First time here, but I looked over some posts and saw an opportunity for some learning.

I went to a friends parents place for Thanksgiving and his father was homesteading 30 acres with chickens, turkeys, goats, sheep, bees, and cows. I asked him all kinds of questions regarding the "how" of what got him to this point. He told me a couple things about exemptions, head count, property tax... But it was all surface level, preliminary.

I currently live smack in the middle of Texas, literally the middle. I've always had an eye on the market for land, and watch with some despair as everything just keeps getting listed at higher and higher prices. I've looked into buying on my own, and the USDA programs, but it seems like there's always a better way to do something that I haven't found yet because no one bothers to mention it. So I bide my time, just keep researching and finding new things.

When I was young adult I volunteered at places fixing fences, feeders, plumbing, and doing basic carpentry. Spent the majority of my early years hunting, fishing, crabbing, spearfishing, sailing/boating, foraging, gardening, camping, and being a general nuisance-child of the pine woods. Eventually trained under a journeyman blacksmith, even got some soldering, welding, sintering, casting, lathe/mill, HVAC, heavy machinery, and fabrication experience in my adventures. I graduated college with an AS in mechanical engineering. Self-taught IT, FDM manufacturing, and CAD. Eventually found a comfortable career that makes use of my engineering and systems knowledge working from home. I contract and and train technicians all over the country building corporate network infrastructure.

What I don't have any experience or knowledge in is property tax law and acquiring land. This aspect was completely skipped in my upbringing. I'm used to the idea of DYI in nearly every aspect of my life and rarely, if ever, rely on outside assistance... But this one has stumped me. There's no concise information, everything seems to be buried deep in codified articles that vary wildly across counties, and finding a good deal appears to rely heavily on social networking.

I'm at my wits end, where does someone even start in this venture?

I have about a 1,000' driveway that runs N to S in MN. To the west is a 4 acre field that I dont own. I only own about 10'-15' to the west of the driveway. Drifting can be a problem during those very cold blizzards.

I know from ready a snow fence should be a good distance west of the driveway, but I dont own that land. Theoretically I could ask the farmer if I could put one up in the future.

Ive always thought about putting up a line of evergreens along the driveway for privacy/aesthetics (and before i researched, i also thought it might help with snow). Is there any way i can make that help with snow? If its tall enough will the snow drift start later than the driveway? Are there any options for putting a fence NEAR the protected area?

My wife and I are early phases of homestead prep. Cutting out the last bits of debt, touring properties, finally telling friends and family about the plan, etc. Our current plan has us making the move before spring.

We both work fully remote and the plan is for her to slowly phase out of her job after a year or two while I maintain mine.

With Christmas coming up I’d love to hear any suggestions folk may have for gifts. In your experience, are there any EDCs, tools, attachments, games/entertainment, etc that have made a big difference and would make a great gift to a fresh homesteader?

We have been harvesting our own pigs for almost a decade and we've never eaten the feet because we don't know what to do with them. I've tried Googling and I'm sure the information is out there but I can't seem to get the right keywords. How do you make raw pig feet straight from the pig ready for the kitchen???

We do use the scald and scrape method so everything is skin-on. However, the toes make it quite hard to scrape in all the little nooks and crannies.

Pic for attention. TIA!!

https://preview.redd.it/nz7q510ki94e1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=61c0f9e9cda470acd2f6a7f138e097c5b6bb7e83

I live in central Indiana. I have been renting land for farming for several years. A developer has just bought all the land around me. There is no road access for heavy farm equipment. I am looking for ideas to keep the land profitable I would love to hear ideas.

I have some beefy locust posts I was hoping to use for a treehouse. But, they were salvaged from a tree that fell in mid summer.

I’ve read that they’re supposed to be cut in winter if used as posts……

…am I gonna die? Should I go find new ones?

Hello, I just built roughly a 1 acre pond, 14ft deep. Besides the vegetation that should go along some of the shoreline, what kind of ground cover would someone recommend? I’m going to some grass along the shore where my dock is but I’m wondering what else I can do around the rest of the berm.

I was thinking maybe a wildflower mix and possibly a creeping thyme. Any opinions on shoreline seed mix or erosion control seed mix? Thanks.

