Im always in such a hurry I seem to miss this section :(
So Im vowing to hang out here instead.

We bought our home last winter and are setting up our first homestead, which has always been my dream! Im new to the mass planting of food, the planning, canning, storing etc. How to run the home efficiently etc. Mostly I pick up odd things as I go along, but now I feel like there is alot I need to know and dont know where to start. Im not a complete novice.

We are working towards simple living and being self sufficient. There are alot of areas I could really use alot of help with.
I wanted to ask you all how you found out about things and if you have books that you cant live without. Anything that will help us.

How far into it do you go? Is it cheaper/easier to make your own candles for example, things like that.

I have a new baby (who never sleeps lol) so its pretty hard to get much done for now. Also 3 older children who we h/s, they help out alot.
I can knit pretty much anything, which is my hobby and can also sew. Im a great cook and gardener too :)

Any advice or rec's is much appreciatted !

I'm subscribing to this one! :) I have no answers for you, since we're just in the very, very beginning stages of planning this for ourselves.

We just started homesteading, or working toward homesteading. We bought a small cabin and twenty-five acres in March and did some work on the house ourselves, moving into it in early June.

I feel like it is always a process. First we spent five years saving money and earning home equity so we could move up here and buy a farmable piece of property. Then we had to rent for a year, and spent some of our cash stash on that. We also decided to get a mortgage on our place, for now, and used money that would've gone toward the house for tools like a chainsaw, lawnmower, the startup costs of our chickens (not much, but our 26 chicks cost $85 alone), and so on.

Um, what else? I just read, read, read. Recently found a great site that focuses on pasturing chickens, and I learned a lot - like why my chickens definitely prefer to be free range than in their large confined yard, that I actually do have a large pasture of Ladino clover for them, etc. Here's the link:

http://www.range-eggs.com/

If you check out his whole site, he has recommended books that discuss small-scale farming in general.

The key for me has been to define what my goals are. Do I need to make *everything* myself? Is my goal to keep as much of my money out of the system as possible? Is it only to raise vegetables for our own family, or is it to raise vegetables, meat, milk, and eggs? Those kinds of questions lead toward plans and decisions. We are still exploring what our goals are - looking at getting sheep, deciding whether we want to get dairy sheep, etc. Dairy is a huge commitment and anyone who thinks otherwise is fooling themselves! That's one thing I've learned recently, LOL. We are also finding the thought of slaughtering baby lambs or goats for meat (which is what you have to do if you do dairy, there will be male babies that no one will want except for meat) very unappetizing. It has made us question eating dairy of any kind.

My strategy has been to read online, making use of what's free and readily available as far as information. I also make use of the library and interlibrary loan. But I am only starting to delve into some of the books mentioned on the free-range eggs site, for example. I have a lot of reading planned for this winter!

Basically I try stuff, and when it doesn't work exactly as I wanted, I read up on different ways to do it! We got a very basic guide to raising chickens, I read up online, got the chicks, and have been dealing with them as we go - learning about pasturing now as my chicks are two months old and I suddenly realized they have a lot more poop than I thought they did, LOL! So I'm responding to that by figuring out how we can allow them free range but not step in chicken poop constantly.

Same with gardening - I tried "my method" this year, and had great success, but am planning to read up on sustainable agriculture methods for very small-scale subsistence farming and see how to prepare the beds for next year.

It's really a matter of trial and error. But, I don't want to forget the other big component - talking to people who are doing it! So I have asked specific questions to a few online friends I have who homestead, and I also am in touch with local farmers and community here in Vermont...we are surrounded by small organic farms and value-added products like jersey cream and artisan cheeses, as well as folks like us who are trying to be self-sufficient without necessarily going into the business of value-added products.

Whew, I think I wrote a book. I do have a blog, in my sig, and am charting much of our journey there. I'm by no means an expert, just someone trying to use the land we were fortunate enough to find, in a sustainable way - and I want my husband to be able to stay home and work the land with me if he chooses to! Someday...right now he teaches high school English, which isn't a bad gig. ;) (We have found that despite any romantic notions of homesteading we might have, most farmers in Vermont work full-time outside the farm *and* farm. It is really tough to make a living from farming.)

