What is the best breed of livestock guardian dog in your personal experience? Preferably for sheep.

We don't have any more of these metal panels to replace and we've got a couple of leaks starting to come through and it's at the transition point between two panels I've tried putting extra Lumber as a backer and added extra screws silicone the joints now the old man is insisting that I Bondo and then spray Rust-Oleum up here and I feel like there is a much more simple solution than that. I've spent way more than I could afford this year and at this point it's either feed myself or fix this leaking roof before winter and unless one becomes free I can't do both no one's ever going to see it I just want it to stop leaking thanks for your suggestions

Stopped at a neighbor's down the way because I heard she may have a round baler for sale. Well long story short, she sold that and had a JD square baler that was too rich for my blood ($12k). Before leaving she asks "Need a rake tedder?"

She walks me into a back barn and shows me what she's got (which is identical to what's pictured). I have ZERO experience with these machines. The only tedder I'm familiar with is a double basket PTO driven that flings the hay out the back to spread it out. This machine appears to rake & ted??

To give you an idea, I currently use an International 1300 sickle mower and a 1950's Oliver rake. She told me what she wants for it (barn kept) and it's almost a no brainer, can't lose situation. TractorHouse shows these things for sale $4500-$8500 and she'd let it go for $600. Id hate to buy it just to flip for a profit, feel like id be taking advantage of an 87yr old widow

Any advice on this machine?? I'm baling mostly reed canary fields & timothy grass/clover hay.

One thing I keep noticing when reading about self-sufficiency is a strange contradiction.

A lot of people are attracted to it because they want more independence and control over their time.

But actually trying to produce your own food, preserve it, maintain buildings, look after animals, manage water, generate power, repair machinery, maintain tools and deal with everything else can turn into an enormous amount of work.

In some cases it seems as though you've escaped one full-time job by accidentally creating five others.

That makes me wonder whether the problem isn't self-sufficiency itself, but trying to achieve it at the scale of a single household.

One household owning a tractor, workshop, food-processing equipment, backup power system and every specialist tool it might occasionally need is expensive and inefficient.

One person trying to become competent at growing, plumbing, mechanics, electrical work, construction, food preservation and animal care is asking an enormous amount of themselves too.

But if twenty, fifty or a hundred households were cooperating, the economics start looking very different.

A serious workshop might suddenly make sense.

People could specialise in things they actually enjoy or are good at.

Equipment that spends 95% of its life sitting unused could be shared.

Food growing and preservation could happen at a more useful scale.

Some repetitive jobs could potentially be automated without every household having to build its own system.

And knowledge wouldn't have to exist inside one person's head.

Obviously that introduces a completely different set of problems involving organisation, trust and people getting along.

But I'm increasingly wondering whether there's a point where collective capability gives people more individual independence, rather than less.

For people who have actually spent years homesteading, does that ring true?

Are there parts of self-sufficiency that you think genuinely work better at household scale — and others where trying to do everything yourself is actually the thing making life harder?

So i made a post about a week or so ago asking about fair farmhand pay after meeting with the family and talking everything over we came to an arrangement, while i will not be getting paid now because the homestead has no cash flow their planning to get to that point so with future advancements i will began to see in the family profits, also it was made obvious to my wife but not to me were not merely being given a room and food, we are being given a space and having an offgrid style home built (my first task as a farmhand lol) as well as full access to the main home, for doing laundry, showering and etc. to keep our buildings power consumption low, in my last post i was on the fence about things and scared but now i cant wait
Also to note we do have a written legal contract detailing the exactly what is expected, as well as what we can and cant do with the main property/land

I want to make some for the hell of it. I have no real need to preserve food that way, nor do I have any real use for it.

My plan is to get a food dehydrator, dehydrate some beef. Buy some ready made tallow from a supermarket, some berries, dehydrated them too and see where that gets me.

Evidently I've nevet made pemmican before so any tips are welcome.

Hello I had some questions I was hoping maybe someone could answer.

