Leigh

Timing Your Vegetable Garden In Zone 8

March 22, 2025 by Leigh Leave a Comment

For gardeners in USDA Zone 8, the key to a successful and productive vegetable garden lies in timing. Knowing when to start seeds, when to transplant seedlings, and when to expect your first and last frost dates can mean the difference between a thriving garden and one that struggles. While gardening is often a learning process filled with trial and error, understanding your local climate, frost dates, and microclimate conditions can give you a huge advantage.

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Understanding Your Frost Dates

One of the most crucial pieces of information any gardener needs to know is their region’s first and last frost dates. In Zone 8, the last frost date typically falls around mid to late March, while the first frost usually arrives in early November. These dates are not set in stone, but they provide a useful guideline for when it’s safe to start planting outdoors.

Why does this matter? If you plant too early, a surprise late frost could damage or kill your tender seedlings. On the other hand, waiting too long to plant warm-season crops like tomatoes and peppers could mean they don’t have enough time to reach full maturity before the cooler fall temperatures arrive. By aligning your planting schedule with your frost dates, you maximize your growing season and improve your chances of a bountiful harvest.

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The Role of Local Microclimates

Even within Zone 8, microclimates can significantly impact your garden’s growing conditions. A microclimate is a small area that has slightly different temperature, humidity, and exposure conditions than the surrounding region. Factors like elevation, proximity to bodies of water, and even urban development can create microclimates that either extend or shorten your growing season.

For example, if your garden is in a low-lying area, cold air can settle there, making it more susceptible to frost. Conversely, a garden located against a south-facing brick wall may benefit from extra warmth and an extended growing season. By understanding how your specific microclimate behaves, you can make informed decisions about where to plant certain crops and how to protect them from unexpected weather shifts.

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Choosing the Best Location for Your Vegetable Garden

The location of your vegetable garden plays a significant role in your success as a gardener. Here are some factors to consider when selecting the ideal spot:

1. Sunlight Exposure

Most vegetables need at least 6–8 hours of direct sunlight per day. Warm-season crops like tomatoes, peppers, and squash thrive in full sun, while leafy greens and root vegetables can tolerate a bit more shade. Observe your yard throughout the day to find a location with the best sun exposure.

2. Soil Quality

Healthy soil is the foundation of a productive garden. A well-draining soil rich in organic matter is ideal for vegetable growth. Conduct a soil test to determine the pH and nutrient levels before planting. Amending your soil with compost, aged manure, or organic fertilizers can improve fertility and structure.

3. Drainage and Moisture Levels

Standing water or overly dry soil can both be problematic for vegetable plants. Choose a location with good drainage to prevent root rot, but ensure it retains enough moisture to keep plants hydrated, especially during the hotter months. Raised beds can be a great solution for improving drainage while allowing for better soil control.

4. Wind Protection

Strong winds can damage young plants and dry out the soil quickly. If your garden is in an open area, consider adding windbreaks such as fencing, hedges, or even strategically placed trellises to protect delicate crops.

5. Accessibility to Water

A garden that’s close to a water source is much easier to maintain. Drip irrigation or soaker hoses can be an efficient way to provide consistent moisture while reducing water waste.

If you can’t use or afford drip irrigation or soaker hoses, another really good option is setting up your sprinklers on a timer. While not ideal, if it’s the difference between watering your plants or not, get the timer.

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Timing Your Planting Schedule

Now that we’ve covered the importance of frost dates, microclimates, and garden location, let’s talk about when to plant your vegetables for the best results in Zone 8.

Cool-Season Crops (Fall, Winter, Early Spring)

Cool-season vegetables like broccoli, lettuce, carrots, and peas thrive in the milder temperatures of early spring and fall. These crops can tolerate light frosts, making them ideal for early planting.

Start Indoors: Late December – February
Direct Sow or Transplant: Late February – Early April
Fall Planting: Late August – October

Warm-Season Crops (Late Spring, Summer, Early Fall)

Heat-loving crops like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and squash need warm soil and consistent temperatures above 50°F to grow successfully.

Start Indoors: January – March
Transplant Outdoors: After last frost (Mid to Late March)
Direct Sow: April – June
Succession Planting: Continue planting heat-tolerant crops through July for extended harvests

Overwintering Crops

Some vegetables can be planted in late fall and left in the ground over winter for an early spring harvest. Garlic, onions, and some leafy greens like kale and spinach can handle the mild winters of Zone 8 with proper mulching.

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Adjusting for Weather Variability

While general guidelines help, weather can be unpredictable. Keeping a gardening journal and tracking your planting dates, weather patterns, and harvest times can provide invaluable insights for future seasons. Investing in season extenders like row covers, cold frames, or greenhouses can also help protect your plants from unexpected temperature drops.

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Conclusion

Timing is everything when it comes to a successful vegetable garden in Zone 8. Understanding your frost dates, local microclimate, and choosing the right garden location can make a world of difference. By aligning your planting schedule with the seasons and making small adjustments based on local conditions, you can enjoy a productive and rewarding gardening experience year after year. Whether you’re growing cool-season greens, summer tomatoes, or experimenting with overwintering crops, strategic planning will help you make the most of your garden space and climate.

Happy gardening!

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How To Prepare Your Vegetable Garden

March 18, 2025 by Leigh Leave a Comment

It’s March, y’all! In just a few short weeks, we will be planting our first plants and I am ridiculously excited. There is not much more thrilling, mood enhancing, joyous, and prideful moment then harvesting your first vegetable from your garden. When you plant a bunch of peppers, harvest them, dehydrate them, and use them in your dinner? It’s an indescribable feeling. But in order to get there, you have to do some work to prepare your vegetable garden.

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Before You Prepare Your Garden

They say that the first thing you should do on your homestead is start with a garden. They would be right, unfortunately, most of us start with animals. We get attached to our critters and then end up with a poorly producing garden, or no garden. But your garden has the potential for being the most money saving thing on the homestead! So there are a couple things I like to do every year before I prepare my garden.

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Check Last Years Journal/ Notes

Every year, I keep a garden journal. Mine is multi-year so that I can look back and see what we did, how it worked, etc. This really helps because there are a ton of finer details of a garden that sometimes get missed. Like how much you watered your peppers? Did you use pig, chicken, goat manure? What variety of melon did you hate? This information is important to make sure that you don’t make the same mistakes, but also so that you can make sure you are doing the “right” thing for your gardens.

Look At What You Preserved

If you are using a garden for fresh eating, then I would take notes on what you are eating, how much you ate, etc. If you preserve your garden, go to your pantry and figure out what all you have eaten, used, etc and determine how much you need for this years gardens. For example, I know that we average 2 quarts of spaghetti sauce a week. That means that I need to make sure that we have at least 100 quarts of spaghetti sauce by the time my tomatoes are done for the year. This will help you determine how many plants you need.

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Consider Your Animals Needs

If you have chickens, goats, pigs or other livestock, you should consider how much of their feed you could grow. This will look different for everyone based on the space they can dedicate to a garden and how many and the size of their animals, but this is something to consider.

We have the space to have a fairly large garden, that means that I can absolutely grow a fair amount of feed for my animals. I know that pigs and chickens can eat basically anything in my garden. The goats require a little more care to make sure that whatever they eat, won’t make them sick. But I know that all of my animals can eat corn, beets, tomatoes, peppers, etc. So I will plant extra for them.

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How To Prepare Your Vegetable Garden

On to what I know you are interested in.

Depending on your philosophies for gardening, you will want to go ahead and clear any debris, weeds, or other things you don’t want in your garden. Our garden is roughly 75ft by 100ft. That is just over triple the size of last years garden. We are going to be producing more of our animals feed this year which is why we are taking up more space.

Clearing The Garden

Because we are making the garden much, much bigger, we have to go in and clear a lot of debris from the previous owners, as well as a couple of dead trees that are in the way. We also have to pull a lot of briars and other browse that the goats didn’t get to last year. This actually works out well because we can actually replant the briars in an area that we are leaving for the goats. Win, win.

