How many of you hobby farm?

[FaithManor]

We are trying to live a more sustainable lifestyle with less dependency on the system. We have only one acre but are definitely trying to farm on a small scale.

 

So far we have five ducks. Two are Australian Spotteds - the female is green and the male is gray. If they successfully raise young, we have a shot that one in four will be the rare blue coloring. They are beautiful birds and definitely pets but we will be selling their offspring. Currently we have 4-H families and three petting zoos interested in their ducklings. The other ducks are three call drakes, a khaki, a butterscotch, and a green. They will be getting "wives" this spring and we will eat and sell their eggs - I like duck eggs for baking.

 

We are also in the process of building a chicken tractor and will be getting six Araucauna laying hens (4 months old) from a farm nearby. These will be for eggs only, no rooster because we don't want to anger the neighbors since we live in a small rural town. I am planning on replacing the hens each year and butchering the previous six.

 

We have a 20 x 30 ft. garden. We raise tomatoes, green beans, broccoli, cucumbers, radishes, cantelope, red peppers, and butter lettuce. This year we will be adding some large, stacked containers of strawberries. We will be adding a raised bed for asparagus and would like to grow carrots and potatoes for storage. We've planted two apple trees and will get a third this spring. A large front flowerbed will be converted to corn which we will have dried and cracked for the ducks and chickens. It won't be enough to feed them all winter but will reduce the amount of feed we need to purchase.

 

We have a wood boiler and are using downed trees from a tornado that went through two years ago. A large number of homes had fallen wood. We get it free for the hauling. We have propane for back up but have only used about $100.00 worth since November and that was because we went on vacation and didn't hire anyone to tend the fire. The water heater is propane fueled and uses next to nothing compared to electric ones.

 

We are saving money for enough solar panels, batteries, and the inverter to run the elecronics on the wood boiler, the well pump, our refrigerator, and freezer. We are stock piling lamp oil for our aladdin lamps so that we can reduce the amount of electricity consumed for lighting. We will probably not be able to be off grid as long as DH works for H.P. because he has to have his laptop powered up 24 hours a day plus a back-up computer and internet service that is reliable even in bad-weather. But, we can at least seriously reduce our reliance on government/big-business.

 

We are looking for a source of free-for-the-hauling bricks. DH wants to build a brick oven in the backyard for my summer baking. We have also discovered that we can grill in our wood boiler all winter long and the food is delicious! My electric range is now in only half-use mode.

 

My parents, who live two blocks away on the edge of town, have ten acres that they have not taken advantage of...but they are wanting to do more. They will be getting started in bee-keeping this spring as well as putting in blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries both for their own family consumption as well selling at farmer's markets. They will have a nice niche market because many of the berry farms that existed when I was growing up have closed as farmers have retired and none of their children wanted to continue the business. We will probably put two or three fiber sheep on one corner of the property to graze an area that won't be used for a couple of years but that we don't want to get overgrown plus two goats for brush control. They already grow a huge number of tomatoes and may expand that part of the garden to sell organically raised (though not certified - too much cost) tomatoes in bulk to local canners.

 

Our horse is boarded at a large farm two miles away. We exchange farm sitting and helping with repairs in exchange for boarding. Last year we also raised a feeder pig along with two others on that farm. Three families shared the expenses and chores. We ended up with 135 pounds of nearly organically raised pork in our freezer for about $220.00. The pork was soooooo delicious! We will be repeating this experiment again and have been discussing ways of lowering costs even more. The pigs are raised outdoors and we have been convassing other friends who eat mostly organic but don't have compost piles in the hopes of harvesting their "scraps" for the pigs. We are also offering to take "undesirable" produce from local farmers who aren't feeding pigs themselves and would be glad to have someone pick up their leftovers.

 

Hopefully, in a couple of years, we will be able to convince mom and dad to put a small cow (dexter or belted galloway) on their property. Even this very small size cow will produce 4-5 gallons of milk a day. So, we will have to learn to make cheese. My mom will be retired by then and she thinks she might enjoy doing this.

 

Ultimately, Dh wants to seriously reduce the amount of cash we need to survive so he can quit his job and do something else which means he will probably need to take a significant pay cut. I am very supportive and hope to be debt free in four years.

 

If you hobby farm, let me know what you are doing and how you are getting it accomplished. Are you rural, suburban, urban...what are your dreams for your little farmette?

 

Faith

Edited March 7, 2010 by FaithManor

[Nicole M]

Oh! I am so jealous!

 

I just have a little urban permacuture experiment going. Our postage stamp rectangle is 50 x 250 feet, tiny house in the middle. For years we had a pair of ducks, but when the last one was "murdered in cold blood!" we converted that area of the yard to more garden space.

