What is Homesteading?

So what exactly is homesteading? I was recently listening to a podcast where he tried to define homesteading. As society progresses words often times pick up new meaning So what does it mean today? Here is what I feel it means today. Living a self sustaining life. This could be extream or it could be minimal. It could mean you live on 50 acres and raise a huge garden filled with a variety of veggies and fruits, raise cattle, milk goats, use work horses, chop your own wood, and can everything you grow. Or it could simply be someone with a dream and a small balcony off their city apartment with potted plants of tomatoes, squash, lettuce, radishes, and spinach. It's doing as much as you can with what little you have. 

So you live in a city in a trailer park with a tiny yard you say? What can you do besides just dream you ask? Well I will tell. Container gardens and raised beds would be perfect for this situation. You would be amazed how much food you can grow in a small space. You can even get some worm bins and make yourself some very nice soil called vermiculture. Most city's allow rabbits and a lot even allow chickens. A trio of rabbits, depending on breed, can produce more less 480lbs of meat a year. Need more? Add another doe. Another very simple livestock to raise would be quail, need very little room and you will get eggs and meat. Depending on your city ordinances you can get a couple chickens or even a dairy goat. So look here, a small shed and some containers and raised beds in a tiny yard and you have eggs, meat, and veggies. No you will not be able to do as much as someone with 10 acres but you are on your way. 

Homesteading is a way of life, a state of mind, not where you live or how many acres you have. How do I know? Because I'm the one that lives in that trailer with the tiny yard. I made lots of excuses why I couldn't follow my dream but that's all they were, excuses! Follow me on Facebook on the page "two chicks and a Homestead Dream" to see what all we do and how it's going. Ultimately the goal is to move to the country but doing what we can where we are for now.

What I'm up too

I know it's been awhile and I thought about just starting a completely new blog but then figured I would just continue with this one. I have had a lot of life changes including a divorce that has caused me to start over the past few years but I'm back to making my dream to homesteading and sustainable living come true. Starting completely over on this Journey now. Watch how I progress. I still have my 15 acre pasture how ever it's going to take some time before my tiny house out there becomes a reality. I currently live in town in a trailer house with a tiny yard. I'm going to show you just how much you can do in town.

I currently have American Curly Horses on my pasture but as things progress I'll be adding goats and poultry again. I plan to build some coups and have various poultry eggs for sale for eating and hatching as time progresses. In the mean time I will be transforming my tiny yard into an editable landscape and will also raise some meat rabbits a quail in town (both legal where I live) follow me to see just how much I can grow and raise in my tiny yard. I have included a pic of my tiny yard and some of my buns. Right now I have mostly NZW rabbits and hope to add a pair or 2 of Rex for fur one of these days. I will also be starting to make jewelry again and will sell quail eggs and meat rabbits to help support this tiny little city homestead. I'm always open for bartering! I think bartering is a fantastic way of living.

So follow me on Facebook on the page here https://m.facebook.com/Two-Chicks-and-a-Dream-159452617792463/ and watch how we progress. This should be an interesting learning curve.

Will water buffalo be soon coming to Sacred Wind Farm?

Yes its true, I want some water buffalo. Imagine that, only me. Well I have been researching them as well as yak and bison, but I believe the water buffalo would suit my needs better. I want a dairy bovine and have been looking for alternative live stock. I like them becouse they are not terribly large, give a good amount of milk, are soposed to be a very gentle animal and will do draft work with ease. Im goin to start with a pair of young heifers and when they get older will purchase a bull for them. This will give me time to just work with them on ground work. Hope to have them help me plow my garden spot and clear my driveway of snow in the winter and pull an ox cart in parades.

I am going to be geting rid of some of my goats, Only going to be keeping 3-5 nanny goats and a buck....who stays and who goes??? hmmm good question, decisions, decisions.

