How has your homestead progressed over the years?

[violetdelusions]

Everyone starts somewhere, and not everyone has the same initial goals, so I thought it'd be interesting to see how everyone started out. What goals did you have? What obstacles did you run into? Year by year, what did you work on the most or what was your main focus? What was the most important thing to you in the long run? What were the most important short-term goals your first few years? And most importantly, where are you now and what do you find was the most important lessons for you?

[unregistered168043]

Started out with raw land and a cabin. Built a chicken coop, wood shed, barn, fencing, etc. The fields were all bramble, milk weed and shrub which are now nice pasture. I pulled every rock, sunk every post, and strung every inch of wire.

I didnt know a soul when I got here, now I have a network of people, a wife and son. I have a nice herd of sheep, and a decent little farm business. What have I learned?? Hm. Alot of practical "how to" stuff. But I also learned that the key to achieving good things in life is to;

#1. Know what you want. Not what other people ( although well meaning ) want for you. It takes a certain amount of time and introspection to discover what you want and its hard to separate out other people's influence over your thoughts. This is the hardest and most crucial step.

#2. Visualize it. Think about how it will be, and how you will achieve it. Be realistic.

#3. Make a plan of action. Daily. weekly. monthly. Yearly. Have benchmarks and goals.

#4. Get cracking. Self explanatory. But one key to this is don't be afraid to put yourself, your plans and your products out there for people. I have a friend who dreams of being a writer his whole life. He is extremely talented and attended ivy league schools. But, he's so afraid of rejection that he has never submitted one word to a publisher. All the writing and schooling were a giant waste of time. He teaches English at a community college while less talented writers are getting published. The most talented dont always succeed, those who are willing to put themselves foreword do.

Just my 2 cents

[jwal10]

We were living in town, I was working a town job after farming for 25 years. I had been very sick and sold the farm but was getting stronger. We missed the country. We bought this 1 acre, It was a timber scaling station/forestry building. County surplus, we paid $135. There was a gravity spring from way up in the hills, that had been the water source for a small community years before called Black Rock. The piping was there to the building, no electricity or plumbing inside. There was an outhouse. It had been abandoned for many years but had been last used as a small fish hatchery The overflow from the spring ran into a small pond we built. We used the building for a tool shed first, to keep tools for gardening and to clear the meadow. During that time we built a real toolshed/shop, then added a leanto greenhouse to the end, a chicken coop and another little shed for goats. It was a family getaway place and a place to get away from the stress of my job. In 1994 we cleaned out the building and slowly made it livable, added a very small solar system and ran water into the house. Set up a little wood burner with a firebox coil to heat, heat water and cook on. We still used the outhouse . It was a warm dry place to sleep in.

We had a big yard in town and much of it was edibles. Fruit trees up on wires, grapes, berries and a big garden. My job demanded I live in town limits. I was on call 24/7, I was the supervisor of the water system from Reservoir to water plant to distribution.
Very high stress and my health was deteriorating. We added on a bathroom and bedroom to make it our retirement property. I ended up retiring at 55 and we moved out to the off grid cabin. But 4 months later a small town 4 miles away wanted me to be Public works director 16 hours a week, no real set schedule, more as needed so I was able to get away a lot for vacations. We moved into a little cottage we had there. I worked off and on 2 years until Administration went a different way so we moved back to the off grid cabin.

We are doing what we want here, raise 98% of what we eat here and surrounding timberlands. I have to have goats milk, have all my life, milk, ice cream, cottage cheese, cheese and butter also since we have pygora goats we have fiber and meat too. Chickens for eggs and meat, rabbits and pigeons for meat. Fruit trees, berries and grapes and a big garden. We hunt and fish, a lot. We also have another 4 acres that has a pond, we have bluegill in it and raise wild rice in it too.

Our goal was fresh food that we knew how it is grown. Start small and build as you gain knowledge. Put a GOOD permanent perimeter fence up first. Keep it simple. Define your goals and focus on them. When the food is so fresh and satisfying, it takes a lot less than you think. Can, smoke, dehydrate, preserve everything, don't waste anything. Extend the seasons, store whole, a good variety of different foods, eat in season. All this saves money, resources and energy. Doing everything by hand is so satisfying. Hard to believe when we started we would be this content with what we have at each season of the year, we don't miss junk food or the big variety most people think they have to have. Life is easy and good....James

[Jonb]

We moved from town and bought our little place here on 8 acres the field here was covered with wesache (spelled wrong) it's like the cousin to the mesquite but pretty much a nuisance weed. We spent days many mornings killing it and reworking our field. Now we have great coastal hay that our 2 cows (Darma and Greg) wifey named the and our donkey (OC) she named which we bought or were given love. We mainly me till and tend to our garden which we can grow almost yr round. My daughter helps with the animals which include the cows donkey and 10 chickens not counting what hatches soon and now the 3 ducks my daughter bought. We have mended fences and currently clearing over grown trees along the fences and our pond which I still have to have a dozer clear. So in just over a year we have taken an abused place and slow been bringing it back to a great place that me my wife and family can enjoy for many years to come

[Homesteader]

.........What goals did you have?

