McLean County here. Corn Belt had people out most of the weekend after the EF1s came through, first confirmed tornadoes in this area in 20 years. Decided I was done being unprepared and ordered a delta pro ultra. Got it set up on the manual transfer switch.

Got through the actual outage fine once I had it running. Fridge didn't lose anything, AC stayed on, barely noticed it compared to my neighbors. Felt pretty good about the purchase.

But I'm realizing power was the only thing I actually thought about and I don't have much else figured out. What do you guys actually prep beyond electricity? Water storage? Food rotation? Anything that came in handy last month?

Im seeking to buy a home here shortly and I’m just looking for your experiences or advice if you’ve achieved financial freedom through homesteading how long has that taken and how did you do it? Or have you managed to free yourself from traditional work like corporate ?

I need some opinions please. We moved onto our homestead 2.5 years ago. We are struggling with discerning to stay or leave. Recently it has been very stressful with things popping up left and right, with a financial strain. Please let me know if this has been your experience with homesteading at some point and if you think we should suck it up or move on.
We bought our house with only 10% down so our mortgage is higher end. My husband is all our sole income. We had to recently pay 5k in storm damage. Recently our livestock guardian dog keeps escaping to our neighbors factory down the road, the same worker has showed up with our dog over 10 times around 6am. She officially has escaped all pastures we have electric or not. This spring, we have had mice die behind our walls four different occasions which cause a horrendous smells for a week or two. Today I noticed the smell in our daughter’s room. Our house is not designed very well, and was a do it yourself project by the previous owners- leads to many issues but the main one of the 3k electric bill in the winter even with our solar panels. My husband recently fell off our tractor and almost died, lost his wedding ring. We have voles destroying our yard- they ate all of my garlic I planted in the fall and probably will kill everything I’m planning to plant Friday.

I am wondering and requesting opinions on if this is normal homesteading experiences for you all & I’m being a baby or any advice. After that 4th mouse smell in my daughter’s room just now, I am posting this because I’m completely overwhelmed right now and feeling very lost.

seeking locations within USA (or anyplace on EARTH) that do not have the following:

• data centers
• wi-fi
• cell towers
• radio towers
• heavy metals in the water and soil
• geoengineering activity (chemtrails, marine cloud brightening, stratospheric aerosol injection, ocean alkalinity enhancement)

i am aware this is an unusual request and not looking to debate whether radio-frequencies, emf, chemtrails, heavy metals, geoengineering are happening or harmful to the earth. i am looking for locations that objectively have very little exposure to these things.

i was wondering if anyone can confirm if their gardens/livestock grow very abundantly? or if anyone can confirm their location is free of the list above.

thank you so much in advance! i am eager to converse about this subject!

— TL;DR —
Looking for the most effective ways to clear the area of timber rattlesnakes.
——————

Hey guys, I am lucky enough to be starting to build an off grid homestead. I have selected the area on the land where I will build it.

That area is at the bottom of a ~35 to 40ft shear cliff. That area is heavily wooded and heavy brush.

When I went down there I saw two timber rattlesnakes very quickly and turned around as at the time was just getting the lay of the land and was just wearing tennis shoes.

Looking for the most effective ways to clear the area of timber rattlesnakes.

(My plan currently is to get snake chaps and heavy work boots designed to stop the snake from puncturing them just use a machete to kill the snakes). That said I’m wondering if anyone has a better way to do this.

Important constraints:

- No vehicle access for heavy machinery or cars.

- Cannot cause long term damage to the area (specifically no chemicals that could leaks into water or food down the road as we will be gardening and such out there.)

- Must be able to be done by one person. I will not be asking my girlfriend to go down there with me so whatever I do must be able to be done with just me.

- There are a ton of deep cracks into the rocks making it an ideal area for them to hibernate in the winter. I’m almost positive that the area is infested with them (or as much as they do being they are territorial from my understanding.)

I was at the foot of the cliff which is at the exit of a dried gorge and saw two timber rattlesnakes witching about one or two minutes being down there.

Thank you for taking the time to read!

Not sure if this is precisely the right sub, but I'm looking for a book about homesteading that goes into the science behind different practices and techniques.

