Our Journey started back in 2011 with Utube to simply experience doing a little with our videos to Utube. During this time with my ministry background with Reaching Hands For Christ, we have slowly evolved over the years learning while living a blessed life in our Lord Jesus. So some of the videos are very simple and share clips of family gatherings, birthdays, ministry events and the beginnings of what would become a homesteading experience even though at the time, we did not know that was what was occurring with our family. My background over the past 4 decades has been sharing the Love of Christ in all that we do. Work, family and play. Now in somewhat later in life and having taken care of my precious elderly mother for several years,
Aida and I are once again stepping into a new frontier of Life. Live and learn as they say. Join us in our Sparks Family Homesteading Life.
Your comment is interesting. Please realize, the Icelandic birds are cold hardy. This last winter, we where snowed in and could not get into town for over a week. These birds are well equipped to handle fridgid weather and still lay eggs below 🥶 freezing. Having Quail for 2 years and realizing they slow down laying eggs after the first year of their short life span, and normally do not live beyond 2 years, yeah.. These chickens live up to 15 years, constant egg layers while others slow down in their 3rd year, Icelandic from my research will still be laying eggs beyond 10 years. Yup, I loved doing Quail when we had a garage and lived in a subdevision but living on several acres on a Mountain changes a lot of decisions regarding food production and being self sustaining as much as possible. I still will promote raising Quail but for our new situation, Icelandic birds are incredible. Wishing you the best. Wayne
Look up how to make a predator proof coop and run. Your birds will be picked off until they are all gone. Fox, weasel, coons, hawks and eagles and whatever else is in your area.
Glad you saw it. Thanks for being a subscriber. Appreciate it. Ive had a couple of surgeries but will be getting back to uploading current video's soon here. :)
Hey brother! My 2 cents, I would take the door off, build a wood frame around it on one side that is semi-flush, then reattach it if the hinges will handle it. Or maybe build a frame on the back side that is flush so the door closes against it. May not protect against snakes, but maybe some other predators. For some extra layers of defense maybe its worth spreading dog poop around the coop as a warning to predators. I also had someone suggest running a radio because the human-like noises will deter wildlife. Could also be worth it to add some motion sensing lights, but I would guess they are safe in the coop by the time that would be of use. Keep on doin your thing man!
@@farmasaurus Awesome! I believe I will do just that soon. I just had some surgery and I'm doing fine. As soon as I feel up to it in the next few days I'll be working on it. Thanks for the advice.
Hatching time won't be able to add plastic sides to the cages they sell because they don't manufacture them, a company in turkey produces the cages, hatching time are just a seller of the Turkish brand cimuka
Yeah, When I last communicated to their customer service a couple of years ago, indicated that they were considering doing sides to their cages in the near future. And... that hasn't yet occured. With what I created was awesome and worked. Quail are very messy and I am glad i did what I did back then. Clean up became simple. Thanks for your insight and comment. Wayne
Hey Kenny, your comment is well taken. I was new to the youtube family back 7 years ago. Was still learning doing videos and adding back ground music. With the thousands upon thousands of views on this video, even with the irratating repitish music, it's been educational and I'm sure the manufacturer has made many sales off of this video. So... I've taken my RU-vid channel very serious now in regards to homesteading. It's growing and I'm grateful for that. I might be able to take that 7 year old video and edit that music. Not sure yet about doing that but I promise I will try. Plus, now living on some acres on a Mountain here in North Eastern Tennessee, I'm planing on doing a audible story account on the storm shelter delivery and why we had to choose the above ground model. That storm shelter was a life saver to our family and to this day, I'm forever grateful that back then we had it installed in our Texas home which was located in Tornato Alley. Thanks for your concern about the background music. Wayne
Try getting your 85 year old non abmulatory mother down an underground shelter with seconds to spare. That was my situation. Thus we did as you see in the video with documentation that a f5 can hit but we'd be safe. So many videos of the above ground shelters such as ours , saved lives. It gave me the care provider of my mother, a peace of mind while residing in that house. But in your situation, a below ground sounds and will be great! If we did not care for my mother, I most likely would have also done a below ground. Do the research regarding above ground from the manufacturer there in Texas. Their documentation and others nation wide are incredible. Wishing you safty and good judgement if you get one of these.
