Homestead

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[Were you a mod of Homestead on Reddit? Message me if you’re interested in modding here.]

This is a community for people who are working toward a sustainable personal environment. This includes crofters, homesteaders, hobby, small, and family farmers. Hunters, gatherers, cultivators, and keepers are all welcome.

There may be discussions of animal harvesting and processing. This is part of the homesteading reality. If you don't like it leave and block the community.

You may also be interested in:

Backyard Chickens

RULES:

  1. All Lemmy.ca rules apply here.

  2. Everyone (see rules 4 and 98) is welcome.

  3. If you've seen a question 100 times answer it the 101st time or ignore it. Even better, write a complete, detailed answer and suggest that the mod(s) pin it to the community.

  4. There will be ZERO tolerance for shaming, brigading, harassment, or other nonsense of those who keep, hunt, harvest, and process animals. [See rule 98.] You will be permanently banned the first time. You are NOT morally superior because you choose not to.

  5. If you post a picture that includes blood, gore, or a dead animal mark it NSFW. We're not going to tolerate the militant anti-hunting and anti-farming bullshit here but we're also not going to tolerate people rubbing their hunting and harvesting in people's faces. [See rule 98.] If you post blood, gore, or dead animals and don't mark it NSFW it will be removed.

[Did you actually think there were 98 rules?]

  1. If you present something as fact and are asked to provide proof or a source provide proof or a source. Proof must be from a reliable source. If you fail to provide proof or a source your post or comment may be removed.

  2. Don't be a dick. Yes, this is a catch-all rule. Yes, you absolutely can be permanently banned for Rule 98 violations.

  3. The mod(s) have the final say.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 
 

My wife loves toads in her garden because they eat things that eat her plants. She has a love hate relationship with snakes. On the one hand they eat rodents that would eat her ~~pants~~ plants. On the other they are snakes and they eat her toad friends. I nearly stepped on this one. I took a couple of pictures and placed it safely in one of the gardens.

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What are some of your favourite tools (types of tools , brands, specific tools) or equipment for use around the homestead?

I am a fan of Stihl. I have a MS261 chainsaw and FS131 weed Wacker. Thinking of picking up one of their little battery pruners, the GTA26

Other recent acquisitions include a MUT utility trailer for our ATV and a John Deere zero turn.

Super handy but more expensive: a SCUT (sub compact utility tractor). We have a Massey Ferguson GC with a Sims cab and variety of attachments (MF blower, Woods rotary cutter, etc)

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Hi all, just joined up and figured I'd share in the berry love. My partner and I moved on to 50 acres of land on a windy hill in Central NY about 10 yrs ago. When we're not trying to keep the 200 yo farmhouse from falling down we're raising a small flock of all purpose sheep, a few Nigerian dwarf goats, and 15-30 free ranging chickens. Our weird flock is self-perpetuating, so a mix of australorpes, barred rocks, jaerhons, etc.

We've also got a couple of horses, a donkey, and a couple of dogs. We're mostly in it to feed ourselves, but one of these years we'll figure out the short season here well enough to start a market garden. Last year we managed to eat about 90% off the land from May - November, and of course have a few things we're still working through. Not going so hard on it this year due to some health issues, but growing peas, corn, beans, chickpeas, a million pounds of potatoes, tomatoes, wine cap mushrooms, and usually get some volunteer squash or pumpkins. Found some wild grapes so threw up a trellis and they're going gangbusters.

Tapped some maple and birch for the first time this spring, and definitely looking forward to more of that. We also forage greens, berries, wild quinoa, nuts, and all manner of things I'm told are edible. Our pond used to be stocked but between the previous owners overfishing and some beavers a few years back I doubt there's anything much left at the moment.

We process the sheep wool by hand and are trying to get enough spun up to try weaving on the huge, ancient barn frame loom a friend gave us.

Also experimenting with a food forest, between our established heritage (aka bitter, sour, and mealy) apples, new honeycrisps, walnuts, chestnuts, paw paw, and one lonely peach.

Anyways, that's us. We like to keep busy. Looking forward to learning from you all!

54
 
 

We relocated the raspberries last fall, and then promptly forgot about them. What would probably amount to 5m of shrubs, is now covered in stinging nettles and various other weeds. We managed to not even pick enough to cover the bottom of the steam juicer (on the left). It came out at just shy of 2dL, which was promptly sweetened and hardened with gelatin.

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Also just harvested our first zucchini of the season!

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I picked about 500 ml (2 c) this morning. My wife is away for the next three weeks so I'm going to try my hand at making and canning black raspberry jam.

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My wife and kids are leaving for three weeks in Europe tomorrow evening just as the berries, tomatoes, and peppers begin to ripen. I don't know anything about sauce or jam making.

I guess I'm going to learn.

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How long will a dozen wild raspberries sustain a family of four and all of your city friends who are planning to bug out to our place when the zombie apocalypse starts?

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There have been some soft, green vine like plants growing around our feed cans near the brooding house (where the turkeys currently are) and the turkey hut (where they will be moving this weekend.) I pulled some of them out and threw them into the holding yard. When I let them out they started making happy turkey noised.

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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 
 

Hello, everyone.

I am a mid-50s Canadian, married, with three kids (one is a step-kid.) My wife and I bought 16.5 acres of mature, second growth A2 land in Eastern Ontario 25 years ago. We are on the floor plain of the local small river and our land floods in the spring and is wet all year. We cut out a clearing to build our house and gardens and keep a few animals.

My wife keeps gardens with fruit trees, berries, flowers, and vegetables. Most years she has lots of plants to sell in the spring and vegetables to see at the local farmer's markets. This year has been challenging for a number of reasons so the range and number of vegetables she had planted is much lower.

We have a laying flock of chickens that ranges from 30 to 50 birds. I honestly have no idea how many birds are out there right now.

We do two batches, spring and fall, or White Rock meat birds each year. We have half or more of the meat birds inspected and processed at the local abattoir so that we can legally sell them and the rest we process ourselves. It's not my favorite part of farming but it has to be done.

We also do between 10 and 40 turkeys in a single batch each year. This year we have a mix of Bronze Orlopps and Mini Whites for a total of 18 birds. The turkeys end up too big for me to pluck with my plucker so we send them all out to the abattoir to be processed.

We have done pigs in the past and were planning to have a pair of pigs this year but the challenges that I mentioned above got in the way. Instead my wife's friend has taken in our pigs and is raising them for us. We will pay for the processing and they will keep one for their troubles.

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I'll get to giving this community an icon and a banner tomorrow.

If you want to propose something, feel free.

I'm open to sharing modding duties with someone who is like minded.