I am a 23 yr old single mom of 2 toddler boys on the spectrum I left abusive relationships with their father a year ago now and for this year I been living with family. Since I was younger I always wanted my own farm/ homesteading area and did research a lot but I don't know where to start especially now with kids. But I've asked her multiple times to allow me to get a chicken or two (the family member I live with) she said no and I'm like if I plant things and move that was kind of waste (I had a nice garden with there dad and was sad that I had to leave it) sooo Any advice on where to start ?

The wetlands are not our property, we are next to them. We can’t do anything about the water but need to do something about the mosquitos. Now that the weather is nicer, my family can’t spend more than 30 minutes outside without getting eaten to death by those suckers. Any advice to minimize the mosquitos on our property, or even just in our yard (about a quarter acre)?

Hi all

So we are picking up a 3 week old bottle baby goat. We have to pick her up today because the owner lives very far and only In town today. The other goat we were getting passed away this morning.

We are talking to another breeder and she has doelings available. But I'm curious if the baby goat can get along with older babies like 7 weeks old? They have younger too but need to make sure they are comfortable with the bottle.

We recently moved back to the Southeastern US and are exploring ways to preserve animals we process. Decades ago, the locals would have processed the animals in January or February when it was reliably cold (didn't get above 40's F) and used salt and a smokehouse to cure the meat. Nowadays, no locals cure or salt their own meat because it's common (almost guaranteed) that there were be numerous days/weeks in the 70's in January and February and the meat spoils before you can get it cured.

This got me to thinking... how have people in warmer climates like Latin America preserve animals that they process for long term storage? One solution is to build a climate controlled meat hanging space but who has that kind of money? Does anyone in this thread have experience preserving larger animals like pigs or cattle in warm climates using traditional methods?

How much would you guys recommend saving for land tools, animals, building stuff etc. I’ve seen couple build on a budget. Let’s just say I make six figures, single, no kids, no debt. How long should I save before going and starting the process? How much did you save?

My husband and I started homesteading August of last year. It’s been slow having to do projects while he’s working and we aren’t exactly spring chicks. We are both 50. But let me tell you last night when my 19 year old that loves to cook asked me if we had lettuce last night…oh boy. Yes! I’ll harvest some for you right now. He and his girlfriend thought that was so cool. I know now that despite the slow start and projects half finished that it’s all worth it and we are setting good examples for our children and grandchildren.

Edit: Thanks everyone for your kind words and I just wanted to say this is a wonderful community! I am grateful to all!

I'm looking into getting a new garden tiller. I'm looking at the Troy bilt mustang, or the Troy bilt super bronco. The main difference here, is chain driven vs gear driven. I don't want to pick up a used one, as there aren't any around me right now for sale, and I need to get my garden in soon. I know the old ones were built a lot better than they are now. Also, I won't be tilling a large area. Maybe 60x40. I will be using the tiller to go in between garden rows for weeds, but just a very light tilling. Which is better, the super bronco, or mustang? Or a different brand? I don't need a bcs. Way too much for what I would be using it for.

Hi there. We have a chicken with impacted crop, started about a week ago and not getting better, she looks uncomfortable and is getting skinnier. Any hope left or should we end her suffering?

I’m looking to slowly restore some pastures with native species. I know they love and eat clover like crazy, but what about vetch? It’s not a grass so am curious if they would eat it? Any experience out there? Pic is just to pay the tax.

I want to get out of the city so badly. I know I can grow. I've done my entire suburban yard and manage a community garden. If I am in the same climate. I can eat.

What is stopping me is the financial aspect of it. I am not poor. I just don't know how to manage life, retirement, minimize risk, and get out of here to go there.

If I buy a 5+ acre lot in Texas with a house on it (built 1996 or newer and in the areas I like that are tornado and hurricane free), it's going to cost me my entire savings, all investments, and the sell price of my current house.

If I buy a 5+ acre lot in Texas with no house on it, I could get something between 30k and 50k an acre in the areas I am looking, use my savings for that, and then maybe live in a single wide or a double wide, sell my current house. Maybe build later?

Or maybe i could just hire someone to build on an empty lot, but I suspect we'd be back up on the 500+600k range again.

Having a mortgage with a shaky job, and a crap economy is just not an option....oh, and then there is internet.. I need internet to keep working and making money, unless I completely change careers from software engineer to worm poop farmer (which I wouldn't mind as long as I can live)

Question to ya'll is: How did you swing the financial cost and risk of moving from your secure city life to homesteading on some acres?

Did you inherit?
Are you borrowing?
Did you sell everything and just risk it until you made money farming?
Are you still working your city job?
Are you alone or do you have a family to support you and fall back on. ( I am single and childless, so what if I break a leg?)