That might be our only option because of a high water table here in South Dakota. Although i would feel safer below ground somewhat. But I'm getting less mobile everyday.
It did 7 years ago. That's when I filmed it. My family moved to North Eastern Tennessee back in 2019. We sold that Texas house. That shelter was installed back in 2015. The shelter was awesome and the family that purchased our home in North Texas where very grateful for that storm shelter. Thus, It was and Im sure to this day a wonderful feeling of physical security to have something like that when you reside in Tornado ally. Here at the Eastern end of Tennessee, I no longer have the worries of tornado's and that huge Texas humidity and heat for so many months of any year. Thanks for your comment.
Music is awesome.!😂😮😅😊. I do have a very similar shelter like yours installed in our garage awesome. Again you got me beat, I didn't get the awesome music or even a video of ours getting installed. 😂😊👍
That shelter is rated for a catagory 5 tornado. The walls and its build are very heavily steeled. It is bolted directly in the cement foundation. If a tornado was to ever destroy the house, Id rather be in tornado Master above ground verses a bathroom tub anyday. It was well worth the 11K we spent on it back then.
Great Video bud, I'm looking to buying myself one as well. I'm confused though. Did you have the light set on full brightness. I know the light has different modes.
This solar light is incredible. I live on a mountain thus, at night it really gets dark out here. Lol.. But to answer the question, No. There are settings I actually have never played with. It comes with a remote controll also. But for me and my family, we use it only for dawn to dusk. It stays on low all night long yet when you walk near its radius, it goes to full brightness. The low setting is also bright enough to see very well in. I have yet to experience the batteries ever running out or to low to run for hours and hours. Ive seen it turn on recently around 7pm and it stays strong to till the sun comes out. Incredible. Thanks for the question...
Are you a descendant of the Sparks family from NC and KY? If so, we are cousins! And I live in North TX also...in Haslet a mile from Wal-Mart!!! We got the blue prints from the Texas Tech research and had a safe room built into our home as it was being built. It is also rated F5. I remember well the tornado you are talking about. It actually did damage in Denton around NTSU. I tell folks, "It may cost you $5000 to have a safe room or storm shelter but if you have to use it just once, just once, it has paid for itself."
I once tried to locate my background with the Sparks family. If you do a google search, there are multitudes of Sparks nationwide. More than likely, blood wise perhaps not. Sparks is a very widely used last name as I have discovered. I wish you the best in your search. I can say this though, my family is from Texas but there are Sparks in all 50 states. Take care and God Bless.
If you look on my youtube channel, you'll see my family and I relocated to Eastern Tennessee a few years ago to get out of the heat. Lol... We love it here. Blessings. Wayne
Agreed. I did this video several years ago. It was one of my first vids. Since those days, I’ve have learn better on background music. Thanks for watching and you’re doing the right thing with your shelter. Congrats..😊
i'm just getting into the jumbo quails. how long should they be kept in the brooder? and after that do they go into the grow out pen or the breeding pen? i'm using all hatchingtime quail cages.
Thanks for the question. Since Ive only housed Jumbo Quail in the Hatching Time cages, approx 3 per section is very comfortable. Thus if there are no deviding walls, up to 10 to 11 for freedom of range. Hope this helps.
One rooster to 6 hens is safe. You could probably have comfortably 8 to 10? Roosters do not like competition. The one layer will have 3 sections that can be divided. Each section id have no more than 3 hens, 1 rooster. Thus approx. Up to 12 birds. 10 would be more comfortable. You'll just need to experiment. FYI, i always enjoyed seeing more freedom in each layer. So i took out the deviders for each section and opened the cages up. The birds loved their freedom.
hatchingtime.com Go to their website. They have the quail 1 layer at a fantastic sale price right now. I believe its only 239.00. But, if you order it, request the flooring of the quail cage to be the flooring they use for chickens. Its slightly larger thus allowing their poop to drop thru easily for jumbo quail. Its only a slight increase price wise but so worth it. Its what ive done. Super easy on the clean up. Again, its a suggestion only. The regular flooring is smaller for regular quail. Thanks for adking. Wayne
That quail scared me too! lol lil booger was SNOOZING 💤 thank you for the video! I was outweighing each option and by the end of buying supplies for the cages, feeders, watering system, trays etc, it really ain’t worth the time and money I’d rather buy these bad boys!
