Hello everyone - not real sure where my post belongs...

wannabefarmwife · #1 03/12/10, 07:07 AM

Hi everyone! I'm new, and I figured I'd post an intro before I said...well...anything else....

I'm a 33 year old mother of 3, who has been trying to work her way into homesteading for...well...for awhile now. We live on a 12 acre property, and have horses, goats, chickens and ducks. The goats, chickens, and ducks are all new additions to the family, I've been a horseperson all my life. My husband is a dear city-boy, who is trying to learn, but...well, that's been a continuing challenge for him.

My goal is to make it to the point where we only have to have one salary (we're currently supporting a house in Indiana that we've been unable to sell) and then eventually to self-sufficiency. I work full time, and it's been a hard thing to try to increase self-sufficiency while doing so (if any one has any tips for easing into things, I'd love it!)

I've always had problems with the materialism of our culture. I got a lot out of living on a farmette as a child, and I've always had problems with things like working to pay for the conveniences that you need in order to be able to work. I don't mind hard work in the least, but I notice a total difference in myself between being productive for my family, vs. the type of mental work that I do at work, that just exhausts me, makes me crabby, and really benefits my employer more than my family. Time to get off the gerbil wheel.

I wish my husband and I were more on the same page with it - I think so much of it is his lack of understanding of how everything fits together - that you don't need to run out for pizza every weekend. The only way I can think of right now is to actually show him, which is putting a lot of the burden on me (but I'll make it, I'm sure).

So anyway - that's me, I'm anxious to meet you all and learn from you all - and enjoy this journey with you (albeit virtually).

hmsteader71 · #2 03/12/10, 07:19 AM

Welcome! It is great to have you here. I think you are going to love it here and be able to learn a lot of what you are desiring to know. I have been here now for about 4 years and it is just like family. I have learned a lot and am still learning.

celticfalcon · #3 03/12/10, 07:55 AM

welcome my friend.sit back and enjoy all we have.
tom

7thswan · #4 03/12/10, 07:55 AM

Welcome. I hope your house sells soon.

Backfourty,MI. · #5 03/12/10, 07:59 AM

Welcome to HT! I Love it here, lots of nice folks,much information & everyone always willing to help. We have goats, ducks & raise rabbits too. Love to garden, lots of flowers & a huge veggie garden too. Dh & I both love to hunt & fish & always wanted out of the city is how we ended up where we are. We call it our own little peice of heaven. We don't mind staying home & taking care of animals & we never go on vacation but we Love it.
We only go to town every 2 or 3 weeks but I don't think we'll ever run out of food. We have a schwan man & that's where I get pizza when were in the mood for it.
Your husband will catch on just give him some time.

You'll have to check out the goat, poultry, cardening & preserving the harvest forums too, they are all Great!

wally · #6 03/12/10, 08:11 AM

Welcome and enjoy
wally

Big Dave · #7 03/12/10, 08:20 AM

Welcome
As far a a wanna be it sounds as if you are mostly there. Don't push your husband. Walk beside him. Show your children what you know and get him interested in something he likes. If it is the husbandry, show him what you know. Get involved in 4h or FFA for the children and it will draw him in. Also get in ouch with you area extention office. They will come out and speak to yall on how to reach your goals. Let this be an enjoyable life for the whole family. Again Welcome, God bless you and yours.

**Terri** · #8 03/12/10, 08:27 AM

You know, I never COULD get much self-sufficiency done while my kids were young, as my kids would cry when I worked outside. Of course they cried every time I left their sight-you likely remember that stage- but STILL!

Actually, the first steps that I took involved the kitchen. How often do you come home to tired to cook? I know that I did. I found out that putting a roast in the oven BEFORE I left for work and setting the timer on the oven was a real money saver! Roast beef is much cheaper than fast-food burgers for 5, and likely healthier as well. I used to microwave potatos while I brought out the cutting board and such. I found out you DO have to prick the potatos RIGHT BEFORE you microwave them, though. Pricking them before you leave the house just does not work : they explode.

Then there is roast chicken, roast pork, the crock pot, sides of bags of salad, mac 'n cheese, etc, all good dinners you can set up in the morning and mostly have ready when you get home.

For the sake of safety I took the meat out of the freezer in the morning and put it in the oven: by the time the oven came on it was thawed but had not been thawed long enough to be dangerous.

The fastest way to make a pizza is to use a Boboli crust. Those are expensive but once your husband breaks the going-to-town habit on Saturdays you can start rolling out bread dough for pizza.

Are your kids young enough to need day care? That does cost. A lot.

Have you ever figured out how much it costs you to work? Add up daycare, part of your car insurance costs(Alas, not as much as I hoped), the uniform or good clothing costs (if you are not working you have enough good clothes to last for 2 years), part of the food costs (you will not save on groceries for a while, except for what you save by cooking from scratch)

My DH is ALSO not a country boy and he LIKES it that way, so I used to have him watch the kids while I went outside and worked. I was happy, DH was happy, and the kids watched cartoons with Dad every Saturday morning. I would come in tired and talk about my latest project, and DH would talk about the cute things the kids had done. Those were GOOD! years! Busy but good!

