r/Homesteading

We're moving from a Brooklyn apartment to a 9 acre property in Virginia next month. Best decision for Luna, worst decision for my wallet.

Been doing a lot of research on what gear actually matters out there versus what I needed in the city. Here's what I have so far:

1. Long line for recall training before any off leash time. I've heard open space is a completely different world from city sidewalks.

2. Ruffwear harness for more control while she's adjusting to the new environment.

3. Satellai collar for GPS and peace of mind. Woods on three sides means real escape risk and I'm not taking chances.

4. Headlamp people keep telling me dusk walks out there are a different experience.

5. Tick prevention city me never once thought about this. Rural me thinks about it constantly.

First time doing the rural thing with a dog. What am I missing?

We finally pulled the trigger on our first batch of meat birds this spring after years of just keeping layers. Got 25 Cornish Cross chicks about six weeks ago and honestly nothing could have fully prepared me for how different this experience is from raising egg birds.

The growth rate alone has been wild to watch. These things eat constantly and the feed costs have run higher than I budgeted for. I also underestimated how much work goes into keeping their bedding dry and managing the smell. Our layers basically take care of themselves by comparison.

On the plus side, watching the whole process from chick to finished bird has been genuinely rewarding in a way I did not expect. There is something grounding about knowing exactly where your food came from and how it was raised.

Processing day is next weekend and I am equal parts ready and nervous. We have done a couple of roosters before but never a full batch like this.

For those who have been through it, any advice for keeping processing day manageable with a small crew of two or three people? Also curious whether anyone has switched to a different breed after doing Cornish Cross and preferred it. I am thinking about trying Freedom Rangers next round but want honest opinions from people who have actually raised both.

We finally ordered our first batch of Cornish Cross chicks this spring. I've been gardening and keeping a small vegetable patch for a few years, but raising animals for meat felt like a real step up in terms of commitment. We wanted to get more serious about knowing where our food comes from and cutting back on what we buy from the store.

The learning curve has been steeper than I expected. Feed costs, managing heat lamps, keeping the brooder clean, and just getting comfortable with the idea of processing them yourself are all things nobody really prepares you for until you're in the middle of it.

I smoked two of our first birds last weekend and honestly could not believe the difference in flavor compared to anything storebought. That alone made every early morning chore worth it.

For those of you who have been raising and processing your own chickens for a while, what do you wish someone had told you at the start? Any tips on processing day, feed ratios, or keeping them healthy through the growout period would be hugely appreciated. Also curious if anyone has switched breeds after their first round and why. Would love to hear what has worked and what hasn't on your homestead.

Getting into making pretty much everything from scratch. Probably need to get a juicer for vegetables. The bolthouse farms stuff is almost all sugar.

Like an agrarian soda.

Doing stuff by hand really isn't that much work. Plus it feels kind of liberating and probably better for the environment. And a great way to build muscles naturally.

Hi everyone,

I’m planning a huge surprise gift for my wife. She has always wanted to get into woodworking and build our home furniture, but never had the chance to start.

We live in Europe. She will be working out of our garage, using commercial pre-milled lumber and plywood/lamellar sheets (no raw logs or heavy milling needed).

She wants to build minimalist, organic, Japandi-style furniture (think *Nabe Creation* style: light wood like European Beech or Birch plywood, heavily rounded/soft edges, no visible screws, and natural hardwax-oil finishes).

I want to gift her the entire package of tools, book and starting materials and I wanted to ask to you if what i'm planning to buy is okay or I need corrections. I want to post this both here and in /woodworking, but I'm a long time lurker with no karma!

Tolls list, budget 3000€:

I wanted to use Makita as main brand.

Makita SP6000J Plunge Track Saw (with 2x 150cm rails + connectors) + Makita LS0815FLN Sliding Miter Saw.

Mirka DEROS 5650CV corded random orbital sander, this is the most expensive piece, I don't want her to have pain in the wrists due to sanding.

