Leigh

It’s Time To Plan A Fall Garden

June 26, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

I know, I know. It’s not even the end of June and I’m talking about planting your fall garden. But I’m trying to get you motivated about veggies! There are still a lot of sun hours to turn into food. Plus, when you are trying to maximize your garden space as well as growing season, getting your fall garden in the ground is incredibly important. Because how cool would it be to dig up a fresh carrot or picking a cabbage for dinner when it’s cold outside? So, let’s plan a fall garden.

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Why Plant A Fall Garden

Because You Can

The first reason you should plant a fall garden is simply because you can. Yes, you’re allowed to take all those nom noms that don’t grow well in the middle of summer, and plant them in the fall. Carrots, peas, cabbage, onions, etc all do much better when planted in the cooler weather.

If you don’t know when, how or what to plant in the fall and summer, you aren’t going to be successful. And let’s be real, if you’re not successful, what are the chances that you are going to want to plant again?

In Season Food

Also, I believe, we have been conditioned as consumers to believe that these fruits and veggies grow year round…. when they don’t. A trip to the grocery store will yield you a cabbage, which is a frost hardy brassica…. in the middle of July? A cabbage would never make it past April where I’m at. But there it is in the grocery store. Or peppers in December! PS, did you know that lettuce is a fall crop? It’s not for summer salads…. who knew?!

Soil Health And Weed Control

The third reason you should plant a fall garden is because soil doesn’t like to be empty. At the very least, if you decide not to plant a fall garden, grow a cover crop. Growing clover to drop nitrogen back into the soil or comfrey to bring nutrients up from WAY below the top soil, is a great way to help soil stay, or get healthy.

You can also plant wheat, rye or oats and they are a great way to suppress weeds without having to spray. When it’s done growing, you can give it to your animals or toss it in the compost bin. Speaking of animals….

Livestock Fodder

If there is just absolutely no frost tolerant/hardy veggies that you want to grow, grow it for your animals! Chickens and pigs will eat anything you grow in your garden. Growing some goat specific items like beans, radish, and other greens will stretch that feed bill a little more.

We grow mangle beets, tromboncino squash and BOSS sunflowers specifically for our animals. But we also grow a ton of brassicas and other root crops for them. I will go hog wild planting various cool weather crops, simply because I love to plant and grow things. But I also understand that a lot of the foods I am growing will go to the animals.

Because It’s Cooler!

This probably should be reason number one. Seriously, nothing sucks the energy out of you quite like working in the garden when it is 100*+ outside and it’s 99% humidity. In Georgia, we only work in the gardens first thing in the morning or evening. Anytime after 10am or before 6pm and it is just too hot to do anything. And come August, even the most hardcore gardeners are struggling to find the energy to get in the garden.

For reference, most gardeners in my area have to use shade cloth for their peppers.

But in the fall, you don’t have to do that… as much. In Georgia, it’s not uncommon to wear shorts and a t shirt in November. But it’s not the dog days of summer where it’s absolutely miserable. Plus, a fall garden works better for most southern growers because it’s a much slower cool down. In spring, we can go from 70-80* days to 40* nights, or 70-80* one day and 35* the next.

When To Plant

Understanding Your Frost Dates

First, you need to determine your first frost date. Head to Google and type in “first frost date for (zip code).” For us, our first frost is 10/31. Now, because of our microclimate, our first frost is probably closer to 11/15. When I plant or start my summer garden, I do it with succession sowing in mind. I want to make sure that the last of my summer garden doesn’t freeze. Or if it does freeze, I’ve gotten the majority of what I need out of it already. It’s the same thing with my fall garden. I will start the first round of seedlings around the mid-end July. Then I keep starting seedlings until September or October depending on the plant. I’ll get to that part further down in the post.

Write It Down

After figuring out your first frost, you should write it down in your calendar and then start counting back. I do this by typing into Google something like, “How many days from 6/25/2023 to 10/31/2023.” This will spit out however many days it is. I tend to write these numbers down in my calendar so that I can make sure that I can see when to plant what.

Having these dates written down, really helps to make sure that I don’t forget anything. Working full time and part time, plus all the other homestead stuff, I am pretty busy. Making sure that I am sticking to my plans and goals is incredibly important.

Check Your Seeds

This is where your seed inventory is really going to come in handy. If you don’t have one, you can find mine by clicking the link above. It’s a list of your seeds and whether they are frost hardy, tolerant or tender. It should have dates on when to plant, days to maturity, etc. All this information is also really important.

When your checking your seeds (or ordering), make sure that you are picking seeds that are frost hardy or tolerant within your zone. We want to make sure that you’ve got enough time to plant something before it either bolts or freezes. For example, if you only have 60 days before your first frost, we want to plant something like peas that will likely give you a harvest or two because it can take a light frost. We don’t want to plant something like summer squash that really can’t take a frost without protection.

What To Plant

Make A List And Check It Twice

Our plan for our fall garden is pretty massive. But please don’t think you have to grow this much food. Remember, a lot of this food is for our animals as well as experimenting with different varieties.

We are planting kohlrabi, radish, turnip, celery, garlic, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, peas, leeks, tulips, carrots, beans, sugar beets, broccoli, onions and rutabagas. And we are planting a LOT of it. When I was planning my fall garden, I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of seeds for this undertaking, but also the RIGHT seeds. For example, there are a couple of varieties of peas and beans that don’t grow well in the fall and I wanted to make sure that I have the right ones.

Where do I get my seeds? Uh…. everywhere. This year, I bought from Botanical Interests, Southern Seeds, Tractor Supply, True Leaf Markets, Eden Brothers, and Territorial Seed Company.

Have A Plan For What You Plant

The second most important thing when it comes to planning a fall garden, is understanding what you are going to do with it when harvested. If you have 20 pole bean plants, you better be ready for eating a TON of green beans or have the ability to can it.

My list was built on the idea that we are going to feed about 50% to the animals throughout winter. The other 50% will be eaten fresh, fermented, dehydrated or canned. Some of it will be left in the garden overwinter with mulch to keep it in good shape. The idea was that even if some of the garden failed, we would still have plenty of food.

Like I said before, we are experimenting a lot this year with different varieties. What do we like, love, hate. I don’t want to waste precious garden space if something isn’t going to grow well here or we don’t like it.

Just remember: Salads are delicious. Root veggies make amazing soups. There’s always canning. And animals are always hungry.

Pro-Tip…from not a pro.

Start keeping track of who is running sales as you go start ordering seeds. To give you some examples:

Botanical Interests- runs a memorial day sale that drops most seeds to 40-50% off. I spent $200 on 106 packets of seeds
Greenstalk- Every mothers day runs a sale that makes each greenstalk just about half off with the free shipping. Plus, you can usually stack a coupon with it.

Southern Seeds- Usually runs a summer sale around June and it’s about 50% off. Sometimes more
Amazon Prime Day- Usually you can grab really great garden gear. This year one of their sales was a 4x8x1 steel garden bed for $35.

And seeds don’t go bad, so stock up!

I’ll be adding to this list as I find more sales for you!

Should You Plant A Fall Garden?

Absolutely, YES. If you can help it, don’t let your soil sit with nothing in it. There are a bunch of ways to help improve your soil, lessen your feed bill, and so many options when it comes planting a fall garden. I really hope you give it a chance. Even a small garden is better than no garden at all.

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Cow Sharing: Purchasing Beef In Bulk

April 27, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

I almost broke my brain trying to figure out the actual word for the process of purchasing a whole, half or quarter cow. It’s called cow sharing if you aren’t familiar with the term. But it’s not just beef that you can do this with! Pigs, chickens, goat, lamb, you name it, you can buy animals by the whole instead of by the cut. Today, I wanted to discuss what this process is and why you should do it.

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WHAT IS COW SHARING

Cow sharing is when you purchase a butchered animal from the farm. Every state and farm does this differently so bare with me here. In Georgia, you contact a farmer that has a cow for sale for processing. They take the cow to a processor, you pay the farmer for the cow and the processor for processing the meat. Depending on how the farmer has set up their farm, you can just pay the farmer for the whole deal.

