I thought I'd break the ice by asking folks to share what you're up to this season as far as taking steps toward self-sustainability.

I want to emphasize this is for any stage of the process - we're very early in the process ourselves.

I'll come back and post mine in a bit...have to enjoy the last few hours of a very classic Vermont day - sunny, 70 degrees, birds singing, meadows budding and trees leafed out and green - a lovely, warm but not hot, lie in the grass and dream kind of day. (Or weed and mulch the garden...that's what I did today and I have never enjoyed weeding so much!)

I hope I can belong here. lol. I don't really consider myself a homesteader but I want to be some day....so i take baby steps, like buying 10 chickens instead of 5. I don't want to snap my learning curve the first season. This year eggs. Next year (hopefully) meat. :)

My main focus (right now) is being self-sustained in energy. I've spent WAY too much time researching wind turbines...to the point of being overwhelmed instead of informed. Had I just bought one when the notion struck, it would already be paid for and would be churning out dollar bills.

my dh is pretty mainstream. So I work quite an orchestrated affair here to live somewhere in the middle.


Today was gorgeous (and windy) so I put a coat of paint on the coop.

Katie, absolutely you do. I don't want to detract from S&T, but I envision this for intense chicken talk, pics of our animals and gardens and jars of preserved food and wind turbines, and really at any level of the journey toward doing it mostly/all self-sufficient. And I think the new generation of homesteader/small farmer is more interdependent with neighbors and community than 30-40 years ago. We have to be.

ok good. You're stuck with me now. :p

Well, we're not homesteaders in any traditional sense. Our long term goal (assuming we don't relocate) is to move toward what the Path to Freedom (http://www.pathtofreedom.com/) folks have, which is urban homesteading. We know that things will have to change over time for us to have chickens and such, but as economical and environmental crises converge I think we'll see zoning changes.

Um, what have we don't this year. We grew some food. We put in our indoor drying system. We're decluttering like mad. We're riding bikes for transportation as much as we can.

Upcoming projects include getting a permanent herb garden going (although the boys and I are planting one in a raised bed for now) and cleaning out, tilling, and amending our back bed so we grow pumpkins this summer and put in new berry bushes next spring. We're evaluating the front landscaping and will start edible plantings this fall. The final plan is to kill the front lawn and plant a front yard vegetable garden. I hope to pull one ornamental tree and replace it with a lemon tree, and also to possibly put in an avocado tree.

I believe that it is possible to grow all of our own produce eventually. It will take years though, so requires a commitment to place. While we think we're going to stay we are watching the CA drought carefully.

We want to put in solar electricity, so this year we're reducing usage and determining our need.

Okay, so we had high hopes this year that have been scaled back a wee bit (no pun intended, I think we are buying a half pig from the local cheese farm instead of raising our own pig this year). But we are doing a large veggie garden with focus on storage crops for winter and real functional use of our limited garden space. So we have early and cherry tomatoes (32 plants), corn (to grind into meal, planting tomorrow), beans (to dry), tons of pickling cukes, salad cukes, zucchini, butternut and spaghetti squash. 25 russet potato plants...all that took of 60 seed potatoes. About 14-18 pie pumpkin plants and about the same amount of huge Howdens back in the composted cow manure pile around a huge granite boulder. Mesclun, salad bowl lettuce, romaine, ruby red chard, white russian kale, sugar snap peas, radishes, and scarlet nantes carrots. Oh dear, and 6 broccolis, 6 onions, 4 early jalapenos. Plus a ton of herbs - all we use: cilantro, thyme, 2 kinds of parsley, pesto basil, lemon basil, lavender, rosemary, chives, dill, oregano (still to plant), calendula, nasturtiums for salad, lemon balm, and I think more I'm forgetting at the moment!

Add to that 50 meat birds and 21 new laying hens to add to our 17 current 2-yo layers (starting to phase out of daily production).

We are also hoping to get the start of our Highland cattle fold this summer.

