Give something away every day of your life.

     This was one thing my grandmother truly believed in. She always had plenty but never stopped giving things away. Even in her final days in the continuous care center she would win notebooks and trinkets at bingo and when she saw us she would say - I picked this up for you take it. I can not begin to describe the number of meals, the truckloads of clothes , the produce, the quilts and blankets, the dishes, towells. and occational money she would give to me and the other grandkids. But the giving did not end withhher family she was always looking for people in need and seing that they were taken care of.

    Granny grew up during the depression, her father was a Railroad man and a local leader but he was also a philanderer and alchoholic. Her early life was not always easy. She had solice on her grandparents farm, and with her aunt who lived next door to her mother. There are some holes in her early life that are a bit of a mystery but she spoke often about her first jobs as a young teen in a sandwich shop, then other jobs as a butcher, a community organizer withthe community action association, and as an LPN. She worked with my grandfather for years pulling a living out of their farm and raising 4 kids - and helping raise a number of the neighborhood kids. 

     She said her favorite things in the world were hearing a new baby cry, counting money, and giving something away every day. She left us a couple of years ago but I see reflections of her every time I talk to my father, my Uncles and Aunts , or my cousins who like me were lucky enoughto have been raised  partially by her.

  

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. Theodore Roosevelt

    I pride myself in an ability to see value where others overlook it; give me a field of briers and brush -I see a goat pasture; give me a roadside dump- I see hundred of dollars in scrap metal; show me a dilapidated old house - I see vintage chestnut and oak lumber. From my minivan that is used for a truck to my constant trolling of government surplus websites I am constantly trying to squeeze extra value out of the things around me. The world is your oyster if you open your mind and creatively and sustainably reach for the pearls. 

  I try to approach people in the same manner , I find friends in the fringes and the outliers of the community. Those who others shun I look more closely at and search for value in.  I will help anyone and abhor snobbishness and self-righteousness in all its guises. 

Father Edward J. Flanagan is the founder and visionary for what’s known today as Boys Town. He had a dream that every child could be a productive citizen if given love, a home, an education and a trade. He accepted boys of every race, color and creed. Father Flanagan firmly believed, “There are no bad boys. There is only bad environment, bad training, bad example, bad thinking.”

That being said there are people who have treated me and others wrong for their own gain or selfishness and all one can do is learn to be wary of them, and possibly stay focused on their failings so as be aware of your own.

Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

also Theodore Roosevelt

Just where are you from anyhow?

This is Westfall (or Bragg) Island just downriver from Hinton WV looking back up towards Hinton from the Brooks scenic overlook.

 This is the tip of the island towards Hinton up on top of the mountain you can see fields.

This is our home place. Our family has lived there for 7 generations. We are lucky that family retains much of the original farm -- from the top of the mountain all the way to the creek. it was fantastic place to grow up with woods to play in , horses and four wheelers to ride and some of the best food ever raised and served anywhere.

The next hill over and further away my mothers family has resided for several generations.

Making a living off the land

This is my grandfather Paul Bragg.

He and my Grandmother could pull an immense amount of food and a modest income off his small farm and the woods around it.

Here is part of how he did it. This shows four large paper bags filled with ginseng. This is how he bought his winter's heating oil each year.

He would farm all summer and hit the woods and hunt ginseng in the fall , and then squirrels turkey and deer during hunting season.

The farm season started in early March with winter onions and leaf lettuce that would be hauled to the flea market as soon as the flea market would open.  You can also start your traditionally transplanted plants such as peppers, cabbage, tomatoes, and so on. Also many types of greens can be planted which are frost hardy.

April and may mark the onset of many fruit harvest seasons. Fruit patches and orchards return for years without having to be set back out. This includes many such as strawberries that are picked into quart baskets and sold to loyal customers all over town. The same with blueberries, gooseberries, cherries , raspberries, blackberries, mulberries, and grapes (bunches not baskets). that takes you into big fruit season of plums apples, peaches,  pears that can be sold by the pound or by the peck or bushel. This does not preclude the farmer from having to maintain fruit patches, each fruit variety requires tending to  be it pruning trees and vines, weeding or mowing around, spraying for maximum yield and protection from disease and marauding mammals such as deer and rabbits.

As soon as two weeks before the last frost many vegetables and tubers can be put out. Potatoes can be planted around the middle of April. May-July one can put in corn, beans, squash, cucumbers, melons and gourds .  August is the time to sow your winter  greens and root vegetable crops like carrots, turnips beets and onion.

Livestock can be purchased in the spring and a lot of forage is available for them to eat during the spring summer and early fall. This extra forage curtails the amount of supplemental grain and hey that constitute a majority of the annual cost of raising livestock.

