Hinton WV Homesteader

Letter to Representative about Raw Milk, corporate control, and freedom.

2015-04-22T06:30:00.001-07:00

The Honorable Evan Jenkins

United States House of Representatives
502 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Representative Jenkins:

I am sure you have followed the local legislation that was passed in West Virginia regarding herd‑sharing as a legal way of allowing unpasteurized dairy product distribution to consumers. I am equally sure you are aware of the Governor Thompson’s veto neutralizing this legislation. The whole raw milk debate boils down to two basic questions:

Should the government be able to tell free citizens what they can choose to purchase and consume?

Should the corporate/industrial complex hold influence over the laws that control these choices?

A bipartisan group led by Congressman Thomas Massie (R–KY) and Chellie Pingree (D–ME) brought federal legislation forward last year addressing raw milk production and transportation freedom at the federal level. The two laws, the “Milk Freedom of Act of 2014” (HB 4307) and the “Interstate Milk Freedom Act of 2014” (HB4308) were written to remove federal impedance on the production sale and transport of unpasteurized dairy products.

I am writing to request your support of similar legislation-should you encounter it during your term of service as my congressional representative. As one reviews the research available in regards to the risks and benefits of raw milk there is every indication that it is unhealthy and dangerous; however the research has been conducted by those with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. There have been bacterial infections and those are noted by the CDC, the FDA, and by studies paid for by the dairy industry. There is money for lobbying and having “experts” fly to Washington DC and testify as to the public health concerns associated with unpasteurized dairy products. This money and negative propaganda is the industry’s method of maintaining control of the commodity and the consumer.

Adult consumers can choose to drink alcohol, to use tobacco, to eat processed unhealthy fast food, yet they are prohibited from choosing to drink milk from a local farm. A local farm that is likely struggling to stay in business while the community around them drinks milk trucked in from a factory farm two hundred miles away. The small producer cannot afford the equipment to pasteurize their products. The small producer can, however, provide a cleaner environment in which to milk, better forage, and less stress for their livestock- and in turn less medicated livestock. Small farms are losing ground in our state, indeed in much of the country with factory based agriculture models becoming more the norm. As this happens the quality and selection of our food is reduced and we are poorer for it. Please support the cause of raw milk consumers and the dairy farms which produce and wish to legally distribute it.

Sincerely,

Russel Bragg
HC 74 Box 103
Hinton WV 25951

Think I'll get to posting some more - let me know if you are following.

2015-04-22T06:02:00.000-07:00

It has been that long wow!

So I havent posted for over a year.

Since then I started a facebook group for portable saw mill operators it has grown to 6500 members. I have not been making much lumber because in August 2014 I started back to school, this time for a Masters in Social Work.

Why you may ask would a homesteader want that much education? And social work of all things? And how does that tie in to producing lumber?

Well, what it boils down to is being able to recognise and develop value where others overlook it.

A homesteader can find a ragged brushfilled hillside and see value as a possible pasture, vineyard or orchard. A homesteader can see dead and diseased trees in the woodland and recognise a source for valuable lumber to build barns and shed for the farm. A homesteader can see a wino on the corner and possibly recognize a potential employee or customer.

Social workers are professional people helpers - that is their job - to help people cope with their problems through empowerment, advocacy, and helping them linkup with available resources. A homesteader does the same for his livestock, neighbors, and,
to-an-extent his farm.

A social worker's ultimate goal is to fight social injustice. For some societies, social injustice includes consideration of advantages and disadvantages in society that make it unequal. For others, social injustice may repress a society to where living a self-sufficient lifestyle is difficult.

Homesteaders are all about self sufficient lifestyles.

Cooking on the heating stove

2014-01-21T07:43:00.003-08:00

On a cold snowy day I decided to cook breakfast on the heating stove. So I fried some Onions and green peppers, in some butter.

While they were cooking I washed peeled and grated some potatoes.

In the butter from frying the onions I added my potatoes and some more butter.

I opened the draft on the coal stove for a little extra heat.

Needed a little more butter they were trying to stick

I added a lid to hold in the heat.

Once they were mostly done I added the onions and papers back in.

And three store bought eggs- wrong time of year for country eggs.