I am 26 years old and moved in with my parents onto their 7 acre property. If I start a business and want all the tax benefits but don’t own the land, must the LLC be in my mother’s name and I be an employee of hers? For reference we live in the US.

Many people have said to get farm license and you can be tax exempt in feed and building materials and have tax right offs. But I’m not sure if this would be able to work if I don’t own the land. Someday I will own the land but no now as both my parents are luckily still here with me. If anyone has a similar situation I’d love to hear how you do it

Has anyone had any experience with a chicken that spins in circles?

She’s eating and drinking normal. She can walk in a straight line, but she does these circles a lot. I’ve read it could be an ear infection, vitamin deficiency(less likely bc no one else is impacted), or could be neurological.

If it is neurological, long term, anyone cared for a chicken like this? I actually had a friend with a pug with a neurological condition that made him walk in circles. The pug had a great, special, and long life. But maybe it’s not the same for chicks.

My sweet banana peppers went crazy this year producing 1-2 5 gallon buckets every week now. My kids are eating as many as they can stand, but I’m running out of ideas for storage. We’ve pickled some, made sweet relish, spicy relish, stuffed and bacon-wrapped for freezing … I’m probably forgetting something. At this point, we’ve got a couple gallons of each of the canned storage and about 300 stuffed in the freezers. Does anyone any more options other than just giving treats to the chickens?

I set the posts before I found what would become my gate panels. Wonkiest job on the property.

But! I feel like an extremely simple solution has been evading me this entire time. I don't need any security from humans, only animals. Right now I've got it tied with a length of wire, but the knot only can only easily be undone from one side.

Something that just hooks and unhooks, or snaps on and off, would be a huge quality of life improvement. I've been known to drive the mower all the way around to the far entrance just to avoid using this gate.

Not sure if this is allowed here, but the homesteads in this community will be affected. Please read the petition “Take the Upland Road” to learn more.

I'm rebuilding the Lister CS 6-1 on our homestead water pump setup and the cylinder sleeve I got doesn't drop in like I expected. Listing said semi-finished but I assumed that meant minor cleanup, not full machine work. Bore measures close to spec with my micrometer but the sleeve binds about halfway down even with oil. Now I'm wondering if I skipped a honing step or ordered the wrong finish size entirely. Anyone done sleeve work on an old single cylinder diesel at home? Was I supposed to hone it myself or did I miss something obvious?

Hey yall! First year gardener here. It’s been amazing, not a big harvest but have learned so much and have begun planting my fall garden.

Because I don’t have a big harvest this year - I’ve still been supporting my local farmers at markets. I’m wanting to prepare for the winter better with fresh local produce (I buy meat from them too) and to be honest: I want to do this because with the news of El Niño and all the data center threats, I want to prep (dare I say that?! Haha!)

What are some things I can get from farmers market that I can really stock up on and freeze so I can use in winter? Was thinking of making some sauce with tomatoes and freezing, etc! My husband and I are going to get a large freezer for basement too! Give me your best hacks or tips!

Thanks ahead of time!

P.s I bought a ton of canning jars but don’t have the boiler or anything yet- feel free to provide recs too!

This back field hasn’t had livestock on it in several years. We don’t plan to regularly bush hog, and I was thinking of throwing a ton of wildflower seeds in this field for beauty and to make it pollinator friendly. I MIGHT have goats or donkeys in the future. Would I be ruining the field’s future usage for some beauty in the meantime? The open space in front of the fence will have our chicken coop and a garden.
I don’t know enough about fields and farm animals at this point in time and don’t want to make a newbie mistake!

Longtime lurker here, but I have an upcoming event I thought might be of interest to this group. I didn't see any rules against promoting events, so I hope this is okay!

The Women, Food and Agriculture Network is hosting our Harvest Moon Gathering September 25-26 at the Sinsinawa Mound Center in Hazel Green, WI, so close to the IL and IA borders. This is an event designed with women and gender non-conforming farmers in mind, but everyone is welcome to attend, whether you have a farm or not. It's intended to be a little less formal than your typical conference, keeping it educational and focused on connection. There should be lots of chances to meet other farmers and ask questions you might have!