Future plans include sheep and maybe some Angus or Jerseys. Oh and a couple of pigs a year or every other year, not sure yet. What we think we won't do: milk anything, raise goats, geese, guineas, or rabbits. We are also finding that with our elevation challenges tomatoes and jalapenos are tough. I'm thinking of investing in perennial herbs, echinacea, potatoes, lettuces, chards, onions, garlic (will try to plant in fall). We have very rocky clay here, a very short growing season, and an insane amount of orchard grass, so it's been difficult to expand for things like lettuce and tomatoes.

More future plans include wind and/or micro-hydro power (really energy production is last on my list after reducing our usage as much as possible and doing everything else ourselves), sugaring this season, restoring our orchard, developing a breeding flock of laying hens, trying different meat bird breeds, and who knows what else we'll come up with in the dead of winter this year. Bees?

Around the house are the annuals, lupine, lilacs, butterfly bushes, peonies, lemon balm, bee balm and herbs (containers on the porch). I am trying to put in a Fairy Garden and a Sunflower House for the kids this year.

And yes I am exhausted! But it's fun. :D

We are babysteppers here as well. We currently live in the city limits (which means no farm animals) but are looking for land so that both of our moms and possibly my dad (mom and dad divorced) can live there with us.

Currently, we cut our heating bills to almost nothing (averages the same pretty much year round) by using wood heat (one upstairs on main floor and one in the basement which dh modified the ductwork to pull in the heat (with a filter because it is wood) and it goes throughout the house.
We have (for the past 3 years) gotten free wood from local tree removal companies. Already got one tree ready to be cut into firewood and stacked to cure.
We are lucky, in that the home we live in was built by a forward thinking electrical engineer. Innovative designs for the early 80's. Some outdated and forgotten but still, a pretty cool house.

We have a very small garden and some large containers with tomatoes (We have a lot of HUGE oaks in our yard and are sun challenged. The most sun we do have , our beehives are located there and I don't won't put a garden that close to them. In the garden, I harvested several pounds of spinach but not enough to freeze... we ate it all. Many pounds of lettuce and small carrots. Broccolli is ready to harvest and I have planted tomatoes and cukes along with some cutting flowers in that small space. I also have an herb garden with basil, thyme, oregano, lemon balm, spearmint, bee balm, lavender, rosemary... I think that is it.
We also have a few strawberry plants. I did pick some berries at a local u-pick and made lots of jam!
This year we are also doing a co-operative garden with some friends who have 32 acres.....
That friend also has dairy goats and when she needs help with milking (like for vacations, etc) I do the chores and the milk is my pay.
When there is excess milk, I make chevre (soft cheese).

It's so interesting how climates are different. We're just at the tail end of our spring crops here in So Cal, and I will probably have to pull the rest of the lettuce this weekend. We did plant more than 50 heads of lettuce (in addition to what we get from the CSA) and in the beginning we were harvesting leaves. I missed getting the summer crops in (although we may put in some tomatoes and zucchini and just see how it goes with the heat). At this point I'm looking to a late summer planting and that is when I can put in chard, kale, etc.

So far we've harvested lettuce (lots!), blackberries, oranges, herbs, tomatoes, and lemons (from our neighbor).

Thinking in terms of fruit I want to put in my own lemon tree, a plum tree, a peach tree, a pear tree, and perhaps other citrus. I pulled down grapes years ago, but I do know that they grow nicely here. I mentioned berry vines. My idea is perennials, not annuals, although once we carve out space we could do strawberries.

We could put in a black walnut tree, and olive trees, plus the avocado I mentioned.

We know that we can easily grow greens. Acorn squash did well. Tomatoes thrive. Actually, if we look at what the CSA grows we can grow almost all of it. It's mostly a case of having the space dedicated to it and devoting the necessary time. Every decision, every change is a small step in the right direction.

What I really want is my next-door neighbor's house. It belongs to her father, and the assessed value and property tax are insanely low so I don't forsee them moving soon. But you never know what will happen and in this market we could swing it. If that happened we could combine the back yards (she has lots of fruit trees) and rent that house out.