Then I waited a while.

Then I fliped everythign over one last time and added pepper and a little salt.

Some store bought tomatoes and Cheddar cheese and I was ready to eat.

Now I am ready for a nap - what a good breakfast!

Too much

2013-11-15T19:03:00.002-08:00

Sometimes you get too much to handle

Workshop

2013-11-08T06:55:00.001-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/v/XqepQW0_EwY?version=3&autohide=1&showinfo=1&autohide=1&autoplay=1&feature=share&attribution_tag=X1PQuCYclje3jAPHIcvbbg

Cedar Benches and chest

2013-08-31T05:06:00.001-07:00

First cedar log I have had made 2 benches and a chest.

Catalpa Slab Project

2013-08-31T05:00:00.005-07:00

Neighbor cut a catalpa tree out of beside his driveway. The lower 6ft had nails in it so was unusable. This left a little metal staining in the butt log.

Catalpa

I left a 3 inch slab from near the center of the tre. I hauled it to work to show it to some prospective customers. Catalpa has a distinctive aroma, very spicy. It is quite light and even more-so once dried.

Bar using live edge boards to match live edge of slab.

Pictures don't do it justice but it is a very nice piece.

Milling prices

2013-08-30T19:25:00.003-07:00

Multii- Species grazing plans

2013-03-19T17:05:00.003-07:00

So on a farm one could have five similar lots of pasture. Monoculture farmers would put 4 cows in the first lot; 20 goats in the second lot, 6 donkeys in the third lot; 48 geese in the fourth lot; and 200 free range chickens in the fifth lot. They could all eat down the lots in a given amount of time and need moved to five more lots.

It is my objective opinion that when pasturing 12 geese they eat roughly the same amount of grass as a cow. Most websites report 4-6 goats eat the same amount of grass as a cow. A Donkey's appetite is generally considered to be about 2/3 that of a cow. Approximately 50 chickens can consume a similar amount of vegetation in a day as the amount consumed by one cow.

So on a farm one could have five similar lots of pasture. Monoculture farmers would put 4 cows in the first lot;20 goats in the second lot, 6 donkeys in the third lot; 48 geese in the fourth lot; and 200 free range chickens in the fifth lot. They could all eat down the lots in a given amount of time and need moved to five more lots.

The multispecies farming methods I subscribe to would handle the situation differently.

Still having five lots I would put the geese and goats in the first lot with 4 donkeys , cattle in the second lot with two more donkeys, and chickens in the third lot. Then after half as much time I would put the cattle where the goats and geese were, the goats and geese in a new lot, and the chickens where the cattle were. I would continue this rotation around all 10 total lots.

Why? Because goats eat brush, limited amounts of grass, and briers, donkeys eat weeds, broom-sage, and a small percent of grass, and geese eat weeds, amphibians, reptiles, and grass. They would go through and clear out the less desirable forage the cows would not consume. The donkeys would also keep predators away from the geese and goat kids. Any supplemental grain supplied to the donkeys and goats would be cleaned up entirely by the geese. When they moved on to the second lot the cattle would come in and mow down the remaining grass and trod the accumulated manure from themselves and the preceding group into the pasture.

This second group would leave the pasture mowed very low and spread profusely with parasite and undigested grain laden manure. Upon the arrival of the chickens this nutrient rich waste would be picked over scratched out and any morsel of insect, worm, grub, or sprout would be snatched up and the pasture sanitized.

In my method of farming each species holds a niche.

Twice as often rotations followed by an additional 55% of recovery time for each pasture plus the elimination of parasites in every pasture without pesticides, antibiotics , or medicine, plus the eradication of brush and weeds in all pastures without application of herbicides or defoliants.

Workshop getting started

2013-03-16T13:58:00.001-07:00

Why do we farm?

2013-03-07T06:24:00.001-08:00

Farming is a gamble.

One drops a seed, breeds livestock, or installs some equipment with the anticipation of growth of product and eventual profit.

During the time between the initial investment of the time and effort to plant the seed and the sale of the product millions of things can go wrong.

