How to make homesteading more efficient.

[gibbsgirl]

Looking for what's worked for other people. Got the idea from reading TNAndy's thread about how much time older homesteaders put into food production.

[gibbsgirl]

We have roughly half of our property as lawn. We've laid pasture fencing to rotate our grazing animals, so they can now for us. It's also lowered our feed bills, and the time needed to feed them. We've also been plowing under gardening patches in several areas to kill of as much lawn and weeds as possible before they go to see . Some areas are planted now. Some others will be planted this fall.

. Been working to clear almost all the landscaping plants and bushes and trees that don't produce anything to eliminate their maintenance needs and put those places to more productive use. Have a hard time carving out the hours to maintain the food plants. Maintaining the purely decorative stuff was competing to much for our attention.

[Woolieface]

I need more efficiency too. We also did the critter lawn mower thing. Our sheep now graze most of the grassy areas we'd otherwise have to mow and we're working on making it 100%.

[Forcast]

I got rid of grass as well, keeping all water stations close helps a lot. Making a place for like items is a big deal.

[Nicole Irene]

This is stuff we have done or are working towards:
for critters: auto water and feeder
plants: drip system on timer (this is huge as I spend hours watering/moving the hose around during our dry summers), mulch

placing animals in convenient places (i.e., garden is between rabbits and chickens for fertilizer and scraps)

placing plants in convenient places (planting a mulberry in the chicken area and raspberries on the fence so chickens get one side we get the other)

If we don't want to mow, we fence for critters
cross fencing for rotational grazing

want to try fencing our little orchard for meat birds (they can eat the leftovers in fall and bugs/weeds in spring while fertilizing)

I freeze tomatoes whole in lieu of canning them all....this makes for quick and easy pasta sauce (I use immersion blender to grind the skins, so I don't even peel them)

[CountryMom22]

I think that the one thing that I have done to be more efficient is to concentrate on doing one thing at a time. By giving one chore/job/task my complete attention I accomplish my tasks more quickly and make fewer mistakes. It also helps to keep my stress level lower, and it makes an impossible to do list possible!

[Patchouli]

I think really it's all individual. What's a time saver for me may not be for you. I have found over the years that if I start complaining about something then it's time to sit down and figure out how to change it. Getting water to livestock was one of our biggest headaches. So we finally ran pipe and put in several frost free spigots. In the long run it saved us time and money over replacing hoses every few years.

Same thing with fencing. We spot repaired for a few years and dealt with the occasional escape or intruder dog. Finally bit the bullet and replaced the entire perimeter. Best time saver ever.

[Ozarks Tom]

We use soaker hoses in the garden, 2 tied together with a short connecter hose, so we can water 2 rows at a time. Very fast and efficient watering. I hook them up, set the timer in my pocket, and go about my business. Also, all faucets and hoses have quick connects.

Our rule is everything here earns its keep. Even the cat is expected to work for a living.

[TnAndy]

Originally Posted by Patchouli

Getting water to livestock was one of our biggest headaches. So we finally ran pipe and put in several frost free spigots.

Takes time, but I ran buried PVC pipe to every place we garden or have chickens, cows, pigs. The animals get watered by our spring overflow, run thru a set of valves (can direct either the overflow, or main tank water), gravity fed, so it runs all the time. I let each watering place have a constant running trickle, so they always have fresh water.




Chickens get locked up and unlocked in the chicken house night/day with an automatic door. Haven't had a night loss since installing it a year or so ago.

We changed a lot of our gardening to indoor growing in the hoop house. Eliminated most all weeding and most bug problems, in addition to getting crops in much earlier and later. By extending the seasons, we eat more fresh and less canned/frozen.

Electric golf cart. Bought a used cart year ago....BEST thing we ever bought. Use it everyday to run down to feed, go get the mail/paper, truck stuff from the garden/hoop house back to the house....just hop on, flip the switch and drive. No gas to fill, no oil/fluids to change....just plug it in at the end of the day. LOVE it.

[Patchouli]

How does the automatic door work for the chicken coop?

[gibbsgirl]

Originally Posted by Patchouli

How does the automatic door work for the chicken coop?

You attach a sliding door and frame to a chicken door opening. We use the dog door opening on the screen door we use for our coop. There is a plug-in motor attached to it that can be set to open and close based on sunrise and sunset or a timer.

We have one, too. It is awesome.

We also have really good (meaning little waste or spillage) waterers and feeders in our coop.

The can hold up to 20 gallons of water. And 40-60 lbs of feed at a time. So our birds can be setup and safe for a few days at a tine. Which makes leaving town or skipping checking on them if the weather's awful safe and easy.

Our door and motor kits were about $265 I think. But boy does it feel like $ well spent.

[TnAndy]

Originally Posted by Patchouli

How does the automatic door work for the chicken coop?

Google "automatic chicken door"....there are several folks that sell them. Some slide up and down (one we have does), other are a 'flap' type deal. The one we have uses a small electric motor normally used for remote control window draper operation. (12v in case you want to run it off a battery/solar panel) Small timer with it, you can control the opening/closing times.

