New to homesteading/ Kinda

Adisiwaya · #1 11/27/13, 07:09 PM

Hey,

Well we are setting up to buy a old homstead on 122 acres. Well here is the story... I am 20 (carpenter) and fiance is 23.We always had a garden and had chickens ( parents were taking care of cows etc when we moved to minnesota from kansas ). When I was a baby my parents had a farm out in Kansas. Anyways we have a yearling that is a year and half old (ended up having limes disease and he is going to have a full recovery) and 2 dogs. I have spent last few nights looking and reading through the forum-> good info. But there is so many good things.

The homestead is going to be in Mille Lacs County MN.
There is a mix of pasture and woods.
There is no original buildings still up... (silo foundation still there and probably going to use that for the chicken coop base

Here is some questions I want to know and would like everyones imput:

What is the best animals for cost to raise vs buying the meat etc etc?
Anyone ever build a Walipini?
Best broilers and egg layers for Mn?
goats milk worth it?
Bee keeping-> did this for a few summers with a beekeeper that started in 20s and still going strong in his 80s doing it!
Any good suggestions would be awesome!

Thanks Robert & Kirstie

dkhern · #2 11/28/13, 03:51 AM

southern hillbilly here dont have much experience 'up north or really cold' old timers knew the most productive less waste meat were hogs. hasnt changed. good luck

wwubben · #3 11/28/13, 07:19 AM

I would start with chickens and rabbits.Red or black sexlinks are good layers.Some people like the new red or black broilers.Any heavy breed chicken will work for layers or eating.Go to the poultry section on this site for info.A garden provides the most food for the dollar if done correctly.

AdmiralD7S · #4 11/28/13, 07:42 AM

A friend of mine is president of the regional beekeeping chapter. From what he's told me, bees are not a set and forget operation, and it can be moderately expensive to get started initially. Since I can't say that from personal experience (haven't got mine in yet), I wouldn't use this anecdote as the end-all advice, but keep it in mind as you move forward.

Adisiwaya · #5 11/28/13, 08:35 AM

Has anyone ever heard of a Walipini? Its also called a pit garden and few other names. From my research they would be very good with homesteading. Beekeeping is a very expensive start up for my research I have done. I'll do more research into chickens and rabbits. We use to have rabbits, don't think my dad could every kill one right :/

Happy thanks giving everyone

Vosey · #6 11/28/13, 09:44 AM

Welcome to HT! Haven't heard of a Walipini garden, but I'm going to ask DH, sounds interesting. He has some hugelkulter (sp?) piles/gardens developing now. At the moment they seem to be mostly for the cat to hunt mice and snakes in

It seems to me that trial and error are the only way to figure out what works for you for animals/gardens etc. Pigs may be the most cost effective but you discover that you really like goats or sheep. Start small and figure out what you enjoy and can manage.

As for chickens, I am a newbie at chickens, but love our Barred Rocks. They are big girls, so much bigger than all our neighbors chickens. They run around in the cold (which is 20-30's here) just fine, they're still laying almost daily despite the short days. But post your question in the chicken forum, I think you'll get lots of advice.

Goog luck on your adventure, sounds really exciting! Keep us posted along the way.

ronbre · #7 11/28/13, 10:10 AM

put in your fruit and nut trees this spring...first..and your berry bushes and perennials..plan for the area for your buildings..etc.

READ Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway..and go to the link that tells you how to get Carla Emery's Country Garden Encyclopedia cheap from amazon right now and order it.

Make sure there is a good water source and put your home nearby..

read a lot of the free info on line about Permaculture..you can down load a lot of it by doing a search..helps you figure out how to properly set up a property

Plant what you will eat, or what you know you can sell..Grow animals you would love to care for and eat or eat their eggs..etc..avoid those you wouldn't want to eat..or eat their eggs..

If you have water..stock a good protein fish.

have soil checked for any contaminants..if there are some plant sunflowers or mushrooms in those areas to cleanse that land.

read read read read read

Adisiwaya · #8 11/28/13, 10:17 AM

The old farm house is going to be fixed up. hopefully the sewer is compliant. There is no water on the land atm. There is 6 or 7 apple trees there with rasberries all over. I am glad I was in FFA, took classes on permaculture and greenhouses etc. A Walipini is a underground greenhouse that first was used in Bolivia way back on mountain sides to grow plants in the high altitudes and harsh weather. Ill be posting in other sections in a few minutes

edcopp · #9 11/28/13, 12:35 PM

So you are being "led down the path" by an older woman.

An important question is "How big is your CASH pile"?

Adisiwaya · #10 11/28/13, 12:48 PM

Hahah no we have been together since I was 15, long story. no it is me who wants to be self sufficent more than her. She isn't afraid to get out and be dirty! she helps me garden everything. we have a horse too that got west nile... anyways she makes as much as I do so we are pretty good set.