You can purchase a whole, half or quarter cow. Some places will even go down to an eighth of a cow but it’s not common. The meat processor will call or send you a cut list. This list is what you want out of the cow, if you want all ground beef or all steak and ground beef, that’s what you would put on the cut list. When you pick up your cow, you are getting steaks, ground beef, roast, ribs, etc. whatever you put on your cut list.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF COW SHARING?

Oh, let me count the ways. Literally, there are so many great things about cow sharing but I’m going to limit my excitement to my top three reasons to cow share.

SUPPORTING OUR LOCAL FARMERS

We hear all the time to support local businesses. But when it comes to our farmers? The vast majority don’t pay attention. We have been trained to go to the grocery store for our food. Meat comes from the meat case at the store. Fruits and veggies from the produce section. Dairy? It doesn’t come from the farm, it comes from the coolers at the back of the store.

To quote Joel Salatin, “The first supermarket supposedly appeared on the American landscape in 1946. That is not very long ago. Until then, where was all the food? Dear folks, the food was in homes, gardens, local fields, and forests.”

Our farmers, no matter how big their operation, are the backbone of this country. If you aren’t 100% self sustaining; without a farmer, you don’t eat. Period.

When you purchase meat, produce, or dairy from a local farmer, you are supporting your local community in a direct way. Because that farmer is going to take those dollars, and put it back into the local feed store for feed or seeds. They will then go to another farmer for hay, chickens, etc. Or they support the local dance studio when they send their kid to lessons. Those dollars stay pretty local.

VOTING WITH OUR DOLLARS

You can have whatever political preference you want. That is not what I mean with this section. When you buy food from the local farmers or farmers market, you are taking money away from the big corporations. Those corporations that have huge tax breaks and profits. You are telling that corporation, government and anyone that will listen, that you want THIS type of product.

Because you wanted grass fed, humanely raise beef with no antibiotics or vaccinations, you went to a local farmer.

Because you wanted non sprayed, truly organic produce, you went to the local farmer.

Because you wanted free ranged eggs, with zero soy or corn fed to them, you went to the local farmer.

You vote with every single dollar you spend.

COW SHARING SAVES A TON OF MONEY

Speaking of dollars, when you cow share, you can save hundreds of dollars. To give you an example, the farm we buy our beef from charges $4.50/# hanging weight. My cut weight price was about $6.95, though this varies greatly by how many pounds of meat I take home and the total I pay. I’ll explain what hanging weight and cut weight is further below. What this means is my ground beef is $6.95/# and my bone in ribeye is $6.95/#.

My local grocery store (Kroger) has regular beef at $5.99/# and grass fed (which is what mine is) at $8.49/#. They have bone in rib eye for $14.49/#. Again, my price is $6.95/# all of it.

Over a year, that saves me hundreds of dollars. My family of 4 will consume approximately 800# of meat a year. When we have people over, that amount goes up even more. Between the beef we purchase and the pigs and chickens we raise, we save a ton of money.

DOWNSIDES OF COW SHARING

While there are a ton of good things about cow sharing, there are a few downsides. And man, they are BIG ones.

STORAGE

Depending on your beef, pork, chicken, etc. usage, storage can be a huge issue. We have 2 18.5cu ft chest freezers and 1 15.7cu ft upright freezer. Plus, the freezers attached to our refrigerators. Yes, we have 2. If you don’t have space for a freezer, cow sharing may not be an option.

But if you really want to buy whole or half cows, then you will find the room. I’ve lived with freezers in my living room, kitchen, and dining rooms. Is it great? No. I hated it. But it saved me a ton of money, so fine.

COST

The upfront cost of cow sharing is steep. And if you are not disciplined enough not to save a little bit every month, that yearly expense can be overwhelming. To give you some perspective, our first half cow cost us $1800ish. Our last whole cow, was just over $3,600. Not to mention the costs of the freezers.

When we purchase processed pigs, we are looking at another $400-600. Since we raise our own chickens, the cost is spread out a little more but it’s still expensive.

HOW WE STARTED COW SHARING

We had been looking into purchasing a half cow prior to the pandemic, but just never did it. It was easier to head to the grocery store every week or so and by meat. During the pandemic, it was a struggle to find meat and be able to purchase our normal amounts every coupe of weeks. Our local store had limits on two packages of the same type of beef, chicken or pork. For example, you could only buy two packages of chicken breast or ground beef. But you could purchase two packages of ground beef and two steaks and two chicken breast and two chicken wings.

While I understand why this happened, it was a struggle to get enough meat for our family. So I reached out to a couple local farms and purchased half a cow. The meat was absolutely delicious. It was even better than store bought.

THE SAVINGS

When we purchased our last cow, I was talking to some of the college students I teach about dropping $400 at the grocery store before coming into teach. I told them, “I can’t imagine having to buy meat on top of spending that much money.” I realized that, as a whole, people rely solely on the grocery store for their food. All of it.

They told me that they spend about $100-200 a week in meat, depending on the cuts, availability, and sales. Do what now? I didn’t realize that I was that far removed from “real” Americans. Those that don’t have access to gardens to raise produce, pastures to raise dairy, and local farmers for meat. It makes me so angry. But that’s another post for another time.

HUMANE

There are a million videos about CAFO’s, what they are, how they operate, etc. A CAFO is a Contained Animal Feed Operation and it’s just about the saddest thing I have ever seen. These animals are crammed into these muddy, feces and parasite infested lots. They are fed a steady diet of GMO grains. They get sick and it spreads through each lot like wildfire. But they are still butchered, despite being sick.

Pigs are crammed in concrete cells until it’s time for them to be butchered. Piglets have their tails (and sometimes ears) removed to avoid cannibalism, which happens anyways.

Chickens houses have hundreds, if not thousands of chickens in one house. When they are butchered, they are snatched up and shoved into tiny crates and taken to slaughter houses. If the chicken arrives dead, they are still processed.

When you buy from local farmers, you can go to the farm and see the animals. They are out on pasture with plenty of room to move and eat. All the sunshine, shade, water and grass they could want. Chickens have all the bugs and grass they could ever want. Pigs can root around and eat all the scraps.

As a consumer, if we are going to eat meat, we should at the very least know where it comes from and how it was treated. But most of us turn a blind eye to it. And I think that discussion needs to change too.

SHOULD YOU COW SHARE

I think that everyone should cow share. But I also completely understand that it’s not possible for everyone. If you are struggling to figure out if you should purchase a cow, I wanted to give some options.

The smallest option would be to find a butcher that fits your ideals. If you are looking for grass fed, hormone free, etc, find a butcher that caters to that.

Another option would be to split a cow share. If you don’t have the storage or wallet for a whole or half cow, split it with friends or family. That way you can still get the meat you want without spending or storing hundreds of pounds of beef.

UNDERSTANDING TERMS

Hoof weight is the weight of the animal before processing.

Hanging weight is the weight of the animal after head, hooves, organs, etc has been removed.

Cut weight is the weight of the meat that you get once it’s packaged.

Understanding these terms are important when you are looking at the cow sharing process. If your farmer is charging by the hanging weight (which is most common), you will be paying for the meat and bones of the animal.

Your butcher will charge you by cut weight. But regardless, buying local is always going to be the best option, no matter if you are buying from a farmer or butcher.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

You have to make the right decisions for you and your family. That’s all any of us can do. If you’re curious about cow sharing, or any other animal, a quick Google search can point you in the right direction for where to purchase a cow, pig, sheep, goat, or chicken.

Dehydrating Foods: My New Hobby

April 24, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

This series is going to go over the ins and outs of dehydrating foods. We are going to look at the last 9 months of work, from dehydrating and reconstituting to mishaps and successes. As always on this blog, you will get the real story about dehydrating foods, not the glamorous jars and packages of foods. You’ll see our mistakes and failures but also the successes! Welcome to the first installment of my new favorite hobby: Dehydrating Foods.

