Making Money on The Homestaed

I hope you have found the last several posts helpful. There are so many things we can do to make money, save money and be self reliant. My book contains those articles and so many more. 95 pages of more money making tips and ideas. Everyone of these things we have or are doing so I can promise you that they work. If you are not 100% thrilled with what you learn in this book, simply let me know and I will refund your money no questions asked.

 
Discover How to Homestead, do you dream of Simple Living and Self Sufficiency? No more 9-5 rat race? Are you wondering, exactly what is Homesteading? Homesteading today or Urban Homesteading allows you to Live off The Land and enjoy a Self Sufficient life style!

How to Homestead will teach you:

  • To be kind to Mother Earth, all the while being Frugal and Saving you Money!
  • Traditional Homesteading Skills
  • Learn different methods of gardening to extend your gardening season.
  • How easy it is plant and harvest a garden
  • Different methods of processing your own food for storage
  • The Benefits of eating by the Season
  • How to make homemade healing and beauty products
  • How to raise livestock for your freezer with out spending a lot
  • How to earn an income on your Homestead

You will have the piece of mind that comes from knowing your family has the very best, because you made it for them, with love! You will find comfort in knowing that with our diminishing economy you will now be able to provide for your family. You will now be able to escape the fear of not knowing how you will feed your family when times are tight! When you realize that you can make just about everything on your own, you will feel truly empowered. Self Sufficient Living is a Journey, will you join us?


The link to purchase this book is on the left hand side of our Blog.
We do accept etransfers as well, just send an email and we will set it up.

Enjoy your journey.

The Happenings on our Farm

Things have been very busy here on the farm. The garden is coming to completion. Course are being run so that we can help others become more self sufficient. We have been finishing some project and starting others. This morning I will share with you a few photos of all the excitement. Then I have to get out to the garden!
4 little Piggy's, they are so much fun to watch and
love their new home in the woods

So`lena holding her head high and feeling good

Apple trees are in full bloom and smell wonderful

4 new bee hives,,, now the bees?

Lots of fun at our No Till Gardening Workshop

Don`t ever settle for anything less than farm fresh eggs.
Look at these beautiful rich yokes, you can taste the difference.

A little down time just enjoying the beauty around us. These little guys spend most of the day with us.

How to use found items around your Homestead.

There are many items you may have hanging around that you can put to good use. When using things like these found items, you need to ensure that they maintain the level of safety that the “real” item provides.


Gates are a good example of this.

We have found some amazing hard wood pallets that are longer and narrower than usual. Instead of paying $120 at our local farm supply store we have used the pallets for gates. I would never use a soft wood pallet as they are not sturdy enough to stand up to animals pushing or rubbing on them.


Tin is something you should always keep your eye out for. If you see a building that is falling down, ask the owner if you may take the tin off to reuse it. We have gotten tin like this to build our pig, calf and hay storage shelters.

For an animal watering tank the best thing we have come up with so far is cutting an old oil tank in half. It already has legs on it so it is up off of the ground. It will be years before it needs to be replaced. When we do this, we cut the tank in half one year, clean it out several times and then let it sit for a full year to ensure that there is no residue in it. If you are worried about it contaminating the water as it used to hold oil, simply fill it up and let it sit for a few days, then submit a water sample for testing.

50 Gallon Metal Drums are very useful. They are great food storage bins for your animal feed. But we also use them in our design for our maple syrup production. More on that later! We also use the inside of old hot water tanks for this purpose.

Salvaged lumber is wonderful. Don’t be shy to stop at construction sites and ask if that pile of scrap lumber is garbage. Not only will they tell you yes most times, they will thank you for taking it so that they do not have to pay disposal fees. Our set of steps that my husband constructed matches our home beautifully. It is made of pressure treated 2x6's that were at a construction site. They had used them as forums to pour concrete. We used cedar posts for the hand rails; I bet you know how much we paid for those as well.

Old cupboards are very handy in your work shop area or in a space you use for animals. I have one in the milk house that keeps all of my animal supplies together. I also have one in the basement that keeps all of my animals’ health care items and emergency supplies.

I thought it might be handy to share a list of resources with you that we always keep our eyes open for.