 

In the front yard, which originally had more sun, until Dutch Elm disease took our 70-foot beauties in the back, we have a plum, a cherry, two apples, a grape arbor and lots of strawberries. Also some blueberries, lots of herbs and flowers and two "keyhole" beds where I plant tomatoes, basil and sometimes squash.

 

I have new raised beds in the back yard and just planted asparagus back there. I have another cherry tree back there as well. We also have raspberries in the alley, though that is a dangerous place, because people tend to think we planted them for the benefit of the world, not for ourselves. People taking our fruit is a real problem.

 

I am anxious to hear what others are doing.

[sgilli3]

We will be in just shy of 5 months.

 

We will be building a home on some land we have in Oz.

 

We won't be too self sufficient for a while, but hoping that within a year or so, the crops will yield enough to start making a difference in our grocery bills etc.

 

We will be planting vegies ( for personal use, and any extras will be sold at the local market/bartered for services) and an orchard ( 300 +) trees.

 

We will also be 'farming' trees- with about 3,500 being planted to use for firewood and to be sold for wood chips etc.

 

The house will not be connected to any utility providers, so will be powered by solar and wind power.

 

Our water supply will be the rain caught in many tanks,and even our toilets will be waterless ( making hu-manure for the trees)

 

We are planning on having a few chickens for eggs and maybe a few ducks ( only because the LO is fascinated with them...lol)

 

My husband has just returned from Oz, after submitting our plans to the local council.We are all very excited- it is going to be a huge learning curve for us all- but we are ready for a new adventure!

[Aggie]

These are some great ideas! SG...I'd love to have solar/wind power here. We sure have enough of both, it seems. :) We have a friend who plants black walnut trees every years. Some day that man is gonna be very wealthy from this investment.

 

We have a small ranch, but the cattle are on a different part and dh takes care of them.

 

Our compost is a mix of food remnants and the plentiful manure we have here.

 

We have dairy goats, beehives and a large garden. We've planted several varieties of fruit trees and berry bushes, along with bushes, tree and flowers that bloom from Feb-Nov.

 

Dh has put in rain barrels, but we want to add bigger, better ones.

 

This summer we (I use that term loosely!) hope to get under the house and work the plumbing so the gray water is routed to the garden. Our summers are usually hot and dry, so any extra water will be a help.

 

Dh is also going to build a chicken coop that we can roll around (Faithe...is this the same as a chicken tractor?) the garden/yard. Apparently, chicken poop is a great fertilizer.:D

 

The way our old farmhouse was renovated, we can't use the fireplace or get an insert. :( We were able to cook on our stove in NY and it was wonderful!

 

What I would love to do is have a huge pumpkin patch where people can come out and pick their own. Getting water to the area is the only thing holding us back right now. Same for a Christmas tree farm.

 

I'd also like to have some free roaming hens that eat bugs, but our free roaming dogs would love those too much.

 

Great thread! 5 stars!:D

[mominbc]

We have a small hobby farm. We haven't done we would like with it yet, but we are loving it. We have laying hens and have raised (and eaten :)) meat birds, as well as a few other things.:)

[Remudamom]

We don't really hobby farm, but I've had/have chickens, milk cows and goats that I've milked. If you don't get a cow, goats aren't a bad second.

[OrganicAnn]

we 'hobby garden' rather than farm. You might like the book "Living on an Acre" it has information about having a small farm.

 

We are always looking for ways to produce more of our food and buying less from the grocery store.

 

We've found that sometimes you have to invest money into systems to save money. We sometimes just don't have the time, money and energy to figure out how to do more.

[JenC3]

We are slowly working our way into being off-grid. We only have an acre as well and my goal is to turn this into a mini-farm. I love John Seymour's layouts for what you can do on an acre. We bought this house in July and here's what we have done:

-Planted 6 dwarf fruit trees & 3 semi-dwarf trees: apple, cherry, peach persimmon, & a pear

-4 blueberry, 2 raspberry, 2 blackberry

-built 16 raised beds

-set up our worms bins and rain barrels form the old house.

 

We will have 2 bee hives this year and plan to get chickens next year and then dwarf goats. We've also been collecting wood since we are installing a wood stove this summer.

 

We are saving limited solar and a water cistern, but I would have to say the main thing we have done is just cut down on our general consumption of energy, etc.

[fairfarmhand]

We hobby farm, mostly cattle. We have about 10 cows a bull and a variable # of calves at any time on our farm. We keep chickens for eggs, have 20 something fruit trees and a garden. Would love to be able to be more self sufficient, but there just aren't enough hours in a day to do all we would like. The fruit trees are about 5 years old, so we are hoping for some major fruit crops to come in in the next few years.