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Dehydrating Foods Journey

I always shied away from dehydrating foods, though I’m not really sure why. It’s a pretty simple process, but I’ve always stuck with canning. I’ve owned an Excalibur dehydrator for over 10 years and used it a hand full of times, usually making small patches of yogurt. About six months ago, I ordered dehydrated peppers from Azure Standard. It was a game changer! No longer having to go out and buy peppers for taco night? Having an item on hand that doesn’t take up space in my freezer? Sign Me Up!

Last year, I had quarts of peppers coming in every day from the garden. Most of them rotted before we could use them. Then I realized that I could roast them, grind them and turn them into a seasoning powder. But I used my oven instead of my dehydrator…Why? Because I didn’t feel like getting my dehydrator out. Let’s not talk about a waste of electricity. But this year? I have so many plans for that dehydrator.

Dehydrating Foods Save Money On Pantry Staples

Onions are a staple in my pantry. I freaking love onions. Onion powder, chopped onions, diced onions, you name it. There’s usually onion in 75% of my dishes. Because I buy big bags of them, they tend to go bad before I can use all of them. If I buy smaller bags or single onions, it’s never enough. Plus, I don’t want or need an entire onion in some dishes. So what did I do? Freeze the other half of the onion, or fed it to the chickens. While it’s not necessarily wasted, I usually forget about the other half of the onion in the freezer and spend the money at the store for more.

Another pantry staple is celery. In the depths of winter, we eat a ton of soup. But celery doesn’t can or freeze well. Usually it turns to mush in either of those two preservation methods. And buying an entire bunch of celery isn’t economic when you need a cup of chopped celery.

Dehydrating Foods Reduces Waste

One of the things I hate the most in the entire world is wasting food. It drives me insane to dump food in the trash because it rotted, gets freezer burn, or we were just too lazy to do something with it. I go back to onions and celery. We don’t eat either of those raw. One for obvious reasons. But there is still a far amount of food waste when you lose food in the freezer. Dehydrating these foods helps make sure that waste is minimized.

How many times have you bought limes only to have them rot before you get a chance to use them? Or thought for sure you would use that entire batch of potatoes for mashed potatoes? Throwing them in the dehydrator is a great way to reduce food waste.

Dehydrating Foods Help Clear Out The Freezer

For the last two years, we have purchased a half or whole cow from a local farm. The first year, a half cow lasted us a little over 8 months. This year, we purchased a whole cow. Let me tell you, we struggled to find enough freezer space and end up buying another freezer. I talk more in depth about buying meat in bulk in this post.

But dehydrating food helps to clear out the freezers from that bulk purchase of frozen corn, or random bag of onions that you forgot about. I don’t know about your freezers, but in our house, they become a jumbled mess of food. We try to keep our freezers “separated” by animal, but the reality is that doesn’t always work. Especially when veggies aren’t animals and most creamer is not actually dairy.

Should You Learn How To Dehydrate Food?

In short, yes. Dehydrators are relatively cheap, when compared to canning setups and the DIY options for building your own dehydrator are endless. I also think that having a well rounded approach to preserving your garden harvest is a must. Some things just aren’t going to freeze or can well like peas, celery, melons, zucchini, and summer squash.

Is Dehydrating Foods Sustainable?

Meh. Take this from someone who *gasp* reuses canning lids that are in good shape. Dehydrating foods really isn’t sustainable DEPENDING on how you do it. It usually requires electricity and sometimes requires a steady influx of mylar bags and oxygen absorbers. But canning sometimes requires electricity (you can can on a wood burning stove if you can get it hot enough or a propane camp stove), and after the initial purchase of jars, doesn’t REQUIRE additional purchase unless there is damage or a lot of use.

I don’t know that there is a truly sustainable food preservation method, except maybe fermentation, that ALL food can go through. So I think the question should be what food method is the most sustainable, but whatever.

What Do You Need To Get Started?

Pretty simple list here:

Dehydrator- with trays I like my Excalibur but I would recommend one with a door that actually shuts.

Mylar Bags– I would recommend different sizes. Also grab a heat sealer while you’re at it. It’ll make your life easier

Oxygen Absorbers– This one is based on the size of the bags or jars you are using. So again, I would get a multi pack if you can.

Mason Jars– This is what I use. I’m not a fan of the mylar bags only because I’m set up for jars. I’ve got 8 storage units built in the basement that are the perfect height for jars. Plus I have a bunch of jars and I don’t want to spend more money.

Silicone Mats– These are the mats I use for things that are a little gooey or rollie (like peas). They are great!

Funnels– If you’re a canner, you have funnels. If not the link provided are the ones I have.

Dehydrating Foods Is Easy

This is literally the most set it and forget it way of preserving food. While not technically forget it, it allows you to not be chained to your stove, in a hot kitchen for hours. Over the years, I have spent hours and hours in my kitchen, every summer and fall, canning hundreds of jars of food. Please don’t misunderstand, I absolutely LOVE it. Especially in the winter when I have quarts and quarts of soup at the ready. Or on days when I come from a 24 hour shift and hit the ground running for another 12 hours on the farm, having beef stew on standby is amazing.

I will always be a canner. But now? Now, I’m a food preserver. I can, freeze, and dehydrate.

Reaching into my cabinet for a colorful jar of dehydrated mixed veggies, adding it to a soup, and serve? Yes, please.

Seeing more food in my basement, knowing that no matter if the entire world crumbles, or just my own, we have food.

Knowing that I am teaching my children the value of nurturing a garden, harvesting the bounty, and not wasting food? Invaluable.

Goat Milking System: An Honest Review

March 24, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

For the last couple of years, I have hand milked our goats. A machine seemed frivolous when our girls only give us about half gallon of milk at a time. It was about $175 that I felt wasn’t necessary to spend right then. But we have issues with consistency on our farm, which I will explain further down. This leads to goats not being milked out effectively or routinely. So I bought a goat milking system and here’s what I think so far.

Before we get too far into this, I have a great course on the basics of goat care. I call it Goat Crash Course: Goat 101. In this course, I explain things like types of shelter, types of feeds and hays, basic assessments and so much more! Check it out!

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Our Homestead Milkers

As of this writing, I have three girls in milk and by the end of the day I have about half to three quarters of a gallon of milk. Jade and Bailey are the stars this go around, while Bella is struggling to give me even a half cup. While that’s not a lot of milk, it is plenty for fresh drinking and bottling the twins below.

Human Error

There are a lot of reasons that we decided to go ahead and buy a machine. By the end of the milking, my hands are shot. I’ve got psoriatic arthritis in my right hand, specifically my ring and pinky fingers. While it doesn’t usually stop me from milking, it does hurt.

Jared and I work 24 hour shifts. I milk the morning of work and then Jared milks the evening and morning before he goes to work. Then I milk the evening I get home, the next morning and evening, then the next morning again. When I milk, I can usually pull about a quart each of both Bailey and Jade. Jared is lucky to get a pint combined.

The boys needing to milk. Sometimes we need the boys to milk. While this doesn’t happen a lot, it does happen. Since they don’t do it that often, the girls don’t like to sit for them. This creates a lot of stress for them because usually I have to go down there anyways and milk them to give them some relief.

Stress On The Girls

One of the biggest issues with the human error above, is that there is very little consistency. Well, there’s actually a lot of consistency, but it’s a long game. There is no daily consistency. Because of this, the girls just don’t let their milk down for Jared or the boys.

Here in just a few weeks, we are going to have another girl in the rotation for milking. This is going to add another round of milking that my hands may not tolerate or that Jared will have to try and milk.

We are looking to streamline the process in hopes that we are consistently getting a half gallon a day out of all the girls, regardless of who milks them.

The Goat Milking System Review

Now to the meat and potatoes. This is going to be an ongoing review because we are still very new to this machine and so are the girls.

First Impressions

Jade kicked once and Bailey didn’t care at all. The suction was a little difficult to get dialed in but did work pretty well. Both girls milked almost completely out within about 2 minutes. We did have to finish them off by hand, but there was maybe a quarter cup for each girl left in the teats.

Cleaning is a little bit of a hassle but not terrible. After talking to several goat owners, they suggested this method. Fill a bucket with warm, soapy water and used the machine to suck everything through. Then rinse the bucket, hoses and teat cups, and run warm water through everything. This worked pretty well and I would imagine that there is a need to pull everything apart once a week or milking, and do a thorough scrubbing. But we’ll see.