I've been wondering this for a few years, and when I google it I find nothing. We've had chickens for about 7 years now. When we first got our hens the 50lb bags of oyster shell at my feed store was these flaked bits of shell, very obvious shells from oysters. One day several years ago (I don't remember now if it was right before or right after the pandemic) the bag of shell was suddenly filled with this coarse, pebble looking oyster shell (looks more like limestone to me, but the cats show enough interest I do think it probably comes from some sort of sea life). I have looked high and low for the flakes again and all I find is a tiny box that's close to 20× the price per pound.

Does anyone know why the flaked stuff vanished? Several of my hens refuse to eat the pebbles and We've had a few weak shells here and there as a result. I'd like to put them back on flakes, but not for a 20x mark up. Any ideas?

I love animals! I'm obsessed and I have a tender heart. We currently have a good sized herd of goats, Nigerian Pygmy, two horses, some cats, dogs and of course chickens.

With this many animals there is a lot of love. I feel a strong diligence towards them, to give them my best at all times.

So, when things are more difficult or I fail, we lose and animal by something preventable but not noticed. Or you know there are instances where ist unavoidable but it's hard not to find a way to blame myself.

Does anyone else struggle with this balance? I'm a hobby farmer with goals of making a profit enough to sustain my family-but long term I feel like it's making my anxiety worse in some ways.

I would appreciate some seasoned guidance.

Been doing this shit for a good while and sometimes it don't go according to plan. Just gotta keep putting one step in front of the other 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻 overall worth it.

Last fall and winter were wild, this photo was taken over the cattle water troughs

If I have a cow with a calf how do I make sure I leave enough milk in the udder for the calf to nurse? In addition to this how do I know when a cow's udder is empty?

This is my first time raising broilers, they are almost 9 weeks old and planning on butchering at 10 weeks. However they are a little smaller than I would like.

Currently I have been free feeding from sunrise to sunset about 9.5 hrs.

I am considering feeding them 24/7 to bulk them up the last week before processing. Any pros or cons for this?

Came home from my thanksgiving trip to one of my goats (Nigerian Dwarves) with FOUR BABIES. Candace (pictured here) just had her third.

I went from 3 goats, to (so far) 10, in like 6 hours. They were due tomorrow, and I had my dad checking on them for me. I figured it would be tonight or tomorrow, but they surprised me a bit!

Not sure if this is allowed. But can anyone recommend a jersey cow breeder in New England or nearby?

I have about 0.5 acres of my lot (New England) that was once useable land but has since overgrown with a wide range of weeds, vines, ivy, and other things. I’d like to beat back nature a bit and lay something very low maintenance down, both to try and prevent whats there from returning and the space from turning into a mud pit. The land is wetland adjacent, so I’d like to avoid using chemicals as much as possible. Currently in process of clearing things by brush eater and selectively treating vines / ivy with glyso. Any suggestions on how to go about this?

Our family has a 4000 acre ranch in West Texas and live out of state 10 hours away so cannot spend enough time there to adequately care for it ourselves. In the past, we’ve struggled to find people to help maintain the land who are invested in wanting to live a more rural west Texas life as they seem to head back to city life after a few years despite falling in love with it initially. There is a home on the property, fields for planting, areas to keep farm animals, deer and bird hunting all available to the land manager. If you want to create something on the property, then you can make it your own. The nearest small town is 20 minutes away. The main qualifications are that the manager needs to have plumbing skills, know how to run equipment, be handy fixing things, some knowledge of deer management, and able to work hard. Obviously, there is pay, a vehicle, and health insurance for the primary employee.

Edit: This is primarily a deer hunting property and mostly undeveloped. We do not personally farm or raise cattle out there although we have leased out certain fields to farmers or land for cattle in the past. The climate is dry and arid. The topography of the land and soil vary throughout. We have several wells on site with water sources for animals.

Do you think it is possible to find a couple or a family who would be interested in this and treat the land as their own while also helping with the upkeep of a piece of property this size? If so, where can I look?