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Lay Out Fencing

Now, you don’t have to put up fencing around your garden. In fact, a lot of people don’t. But we free range a lot of our animals and the goats and pigs would absolutely DESTROY the garden if we didn’t protect it. Last year the ducks ate all of the garden and the goats used our baby fruit trees as scratching posts. So we learned to protect our food. Because we are expanding our garden, we removed the old fence and reused it when we put up the new one.

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Consider Additives

I consider anything that I add to my soil (including more soil) an additive. You should have a soil test done every year to make sure that you are only using additives that you need. Too much nitrogen can stunt your plants, even nitrogen loving plants like corn and tomatoes. You should also make sure that you aren’t adding hot manure straight to your soil.

All hot manure should be composted to make sure that it won’t burn your plants. Hot manure comes from pigs, chickens, horses, etc and should be aged or composted. Sheep, goat and rabbit manure are considered cold and could be put right on the plant with minimal adverse affects. However, I still allow my pig and chicken manure to compost in their bedding before adding it onto my plants. Just to be safe.

Other additives would be liquid fertilizers, pesticides, etc. This is where your philosophies will come into play. I do not spray or add anything to my plants. The reason is because I don’t feel like it’s necessary. I compost regularly for fertilizers, add mulch for weed protection and have chicken tractors in my gardens for fertilizer, weed control, and pest protection. I’ll be posting a whole post about our chicken tractors in the garden here soon.

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Sourcing Your Plants

No matter what plants you decide on, either starting your own seedlings or buying starts from the store, the simple fact that you are starting a garden is amazing! Don’t freak out about not having the “right” things. Starting a garden is the best part.

Starting Your Own Starts

This is hands down the most economical approach but it definitely requires patience and some start ups. I know that sometimes money is tight, but I highly recommend not skimping here because if you buy cheap, you will end up having to replace them every year. Ask me how I know. However, I finally got tired of trays breaking and having issues will too small pots and bought these from Bootstrap Farmer. I’ve had these pots and trays for YEARS and love them. I’ve left them outside to cook in the sun for an entire summer and they are still in great shape! These are the 1020 trays I use. These are the 2.5″ pots that I use.

The best part about starting your own seeds is that you have the ability to get a bunch of different varieties. I have 5 different tomato varieties and at least 8 different pepper varieties. I buy most of my seeds from True Leaf, Eden Brothers, Botanical Interests or Territorial Seed Company.

Buying Starts

Buying plant starts can be a great way to start your garden. Again, just starting a garden is fantastic, so don’t think you HAVE to start your own seedlings. A couple years ago, my ducks ate ALL of my starts. I found a local nursery that only charged me $2/ 4 pack tray. That’s a great price! Especially because big box stores charge $3-6 per plant.

The biggest downside to buying plant starts is the lack of variety. When you go to the store, you are probably never going to see luffa gourds. That’s sad because not only are they amazing sponges but luffa is great for goats!

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Prepare Your Beds

Whether you are planting in raised beds, in the ground, or in containers on your patio, you are moving in the right direction! Playing in the dirt is one of my favorite past times and it makes me unbelievably happy. There is nothing like it. I am very excited that you are getting ready to start on your gardens. Big or small doesn’t matter. Starting does.

Building Your Beds

If you are using a raised bed system, you should be building these in the late winter or early spring. For us, March is the last push to get any infrastructure for the garden done. This means building beds, sourcing soil, moving compost, etc. If you are building beds, you don’t want to run out of space half way through planting season and then get bogged down having to make multiple trips to the store for supplies.

Laying Out Your Garden

If you are planting in the ground, you should have a plan of what you want your rows to look like. Where are you putting the peppers, tomatoes, rosemary? Are you going to work on companion planting? All of these things are very important to figure out BEFORE you get too far into planting. So do yourself a favor and spend a few minutes planning your rows.

Irrigation

For some reason most people think about watering their gardens last. I don’t really know why since it is possibly THE most important thing. But I am equally as guilty of this. Last year, it was a last minute, oh crap moment that resulted in 4 trips to Lowes to get more irrigation hose.

So do yourself a favor and put your garden in close to your water source, and figure out how much hose or water you need first. This year, the cost of drip hoses was going to be ridiculous, so we are toying with the idea of a sprinkler system. We haven’t decided yet. Because again, we are waiting till last minute….oops.

Get To Planting

This is the best part of any garden. Personally, I absolutely LOVE my kitchen gardens and raised beds. I don’t know what it is but when I get to play in the raised beds, it brings me indescribable joy. The big garden? Not so much. I love it, but I’ll hang in the kitchen garden thank you.

Whether you are planting in rows, raised beds or containers, the big thing to remember is spacing is important! You don’t want to stack your tomatoes too close, but peppers should be a little closer. Zucchini needs room, but beans can be 4in apart. Just remember to keep your spacing in mind as you plant.

The most important part of preparing your vegetable gardens? Enjoy it!

If you like the content I put out, feel free to buy us a coffee! It helps keep this site running, marketing and the goats in grain!

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How To Raise Goat Bottle Babies

March 15, 2025 by Leigh Leave a Comment

If you are purchasing a bottle baby, have a momma who rejected a kid, or are planning to sell a bottle baby, there are some things you should know and be prepared for. Bottle babies are not for the faint of heart, there is a lot of involvement with them. You become their momma and in turn you end up with a creature that is so attached to you, it’s almost like your own kid. But to raise goat bottle babies, there are a few things you should know.

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First, let me preface this with: I am not a vet. I am simply a goat farmer that has done a ton of research and “experimented” on my herd. There has been a lot of trial and error…. and a lot of error. This information is from my vet and from my experience, as well as the experience of other goat farmers. I encourage you to speak with a vet or find a goat mentor local to you.

How To Raise Goat Bottle Babies

There are a lot of reasons that you may find yourself with a bottle baby. Some are fine, others are sad or scary. Regardless, here are somethings you should be aware of. If you bought bottle babies from a reputable breeder, there should be nothing “wrong” with them. This should be the easiest bottle baby you have. But unfortunately, there are a fair amount of situations where you may end up with a bottle baby that are not ideal.

Momma Rejected Or Died

While it’s a very sad situation, when momma doesn’t want to or can’t take care of her babies, you may have to pull the baby from her. Or on the other side of the spectrum momma has died and you now have babies to raise.

It’s Just Too Cold Outside

Sometimes, you have to make the decision to bottle a baby based on weather. Which is weird, I know. This late winter/ early spring has been extremely rainy. We are having weeks of rain with a day or two of sun. That means that our barn and pastures are a muddy mess. Not a great environment to raise babies in.

We are also in this weird weather pattern of cool/cold nights and 75* days. Because of that, we had to bring Bailey inside after she kidded triplets, because it was just so dang cold and wet. We seriously considered raising one of her kids inside just to give her some relief and to ensure that she could care for the other two better.

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Momma Had Too Many

Bailey gave us triplets this last season. If this had happened to almost any other goat, we probably would have been okay. But Bailey has tiny udders and doesn’t produce a ton of milk. We had to supplement with milk we had put up. If your doe birthed quads, quints, or sextuplets? Be ready to bottle raise some of them.

A First Time Freshener

Another reason you may have to raise goat bottle babies is because momma is a first time freshener and doesn’t have a clue what she is doing. Jade is struggling a little bit with her kids because she is really unsure how to handle them. She’s away from her sister for the first time and these things are smashing their face into her udders for milk. We had to catch/pull and then clean the babies because she was totally unprepared. This is all totally fine and normal, but you do need to be prepared.

We ended up having to pull Jade’s kids because she just wouldn’t take care of them. It was unfortunate, but we ended up selling one and keeping the other.

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How To Raise Goat Bottle Babies

Now to the meat and potatoes of this post. Raising goat bottle babies is probably no different than sheep and maybe cows. But I don’t have those creatures so I can really only speak about goats.

Dam Raised or True Bottle Baby

The first thing you have to decide is whether you are going to pull the baby from momma completely or supplement feedings. Our goal is to keep kids with mommas for as long as possible. With Bailey, we “let” her be momma and we just supplemented. We started with 3x a day feedings and then dropped to one “big” bottle at night. If we had taken one of her babies to raise inside, it would have been a true bottle baby.