• tin

• firewood

• old windows

• scrap metal

• rolls of old fence wire

• landscaping pots

• scrap lumber

• old hot water tanks

• chest freezers

You just have to think of all the other uses for that item, bring it home and put it to good use.

Making Money on the Homestead



I have had many discussion with other who dream of getting out of the 9-5 rat race but think it is impossible to make a living on the farm. I wanted to share some of what we do with you. I hope this helps others get started. We can never have too many farmers and some day there will not be enough food to go around. So I will get right to it.

My goal was to be able to provide enough income off of our homestead that I could quit my job away from the farm and be here full time. Well, the time has come and as I am writing this book I have just accomplished my goal. My income at work was $17,000 a year. That may not sound like much but it is enough of a security blanket that it is hard to leave. It was there just in case things didn’t go as expected here at home. This upcoming season we will significantly increase my income without me needing to work off of the farm. My husband does work full time off the farm. One thing to remember, a dollar saved is a dollar earned. If you don’t have to spend money on something, it is as good as making money.

When I use the word farm, it is interchangeable with homestead. We do not have a barn at all. We do have small shelters that we have built ourselves. Our property does not look like it comes out of a magazine. We live amongst a working, living, giving farm. Chickens have 36 acres to wander, they will never go far. But really, do they need to come up onto my deck everyday to bathe in the sun? Visitors arrive and say, oh my goodness that is amazing, they are so beautiful. They always ask if they ever run away or go on the road. Yes they do go on the road from time to time but no, they have no reason to run away. They are happy birds. They know where they are fed, they have a warm place to sleep and they are talked to everyday just like every other animal here is. Would you run away? Instead they give up their beautiful eggs every morning.

That is our first source of revenue. Selling eggs from the farm gate or at a farmers market and to family members will earn you some extra money. Do not offer cheap eggs. This was our biggest mistake. It costs you money for feed and the feed is what gives you those eggs. Look at the regular price of eggs at the supermarket. $3.50 is pretty average for cheap eggs. Get Omega 3, Free Run, Free Range or Organic and you will pay up to $6.00. We farm organically and therefore our feed is twice the cost of conventional feed. Our eggs are $4.50 a dozen and that is a bargain. A girlfriend of mine sells her Certified Organic Eggs at the Organic Market for $6.00 a dozen. Another friend sells her organic eggs for $5.00 to co-workers of her husband. When I see road signs for Farm Fresh Eggs at $2.00 a dozen, I just cringe. You have to tend to those animals every day. I do it twice a day, 365 days a year. They eat everyday, and I can tell you for a fact you are not covering your costs. Do not devalue your products. Society has been taught that food is cheep. Crappy food is cheap, food that is produced commercially and animals raised in an inhumane manner is cheap. When you raise or grow your own food you will realize the true value of your food.

We have discussed gardening. Selling your extra produce is one way to earn money. A little stand at the end of your driveway and a sign will do the trick. You don’t even have to be there. Set it up, note the prices and leave a container for the money. If you have one or two people take things with out paying, you will still be ahead. I check the money container and empty it a few times a day. Otherwise I just carry on with whatever I have to do. You can also make a fair amount of money from selling started seedlings. Seeds are very cheap to purchase. Start seeds indoors and have them ready to sell in or around May long weekend. Flower seedlings sell for more than twice what vegetable seedlings do.

Prepared frozen meals are a great seller. If you love to cook, every time you make a shepard's pie or lasagna, tourtiere or rice pilaf make at least a double batch. Freeze it in the appropriate size containers do this a few times and you will have a great selection. Send out a flyer at Christmas and Thanksgiving offering these things. Offer baking at both Christmas and Easter. I sell homemade frozen (uncooked) tourtieres, sweets trays, and savory trays that include crackers, pate and cream cheese. I also sell homemade cranberry sauce and chutneys at that time of year. Offer it on your face book page, send it out to your email list, and tell co workers and relatives. Soon you will have more orders than you can handle.