Tell me a little about that aspect of your story.

Ok say I want to raise rabbits for a number of reasons; food, fertilizer, to sell, etc where do I start? I mean I’ve done some extensive research on them and their needs and how to keep them happy and healthy well for the time they have. My main goal is to keep rabbits “efficiently” keep them safe from predators, feed them a healthy diet and even let them out a little to help with “morel”, feeding, and exercise and when the end comes (doesn’t exactly mean there on the dinner plate, probably someone else’s pet) I mean there’s an array of rabbits but I don’t really have any other resources besides the internet so I want to know from someone’s first hand experience about these things. Like what should I know before jumping in the hole, what breeds should I start with, where could I get them, and are there any ethics I need to know before I bring rabbits into the equation? I would really appreciate if someone has any input on this. 😊 thank you.

So my husband and I are actively looking for land to start our own homestead. As a result I get lots of ads for “How to start your own homestead” claiming to have programs that teach people how to not only find land (like 100+ acres), but also get financing and/or find an investor, and make a thriving business. FreedomFarmers is just one of the programs that keeps popping up, but they all have the same agenda: watch a video, buy the program, find land/investor, start a business, become self sufficient.

Now I know people do these things on their own, but the fact these programs are popping up like weeds makes me wonder who is really behind them and how valid are they? For someone struggling to find land that won’t break our budget, they can be appealing, but my gut just doesn’t buy into it. Thoughts? Experiences?

For context my parents are currently homeless and travel around in a converted box truck camper, my dad draws social security, and my mom helps at a restaurant making a little bit of cash to help out. I am considering ways to help their situation. All of this added up is still not enough to get anywhere and have a place to call home. Considering America is "the land of the free" I find it appalling the amount of land restrictions in this country. I have always been an avid outdoorsman and dreamed of having an off grid simple place to get away to, so I figured this the opportunity to move forward with that and find some land they can stay on, but everywhere I look this seems to be illegal or limited to an amount of short amount of time. Are there any states/ counties in the southeast US that would allow camper living full time, or the ability to build a homestead and cabin from scratch? Without restrictions? The ability to pave your way from nothing is what this country was founded on but seems that that has slowly been taken from us.

Got word that our piglets will be ready this weekend, so I had to get cracking on a new pig pen. Plan is to keep them in this pen until they're big enough to start foraging, then electric fence the 3 acre woodlot behind them and let the forage in there during the day. Mangalitsa breed.

Hello! Yesterday we accidentally left the hose for the horse water on for too long. Our water pressure was terrible after that. We tried priming the pump. The gauge read 30 but wouldn’t move after priming. Any ideas? Attaching a pic of the gauge, as it looks like it has water in it? We now have no water at all.

Just want to put it out there that I don’t eat my pets. Anyways, I have nine chickens and three of them are 6 years old. One of them is incredibly fat and I don’t know what to do. If I let them free range then they’ll eat but if they stay in their area, then Vanessa (the fat one) will eat most of the food and gain weight. She’s been fat her whole life but is still pretty healthy. Does anyone have any tips? Again I’m not eating her because I’m vegetarian, I love her, and she still lays eggs.

Hi everyone,

This will be long. Thank you for reading.

My husband and I just moved on 4 acres in Western VA. Its a rental and our landlord has not lived here in years, so while most of the yard has been maintained there is still a ton of work to do as far as clearing dead leaves and timber, and mowing some tall grass outlining the property, etc.

Anyways. As it turns out, our yard is infested with ticks. So much so that I have to wear muck boots around the yard to keep them from crawling on me. I've already picked off 3 latched ticks in the last 3 weeks and don't even get me started on the crawlers I've found. I grew up in Western NC and Eastern VA and was around tick areas all the time. It just never was something that I worried about growing up. But the more I've found on me since we got here, the more fear that creeps in. There was a night recently where I woke up to one crawling up my leg in the middle of the night. So I frantically did a tick check of the bed and there was ANOTHER literally next to right where I was laying, about where my chest would be. My anxiety has gotten progressively worse since that night. They occupy my thoughts most of the day now and I hate it so, so much.

They are not bothering my husband at all. 0. He runs in the woods and is enjoying being outside for all hours of the day. I literally went outside a few days ago, walked 15 feet around the mowed portion of the yard, watched my dog play for a bit, headed back inside and boom. A sucker on my chest. I literally am wearing boots with my socks tucked into my pants. I'm not hiking. At this point I'm avoiding being in my yard in general because I'm so afraid and yet I'm the one they keep coming after and bothering...