Bottles

There are some people that think the red teat nipple is the way to go. Others think a cheap baby bottle will work. Personally, I think fed is best, so do what you’ve got to do to get that baby to eat. We have the red teat nipples and our goats just don’t like them. We use cheap baby bottles and they work fantastic. If you are purchasing a bottle baby from a breeder, that breeder should be able to tell you exactly what bottle they are using and you can purchase that.

Replacer vs Whole Cows Milk

Whole cows milk is the replacement of choice for goat kids. Period. Actually, the replacement of choice would be goats milk. But if you can’t get that, cows milk is the best. There is a ton of research out there on the milk replacers vs whole cows milk but at the end of the day, cows milk is easier for your goat kid to digest. Whole cow milk is an animal milk but milk replacer is usually a bunch of different additives that may be too hard for your kid to digest and use.

But again, fed is best. So whatever you can afford and your kid will eat, is the way to go here.

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How Much To Feed

There is a TON of information about how much to feed your bottle baby and how often. But first you have to start with a weight. The ratio is about 1#= 2.5oz. So if your goat kid weighs about 5# you would feed approximately 12.5oz per day.

Also the age of your kid factors into how many times per day to feed it. A kid that is just born and is 3# would get 7.5oz of colostrum over 12 bottles.

Week 1: 6 Bottles

Week 2- 4: 4 Bottles

Week 5-8: 3 Bottles

Week 9-10: 2 Bottles

Week 11-12: 1 Bottle (start weaning)

****Weaning would be giving 1 bottle per day with less and less milk. I usually start reducing the bottles by 3oz and see how the kid does****

For example: Your goat kid is 3 weeks old and weighs 8# you would feed approximately 20oz over 4 bottles. Each bottle would contain 5oz.

Also, you should be weighing your kids at least once a week. This not only ensures that they are gaining weight but also making sure that you are adjusting your feeding amount as appropriate.

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Over Feeding vs Underfeeding

Goat kids will absolutely over eat if you let them. Momma’s have this instinct that tells them when the kid is done eating. But if you are momma, you may think that your kiddo is starving. They’re not. Trust me. If you are using the formula above and they are gaining weight steadily, they are just fine.

The biggest thing to watch for after a feeding is done, their belly should feel full-ish. It shouldn’t feel hard and it shouldn’t be sunken in. My suggestion is this: feed like the formula says for the first couple of days and feel their stomach. If it’s hard or rounded? Back off the milk just an ounce or so. If it’s sunken or they aren’t gaining weight? Up it an ounce or so.

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Temperatures: Milk and Kid

When it comes to goats of all ages, temperature is probably the most important thing you can master. If your goat is too cold or too hot, bad things can happen. Kids are no different and in fact it’s probably more important. When kids get too cold, they cannot digest the milk. If they can’t digest the milk? It will rot in their stomach. So make sure you are checking their temps before feeding. Before feeding, their temps should be between 101-103. If they are not warm enough, bring them inside to get warm and then feed them when they are at least 101*.

When it comes to milk, the temperature should be 103*. This is about the temperature that momma’s milk would be. Too cold and the kid could become hypothermic (cold). Too hot and the kid could scald their mouths. We check on the inside of our wrists, if it’s warm to hot (not burning) it’s the right temp. If it burns us? It will burn them.

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Tips and Hacks To Raise Goat Bottle Babies

Transitioning

If you are getting your bottle baby from a breeder, the kid should already be on either milk replacer or whole cow milk. If they aren’t, that breeder should send goat milk home with you to transition. When I sell our bottle babies, we send goat milk with them to start transitioning if we haven’t already transitioned them to whole cows milk. When we sold Bailey’s triplets, we were not anticipating selling them that quickly. But we sent a gallon of goat milk with the buyer. Then we dropped off another gallon and a half gallon because we wanted to make sure the transition was as smooth as possible.

Preparing For A Bottle Baby…. Just In Case

After our does kid, and depending on how many she gave us, we bring a pint mason jar with us every time we go outside. When we get singles, we milk out the colostrum of ONE teat over the next 24hrs. We do this so we have back up colostrum and a couple of times it has saved our babies. If we have twins or trips? We still bring out that jar and a bottle just in case one of the babies isn’t nursing great. Sometimes we do it at night to ensure that the kids go to bed with a full belly. But being prepared is key.

Enjoy It

Much like raising human children, raising bottle babies flies by. Next thing you know, they are jumping off the roof of your car… the goat kid not the human one. Unless you have a Jaxson, then it may be the house and not the car. Regardless, it is such a cool experience.

That kid will become a pocket pet for you and watching them get so excited to see you is pretty cool too. Not to mention when you are feeding them and that little tail is going a million miles a minute? Ridiculously cute. And while it’s a TON of work, it’s so worth it.

If you like the content I put out, feel free to buy us a coffee! It helps keep this site running, marketing and the goats in grain!

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How To Raise Meat Chickens

March 11, 2025 by Leigh Leave a Comment

Chicken is the meat that is most consumed by Americans. Beef is a close second. But for those of us that are trying to live a more self sustaining lifestyle, chicken is the most available and easiest to raise when it comes to meat animals. But how do we do it humanely? How do we make sure that the quality of chicken doesn’t stop at the meat? Instead making sure that the entire existence of that meat chicken is happy, healthy and most importantly humane? It’s not hard to raise meat chickens but, it does take some work.

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Warning Graphic Content*

Potential Trigger Warning: If you are not interested in raising chickens for meat, please do not read this post.

How To Raise Meat Chickens

To start, purchase chicks that are from a reputable hatchery. I’m not trying to throw shade on any specific ones, but we use McMurray Hatchery. We tried them because other homesteaders speak highly of them. Now, we do too. We have ordered multiple batches of chickens and ducks from McMurray and couldn’t be happier with them. Other than a few losses, which is to be expected from any hatchery, all of our chickens and ducks have grown up to be very healthy and productive birds.

If you decide you want to hatch and raise your own chicks or simply cull your roos, then the process is still all the same. We use this incubator from Tractor Supply and love it. We have about a 85% hatch rate with it. If you don’t know, that’s pretty solid numbers.

Brooding

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Brooding is when you allow your chicks to grow until they have most of their wings (usually around 3 weeks) and then transition them out of the brooder. There’s a couple ways to do brood them. I have a whole post on brooding chickens inside here, but I don’t recommend it for a lot of birds. If you are raising up 10 or 15, sure. But brooding any more than that and you’ll have a loud, stinky house… and no one wants that I use Tractor Supply Co for most of our supply needs and usually get feed from our local feed mill.

If you brood your meat chickens inside, you need to make sure that you are brooding them in an area with good airflow, is safe from predators and self injury, and has plenty of heat. I would also make sure that you put a tarp or something down. This will really help during clean up!

We use our metal shed, converted into an chicken coop/ quarantine pen and it has worked out really well for us. In fact, this is what I would recommend if you are brooding more than a few chicks.

But no matter where you brood your chickens, the process and supplies are still the same. We use these light fixtures and red lights from tractor supply. They have worked amazing for us. Also make sure you use some sort of bedding. I prefer this bedding from TSC and we use it for all of our animals.

Confining Your Meat Chickens

When we raise meat chickens, we like to keep them confined as they get closer to butcher time. Until then, we allow them to free range with the rest of the flock. At night they get put into A frame tractors that Jared built. As the chickens get bigger, they will start to spend more time in the tractors. We actually made these tractors so that we could have them work through the rows of the gardens to help with weeds and bugs.

If free ranging your meat chickens isn’t possible, these fences from Premier 1 are really good. We got this solar charger because Premier 1 tends to run low on inventory occasionally. I also got 2 orders of this 12v battery to run the fence. We’ve had a fair amount of luck with this set up. We also have a 6ft copper pipe to work as a ground. For the most part, we do not put our poultry in netting. That will probably change next spring, but for now we like having them free range the property. We do use the netting for our pigs.

