Pictures of the homestead

So since I am an avid armature photographer I took pictures of the Homestead.  I will try as the season progress to get more on here to share with those that are following our work.

The Chicken Coop

One of our Cochins- Lacy

Some of the "ladies"

Vegetable Garden

Trying to grow  potatoes 

My step-son the 'Water Boy'.  He would do that all day if I asked

The New Medicinal Herb Garden.  I just now need to get plants for it!!

The greenhouse

My "pretty" garden

Who laid this one?

So we get anywhere from 8 to a dozen eggs a night from our hens.  When DH collected the eggs this night he walked in to the kitchen sat the bag down and ask me “what is wrong with this picture?”  When I looked down into the bag I had to laugh.  It was all these larger eggs with one itty bitty egg.  The tiny egg was just too cute that I had to take pictures of it. 

Busy Last 2 weeks on the Beach Homestead

So 2 weekends ago start a lot of outside projects; We moved our chicken coop where it had been built due to wanting to increase the size of the vegetable garden and due to an aggressive neighbor dog that tried to come through our 7 foot privacy fence, DH has been working on the green house hydroponics and fish pond (not for pretty fish but some variety of fish to eat),  we moved our seedlings that were started in the house out to the green house, and last night got the gardens tilled for the first time. 

First let’s talk more about moving the chicken coop.  We are not talking a little thing, no this thing is about 7 feet long and about 6 feet wide and stands over 6 feet tall.  It has walls that can be removed in the warmer months to allow air into the coop.  It has to weigh over 300 pounds easily.  It took 3 of us to move it.  Luckily we did it when my oldest was there.  She is only 10 but pretty strong and was willing to help.  We used a 2 wheel dolly to lift up one end and then myself and DH lifted up the front and we moved it about 60 yards across the back yard to a new permanent location that does not get a lot of light to grow any vegetation.  IF you are planning on building a chicken coop some tips that we learned the hard way: if you will want to move it plan that into your design (add wheels and keep weight down), research the size you need for the number of birds you plan on having, and make sure you plan for the weather changes.

Last Sunday we had a bunch of people over that work with DH and are like minded on trying to become self sufficient.  They had decided that we were farther ahead and wanted to see what we were doing.  The cool thing is one of the couples has a farm and horses and brought us some wonder compost for our garden.  They also let us borrow their tiller for a few days and had old tires they wanted to get rid of along with black tubs that had had horse feed in them.  So with all this “stuff” that most people would turn their noses up at we are turning into ways to help us feed the family.  The compost went into the garden to help in the new area we are going to use this year, the tires are going into the potato area (yes we are growing or trying to grow potatoes in tires, we will see) and 2 of the black tubs are on the back deck to be set up as small water gardens with some little “pretty” fish but most likely feeder goldfish and if the fish die they go to the chickens.

Last night the projects continued.  DH got not only the vegetable garden tilled but then got my new medicinal herb garden tilled for me.  I have started to learn and trying to use herbs as a first line for common ailments instead of using something bought from the store.  Not that I am against buying meds but trying to ensure that if need be I can treat these aliments if and when there are no meds to buy. 

Tonight I plan on working in the gardens to smooth out the soil and determine if need to do any more tilling and or add more compost.  We will see how much work the little kids let me get done.

Ways we are tyring to become Self Sufficent

For those of you that know me outside of the blog will agree with the fact that I am not only a pack rat but love to make lists in order to get things done.  Yes I am one of those moms that make a list of what each person will pack when we go on vacation.  So since we started to work on become more self-sufficient I made up a list of things that as a family we were going to do in order to get there.  Now the ultimate goal is to be able to move the family to property with 20 to 50 acres and live out the rest of our days there.  I would love to be there in 3 years but know that might be a bit of a stretch but that is my goal.  So here are some things that we are doing to become more self-sufficient:

·         Garden- start from seeds

                                Plant as much as can

                                Freeze, can, dehydrate, store as much as can

                                Sell any extra or overage that family cannot use

·         Freezers- clean them all out and get rid of what will not use and eat what we can and no going to grocery store until it is cleaned out

·         Find local famer to buy meat from- Support Local if have to purchase outside food

·         Fish- get pond finished

                                Get fish

                                Learn to process fish ourselves for our family

                                Freeze as much fish as we can hold

                                Sell any extra or overage that family cannot use

·         Make an herb garden with medicinal herbs and use them

·         Get at least 6 month food supply

·         Get at least 6 month water supply

·         Get a secondary power source-

                                Solar, water, wind, kid power or generator

·         Get fire wood supply with at least 12 ricks of wood (enough wood to last from Oct to March) by end of September

·         Get rain barrels to collect water to use for watering plants

·         Get a secondary way to cook and bake if power does go out (Solar Oven, Gas Grill)

·         Move chickens

·         Compost chicken waste

·         Have BOB (Bug out Bag) for each person and emergency plans in place

·         Less TV time

·         More cooking from scratch

·         More ownership for self/ house/gardens/ animals/ others

Where do we start?

When my husband (then significant other) bought his house it had been a rental that had sit for almost 2 years vacant.  Needless to say when he moved in we had a lot of fixing up to do.  Once that first spring got here we mostly did vegetables in pots on the deck and had a small garden.  The next spring we moved up to a larger garden where we grew a wide variety of vegetables and the husband did can sauces and made fresh salsa on a regular basis; we had too many tomato plants and had to do something with them.  We are now on the larger scale.  Late last fall we added a flock of backyards chickens that we call the “ladies” and each one does have a name with one rooster ,Bert, that I am still trying to decide if we keep.  A green house where the husband is now setting up hydroponics and working on building a small pond for a variety of fish that we have not decided on yet that we can use to feed the family.  We have started all of our own seeds indoors under grow lights in a small basement bedroom.  We plan on growing the size of the garden some and maximizing the space in both the garden and the green house.  I am also looking into adding a medicinal herb garden somewhere on the property and start to use it for minor ailments for my family.  Even though we live in a suburb we are working on how to be come as self sufficient as we can and trying to pay off all our debt as quickly as we can so that we can then save enough money to buy a homestead in the county where we can do more of what we want.  I decided to write this blog because from doing research on the internet I am sure there are a number of people out there that want to start doing some of the things that my family are doing and would find our ideas and ideas helpful and maybe even insightful and humorous.