Well, I'm also in the beginning stages. I feel like I have been for the 5+ years we've been in this house. We've spent so much time remodeling the inside, I'm just now getting to the outside.

I had chickens, but opted to get rid of them 2 years ago. We had major predator problems despite numerous attempts to keep our small flock safe. I started getting a little freaked out by the very bold coyotes and bobcats in the daytime with my very young kids playing outside. I actually found the chickens to be pretty gross overall. :lol:

That said, I'm going to try again. I just need a contingency plan for when they are at the end of their laying cycle. My idea of a chicken retirement home just doesn't seem feasible. :D

I've got some new ideas that I'll try this time. I'm just saving some money so I can do it right. I have a sweet little coop just sitting empty.

My hands are pretty tied garden-wise because we have such a water shortage. My well only puts out 7 gallons per minute. In the hot hot summer, we could actually run dry if we aren't careful. Part of our problem is that we are on the top of a hill. Our well is at the bottom. We do have great rainfall in the winter and spring months, so I may try to focus on growing then, and using the CSA more in the summer and fall.

I also think I'm going to try fruit trees. We have an apricot and pomegranite, but I've not taken proper care of them before. I actually only found out the one tree was an apricot last year because it finally grew one (yes one!) apricot. It is probably pretty worthless, but I can use it for cross-polination. Fruit trees are going to be my summer research project.

Other than that, I'm not sure. I'm really trying to be a cook. I'm trying to change my attitudes about it because I know it is such a huge part of self-sustainability. My internal struggle with cooking is very hard for me to overcome.

we are at the early stages also. :)
we've got a big yard now and we are focusing on getting the gardens producing. At the place we rented for the last couple of years we had the garden going really well. Now we have had to start over, bummer.
So we've got two gardens tilled up right now. One we are planting in this year, the other will get a cover crop of clover and oats and will be used next summer. in the one we've planted we've got our usual stuff, several types of squash, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, cucumbers, pumpkins, oh and beets which are new for us. we will do a late garden with spinach and lettuces.
I've got herbs~ mint, oregano, chives, basil, rosemary, tarragon.
a couple of pretty lilies here and there.

there is a blackberry patch and three very young apple trees but we don't what type they are. We'll add a couple more and I'm wanting some pear trees and grapes also. We left behind some grapevines when we moved that we were sad to see go. Last year we canned a bunch of grape jelly.

the last two years we have made maple syrup for our own use and we really enjoy doing it. We got just over two gallons this spring at the old house. After giving some away we still have plenty to last us through the year. There are several nice maples in our new woods and hopefully we can make it double that next spring. I want a tree out front so we are going to plant another maple in the front yard at some point

There's a small spring fed fire pond and sawyer wants to set up a pump to draw from there for watering.

I'm planning on some chickens, just a few and just for the eggs and their bug eating abilities. :)

we have a woodstove that we're going to have installed before the fall and we've already walked the woods and found a few fallen trees that need to brought out and cut into firewood.

Spinner and I are vegetarian, we will not be raising any animals to eat, but I would LOVE a few fiber animals and a couple of horses eventually. This place is to small for that. There are only three acres here but once spinner is out of high school we are building a house near FIL and will have plenty of room for animals

quickly subbing b/c we're about to go get 3 new chicks....

we are at the very very beginning stages and hope to move to a small farm in 5 years or so.

We are just starting. we have a small area as far as homesteading goes. We do plan to build our greenhouse next summer and start to fence in the garden from deer and dogs. We will be using espaliered fruit trees all around the garden on the fences for fruit as well as a large caged area for berries. We have a lot of birds and wildlife here that we need to protect food from.

I would like to have chickens but I have to research a bit more on using them for food. we may become vegetarian because of the girls anyway so it may not factor in.

For the long term we hope to grow much of our food and perhaps sell locally. Ideally we will grow year round in a hoop house.

We will be adding on to the house in 2 years and at that point will hopefully install solar panels on the roof.

