Anybody here interested in homesteading?

[ringil]

Goats can sometimes be a pain in the backside. They like to climb up on things, like low-hanging roofs and cars. They’re remarkably good at it.

“Honey, the darn goats on the roof AGAIN!”

 

[Ridgerunner]

“Honey, the darn goats on the roof AGAIN!”

Seen it!

But I will add that, when I was a kid we had both hair goats (milk goats) and angora goats. The angora goats are much less assertive than the hair goats are, though they have less “personality”. The coats of angora goats, of course, are wonderful to feel, and I suppose if one is inclined to do spinning and weaving, they would be ideal. Goats are also surprisingly strong. You really can’t ride a goat because their spines are prominent and sharp. But they can pull a lot more weight that a person would think. We used to hitch our coaster wagon to a goat to pull us around. Has to be a fairly tame goat, though, because they can run off with you in an instant.

 

[mommamaree]

If there aren’t specific rules against it, then there’s nothing to argue about. It’s the people who sign a homeowner’s agreement when they buy their house, that includes a list of rules, and THEN decide that they are going to ignore those rules because they WANT TO, that I have a problem with. One can argue that HOAs are un-American, but you can’t sign onto it and then decide to just do your own thing. Otherwise, what’s to stop the next neighbor from running a puppy mill in his backyard, or renting his house out to 6 families, or whatever?

And for the record, chickens are not pets. You can’t have it both ways there either. Either they are kept for food, in which cause once they stop laying, you eat them - or you keep them as pets. Farm animals are not meant to be pets.

I know they aren’t pets! . Goodness gracious. My point was that I get neighbor dogs pooping in my lawn ALL THE TIME, or snooping around in it, and I don’t get all up at arms with the neighbors. I just shoo the dog away. I think the same attitude should apply to hens in someone’s chicken run. It is a minor inconvenience to have to overlook the sometimes annoying things our neighbors do, with animals or otherwise.

For the record, I do not own animals of any kind. I do not want a pet, and I have not yet done enough research to determine if I am willing to put in the effort to raise hens for eggs. Although, I am legally permitted to do so. If I choose to, I would expect my neighbors to extend me the same courtesy I extend to them. I also ascribe to the school of thought that good fences make good neighbors, and plan my outdoor projects accordingly.

 

[Kithrus]

The media is more powerful than you and me. The media has control over the mindless masses who just accept what they are being fed without questioning it. I’ve accepted this reality, while others refuse to believe it.

Just look at the words to Obama’s published poem “Pop” if you want proof. “Fail to pass.” Yikes. The poor guy was molested, and by a black man, based on the allusions to color. “His seat is broad and broken in.” It was brilliant to place the word “in” on the next line. It hides the meaning in the closet. Pop is a reference to race, not family. Imagine being half black, born to a white mother, abandoned by your black father who wanted your mother to have an abortion, adopted by another father who moves you to a country where you don’t look like anyone else, then move back to Hawaii, where you are molested by your first black male mentor, who happens to be a bisexual communist. After all that, what are your odds that you still believe in God? Seriously. The atheist progressives are taking us into the radical change that was promised. With the pain that people have experienced, it makes one wonder.

If all of this is new news, then maybe you can understand the desire for homesteading. Trusting the mainstream media is “letting it continue.”

I don’t trust the media but they are most certainly beatable. If they were not I trust God to even the scales.

The internet is still free and does great damage to those seemingly in power.

 

[KellyPalmer]

Let me quibble with you just a bit. Forests can, indeed, be very seriously affected by drought. I have seen it many times. In just about any midsummer around here at least, you can dig under the leaves and find leaf mold and soil that is absolutely powder-dry.

Trees store water, and some of them can store a lot of it. But even so, even some of the toughtest trees can die in a drought.

Let me add that I have no problem with people homesteading if they want to do that. I am concerned at times that people who want to do it are so undercapitalized for the venture that their failure is guaranteed. But that’s not true of all.

Can you let me know where this was or provide any source for forests being significantly impacted by droughts that wasn’t the cause of human doings? I have no desire to “quibble”…perhaps there has been one forest that has been impacted in such a way but I think it’s safe to acknowledge that the vast majority of what God created has NOT been impacted in such a way. We are the ones who mess up agriculture, not God. The birds are fed. That is, unless humans come in and mess it up.

 

[KellyPalmer]

I think it is a great idea for those who live on their own land. Suburbs might not be the place to raise livestock. Chickens might be doable, but other than that I don’t see how in suburbia with all of it’s rules and regulations. We live in Tennessee and it is very common to see horses in people’s front yards! They don’t own much land, but they also aren’t in an “official” neighborhood either, just on the regular roads.

Not to be cliche here but you all are just henpecking each other. Let it rest. As long as it’s not hurting anyone, then it is their right in America to do as they please. Again, many more restrictions for livestock and crop raising in suburbia, but many other things such as gardening, canning, etc can still be done.