With seeds, the seed cannot be good , the ground can not be good , too much rain , too little rain, an early frost, a late frost, insects, weeds, deer, rabbits, slugs, fungus, mold, harvesting equipment break down, market price drops, no human resources for harvest, ruins in storage ofater harvest.

One can buy the best seeds, pesticides, herbicides, new equipment, and top of the line employees. One can find a niche market and master production metods to eliminate spoilage and waste. One can do all of this and still not make a profit.

Livestock are also a gamble.

When you buy breeding stock so much can happen. You can have infertile male , infertile female, parasites, inadequate feed, inadequate water, problems birthing, birth defects, problems nursing, problems with disease in young, wrong kind of feed, to much feed, too little feed, parasites, market price low, problems getting to market, market fees high.

Forestry is a gamble, logs can be diseased, windshaken, and bowed. They can split while cutting , get hung up in moving loading on a mill, miscut , misdried, or not marketable. They can be rotten, stained, defective, or contain metal. your chainsaw can break, your moving equipment break, your trailering equipment , your sawmill, your human resources...

One has to ask, why put yourelf through all the stress and hard work to try run this obsticle course of potential downfalls?

Because we love to see new life come into the world, a childlike amazement at being part of something so glorious as a row of freshly sprouted plants peeking out of the dark damp soil or a lamb instinctively knowing how to struggle to its feet, only minutes old, searching around under the ewe for its first breakfast. We love to smell the sawdust and see the figuring of the grain of a newly opened log as the sawmill blade frees one, and then another, then another board.

Successful business depends on knowing which corners to cut to produce sizable quantities of a premium product with with limited risk and a good deal of luck.

Procrastination

2013-03-05T07:52:00.001-08:00

If you choose to crastinate always do it like a pro. Thereis no room in life for mediocrecratination, sophmocrastination, or even amautucrastination.

2013-02-27T11:54:00.003-08:00

The golden rule

Treat poeple the way you would want them to treat you.

When you screw-up, fess up, and move on.

Give a full day's work for a full days pay.

Take time to laugh every day.

How do I change a flat tire?

2013-02-01T19:23:00.001-08:00

How to change a Flat Tire

Step One: Setting the scene

Scene is safe. Flat tire or not a vehicle needs to be in a safe spot before you can attempt repair. Try to start out in a fairly level place well out of traffic. A car can be moved a short distance on a flat at very low speeds, think football fields not 1/10s of miles. If you are on the side of the road make sure your flashers are on.

Step Two: Safety

Put on emergency brake and straighten front tires - put an automatic in park, low gear or reverse for a standard transmission. - You don't want your car to roll while there's no a tire on it.

Step Three: Inventory

Do you have a jack, spare, lug wrench, something to get hubcaps off with? You can not do much of anything without the right tools. Have them in reach and not in the car or truck, once the tire is off you don't want to be bouncing the car around while it is on the jack. Passengers should know to get out or sit still while you are changing the tire.

Step Four: Using your tire tool

All cars have lug-nuts some you have to take off a hubcap to get to. A screwdriver can usually be used to pry at the edge og a hubcap at short intervals all around until it comes loose. Once you can see the lug-nuts you will put your tire tool on the lug-nut pointing at what would be 10 o'clock on a clock face. This allows you to push down on the end of the lug wrench or even step on it if you aren't strong enough, just be careful to ensure it is on well before you exert maximum force or you could brake the lug or strip the lug-nut. You should be able to turn them 2-3 turns until they become easier to tun then stop you have to jack up the vehicle before you go any further.

Step Five: Using the jack made for your vehicle

I wont go into this cause there's too many jacks that all work differently for different vehicles

- jack up the corner of the car where the flat is. Try to make sure the ground under the jack is solid

so it doesn't sink in the mud as it lifts the corner of the car. A short length of board can be placed under a jack in some cases to help support the jack. Jack the car up just enough to fit the spare on - the higher the less stable and less safe.

Step Six: Take Precaution

Finish loosening the lug nuts and wiggle the flat off of the studs. Being careful not to bump the jack slide the flat under the car as an additional safety if it were to fall off the jack. Do no place your arms legs or torso or head under the car or suspended axle.