Hi mamas! We have been homesteading almost 10 years now w/ various success, LOL. Currently we have a milk cow, a calf being raised for butcher, we put our last calf in the freeze in January, have 30 or so chickens for eggs, three goats, two female, one currently in milk and a male we keep for breeding. We also have three ducks and three horses for pleasure. Our garden is small due to low amount of rain in NM as well as no longer being on a well. I plan on ordering meat chickens soon to raise for meat. We have done it several times before, but I needed a break. Oh we are also getting two pigs soon to consume extra milk and the whey. I love my house and such, but in NM rain is low I don't feel like we are where we should be. I want more land w/ pasture and grass. We have to buy all our hay year round, w/ the cost so high. It is frustrating. We are looking for other places to move too, out of state.

wow! loving this new forum!!
Ok, lets see....we have 7 laying hens (at least 2 of our plymouth rocks are hiding their eggs though, bad girls!) which we keep for eggs, we have 2 goats for fun (they're super friendly pygmies, very wiley and rambunctious but still wonderful pets), 4 sheep mostly for fun but we also use their fiber for spinning, and 2 alpacas, again mostly for fun but use their fiber for spinning.
our gardens are going super strong right now! we have just about everything you could imagine (dh is an extreme green thumb, and when i say extreme, i mean big time!). our spring was very wet and cold so some things are behind but right now we're harvesting lots of carrots, the salad and collar/kale greens are going still but on their last leg, we have tons of peas, various berries (because of the cold weather, they're a lil behind but we should have mulberries any day now!), lots of beans, squash, and herbs....we focus a lot on fruit trees (in the past 2 years we've planted about 10 or so) and berries but also fresh veggies that we can have in stir fry dinners, salads and things that we can basically pick and eat right away. We also have a lot of storeable stuff planted like winter squashes and beans. We only have 1/2 an acre here at our place but our neighbors let us use their land for our animals and they have big raised garden beds too so they let us use them as well as other space to plant stuff.
some day we'd like to have a place with at least 5 acres so we can get more animals and have more space to grow food.

We just started here in Tennessee, so all we have right now is a garden. We are looking into wind power, I'd like chickens (for eggs and meat), a cow for milk, and to raise a pig each year for meat.

In the past I've frozen my extra veggies from the garden; I'm looking forward to canning this year.

Hi Jenn!!!! Good to see you again and here that you have settled in TN! We truly need to have a TN mama get-together. There are several in TN and surrounding areas.

Marlena, I am amazed at what you guys are doing on 1/2 acre. Just great!!!
We live in the city limits so no animals for us... or we sure would!!

I'm interested in the topic, but don't know if I belong here. I have 20 acres of land in Missouri, but it's all sitting fallow right now, because we are in Florida while my DH works on his PHD. We are living in married student housing, but I have a 20 by 25 foot garden in the student gardens area.

We are just starting here as well....

We close on our house and our 1.2 acres a week from today! So we are doing lots of planning for the fall and next summer.

We will have chickens by the fall. dh will build the coop and we'll have 4 birds, for eggs. Enough for us and some to barter/sell.

The plan is to kill a large portion of lawn and create garden space! We'll put in raspberries, blueberries, asparagus. We will have a few fruit trees, peach and apricot most likely.

We are going to retrofit the house as much as possible w/ renewable energy sources. dh is at an all day training today about installing photovoltaics, actuallu. We're looking to get solar electricity/hot water. I'm also researching wood/pellet stoves for heating the house, which right now is oil-heated (bleah).

I learned how to milk goats this spring, so we're thinking about that too. We'd have to get a special permit to keep them, since we have less than 5 acres. But if we can get that, we'd keep 2 and sell the babes and get the milk every spring. And they'd keep the remaining lawn short!

My canning/freezing is in full swing already. I made strawberry jam this morning, and the freezer has gotten 2 installments care of the CSA already this season. We have a wonderful CSA less than a mile from the house, so I can envision us always being involved in that, and growing what they don't.

