r/homestead

It would be recorded, but anonymity will be totally respected if required. I want to do what you've done, and I want others to know how, too. Would anybody be willing to donate anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes of their time whenever it's convenient for them?

I fantasize about leaving my city and growing a small permaculture farm. But it always feels like no matter how much money you have, its not enough. If my husband still worked and made a small salary (remote) how much would i need to buy a small farm and house and grow our own food?

Is honesteading just a pipedream for me? I might be able to squeeze out 315k in cash.

Edit: based on commenter feedback I need to give more context. I hope to move to somewhere like southern VA or IL. Ideally I would live in a blue state (queer) but I would rather live in the country. I dont need a big house. 2bed/1bath is my current living arrangement. I am hoping for between 5 and 10 acres.

We have about a quarter acre in Ohio, mostly flat, decent sun in the backyard. This year I finally stopped ignoring the back corner and want to put in a real productive garden, not just a few tomato plants in containers.

The goal is actual yield, stuff that earns its square footage. I've been looking at raised beds mainly because the soil here is clayheavy and I don't want to fight it all season. Planning maybe four 4x8 beds to start.

What I keep going back and forth on is what to actually grow. I cook a lot so herbs and garlic are obvious, and I want at least one bed dedicated to something that can store or preserve well going into fall. Squash, potatoes, something like that.

The homesteading side of this is pretty modest for me right now. Suburban lot, no livestock, just trying to get more of our food from our own land where possible. Curious what you all found actually worth the effort versus what sounds good but ends up being more trouble than the output justifies. Cucumbers I've heard can go either way depending on the season.

Did our first auction sale today with 7 week old chicks, they've had been in the coop since week 5.5. My 12 year old loved it and wanted to start a small chick business with some hardy, dual purpose, but pretty breeds. So if you have any recs for which breeds would be good to start with that would be great. He took notes and noticed that mixed breeds (what we had were selling for 3.50 a chick, but breeds like silkies/turkens/Polish went upwards of $5-$7 a chick. He wants to sell chicks monthly at the auction. I have no problem helping him. He's working on pricing stuff out for his little business now. The question he had was how to keep chicks warm when they are boxed up. He asked if he should factor in the price of something like hand/toe warmers (hot hands). His plan is to start hatching in March and start selling end of April. He wanted to set the incubator on the first of each month and then sell them last Thursday of the month (our auction is weekly on Thursdays). We average a 84% hatch rate, so looking at about 28 chicks a month. He wants to sell from April to October then take the winter off. If this is successful he said he wants to branch out to other things like quail, ducks, and turkey.

So those that do livestock auctions, how do you keep your chicks warm.

Went out this morning just to fix a loose latch on the chicken run.

Somehow that turned into cleaning the waterers, refilling the feeder, fixing a section of fence, and pulling weeds around the coop.

Came back inside and realized I never fixed the latch.

On my farm in portugal, I have a patch being invaded by Acacia dealbata. I would like to know the best means to keep it under control (without any chemicals).

It is unfortunately wide spread in my area, so windw will always carry to see to my agricultural land. I cut down or rotted out everything when possible, but I know it will come back.

I am considering using pastured pigs, but I cannot find reliable information about it. Does someone know if it will work?

My Wife, Daughter and I purchased almost 10 acres a few years ago and have slowly been developing it into a homestead. We decided to create a YouTube channel, mostly for us to be able to go back and visit from time to time to see the progression. And for her future kids to see how it started and progressed. We also enjoy the feedback and knowledge shared from other channels that we can then share on our channel. If you’re interested, stop on by and take a look and participate in our adventure.

Not whether the property has "good soil."

Where the house is going, where the well is going, where the driveway is going, setbacks, drain field, reserve area, all of it.

Had a parcel recently that looked like a pretty normal homestead property from the aerial. Plenty of open ground and enough acreage for what someone would probably want to do with it.

Then I started looking at the soil map and the flood map together.

The areas that looked best for putting a house were also the areas where I wouldn't want to be counting on a conventional septic system.

That doesn't necessarily make the property unbuildable. It just means you can't look at acreage and assume you have that much usable space.

For homestead land, I think the septic location is one of those things that's worth figuring out before you get attached to the property.

A beautiful 10 acres isn't much of a homestead if the only place you can put the house and septic doesn't work.

Looking into getting goats for milk, which of course means bucks. I don’t have the resources to happily have a boy pen and a girl pen. Would it be unethical to buy a new buckling every spring? Would he then be ready to mate by fall, get processed, then I have babies in the spring? Would this be reasonable? I’m not finding many stud services in my area. How many babies can a doe have before she should be retired? Minimum how many goats should I have? Thanks!