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Which Breed of Chicks To Buy

This is a widely debated subject and to be honest, I don’t have an answer for you. I wrote a post about the best dual purpose chickens here. But at the end of the day, a meat chicken is going to be better for meat and a laying hen is going to be better for eggs.

When trying to figure out what breed of meat chickens you like, my suggestion would be to order a meat assortment from your hatchery. There are a couple of different birds that are specifically bred for quick growing meat. There are other breeds that grow a little slower but are a little bit healthier in terms of potential health problems. By getting a meat assortment from your hatchery, you can figure out which chickens you like the most.

We have ordered the Cornish X and we weren’t thrilled with it. It could be because we let them grow a little too much. Or let them free range a little too long. Either way, our next order was McMurrary’s Big Red Broiler and we really liked them. I rarely ate chicken when we had a freezer full of the CX, but we are almost out of the Red Broilers. They really are that good. We didn’t lose any to health problems that we know of.

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Butchering Your Meat Chickens

The hardest day on any homestead is butchering day. While we are excited for the opportunity to fill our freezer, it can be heartbreaking to know how it happens. Some people don’t have a problem with butchering day. Other’s struggle with it. I’m the latter. No matter how many times we have butchered, it doesn’t get any easier.

Day Before Prep Work

There are a couple of things that we do before the butchering day that really helps us make the most of butchering day. The first and biggest thing that we do is to fast the chickens overnight. This helps make sure that their crop and other digestive organs are empty. It also helps us round up the chickens in the morning without stressing them out. We shake the bucket, and they come running. While this may seem like leading a lamb to slaughter, and it is, it also keeps everything low stress.

We also get all of our equipment ready the day before. From knives to kill cones, and the chicken pluckers. Radio/ bluetooth speakers are charged and ready to go. We’ve also got all of the hoses moved to where we are going to butcher and the tables are set up. Don’t forget to set up your scalder as well. We had a turkey frier set up and a long thermometer to make sure the temp stays around 140*. Finally, we fill all the coolers with ice. We’ve tried adding salt to some of the coolers to act as a brine but found that we didn’t like the meat nearly as much.

Finally, we get all the tractors moved up to the butchering area and set in the shade.

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Day Of Processing

Once the scalder is at temperature and we are ready, we start working our way through the flock. After the bird has been killed and the head, feet, feathers and organs removed, we will put them in ice water to soak and allow the chicken’s body to go through the rigor mortis phases. Yes, gross, but this is how your chicken from the grocery store is handled as well.

We try to break down the chickens the same day we butcher, but we are usually exhausted. We break them down into 4 piece bags (4 breast or 4 quarters, etc). Then everything is vacuum sealed and thrown in the freezer. Sometimes we use these bags for whole chickens or these for smaller pieces. While we really like the vacuum seal bags, they do get very expensive, very fast. We will also freeze the head, feet and organs for dog food so that as much as possible is used.

Timing Your Meat Chickens

One of the things we have learned over the years is to time when you order and butcher your meat chickens. This may not seem very important, but let me tell you, it is probably the most important decision you could make that your future self will thank you for.

Most meat birds are ready between 8 and 16 weeks, depending on the breed. But you really need to think about what your weather is going to be like when they arrive and when it’s time to butcher. Trust me, this is an important factor that EVERYONE misses.

One year, we bought our birds in August and butchered in November. That was freaking miserable. We had to start a fire in our fire pit to warm up our hands as we went.

Another year, we bought our birds in February and butchered May/ June. We lost half our birds to the cold, despite having 4 heat lamps. Then come butchering day it was freaking HOT. Not to mention we were covered in yellow jackets and mosquitos.

We have found that our sweet spot is ordering in July to butcher in October. This has really been perfect for us. As the day progresses we can shed layers and we don’t have to worry as much about bugs. Not to mention that our ice lasts longer in the coolers, so we are able to leave our birds to soak overnight without worrying so much about getting them processed in time.

At the end of the day, you have to do what is right for your family, your farm and your checkbook.

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Planning Your Garden

March 8, 2025 by Leigh Leave a Comment

At this point, I am going stir crazy to get my gardens going. I desperately want to get my hands in the dirt and get back outside. We only have about 30-45 more days of COLD weather before we will start warming up. To be honest, that is mind boggling. Our last frost date this year is around April 15th for our zone 8a. I couldn’t be more excited! But now is the time to start planting our spring seedlings and long summer plants. But how do you know what to plant? You start planning your garden.

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Planning Your Garden

There are a ton of things that go into planning your garden. It’s not just “I want tomatoes and peppers.” It’s much more involved than that. But the good thing is, it’s not really a lot of work. Right now. As we go through this post, I’m going to show you the questions we ask and how we set up our plans to make sure we, and our animals, have plenty of food in the gardens.

What do you eat?

The first step in planning your gardens is determining what you want to eat. New gardeners will usually plant all sorts of things without really asking what they like to eat. They’ll take up huge beds or rows thinking that they MUST plant cucumbers, even though they HATE cucumbers.

But you? You are going to really think about the foods you like to eat, and plan accordingly.

Do you like tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, or berries? Figure it out and start working on how much you think you’ll need. I’ve got a post on what to plant in your veggie garden, to read more about this.

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How much do you eat it?

The next step is to decide how much of that plant you want. There are somethings to keep in mind here. Let’s take cucumbers and tomatoes here. Let’s say you absolutely LOVE cucumbers, but hate raw tomatoes. BUT you eat a ton of tomato sauce and you want to can it.

You should look at how much fruit a plant will give. A cucumber plant will yield approximately 10-15 (or more) cukes depending on when you pick them. Don’t need or want 100’s of cukes? Don’t plant a bunch of plants. A tomato plant will yield approximately 8-10# of tomatoes per plant. A quart jar of tomato sauce needs approximately 5# of tomatoes, roughly. If you are trying to put up a lot of tomato sauce, maybe plant a lot of plants.

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What kind of space do you have?

This is where I can’t really tell you how much or how little to plant. You’ve got to make those decisions based on your garden size. But I will tell you that you can absolutely get creative with your space. Tomatoes grow well in containers, so you don’t have to “waste” garden space on tomatoes if you can put them in pots on the back porch.

Planting plants like marigolds, mums or basil will not only help keep bugs off your plants help keep the soil healthy. When we are planting our raised beds, I plant something high, something low, and a root. For example, I will plant peppers, carrots and oregano in the same area.

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Lastly, look into vertical gardening. Running a couple cattle panels or other trellising could save you a ton of space and allow you to use more of your beds!

Companion planting

Usually, I will plant a row of tomatoes, peas, and onions or garlic. The tomato plant shades the peas. The peas put nitrogen back in the soil. And the garlic or onions will help deter pests. This idea is called companion planting and is really beneficial to your gardens.

I will also plant things like oregano, basil and catnip, along with other herbs, around the garden in hopes that it will also deter pests. Flowers do a great job of not only repelling insects but also attracting them. Japanese beetles will eat my marigolds but leave my vegetables alone.

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Another option is planting multiple plots of the same vegetables in different areas. Or even planting things you don’t like, like cucumbers. Let the cucumber beetles, squash bugs and other pests that LOVE cucumbers, squash, melons, etc, eat the cucumbers that you don’t like in hopes of protecting the plants you love like your cantaloupe.

Let’s Get Planning

Draw it out

Drawing out what you are planning is a great way to visualize your space. First, let me apologize for the the horrible photo, but it’s what I’ve got. This is our plan for our main garden. As you can see it is scaled at 2ft per square.

This plan really helped because I was able to figure out exactly how much space I have and how much space can be used for plants, walkways, gates and more.

Space

Another big thing to remember when planning your garden is space. You need space to move between the rows of your garden and your plants need room to grow. A lot of new gardeners will cram as much as they can in their row or bed and then wonder why everything is stunted. They will put their seedlings in the ground and then think, “It looks so bare” and plant more…. I am SUPER guilty of this, even now.

