Hello! I'm hoping to start duckI have a big backyard! I just want eggs and maybe a little meat. I'm thinking I'll start with 5 ducks total. I'm trying to decide on some varieties.

Here's what I had in mind:

Peking

Runner

Muscovy

I'd like something quiet and mostly docile. Also something that won't try to run/fly away. We do have predators. If anyone has advice or perhaps any other varieties I'd really appreciate it.

I need some serious advice. Please excuse my ignorance on anything regarding this topic. I have so much to learn.

What is the best route to take when buying cheap land? Is such a thing even possible? From what I see, all the land available for purchase in my state appears outrageous in price. Are there any alternatives or tips?

We have been looking for years and finally found our spot. If all goes well, we will be able to move in mid October. We are in zone 7b. We hope to develop more of a hobby farm than a homestead. We want a very small flock of chickens and a few ducks for the pond, an orchard with cherry, apple and peach trees, a few grape vines and berry bushes, a vegetable garden and cutting flower garden, basically bigger version of what we had at our previous home.

The home has a fenced in back yard but otherwise the property is all wooded, some gentle slope and a stream following the property line.

What should we do first? What equipment would make developing our property easier?

Eventually, I would like to keep three Olde English Southbound Babydoll Sheep, for my kid's 4-H club projects, living lawn mowers, fertilizer and wool. What kind of shelter would best keep my tiny flock safe?

Any tips on the best way to clear cut some areas of the property for pastures? This is a big undertaking and we plan to work on it for the rest of our lives so there is no rush but we also want to make the most of the time we have. Thanks for sharing anything that worked for your homestead!

hi i search a little manual machine for my own consumption, i would like make some Butter with the raw milk buy what i find are expansive.... if you can help me to find one manual or a other way to make without losing something, sorry for my english iam not natif speaker

Hey everyone 👋🏼

I am living off-grid and looking into a hot water on demand and wanting to get some 'running' water going to a sink and a bathroom area.

Lol let's just say that I am SO over boiling pots of water and pouring into the sink.

I am a little overwhelmed at it all though. There's a lot of information about EVERYTHING and I need help narrowing down what to focus on first.

Any direction would be absolutely wonderful 😊

A little about my place: -No well (expensive and saving for), we collect rain water and gravity feed -We are full solar and gas generator for backup, but we turn off the power during the night

• we use a privy (outhouse) but would love to convert to a very low water flushing toilet

-depending on the winter, we can't hold much water if any. We aren't able to keep heat going if we have to go out for a few nights like Christmas.

Again, any direction on where to start, maybe YouTubers to check out or any personal advice from your own experience would be greatly appreciated for this homesteader 💕

Take care!

Hey y’all , just bought 13 acres in SW VA , there’s so much potential in this property it’s over half cleared and there is a nice creek around 75% of it . Right now we just have a camper on it and will be building a home and getting goats and chickens . The price tag for all that needs to be done is really high and I’m hoping to offset it by generating some money from the land . What are some ways you guys with similar properties are doing so .

https://preview.redd.it/j1x5xyjf87od1.jpg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4f4c4b0365aa3fd774cafda5dab2fbb9a08916d5

https://preview.redd.it/h5w0x9jy87od1.jpg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4b5e7ee32060fdf867b3c8133463d049e5f8354e

https://preview.redd.it/ial21t2197od1.jpg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=23c5f8bed4254765b79958ac0c547448042b45a7

Can someone explain to me or point me towards a resource that can help me know when it’s the right time to save seeds? I’m struggling to know when is the right time to deadhead and collect seeds…. How can I tell the seeds are fully developed and it’s time to cut them down? How can I tell if I’ve waited too long and the seeds have dropped or birds have eaten them and only the chaff is left? Are there any tips to get my timing right?

I’ve gardened for years, but this is my first time saving seeds (perennial flowers, annual flowers zone 5, and herbs….no veggies this year) and I don’t want to waste time collecting and sorting if I don’t have the timing down correctly….

Also, is it recommended to stick all seeds in a dehydrator before storing? I live in the upper peninsula of Michigan where it’s reallyyyy humid in the summers but really dry all winter and am worried they will spoil, but again don’t want to create extra steps if it’s not necessary. I have seed envelopes and tiny silica gel packs to put in each envelope to save them.

