Homesteading Questions and Tips

[NHMountainMan]

Does anyone in here actually live a homesteading lifestyle?
I’m very eager to learn more and hopefully, eventually, live it myself.
We’re no where near “off the grid”, busy suburbia actually, I just want to do as much as I can now to live more self sufficiently. Hopefully in a few years, when our kids are done with school, move somewhere with more land, and have everything we really want

How do you define homesteading? Off grid? Self sufficient? There are a lot of ways to define it#very different from the original homesteader act

 

[DellaMyDarling]

We are "homesteaders".
I believe that there are very very few people who can fulfill the true original meaning of homesteader. There are fewer still who can immediately move from the suburbs to total off grid homesteading life.
Homesteading is a process as much as a changing definition.

Our plot of land is 2.5 acres. A drop in the bucket really. Many would scoff at that tiny size! It is NOT large enough to grow hay for our goats, so we've already lost 1 point on self sustainability. However, I can assure you, there are many resources to be found to help you live very sustainably one this size of property (or even a bit smaller.)
You CAN live a self sufficient life in a more urban setting.

Ask only you and your partner what homesteading means to you. What are your personal goals and reasons for wanting what you do?

Don't be afraid to make this a slower process. Maybe or maybe not, that means you want to sell your current home and buy a bigger property in the same school district (but again, how big do you personally need?)


We are a rural family. Not as rural as some, but 30min to a grocery store and at 1100ft elevation, in a small town. Our neighbors are all visible, closer than I'd like and my retirement farm will fix that haha. While our kids are young and in school, where we are feels really great. Neighbors are good to awesome and some share similar goals as us. Its a micro community at a time when we need it.
We have a mature orchard we are adding juvenile trees to, large garden plot, a dairy goat herd, ducks, chickens, and breeding rabbits. My focus this year will be learning to achieve more produce from the garden and to keep working on reducing our open monoculture field space (its just junk grass, barely grows dandelions!) I'll be slowly adding a few native cultivar shrubs, trees, and patches of wild flowers, herbs, etc to different areas. And, my goat herd has stolen my heart. I will be adding pasture #3 and focusing on good herd management to create a healthy sustainable herd that'll provide excellent babies and milk.
I've had much let down with chicken management, so other than meat birds in a tractor, I think the flock dynamics will stay about the same for a while. We have plenty of producers right now anyway.

I sew, knit, can, bake all of our bread, learning to garden, manage the orchard, on top of those animals. We build what we need or source things cheap, not brand new. Last year was learning to process meat birds and this year will be meat rabbits.
There's enough food in my home, from all food groups, to healthfully eat for a solid month+ without going to the store. We still are making trips haha, because we do enjoy some fresh items, but that's a really good feeling to know we don't literally HAVE to!

Yesterday the Mr and I were discussing new goals. We were doing a dump run and realized that since last time we went in September, we had only accumulated 2 60gal bags of trash. 85% of our waste was recyclables! That's good AND bad. For a family of 5, that would shock many. Means I did really good reducing and reusing so things aren't trashed, but we are still buying WAY too many items in packaging. Good goal, to reduce the recycling as well, because that is also a form of waste.

I could talk forever. Probably just wrote a novel. My point is, you're never too old to start living better, you can live more freely exactly where you are right now, and NO ONE knows everything right away. I learn a minimum of 5 new things for this lifestyle every single day. That means every single day I can take one more step towards independence of the larger societal systems I was born into.
I am strong, I can learn, and I can do things for myself and my family if I want to.

 

[PhillyDelcoChix]

How do you define homesteading? Off grid? Self sufficient? There are a lot of ways to define it#very different from the original homesteader act

I guess I mean in any modern sense. Living off grid, living a mainly self sustained life, or anything that fits within the parameters.

 

[PhillyDelcoChix]

We are "homesteaders".
I believe that there are very very few people who can fulfill the true original meaning of homesteader. There are fewer still who can immediately move from the suburbs to total off grid homesteading life.
Homesteading is a process as much as a changing definition.

