Expanded homestead. Zip line logging.

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.

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)

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!!!

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?

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

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.

UNION YES!!