Kreg Jig 720 PRO pocket hole system + Titebond II, I saw this as a first joint kit.

Makita RT0702C corded trim router + Bosch Professional 15pc bit set + Shogun Kugihiki flush-cut Japanese saw for wood plugs, these are needed for the rounded minimalist style.

Makita DDF485RTJ Brushless Drill (with 2x 5.0Ah batteries) + Makita DML811 hybrid LED work light on a generic 2-meter tripod.

Wolfcraft Master Work 1600 workbench, a mixed set of Wolfcraft quick clamps and Bessey bar clamps, 12x Tellure Rôta industrial double-locking casters, and Emuca drawer slides. These were basically requested to Gemini, since I have zero experience and didn't know what to buy, I have no opinion on these, should I have one?

Osmo Polyx-Oil 3062 (Matt) for that raw, velvety wood feel.

Since she does not have any experience (neither do I lmao), but both of us are really bookworms, I searched for a couple of strong big book to start understanding what to do, from google searches I've selected these two, what do you think?

Illustrated Cabinetmaking by Bill Hylton

and

Understanding Wood by R. Bruce Hoadley.

Questions:

Did I miss anything needed to start? Like, will she be able to start creating at least the workbenches for the garage?

Any specific tips for a beginner working with European Beech lamellar panels or Birch plywood for furniture frames?

Budget is locked at around **€3,400**, which includes the tools, books, and the plywood/hardware for the first 3 workshop benches.

Thanks in advance for your sanity check!

Anyone know if there is a way to keep a small garden through the winter in a greenhouse in harsh winter conditions? I really want to grow more of my food and I know there are winter vegetables but I would love to grow bell peppers, zucchini, and lettuce through the winter months. I was thinking a greenhouse and solar powered lighting to give off some heat. I do not have a way to extend power and want to grow outside. Would this be doable?

We've been living on 40 acres in the ozarks for about 3 years now. Not fully off-grid, we still have a grid connection, but it's unreliable. We lose power maybe 10-12 times a year, sometimes for a few hours, sometimes for days.

The house runs on a 6kW solar array with a hybrid inverter. The battery bank is two Vatrer Power 48V 100Ah server rack Home Storage Battery units. Got the Vatrer Battery recommendation from a neighbor who'd been running them for a year, giving us 10.2kWh of storage. We also have a 7kW propane generator as a last resort, but i try to avoid running it. The noise ruins the whole point of living out here.

Last month we had a bad windstorm roll through. Knocked out power across the county. We were without grid for 4 days. That's the longest outage we've had since building the system.

Day 1: full sun. Panels produced about 28kWh. Batteries were full by 11am. We ran the house normally, fridge, freezer, well pump, starlink, a couple of laptops. No issues.

Day 2: overcast. Panels only produced about 8kWh. Batteries dropped to 38% by morning. We got a little conservative, turned off the extra freezer in the garage, limited well pump usage to morning and evening. Still had lights, internet, fridge.

Day 3: more overcast. This was the sketchy day. Panels produced maybe 6kWh. Batteries hit 15% by 7pm. I fired up the generator for 2 hours to top them off to about 45%. Then we ran off battery through the night.

Day 4: sun came back. Panels produced around 26–28kWh on the good full sun day. Batteries were full by 1pm. Grid came back at 4pm. We didn't even notice until i checked the inverter display.

Total generator runtime over 4 days: 2 hours. That's it. Neighbors were running generators nonstop. One guy drove 40 miles to get gas because the local station was out.

The rack batteries were solid. I mounted them in a ventilated closet in the utility room. They stayed around 75-85°F the whole time. The wifi monitoring was useful, i could check SOC from my phone without walking to the utility room at 11pm. The bms logs showed all cells stayed balanced the entire time.

The system isn't perfect. 10kWh is fine for 2 people being conservative, but we'd need more if we had kids or wanted to run AC. The rack form factor makes it easy to add more, just slide in another unit and connect the communication cables. That's probably the next upgrade.