The milk was easy to get out and everything is clean now. For goats giving small amounts of milk, I don’t know that a goat milking system would be worth it. If your hands aren’t arthritic, you only have one goat, they aren’t producing gallons a day, etc. Then hand milking may be a better option. But when you’ve got several girls to get through, or they produce a lot of milk? I think the machine is definitely a good investment. Especially with a smaller price tag like $175 ish dollars.

There is a learning curve to this machine and the little stickers on the hoses will come off, but if you can work around those things? I think it’s worth it.

Updating This Post

I will come back in a week, month, year, etc and keep doing updates because while reviews are awesome, I want to know about the longevity of something. So keep checking back!

Goat Milk System: 3 Month Update

Jared doesn’t like the milk machine. He says it takes too much time to get it put together, on the goat, and then strained and cleaned. I don’t disagree. The most time consuming process is the cleaning of the machine. It’s a little more worth the effort in the actual milking process because the milk machine will empty a goat about 95% of the way in about 2 minutes. But the amount of clean up work at the end? It’s not really a time saver.

Another problem that we have run into is the cleaning of the machine. No matter how often I scrub it, hang it to dry or even let it suck out most of the water, moisture still remains in the lines. This leads to mildew or mold in the lines. Despite ALL efforts to eliminate it, it’s still a problem. I have found it to be easier to rinse it well after use and then clean it before using it again. This means that it’s getting cleaned out about 4x a day. That’s a lot of effort for a couple of minutes of saved time on the stand.

6 Month Update

Well, the machine is collecting dust in the basement. The only thing used from that machine is the bucket. I’m glad that we bought the machine because now there is no doubt in my mind that it is a waste of time an money FOR US.

Time saving: there is literally not one second of time saved. In fact, it takes more time, energy, and effort to use the milking machine than just going out there and hand milking. Sure, it can milk out a goat in about 2 minutes. But the amount of time it takes us to get it cleaned is absolutely ridiculous.

Arthritis pain: The pain has shifted. Instead of pain while milking, the pain comes because I have to spend 20+ minutes cleaning the machine.

Clean Milk: This one I have to give to the machine. We do not pasteurize our milk, we filter it through a strainer and coffee filter to get the nasties out. But I noticed that when we used the machine, there was no hair, debris, etc in the milk. There was also the added bonus of when the girls kicked, they don’t shove their hoof in the milk. So that’s one point in the machines favor.

I won’t be doing any more updates to this post simply because we don’t use the machine anymore. I may end up trying a different machine but as it sits now, it’s easier for us to hand milk.

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How To Build A Successful Homestead

March 18, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

This is a loaded question that is personal, individual, and can only be answered by you, your family and your land’s capability. At the end of the day, every single homestead is going to look different. You may not want a lot of animals or you may not want huge gardens. You may have to work off farm or on a fixed income. There are so many variables to building a successful homestead. But here are my thoughts on how to build your successful on the homestead.

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What Is A Successful Homestead?

Before you start the first project, buy the first piece of land, or anything else, you need to determine what will make your homestead successful to YOU. Is it being 90% self reliant? Raising 100% of your own meat? Surviving or Thriving? It’s so important to have a definition of your success so you can measure your progress. And it’s okay if that definition changes or evolves. But if you cannot figure out the benchmark for your successful homestead, you won’t be successful.

Defining A Successful Homestead

If you already know what your successful homestead looks like, congratulations! You are ahead of the game by a LOT. I didn’t really understand that I needed to define what my vision of success looked like until I had been homesteading for a couple of years and realized that I was spinning in circles, getting a lot of things done, but nothing that was moving us towards “success”.

So Jared and I sat down and really thought about how would we define the success of our homestead. The question we needed to answer was, “What is THE thing, that when it’s done, we can say we were a success.”

For our homestead, we define success as growing 75% of our food and our animals food, that means meat, dairy, and produce for us. It also means fodder like corn, oats, BOSS, squash/pumpkins and other veggies. Success also means building as much of our infrastructure ourselves whenever possible. Finally, I will deem the homestead and this blog a success when it not only supports itself financially but also allows us to retire early.

Measuring Against Your Definition Of A Successful Homestead

Every single goal, project, expectation, or purchase needs to be measured against your definition of success. That doesn’t mean that you can’t do that project, set that goal, or make the purchase. But the KNOWING is the most important thing.

To give you an example, I want a greenhouse so badly. I want to grow coffee, citrus, and other heat loving plants that my zone gets too cold for. Towards the bottom of the blog post, I have listed out our definition of success, but one of the big ones is growing 75% of our food. Measuring the want of a greenhouse against growing 75% of our own food, the greenhouse would be a good purchase and project. If I build a greenhouse, we could start our garden plants in the greenhouse which would greatly improve their chances of surviving Blu. It would limit the amount of citrus and coffee we purchase from the store. Win.

Another example would be buying a milk cow right now. This would definitely help us with grow/ own 75% of our own food because we would save a ton of money on dairy products and potentially meat. But if we do it now, before we have solid pastures set up, we would not be working towards success because of the amount of hay we would have to purchase. Lose. BUT it’s something that can be done later.

So before you start doing things to or for your homestead, make sure it’s getting you closer to success instead of further away.

Setting Expectations For Success

A long time ago, I heard someone say that the #1 relationship killer was unmet expectations. I thought it was a crock, because everyone knows it’s communication, right? But when he explained it further it makes total sense. Let’s say you expect your spouse to always do the dishes, but you never said “this is your chore” and they never agreed. They can’t meet your expectation. Or if you have told your spouse a million times that you can’t stand roses. But they get you roses all the time, you have the expectation that they will not buy you roses because you don’t like them. That expectation is not met. Overtime it causes immense frustration and anger that ultimately can kill a relationship.

It’s the same for homesteading. If your expectation is to have all of your infrastructure in place within one year, and it doesn’t happen, you’re going to be upset. If you keep failing to meet your expectations, you could hit burnout and give up.

Unrealistic Expectations

One of the things that every single homesteader is guilty of is setting unrealistic expectations. We think that we have to have everything done, RIGHT NOW! The reality is that unless you have the capital to buy a farm that is already where you want it, it’s going to take years of work and a ton of capital to get you where you want to be. And if you don’t have a ton of capital, it’ll take even longer.

It’s saying I’m going to buy a cow with absolutely ZERO grass to raise them on. Or I’m going to heat only with the trees harvested from my land and there isn’t a single tree on your property. Or my favorite, I’m going to grow 100% of my yearly food needs in an unproven garden with no experience.

These unrealistic expectations will not be met. Sure, you can get a cow, but you will be buying TONS of hay. You can’t heat with only wood from your farm if you have zero trees on your land. And trust me when I say, you won’t grow a year’s worth of food in an unproven garden if you have zero experience.

Realistic Expectations For A Successful Homestead

Setting your expectations for a successful homestead should be in line with your definition of success. For example, if you’re definition of success is for the homestead to feed you and your animals, maybe don’t get animals before the garden. Which ALL of us do, no matter how many times we say we won’t.

Your expectations should be worked into your goals. There is a huge difference between a goal and an expectation. A goal is something you are striving for, while an expectation is something you expect to happen. If your goal is to grow 75% of you and your animals feed, the expectation is that you are going to put in a garden.

Having a realistic expectation of what you are able to do, the capital available to do those things and a clear set of goals will set you up on the path to a successful homestead.

Your Land’s Capability

I feel like this is very important when it comes to homesteading, that you really look at what your land is capable of. I mentioned that if you have an expectation to heat with only wood harvested from your own land, but you have zero trees on your property, that is unrealistic. But I wanted to take it one step further because I don’t think new homesteaders truly understand what they are getting into.

If your land is steep hills, mountains, etc, it is not necessarily capable of supporting a cow. If your land is mostly trees, you are going to have to do some major work to get a garden in. I want everyone to homestead in SOME capacity where you are right now. But at the same time, you have to be realistic in what you can and can’t do base on what your land can do.