Our plot of land is 2.5 acres. A drop in the bucket really. Many would scoff at that tiny size! It is NOT large enough to grow hay for our goats, so we've already lost 1 point on self sustainability. However, I can assure you, there are many resources to be found to help you live very sustainably one this size of property (or even a bit smaller.)
You CAN live a self sufficient life in a more urban setting.

Ask only you and your partner what homesteading means to you. What are your personal goals and reasons for wanting what you do?

Don't be afraid to make this a slower process. Maybe or maybe not, that means you want to sell your current home and buy a bigger property in the same school district (but again, how big do you personally need?)


We are a rural family. Not as rural as some, but 30min to a grocery store and at 1100ft elevation, in a small town. Our neighbors are all visible, closer than I'd like and my retirement farm will fix that haha. While our kids are young and in school, where we are feels really great. Neighbors are good to awesome and some share similar goals as us. Its a micro community at a time when we need it.
We have a mature orchard we are adding juvenile trees to, large garden plot, a dairy goat herd, ducks, chickens, and breeding rabbits. My focus this year will be learning to achieve more produce from the garden and to keep working on reducing our open monoculture field space (its just junk grass, barely grows dandelions!) I'll be slowly adding a few native cultivar shrubs, trees, and patches of wild flowers, herbs, etc to different areas. And, my goat herd has stolen my heart. I will be adding pasture #3 and focusing on good herd management to create a healthy sustainable herd that'll provide excellent babies and milk.
I've had much let down with chicken management, so other than meat birds in a tractor, I think the flock dynamics will stay about the same for a while. We have plenty of producers right now anyway.

I sew, knit, can, bake all of our bread, learning to garden, manage the orchard, on top of those animals. We build what we need or source things cheap, not brand new. Last year was learning to process meat birds and this year will be meat rabbits.
There's enough food in my home, from all food groups, to healthfully eat for a solid month+ without going to the store. We still are making trips haha, because we do enjoy some fresh items, but that's a really good feeling to know we don't literally HAVE to!

Yesterday the Mr and I were discussing new goals. We were doing a dump run and realized that since last time we went in September, we had only accumulated 2 60gal bags of trash. 85% of our waste was recyclables! That's good AND bad. For a family of 5, that would shock many. Means I did really good reducing and reusing so things aren't trashed, but we are still buying WAY too many items in packaging. Good goal, to reduce the recycling as well, because that is also a form of waste.

I could talk forever. Probably just wrote a novel. My point is, you're never too old to start living better, you can live more freely exactly where you are right now, and NO ONE knows everything right away. I learn a minimum of 5 new things for this lifestyle every single day. That means every single day I can take one more step towards independence of the larger societal systems I was born into.
I am strong, I can learn, and I can do things for myself and my family if I want to.

Very impressive!
Your way of life sounds like heaven to me. That’s exactly how to hope to be living.
Because we can’t have any additional animals, aside from our chickens, we mainly focus on filling much of our backyard with vegetables. Unfortunately deer and now a groundhog are really making that a difficult task.
We have an apple tree in our front yard which is probably still a few years away from fruiting.
I’ve gotten my kids excited about foraging and we collect gallons of wild raspberries and wine berries from our state park every summer. They also excitedly plant their own small vegetable beds.
I would really love to do more.
Trying to talk my husband into solar panels and anything else we can manage.
Your life is inspiring. I wish we could do more here

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I'm too old and feeble for some of that stuff now (but getting stronger!), but I'm an old hippie, Mother Earth type so I do what I can. Which means I bake my own bread mostly, make my own yogurt and buttermilk, sometimes my own butter, but I buy the organic 2% milk or heavy cream to do so because I can't take care of a milk-producig animal.. We have chickens, of course, for eggs to eat and sell, and for meat as well, though I hire out the butchering since, as a city girl, I came late to the party and have no interest in learning now how to process a chicken when I can pay $2 a head to have it done for me.

