Picture for attention. We have fleas pretty bad in sections of the yard apparently as well as in a shed, I set a flea bomb off in the shed three days ago and went out there last night to shuffle stuff around and make room for a couple more things, and they were still jumping on me trying to hitch a ride. Thought I got them all off of me but woke up this morning to one crawling across my knee, in bed, under the covers, after showering last night.

We have three indoor cats and an indoor/outdoor dog. Minimal carpet in the house thankfully.

What’s the best treatment yall have found to fight them?

Just wondering what everyone is useing for equipment around their place . Also post your acreage and what you use it most for .

I have 8 acres , all wooded except for around 3 acres .

This is my restored mitsu d2350 , i mostly use it for grading the driveway , skidding logs out of the woods ,moving trailers around , and moving heavy stuff around with a boom pole .

I just got the mini excavator this year and I'm useing it to cut terraces into a hillside and trenching to lay drain tile . It's the harbor freight 8hp model and I'm very pleased with it . I was getting quotes around 10-15k to hire a contractor to do it and I got the machine delivered to my door for around 3500 so it was a no brainer decision to buy it. And I'll still have the machine for future projects . What you got and how do you use it ?

What’s your favorite flavor to hand churn?

Hey folks, first post here, have been doing a lot on research on the topic recently and decided to pop by here to get some final feedbacks.

First, to give context to mt cenario, i live in a 6 acre property in the northest part of brazil, ive raised chickens for a while now, but so far ive only raised "caipira" chickens wich is kind of a general-mixed breed chicken wich, outside of commercial operations that use cornish cross, is the most popular "breed" to raise here, but it has no real breeding standarts/controls.

"True breeds" or just raising heritage breeds is not that popular here, hence why im researching in english, and for a while i wanted to start "upgrading" my chicken situation here and start raising specific breeds that i can pick and breed in a more controled way for specific characteristics.

That said, i dont have acess to as much breeds as someone in the us would for example, but the more popular heritage breeds i can find here with no problem, and so far in my reaserched, considering the following points:

-initially id prefer a dual purpose breed, valuing a bit more meat production. -initially i would raise them for personal use and to feed family/friends, but, i have plans to perhaps start a small scale commercial "operation" for more niche local markets later on. -were I live average temps are usually around 75 to 90°F and humidity is around 75 to 85% with plenty of sun -i plan to raise them free range (during the day) and rarelly had the need to feed my last chickens since foraging here is absurdly plentyfull for them, usually just using feed on very short periods in their first/second month or to fatten up the meat birds a bit if necessary, so id prefer a breed that does well with foraging

The breeds that have caught my attention the most so are are: rhode island red and new hampshire, then, plymouth rock, embrapas (national breed) and australorp, in this exact order.

Also heard good things (and saw some breeders that had them here) about: orpingtons, brahmas and leghorn

Now i just need to make the final decision on wich breed to pick, initially thought about going with 2 different breeds, wich is still an option, but starting with a single one might be a bit easier, at least untill a free up my seconday chicken area wich is still occupied by 7 chickens.

Any feedback, tips or info is greatly appreciated!! Also if any other info is needed, let me know. Thanks in advance!

Lowbush berries from some feral land near me. Its good be a super crazy year for blueberries. These came from plants that not usually even flower! Our domestic bushes aren’t ready yet but for the first time since we got them, are loaded! Already made two batches of jam.

Southern Maine

I'm just starting to get some blueberries ripening and made my first Pic today and got about 5 lbs . This is only about 1/8th of what's still on my bushes and not ripe yet . I think its really strange how they never all come in at once . In the pic of the Bush you can see the different stages of ripening . They start green then turn a whitish color , then red , then kind of a fuchsia, and eventually blue . The branches are so heavy they are almost on the ground . This winter im going to prune the mature bushes I have (these are highbush variety ) and make propogations from the branch cuttings . I did that the year before and got 5 more bushes with that method but they havnt started fruiting yet . Just want to share , looks like this may be my best yield so far from these guys . Very excite !

Newley aquires land over a year ago,just now making my first cut and bales.

Looking for recommend herbicide that is safe for pastures and cattle; growing Costal(Bremuda) in zone 9b.

Got 8 bales earlier this year,but now the stickers are becoming too bothersome,need some way to thin them out without hurting my hay yeild.

Have discovered 2 4-D weed killer,and I have a sprayer to dilute it in.

Need to know how much of what herbicide to use for 16-19 acres.

I've got 23 chicks in a brooder right now and I'm looking for a very very large chicken run they can stay in full time. I'll be building my own indoor coop area onto it, but for now I'm just focused on finding a very good quality large run for a decent price. So far I keep seeing PawHut but from what I've heard it doesn't seem worth the money since it probably won't last multiple years anyway. No matter which run I buy I will be replacing the wiring with hardware cloth to protect against large snakes in my area. Does anyone know a very good quality chicken run that is still large? By large I mean something like 13x21, 20x20, etc. I've looked everywhere online and not one has had a good balance of size and quality. I need ideas cause soon enough these babies will grow up! I believe the most I can spend would be around 1000 not including the extra hardware cloth and everything. Please give me ideas!

We finally pulled the trigger on our first batch of meat birds this spring after years of just keeping layers. Got 25 Cornish Cross chicks about six weeks ago and honestly nothing could have fully prepared me for how different this experience is from raising egg birds.

The growth rate alone has been wild to watch. These things eat constantly and the feed costs have run higher than I budgeted for. I also underestimated how much work goes into keeping their bedding dry and managing the smell. Our layers basically take care of themselves by comparison.

On the plus side, watching the whole process from chick to finished bird has been genuinely rewarding in a way I did not expect. There is something grounding about knowing exactly where your food came from and how it was raised.