Step Seven: Putting spare on studs

Align your spare tire up with the studs and lift it into position -don't jostle or bounce the car while pitting it on. Start one lug-nut, being careful not to cross thread it and tighten it with the lug wrench until it is just past finger tight. Then start one straight across from it and continue in a star pattern pulling the wheel squarely onto the axle. Once all lug-nut are on and just past finger tight start over and tighten them pretty tight and finally one more time around tightening them to the manufacturers recommended torque. Don't overt-tighten or the studs may break.

Step Eight: Now you are ready to pack up and hit the road.

Drag your flat out from under your car and slowly let down the jack. Pack up all your tools and hubcap. Don't forget your flashers are on you can turn them off now and let off your emergency brake.Go carefully down the road to get your tire fixed or a new one. Remember you don't have a spare now and you may have not gotten your lug-nuts tight enough. If your spare is a temporary or donuts sized spare you must not exceed the speed that the spare was rated for and your auto will handle different with the odd ball spare. Good luck!

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How do you weld?

2013-02-01T17:46:00.000-08:00

I recently learned how to weld and , I am far from an expert but I can tell you how I went about it.

I learned on an arc welder , also called a stick welder.

Welding is the fusing of two pieces of metal together by melting them and an electrode with high voltage electricity.

Welders have two leads (wires coming out of them)-a hot and a ground.

The ground connects securely to one of the pieces you are wanting to join together. you may have to use a grinder or wire brush to make sure it is connected to metal well and not grease or rust or dirt.

Once the ground is connected you should secure a welding rod in the lead. One end of the rod has no flux on it this is the end that is pinched int the jaws of the lead. All rods have numbers on them that specify how many pounds per inch a properly welded connection will hold. i have used rods that start with 60 or 70 there is a chart on most welders saying what setting the welder should be set on to weld with certain rods. There is a second set of numbers also that specifies what kind of flux is on the electrode and what it is good for.

6011 or 6013 is a good rod to learn on 7018 is a little harder to work with but makes an extra strong bond.

Flux is the coating on the electrode The reason flux is on the rods is --as the electrode melts the flux burns intensely creating an oxygen free zone over the molten metal and also preventing the molten electrode from sticking to the weld.

You want to always wear darkened eye cover while welding because the intense light can damage your eyes.

So what happens is when the electrode contacts the the metal that is attached to the ground a circuit is closed causing lots of energy to stream through. Electric energy creates heat when it moves and the tip of the electrode will be the smallest place and thus the most concentrated amount of heat. As the heat cooks the flux it boils and the boiling flux melts the metal, the electrode , and the other piece of metal all into a tiny pool or drop of molten metal.

That tiny bright red pool is where the magic happens because, as the electrode melts, tiny gaps open up between the new end of the electrode and the drop of molten metal. The electricity jumps (or arcs) from the electrode to the pool. This ark is hot as lightening - hotter than the surface of the sun. This arc can be aimed to send the heat deep into the two pieces you are joining melting the surface and the two molten surfaces and the metal from the electrode join as new metal. As the new metal cools imperfection come to its surface. The impurities take the form of a carbon type substance called SLAG. Slag protects the cooling weld and then is chipped off with a tiny pointed hammer or grinder to re-weld, most large welds require several passes to make sure there is enough metal n the joint to hold tight.

Where does lumber come from?

2013-01-31T07:38:00.001-08:00

Lumber comes from trees and trees come from the forest. It takes years to grow trees.

In order to ge tto the trees roads must be built

Sometimes equipment is built to help load the logs ,once cut, onto trucks and trailers to remove the trees from the forest.

Logs are then loaded onto the sawmill and sawn into boards.

Leasing and fleecing and guardianship..

2013-01-27T18:06:00.000-08:00

As neighbors go sheep farmers are usually as good as you can expect. They mind their own business and, apart from doing away with neighborhood dogs that pester their flocks, they don't bother anyone. This being said I will expand to say I have neighbors who are sheep farmers and one particular neighbor sheep farmer who sold his farm and is between farms for a while but still owning some livestock approached me about expanding one of my paddocks and supplying hay for my goats and his few head of sheep until he can find a more long term solution. I have have been wanting to add sheep into the mix here at the Hinton Homestead so I obliged him. We spoke little about specifics as I am mainly out to do a favor for a neighbor and in the process learn about sheep. We approximately doubled the size of the paddock, I decided it would be wise to move the goats into a new paddock and shed as they have been showing signs off illness and I did not want to make the sheep sick. I sprayed the old paddock down with bleach as an additional precaution and he moved his flock . The first day we moved them and moved some hay and the fence they seemed to work out well but the next evening, when i came home from work, I found a very small lamb laying cold and limp in the grass and, despite bringing it home and warming it, It was lifeless.