Where we live is not too far from town, 30 miles from a Wal-Mart, but I can neither see nor hear any neighbors or traffic (yay!). I hope to be able to garden a bit this year. I have mint, garlic and celery going so far, either inside or fenced away from the chooks. We'll see what else I can manage to keep away from them, the deer and possums, lol.

I guess I think homesteading is a state of mind. I've ordered a pasta machine to go on my KitchenAid and got a pressure canner Friday. I'll be canning chicken bone broth and dried beans this week, and making noodles and ravioli next week. I'd rather do and make than buy, it tastes better and is better for my family. That's homesteading to me, and I think I could do it in a mobile home if I had to.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I’m glad to hear it. My Dad was very healthy and fit for ages, but my mom has seem to go downhill soon after her 50s

I'm sorry to hear about your mom. My warranty ran out in my early 60's, but I'm working real hard to get strong and well again. I hope your mom improves.

 

[jerryse]

Here is a chainsaw repair tip . I just replaced the carb on my MS180 Stihl . I got the carb , air , fuel , and air filter plus the fuel and oil lines for $12.57 free shipping on eBay . Last year the dealer put a kit in the carb on my MS311 for about $100 . So quite a savings .

 

[PhillyDelcoChix]

I'm too old and feeble for some of that stuff now (but getting stronger!), but I'm an old hippie, Mother Earth type so I do what I can. Which means I bake my own bread mostly, make my own yogurt and buttermilk, sometimes my own butter, but I buy the organic 2% milk or heavy cream to do so because I can't take care of a milk-producig animal.. We have chickens, of course, for eggs to eat and sell, and for meat as well, though I hire out the butchering since, as a city girl, I came late to the party and have no interest in learning now how to process a chicken when I can pay $2 a head to have it done for me.

Where we live is not too far from town, 30 miles from a Wal-Mart, but I can neither see nor hear any neighbors or traffic (yay!). I hope to be able to garden a bit this year. I have mint, garlic and celery going so far, either inside or fenced away from the chooks. We'll see what else I can manage to keep away from them, the deer and possums, lol.

I guess I think homesteading is a state of mind. I've ordered a pasta machine to go on my KitchenAid and got a pressure canner Friday. I'll be canning chicken bone broth and dried beans this week, and making noodles and ravioli next week. I'd rather do and make than buy, it tastes better and is better for my family. That's homesteading to me, and I think I could do it in a mobile home if I had to.

All sounds good to me!
It’s really a full time job. I feel like I’m always wanting or feeling like I should be doing more but my 3 year old has other ideas.
I love to use chicken bones to make broth, usually for soup, but I just freeze the bones and then make the soup on the same day I cook the bones for broth.
I find canning a little tedious if I’m honest. Especially when we have a huge chest freezer. But I suppose if I had no electricity, or cold storage, or very little at least, canning is how you get through the year.
I have a decent size smoker, but I never feel safe allowing meat at room temp after smoking.
Sausage making and curing is on my mind too.
I’ve tried making cheese before and not had great results but I’d love to opportunity to learn from someone more experienced to get more confident!!!!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

All sounds good to me!
It’s really a full time job. I feel like I’m always wanting or feeling like I should be doing more but my 3 year old has other ideas.
I love to use chicken bones to make broth, usually for soup, but I just freeze the bones and then make the soup on the same day I cook the bones for broth.
I find canning a little tedious if I’m honest. Especially when we have a huge chest freezer. But I suppose if I had no electricity, or cold storage, or very little at least, canning is how you get through the year.
I have a decent size smoker, but I never feel safe allowing meat at room temp after smoking.
Sausage making and curing is on my mind too.
I’ve tried making cheese before and not had great results but I’d love to opportunity to learn from someone more experienced to get more confident!!!!

You're doing fine. Your baby won't be 3 forever. He's your priority. Enjoy each day with him. Learning to make cheese can wait!

 

[jerryse]