Apple butter, Jams, Jellies , relish, chowchow, and honey are products that were regularly being produced, canned  and marketed from the family farm. The strong aroma of spices and flavors  that would permeate your sinuses, skin, clothes and soul upon entering the old kitchen on a chow-chow cooking day could scarce be equaled in the markets of the Mediterranean or southeast Asia.  Everyone should be so lucky as to know the smell of vinegar cleaning a in a copper kettle and wood smoke for a campfire as a batch of apple butter is about to be prepared. There should be lines to watch the action of the liquid gold of freshly harvested honey slowly y exiting the comb and dripping into a container to then be placed into spotless canning jars.  

September, October and November were still productive months with pumpkins, and gourds to harvest. Potatoes get dug and many other root crops like rutabagas and turnips There were also nuts to pick up and their farm was covered in Black walnut trees But even the months of  December  offered a time to sell jams and jellies that had been put up back in the Summer.  Throughout the year there were fairs and festivals, flea markets and yard sales, and holiday gatherings to attend and hawk the various products. Many farmers plow in th fall and this allows the grass and foliage that they turn over to compost underground and create a warm moist home for the microbes that help the next year's  garden flourish

January and February's short days still held work around the farm. There were beds to work up, Fruit trees to prune, and the various poles trellises and wire cages that had been the bones to the previous years garden have to be put up and stored. Livestock that is kept through the winter has to be fed as the green fields of spring and summer don’t produce so grain and hey harvested in the previous seasons has to be delved out to the livestock.  

Homesteading can be a year round enterprise and one has to be every bit as industrious , open minded, and  determined as any CEO, Engineer , or other business professional to be able to pull a living out of the land.

How to heat your house with wood or coal.

Winter is just around the corner - I saw leaves changing on my way home today. I had to close a window in my bedroomlast night. This makes me have to consider the impending cold weather.

Many rural WV families still have wood and coal stoves.

In order to heat your home with a woodstove...
First you need some woods - deciduous hardwood (trees that drop their leaves) are good with oak, ash and locust being the best but one can burn just about any wood once it is seasoned (dried out). Green (freshly cut) wood and conifers (like pines and spruces and hemlock) can be burnt too but they are hard to get lit and smoke excessively and dont heat as welland are prone to clogging your chimney.Wood cut at least one year in advance burns better, hotter, and more efficiently.

Chimneys are another topic to touch on briefly. One needs a way for the smoke and poisonous carbon monoxide from burning wood and coal to exit the home( without allowing it to carry the heat out with it). Chimneys should reach above the crest of your roof and be of stone or triple wall pipe and extreme care should be taken that they are cleaned out and serviceable throughout the year .
A by-product of smoke  called creosote will coat your chimney walls and, if allowed to build up, can catch fire start inside your chimney. Chimneys are designed to carry smoke, not fire, so a fire in your chimney could cause it to fall apart and allow the fire into your attic or living space. A chimney should always create a draw or updraft through it.

So you have wood and chimney now you need to decide on a stove the best stoves are those that are of a thick enough metal and tightly enough constructed to seal well because- as I will discuss below, air control is fire control.

Stoves can be made for big logs or small blocks, to get hot and heat up water fast  or cook food or to bank up , shut down and leave for days at a time. All stoves have a draft - which is a door near the bottom that allows air to enter  and ashes to be removed.  They also have a stovepipe near the top or back containing the damper that allows the smoke into the chimney. You use these to control the stove's heat outputand air flow.

Starting the stove - one needs to start with an empty stove. The damper must be open because you want all the smoke to go up the chimney at first. The draft also needs to be open because a struggling little fire needs lots of air to grow. You start with lighting some some newspaper or a cardboard box or paper bags,  once these are lighted and burning small sticks between the size of  pencils and half dollars (this is kindling (dry pine is best for this)) need to be placed above the burning paper. Then, once these are burning, even larger blocks of wood can be added -about this time some serious heat is coming off your smaller sticks so you can shut the draft, partially at least and the damper a little bit. Once your larger logs ignite then you can shut the draft completley and the damper as much as 90% -if the stove starts smoking into the house it means you have shut your damper too far -open it some. And always open your damper when you get ready to open the door of the stove so the smoke will not spew into the house but don't forget to shut it once you shut the stove or it will allow theheat to go up the stovepipe withthe smoke.

Coal stove operation is exactly the same to this point only witha  coal stove , once the larger block of wood have started and are buring well, you then pour coal in on top of it (see cautionary not below). Coal stoves have fire bricks and heavy grates that protect the metal from melting from their intense heat .