Fast forward a week, the sheep farmer has been steady moving hay and feed and making improvements a hoop house ( an idea he borrowed from me a few years ago) and brought his guard dogs to stay with the sheep.
There is a young wether (castrated ram) with a huge gash on its front shoulder. I have had goats in the barn and paddock for over a year and never a scratch and now this sheep has a life threatening gash in less than a week. I walked every bit of the field and barn and found the offending piece of tin in the barn and covered its edge with aboard to prevent more such injuries.

This past weekend was a bitter cold morning in the low 20s and another ewe dropped lambs , this time they were both alive when the sheep farmer discovered them. I had slept in for once. There was a whit lamb and a black lamb the white one was doing fine bt the black one was weak and shivering and wouldn't stand.

After putting as much time as possible into trying to allow the ewe to warm and feed the black lamb it was decided that he was going to die if we didn't bring him in and warm him up .

We very nearly waited too long but after a few spoonfuls of sugar water , lots of rubbing and working his muscles, drying him off, and a gradual warming up in front of an electric forced air heater he was sitting up and trying to stand. Then after some syringes full of milk and sugar water he finally, shakily, stood up. The sheep farmer brought a bottle and powdered milk, milked out some colostrum from the ewe and we had him fed about 3 8 ounce bottles by the end of the day.

Then the next morning after bleaching, scrubbing, and mopping about 36 ounces of lamb associated urine and fecal droppings from the downstairs bathroom we found him to be a voracious eater. He seems to like people and pooping. He would not try t o nurse his mother when reintroduced and she wouldn't allow him to nurse when I put them together physically. So it looks like we are stuck with him.bottle feeding, in the house, until he is a couple weeks older- it is supposed to be icy and cold for the next 7-10 days. That will teach me to sleep in and not check on the sheep every morning.

But really it isn't too bad aside from the crying and the pooping everywhere. That is all part of farming and part of being a good neighbor. I will try to get up early, even on my days off and check for lamb,s cause it is a lot easier to get them up and nursing then it is to keep them alive without the mother helping out.

This whole sheep raising idea has been a bit of an adventure and I am not entirely sure what the total equation looks like dollars and cents. Dead and sick sheep , feed bill taken over by someone else, and lots of poop in my floor are all things I never would have figured on if I had quoted a simple dollar price for keeping the animals. Livestock gets sick and livestock becomes dead stock that's part of farming. I could have been up at dawn to find the same lambs had been thrown at 2 am..

Sweet Spots

2012-08-23T05:59:00.001-07:00

When you go to the beach and want to go out and play int he waves there is a spot , about neck high, where you are lifted by the waves and placed gently back on the sand. Further out you are dropped in water over your head, further in you are not lifted but bashed by the waves. That is your sweet spot.

When you are drilling holes in metal with a drill press you hold down with a certain amount of pressure and the shavings fly out of the holes. You hold down too hard and the bit smokes and then locks up. If you hold down too easily and the drill bit just polishes the bottom of the hole refusing to cut. That perfect amount of pressure is your sweet spot.

Life is full of sweet spots and they are constantly moving. Just when you think you are in one everything changes and you are struggling to find the next sweet spot.

Businesses have sweet spots too, a certain product line or niche that they are specifically designed for , right place, right time, right product, right human resources and capital to pull it all together. It is important to recognise when your business hits that sweet spot and know when to stop changing things. Thats the challenge perosnally and professionally know ing when it isn't going to get any sweeter.

You don't want things to put you in over your head or things to be grinding to a stop so always be aware and looking for your organizational and professional sweet spots and when you find them cherish them because they are few and far between.

Homesteader got married.

2012-08-05T20:50:00.001-07:00

On July 21 I became a married man.

