Why do you homestead?

[LordStark]

@cityfarmer12 It's good having that much land, but first and foremost it's a business. Trying to make a living of it isn't always easy.

@wyoDreamer Summers are hot and dry, temps can and do reach the 40c (not sure what that is F*)
Winters are good. Might get down to minus 4c, it snows a bit an hour from where I live. But it's never snowed here in my lifetime.

 

[wyoDreamer]

For comparison sake, I did the conversions:
40c is about 104*F
-4c is 24.8*F

We have been around the -9c (15*F) for the last 10 days. Brrr

 

[HiyokoInNippon]

I want to homestead because I hate cities and am terrified of driving cars. Having and using a horse is great in theory but they are EXPENSIVE! I learned how to drive horses in college and have been riding for many years before that. Anyways, I finally did what I had been working towards for ten years, living in Japan... my parents harassed me until I had a new goal. I wanted a horse.

That lead to the question of how are you going to feed it? Rotational grazing, ideally with a pasture of about 20 acres divided into 5ac squares with a central horse shelter so I don't have to build multiple. Oh, horses need at least one companion so I will have two. That leaves 15ac unused during the rotation and with a single animal grazing, the biodiversity will be screwed up.

Ok, so get four sheep, three ewes and a ram. Get ~6 lambs per year, slaughter for meat and get the lambskin leather (oooh~) plus the income from shearing the parents.

As you can see, it has just been rolling downhill from there.

Need chickens for eggs and meat, easy to keep, convert one horse stall to a coop. Boom.

Well, chickens need protein and a compost heap alone might not work --> Mealworm farm.

I like baking bread and eating it, a LOT... let's grow some wheat, and add a few cereals while I'm at it. Whatever I don't need I can feed to the animals, everyone benefits.

Oh, and chickens love sunflowers and corn is a great supplemental feed for any animal. Soy beans grow great under that, good feed and for making miso and shoyu. (I can't live without soysauce and miso, sorry) So, those three added.

Wait, if I'm doing all that, I should at least grow a garden!

So, as you can see, what started out as just wanting horses kind of snowballed. I will be upfront and say GMOs don't bother me in the slightest. In many cases it is just selective breeding and not actually genetic modification in a lab. I don't like what happens to livestock in our world and this is a way for me to vote with my wallet. In all honesty? I am not going low electricity and all organic because of any inherent mistrust in the system but rather because I am a miser when it comes to spending on myself.

I am hoping that by the time I can afford to start up my farm I will be fluent enough in Japanese or have a large enough client base that I can work from home over the internet.

If the farm itself starts turning a profit then eggcellent. So long as I break even, I'll be happy. Plus, candles are so much more pretty than electric lights.

TL;DR-> I want horses then reality smacked me in the face.

 

[Sabz]

Why do I do it?

For fun, I love gardening and animals.
For self satisfaction.
To get away from pesticides and everything we can find in commercial-bought products.
For economical reasons.
To learn, to grow. I LOVE LOVE LOVE to read, try something, get better at it.. and when it saves money and gives me lots of canned food to eat in winter, I like it even more. I like to read on the soil's chemistry, etc.

Also, for the challenge. Waking up early, working hard, doing everything myself, etc.. it is fun to challenge myself and see how well I can do!

Plus, it keeps me in shape. Carrying the bedding for the coop, the food, digging trenches, climbing ladders to prune trees, etc.

 

[nayeli]

I would LOVE to homestead, but neither my husband and I can kill an animal (well I killed a quail and he has finished off a mouse that our dog caught, and plans on killing a rooster)... but in general he can't kill anything we raise and neither can I!

Neither of us was raised on a farm either and I struggle with organic versus medication for sick animals... do you just try homeopathic and hope they heal or help them with chemicals?

For now we bought right outside city limits but only have 1/3 acre to work with. So far on our land we have tried mini goats for milk (then mama got sick and I sold to someone who could take care of her)... ducks (but our dog kept trying to eat them so I sold them), rabbits (but we couldn't kill them so I sold all but one that we kept as a pet and for the manure, she passed away recently from what I would bet is a heartattack due to fireworks) and chickens (still have them)... I'm not sure we are cut out for being homesteaders, although I adore animals I don't have experience and I'm not willing to learn at their expense!