Thanks so much for the advice. I do have issues with wanting to do *everything* lol. I would work myself into the ground if I made everything I wanted.
There is 6 acres here, most of it is wooded area that we wont be using. There is enough room for what we want to do, Im not planning on selling any produce, but who knows. Its very overgrown here and seems to have been for a loooooong time. What we are finding when we clear an area, is that it looks like it was already a homestead once. So they land is pretty much set up ready as in defined areas.
We sound like we have similar ideas about the homestead. We would love for dh to stay home someday, if we can get to that stage. This year the food didnt get planted which Im very dissapointed about. In between having babies and refinishing the outside of the house, its been raining alot here (typical!) Also we havent been able to find a cheap tiller, so we are thinking of buying a small tractor that we can add attachments to, rather than lots of different equiptments. So I do get the trial and error you mentioned.
We are hoping to get 2 female lambs next year, as we just want them for the fleece (and my little girl is crazy about them lol). So no killing involved hopefully :( We are also planning chickens next year, but we get bears and all sorts of animals here, so we need to find out how to keep them safe and free range. I never thought about the poop! Thanks for the link on that.
I love the blog! Ill keep reading that, its nice to see how it all works out. Our yard looks very similar with the logs right now lol. We just cleared out the garage to store it in.
Thanks for taking the time out to give a detailed reply. I think we need to sit down and plan it one step at a time, Im just not that kinda gal LOL. Im too impatient at times :)

We are starting out slow as well, just in the planning stages. We are keeping our eye out for farmable land that has some wooded area on it (looking at a place this weekend actually, 19 acres!)

We are accumulating knowledge and useful things in the meantime. We were given a chicken coop last spring for instance, in exchange for babysitting the hens for a couple months. So now we know how to do chickens!

We are also living in a very low rent situation right now, and socking our money away toward our down payment.

We plan to buy the land 1st (in the next year), then spend a month or a summer there setting up, making connections, still planning, and actually moving onto the land full time in a year or 2 after that.

And we are reading reading reading! Knowledge is power. I want to be self-sustaining when we need to be, and the time to learn how is before we need to be!

I am starting mine right where I am, a mile from downtown Olympia in a neighborhood filled with houses and cats. lol! Like Lauren said, it is a process. Every year you will learn more and each time you take on a new project you will see if it works for you and your family. You learn the laws in your area (like I know that I can have 5 chilckens right here.... but no goats. lol...) and you just keep pushing for that goal.

Doing something like what Lauren is doing with her beautiful land is a dream of mine, but it is a dream that is a couple years down the road (as hers was when I met her. *Sigh* Lauren I love the remember whens. :heart: ) so for now I do what I can with what I have. And that, to me, is a homestead.

If the baby takes up lots of time, perhaps you just start planning your garden for the spring instead of jumping into a winter garden. If you have helpers perhaps you start having them do the yard work so that you have more time to be sustainable and work on the harder things. You just do what you can with where you are and what you have to work with.... and you just keep doing that until you are satisfied you have and have done enough.

Val

OO I love all these blogs! They are so encouraging :)
Thanks for the advice, I will be following it.
Ive given up on a winter garden, its not stopped raining for weeks now and with no tiller we were hand digging. Its actually grassed where we want to plant, so its all hard work to get it ready for anything. The house is 200 years old and I dont think the garden has been touched for the last 100 lol.

Im wondering now if 6 acres is enough, as you all have around 20. We werent planning on selling any food though. We want to keep alot of it wooded as we like to go for picnics, we live on a mountain so its an amazing view.

So I think I will plan a spring garden and lambs then and see where it leads us!
Im so excited about it all, thats why I get impatient lol
Thanks :D

Val, can you keep a goat if you wanted of is that the town rules? I need to find out about that. Do you have much land?

Not much. But enough. ;) I am guessing 1/2 acre. We couldn't have a goat with in city limits. I don't think we can have farm type animals of any kind besidse chickens, and they all have to be girls. No roosters. And I can only have 5, and they can't be free range. Must be inside a cage with a roof at all times. I am thinking for 5 chickens, we could have a coop that has a top and is a good 25 sg ft and then they would also be happy chickens as well. We will see what I work out next year. Right now I am gestating. That is about it. lol!

I planted my entire garden over grass. Put Newspaper down and then put dirt on top of it. Esp this time of year if you are in a warm area, that will kill just about anything AND get you ready for next spring EASY. Check out Lazanga Gardening at the library. I didn't do the whole thing, but I did buy 5 yards of soil and wheel barrow load by wheel barrow load moved it from the front yard into the back where I wanted it. Then I put it right over the grass where I had laid the newspaper.

This was the week I got pg too. I was a busy woman at the time. lol!

My blog is more about the things I do and my hobbies than this process... but it is fun and I do take some good pictures. ;)

I think on the free range chicken site there is a book that starts "5 Acres and" something I can't remember, LOL. But it's about being self sustainable on 5 acres, so I think you have plenty. This house just happened to be on 25 acres - we weren't thinking more than 5 initially. It's just very, very rural here and 25 acres isn't much spendier than 5.