But if you stick to the recommended spacing, it won’t look bare for long.

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Using the chickens

So one of the things that we are doing this year, per our plan, is to get our chickens in the garden. Here in Georgia, we have a ton of bugs and a ton of weeds. Last year, our garden wasn’t amazing for a couple of reasons but the two biggest where bugs and weeds.

We plan to “plant” our chickens in the garden to help with bugs and weeds. We are building chicken tractors that will be 4ftx8ft. They will also have roosting bars, nesting boxes, feeders, etc in these tractors.

We noticed that we have had a lot of poultry loss over the last several years. We’re not 100% sure if it is from predators or the chickens just wandering off. So we will be putting the chickens in their tractors and then rotate them through the gardens. We’ll see how it works.

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Order your seeds

Once you have figured out what you are going to eat, how much, and where you are going to put it, it’s time to order your seeds. It is always preferred to save money and save your seeds, but sometimes you can’t do that. Either because you don’t have seeds to save, hybrids, or it’s just easier for you to buy them. I will usually place my seed orders in December or January, so now is the time to get this done.

I recommend Eden Brothers or Territorial Seed Company. I’ve had really great success with their seeds. They’ve also got some great flower bulbs as well.

When your seeds come in, start looking at when you need to plant them according to your last frost date. Mine is March 23rd so I’ve started planting my peppers, pumpkins, and other slower maturing plants. This will save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars.

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Start your seedlings

So there are a million different ways to do this. The first time we tried to start seedlings, we had poor germination and what did germinate, we didn’t know what it was. Now, we use this shelving unit in our living room next to the windows. Our living room stays warm and gets a lot of sun. Stay tuned for our greenhouse build!

The tray above is simply a 1020 tray that does NOT have holes. We do not water from the bottom. We mist and use domes to trap moisture and heat until they are established. The little pots inside? Simply amazing! I love these little pots. They have held up very well and I highly recommend them.

Lastly, and I cannot stress this enough. LABEL EVERY SINGLE PLANT! Don’t think for one second you will remember what plant this is! Seriously, trust me.

That’s pretty much it! I know it’s a lot but the biggest things to remember is this. Only plant what you will eat, unless you are using it as a companion or sacrificial plant. Leave plenty of room for your plants to grow. Start your own seedlings so you have more options and save money. And last? Remember, playing in the dirt is good for the soul.

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How To Create A Homestead Vision Board

March 4, 2025 by Leigh Leave a Comment

As we are coming up to the end of the year, I started taking down last year’s vision board. I was able to reflect on all the things we did this year and it was incredible how many goals we hit and surpassed. It was also pretty eye opening how much stuff we just didn’t get around to. In this post I wanted to talk about how to set up a homestead vision board, how to prioritize your goals for your homestead and lastly how to prioritize WHICH goals are best for your homestead.

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Setting Up Your Homestead Vision Board

First thing is first, you need a board. I use a cork board like this one but you can use a poster board or whatever you have on hand. I like using the cork board because it doesn’t erase like a white board and it doesn’t put holes in my walls.

Next, you need to figure out your goals for the year. I’ve talked pretty in depth about the importance of infrastructure, our infrastructure goals, as well as how to set up homesteading goals in the links created. One of the ways that Jared and I set up goals is for each one of us to have 3 goals that we must hit for the year. Then we have another 5 “would be nice if” goals. The would be nice goals are simply ones that are important enough to write down but if we don’t hit them, the world won’t end. This is where homestead flexibility comes into play.

Since that piece of paper above has all of our goals on it, I will sit down and type up each goal individually, print them out and put them on my board. The original list will get pinned beneath the board so that I can cross that off as we get things done. Sometimes I just write them down on their own pieces of paper and put them on the board. It really depends on how crafty I feel when I put together my board.

Once we have those goals printed out and pinned to the board, I will find pictures of the items we want like the tractor, UTV/ATV, dream kitchens, etc and print those out. I will also have little sticky notes attached on the board to find the lists associated with each project. So for the outdoor kitchen, there would be a sticky note that said “see infrastructure list for more info”. This helps so that when we are ready to tackle a project, we know where to look.

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Layout For Your Homestead Vision Board

There is no one size fits all approach to your vision board. It’s yours to do however you want. But I do have some suggestions. If you look at the list above you will see J Top 3 and L Top 3. Those are the most important and must do of all of the goals. Those need to be highlighted so they are completed first. So I will usually make those bigger and with a different font than the would be nice if goals. I will also print those out on different colored paper to make sure they stand out.

Laying out your board is another way that you can prioritize your goals on the vision board. You can put the most important goals in the middle, or even do a flowchart style layout. But select a space that is just for those goals. In years past I have put the most important goals in the middle and on bright card stock. Then I would put the less important goals around it or on the edges, on regular paper, to show that these weren’t as important.

Another important part of laying out your homestead vision board is decorate it. Now, I’m not talking about getting out the glitter. But the purpose of a vision board is to clearly lay out the vision you have for the year. But if it is boring, are you going to want to look at it every day? If it isn’t eye catching, are you going to remember that you have a goal of setting up your chicken coop and run? So make sure to decorate it in a way that is eye catching for each goal without being either overwhelming and hidden.

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How To Prioritize Your Homestead Goals

I wanted to add in ways to set up your goals for your homestead. Since every homestead is different, I can’t tell you what how exactly to prioritize your goals. Plus, you may have different goals or priorities than your significant other. That’s okay. But in an effort of accountability, BOTH of you need to write down your goals for the year and put them on your vision board.

There are also two kinds of goal setters. Those that reach for the stars and are okay with landing on the moon. Then the rest of us who set realistic goals and want to surpass them. Either one is fine as long as you are getting it done. Jared’s goal of infrastructure is pretty lofty considering the infrastructure list is 8 typed pages. But that’s what he wants, so ok. One of my goals is to start the process of replacing our off farm income with on farm income.

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Most Important Goals First

While this may seem obvious, you need to remember to write down the most important things you want to accomplish first. This is going to help you when you get distracted by something equally as important. For example, we do not have a working HVAC system. Also it’s not on my list of priorities to fix or replace it. But if I don’t stay on track with my goals, and it is mid August and 110* with 99% humidity? You can bet your last dollar I will want to repair that unit to get some relief.

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Finish Line Goals

Every year I set Finish Line Goals or FLG’s. These are goals that are easy to hit and mark off the list. Things like: cleaning the bathroom, stacking firewood, cleaning off the front porch, or organizing one space in 10 minutes. These goals are crucial for getting motivated to tackle those big goals. They also help you slow down when you are getting overwhelmed and need something small to give you a break.

Even the best of us goal setters are overwhelmed with the need to mark off the next item. But FLG’s are a great way to get moving.

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Grace Is Key

You are probably not going to hit every single goal. Life is going to happen and every plan you had may go out the window with job loss, sickness, injury or other emergency. But if you give yourself grace, kindness and understanding? You will find that while you didn’t hit the mac daddy goal of replacing your off farm income with farmer’s market sales, it’s okay.

I hope this helps you figure out how to set up your homestead vision board as well as work on setting goals for your homestead. For us, it’s important to know what we are doing, when and why. This keeps all of us on track so that we don’t end up working on something that we don’t need to.

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Is Homesteading Hard

March 1, 2025 by Leigh Leave a Comment

I should probably wait to write this, maybe when I’m not quite so raw. But the cold hard reality is that homesteading is hard. Out of all the things I have done in my life, I think homesteading is the hardest. I have had multiple miscarriages. Sent my husband off to war twice and raise two babies while he was gone. I have stood over bleeding and mangled bodies and said, “I’ve got you.” I’ve had a mom hand me her infant and say, “Save her.” Is homesteading hard? It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

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Be sure to read till the end

Why Is Homesteading Hard?

The constant life and death decisions will wear you down. The constant checking on feed, hay, and medication levels. Hauling sick animals into the house or into the vet. Checking finances to make sure you can cover the feed, vet or light bill. Worrying about the garden producing not only your food but your animals. Prepping firewood and praying you’ve got enough. Constant research to find another way to possibly save money or a life. Frustration when a product doesn’t work. It’s enough to drive you insane. Homesteading is hard.