Obviously I’ve googled articles and watched videos but everything is also so simplified and I want someone to break things way down and provide more thorough info about correct process and correct markers to look for.

Any and all advice/resources are greatly appreciated!

I suspect most folks are using excel or google sheets for tracking animals. That COULD work if anyone's willing to share a template or I guess I can work on one. We are currently self-serving only but starting to branch into sales and I need to be able to more accurately track my costs and inventory so I can determine prices, etc.

We have a lot of animals at this place: button quail, multiple colors/types of coturnix quail, pheasants, multiple breeds of chickens, guinea fowl, multiple breeds of turkeys, emu, goats, sheep, mice, rats, snakes, dogs, cats, rabbits, etc.

I would like to keep track of everything from acquisition info: price, acquisition date, acquisition age, birth date, acquisition location to costs--feed/equipment/caging/etc to vaccines and anything else anyone can think of.

Anyone have any recs or wanna share how they do it? Thanks.

We do plants too--but I can't imagine there's an affordable app to do ALL THAT tracking all in one, is there?

I have been developing a couple acres of land for food production and Ive noticed that tons of homesteading content seems to have either religious or right wing/prepper overtones.

Could anyone reccomend some content that doesn't get too much in the weeds with the strange messages?

So awhile ago I canned some beans and went to grab some today. Guess I didn’t let them soak long enough or something because they have slowly soaked up more liquid 🤔 I’m wondering if anyone knows if it is unsafe to consume them since they are above the liquid line? Thank you for your time ☺️

We're lucky enough to have a dug out groundwater well on the back of our property from the original homestead here in the late 1800s, it's 4 feet wide and about 20 feet deep (it's covered with a concrete slab for saftey, but there's an opening I currently have a hand-pump piped in for water. I only use it for watering the garden and our pumpkin patch, maybe 10 gallons a day, but I'd like to make it so my wife or I don't need to do all the pumping ourselves and then lugging the watering cans around.

The water table seems to keep the water at about 10 feet in the well all year, is there a good shallow well pump I should get that has enough power to at least power a garden hose and/or a few irrigation drip lines?

Thanks in advance.

i have an old hand dug well, 10m / 33ft deep, on the property (not used for potable water).

i take care to keep the lid closed when ever possible, but there is three or four frogs or toads inside. (could be that they even dug their way inside, the well walls are built with big natural stones with gaps, and our frogs or toads here do dig deep into rock gaps to survive mediterranean summer)

anyone has an idea how to get them out?

So we finally moved out the city and got a house with 4 acres. 3 fenced in and just got 3 baby ducks. I want to get into more homestead. What would the next upgrade of thing to do it.

I am considering taking a portion of my land to convert to natural prairie. The problem is it's currently standard residential turf grass. How would you go about killing it? I can use roundup, I saw plowing is a potential option. I'm in Iowa on a 110 y/o house and have about 1-2ft of black dirt. It seems tilling is a bad idea. I'm just looking for the best way to kill a half acre of grass. If it was a small area I'd just smother it but this is too big of an area to smother.

I have a duck with bumblefoot and ive been told to do the surgery myself as I do not have any vets around here that work on birds. Plus I am also dead broke so a vet bill is impossible!! Please help me what do i do. I tried to get rid of the bumble but it is deep in there and I have an extreme fear of blood. I passed out and threw up and cant handle it. My husband knows nothing about ducks so hes not comfortable doing it either. We are exhausted trying to help her and i am beside myself trying to find someone who can do it :(

Had a few dozen processed yesterday. They are cold in ice. Would it be okay to put them in shrink bags and dip in 180 degree water for 5 seconds?

Okay, so maybe we grew too many pole beans this year. I haven't even looked at it in two weeks now and dread the inevitable bumpercrop of woody inedible pods.

So my youngest daughter shelled a bunch of them and darn if they dont look like something I could make soup or chili with! Does anyone her have any suggestions, thoughts or experience with using shelled green beans?

Hello everyone, I am new. I was just wondering if anyone here has/is homesteading in Guatemala? If so, what are the rewards and challanges? Thanks in advance for your advice.

What do you use? Maybe something I hadn't considered yet.

I'm looking for something...

