South eastern quarter is almost completely rotted, but the whole northern portion of the roof/barn is nearly perfect (aside from listing 1-3°) , and the south western side is still okay, tho it’s degrading fast. Is there any way to save it?? I’m a new market gardener and chicken farmer with almost no money I can sink into the project, just a tractor and plans to build a pto driven sawmill. I would love to have a few dairy cows someday and think it would be so cool to use the same barn as the last owner/operator used. His name was Perry Miller and he used it in the 60’s and 70’s, until he was gored by his own bull and had to shut it down.

I’ve got about 100 acres in southwest Wisconsin, and roughly 65 acres is very hilly, black walnut-dominated woodland. We’re planning to break ground on our homestead in 3–4 years. For now, we’re working on land restoration and planning, planning, planning.

In addition to letting the walnuts grow for a potential timber harvest for future generations, I’ve been trying to figure out whether we could manage portions of the woods for food and other useful plants.

The main goal would be supplemental food for our family, with perhaps a small secondary income someday.

I’ve been geeking out lately about agroforestry and perennial food plants, especially their ecological benefits. Last weekend, our family visited the Savanna Institute’s demonstration farm in Spring Green, where they research tree and shrub crops and agroforestry practices suited to our region.

That visit got me excited about a few possibilities. I’d love to hear from people who have tried any of these—particularly in the Upper Midwest or in walnut-dominated woods. Also let me know if there are ideas I'm not considering yet but should.

Fruit and nut shrubs along the woodland edges

We’ve been removing invasive honeysuckle, which has me thinking about what we want growing in its place. In the sunnier woodland edges and openings, I’m interested in elderberries, black currants, aronia, hazelnuts, and other perennial food plants. Has anyone established productive berry or nut shrubs along a black walnut woodland edge? What has done well, and how much sun and ongoing maintenance did it need?

Managing patches for woodland food and useful plants

Edible mushrooms, walnuts, ramps, American ginseng, wild berries, maple trees, willow for basket weaving, and other edible, medicinal, and useful plants grow in our area. Some are already on our land, but not in abundance (well except for walnuts, LOL). I’m wondering about establishing or expanding a few managed patches that could eventually provide reliable supplemental harvests for our family. Have you successfully encouraged woodland food or useful plants this way? What was worth the effort?

Possible silvopasture for a family milk cow and companions

We’re considering a family milk cow with some company, probably 3-5 cows max. We have about 3–4 acres of open pasture field available (the rest we're converting to tall grass prairie, which is the centerpiece of our restoration efforts). Could thinning selected areas of woodland create additional rotational grazing space? I’m interested in whether that could fit with our woodland restoration goals and growing walnuts for future timber. Has anyone combined a small open pasture with managed woodland grazing on hilly ground? What would you assess before deciding whether it’s feasible—and what would make you rule it out?

We’ve got time to experiment before moving out there full time, so I’d appreciate advice on what to start now, what to learn more about, and what to leave as a daydream.

If you’re curious about the visit that sparked these ideas, I made a video of the Savanna Institute open house.

https://www.facebook.com/share/1CxFxwjYKp/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Had family over for breakfast this morning and they were so delighted to have milk from a glass bottle, especially my grandpa who grew up always having milk like this. I just think it's so much more satisfying.

Curious who would all leave a high paying job for a simple life if you had 1.3 million and early 30s

What would you do next

Jumbo coturnix quail from J&B Game Birds

https://www.facebook.com/share/1CxFxwjYKp/?mibextid=wwXIfr

I just wanted to share my experience of having free range chickens. This term gets thrown around often and i’m definitely not the free range sheriff. The difference to me is just stark comparing how this rooster turned out vs. how store bought chicken looks in my area. This rooster was ≈ 10 months old and not fed much feed at all, foraging your own food.

Hello everyone, I have really bad windows and I'm not ready to go PVC. I am thinking of using a putty knife and maybe sandpaper to remove the old paint. How can I best go about this?

I am canning homemade apple jam for long-term storage. How long do you have before you have to use homemade water bathed jam?

SW Colorado at 8200ft. Not expecting a lot if any accumulation but love the moisture. Rained for about 12hrs straight overnight.

Most people looking at land in Colorado ask whether they can get a well. That’s the wrong question. You can almost always get a well. The question is what the permit lets you do with the water, and that comes down to one number.

At 35 acres or more you can generally get a Domestic and Livestock permit. Up to three dwellings, water for livestock and domestic animals, and irrigation of up to one acre of lawn and garden.

Under 35 acres you generally get Household Use Only. That means inside the house. That is the whole list. No garden, no lawn, no animals, no outdoor use of any kind. One well, 15 gallons a minute, and the State Engineer has to deny it outright if it would injure somebody’s vested right.

Now the part that matters. Almost every cheap parcel moving in the San Luis Valley right now is five acres. Blanca, Fort Garland, San Luis, Mesita. They run $5,000 to $9,000 and they get marketed as off-grid homestead land, grow your own food, keep a few animals. I went through one seller’s inventory last week and found seven lots between 2.56 and 5.08 acres, every one of them written that way.

Somebody reads that, buys it on payments, and finds out at the Division of Water Resources that his permit won’t let him put water on a garden.

Here’s how to check before you buy, free.

