Homesteading Newby
 

My family and I have lived in the country for many years and have adjusted to budgets and such. Our new adventure is that this time we are buying the land and starting with nothing. We have cleared part of the overgrown cedar trees out of the way, enough to get our new electric on and move our tiny camper and tiny building onto the land. We have an outdoor kitchen, and use the camper stove when it is just too wet or cold to cook outdoors. Some of the necessities are here, of course a refrigerator is here. There are only 4 little acres here, and DH wants the back 2 left for wildlife so he can hunt.

My question is just for general advice on starting out.
We haul water in 5 gallon buckets right now, is there a better way?
What are the best animals for food source with little land to work with?
We have a lot of rocks in our land, which produces will grow best in rocky ground when we start our garden in the spring?
How deep does our hole have to be for an outhouse and should we treat it with anything for smell or capacity?
Any advice for bathing options? Very important to us.

Any other advice will be greatly appreciated for those of us who are new to this life.
Thank you all in advance.

Welcome to the forum.

If you have a pickup, you can get 100+ gallon containers to fill with water. Not sure how you'd handle them without a tractor for loading though.

Rabbits take the least amount of space and give a lot of bank for your buck. So do goats.

I'd make raised beds and bring soil in to fill them rather than trying to move or garden around rocks. They multiply from season to season and you never get rid of them all.

I don't have any experience with outhouses -or at least, none for the last 50 years.

Callieslamb, I have considered the large containers for water. A lot of folks around here use them, but they leave them in the truck and I only have one vehicle so that is not really an option for us. We have talked about trying to set up a rolly system in the truck to roll the water tank out of it when it is full. Still working on that concept. I have never eaten rabbit, but look forward to trying it. I am thinking about sheep too, any advice on sheep? Would love to have the wool and the meat and thinking a miniature variety would probably work for us.

Make/buy a small trailer and mount a tank to it. Small 12 volt pump and a small tank for water pressure, all self contained. Unhook hose and go refill. Outhouse hole small enough so it won't fall through, the deeper the better, 6' deep if you can. A little lime will help keep smells down. Rabbits, chickens and a milk goat are all good....James

jwal10's Idea about the trailer is really good!
Callieslamb is right about the raised beds! Don't fight the rocks go over them.

I would start with chickens, ducks and rabbits. Then progress to sheep and goats. Do tons of research before you even think about buying critters and have their cages/coops/yards already built before you bring them home.

As far as the out house. Hmm cold buns? Running through the snow at 3 am to pee? No thanks I'm going with the Humanure composting toilet.

http://humanurehandbook.com/

Good luck and have FUN!

Welcome! Read lots of the info here, you will learn so much! Chickens, rabbits, goats if you want dairy. I second the post that says have their cages/pens, etc. set up ahead of time before you even think of bringing any home!

I agree with the raised bed idea - rocks are tough to garden in.

Just siphon water out of one water tank in the back of the truck to a storage tank at the house. Then take the tank out of the truck till the next time you need it. Just make sure to strap the tank down well when you're driving, water has a lot of force behind it when it gets to sloshing around. Also fill the tank to the top when hauling, then there's less room for it to get momentum built up in the tank.

Do you have school age children?

geo

My baby is still in high school, she has this year and one more. She will start some college classes next year as well. I love the school she goes too, it is very small and they are all friendly. My disabled son also lives in the camper, he is 20, he helps us as much as he can.

I love this idea, so simple and gets the job done.

I have been watching a show called Alaska the last frontier on netflix, and they had a great idea. Keep the toilet seat hanging on the wall behind the wood stove. I like the thought of a composting toilet too though, better than going outside. :thumb:

rainwater containment and also a well if you can get one dug would be helpful..away from any septic or outhouse accomdations.

Miniature breeds don't have much meat or wool. If you haven't had animals before, don't start with sheep. Start with chickens or rabbits - then move on if you still want to. Animals are a learning curve. Do your research and learn the basics before you jump in.

Agree with the folks who suggest starting with chickens/rabbits. Easy to raise, not devastating when you lose one or two.