Im a backwoods hill billy if you want to say that, I make things work =] im a all over handy man lol

MNSteader · #11 11/28/13, 09:58 PM

Hello and welcome. I live on a farm in Aitkin County. We have a flock of around 150 layers (mostly red sexlink and buckeyes). They both seem to do real well up here. We also have a small herd of dexters that we rotationally graze as well. The first thing we did when we moved here was to put in an electric fence called "the mule". It has worked great. Also just finished up our high tunnel this past fall. I would suggest to do as much reading as you can and also join in on pasture walks. We had one at our farm this last summer and it's a great way to meet people and see what others in the area are doing. We also pasture raised broilers that were a Cornish cross. They have worked out well too. Good luck with whichever route you take!!

Adisiwaya · #12 11/28/13, 10:11 PM

If you have another pasture walk I would like to go and learn a few things!

joebill · #13 11/29/13, 09:39 AM

We plan to build a Waipini this year if we get the time. I have studied it quite a bit, and have a few cautions.

First off, the pictures you see of them are area-specific and give some false impressions as to roof heights and angles for most of us. I'd advise you to go out right around new years and at noon, see what angle you need to stand a 2x4 or chunk of pipe or something similar up so that it casts no shadow. Your plastic panel will need to be 90 degrees ( a right angle) to THAT. For me, that means I'll have to have a higher wall on the top side of the panel than the illustrations would indicate, but for you, I think, it can be lower. Easy to check and gives you a better vision as to what you are getting in to.

Secondly, while the original article suggests rammed earth for the wall, or riser on the high side, you will have to use blocks of some sort for the ends and doorway, plus you have an awful lot of building to do and probably always will, so I would suggest that you investigate rammed earth blocks. if you can aquire or build the machine, at your age, you can put together a wonderful place, "dirt" cheap........

As it happens, part of my spare time is going into prototyping a ram of my own design, but DO NOT wait on me, because, as the old saying goes, "if you are depending on me, I feel sorry for you".

Feel free to discuss any of this stuff either here or PM me, as I like to help young folks get rolling.

I have one other piece of advise that you did not ask for, but when you are old and cranky like me, sometimes you can put your nose where it does not belong and get by with it.

That advise is, go marry that girl before you start aquiring more assets together. best thing for everybody......Joe

Kasota · #14 11/29/13, 10:23 AM

Adisiway, Welcome!

I used to own a farm in Mille Lacs County! I was just north of Milaca. Congratulations on getting a place!!!

For gardening, I used modified raised beds. I did not build frames but rather used massive amounts of compost to ammend the soil and I banked it up. In between the hilled rows I put grass clippings and whatever organic matter I could get my hands on. The next year I would incorporate it when I tilled. That was in the beginning first years. After a time I had really beautiful soil and I left the hills in place and top dressed with compost. I had a lot of critters (horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens) and my compost piles were enormous so I always had plenty to work with.

Much of the land in Mille Lacs is really rocky. It can make fencing challenging. You will almost have that T post sunk down where you want it and it will encounter a rock. Big ones, small ones, they are everywhere. When I built my post barn and riding arena they had to yank some huge boulders out of the ground with a backhoe. Weee!

I like raised beds or mounded beds over tilling gardens because when you til you will bring up weed seeds close enough to the surface so that they sprout and you will be forever doing battle. I found that over time "scruffing" the surface of a mounded or raised bed worked like a charm. You have to be diligent early in the growing season when the weeds are just spouting...but if you go out and scruff the surface to dislodge them they will bake in the sun or dry out and die. If I was diligent early on I had almost weed free gardens the rest of the summer.
By not bringing up weed seeds by tilling, my weed count over time really went down and made gardening less labor intensive.

For animals to raise for meat - it really depends on what you like. A good flock of multi-purpose birds always did well for me. If you let them free range you will notice a reduction in ticks on your property. Chickens eat them like there is no tomorrow. You will lose some to hawks, eagles and owls. In the beginning when my flock was small I put them in at night to protect them from various and sundry predators. Once my flock got large enough (it was up to about 150) I let them do as they pleased. Most would come in to the coop or a big old hip roofed dairy barn that the cows sheltered in and roost in the rafters. Over time, I found I had more smart chickens that stupid ones because the stupid ones just didn't survive. The "smart" chickens were ones that knew how to raise a clutch without them all getting killed. It made for less work raising them but more work collecting eggs. I always had a core group of hens, though, that seemed to prefer the coop and would lay their eggs in their nice boxes so I always had more than possibly could use and I was able to sell a lot. Free range chickens also keep flies down on farms if you have livestock because they scratch about in the manure piles in the pasture and eat the fly maggots.

