It is easier to blog than it is to run a homestead operation - hence, posting has been a bit light. I did want to share some pictures before I get on with my rant.
I start my garden with seedlings bought from the Amish folks up in Scotsville, KY. I constructed raised beds that are 14 inches deep (12 inches of cedar on top of bricks to keep them off the ground and dry), and am using the square foot gardening method this year. Each bed should produce at least 2 sets of 32 plants per year... or at least that's the plan.
Corn, potatoes, beans, and melons are grown in the field. This is my first year with "soft fruits": raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and black berries. I'll let you know, but I think we'll be fine as I have good guidance from the Amish family that sold them to me... and we have been doing the "pick your own" thing for 5 years now, making jams and preserves.
I milk at least one cow per day, and in the future when there is more milk than the family and the pigs can consume I intend to get some bottle calves and put them on the cows.
Over all, a family of 5 would need to raise 2 hogs per year, one steer, 100 chickens (for eggs and poultry), keep 2 milk cows (cows dry out every year so you'll need 2), several goats, a 1 acre garden and at least 3 acres in corn to keep everybody fed (we have more livestock than that, for reasons not entirely clear even to me). It sounds like a lot, but I think it takes about the time it would take to get in my car, drive to the gym, change my clothes, work out, shower, and drive home. Instead of dirty gym clothes I have food stuff coming out of my ears, and enjoy being outside and having something constructive to do.
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| Raised beds. 8, 8 x 4 cedar beds plus 1, 64 foot cinderblock bed. |
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| Seeds planted and forced are outside hardening off but protect from wind in this box. |
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| Here is my Hog Yard. Next month the hogs get penned in the back and corn, beans, and pumpkins will get planted in the yard (a little over .5 acre). The Hogs will harvest the produce themselves. See those Guinea hens in the background? I let them roam the farm as they are excellent natural pesticide. |
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| We have 5 cows, 1 Bull and 20+ goats on pasture. They are grass fed and well cared for. We eat the males and milk females. |
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| This is my breeding pen for meat birds. These are Jersey Giants and 2 Rhode Island Red Roosters whose daughters proved to be good egg layers. At least we think these are the Dads... nothing's perfect. |
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| I use an incubator to hatch out a couple hundred eggs per month during the summer. I give the chicks we don't need as presents to friends and neighbors. We eat 2 birds per week, and only half or so survive to adulthood or harvesting... so we need to hatch at least 200 birds per year for our own consumption |
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| This is the laying/breeding pen for layers. After their second season I give them away. Poor folks do not look a gift chicken in the mouth. During spring and summer we have eggs coming out of our ears... enough for us to eat a dozen a day, fill the 270 egg incubator every month, and give some a way. That pen is on 2x4 sled runners and I move it several time per day so that the birds can have fresh grass and bugs along with their layer ration. Its a bit heavy but I'm only a chromosome or 2 away from being a Neanderthal, so it works for us. |
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The end of QE2 is in sight. I have to say that I have egg on my face for underestimating the impact that QE1 and QE2 had on the markets, but I think that the markets will not be kind to the longs as we get closer and closer to the end. We shall see.