To become debt free and as self-sufficient as possible.

...........What obstacles did you run into?

My health issues would be the toughest one. Really never anticipated having so many problems. Cost of feed locally is the other. I can raise meat chickens for instance, we have everything we need to do so, but we have to feed them purchased sacks of feed. They end up costing more than the most expensive organic chicken. Makes all that work seem a bit silly. We have only 2.5 acres so we cannot grow a beef without also purchasing feed putting that out of reach for us. Last real unexpected one was that I had to give up eating dairy. DH eats very very little to begin with. So the investment in the dairy goats and all the equipment for them, time learning how to care for them, and the babies, etc., to have 2 years of milking that went up in smoke was tough. But I can die knowing I had and milked my own goats. That's priceless.

.............Year by year, what did you work on the most or what was your main focus?

First year or two was putting up a stand-alone metal roof over the trailer, as we discovered it leaked like crazy (the roof), putting the fencing up around the entire 2.5 acres, keeping up with the weeds and keeping the sand from moving. We made the mistake of leveling the land, which is pure sand, and this disturbed the natural crust, so every wind which was in the early years every flippin' day, the sand moved. Literally had to install rainbirds to cover the entire place and come on 2x per day.

Then, the barn and irrigation systems, a new porch. HUGE garden. The first one was 5,000 sq. feet. Got chickens. Later years (we've been here since 1999), additional porch on other side, trellis shade nursery against the house. (tried a greenhouse, it just gets too warm here too early for a greenhouse to work, and everything froze in it now matter what I did. Would have had to put some type of heating unit in, which DH really frowned on so we let it go). Purchased brooders and incubators to begin raising meat birds and quail. Already had canners and dehydrator, a tractor, meat smoker, canning jars, tools.

............What was the most important thing to you in the long run?

Becoming debt free, done! Having water on automatic systems- done! (a must in the desert).

.............What were the most important short-term goals your first few years?

Getting the large garden going, the barn built with electricity and water run to it (BIG plus there, if you can DO put electric and water in the barn), windbreak in and fruit trees, getting chickens, fencing and a porch.

............And most importantly, where are you now and what do you find was the most important lessons for you?

Now. Big fat happy spoiled dairy goats that are pets because I love them. That aside, now we grow pretty much all our veggies and our hens give us more than enough eggs. We sell a few dozen to friends here and there which probably cuts their feed cost in half for us. Learned fast that since so many here have chickens, everyone and their brother sells eggs so no real market right here.

Large gardens every year. The fruit trees, well, for the first 10 years we either had a late spring frost or bad winds creating total loss of fruit buds. Last 2 years we've actually harvested peaches, apricots and nectarines (got lucky) and looks like maybe this year too. The pomegranates took 5 years to begin producing, we have 2 and they produce enough to make a years' supply of pom jelly!

The windbreak we put up is actually effective now, that took years.

Water comes out of the ground, debt free, most of the "learning curve" done now, we can feed ourselves if need be.

Most important lessons, never take your health for granted, if you can get stuff done now, get it done. You may not be able to do it later. Getting old is not for wussies. Even out here, I am fairly sure we about the only homesteaders. I thought I would be able to find like-minded folks. They at least don't think it's as weird as the city folks do, but they don't really DO any homesteading. So I'm still alone in that (not counting DH) and thank goodness for this forum. That was a real surprise to me.

Debt free is really helpful. No matter how many books you read on any given homesteading subject the animals will NOT have read that book. Never pass up the chance to buy Ben Gay, you're going to need it.

You're not a country person until you've had that egg in your pocket crack, on the coldest day, and begin to run down your leg.............

[ronbre]

we've gone from a nearly bare acerage to mostly wooded with a pond and lots of perennial garden beds and a woods

[RomeGrower]

Bought our 4 acre property one year ago. Moved into the small house in May, leaving our big house in town. Finished the front of the garage and put doors on. Tilled a big section of ground and planted vegetables. Planted over 20 blueberry bushes. Remodeled the kitchen almost completely. We started a large flower bed near the house. That was all last year.

This year we have so far planted 5 peach trees and 2 apples (more to come) Build a hoop house (11x20) and are planting seeds now. Built two new raised beds for flowers and herbs around the hoop house. We had more trees cleared so our garden can be nearly twice as large now.

In a couple weeks we'll put blackberries, raspberries, strawberries and grapes in the ground. We also planted 4 pear trees and two wild plum trees. The deer fence will be going up in a few weeks. It was an expensive lesson to us last year when the deer happily ate most of what we planted.

Our great desire is to exit the current lifestyle of long commute and sometimes stressful work (though I am very thankful for it) and produce nearly all our income from our property and the skills God has given us. Not sure how long that will be in coming, but it does seem on the horizon at some point.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Fruit trees/vines, wood heat, and fences were our first priorities. The garden second. The pasture has produced from the beginning and the wood has kept us warm. The garden soil is deep and black. I'm still waiting on most of my fruit!