I agree. I have no desire to peck at anyone who has no interest in homesteading. However, I have noticed in this thread that there are some people who seem to have a vested interest in being against something without even knowing what it is. If you hate homesteading, think it’s ridiculous, move on. I’m not mad at you, lol. It’s truly not for everyone.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Can you let me know where this was or provide any source for forests being significantly impacted by droughts that wasn’t the cause of human doings? I have no desire to “quibble”…perhaps there has been one forest that has been impacted in such a way but I think it’s safe to acknowledge that the vast majority of what God created has NOT been impacted in such a way. We are the ones who mess up agriculture, not God. The birds are fed. That is, unless humans come in and mess it up.

I live in Southwest Missouri; in the Ozarks. There are a lot of dead and dying trees, almost all red oaks. North of here, it’s even worse. Two summers of drought are generally thought to be the causes.

But I have lived here all my life. Droughts are cyclical here and even though we get nearly four feet of rain/year, it gets very hot and dry here in the summer, and in most every summer, the forest floor turns to dust under the leaves and the leaf mold. In the last two years, though, the droughts have been severe. So far this summer, it isn’t so, but I can guarantee that by mid-August the forest floor will be as dry as a bone even if it rains more normally.

And that’s in forests of just about any age. Trees actually absorb a lot of water when it rains, and store it. That turns the ground drier than would be the case if the land was covered with grass.

Now, as to human intervention. You’re right in a way. In reading very old histories of this region, I learned that most of it was actually grassland, covered with tall warm-season grasses. The trees were plentiful in the hollows and valleys, of which there are many here, along with many springs and rivers. Many at the time were short-leaf pine, though walnuts, hickories, wild cherries and others also figured prominently. Short-leaf pines were prominent on western and southern slopes, being perhaps the most drought-resistant of all. Oaks were few and very widely dispersed.

Why was that? Well, because it took millenia for everything to take its natural place in the environment, and it did.

Settlers plowed up the land. After it was recognized that this isn’t really farmland for the most part, they quit doing it. But oaks are opportunistic trees and quickly forested the hills that were once covered with tall grass, then plowed over. Oaks are tough, but if they’re on hilltops (and particularly if they’re on western slopes) they’re vulnerable to drought. Among the oaks, white oaks fare better than red oaks when it’s dry. Most hickories and walnuts are still to be found in the hollows and valleys where it’s both cooler and wetter. Ozark white oak and walnut are highly prized woods. Your expensive French wine was probably aged in Ozark white oak. Your expensive rifle’s stock is probably Ozark walnut.

So, you’re right in a way, but we’re talking about very, very old history of practices that were abandoned long ago. But some of them cast long shadows, and severe dryness in hilltop forests are among them. When I was a kid, there was one of those cyclical droughts. It lasted five years. Lots of trees died then too.

Among other things, I am a rancher. Ranching is now the dominant agricultural pursuit here, and rightly so. My practice is to return the hilltops and eastern and northern slopes to grass, leaving the more desirable trees to flourish in the hollows and valleys. It works.

Having said all of that, I maintain that outside the deserts of the U.S. and a very few of the many national forests, not one square foot has NOT been altered by man. Even the Indians altered it a great deal. That’s also true worldwide. The question is not so much whether people alter the land, but whether they do it wisely and consistently with the nature of the place where they’re living.

 

[EasterJoy]

…Now I have my own Jersey, Nubians, chickens and guineas. I can churn my own butter, make my own cheese, yogurt, sour cream, buttermilk, ect. We send a steer to the butcher yearly and fill up our freezer. I have gotten together with friends to processes roosters and rabbit to put in the freezers as well. I understand the draw. Not many people do…

I grew up with milk cows; people have to be very careful about bacteria. I think there are strains now that are much more dangerous than the ones that were in cattle 40 years ago. That is not to say “don’t keep your own cow”–is there anything like Jersey milk!?!–or “don’t keep chickens”, but rather to say “don’t try animal husbandry unless you’ve educated yourself about how to do it without giving somebody food poisoning.”

 

[Denise1957]

I live in Southwest Missouri; in the Ozarks. There are a lot of dead and dying trees, almost all red oaks. North of here, it’s even worse. Two summers of drought are generally thought to be the causes.

But I have lived here all my life. Droughts are cyclical here and even though we get nearly four feet of rain/year, it gets very hot and dry here in the summer, and in most every summer, the forest floor turns to dust under the leaves and the leaf mold. In the last two years, though, the droughts have been severe. So far this summer, it isn’t so, but I can guarantee that by mid-August the forest floor will be as dry as a bone even if it rains more normally.

And that’s in forests of just about any age. Trees actually absorb a lot of water when it rains, and store it. That turns the ground drier than would be the case if the land was covered with grass.

Now, as to human intervention. You’re right in a way. In reading very old histories of this region, I learned that most of it was actually grassland, covered with tall warm-season grasses. The trees were plentiful in the hollows and valleys, of which there are many here, along with many springs and rivers. Many at the time were short-leaf pine, though walnuts, hickories, wild cherries and others also figured prominently. Short-leaf pines were prominent on western and southern slopes, being perhaps the most drought-resistant of all. Oaks were few and very widely dispersed.

