Oh - P.S. Deseret - when the kids are old enough, consider getting them into a 4H group. It's a great program, the kids will have fun and learn stuff, and you'll be able to meet good people who can teach you how to do pretty much any farm chore you might need to learn.
Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.
This is something I've always been interested in but living in the city I'm not sure if I can even have chickens :'(
We will be renting my grandmas house in a couple months (She passed away this summer) and hopefully will be able to buy it in a few years. While renting I KNOW I can't have chickens (had to beg to keep my cat) but I might when we buy it because A. chicken prices in the stores are REDICULOUS and B. I feel better knowing what has and hasn't gone into my food.
Then tho there is the coon and possom problem in the city as well
[quote author=B. de Corbin link=topic=256.msg3006#msg3006 date=1287141992]
Oh - P.S. Deseret - when the kids are old enough, consider getting them into a 4H group. It's a great program, the kids will have fun and learn stuff, and you'll be able to meet good people who can teach you how to do pretty much any farm chore you might need to learn.
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I've been looking at 4H out here, and you're right, it's excellent. Girl scouts, too, which you can't find anywhere in Utah.
B. de Corbin I like goats milk, but no one else dose. Its also very difficult to make butter with it.
Recycled storage shed container homes are probably the most innovative thing I have seen in awhile. Not only are they cheap but durable and the design is only limited by your imagination. At around a 1000 USD a storage container the sky is the limit for possibilities. http://green.yahoo.com/blog/daily_gr...er-houses.html
[quote author=catsraven link=topic=256.msg3252#msg3252 date=1287186673]
B. de Corbin I like goats milk, but no one else dose. Its also very difficult to make butter with it.
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That's because the chemical makeup of goat's milk is very different from that of cow's, with a smaller fat globule structure. This article might be helpful, if you haven't seen it before.
We have chickens, ducks, guineas, goats, sheep, and a donkey.
For eggs and meat, look into getting hatching eggs or straight run chicks. When you can start to tell the difference between cockerels (males) and pullets (females), butcher the cockerels except one. Then let the roo fertilize eggs and hatch out another batch. That way you don't get too attached to them - and if you do, just wait until you have 10 roosters and trust me, you will be wringing necks yourself. Wyandottes are a good dual purpose breed (originally called Winnebagos which is what I still refer to mine as - they are HUGE).
We have some Indian runners. While absolutely hilarious to watch run around, the Khaki Campbells lay more eggs. But runners eggs are slightly bluish/greenish which is cool.
We make goat milk butter. You can either get a cream separator or let the milk sit undisturbed in a shallow vessel for 3 days - then you can skim the cream. There's also another way to do it with a sun tea jar but I haven't tried it yet.
Er, what else? Can't think of anything else to add right now!
The Pagan Porch - a Pagan Homesteading forum
Sand Holler Farm Blog - aren't you just dying to know what I do all day?
I'm a big fan of earth lodges and viking pit houses. Yet, dirt floors are hard to keep clean though...
The viking pit house stays naturally cool as it is basically a pit with the upper half of a house built over it. The vikings used some of these in the summer, though it might be pretty cold in the winter...
Also quite nice, the Mandan earth lodges were a little bigger than the pit houses, but needed to be re-built every six or so years.
I wonder how difficult it would be to build one now. If the Mandan could do it with no heavy machinery, maybe I can build one in my backyard...?
[quote author=Sparrowings link=topic=86.msg7902#msg7902 date=1288322763]
I'm a big fan of earth lodges and viking pit houses. Yet, dirt floors are hard to keep clean though...
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This is really the kind of thing I want to build for my studio. I'll have to open up some skylights for lighting, but it's just the kind of thing I've been thinking about. I'm thinking that if you lay down heavy sheets of plastic on the roofboards before you cover it with soil and sod it'll prevent rot over the long term. The dirt floor's not a problem. If you nail a cleat to he inside near the dirt floor, you can lay joists across it and put in a raised floor.
Soil is a good insulator, so as long as you have a heat source inside (like a wood stove) it should be easy to heat.
I have two sites picked out on the back acres... all I need now is the energy.
Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.
Dirt floors might be ideal for a studio, if you make a mess you can jusr sweep it away!
The only problem I forsee with this is when it rains you might get an indoor pool if it's not built on high enough ground. I wonder if putting in a cement wall lining around the pit would help prevent that, or if the cement would also break down eventually too... None of the articles I've read so far describe how the vikings kept their pit houses from becoming waterlogged, so maybe it just wasn't a problem for them.
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