Welcome to HT and I am glad that you have found us!

And, this is a great place to talk about everybodies homesteading projects. Will your goats be killing brush to keep the place neat, pets, or???? There are infinite uses for goats and I wish I had some, but we ate not zoned for goats. I always wanted Nigerian dairy goats as my teenaged children still drink a lot of milk, but, alas, I must live without them!!!!!!!!!

Cindy in NY · #9 03/12/10, 09:08 AM

Welcome! Sounds like you are well on your way!

Remember - the crock pot can be a lifesaver when you are busy! Here's a great tip I got on HT: Wrap baking potatoes in foil and put on top of whatever you are cooking in the crock pot. Delicious!

wannabefarmwife · #10 03/12/10, 09:24 AM

You guys are wonderful - thank you so much for the warm welcome!!!

Luckily my kids are getting older - 14, 10 and 8, and it's time for them to really start helping. I have to be more patient about them helping, but that's another matter - I'm home on a staycation this week, and have noticed that I'm a lot more patient when I'm not rush rush rushing to get out the door!

My goats are here for milk

When I was a kid we had a milk goat and I loved having the healthful milk, cheese and (yummy) fudge products that we could make. We had two totally useless goats (long story) but the latest goat that we picked up had babies on Friday and so is in milk! I'm waiting one more week before I milk her fully (I'm going to use fiasco farm's one-milking-per-day) method while I am still working, but I'm so looking forward to having that here!

I'll have to do some calculations as to what it costs me to work. It's less now that daycare isn't involved, but so much of it is in...convenience items. I'm a project manager at a large university, so I spend 60-70 hours a week working at that, and then to come home to family and cooking and...oh yea, to say that I'm tired and suffering from health issues as a result would be an understatement

I'm over it. Let's just put it that way

I think hubbie will be more into it once he sees the changes in our lives (for positive, not for stress, like it has been). One of the biggest challenges I think I have with him is that for him, he has a struggle enjoying physical labor as a past-time, but thinks of it more like "work". Kind of hard to explain, but I *like* doing barn work, moving wood, etc. etc. Taking care of the animals for me brings me great inner peace instead of it being a "chore" to do. It's a real reframing for him. I'm not sure if that makes any sense or not (maybe I need some more coffee this morning!)

He loves it when I make homemade food, so I'm hoping that draws him in (they always say that the way to a man's heart...*grin*) He's cautiously excited about having really good food, eggs and garden produce to eat.

Thank you all so much for the warm welcome and advice thus far! I'll be adding up my "cost of working" numbers and seeing what I can do there! And with the school system being like it is...well, homeschooling really appeals to me...but...I have to be home to do it!

ronbre · #11 03/12/10, 11:50 AM

while you are off ..take some good pictures of your indiana home you need to sell and get it on craigslist..relist it on there every couple of days and sell it at the absolute rock bottom price you can go..it is your 700 pound gorilla in your marriage...get rid of it.

then you will be much freer to contemplate staying home..if you work for a university my guess is you have more time off in summer..make this summer really count, get those gardens perfected and fruit and nut trees in..they will eventually provide a lot of staple food for you as you are aging..

if you put in good raised beds this summer..then you won't have to do tilliing and stuff like that..so you'll have that done ..and over with..

get those kids to work helping you..they are a big help if you can convince them of the need to get this done.

the older one should be getting a job of its own soon too..ours on started working the summer of his 15th birthday..and worked every year all summer from there on..saved us a lot of money as he got a small motorbike to ride and then bought his own clothes and stuff..

there are a lot of ways to make money from home..so figure up what you could do..there used to be a free book on here on moneymaking ideas...search free book and see if you can find it..you can download it for free..and it has great work from home ideas

HillsideWayCSA · #12 03/12/10, 12:44 PM

This is a great time of year to make a big dent in being self reliant. Plant a larger than needed garden so you can sell produce. Set up a couple of beehives for the honey harvest. There are lots of calves and piglets to be finished for personal meat source.

Your kids are at a great age to be a load of help. My 8yr old and 2yr old love helping with farm chores. The little one feeds chickens and my older one helps water the animals and they both love tagging along when I'm doing chores. I get alot of chores done before they get up in the morning and even more after they go to bed.

Like others have mentioned a good place to start is making your own pizza. A simple white bread recipe makes great pizza crust and you can add other spices to it to suit your taste buds. Heck you could even make a goat cheese pizza. Now I'm hungry!

I'm sure you'll love your new venture and your kids will thank you for giving them chores even if it's not till they're adults and understand how good it was for them.

Pony · #13 03/13/10, 12:19 PM

Welcome, WBFW!

Glad you found us!

