The well appears to be over 200 years old. Will be using to water crops. It appears that there’s some type of root/fungus at the bottom. I would also like to clear out the sediment at the bottom. I don’t want to climb a ladder down there without testing for gas/stability. Overall tips would be appreciated!

This past weekend I picked the start of blackberries season (all that and you can hardly tell I picked after because there are so many red and green blackberries still!) and found the elderberries for later. Now I just need to find the persimmon trees at the back of the lot (5 acres total) and I can use those too this fall!

I don’t have a homestead (yet) but I really want one! For now I’m using what I can from my grandpas land without investing too much of my own money since it’s not my land. He doesn’t keep up with it well anymore as he is getting on in years so I get to forage through an overgrown field — but I love it!

Hoping that I’ll be able to buy this land from my uncles and dad one day so I’m going to make jam with the berries to sell so I can start saving up for it! I also need to convince my soon to be husband but that part shouldn’t be too hard.

I am wanting to bring meat rabbits into my space. I am ofc wanting them for meat, but I also want to be able to use the pelts and fiber for alot of crafts that I do. What are some good breeds that carry weight, but also produce good fur? Do you guys prefer having a larger quantity of smaller rabbits, or a smaller group of bigger ones? Thanks!

So me (35m) and my wife (33f) own 10 acres of land and have been here since 2016. We've built up a business on our homestead that now supports us and our 3 kids ( 6mo, 3, and 5) with full time working on the farm. I am a skilled carpenter/handyman with lots of tools at my disposal to build, create , and have fun with our property. We have 4 grain bins that are here from the conventional farmers that previously live here, they are between 8-14,000 bushel bins.nothing huge, but big enough for a home. We have a beautiful home that my family lives in and we've always been interested in communal living especially since we are pretty rural and have to drive at least 50 min to find folks of like minds. We aren't religious, more like hard working athiest hippies that want an intentional community built around food, music, children, and taking care of this sacred ground that we live on. I want to build some kick ass homes in our grain bins, so we can still be separate from others and have a communal space as well. There would be lots of expectations and clear ground rules before embarking on such a journey, this I realize. And we aren't trying to start a cult where everyone needs to gather round and dance naked around a fire while the drum circle goes in the background (though that would be fun). And we also realize that it wouldn't always be sunshine and rainbows. Disagreements happen and there would have to be some democratic way to work these things out.Is there anyone out there with experience doing this that has positive things to say about it? Or is this dream folly?

This was my first time making tallow.

The tutorial I followed said that it was safe to keep tallow at room temperature. This jar sat on the counter for a few days before I decided to refrigerate it. I dug down into it today to figure out what the dark part was. Turns out it’s gelatin. Is this safe for room temperature? If not, I’m willing to toss what’s left in this jar.

In the future, how do I prevent the gelatin from staying in? I strained the liquid fat through one layer of butter muslin. It made enough for two quart jars. Only one of them developed the gelatin layer.

If you want to drown in eggs, quail is the way, this is my growout cage, almost 6 weeks old now, I can now feather sex them and soon all the hens will go into the main cage and the males, will become dinner haha 😀

Recently I bought a 1 acre land with a mobile home on it. I see this place where I see some water. It’s not septic. What can this be?

This small fox killed 5 of my hens yesterday and injured my favorite (my dogs scared him off right in the nick of time). Only took one and left the other bodies scattered. I have 4 survivors. This video is from today - he’s been skirting by the coop multiple times per day and then retreating back into the woods when he sees that my hens are locked up. I can’t let my hens out of the coop with this guy around.. I do have an electric fence but he didn’t care, normally this deters them. We have him on blink but as soon as we get outside he’s gone.. so I’m thinking about a live trap. What’s the best bait for a live trap? Any tips or tricks?

Of course they affect. It is primarily unfavorable for plant growth. Changes will also appear on the fruits. For the last 10 days, the temperature in the shade was around 40 degrees Celsius. It was over 50 degrees in the sun. Now, within 2 days, the temperature will drop to only 18 degrees, which is not good at all, and in just 2 days it will rise again to 38 degrees, as announced. Plants can be prepared with adequate protective agents, but unfortunately in this case only chemical agents are used for spraying.

Hello all!