Neighbors may not want to listen to your goats scream all day. Local ordinances may not allow more than so many chickens. Before you start defining your successful homestead, you have to be aware of what land you are buying and what it can actually do for you.

Our Successful Homestead Plan

For Jared and I to feel like we have been successful in building our homestead, it has to have 3 key points:

The homestead grows 75% of the food for us and our animals.
We build, create, or source from our property as much as we possibly can.
Our homestead (and blog) would be considered a success if it can fully support itself and allows us to retire early.

Let’s break this down

75% Of All Food

This is a big expectation because it’s a lot of food. But I don’t expect that overnight or even in one year. We learned a lot in our first garden and we’ve learned even more since. But we have realized that we have to grow slowly so that we don’t end up packing too much work on ourselves. Since we both work fulltime, we have to be aware of how much we can actually do. This is where that homestead flexibility comes in.

We also have a ton of trees on our land. Which is great for heating the house, but sucks when it comes to sunlight and garden space. This year we installed a kitchen garden in this weird lawn space in between our driveways. It’s a lot of space and a great place to have veggie plants, flowers, herbs, and lettuces. We can even put in our potatoes, carrots, garlic and onions. But I forgot that in the summer, there are a ton of trees that block the sun. This isn’t a big deal because those trees need to come down anyways. But our garden may not thrive because of them.

Our gardens are a process and that’s okay. 75% of our food doesn’t need all be done right now.

Being Self Reliant

Jared and I are both city kids and we don’t have anyone teaching us how to do these things. Because of that, it’s really important to both of us that we learn how to do stuff for ourselves. I didn’t know how to make bread before I started this journey. Now, I can make sourdough!

Jared had never felled trees before coming to the homestead. Now? He’s really good at it. He didn’t know how to sharpen a chainsaw. Now, he does.

Leaving behind a legacy is really important to me. I’m not going to get my great grandmother or grandmothers cast iron pans. I didn’t get cooking skills from my mom, grandmother, great grandmother. Jared and I didn’t learn how to butcher animals or put in gardens from our family. And that’s okay because that’s not the life they lived. But because this is so important to us, we are also teaching our kids how to do these things. We are teaching them how to repair toilets, install light fixtures, build chicken tractors without plans, put in gardens, sharpen chainsaws, and so much more.

That’s a legacy I am proud to leave behind.

Financial Freedom

I started this blog and our homestead with one single end goal: Retire early. That’s it. We are putting in the work now, while we are young, so that we can have systems in place for retirement. When the homestead produces 75% of our food, that puts approximately $900/mo back in our pockets. When it produces 75% of our animals food? That’s $600/mo!

While this blog is not currently making a lot of money, the reality is that it is getting to the point of being self reliant. Thanks to you guys!

Walking into retirement with virtually zero bills or debt allows us to not worry so much about a crashing economy. Knowing that we can garden and sell the produce or sell goat kids? That brings more options to the table than praying my 401k and social security will still be there.

Building Your Successful Homestead

At the end of the day, your homestead is not going to look like anyone else’s. You’ve got your own hopes, dreams, capabilities, resources, and needs. But if you can define what a successful homestead looks like to you, and then start setting expectations and goals for it, you will get there so much faster.

Welcoming American Guinea Hogs To The Homestead

November 21, 2022 by Leigh Leave a Comment

About a month ago, we welcomed Bacon and Delilah to the homestead. We had talked about wanting to get pigs when we started the homestead, but I never really put a lot of thought into it. After a ton of research and a swift kick in the pants while at The Homesteaders of America Conference? We picked up two American Guinea Hogs.

Why We Chose The American Guinea Hog

When we started looking at adding pigs to the homestead, there were quite a few concerns that I had about pigs. I was told that they are mean, bite, root, escape and eat a ton of food. The trade off was that if you could keep them contained and fed for six months, you would have a pig at market weight. Well, I’ve got some problems with that.

Mean/ Biting

While I don’t normally mind animals that are…. difficult, I do have a problem when they are large animals that are potentially deadly. I’m not saying that pigs are deadly. But I am saying that aggressive animals have no place on our homestead…. except Blu….and Bella.

After doing a ton of research we were really leaning towards the Berkshires, Duroc and Kune Kune. These breeds have great personalities and are rarely aggressive. Plus they are heritage breeds which is really important to me.

Rooting

Another issue with pigs is the damage they can cause to the soil. Our soil is extremely compacted with red clay under it all. But the top? It’s all sand. We want SOME rooting to help break the soil barriers so that more organic material gets mixed up in the soil. But we don’t want them to root so much that the soil biome is ruined. Or worse, stay in one area so long that they compact it with wallowing. Also, I was wanting a pig that would graze more than root. But since I don’t have pasture or grass yet, I need them to root.

This is getting to be a tall order for pig breeds.

Escaping

When looking at various breeds and watching many videos, we learned that pigs are incredibly smart. They are also more than willing to use their brute strength to break down fences. The only one that wasn’t going to constantly try and break free was the Kune Kune. But the Kune takes a long time to reach market weight, like 14+ months. This is getting harder and harder to pick a breed.

Feed Bill

The faster you want your pig to reach market weight, the more they are going to eat. The problem is, I don’t want to buy any more feed than I have to. The Duroc will reach market weight in five months, but to do that, we would have to give it grower feed, which is expensive. I talked about the real cost of raising livestock here. I’ve already got a $600/mo feed bill. Let’s not add to that.

I really wanted a grazing pig that would eat table scraps and left overs but ultimately would eat grass if we didn’t have scraps to give them.

Enter The American Guinea Hogs

The American Guinea Hogs are amazing pigs and up until about 75 years ago, it was a staple animal on almost every single farm in the US. But with the rise of super markets and city living, they fell out of favor. In fact, up till recently, there were only about 100 on in the country.

American Guinea Hogs are grazing pigs that will get bigger than the Kune and do it faster. But AGHs are a small heritage breed of pig. That means that it’s not going to be one of the monsters that will yield hundreds of pounds of pork. But that’s okay. Because they are smaller, it makes raising and butchering a lot easier.

Bacon is extremely friendly, needing to have all the snuggles and scratches. If I come outside, he is at the gate grunting at me to come snuggle and scratch. Delilah is a little stand-offish but she is coming around. The good part about that is that they come when they are called. There have been a few rainy days here and the solar chargers have run out of juice. If they slip the fence, it’s not a big deal. I simply call them and they come running, no food needed.

Another great thing about the AGH is that I have bought two bags of feed in the six weeks they have been here. Between the table scraps and fermentation, they haven’t even eaten a whole bag yet!

American Guinea Hogs Care

So what do you need to care for American Guinea Hogs? Not much if you already have livestock. We have been soaking and fermenting everyone’s feed, so we needed a few 5 gallon buckets. We already had feed buckets to bring them feed so no added expense there. We also bought a couple of Premier 1 fences with a solar charger. I mentioned above that our other charger ran out of juice, I suggest highly getting the one linked above. It doesn’t run out of juice! We just bought ours and it’s been amazing.

You do need to make sure you have some sort of a shelter. Right now, they are in our old kidding shed and that is working out very well. If they out grow it, we will look for something else but for right now, it’s good. They can handle lower temperatures as long as they are dry and have deep bedding.

Our AGHs are doing great and I absolutely love them. Butchering day is going to be brutal but at least I know they had the best life possible.

Our Thoughts On The Homesteaders Of America 2022 Conference

October 20, 2022 by Leigh Leave a Comment

When we go on trips, we try to have a purpose behind the trip. When we went to Yellowstone, we wanted to have fun and see all the mountains and animals. But we also wanted to make it educational for all of us, get some photography to sell, and enjoy time with family. When we went to Virginia for the Homesteaders of America Conference, our purpose was purely educational and they knocked it out of the park.

Homesteaders of America Conference: Day 1

Prior to leaving for the conference, we made sure to look at the schedule and see which classes/ lectures we wanted to take. We put those into our Google calendar so that we weren’t having to scramble to figure out where we wanted to be.