Selling Preserves is a huge money maker at our local market. People want to know that they are eating foods that are not full of preservatives and chemicals. Offering your homemade preserves is something you can consider. Do more than the usual dill pickles and jam. Go that extra mile. We do Garlic Jelly, Roasted Red Pepper Jelly, Roasted Red Pepper and Fig Jelly, Roasted Peach Jam, Peach and Lavender Jam, and Rhubarb and Ginger Chutney, Roasted Pear Butter and so on. Just walk into any of those fancy food shops. Have a note pad and start taking down the names of some of the things that appeal to you. Remember in our Home Cooking section, if you can buy it, you can make it. Go home with your list and start looking up those recipes online.

If you have chickens and incubate your eggs, why not sell some of the day old chicks? It won’t make you a killing, but it will pay for the hydro it cost to run the incubator, so yours are free. If you would like to make a little more, sell them at 20 weeks of age as ready to lay hens. The going rate is $14 per bird. I can tell you right now, it does not cost half of that to raise a chicken to 20 weeks of age. Furthermore, if you have to go out and tend your own chickens, it is not any more work to tend to a few extra at the same time.

If you raise meat chickens for yourself, always raise extras. If you sell the extras you will be eating yours free. It depends upon your methods of raising them but generally if you can sell two, you just put one in your freezer for free. That is much better than finding other ways to make that money so you can pay for the feed for your chickens.

We also raise pork and grass fed beef. Pork is the most costly to raise and it is the most energy intense. Pigs have to be fed two times a day. They grow fast and because of that they eat a lot. There are ways to reduce your feeding costs like vegetable scraps from other farmers or grocery stores. You can give them all the whey and milk you can get your hands on as well. Do you have any fruit orchards around? Ask for their fruit that is not sellable. Don’t ask for windfalls, they are for pie making and are expensive. If anything call them deer apples. We go around and collect all of the wild apples we can find. Put the pigs in an area with a lot of vegetation and they will covert the grass and other growth to feed. They will also make you a beautiful area for your garden next year. Beef is not as costly, we strictly grass feed for the health benefits to both the animals and to ourselves. So there is not a cost for grain. They do need hay during the winter months. The difference being pork takes about 4 months to raise to market weight (you buy them as weaners). Grass Fed beef takes two years to raise to a full grown size. You can raise extra to sell by the side or by the cut. Ask people to preorder and request a deposit. This ensures they will pickup their meat when it is ready. It also allows you to put that money towards the feed that they will need.

Purchase two weaned calves from a local farmer or the sale barn. Put them out on pasture. You will be keeping one for yourself. The other one, you have two choices. Raise it until fall and sell it at the sale barn as a stocker. You will get back at least double what you paid for it, and that means you now have yours for free. Or keep it until the following fall and either sell the beef to customers or ship it to the sale barn as a finished beef cow. That will pay for all of the butchering costs of your own cow and still leave money in your pocket.

If you are growing a large garden, think about offering a CSA to a few customers. This stands for Community Supported Agriculture. I am not going to get into details about it, you can google it. We offer a 30 member CSA program. If you would like to see examples of how it is designed, have a look at our website. www.heritageharvestfarms.com . We charge on average $25-$28 a week for the baskets. You now have a list of people that will want to buy your beef, pork, chicken and eggs. I’m sure you see where I am going with this.

We tap about 80 maple trees on our property. It does not give us a huge amount of syrup. But it does give us more than we can use. So at a price of $6 for 250 ml it is a worth while profit. If nothing else, it paid for all of our spiels and buckets the first year. Therefore it did not cost us anything to produce the 10 gallons of syrup we ended up with. We have even designed our own sap evaporator for free to get started.

What do you love to do? It is most likely a saleable skill. Knitting, quilting, sewing, iron work, wood working, antique collecting, post card collecting, baking? These are all things you can sell products of. There are so many different things you can do today. Turn what you love into a money maker. That is what I am doing right now. All I am doing is sharing with you my passion for what it is we do. I want to help you to do the same thing. I just hope you realize you can do it faster than I did. I did not have the luxury of having all of this information in one spot.

Teach classes. All you have to do is teach a class on whatever it is you love to do. Carving, leather work, scrapbooking, card making, genealogy, cooking. At the end of this month, I have a two day artisan bread baking workshop. It is a skill I think everyone should have. It is a method that can be done without kneading. Lots of people don’t make bread as they think it takes too long. It takes me five minutes a day and I have a fresh baked loaf of bread seven days a week. How about handmade soaps and other beauty products? Do you make homemade cleaning products? Artisanal Cheese Making is also hot right now.

