Hello from an Appalachian Homesteader

BackwoodsBuff · #1 04-13-2012, 06:24 PM

A huge fan of Jackie and the Magazine!!!

We have 3 acres (or around that amount) and we have:

1. 24 Chickens, and have a half acre (ish) setup for extensive foraging, water sources, and cover. It is wooded pretty good, so in the fall the leaves create a nice mulch for them to eat through. So it really creates excellent forage ground for our flock. We sell a lot of eggs, we have been doing good on our first few rounds of chick sales, we slaughter our own. We did CXs last year, and I admit they are nasty, and I am working on collectively breeding a more homestead friendly meat bird mix for us to eat.
2. 5 Meat Rabbit breeders, we had our first batch of meat kits this spring. They are growing out in a stock tank in the garage. I am going to setup a colony-like setup when we get our barn built. I plan to keep 12 breeding does in there to use for meat rabbit makers. I have 15 rabbits growing out in the garage, the females are staying to go for the colony. Then males will be slaughtered when they get old enough to sex.
3. 2 Ducks, they forage with the chicken flock. They enjoy our small pond in the forage area. They are prolific meat producers, and good pest controlers. Very SS.
4. 5200 Sq Ft. of Garden and garden beds. We grow the biggest majority of our vegetables, what we didn't produce last year that we eat we are growing this year. We got a good start on the garden this year, and we have 16 sq ft. of carrots out, 20 Cabbage Plants under row cover for pest control, 50 lbs. of potatoes, (4) 25 ft rows of peas and are waiting for them to come up, 4 by 30 green onion plot, 24 sq ft. of bulb onions, and a small lettuce bed. Which we are going to be expanding and changing later on. To create a year round salad bed. We have been using our own fertilizers only so far. It feels great!! We still have to plant our green beans, sweet corn, sweet potatoes, broccoli, peppers, tomatoes, and our herbs.
5. Small Berry Patches, we set out 54 strawberry plants, and 10 blackberry canes. My project for the fall is to make a blueberry patch.
6. Two large orchards, that we are building up. We have peaches, pears, apples, cherries, and plums. Peaches and apples look good this year. I plant to add 4 new cherry trees next spring. The poultry also forage here as well.
6. Honey bees, not successful YET. They seem to be hard to make anything of but this year IS looking better.

My next projects are to acquire our Jersey heifer calf, which despite being on small acreage we have adequate pasture for her. According to my references and calculations we have enough grass for her. Then I am buying turkey eggs to incubate and finally get started in those birds. Fall, we will get our barn constructed for a HUGE lot less than one usually would.

This is my homestead, hope you enjoyed.