Degree of homesteading

[duckidaho]

Hi there, I am interested in hearing peoples homestead stories about partial homesteading moving towards "hard core" homesteading.

I live in a farmhouse in Northern Idaho. I'm not "off the grid" or anything, but we have a 1/2 acre garden, can a good supply of food, put away game in the freezer from hunting, bought a beef cow raised by our neighbor and butchered it. We are building a chicken coop and should get our first round of chicks next month. We have fruit from an abandoned orchard available to us for canning. We hunt and fish both for food and recreation.

We try to use free materials for building, buy at goodwill and pawnshops.

I work about 12 hours a week as a special education teacher. I am a certified teacher and I get paid through a state funded program, but I facilitate education with homeschool children and their families. I love my work, I don't ever want to go back to full time public school teaching. The teaching provides enough money to live a frugal lifestyle "on the grid".

We want to increase the amount we can supply in our lives through homestead skills, and reduce the amount we have to rely upon the industrial agriculture, factory food, consumerist lifestyle that so many in our society depend on.

What is your experience? A little homesteading? All the way off grid? Somewhere in between? What have you all learned in your homestead journey?

thanks, Russ

[WileyCoyote]

Hi duckidaho.

We are not off the grid but have plans that way - it will take awhile. We bought a piece of property that has a house, barns, shop, etc and 14 acres in a rural village (pop 177 - they changed the sign when we moved in) and another 46 acres in the county. The back ridge of our property is perfect for wind power, and we have a well that needs to be revamped on the first hill (there's a pipe with a stick in it that stays wet at the bottom of the stick). But right now we are on propane, elec, and 'city' water (that they pump up from the aquifer and do not treat with anything, simply store in a water tower).

I have three garden spots around the house totalling about an acre. We are going to put in a huge garden this year and are int he process of tearing down the decrepit garage to build a chicken coop next to the "big" garden, to run a chicken moat around the garden. We started our compost pile and the dirt (although right now frozen) is rich and black. Tomorrow (I got permission) I am going to go over to the schoolhouse and pile their pile of leaves from fall into my pickup truck and bring them over and water them into my garden (supposed to be in the 50's the next 5 days). Otherwise they will just take the pile to the dump to be burned. :o

We have had a garden every year at 'the old place' - a tiny little spot behind a house on 1/3 of an acre. Cannot wait to finally have room for everything I want to grow! Going to build a greenhouse for starts but his year it looks like they'll be started in the basement. Have an apple tree and a cherry tree that we planted last year (both self-fertile) and are planning on blueberries and more fruit trees in that spot, protected from the constant wind here.

The property is fully fenced and cross-fenced, and the pole barns have both a corral and a small pasture. We currently have a horse leasing the back acreage, but aim to put several Dexter cows back there in three years. This property used to be the old town dairy many years ago, and there is a "cooling room" in the basement still, with outside egress. We hope to return it to its former productivity as well.

Looking to get either a mule or a draft horse to pull a buckboard; this is not as far fetched as it seems as my next door neighbor has them.

I don't know how far "off the grid" is practical for us, but we are determining just how far we WILL go by how far we CAN go. It will be a gradual process for us; too old and decrepit ;D to live in a tent or suffer thru a Zone 4 winter without adequate heat.

[mom]

We live in a town of 700 on an acre lot. We are not off grid because our fuel prices are low and we figured it would take 15 years or so to pay for what we needed to go off grid. We have chickens & ducks and a huge garden. My sister lives down the road with 7 acres which we will garden about 1 of those acres this year also. We plan to start market gardening this spring in a much bigger way and hopefully get a small farmers market going in our little town.

[Terri]

We are not zoned for livestock, and I am no longer healthy enough for the more physical parts of homesteading.

But, I LOVE it!

So, I am expanding the easier bits. The chickens are a LOT of fun, and I get a kick out of those big orange yolks. Christmas for me had a centerpiece of some commercial grade weed barrier: I will lay it down in the garden and plant tomatos, peppers, and vining plants through it. The corn needs less protection so I will continue to struggle on with that in the ordinary garden. I have put in a couple of super-dwarf fruit trees (no climbing or ladders) and last year a huge indulgence was a little potting shed that I intend to start seedlings in in 2 weeks.

I realize that the potting shed might never pay for itself, seedlings are not that expensive, but I love it. I really do! I had all the windows put on the south side for light, and on the coldest nights I will run a space heater tp keep the seedlings from freezing.

If I were zoned for livestock, I would have gotten a bigger shed and housed dairy goats in one side, but such is life!