Planting Fodder For Livestock

The first class we took was Shawn and Beth Dougherty about planting fodder crops for livestock. Let me tell you, this couple is extremely engaging. If you haven’t heard of them, check out their website at the link above. Their lecture, and their entire philosophy, is to reduce input onto the farm, increase soil fertility and become more self sustaining. They talked in depth about planting crops that preserve well and that animals can eat.

This was fascinating. While I knew that we could plant food for animals, I hadn’t really thought much about it. In my head, I planted my garden for my family and the animals got any excess. I figured, animal food came in the form of grain from the feed store. Again, I knew that we could grow their food, but didn’t really think much beyond that. But with a $600/mo feed bill, I’m starting to see the draw to growing their food.

We walked away with more information on rotational grazing, increasing soil fertility and how to use livestock for more than just enjoyment.

Homestead Security Class

The second class was for homestead security, and to be honest, I tuned out most of it. This was a class for Jared. While I 100% believe in homestead security, it’s just not something I’m interested in. I didn’t take a single note. Not to mention that within about 10 minutes, I was bored out of my mind. I actually left the class and went to walk around to the different vendors. Jared really enjoyed the class, but I don’t know that he took any notes. Mainly because the class covered things that he/we were already doing.

Farm Set Up and Checklist

This was put on by Daniel Salatin and one I enjoyed almost as much as the Dougherty’s. Daniel talked about how to set up farms and how livestock should be the last thing brought to the homestead…. oops. But the biggest take away that we needed to work on getting water capture and stop relying on hoses and buckets to transport water.

Another thing that was interesting was pasture rotation. Now, we knew pasture rotation is extremely important. But one of the things that we struggled with was the idea of permanent fencing for that rotation. We want our animals to free range, this by itself will reduce worm load. But there are a ton of other reasons to rotate pasture. And at the top of that list is soil conservation and fertility.

Homesteaders of America Conference: Day 2

We were extremely excited about day 2. There were a lot of good speakers lined up, but really it was the day we got to go home. I loved the conference and we will definitely go back, but I missed my goats…. and kids.

Sustainable Broiler Breeding

This class was enlightening because we had raised meat chickens already and weren’t a fan. We wanted to move away from buying broilers and move towards hatching our own. We didn’t necessarily want hybrids or other crosses like the Cornish X. The biggest reason was expense. If I have to buy chicks every year to feed my family, then what I am going to do when I can’t buy them?

Tom from McMurray Hatchery explained that while there are birds that are dual purpose, they are not really meat birds. For example, a Brahma is marketed as a meat bird, but it takes 1-2yrs for it to reach market weight. That’s a lot of feed for a big bird. Not to mention that once it hits market weight, the meat will probably be very tough.

Tom’s suggestion for a sustainable bird was a New Hampshire Red. They grow quickly but not so quick that they suffer from the major health problems that a Cornish x will. He also suggested Rocks and Sussex due to their fast growth and good market weights at young ages.

Sustainable Homestead

Shawn and Beth had another class that we were excited to sit in on. This one was similar to their fodder crop class but focused more on how to grow your SOIL and reduce input to the farm. Their idea is to stop bringing input onto the farm and let the farm grow and nurture itself.

The big thing with a lot of these well known farmers like the Salatin’s, Dougherty’s, Rhodes’, etc is that you want to create an environment where the soil is protected, encouraged and treated like the most important thing on the farm.

The idea is that you want to use animals to do the work. You put goats/cows in a pasture and let them eat the grass, browse and other tall material. This will allow the plant to kill off roots which will leave carbon in the soil. Then you bring in the chickens. The chickens will peck through the manure, eating bugs and larvae, spread the manure and lay their own. They will eat the low lying grasses as well. After the chickens you bring in the pigs to eat any left over grains, manures, and break/till the soil.

When it’s done, the pasture has a chance to soak up all that carbon, nitrogen, etc. and have a chance to take off. It will improve the soil. New plants that couldn’t grow in impacted soil. But when these creatures come in, they are able to rework the soil and increase the fertility of it. Soil, sunlight and water are the keys to good farming.

Pastured Livestock

Daniel Salatin’s class on pastured livestock echoed the same things from his previous class on setting up a homestead, as well as Shawn and Beth’s class on setting up a sustainable homestead. But it was much more in depth on the HOW. He talked about the 4 R’s of pasture management: Rotation, Rest/Recovery, Removal, and Recon.

Rotation is pretty obvious. Rotate the animal onto new forage daily, or weekly depending on the animal.

Rest/ Recovery- allow the plants, soil, etc. to recover. When plants in the area have reached mature potential you can allow animals back onto the pasture.

Removal of nutrients- we want the soil to pull nutrients back into the ground. If that doesn’t happen, then the manure should be removed. Having multiple animals move through the same pasture but eat different things is paramount to creating not only good soil but healthy animals.

Recon/ Observation- Did it work? Daniel said to take a picture of the same pasture during all 4 seasons and do it every year at those same times. Why? We want to see if we are improving the soil and plants in that area. If we are making it worse and it is not recovering, then we need to do something different.

Catching Free Bees

This was my favorite class of all because I want honey bees so badly. Unfortunately, I am the only one that will take care of them because everyone else is terrified of bees. So until I am ready to take over that chore 100%, I am putting them off. Plus the cost is huge. You’ve got boxes, frames, paint, bees themselves? I’m not totally ready yet.

But listening to Kaylee talk about catching a swarm and how to do it, got me thinking. If we can set up our farm so that everything they need is here? Maybe we can do it?

We learned about how to catch bees and how to work with them, which will decrease your cost for getting bees by 100%.

Our Thoughts On The Conference

I think that anyone could learn something from this conference. It’s a great place to go and learn, to ask questions. Every single speaker that lectured also answered questions and were so passionate about it. We were able to talk with Shawn and Beth about free ranging our goats. They not only answered our questions but gave advise on how to do it effectively within our own “ecosystem” of animals and plants on the homestead.

We walked away with new products to try and books to read.

But most importantly, we walked away realizing that we are not alone. There are thousands of people out there just like us. Just trying to live in harmony with nature, to get back to the land. Raise our children and animals in a way that Mother Nature would approve. To get dirty, be wild, and have fun. These people are a wealth of knowledge and they are willing teachers.

If you have the opportunity to go to next year’s conference, I highly recommend going. Even if you don’t have a homestead yet. Even if you are just dreaming. It is absolutely worth it.

If you can’t get to the conference, here are some books that I highly recommend based off what I learned while I was there.

The Homestead Holiday Gift Guide

October 2, 2022 by Leigh Leave a Comment

The holidays are coming and with that comes the desire to get those that matter to us gifts that are meaningful and useful. If you are living on a homestead, or have relatives that do, this list is packed full of great ideas to help you get the most bang for your buck. While also get something that they will love. Some of the things on this list are things that are on our own holiday wish list. Others are things that we have already bought and absolutely love. This homestead holiday gift guide is sure to have something for your homesteader.

If you are a homesteader, and your family doesn’t know what to get you for the holidays? Share this with them. Or, if you are going to a holiday party and need a hostess gift? Check out the $0-$50 section below. It’s got a ton of great ideas.

Homestead Holiday Gift Guide

I have broken this guide up into price points because that’s important. No one wants to find the perfect gift and realize it’s outside of their price range. Also this entire post is filled with affiliate links. Buying from these links doesn’t charge you any extra but it does allow us to make some extra money for the farm. You can read more about our affiliate disclosure by clicking the link.

But First Some Housekeeping

The holiday season is a time for giving. As the giver, you are giving someone a gift that you thought they would like or that made you think of them. And friends? That is amazing. As the recipient, it is an awesome feeling when someone hands you a gift and says, “This made me think of you.” But also as a recipient, I don’t want you to waste your money on me. I would rather you donate that money to a good cause like animal rescue, save the bees, or really anything where the money actually goes to the cause.

Sometimes though, the gift giver simply wants to give you a gift. And if you are getting a gift for a homesteader, you may be a little lost on what to get them. You know they don’t want anything, but you are bound and determined to get them something. Most homesteaders would love to receive a gift that works on the farm. So let’s talk about homestead holiday gifts.

