Please share your tips and tricks! Any homesteaders out there? Anyone trying to live sustainably or off the land?

[LizzzyJo]

Watch Sandy Brock's videos on YouTube. She's a great sheep farmer/breeder. She has sheep that beg to be petted.

Oh I love her!

 

[LizzzyJo]

I just remember "a decent life and one horrible day"

That's good!

 

[LizzzyJo]

Issue of avoiding attachment?

I have an attachment to all the chickens I raise, whether for meat, or pets. I bond with all the same way.

Butchering isn't hard, when you know they've been given a happy healthy life, with a good diet, & the fact they're going to serve the new purpose of keeping the freezer full, & family fed.

But, I do get emotional when I have a favorite bird I spared for a breeding project dies though. It's weird.

That's what I do for my birds, so I suppose I could manage.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Oh I love her!

Same.

 

[MysteryChicken]

That's what I do for my birds, so I suppose I could manage.

That's good.

 

[saysfaa]

Love all of this! I so badly want a woodburning stove. I can't have it in use all the time, as I don't breathe well with them, but I want one to be able to go off grid should I ever need to (prepper mentality)

To watch the flames or for heat?

If it is for heat, many people around here have outdoor wood furnaces.

 

[saysfaa]

My freezer was delivered this week

This year's expansion project is fruit. Apples, cherries, peaches and blueberries for sure. Possibly others.

It will be the third year for the garden. Last year's big problem focus was the Japanese beetles. This year's will be squash bugs. We had a very few the first year, a minor problem last year and I know the population exploded toward the end of last summer.

 

[LizzzyJo]

To watch the flames or for heat?

If it is for heat, many people around here have outdoor wood furnaces.

Heat and to cook on. Also I think they're aesthetically pleasing in a cottage.

 

[Happy hen lover]

I love our wood stove , it has a window in door. So independence, ambience, and could cook on ( I have never tried!. )
If I needed meat raised I would go for rabbits, . Great meat to feed ratio, easy peasy to butcher, Productive , and small area needed. Can't milk them though! You can love mom's and the dad and kids grow so quickly it's amazing.

 

[LizzzyJo]

If I needed meat raised I would go for rabbits, . Great meat to feed ratio, easy peasy to butcher, Productive , and small area needed.

I breed holland lops for show, so I am way too deep in the bunny love cult to go there I think sticking with poultry or maybe small-scale fish farming would be good meat for me.