If you have a beautiful herb garden, why not offer different herbal tea blends, or even just dried herbs and different seasonings you have mixed together. Make a steak or chicken rub with your own dried herbs. What about some different dip mixes?


We touched on classes for homemade soap, but what about just selling your soap? There are so many online recipes that anyone could get started with it tomorrow. It is a simple process. Just be sure to follow all safety precautions and do not take any short cuts. Garden soap, special soaps for kids and sensitive skin soaps are some to consider. What about soap with grit in it for use after a job like fixing the car? The sky is the limit. As well as the soap, sell homemade bath bombs.

If you buy firewood or if you cut wood off of your own land, get twice as much as you need and sell half. If you buy wood, the sale of the extra half will in turn pay for your entire winter worth of heat. Rent a wood splitter over the weekend and split it all at once. Your profit will pay for it easily.

This is a very limited list, but I hope it inspires to do something on your homestead that will help to pay the bills. Even if you don’t end up with extra money in your pocket, you can end up eating for free and making your own things at little to no cost. Always keep in mind, make or raise one then sell one of the same. Yours will always be free.

What do you do to make money on the farm?

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Todays Eco Fair

Merrickville Goes Green held their 3rd annual Eco Fair today. It was a huge success and we were very happy to be a part of it. Seeing everyone out and about looking for local vendors and supporting local economy is great. It is also what we all need to be doing.

Farmers supporting other Farmers may seem like it is counter productive but it is exactly the opposite. None of us can do it all. We all do many thing very well, and we all need to share our strengths and ask for others help with what they do best.

We had the opportunity to meet many new people today. We made many new relationships that will last for years to come as we all work together.




If you are local to our are, you will want to take a look here http://www.merrickville-goes-green.com/
There is a section for barters and trades and green events.
 
Merrickville Goes Green is a group of local business people and concerned individuals (just like you) who believe that big problems require local solutions.

 
Our motto is "eco-friendly steps towards a sustainable future". We believe that everyone can take steps in their own community to make energy, food, and transportation more environmentally-friendly and sustainable.

Here is a list of all the local vendors who joined us today. They all have something wonderful to offer you. If I could find the web address I have included them.

•Bag Lady

•Baldachin - http://www.baldachin.com/

 •Betty Ann’s Baking 

 •Canadian Organic Growers - http://www.cog.ca/

 •Clarmell on the Rideau - http://clarmellfarms.com/wordpress/

•Composting toilet display from K.B.C

 •Downtowne Ice Cream Shoppe - http://www.downtowneicecreamshoppe.ca/

 •Eco Gen Energy - http://www.ecogenenergy.ca/

 •Funny Duck Farms - http://www.funnyduckfarms.com/

 •Gentlemen Gardeners

 •The Herb Wife - http://www.canada-shops.com/stores/herbwife/

 •Kricklewood Farm  - http://www.kricklewoodfarm.com/

 •Little Studio Gallery Beads

 •Mrs. Wlotzski’s Gluten Free Foods

 •Oh My Goodness! Soaps

 •Our Green Shelf - http://www.facebook.com/ourgreenshelf

 •Cedar Cove Art School

 •Pink Ginger - http://www.pinkgingershop.com/

 •These Are Your Father’s Jeans

 •The Worm Lady - http://lanarklocalflavour.ca/users/glorious-greens

 •Woodfine Farm

 •Rare Breeds Canada - http://www.rarebreedscanada.ca/

•MAD gardeners

 •Real Deal Store - http://www.realaction.ca/realdeal.htm


 

Farming on the Homestead Part II

Permanent Structures

Building large permanent structures or structures that are designed for one purpose only can be both expensive and frustrating. If your farm is set up in a way that is best for your animals and gives you the greatest amount of option for change it is wiser to have several small structures that are multi purposed!

 
We move our animals around a lot. We built two small structures out of reclaimed logs from a shed we had to tear down when we purchased the property. Both are used for different things at different times of the year.