Here is my full family, together and happy for a while. We are never sure what the future will hold so its important to try not to get too wound up in plans and goals and forget to embrace what you have at any given time. Dark days have come and gone and hopefully brighter ones are still ahead. The farm is not doing so well as disease ran rampant through the goats and destroyed my flock. The geese and chickens are doing tolerably well but te Sawmill coming together is the real news.

I have been cleaning up the mess the dozer made and it is fantastic to have a decent road but the dozer destroyed so many young trees in making the road. I am harvesting them all for firewood and smaller logs. New wife and I have been working all weekend on cleaning up felled logs and damaged trees. We also expanded the clearing to have room to put the mill.

I have been examining better chainsaw chains, there are options for high speed steel or carbide tipped chains that could last longer between sharpening but they cost a lot more and require special diamond encrusted wheels to sharpen. I hate to sharpen saws and because of the dirt and the extreme hardness of locust and even red oak on the new property made short work - less than two tanks of fuel through saw and it was already dull. I bougth he best saw value I could a Makita 6421- from Bailey's logging supply. Ialso got a portable winch. I am planning to use them to keep the sawmill fed every weekend with mature and diseased trees off my two parcels of property.

My new wife tells me it is bedtime and she is tired after a day of cutting firewood and stacking up logs. So I'll post again sometime soon.

Expanded homestead. Zip line logging.

2012-05-14T18:26:00.001-07:00

The Hinton Homesteader has been busy. The goats need more pasture and I found a piece of land less than a mile away that was itching to become a new goat pasture. It is this funny shaped area pictured above. Below shows both places in green. 9.5 acres total.

This place is a really steep hill with lots of rocks - a real goat paradise.

I have really been putting lots of work and time in this new place and it will require over half a mile of good fence before it is ready for goats. I had a man in this weekend bring a bulldozer to build two roads down over this steep hill so I can access one of the few flat spots - an old home site. there is a year round spring and two creeks.

We have been pulling locust fence-posts up the hill with the county's first skyline uphill logging rigging. It will now be adapted to load logs onto a trailer in the road or maybe just firewood. I try to never build fences using trees because the trees tear up the fences over time and the fences ruin the logs. We were pretty close to the state road right of way so we painted our posts red so no one would run into them.

This road into the property ended up, even after zigging and zagging, so steep that it is virtually impassible with all but the most powerful of 4x4s or a tractor but it is only going to be used for firewood and goat traffic so it is good enough. It was necessary to allow the bulldozer access to the bottom of the hill where it could carve out a better road along the route of the old horse path back up to the state road.

Today we sewed seeds everywhere that soil was exposed to try to hold down the topsoil and prevent ruts. Ideally we would have had lots of mulch hay to roll out to further prevent erosion but for now the seeds will be enough. Yellow clay and shale aren't too bad to wash out anyhow and the fescue and rye will shortly have deep roots and spread green over the broken surface of the land.

It was a hard choice to allow a Bulldozer to go barreling through the woods pushing up trees and tearing stuff up but a good road improved the utility of an otherwise unusable terrain and that is the cost of doing business. We avoided the creeks and watersheds and more valuable trees. I am pleased with the results. It may be a year or more before there is a fence around this place but a year isn't very long and theres plenty to do every weekend for the next year or two.

I will try to do more blog entries int he next few weeks

ideas are chainsaws
rigging a skyline
fence building 101
fence building 202
fence building expert level
goat diseases and care
and in the near future a simple country wedding.Thats right the Hinton Homesteader is getting married in July.
One more topic how to know when your homestead is big enough- aka Never plant more than your wife can work.

Winters end is near.

2012-02-29T07:24:00.002-08:00

We have been blessed with a mild winter. Here are some pictures from last winter. Things don't change much but they change some.

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Small Farm - Big Profits (Sometimes)

2012-02-24T10:05:00.000-08:00

Diversity is the name of the game when it comes to small farms. the list of products is pretty long.