Word of advice: don't wait until you're at 10% to fire up the generator. Lithium doesn't have the voltage sag warning that lead acid gives you, it'll just go from 10% to 5% to BMS cutoff faster than you expect. Keep a bigger margin than you think.

Would you be okay with a friend allowing your kids to ride sitting down, in the back of a pickup truck, open bed with tailgate up, going less than 10 mph on our driveway? The kids are 3 and 5, very experienced farm kids for their age, but I still am not ok with letting them be back there alone. I only allow it if there's an adult with.

I am feeling pretty upset though, as this friend will definitely be needed to watch my kids again and I worry they wont respect my ask....which, even if they are safe and nothing ever happens, it's lame to think they'll be undermining my parenting.

So what do yall think? Would you let your kids?

I have six acres in Arkansas I’m financing with my girlfriend. Utilities are at the road and the electric company will run up to 300’ for free. I’m not sure about water, but I do know we are on rural water. I think there may be some programs to help with running the water and possibly septic. This is a divided cow pasture and we have two three acre parcels right next to each other. I think I’m wanting to put a house on each, nothing super permanent until we can custom build something. I’m wanting to probably go with mobile homes. Maybe a single wide on one and a double wide on the other for us. I want to rent out the other house during the school year and then let my friend live in it when he is home from school for a few months out of the year. I do not have great credit though and neither does my girlfriend, I want to know if this is something that is at all possible for us or if there were any insight on at the very least getting septic? We can’t live on the property until we get something with septic and then after that it would be so much easier to actually start setting up out there and getting some animals. I know I’ve kinda jumped off into the deep end but any insight is appreciated!

Hi! Im new to this group and am just looking for some recommendations! Ive recently got into podcasts and already love homesteading books, so i thought why not! Im having an issue finding a more informational/scientific podcast rather then the seemingly never ending slew of religiously focused podcasts. Hope some one can help!

(Beauty brains is my favorite non homesteading podcast if that helps with the vibe im going for)

Ive been using a bucket mouse trap for a while with just water and it works really well. Unfortunately I went in to check and one was still alive and swimming around. I had to physically end the misery, but it got me thinking about what I can do to more humanely end the mice once they fall into the bucket. As much as I hate them I dont want to cause unnecessary suffering.

I was thinking maybe filling the bucket with C02, but over time it would mix with air again and stop being effective.

Any ideas or things that have worked well for you?

Hello! We are expecting our first baby in November and we’ll need a good wagon or stroller we can use around the farm. It seems most have think wheels made for sidewalks not grass. Does anyone have any recommendations?

We finally did it. First batch of meat chicks arrived six weeks ago and honestly it's been more of a learning curve than I expected, even having done all the reading beforehand.

We've got about 4 acres, established garden, and laying hens already - so meat birds felt like the logical next step toward actually feeding ourselves. In theory I felt prepared. In practice, summer has been its own education.

The heat thing caught me off guard faster than I expected. These birds are not built for hot days. By week four they were panting by midday and I was running extra waterers just to keep them comfortable. Nobody in the YouTube videos really emphasized how management-heavy that gets as they bulk up and slow down

A few things I'm still trying to figure out:
How tight do you keep your processing timeline in summer vs cooler months - do you push the full weeks or pull earlier?
What actually blindsides first-timers on processing day that nobody wants to say out loud?
Low-cost feeding setups that held up in practice, not just on paper?

We started with 25 to keep it manageable. Hoping to expand if we can dial in the system before committing to a second batch.

If you've been doing this a while - what would you do differently from the start, and what made it actually worth it? Honest answers preferred, including the ugly parts

I've been looking at truck tool boxes and noticed that pretty much everything sold in the US comes empty — no tools included. Is there a reason for that? Like, is it just the preference to build your own kit, or is it a price thing, or something else? Asking because I found some Brazilian brands that sell the box already equipped with tools and I was curious why that concept doesn't seem to exist here.