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 its own food. Swedish flower hen derived but this specific rooster was a mix of SFH and Ancona, so a very flighty bird.

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.

Believe it or not, New Jersey is more than what you see when you land at Newark airport. Our 140+ acres in beautiful Hunterdon county 💚🤠🐓

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.

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Long story short, my wife and I bought a property in WV through an estate sale situation and details and records are scarce/nonexistent. We are both city people and have grown up with public water supply so this is all new to us. We are wanting to just get a full picture of the utility situation as we begin to think about what we want this place to look like for us. Honestly the biggest priority right now is establishing if the water supplied to the house is drinkable or not.

The property was advertised as having a spring house and limestone-filtered spring water but that’s really the extent of what we know. I was out there today and found the spring box but I’m not sure where to go from here. Pictures of the spring box and inside are attached.

I followed the black supply from the box but between the rain, the leaves and the terrain it was hard to trace in its entirety. The outlet I did find is at a small barn with a trough and spigot.

The water has good water pressure, no notable staining on the faucets/showers/toilets, and doesn’t seem to have a strong sulfur smell. The spring box looked to only have 12” of depth and I was unable to locate a cistern but I feel like that is my next step? Is it safe to assume cisterns will have access points at ground level? Admittedly it wasn’t a thorough search.

I already plan to collect and send in a water sample but is this best done at the spring box, cistern (if I can find/access it, or faucet?

Regardless of test results, is it best practice to add a water and UV filtration system to all spring fed sources? Is this something that can be installed near the cistern or is it usually more internally to the house? The property has multiple houses so just trying to plan for whether we might need 2 systems vs 1.

Edit: I do plan on reaching out to the county tomorrow to see what info they can help me with but these are the questions occupying my brain as I try and wind down to sleep.

Jumbo coturnix quail from J&B Game Birds

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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?

Apparently I should have been a part of this sub ages ago!

I raised tropical ornamental fish, although a house fire early this year really affected my interest (so many dead fish...). I decided to get rid of most of them and break down the tanks. The only one staying up inside is my 125G show tank.

BUT outside I have a 75G tank where I raise mosquito fish. I'm about to switch to using a 225G tote instead, so I can also soak driftwood for others. That tank also has a TON of aquatic plants. Most aquatic plants available in pet stores are grown ABOVE water, so they die back a lot when placed under water. I like growing them underwater, and the area where they are gets plenty of sun, so they really grow fast! Yes, it gets algae too, but that's fine. It's not a show tank.

I also do 3D printing, and I'm thinking about making a modular "basket" to raise plants through hydroponics out of the water tote. I've already used the printer to make *tons* of normal plant pots and seed trays. But I really want to raise watercress (great superfood - even better than spinach) and I'm hearing that stuff loves growing through hydroponics!

I've raised chickens in the past too. And the house we bought just last year has two raised garden plots with a cute little fence around it, where I raise vegetables.

IF and WHEN insurance finally finishes the claim on the burned-down house, I intend to get an enclosure for turkeys. My husband is really afraid of chickens after getting attacked by a rooster once. So those are out of the question. We also don't eat eggs very often. I also don't like people at my house a lot, so I don't want to keep offering excess chicken eggs to others. So I figured turkeys were best as they aren't prolific egg producers. I also want to go with a heritage breed that I have seen offered up less and less - royal palms!

The only other plans I have for any sort of "homesteading" are to possibly go with solar panels in the future. I want the entire roof covered, because I know it helps keep the attic cool, which helps keep the house cool (we're in Georgia). And I want to rely on the electric company as little as possible - although I'd prefer to stop relying on them at all. Our house is well insulated, and we keep it at 75 during the summer (although my medications make me sweat if it's over 72), and still got a fricking bill for $600 for July. I'm tired of their "summer prices" when there are data centers flying in here putting a *much* larger strain on the grid than our measly household AC units! I'll happily buy a bunch of batteries to store energy rather than pay them these inflated prices much longer!

ANYWAY, mostly just saying hello and introducing myself. I will probably be asking questions about various things related to these topics as they come up!

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!

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

Cocina

I'm not getting much on the canning group. Could anyone take a look at this and help out?

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

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

Quail quail and more quail