[FunnyFarmMom]

Sorry - I know this isn't what you mean - but I've laughed every time I've run past this thread in the last couple of days. If by hobby farm, you mean farming without making any money at it, then for this last year - count us in! Actually, it's been a very expensive hobby for the last year for all dairy farmers. I'll go away now and let you continue your discussion (which I find fascinating, by the way!)

[Tracy in Ky]

If you hobby farm, let me know what you are doing and how you are getting it accomplished. Are you rural, suburban, urban...what are your dreams for your little farmette?

 

Faith

 

We do this, though we are in the process of scaling back. We have a milk cow (and have used the milk to make cheese, butter, ice cream, etc), a milk-cow heifer, and are raising a beef steer. We raised a pig last year (and are enjoying that meat now. We'll be getting another one this spring). We raise meat birds and butcher them ourselves, and we have hens for eggs. We have ducks and eat their eggs. We do pretty large-scale gardening, canning, freezing, etc. Ds goes deer hunting (providing us with yummy, grassfed meat :)) We have a pony for the kids, as well as cats, dogs, and a pet rabbit.

 

That said, we've been in way over our heads (dh works full-time outside the home), so we are trying to reduce our farm activities. One thing we are getting ready to do is sell the milk cow. She is wonderful, and her milk is the best I've ever tasted, but it is so much work, and we have another raw milk source. We are also going to have a smaller garden this year (case in point: we are still eating canned green beans, frozen corn, frozen apples, pickles, and okra from 2008! Ha ha. ) We need to reign it in :lol:

 

How do we do it? Lots of WORK :tongue_smilie:

[Heidi]

We are trying to live a more sustainable lifestyle with less dependency on the system. We have only one acre but are definitely trying to farm on a small scale.

 

So far we have five ducks. Two are Australian Spotteds - the female is green and the male is gray. If they successfully raise young, we have a shot that one in four will be the rare blue coloring. They are beautiful birds and definitely pets but we will be selling their offspring. Currently we have 4-H families and three petting zoos interested in their ducklings. The other ducks are three call drakes, a khaki, a butterscotch, and a green. They will be getting "wives" this spring and we will eat and sell their eggs - I like duck eggs for baking.

 

We are also in the process of building a chicken tractor and will be getting six Araucauna laying hens (4 months old) from a farm nearby. These will be for eggs only, no rooster because we don't want to anger the neighbors since we live in a small rural town. I am planning on replacing the hens each year and butchering the previous six.

 

We have a 20 x 30 ft. garden. We raise tomatoes, green beans, broccoli, cucumbers, radishes, cantelope, red peppers, and butter lettuce. This year we will be adding some large, stacked containers of strawberries. We will be adding a raised bed for asparagus and would like to grow carrots and potatoes for storage. We've planted two apple trees and will get a third this spring. A large front flowerbed will be converted to corn which we will have dried and cracked for the ducks and chickens. It won't be enough to feed them all winter but will reduce the amount of feed we need to purchase.

 

We have a wood boiler and are using downed trees from a tornado that went through two years ago. A large number of homes had fallen wood. We get it free for the hauling. We have propane for back up but have only used about $100.00 worth since November and that was because we went on vacation and didn't hire anyone to tend the fire. The water heater is propane fueled and uses next to nothing compared to electric ones.

 

We are saving money for enough solar panels, batteries, and the inverter to run the elecronics on the wood boiler, the well pump, our refrigerator, and freezer. We are stock piling lamp oil for our aladdin lamps so that we can reduce the amount of electricity consumed for lighting. We will probably not be able to be off grid as long as DH works for H.P. because he has to have his laptop powered up 24 hours a day plus a back-up computer and internet service that is reliable even in bad-weather. But, we can at least seriously reduce our reliance on government/big-business.

 

We are looking for a source of free-for-the-hauling bricks. DH wants to build a brick oven in the backyard for my summer baking. We have also discovered that we can grill in our wood boiler all winter long and the food is delicious! My electric range is now in only half-use mode.

 

My parents, who live two blocks away on the edge of town, have ten acres that they have not taken advantage of...but they are wanting to do more. They will be getting started in bee-keeping this spring as well as putting in blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries both for their own family consumption as well selling at farmer's markets. They will have a nice niche market because many of the berry farms that existed when I was growing up have closed as farmers have retired and none of their children wanted to continue the business. We will probably put two or three fiber sheep on one corner of the property to graze an area that won't be used for a couple of years but that we don't want to get overgrown plus two goats for brush control. They already grow a huge number of tomatoes and may expand that part of the garden to sell organically raised (though not certified - too much cost) tomatoes in bulk to local canners.