So, the above is my 3 year plan, so far!

oh i love this new forum!
we always have a huge garden and are very very into canning and freezing. the garden is in full swing, which is a miracle because we just moved in about 3 weeks ago. we were lucky enough to have the sellers let us come over and start the garden before closing. :D we have 3 chickens which is enough eggs for us most of the time. we will get another batch of chicks next year so our herd is always laying well. i am trying to convince dh that we need a milk cow, but he isn't so sure about that. he wants to try raw milk first (i don't blame him) but i can't find anywhere to get some locally. :( i'll keep looking though. we are going to buy a whole cow shortly from a natural raised place up the road, looking forward to that! strawberry jelly should begin next week, whee!

Marlena, I am amazed at what you guys are doing on 1/2 acre. Just great!!!
We live in the city limits so no animals for us... or we sure would!!

oh i should clarify! Our sheep and alpacas live across the street on our neighbor's land. They have 5 acres and a big barn so they stay over there. We're really friendly with the neighbors so it's a great deal we have worked out. I'm sure it wouldn't be quite as peaceful if all the animals were on our relatively tiny lot!:lol:

how neat!! i love reading about everyones lives & plans :)

i have homesteading dreams & i am always planning, bookmarking, researching what we'll do when the time comes. ~ we currently have 1 horse , he is 4 miles up trhe road @ a really great farm... the owner is such a neat woman & she has shared her harvest w/ us for the past few years.

we want at least 3-5 acres, if we end up w/ more ~ great. gardening will be the main focus, possibly flowers to sell also ~ dh wants meat animals, but i swear i was traumatized when i was in 5th grde by my dad butchering chickens & making me help/watch... there is NO way i could do it again... killing animals is just not in my being :( dh & i are always discussing buying from others, but dd & i are vegetarians. so i am snot sure how i feel about that either... sigh.

dh would LOVE to keep bees & really wants llamas/alpacas. i'd love to have a cow/goat for milk ~ and ofcourse chickens for eggs. we currently get our eggs from an amish family & our milk delivered from a local farm.

our homestead will be the place where any animal is welcome.. lol ~ kids will play, food will grow, my hands will be dirty & strong from playing in the earth, my shoulders tanned from the sun above , and our meals prepared from the food we have grown.

we are still about 2 years out from the reality of buying land.

So glad this forum is here! We are just starting out! We closed on our new home and property 3 weeks ago.

Right now, we are concentrating on the garden and plan to freeze and do some canning. We went with a small garden this year since we are still trying to get settled, but want to grow much more next year. We may add animals in the future...all the fencing and barns and already here and ready to be used. I do think that chickens will be our first foray into farm animals. :)

We plan to get a wood stove and have it installed by mid-fall.

oh i should clarify! Our sheep and alpacas live across the street on our neighbor's land. They have 5 acres and a big barn so they stay over there. We're really friendly with the neighbors so it's a great deal we have worked out. I'm sure it wouldn't be quite as peaceful if all the animals were on our relatively tiny lot!:lol:

Oh, I see and yeah, I guess some elbow room is nice :0. You guys still accomplish a lot in a small space!

Hi All!

I have to be honest up front and say that my goal is not to be a completely off-the-grid, self-sustainable family, but we do a lot of this stuff anyway, so I think I will fit in here :)

We are in rural central Ohio. We have a little more than one acre here, and I am trying to use it as well as I can and as efficiently as I can. I don't have a desire for more land. We have been here for 3 years now, and I have expanded the garden a little more each year and planted a small orchard. I do freeze beans and can tomatoes, this year I am going to try pickling cucumbers as well. We get fresh, raw jersey milk from a farmer friend of mine weekly and I am able to make our own butter from the cream. We have a nice barn which houses our 7 laying hens and big, mean rooster who we only keep around for the fertile eggs (we have an incubator so we can hatch anytime the need arises). We have 14 chicks in a chicken tractor right now, they are about 7 weeks old. I have already sold some of the pullets, the rest of the pullets I will keep and the cockerals we will butcher. They are mostly white rocks and barred rocks, so they are pretty good eatin'. I actually prefer the heritage breeds to the cornish crosses, those things are so unnatural looking, I just feel weird raising them. We are lucky enough to have found a good source of grass-fed beef and lamb from a local farmer. I consider us to be very blessed. I don't really feel overworked with what we have going on here, but it can be a delicate balance at times.

