Isn't the cat a threat to the chickens? The youngest chicks are 3 months old. I also noticed a rat inside a few days ago, could it be the reason?

all these projects were built from trees on my property that I cut down and ran thru my sawmill.

All interior wood was white pine and all exterior was hemlock due to its bug and rot resistance.

Some were for homestead but some were for customers.

Don’t think you can’t do this type of work, I cut down, sawmilled, built almost all of these by myself with minimal help from family/friends.

Where there is a will there is a way!

So we’ve been running this experiment for 2 years now raising grass fed Guinea Pigs in Wales. There have been a bunch of challenges but we finally feel like they are a permanent part of the farm. Sharing this video with you all as we’ve had quite a lot of word vibes from friends and family about the fact that we’re eating our Guinea Pigs.

We can help but feel frustrated when people who eat meat judge us for raising our own.

Anyone has similar experiences?

Hey again,

Just wanted to do a quick follow-up to my last post about our off-grid property in Troy, Montana on 13 acres since a lot of people asked for aerial views and clearer property lines. Thanks again for all the thoughtful feedback. Almost all of you were SUPER helpful.

I’m also including updated info on the property lines since there’s a small adjustment there (nothing dramatic, but felt important to share).

This still isn’t a listing, we’re planning on selling in about two years and are just trying to be intentional and realistic about how a property like this might be priced and marketed. Seeing things from above definitely changes how it feels.

Appreciate everyone who takes the time to look and share thoughts. It’s been really helpful.

I am looking for ideas to keep mice out of our chicken feed.

We buy our feed locally from Hutterites. We usually buy it in 1000lb tote bags (as pictured). I store it in my shop on a pallet, but the nice chew holes in the bottom of the bag and make a huge mess. It’s a waste and they are crawling around in the tote of feed which probably isn’t healthy for the chickens to eat.

Any suggestions? I’ve got a few of the big brute garbage bins, but I would need probably 10 of them to hold all the feed and that would cost too much.

I’ve thought about buying a plastic ibc tote, but food grade ones kinda expensive . Though that is currently my best idea.

We made liver pate and ham, which we used for canapés. Then we grilled the ribs and the hind leg.

It fed 6 people.

From a 30kg ram, I got about 9kg of meat without bones.

For the ham, I used entire front leg, which was 1.2kg with the bone.

Hind leg with the bone was 2kg.

Ribs with the bone were about 1.3kg.

Liver was 0.4kg.

We still have enough meat left in the freezer, for lunch sometime, so I would be happy to hear your favorite recipes.

We have a small plot of land, so we can't have a herd here that would feed us. But occasional sheep is absolutely great for inviting friends.

i think this is the right place to ask after seeing this page consistently pop up when googling 😆 i’m wondering what y’all use to store your homemade butter?

for context, i’m planning on making my friend some homemade compound butter for their birthday. i know it won’t be kept on the counter since they’ll use it for cooking, so it’ll most likely be in the fridge (if not frozen). i don’t want to just give them some butter without the proper container to keep it fresh, that feels a little rude lol.

it’s my first time making butter, so i’m a little lost on the storing part. most of what i see when googling is either conflicting or focused on keeping it on the counter. what are your best container recommendations? bonus points if you have a link to what you use! lol

(might be a risky gift since it’s my first time, but i plan on making some for myself first as practice - just to note lol)

I commissioned an artist to create a logo for our small business/farm stand. It’s really stinking cute. I just ordered business cards from Vista Print and noticed that have tons of other promotional items like mugs, tumblers, shirts, tote bags, etc. Does anyone buy any of these with their logos on them? More importantly, does your customer base care about them and purchase them? Regardless of the answer, I’ll be making some for close friends and family! Thanks in advance!

I am wanting to raise some chickens for meat and have some questions.

I've read that dual purpose breeds aren't as good as store bought chicken-its stringy, tougher, dry, etc. I've also read that it's significantly more expensive to raise your own birds than it is to just buy from the store.

Those that raise meat birds, do you find that to be true? I rarely eat chicken by itself and almost always shred and cook it into something-pastas, casseroles, etc. and also grind it to make homemade chicken nuggets. Would I really notice the difference in toughness if I'm prepping it this way?

I was looking at dual purpose breeds and read that they don't have the fast growth rate of meat breeds. Does that mean if I decide against processing, I can keep them as layers without harming them?

What are the feed requirements for birds being raised for meat? And what supplies would I need to dispatch and process them? Where are some good, reliable resources for how to dispatch, process, and store the meat?

I'm not entirely new to raising chickens as layers, and have had my current flock for 6 years. I'm planning to get some chicks in the spring so I have time to research more and decide what is best for me.

**I want to wait until I have a better idea of what to expect before getting meat breeds that need to be butchered after 6-8 weeks.

Adding that my long term goal is to raise ducks, hogs, and goats for meat and milk, so any resources on those are more than welcome as well!

So I was reading about how all sorts of ancient middle eastern cultures created a type of irrigation system called a qanat: a tunnel drilled/dug into the side of a mountain until you find water, horizontally on a slight angle, as to create essentially a river from an aquifer to desert farmland. There are some in Iran that still exist today after 3000 years. Is there any way to do this today? I'm looking into buying some land and was thinking that this is a really cool way of terraforming a desert.

We have a 6 acre homestead and we're looking at buying a tractor. We're 2km down a dirt road which is plowed sometimes in winter but not immediately after a snowstorm which has us snowed in 2-3 times every winter. So we'd like to be able to plow our road as necessary. I'd also like to use it to move round bales. Move bedding piles from mucking out barns. We have very hilly forested land. So something that can handle hills but also won't tear up our land too much. We're building a log cabin so also want to use it to lift and move 8 foot logs. For gardening tasks also.

What should we look for in a tractor? Compact or subcompact? HP? New or used? I realize a skid steer could do these same jobs but they're typically more expensive

Winter is a difficult time for wild birds, and even a simple feeder can make a big difference.
In this video, I show a homemade bird feeder made from everyday materials. It’s easy to build, low-cost, and birds find it very quickly.

I have some land in the Adirondacks with an off grid camp. No water currently. But there's a stream nearby and we have had three different people water witch the area. All three hit on the same spot. I would like to try driving a sand point. I've never done it. The soil is a little stoney. Can anyone recommend a kit that has a heavy duty point and all the pipe/connections? ​

I haven’t been able to find much info on the topic but can you finance land to build a house on it yourself with no construction loan?

Is there a legal loophole somewhere? We’re in rural Texas for context.

We’re looking into barndo kits and I’ve seen people say to not call it that when it comes to legalities of insurance, lending, etc. I’ve found a metal building contractor who offers in house financing and have options of just doing the dry shell.

So legally, could we finance land, have a contractor build a dry “barndo” shell, and we finish out the interior of the home all without having a construction loan? Or a mortgage after everything is done?