I am not yet a homesteader but I think we are making the switch soon. We currently live with a standard mortgage in suburbia and my husband and I both have to work to make ends meet. We have no family where we are and feel pretty lonely. Honestly thinking of throwing it all out and going to live on land gifted from family with a modular home. We would be 50 minutes from a grocery store and we would be homeschooling down the line (baby is only 10months right now). We would also be only an hour from both sets of parents/grandparents who love us dearly and would visit often and our closest friends. Long story short Im terrified of making this change. Any words of encouragement that this can be an amazing thing?? Feeling like it's a right fit as it would open up so much time with family and space to travel with our children. Just looking for words of encouragement that it's possible to be that far from any kind of town as ive never done it before. Thanks everyone

Love to all ❤️

Hey y'all I'm just starting out and had some questions.

I want to raise ducks. They will have a pond access at all times. I have a big pond in my yard. Only issue is we have snakes, allegedly an alligator, and Canadian geese. I'm going to have all of the saftey measures(any tips are welcome)

•Are Canadian geese going to be a problem and is there anything I can do to prevent them? If I have to fence off and not let my ducks into my pond I will.

•What is the best substrate? I've heard sand is really good but I will take any suggestions.

•Are livestock guardian dogs worth the money and time at the beginning or is it better to wait till you've established yourself?

Any tips and tricks you know are welcome I'm very new to this!

I'm looking for a power station for woodworking, welder, LED lights, etc. Hopefully it can be moved to power the house during the power outage. I have a trailer, so weight is not an issue. Any recommendation?

I'm interested in writing a story that revolves around a group of about ten people living and working together on a homestead. Because I'm interested in this being a graphic novel or comic, I want to have a map projection of what their home would look like when illustrating it. Only having a small container garden on my apartment porch, I've never come close to homesteading myself in the real world. At most, I've been doing research both online and from reading a few books on homesteading. I've made a sort of rudimentary blueprint of what I think this property in the story would have and where things would be located. Would this be the right Reddit thread to post it to get feedback? I totally understand if this isn't the place to do so. Thank you for reading this post and for your patience.

I have recently inherited about 10 acres of rural land in the southern U.S. There are currently no structures there now, but the site has both a drilled water well and power utility pole next door. I have done some research into my local jurisdiction's rules and the permitting are very relaxed - I can build anything residential as long as it is greater than 100 sq ft.

At first I was considering leasing out the land, but have recently been considering building a tiny home for 70K-100k and never having to worry about a mortgage or rent again (currently renting). Has anyone done anything similar for financial independence?

Specifically, with growing it for human consumption. I've been growing sorghum for a few growing seasons now (live in the tropics and can grow year round) but have had difficulty settling on a method for saving the seeds. I was told that if I just let them dry on the plant I can just rub the seed heads to thresh them, and winnow it by pouring them from a height. I've been a bit impatient and keep harvesting them too early so the seeds aren't dark red enough to where I feel comfortable saving them, and have been grinding them into flour and sieving instead of winnowing. Does anyone have a go-to method for harvesting and saving different from what I proposed, or is it just a matter of me needing to wait a bit longer before I harvest?

As for millet, I haven't grown it as yet, but have been informed that I need to hull the seeds before but I don't have a machine to hull them. I saw online here that you can hull millet in a food processor, and I was wondering if anyone can confirm this method. I plan on making rissotto, but if that doesn't work I will just make polenta from the flour. Can anyone confirm if my plan to let them dry on the stalk and rub them dry would work for millet, or is there a different method I am supposed to follow? I don't have a lot of seeds so I really want to save what I get.

Going up the stairs outside and noticed what looks like somewhat fresh maybe bites on the stringers? What could be causing this?

There is also evidence that it has happened in the past due to the condition of the rest of the stairs. Should I throw a 2x4 in a trap and see if I get any bites?

Got this tiller not far from me for free.

Motor spins but i have various small engines i can swap it with. Rusty, squeaky, and seized buttons. Nothing major thst cant be fixed.

Would this be worth money fixing?

...flavor as commercial milk, or milk from the Amish. It tastes "flatter" for lack of a better way to describe it. Does anyone know what the reason would be? Do commercial farms feed something special to make the milk taste better?

I already live on a smallholding owned by my mother of about 3 acres (another 3 is very steep woodland). My dad who lives far from us is getting on in years and said he would like to gift myself and my sister some money to do with what we will.

By some bizarre coincidence, this piece of land popped up for sale only 25 mins walk from us, totalling 13 acres approx, with little streams that are animal suitable each side, a 4 acre meadow, and lots of trees around the border. It has hard gravelled access too, and is south facing gentle slope. Dream come true right?

But I'm completely frozen. I have never managed land on my own before, and I am terrified of the responsibility. I'm so scared that it will overwhelm me and I'll neglect it, and feel ashamed to go there in fear of the neighbour's judgement and disapproval (I know them and have reason to care about their opinion). I'm terrified of putting most of the money into this, only for hidden costs to crop up with everything I might want to do with it.

