watched the video Bee posted and think I can make a pea sheller out of an old washing machine in our basement.....

However, that idea was nixed by my DW, when she said I could not touch that washer let alone tear it apart..

So I am back to buying the one you pointed out...Can you believe she would not let me make one for free?

Don't you have a shed full of washers?

I won't judge if you get it 2-day delivered to your house but it seems like it should be a fairly simple item to produce. On driven roller and one follower that can be adjusted to set the clearance between rollers. I know how valuable your time is though

 

[Serenashome]

As for shelling peas, I have children to help with them. The youngest eats about 1/3 of them, but it is a healthy snack so I am ok with it. I just pop on a cartoon and tell them to race, winner gets to have a treat. Going to plant more peas this year, I would really like more than just 1 bowl full; I only did 8 plants last year. I used an upside dowl tomato cage that was left here by my landlord after he broke it. I am going to use a different trellis this year though.

We used 3 4' tall T-posts and stretch of rabbit guard fence across them. Covered a 10' stretch. Worked great they loved climbing it and it offered perfect support.

 

[Woodsdweller]

I was reading on another site about the inclusion of pigeon meat (also called squab?) being a source of protein (comparing to quail) for self sufficiency which I had never though about. Anybody ever eaten pigeon?

I have always thought of them as disease carriers. We would flush them from the sheds and shoot them and throw them in the burn pile.

Inevitably the discussion led to discussing harvesting them in urban areas and if it would be bad to eat birds that eat garbage.

Not going to convince me to add pigeons to my farm but it is an interesting train of thought.

If you free range chickens.... do you ever see what they eat? Pretty much anything that moves, moldy compost scraps and plants. Not so much different than pigeons. I won't eat them raw (chicken neither), but protein is protein. I'm fairly sure you'd eat ants, grubs and other ickies if you got hungry enough. I'm an ex-survival instructor and there's not much I "refuse" to eat, but plenty I'd rather not if I had a choice.... i.e. brussel sprouts, cooked cabbage and liver.

 

[duluthralphie]

Don't you have a shed full of washers?

I won't judge if you get it 2-day delivered to your house but it seems like it should be a fairly simple item to produce. On driven roller and one follower that can be adjusted to set the clearance between rollers. I know how valuable your time is though

We only have one old wringer machine, the ones in my sheds are from the Laundromat we owned for years. They are too good to throw away though, so I hoard them. I found customers did not like wringer washers in the Laundromat... Oh yeah my time is so valuable!! rofl

 

[Chicken girl 15]

With all due respect. I was not judging anyone because of their upbringing. I am sorry you took it that way. I'm an old man and I know quite a bit about life. As for mistakes? I disagree. One doesn't HAVE to make mistakes. One CAN listen to the wiser person whether it be parents, aunts, uncles, teachers or friends. Wisdom can come from listening to those smarter than we are. Wisdom can come from observation. This is why many times I advise getting counseling. This is why I'm here. To get advice, listen to others methods and ideas and avoid some mistakes, in farming, growing things, raising chickens, crochet, canning, etc. etc. For family matters I go to church and read my bible.
Pro 11:14

Where no counsel is , the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety .
When I didn't listen to what I was told, get a clue by what I saw, I made bad choices and that was MY fault. I brought a lot of heartache and trouble on myself. I did it. No one else was to blame. I didn't have to make those mistakes. I know that some folks never learn, but I don't have time to type all the examples out. As for your choices, I not interested in where you were but where you are now. Here with us talking homesteading. Our past is the past. I have my own past to deal with and I think somethings are better left in the past. No sense crying over spilled milk. Saw a sign once, "Don't look back, you're not going that way." I'm sorry if I made you feel bad. You mistook what my point was. Which is that not everyone who homesteads has a head start. It seems to me that many book writers and article writers do. It's not a bad thing, it doesn't make them a bad person. It's just something to consider when reading their book. It's also something to consider when one wonders why one has to work so hard. Some folks start out with less, it doesn't make us less than anyone else. We should not be discouraged. I wish you well, Rancher, I just look stupid, Hicks.

I think you and I would do better in an actual conversation than we do in cyberspace. We are both opinionated and willing to listen and learn, however my grammar skills and communication skills often take a conversation sideways. No offense was taken by your first post, I was simply stating how I got where I am today. As you stated , it's not where you were last week it where you are today that matters. My apologies for taking the topic sideways.

 

[Chicken girl 15]

I just read everything and God bless this person and her story  

Thank you for your blessings. God has a big hand in who I am and how I got here. We all have our story, it's how we make the ending that counts.