Asparagus, Baby vegetables, Cabbage, Carrots, Celery, Chinese water chestnuts, Cole crops (broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi), Corn, miniature, Fenugreek, Edible flowers, Garlic, Gourds, ornamental, Gourmet vegetables, Greenhouse production for out-of-season crops, Heirloom varieties of any vegetable, Herbs - culinary and medicinal, Horseradish, Luffa gourds, Mushrooms- agaricus, shiitake, oyster, morel, etc., Onions (transplants, shallots, sweet, early), Organically grown vegetables of all types, Oriental vegetables, Peas and pea shoots, Peppers - specialty types (purple, hot, etc.), Pumpkins, Red beets, Salad greens - mesclun, Sprouts (alfalfa, bean, etc.), Squash, Sweet corn, Sweet potatoes, Tomatoes - specialty types, Truffles, Wasabi ,Apples, esp. Heirloom varieties, Asian pears, Brambles - blackberries, raspberries, loganberries, blackraspberries, etc., Blueberries, Cranberries, currants, Elderberries, Gooseberries, Kiwi, hardy, Lingonberries, Melons - specialty types, Paw paw, Rhubarb products, Strawberries, day neutral types, Table grapes, seeded and seedless, Wine grapes for home brewing market

I stole the above list from a couple of sections from http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/altlist.shtml

which is the USDA's website that lists possible agricultural land and property uses.

Monoculture farming (where you see acres and acres for miles and miles of corn, soybeans, or melons) works for megafarms but, for the homestead farmer, limited resources and land necessitate a wide variety of crops and livestock

Another consideration is that when you eat what you grow you want to make sure you grow a wide variety. If you find you have an affinity for growing a certain crop and have a market for it, by all means- grow it. But most small homesteads need more than one cash crop or revenue source. You don't have to sell $30K in one main crop if you pull in $3K from potatoes $5k from plants for transplanting, $6k from apples, $11K in potatoes, $15K in feeder calves, $4K in Christmas trees and wreaths. The disadvantages of keeping the physical capital and means of production for these multiple crops is offset by the stability that having multiple crops offers. If heavy spring rains drown out your potatoes you still have your other crops.

Same can be said for animals and poultry multiple products living in synergy = bigger profit from smaller acreage. You have to have a plan and then be fluid enough to adjust your plan to make the necessary changes to optimize return.

Spring is near!!!

2012-02-24T09:03:00.001-08:00

The irises in my yard are sprouting up through the ground. The geese have started to lay big wax coated eggs again. The warmer rains have melted the snow off the vacant pasture which thus emerges a brighter green that when it was covered. The small pond runs over and is clear and clean dispite the best efforts of the geese and ducks to keep it muddy.

How much do you know about eggs?

2012-02-23T18:00:00.000-08:00

When you collect your eggs is it good to wash them before storage?

No, In fact washing eggs is a bad thing, it only forces bacteria into them, and makes them unhealthy to eat. Washing eggs also weakens the shell, therefore it shortens the time the egg will stay good while in the refrigerator. The only time an egg should be washed is if it has blood or feces on it. Water slightly warmer than the temperature of the egg is the best way to clean the eggs. Most agricultural stores such as Tractor Supply or Southern States sale egg cleanser. It’s not good to even use cleaners because it also goes into the egg through its pores; therefore you are eating chemicals plus the bacteria.

Wintertime

2012-02-23T17:04:00.002-08:00

This little 8x8 barn was built for $18 in nails and a bunch of scraps that had been laying around the farm since I used to tear down houses. It is not doing me alot of good as it is full of lots of junk. But then again every farm has to have a place to store junk, rainy day projects, parts and rarelly used tools.

The Goats are very happy in their barn. It is very small but cozy and built well with little expense. A too tight barn harbors dampness and disease ventilation and plenty of fresh bedding helps with parasites and foot rot. The little pond catches all the run off from the roof and some springs feed it from below. The cickens and ducks and geese clean up any grain that makes its way through the goats or they overlook at feeding time.

I wish I had rotated before I uploaded this tree.

A rooster and hen stand out in the road . The fence is like a frosted spiderweb.

Winter time is here on the farm and its been a very mild one, which is good. we finally had our first significant snowfall , 8 inches or so last week. I have been hibernating and feeding out lots of grain and hay, we lost our alpaca a couple of weeks ago. he must have been quite old.