$0-$100 Gifts

First and foremost, GIFT CARDS. I can not stress this enough. I know, it seems like such an impersonal gift. But it is seriously the BEST gift I could receive and I know a lot of other people feel the same. I hate wasting money and when people buy things that I can’t use, it bothers me. Not because I’m spoiled, although that is true too. It’s because that person spent their hard earned money on things that won’t get used, can’t be returned, etc. So seriously consider gift cards to places like Home Depot, Tractor Supply and Amazon.

Digital Prints, Digital Art Work, or Printables– I have several different digital photography prints in my Etsy store and they are a huge hit. Unlike regular artwork, these are digital and can be printed at any size you want. These make fantastic hostess gifts, too. You will usually find prints for less than $10 and it doesn’t cost more than a few more dollars to have them printed at Walmart, Target, Sams, etc.

Ask About Their Amazon Wish List– Almost anyone that regularly shops on Amazon has at least one wish list. I have 10. But ask them for a link to their wish list so you can be sure to get something that they will love.

Donations– Every year there is that one person that you have absolutely no idea what to get them. I’ve got a family full of them. Instead of getting them a present that is going to hang out in the garage for the next 5 years, you know who you are, make a donation to their favorite charity. Get them a card, explain what you did, and put the receipt in the card.

Books– If your homesteader is a bookworm then I’ve got the list for you!

Homesteading

Cookbooks

Animals

Gear- Whether it’s stuff for butchering, milking, or building having extra gear is amazing. Gift cards would be amazing for this stuff as well because you may not know the difference between hoof trimmers to get, or which power tools they need batteries for. But I will tell you this, getting me gear so I can do my chores better? Score.

Sharp Things

Tools

Miscellaneous

Cast Iron, the good kind from antique stores.
Boots are always a plus
Coveralls! Seriously.

Seeds!!!!!!!! This would probably be better as a gift card, but I don’t know many homesteaders that will turn down packets of seeds. Tomatoes are usually pretty safe. Cucumbers are too if they have livestock. But check and see what they grow, and then check out Territorial Seed Company or Eden Brothers.

Plants- Territorial Seed has some great plants including coffee plants! Etsy is also another great place to get edible plants so consider berry bushes, grape vines, etc.

$100-$250 Gifts

You had better be pretty good to get something off this list. While I know I haven’t been super good, if my family is reading this? I would like this milker please!

Greenhouse– There are some greenhouses that will come in under $250 that are great for seed starts or house plants that are too big to come inside. If you know they are short on space, a greenhouse may be a great option.

Pressure Canners– I will never say no to an additional canner. I’ve been saving up for this canner, but just having another one is a time saver for me. The All American 931 can hold 19 quart jars and is a double stack. When I’m hip deep in canning season, this helps a lot. The Presto is a great canner and you can usually only get 7 quart jars in there.

Camp stove- Along the same lines as a pressure canner, having additional burners would be amazing. Not to mention not heating up the house. This camp stove has been on my list for a while and I’m hoping to get one before next canning season.

Bench Grinder– You have no idea how quickly sharp things get dull on the homestead. Having a good bench grinder is a great gift to give. Jared is able to sharpen all the knives, scissors, shovels, axes, and more with ours.

$250+ Gifts

If you’ve got a from scratch chef that has made you some amazing meals, check out this Kitchen Aid Mixer. Yes, it’s pricey but well worth the money spent, especially if that means you are going to get some awesome home cooking from it. This one is on my wish list as well

Got a homesteader that has goats? Or other hooved creatures? Hoof Boss is definitely a time and back saver. When we have to trim hooves, it takes hours. It’s hard on the back and trying to wrangle all the goats? Well, they’re lucky they’re cute.

Chainsaws– Now, this one will need a little bit of research, but an extra chainsaw is always great to have around. Not to mention the chains, sharpening equipment, etc.

At The End Of The Day

Your homesteader will love whatever gift you give them, we are grateful like that. But if you want to give them something that they will use, or need, check out some of the offerings on the homestead holiday gift guide. Or better yet, ask them what they want or need. I’m sure they would be ecstatic to receive something they need.

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The Laundry Room Remodel

August 18, 2022 by Leigh Leave a Comment

Hold on to your butts, this is a long posts.

Not everything on the homestead is about livestock, gardens and canning. Sometimes it’s about what is inside your home too. When we bought the house, we really didn’t care that the walls were wood paneled. Nor did we care that we would have to replace the floors. Those different upgrades that we were going to have to do, just was not a problem. We bought it for the land. Unfortunately, the house still does need to be updated and brought into this century, let alone this decade. So I decided to do a laundry room remodel and to make it more of a challenge for less than $700.

Why The Laundry Room?
Final Takeaways For A Laundry Room Remodel

Why The Laundry Room?

Well, simply put it’s the most hated room in our house, bar none. No one likes doing laundry. But since I hate it the least, it’s “my” chore. Which is fine because that means that the dishes go to someone else. Score.

But it was hard to find the urge to get in there and do the laundry, or even clean the space. It was drab and was just not nice to look at. The worst part was, no matter how many times I cleaned it, it always stunk.

I could have started anywhere in the house, but this seemed to be the most manageable. Plus, if we screwed something up, it was a small space. It had the least amount of the things we hated the most (paneling) and seemed like a quick remodel would be, well, quick. There was no way to know how wrong I was.

Before the laundry remodel could start, I had to at least think about that I wanted it to look like. The first thing I did, was figure out all the things we hated about the room.

The Things We Hated:

Paneling
Lack of storage
Open shelves
Chewed and clawed up door jam
Popcorn ceilings
Lighting
No place to fold or store laundry while finishing the other laundry.

Then I figured out what I wanted it to look like. There were two things that needed to happen in that room, the paneling gone and more storage. Anything past that was fair game. So I started working on designing what I wanted.

Our house is not very big and that is just fine with us. But the downside is that we have to get very creative with storage options. I have found that putting in cabinets has helped a ton. Almost every single remodel or design idea has tons of shelves, cabinets and other storage ideas.

Where To Start: Paneling

Before we jump into the rest of this post, let me tell you something about paneling and trying to cover it. This is not for the feint of heart. Nor is it for someone not willing to work. Like most construction projects, it’s dirty, dusty, and there is a ton of heavy lifting. Don’t let any of the videos or other posts lie to you and tell you, “I just covered the crack in the paneling and painted”. That’s not what they did, trust me.

Back to the laundry room.

Once we got the majority of everything out of the laundry room, I decided to start with the wood paneling. While others may love shiplap, I hate it. So I started looking into how to cover up the cracks in the paneling and found that caulk is a good choice. Let me tell you, it’s not.

After twelve bottles of caulking, we weren’t even half way done. It also didn’t fill the cracks well. Once it dried, there would be an indent in the middle of the crack. So that failed.

When talking to a couple of friends who do construction, they suggested using drywall putty or mud. That worked a lot better, and was a ton cheaper so we went with that. But the problem we were still having was that, once dried, the crack was still noticeable.

The indent that doesn’t want to be covered

After three to four coats with the drywall mud, the crack was barely noticeable and ready to sand.

Let me tell you this, before you start sanding, make sure that you have a respirator like this one and great airflow in the room you’ll be working in. I used sheets and blankets to block off the doorway so that we could keep the dust to a minimum and it definitely helped. But the clean up was enormous.

Next: Ceiling and Electrical

Next we started working on removing the popcorn ceiling. For this job, it may have been better just to leave it. But popcorn ceilings are a close second in my hatred book. To remove popcorn ceiling you need two things, a spray bottle with water and a drywall knife similar to this, and the size doesn’t matter. You can buy a popcorn scraper but we found that it gouged the ceiling more and was harder to work with. Because all the “droppings” fell into the bag, it’s definitely worth a shot.

Then you are going to soak the ceiling with water using some sort of sprayer, we used this one. Once it’s saturated, and yes you need to soak it, you can start working to scrape the ceiling. I will tell you it is extremely satisfying to do it. I don’t know why. Once you’re done, you can sand any rough spots.