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Life and Death Decisions

When you live a “normal” life, maybe you really only worry about your dogs or cats, maybe an “exotic”. But when you homestead (even small scale), you have to be constantly aware of your house pets and livestock, their safety and wellbeing, their health, laboring or egg/ hatching rates and so much more. You have to worry about predators.

You order chicks and realize that one just isn’t doing well, and you have to make the decision to cull. A duck breaks a leg? Is it worth the pain they will go through to see if you can set it, splint it and keep them confined? Actively warming a goat kid till the wee hours of the morning. Only to have them die a couple days later, anyways.

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Running Out Of Feed

Sometimes you run out of feed, and can’t get more. The supply chain shortages were a thing and usually the small farmer is who suffers. You’ve got to get creative with how you are going to feed your chickens, ducks, pigs and goats with no access to feed. Sometimes it’s taking 5gal buckets to work and asking coworkers to fill it with their food scraps, just to feed your pigs or chickens. Or begging neighbors for a couple bales of hay.

The reality of caring for so many animals on the homestead is overwhelming sometimes.

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Sick Animals

Sometimes, your living room turns into an infirmary. Sometimes, your really nice SUV turns into a litter box because you’ve got to haul the pigs to the vet. Then despite all of your very best efforts, your animal dies anyways.

It’s pulling goats because momma is too tired to push, only to realize the kid is stuck and you can’t get it out. Praying to forces you don’t even believe in to save this baby.

It’s a cemetery on your property because you just couldn’t save them.

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Financial Impact

Sometimes life and death decisions are made because of finances and that feels worse. When you have to cull an animal, especially a favorite, because you don’t have the money for medicine or a vet visit. Or it’s feeding the pigs out of your pantry or fridge because you don’t have anything else.

Other times, it’s using your emergency fund to cover hay because you ran out.

Working Your Gardens

Whether you are praying for rain, or praying for rain to stop, your life revolves around your gardens in spring and summer. Since you’ve decided to grow as much fodder for your livestock as possible, you are stressing over it’s growth. You are simply hoping to reduce the strain on your wallet.

You are constantly checking for pests and weeds. Thinking about next years garden and what you will do differently. Pouring over notes, blog posts, and more trying to get a leg up.

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Firewood

When you make the decision to heat solely with your wood stove, you spend hours, days and weeks building that firewood stack. One cord down, seven more to go. Only to realize mid winter, seven wasn’t enough either. So you’re back out there, cutting down trees or finding your stacks you had put back for the next year.

It’s hauling huge rounds of wood up hills. It’s the pure manual labor that feels back breaking, but isn’t.

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Is Homesteading Hard?

Yes, but it is worth it. Every single time and every single way, it is worth it. The good outweighs the bad, every single time.

The pure joy of harvesting peppers, dehydrating them, grinding them, and then using them in your dinner? It’s a feeling of pure satisfaction.

Seeing that firewood stack go from empty at the beginning of spring and full at the end of summer? Knowing that you are going to be warm and snuggly? It’s hard to describe the feeling of accomplishment.

It’s cleaning eggs, putting them in a jar to waterglass, and putting them on shelves in your basement, knowing you will have eggs this winter.

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Watching your garden bloom and grow. Eating beans fresh from the garden, while harvesting peppers and tomatoes. Canning your tomatoes, knowing that when you are buttoning up everything for the winter, you have succeeded in your goal of providing for your family and livestock.

It’s watching that goat kid thrive after a traumatic birth. Knowing that you would do it again and again, just to see that baby come out alive and hear those first cries. And crying when you bury her sisters and listening to that momma goat cry for her other babies.

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It’s waking up before the sun breaks the horizon to milk the goats. Softly talking to your most skittish goat and thanking her for her milk. Watching the sunrise with her as her kid jumps and plays with the other kids. Listening for her call her kid and the kid call back.

Planning a bigger, better garden because you learned from your mistakes last year or the year before.

Is homesteading hard? Yes, but you should absolutely do it. There is no better feeling in the world than watching all of your hard work pay off. No amount of money or promotions, or follows, likes and shares compares to feeling of being self reliant, self sufficient, and earning through blood, sweat and tears the bounty.

Because when you homestead, it’s real. And in a world full of slight of hand, disinformation, division, and mistrust, your homestead is a living breathing thing that YOU created.

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How To Handle Power Outages

February 25, 2025 by Leigh Leave a Comment

With the state of our electrical grids, weather and rolling black outs, knowing how to handle power outages is a big deal. If you live in an area prone to outages, you may be a little more well versed in this. If you deal with winter storms that take out the power, you are probably okay. But what happens if you aren’t equipped to handle power outages? Today, I want to show you what we do to prepare for those outages and some things you can do too.

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Preparing For Power Outages

When the power goes out, it causes massive issues. Not just on a local or state level, but inside your home can turn to complete chaos if you are not prepared. We know that a power outage doesn’t have to be storm related. Sometimes it’s rolling blackouts or the power grid became overwhelmed. Or you simply forgot to pay the bill…. guilty.

By no means is this an exhaustive list. You need to make sure that you’re prepared. This means getting whatever medications you need, food, and more. But there are somethings you can do to prepare for when you lose power.

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Food

I am a big believer in being prepared. Food is a big one for me. You should have two weeks per person of food stored in cases of emergency. There’s a ton of different options for this. For us, we choose to can, dehydrate, and freeze our food. But there are really great emergency food companies that have freeze dried food that will last for 25+ years.

We will get a freeze dryer at some point, but today is not that day.

Food Equipment

There is nothing worse than thinking you are prepared to handle power outages, only to realize that the only can opener you have, is electric. So do yourself a favor and make sure that you have manual tools and know how to use them! I am a big fan of learning out to do things manually and then introducing the electric version later when I know how to do something.

I wrote a whole blog post about cooking during a power outage that you can look at here.

Blankets

I’m not talking about regular blankets here, either. Blankets not only come in handy during winter outages, they can also be used to insulate.

We have these blankets after a move from Texas back to Georgia. These are great to have on hand for many reasons. We use them to wrap up freezers. They are a little pricey but if they keep my freezers from defrosting? I’m game.

They are also great to hang on entry ways and windows. This will help keep warm air where it needs to be.

Coolers

I’m not talking about the itty bitty coolers here, but they will definitely work. You really want to keep your freezers closed and insulated as much as you can during an outage. But if you are on day 5 of a power outage? That top layer of food is going to go defrost and quickly if you are constantly going into them.

When we have a power outage, we will pull a couple of days worth of meat or veg out of the freezers and put them in the fridge. Then leave the freezers alone. We have a bunch of these little thermometers to tell us if the freezers or fridge are getting too warm. They have been a lifesaver when it comes to seeing if the food has gone bad.

If you are to the point where need the coolers, you’ve got a couple options. You can either plan to eat that food first, can it (not always possible), or throw it in a cooler with ice. You can then wrap that cooler in blankets to try and keep it insulated. This can buy you a little more time depending on how thawed, cold, or hot everything is.

Firewood/ Fireplace

Always, and I repeat, ALWAYS have a way to heat your home if you have no power. If the temperatures dip too low for too long, you will freeze to death. No amount of blankets will save you when it’s -20 and you are without heat. In fact, in a lot of places, if the temperatures drop to freezing, communities will set up warming shelters. These shelters are not just for the homeless, but for anyone without heat.

We heat solely with firewood, so we don’t need the heaters. But we make sure to have about a cord of firewood off the ground and dry every winter. I wrote a couple posts about firewood here and here. Since we heat with wood only, we try to make sure that we start winter with at least 5 cords of wood and then we continue to chop as we go throughout winter. We may not be able to use that wood that winter, but we can at least get started for next year.

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Heaters

If the power goes out, you aren’t going to be able to heat unless you have a wood stove. BUT if your stove relies on a blower to move that warm air around? It’s not going to keep your house warm. My suggestion is a propane heater like this one. We also have one like this, it works pretty well but not great in large spaces.