My friend's family is becoming increasingly unhinged. Recently they've decided they don't believe in soap. I'm not expecting to be able to change their minds on anything, but if they're going to go with diy alternatives then I would at least like the peace of mind knowing what they diy isn't going to kill them. I do not trust them to do their own research.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

I'm close friends with a local farmer who does strawberry farming on a small scale (like only sells at his little stand) and he's always had a problem with birds eating the seeds off of the strawberries he has. He runs a Upick and sells his own strawberries and he used to hire a guy to scare off birds but labor is super expensive now so like he just let the birds do their thing. But now it's a huge issue, and I'm pretty into engineering and thought it would be cool if I could provide him a solution. Started with a drone but quickly realized the flaws there. They currently are trying out reflective paper strips on poles to scare them away but the birds get used to it and it doesn't work well in no wind. Have you guys found any solutions to this or tried out anything to prevent birds from coming by? They always perch near power lines that are really close to the farm so that might be a limitation too. Sorry if this is the wrong subreddit. Thank you!

Hello. I have a 5.35 acre mini farm. It was my husband's pride and joy. I desperately want to have a good garden this year, and probably sell this place in the fall. However.

1. I have no idea how to operate the tractor. It's a New Holland TC25D. I have figured out how to start it, I can get the front bucket to raise and lower, and I can lift the rear tiller attachment. What I can't do is figure out how to get it to move. Help!

2. I burned all the shoulder high weeds a couple of weeks ago, but the new weeds are already knee high. I know that I'm going to need to put something in my garden to deter the weeds, but I don't know what, or how or when to apply it. Ideally, I want to plant sweet corn, sunflowers, watermelon, and pumpkins. That's for my 2.5 acre garden area. My home garden is like . 25 acres, and I want to plant all the things there (tomatoes of every variety, onions, and peppers, peas, beans, carrots, and peanuts).

I want to sell the tractor and golf cart and all the rest of the farm stuff in the fall after I have one good harvest. I just need to prove to myself that I can do this. The tractor is defeating me.

I tried to find the video I bookmarked last year, but I guess it's been removed. Everything else I'm finding on YouTube is tractors listed for sale; I neither want, nor need, another tractor!

Hey all... Amateur homesteader/preparedness-minded Dad here. Lately I've been thinking a lot about gut health as a prep that almost nobody talks about. We spend a ton of energy on calories, water filtration, shelf-stable carbs, gardening, etc... but in a supply-chain disruption or prolonged emergency your immune system and digestion are going to be under major stress. Fermented foods feel like one of the most overlooked answers to that.

I started making sauerkraut last fall (mostly out of curiosity). Cabbage, salt, a half-dozen mason jars, two weeks of waiting. That's pretty much all it took. And now I have something that lasts months in my cold room. It costs almost nothing, and actively supports gut health in a way that no re-hydrated meal ever will.

My mom joined the party and made me a large batch of kimchi, and also gave me a sourdough starter I've managed to keep alive through sheer stubbornness. But I feel like I'm just scratching the surface.

For those of you who have built fermentation into your regular pantry routine: is this a conscious "just in case" resilience decision for you, or did it start as just a food hobby? Do you think about it differently now?
And for anyone who's been doing this for a long time: what are your absolute staple recipes? What's the most beginner-friendly ferment that delivers real results (yes, I know alcoholic beverages delivers "real results", but I'm mostly looking into food options here :))? Any mistakes you wish you'd avoided, or hacks to pass along to a newbie?

Asking because I want to get more intentional about this, and I'd rather learn from people who've actually been doing it for a long time. Thanks in advance!

I have made butter from heavy cream plenty of times. I’m trying to do it using fresh milk. not too fresh, but the milk is from 5/7 and 5/8.

I can see the cream line and I skimmed it off. I can see when milk got in the cream. I let it sit a day, and repeated the process.

I had 1 cup of “cream”

I shook it trying to make butter. I think I got 2 T of butter… and I haven’t even washed it yet.

what gives?!

So my buddy got into hunting last year n I thought he was crazy. Like full on obsessed. He's got the license,the gear,the whole nine yards. Finally bagged a deer last month n was so proud he wouldn't stop talking about it.

Here's where it gets weird. He wanted to process it himself but didn't have the right equipment. Started digging around online n ended up ordering these butchering kits from somewhere like Alibaba or similar sites. Honestly,it shocked me that he'd trust random sellers with that kind of stuff,but the quality was decent enough.

He processes the deer meat himself now,vacuum seals it,stores it in the freezer. I tried the venison he gave me n it's actually really good. Way better than grocery store beef. He's talking about doing this every season,maybe smoking it,curing it. Says once u get past the initial investment it's way cheaper than buying beef.

The thing that gets me is how into it he's become. It's not just a hobby anymore,it's like a whole lifestyle thing. He's talking about moving somewhere rural,getting land,building this whole operation around hunting n processing his own meat.

I'm happy for him but also thinking like... man,this started as a weekend thing n now he's basically a homesteader wannabe. Sometimes I wonder if I should've just kept quiet n let him stay normal.