Great video! People really underestimate the costs and work that go into starting a homestead. It takes time. I would say that Anna and Ryan are on the very high end cost of having chickens but it was also a very fair description at the same time. Especially using per-fab coop kits. I am working on a limited budget like you but I also have 25 years of materials piled up everywhere and DIY skills. Another cost saving trick I have is that I have gathered up brooding and feeding supplies from friends that no longer keep chickens. So I won't be spending that much to get the infrastructure started. I will need fencing which costs a good chunk of money. I have to travel a bunch this summer, so we won't be starting livestock until next year which gives us more time to gather up free or used materials and supplies.
Just stumbled across you guys and I am excited to follow as I just moved in with my dad 8 months ago into what was our camp growing up. We are slowly turning this woodland lot in Maine it into a homestead at last. Looks like we have a similar sized lot with a creek too. God bless! Edit: You probably already know this but I would pop up temp fences around your fruit trees to protect them from the deer. They will eat saplings. Just last night I had a bunch of deer in the dooryard eating maple saplings. They are coming out of stumps and I want them gone so my case the deer are doing me a sold. lol
Courtney, Wow! Is not this life living kinda exciting? I'm excited for you and your dad. Thanks for subscribing. Truly appreciate it. And yes, I thought about a fence structure too. I guess our 3 dogs sort of keep the black bears and dear away from our home. Anyway, that's what I suspect. I'll be more observant since you suggested that. Thanks!
Thanks so much Margaret. We are doing well and tomorrow I will be planting those Muscadines. We are also in preparation to invest into chickens and soon I will be sharing about that as the breed of chicken is on an endager list here in the states. We may change our name from a homestead to a farm. Who knows. Just believing and dreaming for our future here. We love it so much.
Those look great and are a nice size! They're easily as large as the bare root ones we planted two years ago, so you're 2 years ahead already! A gate is a must for a homestead in our opinion. :)
Thanks for the compliment😀 Hope to start next week the developing of our new Muscadine grape Vinyard. And planting of several raspberries, blackberries and blueberry plants. I've been intrigued with your solar add ons. It looks exciting. Congratulations on all your hard work. Plus, love your channel.
Thanks Margarete. I'm fairly certain its a self pollinated tree. Yet, I will look into that. I'd like to get another peach tree that will bloom late so these spring articblasts will not affect the trees. I'm excited about planting our muscadine vinyard soon.
Yup! I hear ya. We grew 4 apple trees at our other home near Tusculum. After 4 years in the ground, we finally began to see them bearing apples. Then, decided to sell the house and start from scratch again here on the mountain. Hope to really expand our homestead this time. So much potential here now. Love your comments😄👍
Very nice video, good vibes! I started grinding my own flour this week because here in my country commercial flour has a lot of unhealthy chemicals. Next step is to find non gmo organic berries. Cheers, very nice stuff!
Yes. It does. I'm amazed. By 6 or 7 hours of still bearing light, it is not as bright but bright enough to be on entire night. I'm thinking of getting a couple more. Thanks for asking.
Very nice and bright. I have seen solar powered security cameras also. I think they are like my doorbell camera that only activates when there is motion and powered by a rechargeable battery.
Thanks for the wonderful compliment. Been living in it now for only 3 months. We are finally at a point to get our north and south entrances gated. Perhaps this weekend.
Don’t listen to your neighbor. I have been living with farming for half of my life i can tell you lots of people here know nothing about the food cycle. They just talk like experts based on the perception of on disgusting thing they know is human waste! First let talk about waste from other creatures beside human waste. We are buying cow’s waste as expensive fertilizer Yes human waste is not something you want to grow fruit trees but we are eating fruits produced by even worst chemical than toxic stuffs from human waste. If they know the whole thing about nice looking fruit and meats selling at the market they might choose to eat these fruits. You should move because of roots problem. I would eat such fruit any day
Thank you for such a heart warming great insight. Just so you know, we have moved😃. Check out some of the recent videos on my channel. We moved onto 6 acres, raw land. Dug a well, have year around creek, lots of walnut trees. Plenty of space to reinvent our homestead as time moves forward. Life can have its hiccups. We certainly are experiencing this but all will work out. Just bought some fruit trees, grape vines, and berry plants to get into the ground. I'm starting from scratch again but love life, love God and love our new mountain forever mountain home. Blessings, Wayne