Life of a Milk Maid

Well it has been 11 days since I have picked up my milking goats, I have gone from just under 2.5 pints 1X a day to 4+ pints 2X a day. So I am up to about a gal a day! It has been a learning curve for me however, I started out feeding alfalfa pellets since there were no alfalfa in small bales to be found. However yesterday I was able to get some small alfalfa bales and wow what a difference in production and taste. The rest of the milk from the alfalfa pellets will be used to make soap. I will let you know how that goes, my yogurt was a flop but I will try that again soon. I am currently waiting ever so patiently for my order from Hoager supply to arrive today. It will have my milk pail with lid, a strainer, and all the stuff I need to make cheese as well as the udder care kit. I do have to stop at Bluestem today to get more half Gal jars and some more lids, I have milk coming out my ears!

Today when I took Annabell out to milk, I got her on the stand and started to milk, I heard a ruckus from Lacy in the stall and as I turned around she came bounding up to the milk stand, she managed to jump out! Of course this pisses Annabell off, she does not like to share her grain so I had a fight going on on the milk stand, I managed to grab the milk and save it then grabbed a rope and tied up Lacy till I was done with Annabelle. Wow that was exciting. I know what my next project will be, make the stall wall Higher! LOL

Goats, Goats, What to do with them??

Ok so now I am up to 12 goats and a really nice huge colored meat buck that will arive in June. Now where do I put them all? The 2 I am milking are kept in their own small pen and the others are mixed together in a bigger pen but still dryloted. I am tring to decide the best way to fence our pasture as well as our 3.5 acre lot. I think Ill use a mix of field fence, barbed wire around the top and a strand of hot wire around the inside middle. We can not however use our lot till July when the wheat gets harvested. But I think thats what we will fence for them first.

I am geting almost 2 quarts a day from my 2 dairy goats im milking, I have begune milking 2X a day in hopes to get back some of their milk production and its been working. I just orderd some supplies so I can make cheese and yogurt as well, cant wait for that to get here! I am going to atempt to make some yogurt later today from a store bought yogurt culture and I have a lot of frozen strawberrys that I froze severel months ago so Im hoping that will be good. Wish me luck!

Thats about all for today but Ill update with how the yogurt making goes.
I was looking today and it apears that one of my nubians is posibly just starting to get a bag, Ill look closer tomorrow storm was coming and I was tring to get chores done. Heres hoping for a baby!

First tast of raw goat milk!!! MMMM

Ok so its been a long weekend. Went to pick up the goats and drop off a horse. The had not been milked in a couple days so Of the 2 goats still milking I am getting about 1 quart a day. Not as much as I had hoped but I'm hoping they don't completely dry up. I had my first glass of raw goat milk this morning. last nights milking was cold and in the fridge when my FIL came by, I made him my guinea pig. He tasted it and said it was ok so I finally tried it...mmmm...was pretty good. Was thicker than store bought and had a slightly different taste than store bought cow milk but I totally expected that. can not wait to get a couple more does in milk, so I can make that cheese. Right now we will only be getting barely enough that we use for drinking and such.

Today we went to look at some myotonic goats, I like them allot but still up in the air if that's the kind of buck I want. If we were raising a pure bred breed I would say definatly say yes but since we will be breeding for the meat market I'm thinking a boer is in need here for fast growth and adding more meat to our dairy does. But money is tight right now and I can not afford either just yet. My husband that has never really understood my wanting to homestead ways is very into the goats so this is nice. He was even tyring to figure a way to buy the Boer mix that we really want to add muscle to our herd.

Here is some pics of the new goats enjoy....

And the 2 milking girls, a saanen and a Lamancha mix...

We also had some jumbo cotornix quail start hatching....

More Dairy goats coming soon!

Well I will be going back down to trade a mare for 5 dairy goats and 2 baby weathers this weekend. Now I ll be looking for a big meaty buck to cross on them to start my meat heard. 3 of the new does will be in milk so Ill get to start milking, making cheese and soaps and all sorts of good stuff. Will be looking for recipes soon. Will updating with pics as soon as they come home.

I do have a dilemma however. What kind of buck to get? I like the Tennessee Meat Goats but I also like the Boer crosses and I have my eye on a couple. But I do have awhile, I cant afford one right now anyway but I am drooling at various sites. Will update soon!