Where in Arkansas are you? Maybe one of us who are in your area can set you up with a jar of rabbit meat, make sure you like it before you get in too deep. ;)

Sheep really aren't horrendously hard to raise, but it depends on what you want them for. I raise Katahdin hair sheep. They're hardy animals, browse as well as graze, they don't need to be shorn, and they have a very meaty carcass.

Congrats on getting your own place! My first advice would be use all 4 acres to raise your food and find another place to do your hunting. :) You won't find much wildlife on 2 acres but you can grow or feed a lot.
We use a composting toilet here and they are easy to build and will help improve your soil if you manage your compost pile correctly. We built this one and it was easy: http://www.compostjunkie.com/compost...let-plans.html

I agree on poultry to start. How wild is your land and the surrounding area? If you are surrounded by unimproved area you will need a very secure coop for your chickens. There are a lot of critters out there that find chickens to be tasty snacks.
If most of your land is covered with brush a goat or 2 would be helpful in getting it cleared and will provide milk. Plus the manure will be good for improving your garden spot.

We are the Mulberry area, very small town close to Fort Smith. Is that close to you?

I have raised chickens before but not much else. So far all we have is a very spoiled dog. She does good with our neighbors animals so no worries about her killing anything. We do have lots of critters around that like the chicken snacks. I am thinking using chicken tractors to house chickens in. My brother in law across the street has his in a chicken coop and they don't help with the bug situation much. Tics are horrible here during warm weather. We have 6 neighbors over a 30 acre area. The average is approximately 5 acres each.

Oh wow, what a simple plan. I printed it all out for DH to build for us. We even have the buckets already.

when you get chickens, you might want to get bantams. They are "wiry" little things that like to roost high in trees. Takes a couple to make a good meal, but they are the best free range survivors in the chicken family. If you want them to control the ticks, you'll have to let them free range, at least in daylight hours. They can be trained to go in the coop at night, but don't be surprised if they choose to roost in trees. Guineas are also a good bird for controlling bugs, and snakes too.

You don't have to sacrifice size for safety. There are many "flighty" breeds that will produce well and still be aware of predators.

Brown Leghorns, Campines, Anconas all have coloring and temperaments that keep them out of harm's way.

Have you considered a rooster? Our boys are very good at making sure the ladies are safe, and bugle the alarm when a predator approaches.

I sympathize with your problem with ticks. We visited friends in Arkansas quite a few years ago, and I couldn't believe how many ticks I had to pick off the kids who were playing just near the porch.

Wear white socks pulled up over the bottom of your pant legs (also light colored fabric) and put a little repellant on your socks. If they get past the repellant you can spot them easier on a light colored fabric.

I made a tick swab for our yard. Fastened a big white table cloth on a pole and run it over the paths and wow it sure gives you an idea of where the ticks hang out!

Keeping the grass and brush trimmed where you're most active, and keep checking your dog so the ticks don't tank up, drop off and lay more eggs in your yard site--thousands of eggs per female tick!

Welcome to the forum. You're already getting a lot of great information/suggestions...as usual from these kind and generous people.

The only thing I might add is to "practice patience". I remember when I first got on our homestead, I wanted to jump into everything at once; and that is a big mistake. You've already taken the first step in getting information. Now just take a little step at a time in gathering your animals.

I agree with the idea of using the entire 4 acres for your homestead. If you plant your place with "browse" items/bushes deer love and your DH set himself up a hidy spot from which to shoot, he will be able to get some wild life for the table. (Also set up some large rat traps to catch squirrel. Just drill a hole in them, attach up onto trees away from the house and bait with peanut butter. Squirrel is great eating.)

If you do raised beds, set them up in such a way as to have many options (trellesing AND/OR root crops, even fencing) because you will be wanting to move your crops around periodically. Also start throwing out some flowers that will attract "good bugs".

Get any fruiting trees/bushes in as quickly as possible as they take time to mature enough to fruit; and throw a fence around them to protect them from wild life while they grow. (Once they are mature, that fencing can be moved if you want. We moved ours but wrapped it around the trunks of those same trees.)

Good luck with your place and do keep us informed. It is wonderful to see how others homestead and always educational for everyone.