Hi there, I’ve got a new LGD puppy. She’s a Komondor. I have a goat herd of 7 and a large covey of quail. I’ll be increasing to cattle, ducks, turkeys, sheep, in the spring time. The puppy is 8 weeks old, and so far I’ve got her in a play pen with a piece of cattle panel on top. I seriously underestimated how quickly she would learn to climb over it. But I’m having trouble figuring out how to set up a larger pen for her. She can still fit through my livestock fence panels that I use for rotational grazing. It’s also winter so the goats come in every night. it’s my first year having my own animals, I’ve worked with family and others people animals, but my set up is small right now. So what is a set up that I can do that gets her in the pen with the goats, keeps her from wriggling out of the livestock panels and also gives her a refuge away from the goats.

I don’t have a lot of $$ either. I’ve been thinking that I’ve got a roll of chicken wire, if I secure that to the livestock panels to stop her getting out. But also put a kennel inside for her to have a refuge, and maybe a board on top because the goats are of course going to jump on it. ?? It seems like it would work. But I was hoping someone else would have any ideas? Here’s a photo for context. The barn I’m using came with the land, and was a calving barn. It’s got a cool head shoot built into it.

I have a few miles of trails on my property. Looking for a mechanical option to cut back the branches and taller yaupon growing into the trails and thru my high fences. I can use my Deere 3038 and shredder to get the grasses, etc on the trails, but what can I use vertically to cut back the encroaching growth up higher? Thanks!

I have the tractor and a mule utv, but no skid steer.

I let my dogs (60lb lab mix male, 45lb heeler mix fm, and 80lb German Shepard fm) out this morning at 3:40, by 3:51 the two smaller ones were barking loudly and non stop while the Shepard stood at the front door. When I opened my back door to check on two barking ones I was met by a coyote not 20 feet from my door in our pasture. It ran off when I hit it with my flash light. My dogs are contained within my small yard and the rest of the property is open field. I have 2 young (6ish months) kunekune pigs that were just 25 feet from where the coyote was standing. It did seem more interested at the dogs barking at it than hunting. It’s the beginning of winter here in Tennessee so I expect to see coyotes or have the dogs barking more regularly as they hunt for food. We’ve had a coyotes problems in the past and have lost two kidd goats to them in the spring. We also have a 17 year old mare (not dog friendly) and 3 grown Katahdin sheep (120lbs-200lbs each) and chickens that are cooped inside our fenced in yard where my dogs are located. Working on obtaining livestock dog at this time.

I’m curious as to known or believed coyote patterns. I know it’ll return since this is the 3rd time in 2ish years I’ve went outside and spooked a coyote by accident that was that close to my home (one time my 50lb sheep dog mix ran it off). My dogs often bark when I let them out in wee morning hours and I’m sure it’s at said coyote or foxes we have around, so it seems the dogs won’t deter the coyote from returning to the area anyway. When should I expect a return visit so I’m able to appropriately protect my livestock and dogs if needed. A few days or a week? Any ideas? Also I didn’t see if the coyote turned back or stopped or any other behavior, by the time I went to grab my husband and a rifle the sucker was gone…

It's been a few years so the facts I have might be different now then when I remember,

What I do remember, they (husband (don't know name or how old) and wife (also not sure how old but I think her name was beky? Rebecca?) and their kids, I don't remember how many but I knew it was 1 girl a few boys, the boys being older at the time, maybe early teens and under,

Their home was above their barn, they had cows, chickens, pigs, they also did their own farming, like crops, they had videos about how to butcher their animals, and how to do this and that, I don't remember specifically but it had to do with their homestead, I believe when I stopped watching they had just had another baby, but again, this was a good few years ago, not sure if they even post anymore, but I want to try and find them again,

Please help 🫶

I have one 300 foot well that averages about 1 gallon a minute. If it’s super dry for extended periods it only puts out 2-5 gallons an hour. I have two other wells that we found on the property probably only 50 feet from the current well. I assume being that close (assuming same depth but would check) the water zones are the same. Would I benefit from getting the other 2 working again or would the net flow of water in to the collective wells not really change. More simply could I assume 3 wells means 3 wells worth water? Or would they at least act as storage reservoirs with some net benefit?