 
For example we have a little structure is only 8x8 and 3.5 feet tall. When our chicks arrive in the spring they start off in here. They need a heat lamp and with this area being so small it keeps the heat in so there is less waist. Last November our dog had pups! This was the perfect place for them and mom to be safe and warm. When our cows calve the calves are always taken away from mom and we bottle fed them. They need to be a distance from mom that will not cause her stress every time she sees them, so this is perfect! So you see it does not need to be fancy or expensive. But it does need to be well thought out.



 
We have another one that always houses our pigs. It keeps them shaded on hot days. The dirt floor allows them to dig a hole to lie in and stay cool. But when the pigs are not using it, the meat chickens are. You see the meat chickens will also eat anything the pigs have left lying around so there is not any waist. The pigs have a second home as well. It is the fancy pig hotel! It is portable and gets moved to where ever we have the garden. At the end of the gardening season this old truck cap goes in the center of the garden area and acts as a shelter for the pigs. They get to eat all the left overs and clean up the garden! It is great to have the pigs do our work for us, while providing us with compost at the same time.

 
Here is an example of Moveable Chicken Tractors -
               Pasture-shelter-new-aframe
http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Building+a+Pasture+Shelter.html
http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/suburban-chicken-tractor

 

Using Found Materials


 
As you have seen in our photos, many of our things on the farm have been constructed from found materials that have cost us little to nothing. When using things like these, you need to ensure that they maintain the level of safety that the “real” item provides.

 
Gates are a good example of this.
We have found some amazing hard wood pallets that are longer and narrower than usual. Instead of paying $120 at our local farm supply store we have used the pallets for gates. I would never use a soft wood pallet as they are not sturdy enough to stand up to animals pushing or rubbing on them.

 
Tin is something you should always keep your eye out for. If yo see a building that is falling down ask the owner if you may take to time off to reuse it. We have gotten tin like this to build our pig, calf and hay storage shelters!

 
The best thing we have came up with so far is cutting an old oil tank in half. It already has legs on it so it is up off of the ground. It will be years before it needs to be replaced. When we do this, we cut the tank in half one year, clean it out several times and then let it sit for a full year to ensure that there is no residue in it. If you are worried about it contaminating the water as it used to hold oil, simply fill it up and let it sit for a few days, them submit a water sample for testing!

 
50 Gallon Metal Drums are very useful. They are great food storage bins for your animal feed. But we also use them in our design for our maple syrup production! More on that later! We also use the inside of old hot water tanks for this purpose!

 
Don’t be shy to stop at construction sites and ask if that pile of scrap lumber is garbage. Not only will they tell you yes most times, they will thank you for taking it so that they do not have to pay disposal fees! This set of steps that my husband constructed matches our home beautifully It is made of pressure treated 2x6's that we at a construction site. They had used them as forums to pour concrete. Look at the cedar rails, I bet you know how much we paid for those as well.

 
Old Cupboards are very handy in your work shop area or in a space you use for animals. I have one in the milk house that keeps all of my animal supplies together. I also have one in the basement that keeps all of my animals health care items and emergency supplies.

 
I thought it might be handy to share a list of resources with you that we always keep our eyes open for.

 
  • tin
  • fire wood  
  • old windows
  • scrap metal  
  • rolls of old fence wire  
  • landscaping pots
  • scrap lumber  
  • old hot water tanks  
  • chest freezers

 
You just have to think all all the other uses for that item, bring it home and put it to good use!

 

Things To Avoid

When it comes to farming, it is easy to get carried away. Baby animals are very cute, but they grow up. They also then eat a lot and require your attention everyday. I would highly recommend, that before you purchase something you ask your self a few questions.

 
• What will this provide for me

 
• Will it save me more

 
• Will it earn me money

 
• Will it save me time that would allow me to do something else more profitable

 
• How long will it take to pay it self off

 
• Do I have the time and energy to care/maintain it

 
All of your answers do not have to be yes, but your answers will help you in making a more thought out decision.

Storage

One thing that you need to consider is storage. You need some where dry and clean to store you animal fed as well as things like gardening tools, lawnmowers and larger equipment. There have been many times that due to insufficient storage, we have had things damaged.

 
Be sure to have a spot for your gardening tools that will keep them out of the elements. This will keep them in good working order. If you don’t the handels will loose the finish and leave you with a handfull of splinters! A gerat thing to do with shovels is, store them in a bucket of sand. Pour used motor oil over the sand first. This will keep you shovels clean and sharp.

