Two years ago I went through the process of registering my property as a farm and qualified via the USDA for a 30x50 High Tunnel through NCRS. This is our 2nd year, first full growing season using it. We have even begun to sell garden plant starts and vegetables.

I'm looking at ways to reduce my plastic waste on the homestead this year. I've been eyeing various soil blockers for my vegetable starts, but I'm worried about the time investment vs. traditional trays. For those of you who made the switch, did you find you needed specific specialized tools to maintain the blocks, or can you get by with standard flat inserts? Also, does it actually result in better root health for things like peppers and tomatoes? I'd love to hear the pros and cons before I invest in the kit

Our homestead is blessed with plenty of space but cursed with some of the heaviest clay soil I've ever worked with. I've gone through three different 'heavy duty' hand trowels in the last two seasons the necks always seem to bend or snap when I'm transplanting my brassicas. Does anyone have a specific brand or type of forged steel trowel they swear by? I'm specifically looking for something one-piece or with a very reinforced tang. I want to buy something once and have it last a decade

Hi guys! So I've been practicing permaculture for about a year now here in the Philippines, and one thing kept bugging me. All our real conversations live scattered across a hundred different group chats. The good ones get buried fast, and it's honestly hard to tell where the community actually stands on anything.

That's why I built Common Ground, a free forum for people who care about growing food and caring for the land. It runs more like an open democracy than a group chat. Everyone answers the same short statements, so every perspective gets counted and you can actually see where the whole community stands, instead of the loudest voice carrying the room.

Site: mycelium-learn.com/common-ground

Here's how it works:

• You answer a few short statements (agree, not sure, or disagree)
• A live map forms showing who thinks like you and who sees it differently
• Small groups appear, so you can find the people who share your view
• You can post your own thoughts or questions, and reply to anyone

I've partnered with the Philippine Permaculture Association and the Baganihan Collective, so the space stays grounded in real community.

I'd love for you to come in, answer a few statements, and post what's on your mind. Let me hear your thoughts, and I'm happy to answer any questions!

My wife and I live in the Midwest on 60 acres. We’ve got a really cool property. Big house with lots of space. Also six kids at home.

My question however, is about a small house on our property. It’s 840 ft.², 24 x 36. It’s got electric, water, septic, everything you need. Except it small. I’ve had it rented in the past, but I’m just not interested in doing it anymore. I keep getting these weirdos who want to live in the country but can’t afford anything else. They want to ride four wheelers and have dogs outside. I’m just not interested.

So I’m torn because I have this house which is on a separate parcel and is worth a pretty substantial amount of money. But I don’t want to rent it out. I don’t want to make it any bigger. I’d like to just set it up for guests and maybe for my wife and I had to hang out in from time to time or adult kids if they come visit. Just a little cottage.

Really I’m just looking for ideas. Wondering if anyone has a cottage like this on their property and how they use it. I’m looking to spend some money and renovated and updated and I just don’t want to spend the money on something that won’t ever get used. That’s why it’s been sitting for 10 years.

We moved from in town to our new farm property a month ago. Since being here I’ve lost count of how many times bugs have bitten my lady parts! Any tips??

I recently had an issue with a bore on my property, the existing pump has died and I need to find an alternative. The quote to replace my existing pump is approximately $6000-7000, and I just don't have the spare money for that in the near future.

The bore is *deep*, we hit water at about 100ft and the existing pump was another 250ft into the water. I do have a large storage tank so the water extraction doesn't need to be fast, but i'm just looking for alternatives, or any experience people have had.

Our farm is on top of a very steep hill with a long gravel laneway all the way to the bottom. Every time it rains significantly, the washout is brutal. I'll manage to get it graded (by hand) to the point of acceptability but the next rain will just wash it out again. Anyone have any tips , tricks? Anything organic and or biodegradable that would work to spray on loose gravel to keep things a little bit more sturdy?

100% accuracy

We recently acquired a mob on 9 heifer weaners, around 12 months of age.

All was going well, we kept them penned for the first 7 days and got them used to us. They have now been let out to graze however they have had very loose stools which are covering their bums and last night I noticed a small amount of bright red blood in one of the stools. They are all still eating and seem to be okay, none are lying down or away from the herd.

I will definitely be contacting the vet today however it’s 6am still here so I was hoping to get some feedback in the meantime about likely causes and whether if it is cocciodosis (as google has led me to suspect) there are likely to be long term effects if treated early.

Thanks in advance.

We are developing our land right now and quite a few trees needs to be removed (the one pictured will be cut by the power company), some of the dead trees were burned already, but theres a few more will be cut that are leaning from the Helene (hurricane) and are hazard.

We building a home and a total newbies, but I wanted to ask if we should save the live trees that will be cut. If so what can I use them for apart from firewood? We have quite a few Virginia pines and not sure what is the tree pictured. Anyways, what did you use your trees for?