Go to the DWR well permit search at dwr.state.co.us/Tools/WellPermits.

Filter to the county the parcel is in. If you have the township, range and section off the deed or the assessor’s record, narrow it to that.

Open the permits on parcels near yours. Not one. Several.

Read the Use field on each one. You’re looking at whether your neighbors were issued Domestic, or Household Use Only.

Whatever the permits in that same subdivision say is almost certainly what you’re going to get. If every one around that section reads Household Use Only, that’s your answer, and it isn’t going to come out different for you.

One exception worth knowing about. Some subdivisions have their own augmentation plan, which is a court-approved arrangement that replaces the water the wells pull out of the stream. If a parcel sits inside one, the rules change. The seller should know whether there is one, and if he doesn’t know, that tells you something too.

Bottom line, a well permit is permission to drill. It’s also a restriction on use, and the restriction is the part nobody reads.

I do due diligence on raw land for a living. Happy to answer permit questions in the comments. If you’ve got a parcel actually under contract, DM me.

Spring here in Tasmania means mowing every week, and the clippings usually go on the compost. This year I tried growing pearl oyster mushrooms on them instead, and it worked.

The short version: mix fresh clippings half and half with sawdust, get them into a hydrated lime bath (about 1 cup per 50 L of water) within an hour of mowing, soak 4 hours, drain, mix in oyster spawn and pack it into old buckets with taped holes. We mowed on 9 September and were picking mushrooms by 8 October.

No pressure cooker, no boiling, and the buckets were free. Use clippings from an unsprayed lawn only.

It's one batch so far. I wrote it up with photos of every step, the lime dose and what to do when a bucket goes mouldy.

Happy to answer questions.

i got one 4x8 raised bed and couple of growbags on the patio, this year grew cherry tomatoes n some bell peppers, all mixed from hardware stores. saved seeds from the best tomato plant like everyone online says to, then looked up the variety n its an F1 hybrid, so next year plants prolly won’t look anything like this year.

starting to think I should've just bought heirloom seeds from the start, picked up a pack of Non-GMO seeds from Organo for next spring, hope that solves the guessing, but has anyone had luck saving seeds here?

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

We have a 1,000 sq ft garden in West Michigan that we need to rehab due to way too many weeds. We also want to move to no-till.

Now that harvest is over, the plan is to cut everything down, cover it all with cardboard, then cover that with compost and rabbit litter all winter. We also have huge white and red oak trees that will produce more than enough leaves to cover everything. My concern about using the leaves are the tannins affecting the soil and making it too acidic. The other concern is if this will all break down sufficiently by Spring.

The leaves aren't necessary and our town will vacuum them up if we don't go that route, but I would prefer to use them if the general consensus is that they would be beneficial. Any advice or insight is appreciated. Thank you!

Right now, my only selection criteria is:

Heirloom acclimated to my local climate? Good.

Not an heirloom? Bad.

Life experience has taught me that evaluating quality is always more complex than good/bad based on a surface level label. So I know I don't know what I'm doing here, but I really want to know.

Suggestions on where to buy seeds would be great too. I live in the South Carolina lowcountry. It gets hot here and it's humid all year round. The soil might get a bit clay-like as you dig deeper. I'm thinking of starting a worm compost and trying to use that as dirt? Yard has been poison sprayed to hell and back. Some parts of the yard don't grow anything at all.

I'm looking for:

• Prickly pear
• Tomato
• Ashwaganda
• Ginger
• Hibiscus
• Blackberry
• Blueberry
• watermelon
• mango
• orange
• Storage friendly plants
• Any other great unique plants you know about that a newbie like me wouldn't know of

I also know nothing about preparing soil, irrigation methods, and natural ways of fighting pests T_T

One hail marry I figured I'd throw, is that I want to experiment with giving plants a domesticated life cycle vs a wild-like life-cycle where the plant has to deal with natural environmental selection pressures.

If anyone has experience with any of this, your advice is gold T_T

I’d also love advice on where you would put the chicken coop! Thank you! I’ve learned so much from y’all!

This view is one of my favorite parts of my property.

Spring of 2025 we got some standard bronze heritage turkeys. Kept a pait over the winter, and she started to lay in early April. We hatched out 14 eggs (100% hatch rate!). We keep picking up the eggs, and she keeps laying. She does at least 20 eggs a month, and is still going. She is slowing down, with only 5 in October, but I got one yesterday - the 13th.

From what I've read, she is well over double what is expected. Is this unusual? BTW, eggs left in her nest get broken.

We live north of Spokane, and have had multiple frosts.

This is my shop (detached, about 150 ft from the house) & right now theres zero power out there – 240V 2HP compressor sitting there unplugged, table saw on 120V, and a couple of shop lights i run off an extention cord when i really need them. i'm out there maybe 10 hrs a week tops.

Electrician came by tuesday and quoted $9k for the trench + subpanel which is way more than i wanted to spend on a shop i use on weekends!! so now im looking at a 5kWh battery with 240V out, charged by a few panels on the shop roof (JerryRig's video on his property is what got me going down this road https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3mYd7si0iI ).

Compressor runs around 1600W and i have no clue what the startup is, thats the part that worries me. if a battery inverter can start a 240V compresser im sold on skipping the trench

Zone 3 🇨🇦🍁💚garden