-12VDC

-Good head (~5GPM @ 30ft. high)

-Designed for pumping mucky frog pond water with leaves, bugs, etc, not for "clean water"

Am I looking for a unicorn? Basically want something portable that I could use for daily rotations off-grid.

(I also posted this to the ranching forum)

Many of the PTO generators I've seen run at 540rpm at the PTO, but that's like 2500rpm on my Kubota L3902 engine. Also, they're all pretty robust, like 15kw, 25kw, etc. Is there a, say, 5kw generator on the market that will allow me to run my tractor at 1000 rpm or whatever? Is it possible (or worth it) to homebrew such a solution?

Thanks in advance.

Hey Beautiful People! A thousand thanks for even clicking! My partner has this fantasy of starting our family in the Eugene area of the Pacific NW, but I got nauseous when I was clicking through $120k an acre. I've checked the other topics & couldn't find anything within the last 5 years that helped us. She fell in love with the type of people in the area (learned, young families attached to cultivating healthy lifestyles) & I concur. In 2024, which states/ counties/ towns do you personally, first or 2nd hand, know could be a progressive, homesteading area for us to buy 10 acres or so, & eventually homeschool our children in. Within the $50k to $400k vicinity. Either, with structures, or raw, off-grid land. Either way, would love to build extra log cabins, yurt structures, & grey-water systems (& everything that goes with the carbon neutral goals). I would suffer through winters for her, though I'm from Key West. I would love to exhaust all areas in her dreamland of the PNW, but I am looking for all Plan B's for us. A Thousand & One Thanks, now! Sincerely, Eric & Bri

**Edit: I've been getting more replies regarding the word, "progressive," than the actual homesteading question. Things have flipped, nowadays. At one time, it was the progressives moving into the cities, living on Broadway, & talking about changing the world at bars. Now, it's the progressives that want to live right outside of a town, protect the town from becoming overrun, & have a healthy, Farmer's Market style community. So, just that, with many young families, is what I was asking. A thousand & 2 thanks, now!

Planted a few corn just to see if it would grow. All other plants died, this is the only one that grew actual corn, but clearly didn’t do well.

Any tips?

I’ve never ordered baby chickens before, so I was looking for a little input as far as a good hatchery to visit online? I want to avoid tractor supply because I’ve noticed they let a lot of cocks into the mix. I’m looking for silkies and polish hens specifically, but I really just wanted to know more about which hatcheries are good and which ones to avoid. Anyone have any feedback on the reputations of some of these websites?

I just got these quote for drilling a well in central Florida. Most wells in this area are around 100-160 feet.

What do you guys think? Anything I should be asking about?

Quote 1 - $9000

Pump type (HP) 1

Standard control box

Pump volt single phase

Submersible pump 20 Gpm @ 40-60 PSI

Pump wire size 14

Drop pipe size 1 1/4 PVC

24 in/24 in PVC pad

Tank size 144 gal

Well head 1 in PVC

1 in brass ball valve

One 3/4 brass spigots

Well casing 4 in

Final well depth 140 ft

Well casing depth 84 ft

Pump set 60 ft

Water level 5 ft

Lead time 4 to 6 weeks

Quote 2 - $8350

Up to 120 ft of 4" drilling ($12 per additional foot)

Up to 84 ft of 4"galvanized steel casing ($28 per additional foot)

Permit

1 HP, 230 volt, 2-wire, 1 phase submersible pump

62 gallon pressure tank

PVC drop pipe

Submersible wire, relief valve, pressure switch, pressure gauge

Not included water line connection to existing plumbing, electrical connection to existing electrical.

Quote 3 - $7500

100 ft, $35 per additional foot. 

42 ft 1 1/4 galvanized drop pipe and 55 ft 14/3 submersible cable. Any additional drop pipe and submersible will be charged at $14 foot after the 42 ft included in base bid.

1 hp sta-rite 20 gpm

Galvanized T

Junction box

Quick disconnect

1 h control box

Included hooking well pump to existing double pole 20 amp within 15 ft from well

Included plumbing attachments within 15 ft from well

Include permits

Quote 4 - $13,000

4" Deep well 140 ft

1 hp submersible pump and motor

4x1,25" well seal

1hp control box

Check valve

Steel drop pipe

Galvanized tee and plug

12/3 with ground wire and heat shrinks

86 gallon tank and switch