Just wondering what your approach is to new things on your 'stead.

The chickens were kind of a deep end jump for me. I admit thinking about getting them for a long time...but when it came time I just sort of picked up a copy of Storey's how to raise chickens and placed my order. lol.

The wind turbine is a tread. Mostly prohibitive by money right now but I got SO involved with the research that I sort of found myself dead-headed. If I'd just done a leap we'd have been churning energy years ago. This sort of perturbs me now.

Rambling thoughts while weeding this morning and I *think* my best success comes from holding my breath and jumping in.

I jump in the deep end. It causes short-term stress (see overwhelm post) but I think getting animals is like deciding to have babies - if you think about it too much you'll never actually do it! :D

That said, my main rule has been "one new species per season." We were going to do pigs and cows this year, and I didn't count the meat birds as a species, so I was going to break my rule. Now we may or may not do cows, but our expansion was to the meat chickens and doubled garden size.

That's a good rule. I could definately do 1 species a season.

I jump in but I'm like that in life in general. We are going slow on this whole garden, animal thing though because I have to ease my husband into it. He's excited about the garden and greenhouse next year but we have a few projects that need to be finished this year before we add anything else to the plate.

But... once our 3 acres is completely fenced in, hopefully by the fall, I bet I could sneak in some ducks :lol:

I can't wait to see your greenhouse. And when are you gonna give up pictures of the goats? hmmmmm?

We have a sick goat right now. Hopefully tomorrow I can upload some pictures.

We have a sick goat right now. Hopefully tomorrow I can upload some pictures.

oh no. :( Is that like trial by fire or something clever and witty like that?

Well, we used to be that way and I say we because dh and I would both dive into separate projects and need each other's help to finish A or B.... then, you know, nothing gets done. We now sit down and set priorities about what and when and dive in together!!

On our last 'stead, we were so excited about everything that we jumped off the deep end with pretty much every endeavor...

Wanted chickens? Let's start with 16 layers and 1 rooster!

Goats? Sheep? Let's buy a flock! (2 ewes, 1 ram, 4 does, 1 buck, and the guy threw in a llama for extra measure...I hate llamas now). LOL...that one was funny in hindsight. All of the females were pregnant when we bought them. We asked the guy how old the females had to be before they could breed (so we could pull them away from the males, 'cause we didn't have enough pasture to sustain another generation)...2 years he says. :rolleyes: Try 9 months. So, very quickly, we went from a flock of 3 sheep and 5 goats to 12 sheep and 14 goats (and 1 llama). 8 to 26 really really fast = very bad on the pasture and very bad on our wallets since we now had to buy a LOT of hay!!!!

Turkeys? Well...someone didn't pick up their order at the feed store, and a couple had been sold out of it already...how about 23? (seriously, that was the excuse...we were originally thinking of like...FOUR.) We ended up trading a couple with the guy who previously owned the flock (plus $200). The others (minus four) were sold around Thanksgiving time...we estimated the largest to be 18 pounds, fully dressed. We are SO bad with estimates. BIL weighed it before we crammed it into the oven...45 pounds. We had to cover the drumsticks with aluminum foil to keep them from burning on the top element of the oven. Most everyone who bought them cut them in half, cooked one half and froze the other. They got a really great deal on those birds. Free range = super-cheap investment (AND they got rid of all of the dandelions in our yard!), so we sold them for about $15 a bird...the heritage ones too.

Layers? We wanted a good number to stock the freezer (which we hadn't bought yet :lol:)...so why not 76! (and you'd figure a few chicks would die, right? Nope. Ended up losing a total of two from suspected heart problems.) Butchering time rolled around...we did it ourselves. 74 chickens in two days.

Cattle? Sorry, the goats/sheep/llama had taken over the pasture. So the two that we bought (one at a time, they never co-existed on our property) spent a very short amount of time on our property before being shipped to the neighbors pasture a mile down the road. (Yay!)