 
When it is time to store animal feed, keep it away from your house. It attracts mice and rats! We were storing it up on the covered deck at the back of our house. There were holes in the bags, feed all over the ground and mice in the house! Store it in anything covered, but don’t leave it in the bags. We use an old rain barrel and some found plastic bins. Both have lids. We also use an old chest freeze that we took out to our milking shelter.

 
We thought a portable car shelter would be good storage for things like own riding lawnmower and so on. But infact it was not, one big wind storm tore the cover to pieces, and when it was coming off it got caught on the lawnmower and ripped the top right off of it. If you have an area that can be protected for the most part from the wind it might work.

 
So as you see, you do not need anything fancy, we do not have a garage or a barn. What you need is simply to be organized and have a spot or corner to keep everything.

 

Farming on the Homestead

At the moment there are many people that feel the need to learn basic farming skills. Farming does not have to mean animals. You may be farming fruit, vegetables, large or small animals, herbs and so on. Learning a few new skills can save you a lot of money and can give you the security of knowing that you are one step closer to being able to provide for your family without out side inputs.

I am going to spend a few days sharing with you some of our farming thoughts and ideas. I hope you can each take away one small thing from these posts.


The ultimate goal of farming, is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.

~ Masanobu Fuluoka

When starting off in your farming venture, do not get everything at the same time. Start off with chickens, ducks or turkeys. They are easy to care for and do not require a lot of space. As long as you have a safe shelter for them to be enclosed in at night time, you will be all set. Our birds are free range so we do not have fancy outdoor yards for them. You may want to consider poultry netting if you would like yours to be confined. Electric poultry can be purchase, but is not cheap. It will however keep predators out. It can also be moved around with little effort. Another option for movable fencing that we have used with our meat birds is snow fence. It has nice small holes, tie it to posts you have hammered in the ground or to existing trees. You could opt for permanent fencing, but I find that the chickens turn the area to mud in no time and then they have nothing to eat. The health benefits of having them on fresh grass to them and us is huge so that is something to consider.

When you want to have more than just birds, consider carefully what you are thinking about. How is that animal going to provide for you. How is it going to either save you money or make you money? Avoid animals. Cute little bunnies are sweet, but unless you are getting them for meat, to breed and sell the babies or for their droppings then forget it. You have to tend to them daily and feed them. That takes both time and money.

Something to consider might be goats or sheep. They are both small animals and are very prolific. They are quite friendly. You can purchase them already breed or bring home a boy with them. What ever you choose you will soon have several babies and fresh milk that you can drink, turn into cheese and make soap! You can then sell the kids at market weight which in turn pays for the feed for the others. If you already have pigs they will love the extra milk and whey, this will cut down on the pigs feed costs as well. If you don’t have pigs, that might be what you do next! Your chickens will love the extra milk and whey if you are waiting for your pigs to arrive.

**Note: Both sheep and goats need very good fencing. Before we got goats everyone told us, you will never keep them in. They said that they are nothing but a nuisance. Don’t even bother to look up ways to keep them in, it is a waist of time. Use electric high tensile electric fence. Run it seven strands high, starting 8 inches from the ground. The next one up should be 6 inches above, then 8 inches then the rest can be 9 inches apart. You will not have any problems at all.

A family milk cow is a bigger investment in time and money. You need to give this a lot of thought. It may seem appealing, but remember it means milking twice a day and at the same time each day. They have to have hay during the winter months and they need the proper amount of pasture. The average family does not require the large amounts of milk that a commercial dairy cow provides. Looking for a smaller breed is something to think about. The eat less, need less pasture, give less milk and are easier on the land. We raise Dexter Cattle, they are a small cow and only reach about 42 inches at the hip. Depending on their breeding the give between 2.5 and 4 gallons of milk a day. Dexters are a heritage breed that are extremely hardy and require very little intervention. They are also very gentle and personable. We raise the new calves for two purposes. The girls are kept to raise up as trained milk cows and sell, the boys are raise for beef. It is kept for our family and to sell.

Having so much milk allows you to take on other calves that you can get from the market or other farmers. We have had farmers drop off 6 hour old calves that the mother would not take care of. We bottle feed them after milking and have free meat! Or you can raise the calf and sell it at market weight or sell it as beef.

