How to make homesteading more efficient.
 

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.

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.

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%.

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.

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)

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!

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.

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.

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.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a5...tn=-1419445093


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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
http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/a.../PB130441.jpg?
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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Trial and error is your best bet, but you'll never achieve real efficiency. After all, the reason more people don't homestead is that mass production is more efficient. Less authentic and satisfying, but definitely more efficient.

I keep the dog's feeder in the garage and the dogs have a dog door to go in and out. So far the chickens have not figured out the dog door, but I'm afraid one of these days the goats are going to :)

The mulch I obtained from a variety of sources. Primarily it was from cleaning out the chicken coop and the shelter where the goats and sheep spend a good portion of their time in winter. To back up, we have a pasture that the goats and sheep graze but that simultaneously grows enough for us to hay and the hay sees us through the winter. At the beginning of winter I build "hay walls" which are livestock panels set 18" apart, and the square bales of hay are sandwiched between them. The hay walls are located under the horse shelter which only has a roof and a back wall thanks to a tornado that swept through several years ago. So the hay walls become the east and west walls of the shelter, providing the sheep and goats with a wind break AND a way to eat their hay without wasting too much. However some does get dropped to the floor of the shelter. I rake it out and use it as bedding in the chicken coop. After all, I am not asking the chickens to eat it, but only to poop on it :)

When I clean out the chicken coop, the soiled bedding (now hay mixed with sheep and goat urine and poop AND chicken poop) is spread on top of the garden area. I do this from about October through March. Additionally, I continue to rake out the pasture shelter and continue to add the hay with sheep poop/urine as mulch as well. Once I get down to the bottom layer, it is already partially broken down and what I am raking out already looks largely composted.

Another source of mulch was my tomato plants from last year. When I pulled up the plants I stacked them just outside the veggie garden to dry out. The goats found the pile and devoured the foliage (I worried due to it being part of the nightshade family but they showed no ill effects and the doe delivered healthy twins a few weeks later). I allowed the remaining stems to dry completely and then ran them through my leaf shredder. It mulched them beautifully and I then used those "chips" as additional mulch on the garden.

I don't till in the mulch at all. Rather, I allow it to sit on top and age. Snow and rain over the winter help to carry nutrients down to the soil layer below and earthworms and other soil organisms also help it to break down. By keeping it on top I help the garden to retain moisture and block light to weed seeds trying to germinate. When I need to plant, I just scrape the mulch back at the spot I'm going to plant and plant my seed or seedling into the cleared area. If it is a seedling, I then push the mulch back around its stem, piling it up to protect the seedling from wind. If it was a direct sow seed, I wait until it has germinated and sprouted to the 2-leaf stage and then again, pile the mulch back around it. My goal is to keep the garden area constantly covered in mulch in order to reduce the need to weed and water. The mulch breaks down quite fast. In March I had at least 4" over the entire garden. I was out checking on things this afternoon and became aware of how thin it is in several areas. Time to start adding more mulch!

This time of year my mulch will probably be hay from last year that didn't get eaten over the winter. Our hay will be cut again in July and we'll be able to give them fresh this winter so may as well use the old hay as mulch now.

I know not everyone keeps chickens or sheep and goats but these are the sources for my mulch since we live on the prairie and don't have a lot of trees. If you lived in a heavily wooded area, I imagine you could rake up leaves to use as mulch. The best thing would be to run them through a leaf shredder as otherwise leaves tend to cling together and get slimy. Once shredded though, they break down beautifully and turn into beautiful leaf "mold". You can also use lawn clippings (we don't have any due to using a mulching lawn mower), or failing all else, see if your city has a recycling facility that provides free wood chips to residents. Our town provides this service and we recently went and helped ourselves to two truckloads of wood chips. We are using them on the walkways around the garden but if we didn't have all the other mulch, they could also be spread on top.

I hope this helps.....

Thanks Moboiku, it does help to see how others go about doing these things.

I think that it is very important to do both a time and financial analysis of all the activities on the homestead. Self sufficiency is very important but sometimes a particular project will turn out to be too costly.