Did I mention that about the time we bought our 2nd steer, a bunch of layers escaped from the coop? And they continued laying. And the eggs were fertile. We don't know how many chickens we had running around when we were getting ready to leave, but our estimate (see turkey weight estimate above) was in the 70s. Darn things wouldn't hold still enough to count! :lol:

Our garden was about 1/4 acre every year. The only thing we ever got out of it were snap peas (I'm not complaining about those...they were fantastic!), turnips, squash, and a dozen potatoes. The tomato plants were huge and beautiful, and only produced right before the freeze, so we had lots of green tomatoes to fry up, but no big beautiful red ones! One steer broke down the dividing fence and ate up my three rows of corn plants...all the way to the ground. So big garden...not much produce. *sigh*

This time, we have a LOT more land...I need to post about that...I'll do that next...anyway, we have a LOT more land. But this time, we're already planning on "consciously" building our stock. Very slowly. With an eye toward YEARS of sustainment. We've done the crazies, now it's time to slow down, draw from our experiences and build for a solid future.
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.
.
.
.
.
.
.
But, I have to admit, it was FUN!

I jump in the deep end. It causes short-term stress (see overwhelm post) but I think getting animals is like deciding to have babies - if you think about it too much you'll never actually do it! :D



Very inspiring, :lol:

On our last 'stead, we were so excited about everything that we jumped off the deep end with pretty much every endeavor...

Wanted chickens? Let's start with 16 layers and 1 rooster!

Goats? Sheep? Let's buy a flock! (2 ewes, 1 ram, 4 does, 1 buck, and the guy threw in a llama for extra measure...I hate llamas now). LOL...that one was funny in hindsight. All of the females were pregnant when we bought them. We asked the guy how old the females had to be before they could breed (so we could pull them away from the males, 'cause we didn't have enough pasture to sustain another generation)...2 years he says. :rolleyes: Try 9 months. So, very quickly, we went from a flock of 3 sheep and 5 goats to 12 sheep and 14 goats (and 1 llama). 8 to 26 really really fast = very bad on the pasture and very bad on our wallets since we now had to buy a LOT of hay!!!!

Turkeys? Well...someone didn't pick up their order at the feed store, and a couple had been sold out of it already...how about 23? (seriously, that was the excuse...we were originally thinking of like...FOUR.) We ended up trading a couple with the guy who previously owned the flock (plus $200). The others (minus four) were sold around Thanksgiving time...we estimated the largest to be 18 pounds, fully dressed. We are SO bad with estimates. BIL weighed it before we crammed it into the oven...45 pounds. We had to cover the drumsticks with aluminum foil to keep them from burning on the top element of the oven. Most everyone who bought them cut them in half, cooked one half and froze the other. They got a really great deal on those birds. Free range = super-cheap investment (AND they got rid of all of the dandelions in our yard!), so we sold them for about $15 a bird...the heritage ones too.

Layers? We wanted a good number to stock the freezer (which we hadn't bought yet :lol:)...so why not 76! (and you'd figure a few chicks would die, right? Nope. Ended up losing a total of two from suspected heart problems.) Butchering time rolled around...we did it ourselves. 74 chickens in two days.

Cattle? Sorry, the goats/sheep/llama had taken over the pasture. So the two that we bought (one at a time, they never co-existed on our property) spent a very short amount of time on our property before being shipped to the neighbors pasture a mile down the road. (Yay!)

Did I mention that about the time we bought our 2nd steer, a bunch of layers escaped from the coop? And they continued laying. And the eggs were fertile. We don't know how many chickens we had running around when we were getting ready to leave, but our estimate (see turkey weight estimate above) was in the 70s. Darn things wouldn't hold still enough to count! :lol:

Our garden was about 1/4 acre every year. The only thing we ever got out of it were snap peas (I'm not complaining about those...they were fantastic!), turnips, squash, and a dozen potatoes. The tomato plants were huge and beautiful, and only produced right before the freeze, so we had lots of green tomatoes to fry up, but no big beautiful red ones! One steer broke down the dividing fence and ate up my three rows of corn plants...all the way to the ground. So big garden...not much produce. *sigh*

This time, we have a LOT more land...I need to post about that...I'll do that next...anyway, we have a LOT more land. But this time, we're already planning on "consciously" building our stock. Very slowly. With an eye toward YEARS of sustainment. We've done the crazies, now it's time to slow down, draw from our experiences and build for a solid future.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
But, I have to admit, it was FUN!

That was the best read ever. :bow:

:agreed: :big hug:
This sounds like something we would do and then have to breath and start over!!

It does sound like a lot of fun and something you should write a book about (in your spare time, of course!!!)

:lol: We've had two more children since the last homestead...I think they keep us busier than the critters did!

:lol: We've had two more children since the last homestead...I think they keep us busier than the critters did!

Oh totally!!!

That's a great story, Renee!