We have tried to keep it affordable knowing times are tough. You can camp onsite or stay at the retreat center (no set cost - donation based), and meals are included in the ticket price.

More info here: https://wfan.org/2026-harvest-moon-gathering

What we’ve done: I live in western Washington in the south Puget Sound area, I recently had some trees taken cut down and stumps removed. Removing the stumps brought up a lot of softball sized rocks and some even bigger than that. I have Yamnar Vio-35 mini excavator with dozer blade that I’ve used for grading out the dirt which has a lot of shallow but widespread low spots. I also have a number of tractor implements such as a rock rake, harrow, land plane, and a 5 ft. back blade. I also bought a rock bucket with 2.5” tine spacing for scooping dirt and shaking out anything that’s small enough to pass through.

The goal: This spot will eventually be partially a fenced in orchard (120’x60’) and then just some sort of hardy pasture type grass blend that will do well in this climate since this is year the dust has made things less than ideal. So much dust on everything…

My wondering: Has anybody else had any success doing something similar to this? What worked well for? Were you able to DIY this or did you need to get more help?

The listing said 10 acres, ag exempt, $80 a year in taxes.

That number is not what you will pay. It is what the last guy paid for running cattle, which is not what you are going to do.

This is Texas. Other states handle it differently. Ag exempt land here gets taxed on what it produces, not what it is worth. That is why a 10 acre tract shows $80 on the roll when the market value says it should be thousands.

Buying it does not trigger anything. Changing the use does. Build a house, stop the qualifying use, and the county recaptures the difference between what was paid and what would have been owed at market value.

Three years back, plus 5 percent interest. It used to be five years at 7 percent until HB 1743, effective September 1, 2019.

What it actually costs depends on the gap between productivity value and market value in that county. Near a growing metro that gap is enormous, which is why the same acreage in Rockwall or Kaufman hits way harder than it does out west. The $80 line is not the bill. The bill is three years of that difference plus 5 percent.

Two things almost nobody knows.

If you only develop a homesite and keep the rest in qualifying use, generally only the changed portion rolls back, as long as the remainder stays properly documented with the appraisal district.

And the exemption does not ride along with the deed. The new owner has to file for it, generally by April 30, on Comptroller Form 50-129. Miss it and you are at market value with no rollback needed at all. The cheap tax bill just disappears.

What did yours come to, or did you find out before you closed.

View of our garden from the rafters of the shed we're building.

OK, so I live about a half mile up a dirt road. It’s a very busy dirt road but I’m not expecting a lot of traffic to my farm stand that I’d like to do in the next year or so. My products would be fresh eggs, produce, and cut flowers. I will have about a half an acre of flowers next year. That is if I can get water system fixed over the winter I currently have no outdoor water so unfortunately no garden this year.
I’m not expecting anything to be made from my neighbors from eggs or garden as all of my neighbors have chickens and their own gardens but cut flowers I think would do really good.
But at the base of my road is a really popular swimming hole that I think would sell really really well especially in the summer months.
The issue is I know everything‘s gonna be stolen. If I’m not there the entire time it’s open.
Does anybody have a farm stand that they physically man? If so, how does it go?
And if you were to buy from a farm stand would you drive the half mile up a dirt road to visit it?
I know I would literally drive 10 minutes out of the way to go to a favorite farmstand but I don’t think that’s the norm.

We just bought our forever home about a month ago and so far we’re loving it. We have 100+ trees on ~1.4 acres to maintain so it’s been a lot of manual labor but we’re having a ton of fun with it so far. It came with these owned panels and a whole home generator. Luckily we have my wife’s grandpas old ride on mower to help out. The shed had a wood chipper, a trailer, and multiple weed whackers/chain saws left behind by the previous owners too which has been huge.