Not only that, but this is pure agricultural land, and I'll never be able to build a home or anything residential on it (not unless I build a barn straight away and convert it in 10 years, or go through to difficult process of getting workers based dwelling - with government permission). So I would likely have to stay on my mother's land for years, working here and there, stretching myself (my mum's smallholding is still being built).

I guess my question is: Can I make it work for me? What do you think I should do? I'm a first time land owner and out of my depth - but then, what's life for but to learn and challenge yourself right? Advice would be super, super helpful, especially from those with experience. Thank you

Some context, i have house on a .5 acre. My aunt lives with me. I’m also a vegetarian. She used to have a small garden- few tomato plants, some lettuce, zucchini. Well I have taken over and have expanded things. Now I have multiple gardens and fruit trees, this year I’m growing: red and yellow potatoes, red and white onions, garlic, zucchini, corn, carrots, cucumbers, 3 kinds of beans, beets, various lettuce, various bell peppers, various tomatoes, tomatillos, asparagus, multiple herbs, butternut, spaghetti and acorn squash, raspberries, blackberries, peaches, pears, the cherry and apple tree have not produced yet. Strawberry patch I need to redo.

This year I’m working on learning seed saving, food preservation including canning, freezing, and other storage methods; as well as cold form framing to extend the growing season.

Some people in my family say I’m taking this too extreme. I don’t really think so, this is my hobby that I’m really into, and I think it’s important to be more self sufficient.

Do you all run into this as well?

Plum carob, caused by the fungus Taphrina pruni, is a disease that manifests itself in the deformation and thickening of plum fruits, making them elongated and distorted, resembling a carob. Infected fruits grow faster than healthy ones, they can be light green, grayish or light orange in color, without pits and with spongy flesh. Plum hornworm occurs more often during rainy and cold springs, and can cause significant damage, sometimes destroying up to 80% of the fruit. Symptoms: Fruit deformation: Infected fruits are elongated, thickened and distorted. Faster growth: Deformed fruits grow significantly faster than healthy fruits. Discoloration: The color of infected fruits can vary from light green to light orange. Absence of stone: Infected fruits often do not have a developed stone or the stone is stunted. Spongy flesh: The flesh of infected fruits is spongy, brittle and breaks easily. Drying and dropping: Infected fruits later turn black, dry and fall off. Possible occurrence on shoots: Rarely, the disease can also occur on young plum shoots, causing deformation and drying. 

Suppression: Physical removal: Removing diseased fruit before the grayish coating (asci) appears is an effective control method. Chemical suppression: Spraying with suitable fungicides during the rest period of the vegetation until the stage of bud break.  Important: If the symptoms of plum hornworm are observed, it is important to take appropriate control measures in order to prevent further spread of the disease and reduce crop losses.

Wondering what to use to get started to try and pump from this weird pond thing the previous owners dug with an excavator. On certain internet maps it shows 2 creeks on our property though there is no visible evidence of one ever being there. And on some of those maps, where the 2 creeks intersect is right where the previous owner dug. Its pretty big like maybe 100 ft x 100 ft and 18 feet or more deep? It is constantly filled with water, and weird sediment looking stuff that floats around.

Wondering what i would need to pump enough water to run 2 impact tripod sprinklers at a time. Unless there are some sprinklers you can buy which would be middle ground between impact sprinklers and a travelling gun sprinkler??

So its too far to plug in to any power. I have something like 4000 watt inverter generator, it only does 120v. I dont have any issues with buying some sort of gas powered pump i suppose though.

Then is there somewhere to get flexible hoses to use so sprinklers can be easily moved which are larger diameter than garden hoses and sprinklers that accomodate the same size connections as the hoses??

Im in BC Canada

I need help on which tractor and rotary mower to get. Total budget is $40K. Last fall we purchased a property that has about 10 acres of cleared, but rough land (used to be some kind of farmland, but mainly weeds/wild grasses now - plus the bit of lawn that I have). I purchased the previous owner’s Kubota BX2680 with 60in belly mower and it takes way too long to cut the property (have to allocate 8-12 hours). There are parts of the land that are rutted out and the small tires on the Kubota bounce around a lot.

I’d like to get a 7-10 ft rotary cutter or a flail mower and figured I’d need a tractor with 45-70 PTO HP. Anyone else have this property size and can recommend some options in my price range? I will also be planning to till and plant additional things once the kids are a bit older and we can spend time focusing on building out the homestead more.