I'll second Gibbsgirl.....love it. Pretty much total security at night for the chickens.

[Moboiku]

We switched to deep mulch in the garden so we don't have to water. We live in an area that until 2 weeks ago had been in drought. Virtually no rain or snow for the first 4 months of the year, yet the ground under the mulch layer was moist. Not watering is a huge efficiency in terms of time, water, running hoses etc.

We installed an auto door on the chicken coop, transitioned the indoor pet dogs to be outside dogs and then moved their dog house into the chicken yard to deter predators.

All animals are free fed. I.e., instead of having to go around and feed individual meals to this animal or that, we feed as little as possible as seldom as possible. The dogs have a gravity feeder that gets filled on an as-needed basis - usually about once a week. The chickens have a feeder that gets a certain amount of food in the morning and the rest of the time they have to forage and free-range to find bugs and foliage to eat. Saves money and time for me buying feed, hauling it, storing it and dispensing it.

The sheep and goats are on pasture and take care of themselves.

Rain barrels collect water so I don't have to haul it the 9 months of the year the temp is above freezing. One rain barrel at the chicken coop supplies most of their water needs and a much larger one in the pasture supplies the needs of sheep, goats, free-ranging poultry and sometimes even the dogs.

[BobbyB]

This year, I bought a roll of drip tape for the garden ( over an acre ). I built a 6 row header to use with it. Water 6 rows, move it over and go again. Then I installed a water line down one end and brought up a riser and faucet every 50 feet to make it easy to use with one hose. I( use the poly with single emitters for the fruit trees and grape vines.

Built a new addition to our little barn and put a faucet there and Karla's rabbits are under part of it. Now her feed, water and rabbits are all within a few steps.

Slowly but surely we are streamlining here to make things flow better.

I have also started installing cutoff valves whenever I run water line anywhere so I can isolate it whenever needed instead of going to the main cutoff.

[gibbsgirl]

Moboiku, I'm curious about the gravity feeder for the dogs. Can you describe be it, or maybe pics, or a link where youu bought it?

[arabian knight]

Originally Posted by TnAndy;7459061 [IMG

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a5db03b3127cc7ebe20270755e00000010O01Acs2TJq0cMw e3bjw/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00308045223920150523005249082.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/?tn=-1419445093[/IMG]

I see you used a lot of the purple cleaner. LOL

Want to make a cleaner looking connection?

Next time so you don't have that color purple all over buy this: And also for anyone that builds thing with plastic pipes.
Before going into the plumbing section to get the Glue for plastic pipes get this first, and no need to buy a expensive Purple Cleaner that is next to the Glue for plastic pipes. And one more thing, that Quart Can of Clear MEK is a LOT cheaper the that little can of The Purple Stuff. LOL

Oh BTW the ONLY reason that cleaner is colored is so the Plumbing Inspector aka SEE at a quick glance you Cleaned the connection Before gluing it. LOL and THAT is THE only reason it is colored
The MEK in the paint department is Clear, and Will Not show like the Purple Does and makes a better looking connection in uses as in your picture.

[Moboiku]

Originally Posted by gibbsgirl

Moboiku, I'm curious about the gravity feeder for the dogs. Can you describe be it, or maybe pics, or a link where youu bought it?

I actually made my own, and to call it a gravity feeder is probably a bit grandiose. I have a dog who for 3 years, no matter what type of feeder I tried, would nose all the food out, like she was looking for the treat in the bottom of the bowl. It made a mess, I spent an inordinate amount of time picking up dog food, and/or it rolled under things and attracted rodents or went moldy.

So I finally took a 3-gallon bucket with a lid, and cut a circle out of the lid, leaving a lip of an 1" or so. She is no longer able to nose the food out due to the lip, so I can virtually fill the bucket and let both dogs eat until its gone.

The bucket I got for free from the bakery dept of my grocery store, and cutting the circle out was a 5-minute job with the handy-dandy pocket knife my husband gave me for my last birthday.

[gibbsgirl]

I would love to get a bit tt r feed and water set up for our dogs.

But I have to figure out a way to rat proof it cause we've got rat problems that I really have to stay ahead of here.

[Forcast]

I would have built my home different:

I would have a large mud room for all the mess we make, sick pig, chicks, dogs puppy's.

I would have made my home in close off areas so when money got tight I could close off areas not to heat.

I would have built a pantry

I would have had more trees removed so I would have enough sun light to make a garden work and stumps removed

I would have had my yard leveled very costly now

I would have built a room apartment over the garage

I would have built a barn/large shade because the 2 car garage is filled to the point I cant get in to even sort if I had 2 I could move stuff around

I would have ................the list gos on

[thestartupman]

Moboiku, how do you keep the chickens from eating all the dog food? Can you also explain in detail how you went about getting deep mulch for your garden? Did you till it in? what did you use for the mulch, and where did you get it. Did you get it ready in the spring before planting, or did you do it in the fall before the growing season? Any info you can give about the deep bedding would be great. Thanks in advance for your response.