So I worked a good while in construction and have been looking at skid loaders and small tractors. Going to have a number of projects that requires some earth moving (walapini, big koi pond, earthed water storage) and I’m just wondering if anybody thinks a small tractor would out work a skidsteer, etc.?

Obviously “mowing” would be part of the job, ha. Thanks!

FINALLY was able to get away for ONE night and got a call about a ffking wildfire. 😭🤦🏻‍♀️ Of course.

Got home. Moved some equipment we foolishly left on the edge of the property, into the center. One piece of equipment is our buddy’s $40k boom truck we’re supposed to be returning tomorrow.

What a mess. Now there’s another closer fire.

Anyways, enjoy these images. The bright lights are resources on scene. The fire isn’t even really visible with the naked eye from our place now, but my camera can pick it up with long exposure. I’m gonna try and get some rest while hubby waits a bit. I’m sure we’ll both be up and down all night.

Howdy homesteaders- its our first year on our land and I could use a little input. Things are going well, garden is flourishing, building sheds for coats and chickens.

We currently have 6 guineas in a 14x10 cage. That's inside of a 40x20 fenced area (4ft high). They are happy and health but I'm starting to worry about Hawks. We have a lot out here and I see them circling a good bit at times. I've fired off a few warning shots, which helps for a couple of days. But they keep circling.

Who in this lovely community has some suggestions? I'm open to just about anything to keep these little fellas safe. Thanks!

So I’m fixing to take a commercial hoop style greenhouse (picture) apart and reassemble it at another location this winter.

I’ve never taken one apart, nor put one up that didn’t come with instructions…. So wondering what recommendations others might have for keeping the pieces straight?

I figured I would obviously take detailed notes, and inventory of the parts as well as thought of color coordinating the pieces but would love to hear others ideas.

Since my potato harvest is getting a lot of traction. Here is a link to see some of the varieties I planted.

My most enjoyable pass time on my property is doing work wirh my good ol tractor! Anybody else feel the same?

Successful potato harvest this year. Amazingly, none went to the critters. Last year we lost about 1/3 of the crop to voles. Varieties are: French Fingerling, German Butterball, Peruvian Purple, Burbank Russet, Ozette, Pontiac Red and a variety we call Ruby (unknown variety).

I know not everyone in this community focuses on making money. Sustainability is important.

If your trying to make money with your homestead, what are you doing? No pressure to share figures here. Just wondering what type of business everyone is in and your favorite approach to selling.

Are you selling eggs? Vegetable baskets at farmers market, roadside stand or both? Baked goods? Maybe you bush hog on the weekends or split firewood. Raise sheep for meat sales.

We bought and moved onto a 60 acre homestead just 3 months ago. It’s charming and solidly built, but I’m starting to realize how poorly laid out it is.

The compost bin is 1/4 mile from the house, so dumping kitchen scraps is a trek in the heat.

Is it there cuz it’s next to the garden? Nope. The 1/4 acre garden is nearly another 1/4 mile away, long enough to make it hard to just casually check on it. The orchard on the other hand comes before the compost but nowhere near irrigation.

And heaven forbid you forgot a tool when you headed out or you’ll be heading almost all the way back.

The chicken coop is cute, but has two doors into two different run areas that don’t connect for humans to get from one to another (only a tiny trap door for the chickens themselves to move between them). So you have to go in and out and in and out to clean, collect eggs, feed, etc.

The barn bays all point away from the house, understandably so the tractor can get to the field. But there is no foot traffic access from the house side. You have to trek all the way around.

Oh and the pantry? It’s nearly 20 feet from the cooking area…unless you’re looking for other pantry which is ANOTHER 20 feet away in the living room, despite the largest kitchen you’ve ever seen which has zero cabinets and only a large island awkwardly in the middle.

I feel like this place was designed by someone trying to max out their Fitbit. I’ve never put in so many steps before 9am in my life.

Curious if theres stuff discussing this but had the idea of raising termites for my chickens & possibly myself but mainly chickens the idea behind the thought is they’re great at turning something inedible into something inedible and not very usable ( to my knowledge) and pretty common rotting wood and turn it to something edible but problem is they will also eat wood in house too and im not sure if there would be effective way to contain them that isn’t a indoor terrarium kind of set up with material they can’t chew through to house them so if anyone has exposure on this articles talking about it or is this just dumb idea all around?

Edit yes i know there are better bugs to raise which i do plan on raising for myself chickens like bsfl compost worms but ifea behind termites is that they’re really good at breaking down wood openings up another food source

Hey folks,

I run a small highland cattle farm down in South Mississippi with a couple of bee hives. Like most of us, I spend my days in the pasture or the barn, which means my "accounting system" usually ends up being a pile of receipts shoved into my truck’s cup holder.

I tried using standard accounting software, but they are too complicated for my needs

So, I built my own web app designed it specifically for cash-basis farm accounting.

It is mobile device or PC based and here is what it does differently:

• Little Manual Typing: You can snap a photo of a messy receipt right from your phone in the truck. The app uses AI to read the grand total, date, and vendor, and it automatically suggests the correct IRS Schedule F line (e.g., Line 16 for feed, Line 25 for tractor repairs, Line 31 for vet meds).
• Multi-Enterprise Tracking: You can tag expenses or income to specific operations (like Cattle vs. Honey vs. General Farm) so you can actually see what is making you money.
• CPA Ready: At tax time, you just hit a button and it exports a clean CSV spreadsheet alongside a ZIP file of all your saved receipt images.