Some words of warning. You need to have a working carbon monoxide/ smoke detector and good air flow. You don’t want to be one of those people that catch their house on fire because these things can be dangerous if not used correctly. Or worse, die from carbon monoxide poisoning because you didn’t let vent properly.

Fans

Whether your power goes out in summer or winter, having fans actually helps a lot. Yes, I know it’s weird. But in the winter, if you are using a fireplace, wood stove, etc, you need to get the air from the heat source to the rest of the house. We don’t want to move it quickly, just enough to get air moving.

We like these fans because they are rechargeable and are not that expensive. AND it’s got a lamp, so it’s a two birds, one stone thing which I really like. It will last from 6-36hrs. Of course, if you’ve got it on high with the highest setting lamp, it’s only going to last the 6 hours but still that’s a lot.

I feel like I don’t need to explain the need for a fan in the middle of summer when the power goes out.

Well Pump

While some of you may not have this problem, having water is vital to all living things. If your house runs on a well, having a way to pump that water is a must if your power goes out. This manual hand pump is great for emergency situations where you must have water, and you can’t get it.

There are many, many different ones you can get but my suggestion is to get one that is manual and not solar powered. If you run into a situation where you can’t get power for many days, and it’s raining? Your solar powered pump isn’t going to work, either.

Water Jug Dispenser

When it comes to water, you can never, ever have enough. The general rule of thumb is 1 gallon per person per day for drinking. Or about 5 gallons for daily use. Livestock need about 5 gallons a day depending on the size of your livestock, obviously. For us, that would mean 20 gallons of water per day for our family and another 70 gallons for all of our animals per day.

That’s a lot of water and if you don’t have IBC’s or other water retention devices, you could be in trouble.

We have a bunch of 5gal jugs that we keep filled and in rotation. Then we use this dispenser to get the water out. It’s a great little pump that works pretty well.

One of the other ways we make sure that we have enough water stored is to fill our canning jars with water when not in use. The way I see it is this, empty jars take up as much space as a jar filled with water. So why not fill that empty jar with water and store it? If you choose to go this route, you should filter or boil the water before use, just to be safe.

Power Banks

Another great way to ensure that you can handle power outages is to have power banks. There are a ton of different options to get and any of them will work well. I do recommend making sure that you have a couple that are solar like these. You want to make sure that you have the ability to recharge them if you run out of power.

Handling Power Outages

A power outage is usually more mentally draining than physically, as long as nothing goes wrong. Preparing for emergencies doesn’t have to come from a place of fear, either. Make sure you’ve got some relaxing things to do to keep your mind off being without power. Take care of your animals and enjoy being unplugged.

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Has Free Ranging The Goats Worked?

February 22, 2025 by Leigh Leave a Comment

We officially started free ranging our goats on August 1, 2022. This was an experiment and, I would say that THIS year, it has gone pretty well. We have had some hiccups in the matrix, but nothing that was so bad that I wouldn’t free range them again. But I wanted to discuss the how’s, why’s and maybe do this next year if you are thinking about free ranging goats on your homestead.

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The Real Side Of Free Ranging Goats

There are a lot of good things that have come out of free ranging the goats on our 8.5 acres. But there has also been some bad. And while the good definitely out weigh the bad for us, it may not be the case on your homestead.

Our first full year goating, we spent thousands of dollars on hay, alfalfa and grain for the goats. We battled high parasite loads and constant diarrhea. The amount of money we wasted on pasture seed is incredible. But when we started allowing them to free range there were some fantastic results.

Finances

I mentioned above that we have spent thousands of dollars on hay and such. But that’s only a part of it. Not only have we spent money on food, we have also spent a lot on vet bills, fencing, and feed troughs. While that is definitely part of raising any livestock, this has been a lot higher than we want it to be.

Free ranging the goats allows them to do what goats do best, search for their food. It keeps them from eating food off the ground and picking up more parasites. By eating the browse, they are helping us not have to rent bush hogs and other equipment to clear these areas. Which was their original purpose according to Jared.

Body Condition

Champ, who has never had a FAMACHA better than a 3, is now at a 1 and has stayed there. Her body condition, that we could NEVER get better than a 2, is now a 4-4.5.

They have an established herd queen now (Champ) who is actually looking after her girls. By not having them fenced in, we are allowing their natural instincts to kick in and they are actually looking out for each other. This really helps because when we need to put hands on them, we just have to find Champ.

We also noticed that the babies were better able to fight off various infections, parasites, etc, simply because they were allowed to be free. This is in essence the process of rotational grazing…. just without fencing.

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Predator Control

Yard clean up is virtually non existent. We were trying to figure out how to battle the weeds, brambles, and briars when we first moved in. Now? The goats move through the property and eat all of it down. How does this help with predator control? Well, by having the goats free range, they have eaten down a lot of the areas that the predators would live in. And when we see them running back to the house or their barn, we know somethings up and we start looking.

We now have a clear line of sight to the various areas of the property because they have come through and eaten everything.

We do worry about the goats and the babies coming across a fox or coyote den, we only free range them during the day when someone is home. This minimizes the risks. Since we really only free range between spring, summer and fall, we are almost always outside anyways.

Parasite Control

Parasites are pretty much cured…. Well, kinda. It is totally normal, and completely fine for your livestock to have worms. In fact, we want them to have some worms because it aids in digestion and other good things for the goats. But you should never have an uncontrolled parasite problem. When you don’t utilize pasture rotation, you will have parasite blooms and your livestock will suffer.

Since we refuse to deworm monthly, we have to make sure that we are on our game with pasture rotation. Deworming every month as a preventative causes resistance and they aren’t making new dewormers.

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Cons?

Well, there is poop everywhere. While it doesn’t stink, it is a pain when you step in it and don’t realize it.

They’ve eaten the house plants on my front porch. ALL OF THEM.

They broke a board on the back deck and think the flight of stairs is a great place to jump from.

They have eaten ALL of my fruit trees.

Bucks chase does, so they have to stay penned up.

They will break into your gardens. The good news is that they will find the weak spot for you to fix. Just ask them.

As you can see, there aren’t many deal breaker cons for me. The trees sucked and I will be fencing in the area so that the goats won’t eat them next time. The poop is easily swept up too. Overall, we will free range them again and again. They are much healthier and happier.

Free Ranging Goats: Update 2023

As we move into fall this year, I wanted to give you guys some latest updates on how free ranging is working for us. We still absolutely free range the goats. But there are some new concerns this year that we didn’t have last year and I wanted you to be aware of them.

The coolest part of free ranging is that we have successfully trained all the goats, including this year’s kids, to come when they are called. All I have to do is yell, “Come here, girls!” and they come running.

Lack Of Browse

When we first moved onto this property, there were a ton of briars, weeds, etc. Out of 8.5 acres there was probably only about 1 or 2 acres that weren’t completely covered in weeds/ brush. Since the goats have been doing an excellent job of clearing it out, it’s not coming back as hardy. Next year, it probably won’t come back at all.

If you are only getting goats to clear land and have every intention on selling them after their job is done, then this doesn’t really apply to you. If you have fallen in love with these creatures, you are going to have a bit of a problem. There are a couple options that we are exploring for this winter but they are expanding their nom nom zones and that can be a problem. The goats have migrated to the neighbors property and up the mountain. Neither of those are a problem…. yet.

Injuries

We have noticed an increase in injuries since free ranging. While only one of them have been severe injuries, they have still gotten hurt so I think it’s worth mentioning. In their search for food, they become a little more pushy when it comes to food. This makes sense because all animals do this. But when they ram each other and one falls? They are going to limp for a minute.

Or in the case of Stella, she was so hellbent that she was going to break into the chicken tractors that she got herself wedge between 2 of them…. were the tin roofing is. She sliced all 4 of her legs and it was pretty nasty. But she actually did herself and her babies a favor because she got put into the kidding stall for a couple days to allow the blukote to work. Now she is paying more attention to her babies and letting them nurse soooooooo.

