Homesteading

In an effort to stretch Scott's income further and take some stress off of him, I've been looking for ways to provide for our family.

Through lots of research, I've come up with a list of things, all related to homesteading, that I'd like to try.

We rent our house right now and our yard isn't massive but our landlord is pretty chill about what we do and there' s an empty lot across the street that they've given us permission to use.

So here's my list of adventures I'll be embarking on over the next few months:

-1-

Gardening

We have a cool weather garden planted and it's growing well so far. It's just so darn hot here it's hard to keep it from drying out. We haven't mulched yet, and it looks like we need to get it mulched immediately to keep the moisture in. My goal is to eventually produce enough to use and preserve so that we have year round homegrown goodies.

-2-

Rabbits

I know some people are going to freakout, but I plan on raising rabbits for meat in the near future.

They're small so they don't require a lot of land, they eat grass and sticks, their meat is really healthy and they reproduce like crazy so your initial investment bring TONS of return, over and over and over:) Plus, this gives us a lot of new things to learn/teach the girls.

-3-

Dairy

Obviously we can't have a cow here, but I'd like to get a goat. I'm not ready for this one yet. It's a big commitment because a) goats eat a lot and cause trouble, b) for a goat to have milk, it has to have a kid (duh) and c) you have to milk the dang thing AT LEAST once a day and that's just not gonna work right this second. But I'm telling you now, there's a goat in my future.

-4-

Chickens

Chickens are awesome...meat AND eggs. Again, relatively little space, time and food requirements. Plus they eat bugs. And the initial investment yields TONS of return again because they reproduce:)

Also, since I'll have a rooster (necessary for the reproduction) I'll also get a free 4 am alarm clock.

I know. You're thinking, "what?! huh?!what?! roosters don't crow until the sun comes up." Wrong. False. Roosters in Albany (I've seen quite a few...they roam the streets downtown and our neighbor has 4, and our apartments had a feral rooster) have some weird circadian malfunction that makes them start their nonsense 2 1/2 hours before there' even a hint of sunlight.

-5-

mountain man

I'll be sending Scott out on the hunt. Actually there aren't any mountains down here, so he'd be more of a woodsman. That's more appropriate. Anyway, South Georgia is an excellent place for hog and deer hunting, and when you have friends with acreage, that means no fees! Woop! Add in the fact that our friend also have a fishing pond on his property, and Scott's set up to provide quite a bit of almost free food. 

On top of all of those awesome benefits I just shared, homesteading has a lot of other benefits. Everything works together in harmony...the rabbits/goat/chickens eat the grass clippings, then they poop which enriches our compost, which in turn helps the garden flourish. That gives us more and better edibles, some of which will go towards feeding the animals. Pllus is gives us the opportunity to learn SO many good skills like animal care, time management, slaughtering/butchering your own meats, canning and preserving, and more! And my girls will learn so much about every subject from science to math to accounting to "home economics" and more. 

So stay tuned for these adventures over the next few months. My first goal is to convince Scott about the rabbits. I've already found some breeding rabbits for sale for super cheap!

What do you do that would fall under "homesteading"? How do you provide for yourself?

WHOA

Ok, so...I wasn't going to do a garden update today but when I walked out there this morning and saw it, I changed my mind. I'm just so amazed at how quickly and easily this stuff is growing!

This is our pumpkin sprout on day 5.

This is zuchini, day 5. I'll have to thin this one out soon to just one plant. That's SO hard for me to pull out a plant and let it die, but I know that if I don't do it soon, none of them will survive.

This is squash, day 5.

broccoli day 5

And this is my absolute favorite thing from today. This is the bush bean, day 5.

The bean again. You can almost see where the actual bean used to be.

And here, if you look closely, you CAN see the actual dried bean (the seed). How awesome is that?

See? That looked like a dry black bean when I put it in the ground!

Then when the girls napped, I decided to cut the grass. Don't worry, the heat index was only 105...

And the humidity was a scant 60%.

Halfway through cutting the front yard, I looked up and saw this. She ripped down half of her "stained glass window" that Daddy made and somehow was sitting on the window sill. She stayed there until I finished.

And this is the beginning of my compost pile. I bagged all the grass while I was mowing so I could easily get it started. The laundry basket is there to show you how much grass there is.

Y'all....it was so hot out there. My feet were SOAKED when I was done. And my boots aren't even all that tight...or heavy. Also, I did wear pants to cut the grass...our neighbors wouldn't like naked yard work.

I don't know how only this part of my shirt got a sweat stain cause I was dripping everywhere! Probably mostly from humidity, but my goodness.

It took me an hour and a half to cut the front and back, and I used that as my excuse to lounge on the couch in the AC the rest of the day. Then I treated the girls and myself to some BBQ and ice cream. Poor daddy missed out.