[bookwormom]

I thought we would be "there" after three and a half years at it. but still far from it. The weather really threw a few big kinks into the works the last two years. Our land is the sorriest, tobaccoed out you can imagine. we have been at it with everything we can get our hands on, husband has hauled countless loads of manure from a horsefarm, we have a big compost pile due to a compost toilet, I collect leaves, hauled spoiled hay from farms around, planted green manure cover crops, you name it. Our land is mostly little hills and narrow little hollers. the kind nobody would want, hopefully. we are surrounded by woods and not too easily accessible. So far I have two big gardens and three terrace gardens, two of them made with old tires, works fine, does not enhance the property necessarily. The other is close to the house and drive and we used landscape blocks, it looks very nice and is mostly planted in herbs. Two more terrace gardens are in plan and one started. We planted fruit trees three years ago, barely kept them alive. I planted two hedges of rugosa roses, they did fine, I want to extend those to along the inside fence line. The plants are making lots of little plants, so I have lots to transplant this spring. Most of our outbuidlings are done, there was nothing on the place but a tobacco barn and five years ago a tornado went through and took it all over the county. It would have come in handy for the cows.
We raise Dexter cattle, just sold our first heifer calf. I am milking goats and hope to be milking cows in the future. the stock we started out with is a wild bunch, though registered. Husband works with the critters born on the place and the heifer we sold walked on a leash. We still have three other heifer calves, one that we want to keep and I milked one cow last spring for a while, had to quit when she stepped on my hand. Need a milkstand for the cows, they are so short. We keep a little of everything,. we should have butchered geese and ducks, but I was gone and husband did not want to do it on his own. sometimes we could stand a hired hand or someone who lives in and helps out. Maybe I will start plucking the geese, there is a neighbor who would like to make a down comforter, after she saw ours, and especially considering her cold house. It is a good thing we do not mind the work, but it ties you down and I wish I had more time to do some other things, I do pottery and there are two stores that have asked me to supply them, I hope the tourist trade keeps up, I also found a lady who wants to trade sewing for pottery. we want to get off grid to a certain extent, enough to keep us going if the power would be gone. Living in a strawbale house helps keep the cost of cooling down, one window unit a couple of hrs a day does us. After menopause I could not take the heat like I used to, (go ahead and have a power surge when the temp is 98, bah).
the last two years we would have starved if we had to live off the land. the only thing we had in abundance was meat. But hope springs eternal in the breast of man, I hope this year we get rain in due season. I also collected big mineral tubs to raise potatoes in case we have another drought. Our goal is to not have to bring anything onto the farm. that means we have to grow some chickenfeed, we have seven chickens and that is enough for eggs. the goats would be enough for milk. Our land is about one third woods, one third hilly brush that we are clearing, hopefully with the help of the critters, and one third open. we have a well that we had redrilled and cleaned out, but if there is no power we are sitting high and dry. As soon as possible we want to install some big water tanks to catch runoff from the barnroof, for the animals and for irrigation. the water from my shop roof goes into a cistern that supplies washing and bathing water. we could switch to well but so far never had to. we need one more shed for equipment, we want to use lumber from the place for it.
So far the berries have done fairly well, with some irrigation, I got all there are, rasp, goose, straw, blue,black and elderberries. The currants have survived but have to bear yet. We planted quinces and need to plant chestnuts yet. We built the cutest cabin four our handicapped (in his head) son to live in but he does not want to now that it is finished. He hates farm.
we need to get some pigs to help this one pond enlarge a bit. Husband stocked the big pond with bass and bluegills. Off and on when we can spare the time we work on clearing, I always carry big long handled brush snippers along and noticed where I cleared paths through the thickets the cows have gone in and the goats follow me and eat the saw briars. I hope that in a few years all the underbrush will be gone, we have cut huge piles of it, as big as a house, in the future we hope the animals will do a large junk of that work and we will thin out the trees for firewood as we need it. I am heating with what we cut last winter, mostly oak as thick as a man's arm.
If we get enough rain so we won't have to feed hay in August the cows ought to be worthwhile.
Husband has a back injury and a rotary cup tear, we trade chores at times, he does the dishes, I unload the manure. Maybe I need to teach him to bake bread, he certainly will get to break the beans this summer.
we picked pretty rough land to try to survive on, Karst, dry, sandy, not much surface water, not hardly any creeks around here, the earth under us is like a swiss cheese, husband hopes to find a cave, we have neighbors with cave entrances on their place. I hope this year he will finally get around to make beer. It has all been uphill and I hope we get to coast for a while. Just the day to day things to attend to.