All this pizza talk is making me hungry -- AND it reminded me of a fantastic pizza recipe that EVERYONE in your family will want to try: Weber Grilled Pizza. So, I went searching on the Weber site to find the little booklet that has the recipe.

Guess what? They don't have it online any more! ARGH!

But I downloaded it a while back, just can't cut/paste the recipe.

PM me with your email addy if you'd like it, and I'll send it to you.

CountryWannabe · #14 03/13/10, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wannabefarmwife

I think hubbie will be more into it once he sees the changes in our lives (for positive, not for stress, like it has been). One of the biggest challenges I think I have with him is that for him, he has a struggle enjoying physical labor as a past-time, but thinks of it more like "work". Kind of hard to explain, but I *like* doing barn work, moving wood, etc. etc. Taking care of the animals for me brings me great inner peace instead of it being a "chore" to do. It's a real reframing for him. I'm not sure if that makes any sense or not (maybe I need some more coffee this morning!)

He loves it when I make homemade food, so I'm hoping that draws him in (they always say that the way to a man's heart...*grin*) He's cautiously excited about having really good food, eggs and garden produce to eat.

I wouldn't rush into getting overly excited about hubby transforming into a farmhusband. My DH is a city boy too and happy to remain so. He will build stuff for me, though it takes some nagging

and seems to necessitate my being close by with frequent and cheerful words of appreciation.

Very, very occasionally he will feed for me if I am death-bed sick or my need to be away is urgent. Other than that he *really* enjoys the home grown veggies and the home raised and processed meat cooked from scratch, but *I* am the one that grows and raises and butchers and cooks.

I am not complaining **TOO** much. I do love my little homestead and my way of life, even my DH

, but just sometimes I would really appreciate only having half the work to do.

Mary

Callieslamb · #15 03/13/10, 03:52 PM

Welcome to the forum!

I am the farmer in our family. DH supplies the funding for my hobbies. I have always had a garden, canned, etc. It has taken 30 years. count them! Finally, Dh says home green beans are so much better than store bought ones. He used to think the home canned ones tasted too 'green' and wouldn't eat them. People do change. Give them the time.

We live on 7 acres and we do make a pizza run from time to time. I see nothing wrong with it as long as it isn't going on the Credit card!!

While you are working and doing a lot by yourself - try really hard not to do TOO MUCH. You can wear out fast and won't be a great advertizement for a country life! LOL!!!

Wags · #16 03/13/10, 04:38 PM

I second the "don't count on a city-boy changing his ways".

16 yrs ago mine thought a 60x100 suburban lot was enough. A couple of moves later and we have just under 5 acres. He will occasionally feed if I'm really sick, but I'm still the only one that can milk. When I ended up in ER in the middle of the night last year, I had to call a friend to come and do the morning milking for me. The only thing he will really do is put up fencing. All building projects are carried out by myself although my daughter is starting to help with those now.

My eldest child will be turning 6 next month and I will start teaching her to milk the goats. She already is capable of doing all of the other daily chores on her own. And her 4 yr old brother is learning how to do chores now too.

At your kids ages there is no reason that they couldn't/shouldn't be taking on a good share of the daily chores. It helps if you do the chores with them until they completely understand what is expected and also work together to figure out an efficient way for them to do them. Sometimes I had to build or rearrange things so that a smaller child could more easily complete the chores safely.

**Ross** · #17 03/13/10, 04:45 PM

Welcome! I couldn't resist the title of this thread. Not real sure where my post belongs....... Well you nailed the right board, the Main HT board is a great place to start and get comfortable. I think the only posts Cabin moves are political ones and who could blame him!

I'm sure your hubby will find something to love about homesteading, its a wide open topic that has more to do with spirit than rules. Pace yourself and set reasonable goals. Celebrate your victories and learn from your mistakes. Always take that next step ahead! ................ I'm preaching to the choir aren't I ?

Oh well nice to virtually meet you now go buy some sheep!

johnghagen · #18 03/13/10, 05:05 PM

Welcome to the board.If you have any questions about market gardening or cureing and butchering or making salami and product just ask willing to help on what i know. john

wannabefarmwife · #19 03/13/10, 05:23 PM

Thanks again guys - I really feel so welcome here

Well, he came home from a business trip late last night, and all day he has been working on coop designs. One even involved a worm drive, so I think he's on board. He's also been designing a logo...for...the chickens...I...can't really complain - though I've never seen anyone do that before *laughing* I'll have to share what he has come up with once built...but trust me, I've NEVER seen anything like this.

He actually feeds for me quite often, I have lucked out in that regard. I have early morning meetings quite often, and sometimes I feed 50% of the animals and he feeds the horses for me.

I'll probably always still primarily the farmer, which actually will work out in the end, because I'm a bit of a control freak about how the animals are taken care of, and it wouldn't work out if we were both tweaking feed etc.

I have to say, I should probably apologize for sounding so down on him yesterday - I was feeling a bit discouraged, but I really do realize that I have lucked out in so many regards!

Thanks again! Looking forward to reading more