Miss Eliza
Songster
I too have homestead dreams. Three and a half years ago we moved to a small acreage. We have six layer hens and a rooster. For now, we take the eggs. Soon I will allow one of the hens to sit a nest full, and we’ll see how that goes! The rooster does a great job protecting the hens. We have tons of predators. Eagles, owls, hawks, coyotes, (my friends’ dogs when they come to visit
) raccoons, bobcats and apparently there is a mountain lion who roams this mountain. He does help alert them to everything. And we’ll hopefully be able to hatch out our own chicks. We move the chickens around in an electric net and their coop is on wheels.
We added two kiko goats this past spring. In the summer they were moved around in an electric net. At night the were out in the barn. One day I’d like to build a moveable shelter for them as well.
We do have a couple of wood stoves we use in the mornings to warm up the house so that the heat pump doesn’t work as hard. I normally don’t use it at night because we haven’t figured out how to keep it warm in the downstairs bedrooms. If we have the fire going then the heat pump doesn’t come on because it’s plenty warm where the thermostat is!
We have been thinning our woods, removing a lot of the Doug fir. Hopefully helping the oaks to thrive and in the mean time supplying us with lots of firewood.
We fenced in a large garden area and I am improving my preservation skills.
Next up will be two different water catchments. One for the garden and one for the animals.
As far as electric goes, we are on the grid and I’m not sure that will ever change. Solar and wind are both expensive inputs. I’m not sure how reliable either. My fencers are solar and die out after a couple of cloudy days and the wind doesn’t always blow.
We are considering a small cow calf pair for milk. Most likely a dexter. It is just two of us now and I don’t need a six gallon a day jersey! Even if we calf share as we think we would that’s a lot of milk!
As far as reference materials. I think the best thing is to invest in great books. YouTube is great for ideas, etc. but they all finish their projects in half an hour. Just like hgtv, a house can be built in half an hour!
Everything takes a lot more time and effort than you plan for because something always comes up. You either need to fix something that isn’t right about your wok or, you need to fix something totally unrelated to your project.
Things I have learned : Plan out your projects. I’m guilty of starting too many things and completing none! Pick one and finish it before moving on to the next! This is my goal for the new year.
By the way-happy new year everyone!
) raccoons, bobcats and apparently there is a mountain lion who roams this mountain. He does help alert them to everything. And we’ll hopefully be able to hatch out our own chicks. We move the chickens around in an electric net and their coop is on wheels. We added two kiko goats this past spring. In the summer they were moved around in an electric net. At night the were out in the barn. One day I’d like to build a moveable shelter for them as well.
We do have a couple of wood stoves we use in the mornings to warm up the house so that the heat pump doesn’t work as hard. I normally don’t use it at night because we haven’t figured out how to keep it warm in the downstairs bedrooms. If we have the fire going then the heat pump doesn’t come on because it’s plenty warm where the thermostat is!
We have been thinning our woods, removing a lot of the Doug fir. Hopefully helping the oaks to thrive and in the mean time supplying us with lots of firewood.
We fenced in a large garden area and I am improving my preservation skills.
Next up will be two different water catchments. One for the garden and one for the animals.
As far as electric goes, we are on the grid and I’m not sure that will ever change. Solar and wind are both expensive inputs. I’m not sure how reliable either. My fencers are solar and die out after a couple of cloudy days and the wind doesn’t always blow.
We are considering a small cow calf pair for milk. Most likely a dexter. It is just two of us now and I don’t need a six gallon a day jersey! Even if we calf share as we think we would that’s a lot of milk!
As far as reference materials. I think the best thing is to invest in great books. YouTube is great for ideas, etc. but they all finish their projects in half an hour. Just like hgtv, a house can be built in half an hour!
Everything takes a lot more time and effort than you plan for because something always comes up. You either need to fix something that isn’t right about your wok or, you need to fix something totally unrelated to your project.
Things I have learned : Plan out your projects. I’m guilty of starting too many things and completing none! Pick one and finish it before moving on to the next! This is my goal for the new year.
By the way-happy new year everyone!
)
I drive Dear Wife crazy with everything I keep for reuse or repurpose, somewhere, somehow, at some time in the future. I'm the type of guy who can pat myself on the back for not throwing something out that I find use for maybe in a year or two, but I will kick myself in the rear end if I throw out something and then find I need it a few weeks later.
I think I get that attitude from my grandparents who lived through the Great Depression. Grandma washed plastic baggies until the day she died. Grandpa would straighten out rusty nails and reuse them until they broke. That was how they managed to get through life when everything was very hard. My life is not nearly as hard, but I still have a hard time throwing anything away that still has some potential value.
