Newbie looking for a reality check

Welcome! Zone 3-4, brrr, but beautiful country up there. I'm originally from Maine and I don't remember anyone ever having goats, everyone had sheep. Was surprised at the number of goats out here.

Get the gardens and trees in the first year along with the chickens. Chickens are pretty easy and fun, and the eggs can't be beat. I think the idea of adding one type of animal a year is good advice. You can spend the first winter researching bees.

Oh, good question.

I'm close enough to the border that I could throw a rock into Canada. So yeah, lots of potential for deep snow.

__________________
Chuck

The only thing I've seen around here are cows, chickens and potatoes.

__________________
Chuck

You sound like us! Where in New England are you?

Start with some chickens. Just go ahead and get them s soon as you have a place to sleep. Make a quick and simple chicken house, go for the basics. Then you can add and improve after you see what you like. Chickens are easy and cheap, and when one gets eaten it's sad but it isn't a loss of hundreds of dollars. Start a giant garden. Get to know your neighbors. Plant some fruit trees and bushes. Give yourself a couple of years of doing the first steps, and move up to larger animals, more intensive homesteading, as you feel comfortable and your budget allows.

I really think that trying to jump in with both feet is discouraging, emotionally and financially. You can control most of your food supply without livestock, especially if you find a source for good local meat and dairy. I bet there's someone nearby! Heck, maybe even me....

__________________
They shall all sit under their own vines and their own fig trees, and they shall live in peace and unafraid. Mica 4:4

Welcome, you'll love it here, and good luck.

Patty

__________________
My book is out! Go 'like' it on FB:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Goo...83553391747680

Be nice if you could have Georgia winters, Your growing season will be too short to raise a lot of the garden things that would work much better in zone 5 or 6. You'll need to find out how to give some things a head start. Some others will do great in that climate. You will need a lot of hat to get your animals through the winter. The cost of the fence and grain plus the fence would make for some expensive milk which you will have to squeeze out of some cranky goat.

We had a great garden in Maine and the soil did not need much amending. You need to plant a lot with a short season because you only get one shot at it. That being said though we canned many quarts of delicious apple sauce from our trees. Froze numerous bags of corn. Canned 40 quarts of green beans. Ate zuchini nearly every day for many weeks with NO squash bugs. We had fresh lettuce and a few tomatoes, but if I were still there I would start seedlings early in a greenhouse of sorts and get a better crop out of it. Broccoli grows very well in Maine as do potatoes. Since the ground is frozen and usually snow covered from November to April you would have to buy feed for chickens and cows, but it can be done.

There really aren't too many things we can't grow. The long days do a lot to make up for the short season. We can grow almost everything we eat.

__________________
Chuck

I woke up today to big fat flakes falling from the sky. *Sighs* It was almost all gone.

__________________
Chuck

That's what I don't miss about Maine. It's 70 out right now. Our garden is almost all in. I'm giving the pepper seedlings until this weekend then putting them in. Everything is in raised beds here. That reminds me; you could get on the ground earlier with raised beds since they warm up earlier. Of course your soil is probably so much better you wont want to.

A plastic covered hoop house is such a massively useful item up here. Gets everything started early and you can grow some of the more temp sensitive stuff, too. Not too much of an investment, especially with a big garden.

Shouldn't need heat for your animals, either. Just some enclosure, and of course a way to keep their water from freezing, but there are lots of options for that! Keeping yourself warm is a little harder...

__________________
They shall all sit under their own vines and their own fig trees, and they shall live in peace and unafraid. Mica 4:4

The beautiful thing about having a small shelter for your animals is all the wonderful mixed bedding you'll have to work into your gardens as you go along. I don't think hoops were going so big when we lived there, but Johnnies promotes them a lot and they look like a good idea. We don't need that in Georgia thankfully. I used to be upset every March that people in parts of the Country were planting and I had to wait until May.

Domestic rabbit is a good protein source.

Oh, I know. You are going to be harvesting before I get the ground broken up to plant.

__________________
Chuck

It sure is. Growing up we had rabbit twice a week for five years off three does and one happy buck.
I do remember eating and replacing a couple breed does because they were only giving us four to a litter.

Rusty, Did you breed your rabbits every other month? And did yo butcher the young at 2 mos? That was my breeding schedule. Never ate any. Always just sold them.

Your plan does not sound crazy to me at all. As far as I know (not a whole lot), bees do not require 24-hr attention. Chickens are pretty simple. I know nothing about maple syrup production, but sounds to me like your biggest commitment will be the sheep. Even the sheep would be pretty easy to take care of if you weren't running dairy sheep. But if you keep a smallish flock, I don't think you'd be too overtaxed at all.

Up there, I suspect you'll need a hoop house for serious gardening.

Whatever animal projects you take on, start small to learn the method and the care.

With 6 chickens or layer ducks you'll be essentially egg independent, and that many is easy care-- ducks may be hardier in your climate than chickens, can lay just as well, and may have a more complete daily nutrition foraging in your region also.

20 broiler chickens and 10 turkeys a year is a nice start on practicing sourcing our own meat. Meat rabbits have the potential to be even easier for some with the same goal in mind. (Skinning and gutting a rabbit is a much simpler project and more quality meat to bone than meat chickens.)

Try just a pair of goats at first. Either a high producing large breed doe and a companion wether, or a pair of small does. The majority of health in goats is good preventative care and a good fence. Keep it simple A half gallon a day in milk is enough for most average households for drinking cooking and occasional extras when your consumption runs low some days. You only need one healthy full size goat to source that much. More kidding and in milk does is just more work to complicate your schedule, and makes for more soreness in your hands.

Persue what speaks to you. We all have different strengths as homesteaders and I don't believe in a one size fits all plan. Some people shun everything but chickens, some would never dream of a chicken if a rabbit will do, some people have terrible luck with bunnies.
I keep ducks and practically no chickens for my laying flock, but some people loathe ducks for the water mess.

Do remember though--- any product that does on your table that didn't come from a store? counts as a victory.
It's not like you're only a "real" homesteader if you're off grid and self sufficient in the first year.
There is a learning curve of what works for you the farmer, and the land you have to work with. Some things work better in some situations than others and all the best laid plains in the world can't overcome some obstacles.

__________________

There is a time and a place for decaf coffee.
Never, and in the trash.
Are you an AZ farmer too? Arizona Backyard Farmers on facebook