We rented a tiller from the hardware store for around $40. Ours was grass too, and it was really hard - we tilled four times and still had grass come right back up. One of my goals for the next month (after wood, LOL) is to read about how to properly prepare such an area for planting in spring. We almost didn't get our garden planted - just three rows, corn, beans, and tomatoes/carrots - so I hear you. We lost all our starts in the June rains. I planted really, really late because of rain and chaos of moving, but it turned out okay - I just lowered my expectations.

You have a wee babe - be careful of taking on too much. Remember it is a long process. Two years ago I really didn't think I'd ever be here. And here I am...and I know in five years I'll look over gardens, flower beds, chickens, and sheep, a small sugaring operation, and who knows what else, and go - wow.

I think on the free range chicken site there is a book that starts "5 Acres and" something I can't remember, LOL. But it's about being self sustainable on 5 acres, so I think you have plenty. This house just happened to be on 25 acres - we weren't thinking more than 5 initially. It's just very, very rural here and 25 acres isn't much spendier than 5.

We rented a tiller from the hardware store for around $40. Ours was grass too, and it was really hard - we tilled four times and still had grass come right back up. One of my goals for the next month (after wood, LOL) is to read about how to properly prepare such an area for planting in spring. We almost didn't get our garden planted - just three rows, corn, beans, and tomatoes/carrots - so I hear you. We lost all our starts in the June rains. I planted really, really late because of rain and chaos of moving, but it turned out okay - I just lowered my expectations.

You have a wee babe - be careful of taking on too much. Remember it is a long process. Two years ago I really didn't think I'd ever be here. And here I am...and I know in five years I'll look over gardens, flower beds, chickens, and sheep, a small sugaring operation, and who knows what else, and go - wow.


What about lasagna gardening? no till gardening...that is supposed to work really well to convert grassy areas to veggie garden...or whatever.

I love this thread!

Well weve been busy since I last posted. I couldnt find any newspaper to cover the grass with as we tend to use it on our guinea pig lol. So I pulled all our moving boxes out of the garage and Im going to use them. IF it ever stops raining long enough!
Good idea about hiring a tiller, I never even thought of that. We are thinking of tilling it a few times, over fall and cover it with cardboard until spring to stop the grass coming back. Hopefully that will work and it wont need much work come spring :) Plus its had time to rest before we plant.
Im going to the library tomorrow, armed with more knowledge than usual now! Thanks so much for the advice.
I will also look into the no till gardening. I wonder how that works? Wouldnt the grass take all the nutrients away from the plants?

Mamabear- Im interested in how you run the sugar operation??? I dont plan on doing it, just curious how that all works. I think you are a few years ahead of us, we were dreaming about it this time last year! Im so glad it worked out for all of us. I also have a huge pile of wood waiting to be chopped up. Thats dh job though lol.
I have a habit of taking on too much, its my middle name, you think Id have learnt not to by now LOL

One layer of cardboard will be plenty, and do put it out in the rain! Even though you will be cold (have a kiddo make hot cocoa while you are working) it will mold itself to the ground and then create a pocket in which no grass will get through. Just before a good rain is a good time too. I had to use a hose to water my newspaper. What a pain! Esp here where it should be raining, but wasn't at the time. lol...

Thanks that sounds great lol. Of course we have sun here now :rolleyes: Jeese this years gone SO fast, its cold already :(

I know... here too. It rained yesterday for the first time in prob 2 months all day long. Very beautiful, but also very sobering. I am making soup three days this week and I made a cassarole last night. It is time for the oven to be on and the socks to be worn. Amazing that it hit so fast this year isn't it?

Val

do you have carla emery's book? encycolpedia of country living? i have had it a year or so & try to read it often :) it's great.

Autumn has come quickly here as well. We're making a fire this morning, and have had a few light frosts. My tomatoes, carrots and corn are still going though! I have to rescue the carrots from the chipmunks, though. They are eating them up. So much for my idea to use the ground as a carrot refrigerator! I am going to pack them in moist peat moss in the basement today, and jar the pickles I have had fermenting.

I am looking into the lasagna gardening, and other no-till methods. I also was planning to tarp the area in very early spring to prevent any grass from growing. My biggest concern with gardening methods is that they be sustainable over the long term. I have a lot of reading to do, and hippichick - it would be cool if we shared what we find works, with each other.

Oh - as for sugaring. It depends on how you do it. A serious sugaring operation is *not* what we are going to do, but we are going to look into using lines instead of buckets after talking to a few people, because our line of trees slopes downhill and we could collect it all into a container right where we'll boil it down.

This is where I got great info on backyard sugaring:
https://www.motherearthnews.com/DIY/1992_February_March/Making_Maple_Syrup_In_Your_Own_Backyard