 

Our horse is boarded at a large farm two miles away. We exchange farm sitting and helping with repairs in exchange for boarding. Last year we also raised a feeder pig along with two others on that farm. Three families shared the expenses and chores. We ended up with 135 pounds of nearly organically raised pork in our freezer for about $220.00. The pork was soooooo delicious! We will be repeating this experiment again and have been discussing ways of lowering costs even more. The pigs are raised outdoors and we have been convassing other friends who eat mostly organic but don't have compost piles in the hopes of harvesting their "scraps" for the pigs. We are also offering to take "undesirable" produce from local farmers who aren't feeding pigs themselves and would be glad to have someone pick up their leftovers.

 

Hopefully, in a couple of years, we will be able to convince mom and dad to put a small cow (dexter or belted galloway) on their property. Even this very small size cow will produce 4-5 gallons of milk a day. So, we will have to learn to make cheese. My mom will be retired by then and she thinks she might enjoy doing this.

 

Ultimately, Dh wants to seriously reduce the amount of cash we need to survive so he can quit his job and do something else which means he will probably need to take a significant pay cut. I am very supportive and hope to be debt free in four years.

 

If you hobby farm, let me know what you are doing and how you are getting it accomplished. Are you rural, suburban, urban...what are your dreams for your little farmette?

 

Faith

 

That's awesome!! We are doing many of the same things you are. We raise sheep for meat, goats for milk, chickens for eggs, we have a garden and fruit trees, and a wood-burning fire insert for heat in the winter, solar ovens, we can food, wheat grinder for bread, food storage for at least a year, we're getting out of debt FAST, and have emergency supplies on hand. :D Oh yeah, and we ordered some bees.

Edited March 8, 2010 by hmsmith

[myfunnybunch]

Have you ever seen this blog?

 

Urban Homestead

 

I don't hobby farm, though we do have chickens and a garden in the city. And I have so much fun reading about the Urban Homestead farm.

 

Cat

[amy g.]

We also have a hobby farm. I bet Dh wishes I'd just buy jewelry since diamonds don't have vet bills.

 

I have Dexter, and I doubt anyone gets that amount of milk from one. I know that some lines are more milky than others, but they don't usually give much more milk than a full sized dairy goat. You may want one anyway if you prefer beef to cabrito.

[nandmsmom]

We call ourselves Suburban Homesteaders. We live on 1/3 of an acre. I have 6 chickens for eggs, apple, peach and cherry trees, blueberries, strawberries and over 1000 sq ft of raised garden beds. I love it and wish we had the space to do more. If my neighbors didn't freak out, I'd get goats next, but that would not go over well. It's lots of fun and great to know where our food is coming from.

[fairfarmhand]

Have you ever seen this blog?

 

Urban Homestead

 

I don't hobby farm, though we do have chickens and a garden in the city. And I have so much fun reading about the Urban Homestead farm.

 

Cat

 

 

This is a fascinating site. I don't think I would want to live exactly like the family here, but it is so interesting to see what you could do on a small plot. I think it helps their family that it appears that the family size is Mom, Dad, and 2 adult or near adult children.

 

Does anyone else struggle with the time issue? DH works a full-time job in a nearby city, so it is so hard to do all we would like to do here. We are hoping that as the children grow we can do some other things.

[KristineinKS]

This would be us & we've got around an acre too. We've raised goats, rabbits & ducks in the past, but at the moment we only have baby chicks. We live just on the outskirts of the city, so not really rural, but not urban either. We may add a few goats within the next year again, and we'll be adding 2 beehives next spring.

 

We established a small orchard this past fall, planting 20+ semi-dwarf apple trees and a handful of pear trees - we've got a good mix of heirloom varieties for eating fresh, storing & cider. We've got 20+ additional apple trees, plus a few more pear, cherry & peach trees coming this spring (oh, and a medlar tree!).

 

We've got a variety of berry bushes started: blackberry, raspberry, blueberry, gooseberry, currant & lingonberry. Also a couple of grape vines, but I've kind of given up on those being useful.

 

We have a large veggie garden in the spring/summer/fall & will be adding a huge herb garden this year as well.

 

We started on a pit greenhouse last fall, but then DH got a job out of state & lost all interest in the project. Now he's talking about tearing it out (which makes me SAD!) & putting in a pond instead.

 

Hmmm...that's all I can think of at the moment, though I've got a list of things I'd *like* to do that's about a mile long! ;) Homesteading Today is one of my favorite places to hang out, aside from this site of course!