I enjoy watching your progress. I'm probably your oldest fan (72) but you remind me of me in the 1960-70's back to the land movement. Hubby was just home from Viet Nam & we moved from Long Beach, CA to an outlying area of Chattanooga on 10 acres & I'm still in the game.
Brace your corner joints and in the middle of the long sides of your raised beds. I had a very similar design and after the first few rains, the weight of the soil pushed the centers out and the corners started to give.
I don't have any sheep but my sister told me that her sheep have destroyed their pasture because they pull out grass with the roots. I would look into that and if that's the case, then I would definitely not put them on the newly developed pasture. While the grass is lush it takes long time to fully establish and sheep can ruin your hard work. Also, couple dairy bulls (your can get them for free) are literally no maintenance...we butcher at 10mo so we don't have to feed over the winter. Not too much meat but it tastes amazing. Ours are completely grass fed, and we got 276lb back from the butcher on the recent 9mo Jersey. The young liver was one of the best things I have ever eaten. And the bones literally fall apart when I cook them for couple days for the tom-yum soup. Best of luck to you, I love watching you develop your homestead.
Really good points about the sheep. Also, never occurred to me about the bulls. I've had dairy farmers in family, and the male young are definitely NOT wanted. Might even be a nice way to allow some life, that's GOOD life, for the ones who die so we can eat. 🤔🥰 And after all, that's really all I ask for... Respect the life that is, even as we use it in our own lives. Yeah? (If this came accross snarky, btw, that NOT intended. I'm sincere, and thank you.)
Check Richard Perkins about the sheep/livestock. I think if you rotate them to a new area on a regular basis you shouldn’t have a problem... but he’s the expert.
@@beautifulhomestead1174 you can homestead without killing animals intentionally. There are many types of homesteading. Humans are not Ruminants, eating grass has nearly no bioavailability. But hey, when in doubt insult, right?
I just discovered your channel yesterday! I'm a dairy farmer and live on the back side of our family farm on 7 acres, mostly woods. I've had dreams simular to your videos. Currently, I have 9 raised 3' x 20' beds, an old 100 gallon water trough that has blueberries in, chickens, a dog and goats. I also have a small creek on the south border. Love using the old techniques of family and learning new ones from you. Thank you!!!
Looks great! Another reason why raised beds work in Tennessee and not so well in Southern California, is because there's a lot more water and rain in Tennessee. Raised beds are inferior for retaining water, but superior at not getting flooded.
I have two for your raised bed in my garden too! They do need extra water in the summer the beds are great for heat loving plants. In cold weather they grow nice cabbage but will freeze before in ground beds. I SEE THE BEDS BOWING OUT! I needed to place a strap across the center of my beds!
Another animal you may consider to raise are Boer goats for processing. We however are currently raising dairy goats. LaMancha and Nigerian Dwarf. The milk is amazing. They are extremely gentle. I mentioned the kunekune we raise as well. Turkeys are another good source for both breeding and consuming. They fetch a decent amount next to our Black Copper Marans. A diverse farm is always a good way to go. Thanks for sharing
Since the cost of lumber is so high and you have an abundance of large trees on your land, maybe you should consider investing in a small lumber mill that makes use of your chainsaw.
I called around about getting a forestry mulcher into my backyard to tear down all the chinese privet I have, but they charge a minimum of 4 hours at $150 per hour. It would take like an hour max to tear down everything but it would take me days and days of time I don't have right now to tear it all down. You have to rip the privet up by the roots and the mulcher does that, there are also a lot of those skinny trees that could be torn down pretty quick by a mulcher and days if I did it myself. I think we need to get into the forestry mulching business.
Built beds like that last year and absolutely love them, I did however put a brace board across the middle for bowing purposes. there's a lot of stress there. Love your videos!
Love the look of that machine. Wish I had one available when I owned 20 acres, mostly scrub willow which was a beast to try and deal with. The machine could have mowed them all down. Love the way you are cycling the livestock through. Makes a ton of sense....
