Questions from a homesteading newbie!

Congratulations on your new home! I am excited for you!

Mary

Thanks to all of you!

We are very excited and happy and in the process of purging and packing.

I have been going through our house one drawer at a time, trying to purge things and condense as much as possible. We are renting a 26 foot Penske truck and driving our oversized truck and pulling a 16-foot bass boat. Plus we have a huge Golden Retriever.

Luckily, a friend has offered to help us do the driving!

We are in the market for a tiller, a riding lawnmower, and an ATV and I have been checking Craigslist like crazy. Do any of you know if the winter time brings deeper discounts on these items if we buy new? We were trying not to spend a lot of money but if we can get a good deal on a mower in the winter we would be willing to get a new one.

Thanks!

Don't buy new if you can help it. If you're at all handy with machinery, you can find what you need, or even good neighbors who'll loan you stuff (once they realize you're sincere and a helpful person).

Sometimes, you can get cheaper come Winter on some items, but you're better off setting a top price you'll pay for something and going to auctions. You can make do with rentals or borrowing in the meantime, and you never know what really great deals come along.

Keep your eyes open and let folks know what you're looking for. It's out there, and it's not too expensive. Just be patient.

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Je ne suis pas Alice

http://homesteadingfamilies.proboards.com/

Whew! You said a mouthful there!

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That means alot alot!

I have to agree with the whole wood stove thing. Being from the U.P. of MI it's hard to imagine anyone south of WI needing heat, I thought heat was part of the compensation (or curse) for having to live there. (You know I'm kidding, right?)

It's good that you joined this forum (by the way, welcome.) There are so many cool, knowledgeable folks here (and a few kooks... [why should I own land?]) that by consulting, you have given your education a great kickstand and shoulder, all in one.

I sure hope your other half is up to the "fun" because it is so much better with an interested and interesting partner.

And...I have to agree with whoever said "don't say your from CA until you reallly get to know someone.

In any event, you're in for the best ride of your life. My advice to you is keep your chin up, back straight, and look people in the eye! You are gonna need the respect of your neighbors.

Good luck Hubby

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practically everything is practical

Sorry Kraken, I didn't mean to be a conversation killer.

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practically everything is practical

Ha! No worries here!

We packed most of today and I can already tell that I am going to get to the point where I am just shoving stuff in boxes.

Well, I was going to address question #2 with a two word answer, reality sucks, but Wind in Her Hair put more feeling into it.

Ask yourself, given my past experiences, my skills and my will, combined with the state of relationship with my loved loved ones, can I support my ambitions? Are they humoring me knowing they can go "home"? Am I biting off more than I can chew? Plan g...everything else failed am I am now homeless. What now?

If you can throw money at the homesteading equation great, more power to you. Most of us can't. Think and re-think everything.

Good luck. Welcome to the forum. PM me if you need help.

I wish I had that attitude! I worry about EVERYTHING.

I just noticed that.

Are you having a bad day?

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Je ne suis pas Alice

http://homesteadingfamilies.proboards.com/

No. Sorry...didn't mean to come across that way. Was it this thread that made you ask?

so glad you found something - 3 acres is actually a fair bit of land
certainly enough room for rabbits, chickens, beehives, a huge garden

I like the suggestions to take it slowly ... I get a little ahead of myself sometimes but have being trying to be good lately

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www.vareharrifarm.blogspot.com

We are definitely going to take it slow because I will be the first to admit that I know very little about homesteading and I know you can only learn so much from books.

I was raised around gardening and canning and can sew, knit, crochet, and am not afraid of hard work but it is a bit overwhelming when I think of clearing the garden space and making room for animals. (but OHHHH so exciting when I think of fresh veggies and homemade salsa!)

I really appreciate all of the suggestions here! We are gathering things slowly in our move that might be used on the homestead and plan to hit yard sales and swap meets for the rest.

Excited!

Well, your first response seemed a bit... off, I guess. Hard to tell how people are feeling sometimes, when all we have is what's printed down. Good thing we have emoticons, eh?
For all my sage advice (ha!) I just admitted to one of the neighbors that I bit off WAAAAAAAAAY more than I could chew this year. Poor Nick! He tries so hard to please me and keep up with me, and I just went bananas this first year.

So, yeah, I have to realize (as you already have) that there's a big difference between a 1/3 acre and 6 acres (or, in your case, 3 acres).

LOL! It's all learning!

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Je ne suis pas Alice

http://homesteadingfamilies.proboards.com/

Welcome to HT.