For now my hope is to keep the chickens going for eggs (and if my husband does kill the roo and learns to kill them than for meat too)... and to grow a garden. In the future we MIGHT try ducks again, but we would have to get them a FULLY enclosed area... I could also see us raising rabbits if he learned to kill them and we liked the taste of the meat! Goats are iffy, I'm not sure I would be able to trust our dog with them and they require a bit of space!

 

[Ozarkhomesteader]

I would LOVE to homestead, but neither my husband and I can kill an animal (well I killed a quail and he has finished off a mouse that our dog caught, and plans on killing a rooster)... but in general he can't kill anything we raise and neither can I!

Neither of us was raised on a farm either and I struggle with organic versus medication for sick animals... do you just try homeopathic and hope they heal or help them with chemicals?

For now we bought right outside city limits but only have 1/3 acre to work with. So far on our land we have tried mini goats for milk (then mama got sick and I sold to someone who could take care of her)... ducks (but our dog kept trying to eat them so I sold them), rabbits (but we couldn't kill them so I sold all but one that we kept as a pet and for the manure, she passed away recently from what I would bet is a heartattack due to fireworks) and chickens (still have them)... I'm not sure we are cut out for being homesteaders, although I adore animals I don't have experience and I'm not willing to learn at their expense!

For now my hope is to keep the chickens going for eggs (and if my husband does kill the roo and learns to kill them than for meat too)... and to grow a garden. In the future we MIGHT try ducks again, but we would have to get them a FULLY enclosed area... I could also see us raising rabbits if he learned to kill them and we liked the taste of the meat! Goats are iffy, I'm not sure I would be able to trust our dog with them and they require a bit of space!

yeah, killing is hard, but it does get easier the more you do it. The hardest is killing a bird you raised for something other than meat...and killing ducks. I can kill all the meat animals we have, but the ducks are here till they die of natural causes...i just can't kill one of them A little thing to keep in mind when doing meat animals is to think about where the meat comes thats on your table. Unless you buy from a local organic type farm, the meat comes from factory farms. Basically legal animal cruelty. Go and watch a few videos of the inside of factory farms, and you will either want to become vegan, or produce your own meat. Same is the case with laying hens and dairy cows...it's so sad. Their conditions is one of the reasons i decided to raise meat, milk, and eggs for my family. Not only is it healthier, but i don't want to support what they do to the animals. I love animals, and when i raise a meat animal, it is raised with care and love, and the they live their whole lives happily with me, to have one bad moment. It makes me happy to see my meat chickens running around, chasing bugs and rolling in dirt, and then think of the factory farm birds stepping on the dead ones, and it makes killing them a whole lot easier.

haha, sorry, i didn't mean to rant...i can be pretty passioniate about this kind of thing

I'm getting out of rabbits...we liked the meat, but rabbits really need more health care than we wanted give...their food was also expensive, and i just hate seeing them in cages...i'm a natural free range kinda person. I am also keeping my 2 favorites as pets. So sorry your pet died, thats sad

I usually try organic kinda stuff, specially with the smaller animals. It can be a tough though. I do keep meds on hand to help my favorite ones if they natural ain't workin, and i take the dogs and goats to the vet.
What kind of dog do you have?

Well, even a garden and chickens is a great way to be more in touch with your food and where it comes from. Gardens are one of the most important parts on a homestead, and both garden and animals go hand in hand, because soil just isn't the same without some good ol' poop!

 

[RichnSteph]

For us having a homestead has several points of interest.

1) As others have said we want to know where our food comes from and know what was used to grow it.
2) We want our daughter to understand that meat doesn't simply appear in little packages at the store and that it comes from an animal that has been raised and slaughtered for that very reason.
2.5) I want her to learn that taking care of the animals while they live and how they live is as important as the products they provide for us.
3) I'm tired of the cost of produce and meat. We can grow our own and process our own here for at least the cost of what I'm paying to get them from someone else. Lamb meat here is going for near $30 a pound. I can buy 3 ewes and a ram and process the offspring and sell that meat for far cheaper to our neighbors and still have plenty in the freezer.
4) Our government...... enough said.