We had part our property cleared for our garden area five years ago when we moved in. It’s amazing how good it looks today compared to when we first saw it. Thanks for the great videos.
Thank you for explaining about why you don't amend your planting holes when you plant trees! We have shallow soil, and have always amended the soil when we plant,...but we've lost a couple to high winds--they just toppled over. I guess we shot ourselves in the foot doing it that way. Glad to learn for future plantings though.
Love the progress that you have made so far, can't wait to see what your place looks like come winter. Hopefully it's a good gardening year for us all.
$1k is a great price. Here in Georgia I did about 3/4 - 1 acre & it cost me $1250. Much more expensive out here to get anything done. But I agree, looks so much better once the forest has been cleaned/cleared up. In mine, alot of the privet & vines started coming right back up .
Steven, hi love what your doing. Was wondering about you cow statement, you seems to pass over it in only considering the beef. But have you consider just dairy cows, these aren't for butcher and provide the entire farm with nutrition. Whey,skim,milk,cheese.... This all becomes extra food for your pigs and family while you gain the added benefits of it's 3 stomachs processing tons of matter for you each year. Just a consideration, as up until the 1950-60s every farm had a dairy cow for these reasons. Got all of this info from living web farms channel from a talk a few years back by a couple talking about farmsteading. GOOD LUCK!
Many people consider miniature cattle breeds instead of smaller full-size cows. You will need less pasture and will have less milk to consume. For these people, small-breed cattle may be a more viable alternative, even though the miniature cow costs more initially. rurallivingtoday.com/livestock/miniature-cattle-breeds-small-farm/
😳 that machine is ahhhsum. !! California Forestry needs a few of those to clear all the brush & such.. unfortunately most of the state has lost most to 🔥😥 I’m not sure where you are but love your new place❣️. You had a beautiful garden before and now all this to work in. Such a peaceful place! I’m in the upper Northern Nevada high desert. Dry and hot 🥵. Today is 114* by our gauge. Trying to get plants in the ground as we go from winter 🥶 to summer heat 🥵 over night it seems. I’m so excited about your new place & am waiting to see what & how you do things. Have a great day 🐕🌱🪵🐖
So I had watched a video about the Savory method of holistic land management a few days ago, is this the method you're implementing with your pigs and chickens? How will that work in the future when you have in-ground beds? I'm really intrigued with what you have going here. Thanks for sharing!
Galvanized is just zinc it's fine. Treated wood nowadays is a much safer chemical (copper antifungal) but for me I won't use it anywhere unless it's going to be in or touching the ground. I wanted to use cedar or redwood but just too expensive.
Your property is def. coming along nicely.... well done. Not sure if you're aware of the Idaho Pasture Pig breed.... but I think that may just be one that would interest you. Check out Living Traditions Homestead for more details/info on them.... as they have some and are working on becoming registered breeders of them. There's another place up in Wisconsin that specializes in them, but I don't remember their name off hand.... but they're linked from LTH in one (or more) of their videos. Keep up the great work and content man.... LOVE IT! ;-)
They did a study. Basically you need to shower at the end of the work day and check yourself closely. Also ticks hang on to clothes so beware of them migrating off later. For example don't plop on the couch or bed in your work clothes.
Wow brother everything you do involves a big investment chainsaws tractors and all new materials your headlines are attractive however everything you do screams cash the tractor that cleared your property is a couple grand minimal I talked to a local who had it done . Do you want to tell us how to get the cash to do this kind of thing 25 -40$ per tree wow
No, American chestnuts were destroyed by a blight that’s unrelated. These “Chinese” chestnuts are actually a hybrid of American and Chinese chestnuts, developed in the US specifically to attempt a restoration of the species with blight resistance.
@@twestgard2 I think those trees are considered American as they breed with an Asian than American over and over again to get them as much American as possible with a little Asian to resist the blight that the Asian tree evolved with.