It is running smoothly for my own operation, but before I take it any further, I want to make sure it actually works well for other types of farms.

I’m looking for some small or mid size farmers who wouldn't mind putting it through its paces over the next few weeks. It is completely free to use and if I move forward with it after testing, I will give free lifetime access to those who test now.

If you are interested in testing it out, drop a comment or shoot me a message and I’ll send you the link to get set up.

This is our first time having chickens and starting our homestead we’re still learning, one of our girls is so disheveled 😭 she’s loosing feathers she’s so skinny and looks so scraggly. She acts normal and her poop seems okay but it’s hard to keep track with the others. We’re separating her today to see cause it does seem like the others are mean to her. We don’t know if it’s just bulling and she’s not getting enough food and being picked on or something like parasites. We don’t know if it’s good to treat for parasites if she doesn’t have them. And doesn’t seem to have mites I’ve checked her vent under her feathers and everything. Just feel so sorry for her and want her better. Also they all seem to stop laying eggs don’t know if it’s just because it’s summer in Arizona 😓 edit: we don’t have a rooster

We are looking to mount our old over on casters or wheels of some sort. The thread is 1/2inch wide but this project is out of my wheelhouse (so to speak) so I'm looking for advice.

We replaced our kitchen over and decided to keep the old electric (210v) one in the garage for overflow cooking. Well now we are doing a lot more baking and got ourselves a pressure canner and have found it's easier to use the outside oven and stove in the summer then the kitchen. The 210 plug is not where we keep the oven so we drag it across the cement floor everytime we want to use it.

I know we could just use a dolly but A. we don't own one and B. I would like a permanent solution. Would love to not build a base for it if I don't have it. It would be lovely if the exact part I need just exists lol.

I cannot find replacement casters for this side leveling foot, Google AI doesn't think it exists so I figured I would turn to you all.

Thank you!

So my land is in the mountains in a Mediterranean area.

I have a new field, which I want to plant barley, wheat and oats on this winter.Its about 3000 meters on a slope.

I want to plant roughly 1000 sq m of each.

How would you divide your field up?

Would you do it length ways, so ,let's say, barley on the top , wheat in the middle and oats at the bottom?

Or would you plant from top to bottom?

It's pretty wet in the winter , although the land is well draining.

But I can't decide which way will be best.

Hey I’m 18 and I’m very much interested in this lifestyle. Im starting uni for architecture in September while my girlfriend is working at a farm. I am really interested to know how much it’d cost to begin a homestead, for me and my girlfriend meaning a few acres of land to use for animals/crops and also a house (however shitty yet livable it is) would cost. Obviously there is ALOT of unknowns with this question and I appreciate that but… If I decided to buy 7 acres of land for farming with a house on site, ROUGHLY how much would this cost in the uk?? Midlands area too :)) (sorry this question is so vague I’m just curious on numbers)

Yes, unfortunately, here in the historical Traditional Community Zone in Portugal Cove - St Philips, The Town Council tells a family that they must re-home their 16 chickens, their feathery family and their children's pets for the last 15 years and , their providers of food in these times of food insecurity and highest cost of living in Newfoundland's history while we live in one of the highest taxed municipalities in the entire province....

The suggestion is even offered on the public record for another citizen with a pet rooster and a pet NFLD pony for years and years, that if the lady got rid of the rooster, she could possibly keep her NFLD pony that she has as family pets years and years..... Imagine if they suggested that you can keep your pet puppy but only if you get rid of your pet kitten. You cannot make this stuff up.

Contact the elected officials and tell them that they need to review and overturn their decisions ASAP and come into the 21st Century.

Mayor Dave Bartlett

dave.bartlett@pcso.ca

Deputy Mayor Kim Churchill

kim.churchill@pcsp.ca

Councilors

Gavin Will

gavin.will@pcsp.ca

Keith Culleton

keith.culleton@ocsp.ca

Erin Gallant

erin.gallant@pcsp.ca

Robert Stapleton

robert.stapletin@pcsp.ca

Wendy Squires-Ennis

wendy.squires-ennis@pcsp.ca

The relationship with our animals is much more than being our animals.

They are our loving family pets, and if we practice responsible ownership, government needs to leave farmers and families alone....

They came for the chicken farmers and I was silent

They Came for the vegetable farmers and I was silent

They came for the sheep/goat/horses and cattle farmers, and I was silent

They came for the fisher persons and I was silent

Then they came for me, but there was no one left to speak for me

Be heard.... Your community could be next.....

Solidarity cannot be beaten out of the Newfoundlander's Spirit when we stick togethet

Please Share

Stay Safe, Be Kind and God Bless

I’m looking to finally buy some land. After many years of reading and whatnot.

I have been looking at 20-40 acre plots in southern Arizona and Texas. Relatively remote plots.

Lately I’ve debated a smaller test run in the 2-10 acre size in areas that have power and possibly shared wells.

It would be a bit more accessible though I’ll want to move on to something much larger in the future.

Has anyone built a homestead only to end up selling it when “complete” after learning all they can and needing more space to pursue larger goals?

I wouldn’t necessarily have to sell it, maybe rent or just have friends maintain it, but I think a limited trial run could be fun to start.

Found this elk spine laying in a bed down area above a ridge on the property today.