In our case it was eggs. When we lived "down south" it was profitable to keep a few chickens for personal needs but in the north it is not. We even made money and could have made more but we never intended to be farmers. Only large scale production pays its way in the north and there are a couple of such farms close by where we can buy the organic eggs we want for a very reasonable price. The cost of feed and 7 months of winter is the main reason a few hens does not pay but there is also the question of need. We don't eat baking (pies, cakes, cookies etc) anymore except on special occasions and have cut down all of our food consumption so we really do not use enough eggs to make the labour and cost worthwhile. We have also gone into a food co-op for such things as beef, pork, turkey, chicken, bison as there is only one person who eats meat at home now.

I think keeping a record, or just sitting down and working it out, of what everything costs in money and time would be worth doing. Then you can decide if it is worth it.

Another idea I have is with wood for heating, count the cost of travelling to the wood lot, cutting, chainsaw buying and maintenance, truck or trailer maintenance etc. It may be cheaper to rely on electricity or oil for all but the coldest months, or if you have a coal mine nearby what would it cost to get a load of coal delivered? Also if you have a good handy man and the house is on a slope, can you build some kind of chute from where the wood is stored to the area where the fire is so you don't have to carry wood in all the time?

A smaller kitchen for cooking meals and a larger separate area for canning and butchering. I find it hard to keep the kitchen bench clear of stuff for long, I always have to move things before I can start big jobs(letters, bills, that thing I have to give my mom back next time I go to see her, kid's toys, pens, empty containers, flowers, the broken widget I have to fix). The kitchen is really a living area not a work space, so having a separate room or area for this works better.

One thing I'm looking forward to building at my final home is permanent fencing. It seems that every year I move the chicken shelter and fencing. That's a complete rebuild every spring. At the new home I'll have 2 fenced in gardens with a chicken house in the middle so that I can alternate the chicken yards with a simple opening of one door and closing the other. Raising chickens on the garden almost completely eliminated weeding the following year plus it captured the nutrients that went through the chickens.

I agree about fencing!

We did ours the right way last year, and boy of boy is it ever relieving to see them holding strong coming out of this winter! We got to just move into other projects instead of redoingbold fence work.

Always strive to work smart rather than work hard and whenever possible schedule or postpone as many chore facets as feasibly possible to rainy day, indoor or dead of winter completion in less labor intensive aspect whenever possible.

I have two complete sets of my choice of hand tools (hoes, spades,trowels ,forks , tree saws and machetes and some spares) and keep one set in my house and one set and the spares in my garden shed.

The set in the house I dress and sharpen for use mostly while I am relaxing watching TV during stay inside weather to change out with my shed stock of tools as they dull. need cleaning or break and I use one of my spares if needed.

when harvesting the fruit I use for preserves and wine making, during the harvest season I harvest it and core or squeeze it however instead of immediately making the preserves or wine from the fresh fruit, I freeze the pul or juice and postpone my preserve making and wine working until the dead of winter.

When harvesting my garden I freeze 2/3 of my home garden yield and can only 1/3 of it as I use the frozen produce through the winter and my canned goods are primarily for use during extended power blackouts in case I have to take my deep freeze off of my emergency generator capacity and my frozen goods thaw and become worm feed to become compost.

Winter months are also when I harvest and bag most of my wormcast fertilizer amendment as I can relax watching TV in the worm room as I re-bed the worms in fresh bins.

I also do my gardening in worm rich raid beds using the SFG BISF no till technique to reduce labor required and don snake chaps while harvesting yield from the three volunteer plots where I toss rotted heirloom produce from the raised beds.

Some seasons the volunteer patches yield such a good crop and my freezer and canned goods shelves get so loaded I skip a season once in awhile and only put up some wine and maybe dehydrate some fruit slices.

+1 for freezing vs canning
Grazing animals provide the most calories per time invested
Not sure if it will work out or not, but I am planting gobs of perennials to he fully save future effort.
I have been pretty pleased with chop and drop weeding, much faster than pulling. Sometimes I just mow pathways very short or just mulch over the weeds.
No till gardening saves a lot of time and effort.