[sbemt456]

I think I could be called a some what modern homesteader. We are not by any means off the grid but we are at the end of the power line on our farm. We still have electric heat with fireplace back up, in our double wide home. Yeh I live in a plastic house out of necessity. We have a dug well for water. Still have phone due to security system. But we are fourth generation on a 100 acre farm that belonged to my ancestors.Blessed with about 35 acres of that being river bottom along the Kentucky river. All 35 could be gardened or planted because it is level and does not flood. The rest is wooded with several streams and other areas that can be used for live stock or small gardens. Our garden plot was 150' by 50' this past year fenced in to keep out deer that ate better than we did the year before. Past spring I planted grape vines, strawberries, and blueberries that all did well, just takes a while to produce. I have a 10' by 10' little herb bed that gave us all the dried herbs we need for the year. Started a 12' by 12' bed in the back yard that is planted with onions and garlic. Finally got that done and planted in October and mulched in December. The yard in front and to the side of the house have flower beds that have lots of things planted that I dry for tea and more stuff just to look pretty. But the flower beds got very little of my attention this past year.
We now have 3 chicken houses, one for the hens, one is a backup and the new one is used as a brooder house and to raise cornish cross for fryers. Had to build the new one in back of the house this past summer after losing 43 of 50 of my cornish cross babies to a big cow snake. It was an older no so well built building that couldnt be snake proofed. Broke my heart to see my babies squeezed to death. The new one is close enough to electricity that I can have lights and heat for the little ones. This year the oldest son and I are planning to try to have hogs again to butcher. I would someday soon like to have a few cows to raise our own beef and at least one to milk. I can see that takin some learnin on my part. Been many years since I milked a cow. We do make some wine from wild blackberries or wild grapes when we can get them. We had tons of blackberries this past year and lots got canned, jammed, jellied and wined. All good on a cold winter night. We do have the area here to deer hunt and we do. Well maybe I should say hubby does, I cant any more due to my shoulder and back injury. If we didnt buy any junk food, like chips, soda, and snack foods we could get away with spending less than 100 bucks a month buying only necessities. We hope to build a root/storm cellar this spring. Then maybe we can keep taters all winter and not get blown away in the spring during storm season.
So homesteader I probably am not but we are somewhat self sufficient. But we can all keep trying.

Have a great day.

stella

[catrules]

We really have just begun to do what we can in our in town residence. We have a decent sized backyard, which I have basically turned totally into a garden. Going to plant a couple of fruit trees here. I bake bread, and can and freeze a lot of stuff. We have an amish farm nearby that sells produce at really good prices which I use to supplement what I cannot grow in my garden. I sew a lot of our clothing, and hopefully by next year we will have the woodstove up and running to help out with the heat. I feed worms in my basement for vermicompost, and a pile in my yard for when the weather is warmer. So, right now I am just doing what I can.

We have a screened in back porch on the south facing side of the house. My next goal is to figure out how to get a greenhouse effect out there.

[flatwater]

I have a friend of mine that is an offgridder but you would not know it. He has such a upscale solar system that he has everything that one would have living on the grid. Even though he is in the boon docks he lives just the same way he did in the city. I know people who live in the city that have a true homesteader life style and mindset. It's all about attitude with no neighbors.

[cookiecache]

I staked my 39 acre homestead in the Alaska Bush back in 1996. These days I have a nice cabin with solar power and an acre of garden. A little spring comes out of the ground behind the cabin, and wildlife such as bear and moose play in the front yard. I don't think there will be a road or powerline in my neighborhood during my lifetime (I'm in my mid 40s).

These's no close neighbors, except one older guy that live about a mile and a half away. He hasn't gone more than one day's walk from his cabin since 1998.

I went out to the cabin about two months ago to check everything over, and the only problem is weasels have been living inside the cabin - what a mess! I lived at the cabin for several years in the past. I'm in town gearing-up to move back out to my place this spring after living in town for a couple of years. It sure will be nice to go home.

[duckidaho]

A good point flatwater. I started with a dream. Then I moved into a urban "cooperative" living situation when I was 18 and started gardening, then canning. I mostly lived with hippy types then (and I was one myself) but I also got my first gun, a marlin .22 and learned to rabbit hunt in the woods out of town. I've lived in big cities, and in the country, at various times along the way. The pieces have just added together since then, until now when it starts to resemble my dreams of 25 years ago.

[flatwater]

RFDAmerica #7 on that list was my favorite--develope an imagination and think outside the box. That has saved me more money and has created some of the most fun in my entire life.

[Whtail]

Started Homesteading about 6yrs ago. We traded our city lot for 5 acres in the country. Built a big pantry. Big 1/2 acre garden, 13 varities of fruit tree's and bushes. We eat fresh venison and range eggs. We heat with wood, no fossil fuels. We make maple sugar from our tree's. currently saving $ for PCV panels.
Life is much better.

[fancyfowl]

Everyone has a bit different idea about what homesteading is I think? I consider us as homesteaders of a sort. We always have raised a large portion of our food, meat and fruits/veggies. Have kept dairy goats and made cheese, yogurt and all that. farmed with a team of ponies for quite awhile but also used a tractor as needed. `1st 4 years no tractor. We burn wood, hunt, fish and used to trap. I have tanned all sorts of skins, we make most of our food instead of buy it. I sell just about anything I can make or produce here. On the other hand we go out to eat about 3 times a year, we keep an up to date SUV, get semi regular store bought haircuts and buy some commercial beers and wines, we just cant seem to make enuff! We lived in town for the 1st 8 years we were married and the entire yard was garden, we kept chickens and rabbits and ate many meals from the yard alone.