Why was that? Well, because it took millenia for everything to take its natural place in the environment, and it did.

Settlers plowed up the land. After it was recognized that this isn’t really farmland for the most part, they quit doing it. But oaks are opportunistic trees and quickly forested the hills that were once covered with tall grass, then plowed over. Oaks are tough, but if they’re on hilltops (and particularly if they’re on western slopes) they’re vulnerable to drought. Among the oaks, white oaks fare better than red oaks when it’s dry. Most hickories and walnuts are still to be found in the hollows and valleys where it’s both cooler and wetter. Ozark white oak and walnut are highly prized woods. Your expensive French wine was probably aged in Ozark white oak. Your expensive rifle’s stock is probably Ozark walnut.

So, you’re right in a way, but we’re talking about very, very old history of practices that were abandoned long ago. But some of them cast long shadows, and severe dryness in hilltop forests are among them. When I was a kid, there was one of those cyclical droughts. It lasted five years. Lots of trees died then too.

Among other things, I am a rancher. Ranching is now the dominant agricultural pursuit here, and rightly so. My practice is to return the hilltops and eastern and northern slopes to grass, leaving the more desirable trees to flourish in the hollows and valleys. It works.

Having said all of that, I maintain that outside the deserts of the U.S. and a very few of the many national forests, not one square foot has NOT been altered by man. Even the Indians altered it a great deal. That’s also true worldwide. The question is not so much whether people alter the land, but whether they do it wisely and consistently with the nature of the place where they’re living.

I’m sorry to hear that there are a lot of oaks dying in your area. Hopefully if there’s rain this summer, the situation will improve. The history that you provide here is interesting. Glad to know that the practice of plowing up your area was stopped when it was realized that it’s not really farmland. We drove through SW Missouri two years ago. Really beautiful. Visited Silver Dollar City, and was impressed with the demonstrations of the oldtime ways of doing things. My cousin still farms corn and soybeans up in Henry County, MO, where our great great grandfather homesteaded in the 1870’s, and was very successful, having 700 acres at one time. Dryland farming, so they depend on the summer rains to help the corn. I haven’t talked to them this year, so I don’t know how it’s going for them. Good to read about some of the history in your area. There seems to be more of an effort to work with nature now than there used to be, I think.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I’m sorry to hear that there are a lot of oaks dying in your area. Hopefully if there’s rain this summer, the situation will improve. The history that you provide here is interesting. Glad to know that the practice of plowing up your area was stopped when it was realized that it’s not really farmland. We drove through SW Missouri two years ago. Really beautiful. Visited Silver Dollar City, and was impressed with the demonstrations of the oldtime ways of doing things. My cousin still farms corn and soybeans up in Henry County, MO, where our great great grandfather homesteaded in the 1870’s, and was very successful, having 700 acres at one time. Dryland farming, so they depend on the summer rains to help the corn. I haven’t talked to them this year, so I don’t know how it’s going for them. Good to read about some of the history in your area. There seems to be more of an effort to work with nature now than there used to be, I think.

Over a long period, most land will return to what it’s best suited for. Sometimes that includes heavy human activities. Sometimes a lighter level is needed. Some land is not suitable for any kind of human activity.

As an aside, the “Baldknobbers” whose name you undoubtedly ran into countless times in the Branson area, were so named because they met on “bald knobs”; hilltops without any trees on them.

Climatically, Henry County is different from here.

 

[bubba1358]

Late to the party, I know, but I just saw this thread. I am a 32-year-old Catholic homeschooling husband and father of 3, as well as a recently-started homesteader. I own 5.4 acres in Middle Tennessee. I moved here almost 3 years ago, abandoning the suburban life my wife and I had been accustomed to to become as self-sufficient as possible. I have 32 chickens, 4 pigs, 3 sheep (two of which should be pregnant), 2 cows (1 milk, 1 beef), a dog and a cat, gardens, an orchard, etc. We started with nothing but the land, and no knowledge, and by the grace of God (and a peculiar talent for internet searches) have gotten as far as we have.

I have a blog that chronicles our journey. I started it last May. If anyone’s interested, it’s homesteadcatholic.blogspot.com.

I also have some friends who live in IN who do some things similarly. They have chickens and rabbits (no livestock in their housing zone). So yes, there are many people who are Catholic and homesteading.

I take great satisfaction in being intimately connected to creation for an hour and half each morning. I get extremely healthy food and great exercise all at once! It’s a great time for meditation and reflection, and I find that since I’ve been homesteading, I “get” more of the Bible readings dealing with nature and animals (sheep and goats, fruit of the vine, etc.). With the disconnectedness of modern society from nature, especially from our food, these lessons are often missed these days.

And no - no goats on the roof. Wife won’t allow goats.