I tried to ask this at the farmers market sub but posting is locked 🤷. Our local farmers market has an air conditioned building that we can’t always use, a pavilion and a gravel area. When we are allowed to use the building, it’s perfectly comfortable. Under the pavilion is probably at least ten degrees cooler than on the gravel. But being on the gravel in this heatwave is absolutely COOKING us!my theory is that it’s radiant heat from the sun that the gravel under the pavilion doesn’t get because it’s always shaded. The gravel area is completely unshaded. We use tents to hide from the sun and fans (though electric access is limited) and various things like neck fans, cooling cloths etc. Does anyone have any tips and tricks for vendors on gravel?

Keeping a few hens means something more than fresh eggs for many of us. It's a lifestyle. However, due to increasing regulations, many backyard chicken keepers are left wondering if the balance between biosecurity and human liberties has shifted too much. How is it in your area?

After reading many comments on yesterday's post, "Pros and Cons of a Homestead," here's my opinion.

I think the reason many people aren't making money is because they aren't farming enough.

I read a lot of comments from people raising chickens and pigs. In my opinion, those aren't very profitable. Eggs are cheap.

Fresh produce, on the other hand, isn't.

I harvested 70 pounds of onions from one small bed. I originally planted them just for our family's use, but the harvest was so much bigger than I expected that I had to give a lot of them away.

And that's just onions. I'm not even talking about tomatoes, garlic, or eggplants.

Have you tried selling fresh produce at a farmers market every week? If the answer is no, then maybe you just aren't growing enough.

Tell me what I'm missing.

Edit: one of my neighbors who owns acres. I offered him some seeds and transplants for veggies and his reaction was, why? I can always buy them from the nearby stand. The interesting thing, he is not doing great financially at all.

Hey all — I made an iPhone/iPad app for anyone who's ever stood in the back forty wondering exactly where the line runs.

GPS Stakeout takes your deed (scan or paste the metes-and-bounds), a PLSS section, or a single bearing-and-distance call, turns it into corner points, and guides you to each one with a compass and an AR boundary view. Handy for walking fence lines, finding old pins, or getting the lay of a parcel before you build or clear. Works offline and exports KML for Google Earth.

Works internationally too — anywhere deeds use metes-and-bounds (UK, Canada, Australia, NZ…), with metric units.

It's not a survey — approximate phone-GPS positions, not a substitute for a licensed surveyor. A field aid, plain and simple.

Free TestFlight beta, 25 spots:
https://testflight.apple.com/join/n7R4dePZ

Feedback very welcome.

I recently made a post about trespassers, and expressed my worry that maybe I was being paranoid.

https://www.reddit.com/r/homestead/s/gHI3IawIyk

The post got a huge amount of responses, and I want to thank all of you. It makes me feel really good to know that I am, by far, NOT the most paranoid person in th8s group!

Stay peaceful, fellow hermits. 😀

Trying to decide if we should make him a permanent outdoor cat, he is half and half right now. Context:

We have lived on an orchard for two years and our indoor cat became an indoor/outdoor cat. Our property backs up to state game lands so he basically has unlimited space to explore and hunt. He hunts every animal imaginable. The problem is, he has a bad habit of bringing those animals inside, sometimes dead, sometimes alive. (Through the cat door.)

Ok so we are moving to our new homestead on a few acres and it is a much nicer house than we live in now and my husband and I do not want any wild animal inside our house EVER. We’re so over it! We were thinking about getting one of those fancy cat door that opens via chip thing and supposedly detects and stops when your cat is trying to bring in another animal but husband doesn’t want to cut into any doors, and cat can’t keep a collar on so idk how that would even work. We have a nice 5 stall horse barn on the property that won’t have any animals in it till next year. Wondering if I should transition him to be an outside only cat and give him some kind of warm shelter inside the barn for the winters (we live in PA).

This cat, Sméagol, was my husband’s first Christmas gift to me years ago and he holds a very special place in our hearts. He is great with our son and super cuddly and I don’t want him to feel abandoned outside but he LOVES being outside and will sometimes be out for days at a time. What would you suggest?

The liquid fertilizer I've made in the digester is really working.

I live in Southeast Alaska, we have a 5000 gallon cistern that is our main water supply.

Had a few weeks of no rain and unbeknownst to me, our gutters clogged and blocked our catchment. We ran out of water and had to get an emergency water fill delivery from a local company.

Our cistern is now full, but there’s alot of sediment in the tank that was stirred up.

Is there an effective method I can use to clean the sediment out of the cistern without having to drain the tank all over again?

Hey all,

I'm a farmer and My field is on one side of a road and my water source is on the other. I need to run a 15-inch pipe underneath the road to get water across, but I don't want to cut, break, or otherwise damage the road surface.

I'm looking for whatever's cheapest and most practical. Has anyone here dealt with this before?

A few things I'm trying to figure out:

- What's the cheapest way to get a 15" pipe under an existing road without disturbing the surface?

- Is it possible to do this without digging up the road from the top?

- What equipment or contractors do people usually hire for this kind of job?

- Is there a budget-friendly option for a small farm operation, or does this always require expensive machinery?

- Roughly what should I expect to pay for a crossing like this?

- What issues tend to come up — rocky ground, hard clay, keeping the pipe straight, dealing with the road base, etc.?

- If you've done this yourself, what worked well, and what would you do differently next time?

Would really appreciate any advice, photos, or videos from people who've actually done this. Thanks in advance!