I would really like to figure out a way to use less propane. We use it now for heating the house and drying the clothes. I can hang the clothes out to dry(though to be perfectly honest I can't keep up with the clothes this way, I don't think I could ever 100% line dry), but heating is a different matter. I am looking into alternative heat sources but our house is tricky because it is 120 years old and divided up into many small rooms which make heating and air flow difficult. We don't have the venting for forced air, so a stove in the basement isn't feasible.

I'm looking forward to getting aquainted with you all!

Hi All!

I have to be honest up front and say that my goal is not to be a completely off-the-grid, self-sustainable family, but we do a lot of this stuff anyway, so I think I will fit in here :)

We are in rural central Ohio. We have a little more than one acre here, and I am trying to use it as well as I can and as efficiently as I can. I don't have a desire for more land. We have been here for 3 years now, and I have expanded the garden a little more each year and planted a small orchard. I do freeze beans and can tomatoes, this year I am going to try pickling cucumbers as well. We get fresh, raw jersey milk from a farmer friend of mine weekly and I am able to make our own butter from the cream. We have a nice barn which houses our 7 laying hens and big, mean rooster who we only keep around for the fertile eggs (we have an incubator so we can hatch anytime the need arises). We have 14 chicks in a chicken tractor right now, they are about 7 weeks old. I have already sold some of the pullets, the rest of the pullets I will keep and the cockerals we will butcher. They are mostly white rocks and barred rocks, so they are pretty good eatin'. I actually prefer the heritage breeds to the cornish crosses, those things are so unnatural looking, I just feel weird raising them. We are lucky enough to have found a good source of grass-fed beef and lamb from a local farmer. I consider us to be very blessed. I don't really feel overworked with what we have going on here, but it can be a delicate balance at times.

I would really like to figure out a way to use less propane. We use it now for heating the house and drying the clothes. I can hang the clothes out to dry(though to be perfectly honest I can't keep up with the clothes this way, I don't think I could ever 100% line dry), but heating is a different matter. I am looking into alternative heat sources but our house is tricky because it is 120 years old and divided up into many small rooms which make heating and air flow difficult. We don't have the venting for forced air, so a stove in the basement isn't feasible.

I'm looking forward to getting aquainted with you all!

I love your sig pic! And you most certainly fit here - you don't have to be going to completely self-sustainable to fit here, I think.

Our Cornish crosses are coming up on 3 weeks old or so, and I have to agree - I won't be raising this breed again. Ugh. We will figure out a way to do Rocks or Kosher Kings or something else that isn't as freakish next year. It's actually great to hear how you manage your flock and use the cockerels for meat - we are considering a similar system for next time, perhaps using Buff Orpingtons as our "base" breed though...we'll see. (It's cold up here and they do well laying through winter, but we just got a bunch of Partridge and Barred Rock chicks and they are super cute!)

For your heating needs, have you considered an outdoor wood furnace? Like these: Central Boiler - Outdoor Furnaces - Wood Stoves (http://www.centralboiler.com/)

You can pump the heated air however you want it. Not sure how you would do that - could you do radiant floor heating? You can install that in the joists of existing floors. Wood heat is so efficient and inexpensive! We spend about $150/year (yes per year!) on heating our cabin with a woodstove only. I'm guessing a woodstove wouldn't work for you because of the division of the house into small rooms? I wonder how they heated it originally - any clues to that?

I love your sig pic! And you most certainly fit here - you don't have to be going to completely self-sustainable to fit here, I think.