Another option for the ceiling is to just sand it if you have an electric sander. After doing the scraper, I liked this method the most because it is a one and done. I also didn’t have to worry as much about gouging the ceiling when I sanded. Plus, I was already sanding the walls so two birds, one stone.

After the ceiling was done, dry and painted, it was time to tackle the nipple lights. I don’t know what they’re actually called but they look like nipples, sorry. It was also time to start pulling the black outlets and switches and replacing them with white ones.

Cue problem #93480382 of this remodel. The electrical was done to 1980s code, so it was pretty much a fire hazard. And since our house is all wood, it would have gone up like a matchbox. After cleaning out forty years of dust, bugs and debris out of the switch boxes, we were able to replace the switches. Only to find out, everything was backwards. Since Jared is amazing, he was able to get in there and help me get everything switched out. I love that man.

Once we got the new light fixture installed, we were ready to tackle the paint.

Painting Over Wood Paneling

Now, before we jump into painting, you need to know something about wood paneling. Much like painting previously painted wood, you need to sand your paneling. If you don’t, the paint won’t stick. We took our sander around the room and hit every single wall. Then we washed the walls with warm soapy water. We wanted to make sure that we weren’t going to have another problem, which of course we did.

I used Kilz Primer, because the previous owners had cats and I’m pretty sure the litter box was in the laundry room. So it stunk. After I hit the walls, ceiling, baseboards and door jams, you could still see the wood paneling AND the cracks.

We did four coats of primer and you could still see the orange through the paint. I was not happy. Mind you at this point, I still hadn’t picked a color for the walls. But after seeing that we would need a darker color to help hide the wood? Gray it is.

Storage

I’m not a decorator, but seeing everything start to come together is my favorite part. There were a lot of phone calls and text messages sent to my family and friends because I am absolutely clueless when it comes to this stuff. The two things I knew that I wanted was it to feel clean, even if it wasn’t, and to have a ton of storage.

Previously, when it was time to do laundry, we had a storage rack like this. It worked okay, but it was temporary because we lived in a rental. When we moved into this house, we couldn’t really use it. It blocked access to the attic and didn’t fit between the basement door and the dryer. So anytime we had to go into the attic, we had to unload this thing and move it out of the way.

So I started measuring. I figured that I could put cabinets and shelves over the washer and dryer. I decided that I wanted to use cabinets and industrial pipe rod to fold our clothes. Here come the kitchen cabinets. The unfinished cabinets are much cheaper and are usually in stock at the stores.

I also grabbed a couple of decking boards to use as the tops and used a propane torch to burn them. To attach the boards to the cabinets, I used 1in corner brackets. Then, I found my stash of cabinet pulls and finished it off.

When we were placing the wall cabinets, we decided to use a French cleat system and it worked pretty well except, you could see where the top cleats where too low and too wide. This resulted in having to get a word art sign that could hide it.

Then came the shelves. We bought 1x10x10 boards and these shelf brackets. I really love these brackets! I’m not a fan of the normal shelf brackets because they look cheap to me. While these brackets were more expensive, I think it looks more finished.

The final touch of this remodel, was adding different storage containers for laundry detergent, bleach, etc. I didn’t want to just leave them in their packaging because, well it’s not nice to look at. While that may not bother some, I do want my home to look a little more put together.

Today, my laundry room looks like this and I couldn’t be happier with it.

Final Takeaways For A Laundry Room Remodel

–Drywall Tape -Next time we will be using drywall tape to help cover the cracks in the paneling better.

-Lighting- bright white light bulbs will help keep the room looking bigger instead of the more orange-y/ yellow-y bulbs.

– Use drop cloths to protect your floors if you will not be replacing them

– Give yourself at least an inch when measuring for cabinets. We ended up having to cram that smaller cabinet between the washer and dryer. The good news is that now my washer can’t walk out when it’s unbalanced.

-You don’t have to buy every decoration when you hit the final stage. You can, but I liked being able to find things as I liked them instead of switching things out and wasting money.

I know this was a long post. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for sticking around. While this laundry room remodel took a couple of months and is still not quite done, it has been great. We have lived in rentals our entire marriage and it’s nice to be able to work together and make this home ours.

How To Make Kombucha

August 8, 2022 by Leigh Leave a Comment

I did a whole post about how to bring back your kombucha. But I realized, I never did a post about starting booch in the first place! There are a million articles, blog posts and more about making kombucha but I wanted to tell you how I do it and the products I use to make kombucha.

I almost exclusively use Cultures For Health for all of my culture needs and Farmhouse Teas for our second batch needs. We do collect a commission from links at absolutely no cost to you. This helps us keep our blog and homestead up and running. You can read more that part here. Back to CFH and FHT.

The reason is because they are pretty much a one stop shop when it comes to all thing fermented or cultured. That being said, this post is heavily linked with their products but also products that we use on our homestead. Feel free to click through the links to find what you need.

Shopping List:

Vessel– I use one very similar to this one but mine is a thrift store find. You can absolutely use something smaller but make sure it is glass.

SCOBY– I bought mine from CFH. I have enjoyed their other cultures and have been very happy with their SCOBY and other cultures.

First Ferment Tea- This is where it gets a little tricky. While I love CFH, I prefer the Three Sisters Black tea blend from FHT. I’ve tried other tea blends and they’re okay, but I really like this tea for my base blend.

Second Ferment Teas- For my second ferment, I really like the Strawberry Mojitio and the Mango from FHT. Those are specific to their kombucha teas. BUT they also have some great teas that work with a second ferment. The first is their iced tea blends. If you like iced tea then you can make it on its own, but I don’t. I prefer to do a second ferment with it instead. The other is using their herbal teas. They have so many different fruity flavors that really make your booch delicious.

Bottles- I really like old GT kombucha bottles, but it can get confusing when I end up having to buy some and can’t remember which is which. So I also get these swing top or Grolsch bottles. I use these swing tops for everything from booch, tea, lemonade or creamers.

Make it

Pulled from Bringing Back Your Booch from here

First, brew your new sweet tea. I like my tea a little stronger and sweeter so I use 6 teaspoons of half black/ half green tea. While I have a kettle going for water, I add a cold brew filter to a wide mouth, half gallon mason jar and add my tea to the filter. Once the water is boiling, I pour over the filter and let it sit for about 10 minutes or until I remember I have it steeping. I could set a timer, but I usually don’t remember I even have one.

***** Very important! Use dechlorinated water!!!!! If you are on city water or are unsure if you have chlorinated water, use bottled spring water or leave a gallon of water out on the counter for 24 hours. If you use chlorinated water you will kill all the good bacteria we are trying to grow!******

While the tea is steeping I add about a quart of cold water to my vessel. I also use ice to get the water nice and cold so that I can keep the process to a minimum time wise. I use a vessel very similar to this, but mine is a thrift store find. The biggest thing to remember is that any spigot that you use will get clogged with debris from the SCOBY so make sure you are cleaning it whenever you make a new batch of booch. Rinse REALLY well because we do want GOOD bacteria to grow, not the bad kind.

Once the tea is done steeping, I remove the filter and compost the tea. Then I stir in about 1 1/4 cup of plain sugar into the mason jar with the tea. I stir until the sugar is almost completely dissolved. Then I add the tea to the vessel and add about another 2.5-3 quarts of cold water. I usually just use the half gallon mason jar so I can get any tea or sugar that is left behind. Before adding your SCOBY and starter tea, make sure that none of it is more than about 70*. If it is, add more ice or cold water if necessary to hit that 70*. A little colder is fine, too hot and it will cook your SCOBY and probably kill it.

Once your sweet tea is cool and in the vessel, add your starter and then finally your SCOBY. It’s worth repeating though, you don’t want to add your starter or SCOBY to tea that is too warm because it will kill your SCOBY. Anything over 75* will start to cook the good bacteria and yeast that makes up your SCOBY.

This is all called your first brew. This takes the longest time but gives you just under a gallon of booch for pennies compared to the store.

I love kombucha. As a former soda addict, it gives me the fizziness and flavor from soda without having all those harsh chemicals.