Never leave your draft open when you leave the stove because, even a wood fire, with enough air going through it can turn your stovepipe red hot or melt the stove itself.

Wood burns and turn to ashes that have to be carried out - so does coal. A poker is used to break up big compacted piles of ash and embers from inside the stove to allow the air to circulate better. Pokers are also used to rake and shake the grate so that the ashes fall down out of the combustion chamber and into the ash pan for removal. Be careful when dumping ashes outside that no live coals are mixed in because  they could start a fire wherever you dump you ashes. If you only burn wood or coal the ashes can be poured in a vegetabel garden lot as cheap fertilizer.

There is one other cautionary note regarding burning coal that is kind of scary when you have a lot of hot coals in your stove and then pour in coal it is possible to smother the fire and cause the coat to expel gasses the gasses can then get a spark and blow up (small explosion inside stove) . This causes your damper to blow closed an your house fill with smoke.  beware when adding coal to a hot ashes only add a littl at a time and try to make sure there isn't trash or paper mixed with your coal.

 Always keep your stove and stovepipe a safe distance away from walls and ceilings and watch for hot sparks falling out of your ash pan and draft. a large flat metal street sign can be used under our stove to protect your carpet or floor. There is no better or less expensive heat that that of a hot banked up (full of fuel with hot coals under it and draft and damper shut down tight ) wood or coal stove.

Don't burn plastic, pressure treated woods, painted wood , or petroleum products they are dangerous to breath and will mess up your chimney also glossy paper from magazines and newspapers will not be good for starting fires they smoke too much with foul smelling smoke.  

Hard Work

There is a lot of work that goes into a farm, from building fences and out buildings to basic animal and plant care, to ensuring for safe food water and even air for your stock to live and grow in.

The Internet is full of good advise and planning aids but it really comes down to getting your hands dirty and working your plans after you have made them.

Rome wasn't built in a day but baby steps towards an eventual goal are the only way  you are going to get there.

There are so many resources out there but one learns more by doing than by spending hours  and hours on study. Homesteading is not primarily an academic enterprise - it is a physical , mental, spiritual, and emotional journey that involves research and initiative, but, above all, hard work.

The main goal of a homestead

The main goal of a homestead should not be to make money. The main goal should be sustainability. You have only one life and what you create, influence, and build is what you and therefore your homestead is here for.

You have to examine the Big picture

The way you take care of your farm and your neighbors influence the way you and your family will be treated when you need help - and we all end up needing help eventually. No man is an island and all that jazz.

Finally dont get so caught up in the minutia of little issues that may ruin you day. Once I walked 4 miles up a hollow with baskets and buckets only to find the berries I was sure were there were still blooming and I had brought help to pick them. I was so embarassed until the help I brought told me how much they appreciated me sharing the beauty and solitude of the trail  I had led them in on and thanked me for the journey even though the fruit we had went after never materialized.

Barns and Hoop Houses

Almost all livestock will need some sort of protection from the wind and weather. In a pinch, a sturdy- if temporary -hoop house can be constructed out of cattle panels tied into an arch and covered with a tarp. These hoop houses make windproof shelter for Goats , sheep and cattle but excessively cold or wet weather necessitates a more substantial structure. Be they rock , logs or earthen a banr should be ventilated well enough and be cleanable and drainable to keep livestock feet from picking up waterborne disease. The better you take care of your animals the more they will thrive and resist sickness.

Parasites

This little guy had a harsh life he was a twin with a little black brother who breeched and caused the death of his mother, he was bottle fed and 5 months later was found in a weakened  state. Further  examination found him to be covered with blood sucking lice, botfly larva were crawling all over his feet and legs eating him where he stood, and he was full of blood sucking worms. His gums were a pale white instead of the healthy pink they sould have been. He was treated with antibiotics and ivromectin which basically killed off the parasites but less than two weeks later he was found dead in the field. He never was a valualble animal but he was worth more than to allow parasites to cause him get so sick. Keep an eye on your animals and treat them at the first sign of disease. It doesnt take long for parasites to get the better of your livestock. 

What is a homesteader?

A Homesteader is one who practices small-scale, sustainable agriculture and homemaking.

A homesteader can be a practicer of simple living , back to the land , or permaculture lifestyle.

Or it can be one who has grown in a culture of vegetable and domesticated farm animal producing, processing, and marketting for substinance and profit.

Or it can be both.

 What a homesteader is not is a corporate funded and government subsidized planter or feed lot owner who stays solvent only at the detertiment of the environment and the welfare and quality of the crops and animals under their care.

A Homesteader's operation does not have to be totally organic or antibiotic free, but he or she should consider all practices with an eye toward sustainability and quality of the final product.