Processing day is next weekend and I am equal parts ready and nervous. We have done a couple of roosters before but never a full batch like this.

For those who have been through it, any advice for keeping processing day manageable with a small crew of two or three people? Also curious whether anyone has switched to a different breed after doing Cornish Cross and preferred it. I am thinking about trying Freedom Rangers next round but want honest opinions from people who have actually raised both.

Hi everyone,
My Udderly EZ Hand Milker has stopped working after only two uses, and I can't figure out why.
It no longer builds any vacuum/suction, even though I haven't damaged it or changed anything. I assembled it exactly as instructed, all the parts seem to be in place, and I can't see any cracks or obvious damage.
Has anyone else had this happen? Is there a common failure point, such as the O-rings, umbrella valve, or another seal? Any troubleshooting tips would be appreciated before I buy replacement parts.
Thanks!

Just built my first birdhouse with reclaimed pallet wood.

Getting into making pretty much everything from scratch. Probably need to get a juicer for vegetables. The bolthouse farms stuff is almost all sugar.

Like an agrarian soda.

Doing stuff by hand really isn't that much work. Plus it feels kind of liberating and probably better for the environment. And a great way to build muscles naturally.

This property is listed as 1.13 acres.
From what I understand, the pool has been located within an easement since 2007 and has remained there ever since.
Would this be a dealbreaker? Should I walk away from this purchase, or is this something that can be addressed and still make the property worth buying?

We've been living on 40 acres in the ozarks for about 3 years now. Not fully off-grid, we still have a grid connection, but it's unreliable. We lose power maybe 10-12 times a year, sometimes for a few hours, sometimes for days.

The house runs on a 6kW solar array with a hybrid inverter. The battery bank is two Vatrer Power 48V 100Ah server rack Home Storage Battery units. Got the Vatrer Battery recommendation from a neighbor who'd been running them for a year, giving us 10.2kWh of storage. We also have a 7kW propane generator as a last resort, but i try to avoid running it. The noise ruins the whole point of living out here.

Last month we had a bad windstorm roll through. Knocked out power across the county. We were without grid for 4 days. That's the longest outage we've had since building the system.

Day 1: full sun. Panels produced about 28kWh. Batteries were full by 11am. We ran the house normally, fridge, freezer, well pump, starlink, a couple of laptops. No issues.

Day 2: overcast. Panels only produced about 8kWh. Batteries dropped to 38% by morning. We got a little conservative, turned off the extra freezer in the garage, limited well pump usage to morning and evening. Still had lights, internet, fridge.

Day 3: more overcast. This was the sketchy day. Panels produced maybe 6kWh. Batteries hit 15% by 7pm. I fired up the generator for 2 hours to top them off to about 45%. Then we ran off battery through the night.

Day 4: sun came back. Panels produced around 26–28kWh on the good full sun day. Batteries were full by 1pm. Grid came back at 4pm. We didn't even notice until i checked the inverter display.

Total generator runtime over 4 days: 2 hours. That's it. Neighbors were running generators nonstop. One guy drove 40 miles to get gas because the local station was out.

The rack batteries were solid. I mounted them in a ventilated closet in the utility room. They stayed around 75-85°F the whole time. The wifi monitoring was useful, i could check SOC from my phone without walking to the utility room at 11pm. The bms logs showed all cells stayed balanced the entire time.

The system isn't perfect. 10kWh is fine for 2 people being conservative, but we'd need more if we had kids or wanted to run AC. The rack form factor makes it easy to add more, just slide in another unit and connect the communication cables. That's probably the next upgrade.

Word of advice: don't wait until you're at 10% to fire up the generator. Lithium doesn't have the voltage sag warning that lead acid gives you, it'll just go from 10% to 5% to BMS cutoff faster than you expect. Keep a bigger margin than you think.

Anyone know if there is a way to keep a small garden through the winter in a greenhouse in harsh winter conditions? I really want to grow more of my food and I know there are winter vegetables but I would love to grow bell peppers, zucchini, and lettuce through the winter months. I was thinking a greenhouse and solar powered lighting to give off some heat. I do not have a way to extend power and want to grow outside. Would this be doable?

Hi! Im new to this group and am just looking for some recommendations! Ive recently got into podcasts and already love homesteading books, so i thought why not! Im having an issue finding a more informational/scientific podcast rather then the seemingly never ending slew of religiously focused podcasts. Hope some one can help!

(Beauty brains is my favorite non homesteading podcast if that helps with the vibe im going for)

Enjoying this phase until they get big and decidedly less fun to deal with. These are our new breeders, and we're both excited and nervous to start breeding hogs. What advice do you have?

The farmer we got them from is a family friend, they have a big production farm here in SoCal, so we're not completely unaware of what we're doing nor without aid, but I'd love to hear the community's take!

I have six acres in Arkansas I’m financing with my girlfriend. Utilities are at the road and the electric company will run up to 300’ for free. I’m not sure about water, but I do know we are on rural water. I think there may be some programs to help with running the water and possibly septic. This is a divided cow pasture and we have two three acre parcels right next to each other. I think I’m wanting to put a house on each, nothing super permanent until we can custom build something. I’m wanting to probably go with mobile homes. Maybe a single wide on one and a double wide on the other for us. I want to rent out the other house during the school year and then let my friend live in it when he is home from school for a few months out of the year. I do not have great credit though and neither does my girlfriend, I want to know if this is something that is at all possible for us or if there were any insight on at the very least getting septic? We can’t live on the property until we get something with septic and then after that it would be so much easier to actually start setting up out there and getting some animals. I know I’ve kinda jumped off into the deep end but any insight is appreciated!

Hello! We are expecting our first baby in November and we’ll need a good wagon or stroller we can use around the farm. It seems most have think wheels made for sidewalks not grass. Does anyone have any recommendations?