Our Cornish crosses are coming up on 3 weeks old or so, and I have to agree - I won't be raising this breed again. Ugh. We will figure out a way to do Rocks or Kosher Kings or something else that isn't as freakish next year. It's actually great to hear how you manage your flock and use the cockerels for meat - we are considering a similar system for next time, perhaps using Buff Orpingtons as our "base" breed though...we'll see. (It's cold up here and they do well laying through winter, but we just got a bunch of Partridge and Barred Rock chicks and they are super cute!)

For your heating needs, have you considered an outdoor wood furnace? Like these: Central Boiler - Outdoor Furnaces - Wood Stoves (http://www.centralboiler.com/)

You can pump the heated air however you want it. Not sure how you would do that - could you do radiant floor heating? You can install that in the joists of existing floors. Wood heat is so efficient and inexpensive! We spend about $150/year (yes per year!) on heating our cabin with a woodstove only. I'm guessing a woodstove wouldn't work for you because of the division of the house into small rooms? I wonder how they heated it originally - any clues to that?

Ooooh, that looks interesting! I am going to have to look more into heat sources like that. We have radiant heat right now, if there was a way to heat that water with a stove we might be in business. The house was originally heated with a stove (I am assuming) because we have the chimney in our diding room. The thing is, rooms have been added on since then, so if we put a stove in the room where one originally was used we would only really be heating that room and the room above it. We'll see.

Ooooh, that looks interesting! I am going to have to look more into heat sources like that. We have radiant heat right now, if there was a way to heat that water with a stove we might be in business. The house was originally heated with a stove (I am assuming) because we have the chimney in our diding room. The thing is, rooms have been added on since then, so if we put a stove in the room where one originally was used we would only really be heating that room and the room above it. We'll see.

I am 99% sure you can use one of those outdoor wood furnaces to heat hot water for the radiant heat...

I hope y'all don't mind my sneaking in :tiptoe :tiptoe :D we arent moving to our new "farm" for a couple of months but I am so excited with the possibilities. Gardens, chicks and goats, etc. We will have 4 acres to play with :yay: and I need to learn how to can.

forgot to add that we are hoping to run the electricity with a veggie oil generator (we already run our suburban on WVO) until we can get solar.

We've raised lots of our own meat, but I really, really wanted to garden this year and not only feed us but can some and once again it didn't happen. Last summer I purchased almost all local grown produce but didn't get any extra put up. This summer I still hope to at least put a few things up. Oh, we do have three cucumber plants growing indoors and have had our first cucumber which was wonderful :) and we have tomatoes growing indoors too, though one of them produces such blah fruit I'm thinking about tossing it in the compost bin.

We currently live on only .6 of an acre, the smallest lot since we moved down here from Anchorage. First we rented an old house that sat on 160 acres - that was heaven! - and then we lived in this teeny tiny cabin that also sat on an old homestead. Finally we were able to buy and while our house is small I love it, but it doesn't work for us, for where we want to go with animals and food and life.

The majority of the lot is backyard, facing south, and we have two horses, three pigs, 3 fiber goats and 16 chickens on it. The horses go out each day to pasture on a neighbor's land. I miss being on lots of land and not having to pen in our goats. I'm sure they miss it too. Our neighbors on either side welcome our goats to come eat and keep down the fire hazard, but across from us ... eek, that neighbor screams (cusses actually) if she even sees a goat eat a dandelion in her yard.

All those animals are of course a large part of why I didn't get a garden this year. I'd first have to fence it such that the goats and bunnies couldn't get in, and I just didn't have the money for it. (The bunnies are wild. Cute as can be.)

Our house is heated with wood. There is so much dead beetle kill up here that there is an abundance of fire wood available.

Where do we want to be? On much more land. We have a 9 acre lot with trees, but the road doesn't go all the way to it yet. So many expenses involved - road, well, septic, etc. And, I find that I've used up my "roughing it" quota. I don't want to be without running water and a clothes washer. I feel driven to provide for my family and yet I live where it is very difficult to grow produce. Not impossible, but not easy. Lots of limitations because of limited growing season and low temp. (And yet, I know there are people who produce lots, I just don't know them well enough to saddle up and ask for help.)

If there's anything you want to know, just ask! :)

Rhea