Horses are beautiful animals, and there certainly are a lot around right now/ You will notice them every where in the fields. They are also listed everywhere both for sale and to give away to a good home. If you use horses on the farm to work or if you spend a lot of time riding then that is great. However if you want a horse just because they are beautiful, you need to keep in mind that they are an expensive animal to keep around to have as a lawn ornament. They require hay daily. Deworming several times a year, proper foot maintenance at least every 8 week by a farrier and so forth. They need this care wether you use them or not.

It is important to know what type of regular care each animal will need before you decide to purchase it. Depending on the type of animal, some breeds require more or less maintenance. But it is unfair to the animal and to yourself to jump into something just because you like the idea of it. Take your time in making any decision like this and be sure to research it well.

Fences

There are many different types of fencing available. If you are having someone put them up for you, all of them are expensive. One thing to keep in mind when deciding on your type of fence is, what will you be using it for? Is it just to look nice, is it to keep animals in an area or out of an area? Is it something that you want in place permanently or temporarily so that you can move it around?

If you are using it for chicken, I would suggest a temporary fence for the reasons we discussed before. If you are using it for cows, I would suggest a permanent fence for the boundary lines. You can then section smaller areas off within that area for rotating pastures. Pigs is something else that I would suggest to use temporary fencing with. Having sheep will require very tight boundary fences to ensure that they do not get out. It is one thing to have an animal out in your yard. It is another thing to have an animal out on the road where it can be killed or cause an accident. You are liable for that accident if it was your animal!

When you are building or having boundary fences built for you, choose something that will last. Take into consideration if there are large trees close to the fence that may fall on it at some point. Will the type of fence you have chosen work with a variety of animals. Even though you may not think you want one type of animal right not, down the road as you gain experience, I can tell you that you will most likely change your mind!
  

You want to build your fences to last. This is a big project in both time and money. Do it right the first time and the fences will last you between 50 and 100 years. A rail fence will last about 100 years, but they are expensive to have built. We just had a price given to us from a local fence builder. We are doing a 400 ft section. We are supplying the rails and it will cost us $2400. We had a price given to us last year on a section of paige wire fencing. It comes out to $4 a foot. So it would be $1600 for the same size section as the rails. The difference is, if a tree fall on my rail fence, it will break the fence where it hits it! If a tree falls on paige wire fence it will stretch the entire fence and it will be garbage! I also prefer the look of the rails as it matches our house and the surrounding area.

Permaculture Principals

We discussed this idea in the gardening section. Now you want to look at it with the raising of your animals. Remember, it is thinking about how things happen naturally. You can not make water run up hill, so don’t kill your self trying. If you have an area that you need to clear off brush and weeds, there is no need to spend weeks, cutting the brush and removing the stumps!

This is a good time to get a few goats! Put them in that area for a while fenced with temporary electric fencing and they will eat all of the growth. If you do not want to keep the goats afterwards, sell them at the sale barn or send them for meat. You have either gotten your self free meat after they provided the labor or you have gotten your labor provided for free if you turn around and sell them. The best part is you didn’t have to do anything. Once the goats are done their job, bring in some pigs. The pigs will root up all of the stumps and eat the roots of what is left. You now have cleared the land with very little effort. Sell your pigs or put them in the freezer.

If you are going to have grazing animals they need both hay and pasture. Both of those things need to be fertilized in order for the earth to remain healthy and continue to be plentiful. Do not go out and buy chemical fertilizers. Rotate your animals into different areas. This way they have fresh grass. They leave rich fertilizer in that area for you and they are healthier as they are not eating over grazed areas that probably have a heavy parasite load.

Let your chickens roam with your other animals. First off flies lay their eggs in the manure. The chickens feast on both the larva of the fly and the undigested grains that are being wasted. They also scratch up the manure and spread it all over. This means you don’t have to break up the manure by farrowing or by hand! Allowing your animal to work the land naturally keeps everything in balance. The earth gets what it needs as do the animals.

We have touched on animals and fencing today, as well as some permaculture principals. Tomorrow we will discuss storage options, using found materials for projects and several other things. See you all soon.

Please share some of you ideas so we can all be more self sufficient.