Homesteading Postings

14 years ago

This forum has been a little slow lately. I wonder if folks are reading and not posting or not coming here at all? Hoping it picks up here in the next month or two, after that I'll be busier and not have so much computer time. Happy winter everyone. Tell us your garden/homeplace plans.

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Comments (4)

golfngardennut
14 years ago
I have been reading... but new, and didn't want to "pop my head above the cornrows"...

I am moving next month into my test version of homesteading. It has been my dream for years... but I move every few years to a new state usually, at least a new town, and can't seem to get settled... but soon. anyway... my new landlord is going to let me do what I want, so I am designing a HUGE garden designed around a grill area... with a greenhouse on one end and my chicken coop and run at the other. I am getting a milk cow once I learn more about them and a pig... i want them to "graze" together, and a donkey to protect them. Oh, and I want to get a llama or alpaca, and learn to spin. I learned to knit last OCT, I just made my first real butter, and planning on cheese and canning soon too...

Any tips on planning a garden to support 2 people for the whole year? I am a begginner as I said, and starting to feel somewhat overwhelmed with all the book stuff... just going to jump in head first like always... :)

Tell us about yours...
dan_zn_5
14 years ago
Hello all, Nice to see some activity.
golfngardennut, I prefer raised beds with intensive/ companion planting. (square foot garden) As for zone 7, i'm not very familiar with your growing season, but i do know that with a green house you'll extend your season for lettuce, radish, or cole crops. As for tomatoes or cukes, it's more daylight hours in winter if you heat the GH.
Hope this helps...I'll check in later, GL
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Have you tried Mother Earth or Rodale Organic gardening? You just might want to create your own book. Copy and Paste is a very handy process to gather what information you want or need. There probably isn't a book which will have it set up the way for all you wants and needs. The only book I had was very interesting but like a lot of us I loaned it to someone years ago and both they and myself forgot who and when. Now I use my genealogy program to collect any information for my gardening, etc. That way I have it in one place without having to look all over for needed information. I find the genealogy programs are so useful they can be used for a lot more then just genealogy anymore and I just create Name-Place-Fact files for almost anything I chose and it ends up in one file which I can access quickly and have it in one location. Then if you want to be sure you can always have it later you just burn it to a CD.
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I agree with usmc_recon. I think that even though you don't want to go into debt, you would be making a good move to apply the rent to your property. I'm not sure what part of the country you are looking at, but I think you would be able to pick up a couple acres and your mortgage would only be slightly higher than that rent. Unimproved land is not high on the list of many people, so you could probably find a good price. Then keep your apartment until you have the money to put in a well and septic. Another idea instead of the MH is a cabin. I was just shopping for a large shed and they also build barns and cabins. They had a really nice 1 bedroom, 1 bath cabin for about $18k. Yes, much more than the MH, but it is another option, and since it was the display model, it was likely one of the more expensive models. Here's a link to the ones we saw. I think it was the Lincoln Log Cabin that we saw Here is a link that might be useful: Penn Dutch Structures
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I got some value out of the earlier recommendations in this thread, so I just thought I'd update the thread with a couple of other items. One is in the U.S., an amazing source called Grizzly Industrial. They publish a print catalogue that I'm hugely impressed with. High quality tools, and many, many things of use on the homestead. This sort of source is actually used more frequently by professionals working with wood or doing carpentry than are, say, Lee Valley or Woodcraft Supply. In Canada, Summit Tools is a similar high-quality source, good for carpentry and general shop tools. They also have mechanics' tools, pneumatic and hydraulic equipment, etc. I'm providing the Website for them below, but I believe you have to check with them by phone or go into one of their stores to find out about specific tools that they stock. Haven't locate their on-line catalogue, if they do in fact have one. Joel Here is a link that might be useful: Summit Tools
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Comments (1)
Hi, I'm in Broward, so not too far from you. Similarly I'm starting my planting of tropical fruits. I have a guava, mango, star fruit, and a jackfruit and bears lime. I'm actually replanting everything since my soil is so poor nothing has survived despite replanting trees every couple of years. I think I have about the same yard space but I don't think I can cram in that many plants. Won't they get too crowded? Knowing my track record, everything will be dead by next fall. I'm hoping for better luck this time.
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golfngardennut
14 years ago
I am incredibly excited about finding a local dairy, www.utterlyfresh.com, and the wonderful lady that owns it was so nice and willing to show me around her farm and answer my milk cow questions. I will be getting milk from her in the future until I can get my own cow/cows and figure out the whole thing.

I have been planning the garden by using the farmers almanac and I get to start a local master gardeners course FEB 4 - I am so stoked. I will post my "plan" later :) Busy exchanging seeds right now and cleaning the house so I can move on to preparing the garden area :)

g'nut
posieh
14 years ago
I hope you were raised on a farm or at least have been gardening for awhile. I don't wish you bad luck, but you have lots to learn and will certainly need lots of help and advise. Have you ever raised chickens? Have you ever milked a cow? Have you made plans to have your cow bred and what will you do for milk while she is dried up? Please don't put the fresh manure on your garden and don't let the chickens run in your garden unless you can protect your tomatoes and such. At least you know that a donkey is a good pasture protector. You sound like you have lots of energy so I wish you allkinds of
Good Luck !

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golfngardennut

dan_zn_5

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