Its affecting my mental health very deeply because all I want to do is be outside and relax. I LOVE nature and being outside. We are living on such a special, fucking beautiful piece of property and it makes me cry because it feels like I am just getting plagued by ticks being here when I want nothing more than to sit on rocks, read on the swing, etc. I can't even put my feet on the Earth anymore without finding one crawling on my feet.

So we bought 7 chickens and 1 guinea. They are still chicks at the moment. I have some beneficial nematodes on the way as well as a yard spray called Wondercide. I'm trying very very hard to not use chemicals to spray the property. There is a sense of responsibility that I feel being here and I just want to be a good steward for this land. I'm thinking of everything I can do to combat this. We just started burning debris and old foliage. Its a big project and will probably take several months.

I think the reason why I'm so afraid if because Lymes and Alpha-gal are very common here. I make too much to qualify for medicaid and dont make enough to be able to afford health insurance so I'm not insured right now. I don't know what I would do financially if I got sick. Things are already too hard as it is with money right now.

I'm just getting frustrated because I'm getting the same advice over and over and over. Don't hike in tall grass. Deet yourself all over. Spray your boots. Tuck your clothes in. What about when it gets to be 100 degrees? Do I just wear long sleeves and pants all summer? What if I just want to be in my own backyard? Does that mean I have to literally map out wearing treated clothes every single day? All of that effort and mental space is just so stressful. I find myself treating my dog differently now too. He's treated but they are still climbing on him. I don't let him on the bed or snuggle with him anymore. It makes me feel so bad. I'm just at a loss of what to do. Has anyone else gone through something similar? I just want my mind and life back.

Hi!

We are hoping to move in the next few years. Currently our top two choices are Washington or Colorado.

Does anyone from WA or CO have any experience to share with pros/cons?

I’d probably prefer WA (on the coast/puget sound), but am worried there wouldn’t be enough sun to have a big garden. CO I’d be worried about how much snow there is lol.

Any tips appreciated! We want to live somewhere cooler than our current home (Texas). Other suggestions welcome!

Hello folks!

I'm trying to do some research on the behalf of one of my uncles who has a property in rural western Washington. He's been in contact with the local power company up there, trying to figure out how to get power to his property. But they told him that it could take two years for this to happen, which has forced him to look into alternative means of getting power up there. So I figured asking you guys would be a place to get me started in the right direction.

I'm planning on helping my uncle out with this, since I'm an electrician in oregon, but I'm quite unfamiliar with off the grid sources of power. I know of solar and solar powered power stations, and I'm aware of generators and the like. But I'd like to know more about what kind of systems homesteaders like to use on their properties.

Any suggestions or advice would be very useful and appreciated. Thanks!

Hello community, I’m currently in England with a 1/3 acre but surrounded by fields and animals (which I help with on farms) and I also grow as much of my own food etc as I can. Short and sweet the last 3 years since covid I’ve been doing as much prep as I thought I could do while working and raising a family.

We are relocating in roughly 18 months (we have to wait this time to set up a little more income and sort some things) I have four locations narrowed down and would love your insight into them or anything else relevant (nothing can be right or wrong so please do say anything)

Our four main priorities when choosing location are… (many other factors but the top ones)

safety (leave your door open, let your kids go out etc)

Rainfall (for the long term issue of droughts etc)

Arable land to grow crops in and raise animals

Culture and society (nice, kind, based people with normal European values or old school is good too and of course education)

So! Locations (there is a lot more to all this but as short as I can) - I have been to all.

Azores - Sao Miguel (the largest of the islands, the best winter weather of the choices for constant food growth, beautiful and relaxed/isolated, great organic produce etc) cons - most expensive choice

Croatia - inland between Slovenia and Bosnia (good weather but cold winters, good rainfall, good land value with houses)

Romania - Carpathian Mountains roughly (great value, beautiful, cheap to build and daily living etc)

Poland - somewhere by one of the large lakes (beautiful country, strong culture, good farm houses with land and nice scenery, cold ass winters)

I won’t carry on but would love input… thank you in advance.

Tungiasis is endemic in my region, it infects pig feet, and human feet too.
The animals must be suffering.
Is there some kind of quarantine or pills or foot bath or something I can do to completely get rid of this bug from my homestead?

Ever since we moved off grid my feet have been just fucked man tbh. Idk if it's just I'm on them more or what, I've been running quite a bit too recently. Does anyone have a good remedy or soak or something? They're just red and dry and cracked, I've tried warm water and baking soda.

I did construction for a decade prior to this and I never ever had problems like this. 10 and 12 hour days in boots, but now it's like they just gave up and I have no idea. They don't hurt, just red and shiny kinda and dry looking. I know it's gross but I don't really know what's up