Getting Into Trouble

These goats are testing my patience this year and while that is fine, I still want to throttle them. I said before that they will find the weak spot in the fences. Well, I wasn’t aware that potato leaves were considered toxic to goats….. in large quantities. I’ve given them potato leaves and never had a problem. But when they break into a garden and gorge themselves? Apparently that is a problem.

They have found every single hole in the yard and hurt themselves.

Or that time they pulled all my clothes off the clothesline and the pigs rolled all over them.

And then there was the time that the broke into the brooding/nursery were they stepped on 6 out of 10 chicks and caused the mommas to “attack” the goats.

So while free ranging goats is worth it for their health. It can be frustrating to deal with.

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Spring To Do List For Homesteaders

February 18, 2025 by Leigh Leave a Comment

As winter comes to a close, homesteaders and farmers brace for the spring race. The sunshine lasts a little longer each day. Livestock is giving birth. Chicks are in the stores. Plants are ready to be put in the ground. All of this means that homesteaders have a spring to do list that is a mile long. But instead of being overwhelmed by it, we are going to eat an elephant one bite at a time.

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The Spring To Do List

The goal of our spring to do list is prepping for summer, but also deal with all the things that come with spring itself. The reality is that we are just not going to be able to get to some things done once the garden is in full swing. That means that we have to get as much of this list marketed off. But what should YOUR list look like? Below is how we break down our spring to do list into categories.

Garden
Livestock
Poultry
Clean/ Organize

Everyone’s to do list for spring is different because every homestead is different. Some people focus on firewood during spring, others their garden is their only focus. But everyone can agree, spring is a busy time for any homestead.

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Spring To Do List: Garden

For us, putting in the garden is the highest priority every year. The first summer we were on our property we couldn’t get a garden in. We just had so many other things going on that it just wasn’t feasible. Last year, we got our garden in, but even with the woven ground cover, there was a ton of weeds. Which is scary because what would it have looked like without it?

We are expanding our gardens this year to include a kitchen garden. The original garden was great and produced a surprising amount of food, but it just wasn’t was I expected. The tomatoes we had just didn’t wow us with big tomatoes or even a decent harvest. BUT we did grow tomatoes which is always awesome. This spring we will be installing our kitchen garden and turning the original garden into our “bulk” garden.

The biggest project for spring in the gardens (after installing the kitchen garden) is to get the pigs and chickens in the gardens and let them root, till, and poop in the gardens. We are hoping that will boost our harvests and keep down the weeds.

We are also going to be starting all of our own seedlings this year. Which is going to be intense and we will probably run out of room in the basement, but that’s ok. We built a greenhouse to hold all the seeds. To put that into prospective, we plan on starting at least 100 tomato plants. Yes, 100. That may seem like a lot, but we eat tomato sauce in some form at least once a week. Then there’s ketchup, BBQ sauce, sloppy joes, etc. We need a ton of tomatoes.

If you haven’t already, I suggest getting your seeds now. You can order online or you can stop by pretty much any big box store and get your seeds from them. Personally, I order my seeds from Territorial Seed Company and Baker Creek. I have also ordered from other sites but I prefer these two.

Spring To Do List: Livestock

Kidding season for the goats is pretty intense. Mainly because I am a nervous wreck. These girls are my favorite and I don’t want anything to happen to them. Plus, getting to see new favorite creatures born is amazing. But to prepare for it takes some effort. On my list is making sure that their birthing kits are ready and I have everything I need.

If anyone is interested, we filmed our most recent kidding. Be warned, it’s a goat giving birth so it’s pretty graphic. Bella gave us two beautiful babies; Mavrick and Goose. We will be retaining both of them and I’m so excited!

Spring To Do List: Poultry

Chickens, ducks and turkeys get their own category because we are placing a HUGE order this spring. We are talking 60 laying hens, 100 meat chickens and 15 turkeys. Why?

Spoiler alert There are cons to raising chickens…. Just so you know.

We have had a lot of issues free ranging the chickens. The chickens will wonder off or we can’t find their eggs. It’s been one thing after the other. My previous flock of 60 chickens and 25 ducks is now down to 16 chickens and 9 ducks. Though we did butcher 6 meat ducks. So I have to get the various brooders ready to go for them.

I’m going to do a blog post on why free ranging the chickens didn’t work for us and what we plan to do different this time. But the reality is that true free ranging has cost us a TON of money. Between the initial costs of buying the chicks and then having to rebuy plus the lost income of selling eggs and chicks? It’s sickening how much money was spent or lost. So we are working on some strategies to stop the bleed.

Because we are raising some chicken for friends and family, we are going to be raising 100 Freedom Rangers. We realized with our last batch of crosses that we just weren’t feeding them enough which led to them not gaining enough weight. That led to us having to wait to butcher them, making the meat tougher. This time we plan on moving them to a different area that is full of bugs, grass, and other yummy treats as well as feeding them all the feed they want.

The goal is to get all of this done before summer really kicks in but we will see what happens.

Finally, We Clean and Organize

This is another long spring to do list for our homestead. We have slowly but surely been working on getting the property cleaned up and things moved around. It’s been a long process. We usually wait until fall/ winter to start working on the outside because the weeds and grass will hide a lot of the debris. When all the grasses die back, we can find these things and get them in the pile for trash.

Come spring, it’s the final push to get the unusable stuff off the property. Also on our spring to do list is gutting the basement to allow us to get our food storage room built and the rest of the animal storage done. It’s a tall order.

Also, I am a terrible cleaner. I have ADD and I go through crazy, spastic cleaning urges and everything MUST BE CLEAN. And then I squirrel out or get too busy and the house cleaning falls apart. Every late winter/ early spring, I try to get as much of the house cleaned and organized. I know as soon as summer hits, I’m going to be in the garden.

These are just some of the things we are doing this spring on the homestead. I would love to hear about what you are doing!

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Leigh

Understanding Your Frost Dates

The Role of Local Microclimates

Choosing the Best Location for Your Vegetable Garden

1. Sunlight Exposure

2. Soil Quality

3. Drainage and Moisture Levels

4. Wind Protection

5. Accessibility to Water

Timing Your Planting Schedule

Cool-Season Crops (Fall, Winter, Early Spring)

Warm-Season Crops (Late Spring, Summer, Early Fall)

Overwintering Crops

Adjusting for Weather Variability

Conclusion

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Before You Prepare Your Garden

Check Last Years Journal/ Notes

Look At What You Preserved

Consider Your Animals Needs

How To Prepare Your Vegetable Garden

Clearing The Garden

Lay Out Fencing

Consider Additives

Sourcing Your Plants

Starting Your Own Starts

Buying Starts

Prepare Your Beds

Building Your Beds

Laying Out Your Garden

Irrigation

Get To Planting

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How To Raise Goat Bottle Babies

Momma Rejected Or Died

It’s Just Too Cold Outside

Momma Had Too Many

A First Time Freshener

How To Raise Goat Bottle Babies

Dam Raised or True Bottle Baby

Bottles

Replacer vs Whole Cows Milk

How Much To Feed

Over Feeding vs Underfeeding

Temperatures: Milk and Kid

Tips and Hacks To Raise Goat Bottle Babies

Transitioning

Preparing For A Bottle Baby…. Just In Case

Enjoy It

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****Warning Graphic Content*****

How To Raise Meat Chickens

Brooding

Confining Your Meat Chickens

Which Breed of Chicks To Buy

Butchering Your Meat Chickens

Day Before Prep Work

Day Of Processing

Timing Your Meat Chickens

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Planning Your Garden

What do you eat?

How much do you eat it?

What kind of space do you have?

Companion planting

Let’s Get Planning

Draw it out

Space

Using the chickens

Order your seeds

Start your seedlings

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Setting Up Your Homestead Vision Board

Layout For Your Homestead Vision Board

How To Prioritize Your Homestead Goals

Most Important Goals First

Finish Line Goals

Grace Is Key

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*****Be sure to read till the end*****

Warning Graphic Content*

Be sure to read till the end

Spoiler alert There are cons to raising chickens…. Just so you know.