If you have pasture land that is full of thistles or the ever present Milla Lacs willow brush...it is hard to beat Scottish Highlanders for turning it into a beautiful weed and brush free pasture. They LOVE the stuff. You have to be careful around the horns, but if you get young ones and work with them - they are pretty docile cattle for the most part. They might stick you with a horn by accident, though, if they go to scratch their back and you are in the way. They have a leaner meat that is very heart healthy but they are a little slower growing. I grass fed mine until just a bit before I would butcher and then I would start adding corn for a little more flavor as it would put some fat on them. I mainly raised Highlanders, but I would have a few Hereford or a black angus from time to time. Angus are, in my opinion, a little more skittish and more likely to challenge fencing. One of my favorite breeds of cattle is a Bruanveih. They rival angus for flavor and feed conversion but they are much calmer and easier to work with. If I were looking for cattle these days they would be one of my top choices. http://www.braunvieh.com/the-breed/
There is a breeder in Milaca.

A couple good farm dogs are essential if you have lifestock. There are a lot of coyotes and bear in Mille Lacs county and cougars and wolves as well. I had a cougar on my place that use to sometimes scare the wiz out of me. LOL! I had trouble with the coyotes and lambs until I got an Akita who brought a signifant portion of courage to the other farm dogs and she quickly cleared them off my land.

I loved having dairy goats for milk. Saanens were my favorite but there are other really nice goat breeds out there. They seem a *little* less apt to challenge fencing. Nubians are my other favorite. Goat milk soap is a delight and can be a small side business if you are so inclined. If you have wild garlic or wild onions in your pasture don't let them graze there or you'll have flavored milk.

I will no doubt think of other things as time goes. I'm sure you are well on your way to having quite the adventure!!

Adisiwaya · #15 11/29/13, 11:06 PM

Well I'm doing deep research, a lot of it. I am trying to figure out tractor for myself (ford 9n sounds pretty decent ATM, with loader and haybine etc etc etc) trying to figure average hay per acre around the area.... chicks good for the area ( Barred rock and Rhode Island ) pigs I haven't found much info but what someone else said on here. Cows I know some that have Scottish Highlanders and no real good info... I am trying to figure out cost vs buying it vs cutting etc etc... ugh week off and I am doing tons of research. I am debating on goats atm.... are they good to eat?

jwal10 · #16 11/30/13, 07:42 AM

9N Ford does not have live hyds for a loader or a remote valve for a haybine. Not the end of the world but not the best. And kind of underpowered for a haybine, would have to be 7' and light hay. 9N only have a 3 speed trans and 1st gear is pretty fast. Look at Buff Orp chickens, good multipurpose breed. As far as goats to eat, do you like venison?

....James

Kasota · #17 11/30/13, 08:08 AM

There is a guy on the west side of Rogers who refurbs old tractors and does a very nice job of it. I'll see if I can dig up his name. I bought a JD 3010 wide front that did the trick for me. He totally went through it, fixed what needed fixing, added new hydraulics and painted it. She sure was pretty. It was gas, though. It was big enough to do what I needed and it never let me down. There is a JD dealer in Princeton that can get manuals, parts, etc and they are very, very helpful folks. I remember how excited I was when he pulled in with the trailer and a few implements of destruction like an auger, 3 point bale spear, back blade and a "snow" bucket that was extra heavy duty. I had him weld some huge hooks on the upper corners of the bucket which was really useful for hooking a chain to if I needed to move something that was more awkward in size.

Buy some goat meat from a local to see if you like it. Goats are probably some of the most useful animals for homesteading that you come across but not everyone likes the flavor. If you are interested in Nubians I can check with a woman I know in Milaca who used to raise some nice quality ones. They are more for milk, though. Boers are a nice meat breed.

Hay is cheaper to put up than it is to buy if you have your own equipment. You could probably find someone in your area who would be willing to put it up on shares. If you have just a few hay eaters- you might barter your time helping someone else get their hay up for enough for your own animals. If you have a lot of good hay fields then getting the equipment would give you hay to sell, especially if you have nice dry storage for it.

Adisiwaya · #18 11/30/13, 09:28 AM

I love venison are goats hard to take care of? Prefer one that I won't have to milk. What is the best tractor to use for square bales, pulling stumps, using a tiller, snowblower, auger etc etc what would be the best and easy to work on? Preferable a cheaper tractor under 2500$... I'll be getting cows, goats, horse for hay.

Adisiwaya · #19 11/30/13, 09:29 AM

Plus having a a front end load to lift beef up for butcher would be nice

AdmiralD7S · #20 11/30/13, 03:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adisiwaya

What is the best tractor to use for square bales, pulling stumps, using a tiller, snowblower, auger etc etc what would be the best and easy to work on? Preferable a cheaper tractor under 2500$

To run a baler or a rototiller, you're going to need a 40-50HP tractor. As far as which tractor, I'll let others duke it out; that sort of question always seems to be a very contentious topic