We only have one acre at the moment but plan to buy the acre next to us within the next 6 months. Upon our current acre we have the chicken coop and our aquaponics set up (still building the AP). The acre next to us will have the sheep and I'm planning on breaking it up into 3 sections so that I can plant actual hay/grass/alfalfa on each section and rotate them once a month or so during the growing season. We also have deer aplenty out here and I'll be using a bow to take a limit each year that I can so that we add that meat to the freezer as well.

A full freezer, a healthy garden and a pantry stocked with our own hands is what we want to achieve. Once our well is drilled and running and we have our solar array set up on the roof the rest of the country can take a hike. We're living life by the sweat of our own hard work and not by the dollars we have to spend to survive. Our end goal of homesteading is to give ourselves freedom from corporate purchasing and to have our child grow up knowing how to live as our forefathers did.... off the land and by her own hands.

RichnSteph

 

[LordStark]

I would LOVE to homestead, but neither my husband and I can kill an animal (well I killed a quail and he has finished off a mouse that our dog caught, and plans on killing a rooster)... but in general he can't kill anything we raise and neither can I!

Neither of us was raised on a farm either and I struggle with organic versus medication for sick animals... do you just try homeopathic and hope they heal or help them with chemicals?

Yeah killing isn't alot of fun. As for medication I treat as needed. You'd be surprised what chemicals you can use on an animal and it can still be considered organic. When it all comes down to
it, organic is pretty much just marketing. But of the less hormones and chemicals the better. If homeopathy works certainly go for it, just be smart about it. I've come across people who are just downright stupid when it comes to that sort of thing, as a result their animals generally die.

 

[nayeli]

yeah, killing is hard, but it does get easier the more you do it. The hardest is killing a bird you raised for something other than meat...and killing ducks. I can kill all the meat animals we have, but the ducks are here till they die of natural causes...i just can't kill one of them A little thing to keep in mind when doing meat animals is to think about where the meat comes thats on your table. Unless you buy from a local organic type farm, the meat comes from factory farms. Basically legal animal cruelty. Go and watch a few videos of the inside of factory farms, and you will either want to become vegan, or produce your own meat. Same is the case with laying hens and dairy cows...it's so sad. Their conditions is one of the reasons i decided to raise meat, milk, and eggs for my family. Not only is it healthier, but i don't want to support what they do to the animals. I love animals, and when i raise a meat animal, it is raised with care and love, and the they live their whole lives happily with me, to have one bad moment. It makes me happy to see my meat chickens running around, chasing bugs and rolling in dirt, and then think of the factory farm birds stepping on the dead ones, and it makes killing them a whole lot easier.

haha, sorry, i didn't mean to rant...i can be pretty passioniate about this kind of thing

I'm getting out of rabbits...we liked the meat, but rabbits really need more health care than we wanted give...their food was also expensive, and i just hate seeing them in cages...i'm a natural free range kinda person. I am also keeping my 2 favorites as pets. So sorry your pet died, thats sad

I usually try organic kinda stuff, specially with the smaller animals. It can be a tough though. I do keep meds on hand to help my favorite ones if they natural ain't workin, and i take the dogs and goats to the vet.
What kind of dog do you have?

Well, even a garden and chickens is a great way to be more in touch with your food and where it comes from. Gardens are one of the most important parts on a homestead, and both garden and animals go hand in hand, because soil just isn't the same without some good ol' poop!

I have seen the factory farm videos... but its still hard for me to kill. If I knew how to kill, like I'd been taught it would be easier. I just worry I'll do a hack job and they will be in pain for a while before I finish them.

 

[Ozarkhomesteader]

I have seen the factory farm videos... but its still hard for me to kill. If I knew how to kill, like I'd been taught it would be easier. I just worry I'll do a hack job and they will be in pain for a while before I finish them.

yeah, it is so helpful to get someone who really knows what he's doing, or go to a place where they are doing it and let them teach you...it is hard on the first one...you feel like your doing a terrible job.