The mower...walk behind or rider?
If you decide to mow 1/2acre of your land or less, then a good walk behind, selfpropelled is really going to be fine, and you save yourself some work with a mulcher, or bag the trimmings and use them in your garden.
A rider can be outfitted with a plow blade for snow clearing, and a bagging system to collect grass clippings, mulched leaves and be put on your garden as weed block during the summer and tilled in to the soil in spring. A rider can also tow a cart or small trailer around the place for whatever you need, and sure saves time/energy versus using a wheelbarrow.
Some riding mowers can accept a rototilling attachment, or a plow bar, things to consider to keep your equipment costs down, and get the most out of what you do have. The fewer engines to maintain the better, and less expensive, generally.

We came from a city plot, and when it was clear we needed appropriate sized equipment, I"m glad we agreed to pony up for a good quality used riding mower with attachments from a dealer, it has been very handy to have, has been easy to work on due to parts in stock, and plenty of dealers that are on our way to/from somewhere so its convenient as well.

Depending on the size of your initial garden, hire a local guy to come over with a tractor mounted tiller to break up the sod, loosen the winter potatoes, and find out if he knows where you could get a load of aged manure that you have tilled in right away, and let that part of the garden sit for a season before planting. It's a great way to get to know some folks, feed a couple dollars into the local economy, and put the word out of what you are looking for, and by hiring someone with their own equipment, you'll see just what kind of soil you have to contend with, and that will be important when you decide on which rototiller you buy or just rent one. We've used front tine, and rear tine, and the intial tilling in the spring is done by a retired guy with a little tractor, then we use our little 5hp rear tine for the rest of the season, and rear tine is the way to go.

If you get into wood burning for heat, stay one year ahead of what you need, and it'll always be plenty dry enough for its intended use. Dry wood keeps the chimney clean and gives the most heat. If you get homeowners insurance, they may have the final say regarding the woodburner you can choose, so take your time if you go this route.
Learning correct chainsaw use, and the safety needed around felling/firewood cutting to avoid unneccesary injury is important, more homework.

Buying tools for our place has always been simple, good tools ain't cheap, and cheap tools ain't good. There is value in dealing with a local outfit for your equipment; parts availability, service when its beyond your abilities, warranty if you get new, and good help over the phone when you are scratching your head about something and they fill in that blank for you, for free.

Living there for a while to let the place talk to you can be very worthwhile.

Read a lot of the old threads on HT, and let us know how you are doing.

I have been trying for years to find a way to express exactly what you said! (may I borrow it for my blog?)

My neighbor cut down 90 (ninety ) trees on his 2 acres (they have 2 (two) left), brought in 7 trucks of dirt to level what had been a gorgeous, gentle rolling landscape (causing our gravel driveway to wash out every hard rain now), plunked a new mobile home in the middle, put in a straight, paved driveway all the way to the gate, and planted over 1.5 acres of lawn!

He has for the last 10 years mowed said lawn twice a week, and walks it all over hand-pulling "weeds" every few days.

(by contrast, when I had to replace a falling apart trailer with our current mobile home I had a friend cut down 2 trees that were exactly where the new house had to go. He took it upon himself to cut 3 more to "give the movers room to maneuver." I cried and cried and cried over those 3 trees...)

I forgot to mention, I moved from California to the boonies outside Memphis in January 1994.

As we were site seeing I noticed the grass was all brown everywhere but didn't think a thing of it until I saw the mall's brown lawn. I blurted out horrified, "You have a drought bad enough to make the mall not water the grass?" Needless to say my friends died with laughter and explained that the grass goes dormant in the winter. I'd never heard of such a thing. heeheehee! Culture shock!

I'd lived in CA all my 35 years until I moved, and I hadn't realized all the things I never thought about. I have some more culture shock stories if any one is interested.

kb
www.chickensense.com

Well, we are in California doing the last bit of packing before we head out to Arkansas.
We went to the new home for a a couple of weeks and did some cleaning, yard work, and setting up of accounts etc. We had the fireplace professionally cleaned and found a guy who still had a cord of dry wood that he is going to sell to us for the winter.
(should it be about $125 a cord?)

We also ended up getting a riding lawnmower for a great deal. The front is actually about 3/4 of an acre and the back has a nice patch to mow so we made the splurge.

Our next challenge will be figuring out how to keep the neighboring land from draining into our drive and washing it out.

Other than that, we are super excited and I cant wait to get home!

I think this is a spambot?