Archive for the ‘Suburban Homesteadiing’ Category
A Year in the Life of a Suburban Homestead
I was asked once, how my suburban homestead runs throughout the year. When I first began, I had an annual calendar so I could schedule major farming activities like ordering chicks or planting pumpkins or when DD’s sheep shows were. I never leave anything up to me remembering. Over the years, and with a comfort of the “seasons” of our homestead, I’ve been able to use a monthly calendar. But, we still book sheep shows months in advance, post school events, holidays and ½ days and of course the arrival of baby chicks!
This is a look into our homesteading life.
Quarter-by-quarter.
Season-by-season.
WINTER
January
My suburban homestead is at rest in the winter, not frozen like some areas of the country, but at rest all the same; soaking up nourishment from a steady stream of rain storms that float overhead and a new layer of mulch, warm and thick. But, the gardener in me is not at rest. All during the holiday season my mailbox is filled to overflowing with catalogues of all kinds. Each one announcing the newest, the biggest, the best or the most unusual in seeds, transplants, berries, fruit trees and bulbs. My mind races with all the possibilities. My modest garden layouts explode into grandiose dreams of “what could be”. But, being the sensible person that I am, I stop myself, take a deep breath and reexamine my overall homestead layout. Yes, there will be room for new varieties of seasonal vegetables, maybe even a few new berry bushes here and there, but mine is a suburban homestead bounded in size by block walls and property lines. Restraint is the key.
• Review my overall homestead plan to see what and where new additions can be made
• Check rain barrels and set out when storms are predicted
• Sort through catalogues and prepare seed list
• Order seeds
• Purchase/plant new fruit trees and berries from local vendors
• Plant cool weather crops like peas, lettuce and spinach
• Clean barn in preparation of new lambs; make needed repairs
• Pick up hay and grain for new lambs
• Attend sheep auctions and buy new show lambs
February
If weather permits, outdoor chores begin in earnest in February. The longer days, with weak rays of sun still shining at 6:00 P.M., are a welcome sight. I am able to walk around the homestead during this dusky time and take note of projects that need to be done. I may even stop and trim a few broken branches or berry bushes along the way. I check the trellises and arbors for storm damage; fencing that has come loose from their posts during the winds and garden borders that have broken or fallen over. February is a time for “getting ready” – for the gardening to come.
• Leaves picked up and mulched in compost bin
• Prune fruit trees, grapes and berries
• Plant onion sets and seeds
• Sheep shows start (2 or 3 weekends a month)
• Lambs wormed
• Organize seed packets as they arrive
• Clean and prep seed starting supplies, replace or add to as needed
• Clean and check rototiller
March
I have fond childhood memories of March days spent with my dad planting seeds indoors. We would use half-pint milk cartons, collected from school, to start seeds of larger plants like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash and pumpkins. I can still remember looking through racks and racks of plants at our kitchen window as they reached for the sun. Today, my seed starting is not quite so “elementary”. I use flats of seed cells, recycled pony packs and individual pots. But, the results are the same – a jumpstart on the growing season.
• Start seeds indoors in pots and flats
• Prepare fencing for vine crops
• Plant sweet peas on picket fence
• Replace broken berry cane ties and dug up sprouts
• Till garden beds
• Mulch garden walkways
• Check garden water system; repair or replace as needed
• Fertilize all perennials, fruit trees, grapes and berries
• Use credit card rebate check to stock up on staples like flour, sugar, cornmeal, beans, split peas, rice, pasta, and hygiene products
• Sheep shows continue
• Firewood rack near house moved to woodpile
photo credit: elisabeth99
How do you combine your homesteading life with your work life?
A Reader Asks…
…How do you combine your homesteading life with your work life?
For most of us living on a suburban lot, but dreaming of a life in the country, a full-time job spent under fluorescent lights and behind ergonomic office furniture is a reality as much as it is a necessity. Our head may be in the corporate world, but our hearts are steadfastly entrenched in gardens and coops and fresh baked bread. This is the way I’ve lived most of my adult life – one foot in the corporate world and the other in the country.
Balancing the two can be a tricky proposition, full of schedules, compromises, hard work and strange looks from co-workers and neighbors alike. But – it can be done and done successfully.
At this point I think it’s fair to say that none of us are perfect, we don’t ALL live an off-grid, in a stick to ourselves kind of life. We are part of our community, with schools and organizations and activities. We are doing what we can, with the resources we have and within the parameters of city or town regulations.
I think it’s also fair to remind everyone (in case you haven’t read About Me) I have a degree in Agriculture, I’ve raised sheep since I was 11-years old, I was married to a farmer, I’m now single and I currently live on a third-acre that is zoned for all livestock except for horses. So, my capabilities for self-sufficiency are different from those who have limited space or stricter regulations.
Having said that - “How Do We Do Both”, and live as much of the homesteading life as we can? First, I think each person must take a hard look at their current lifestyle. What they currently do for fun, work, improving ones self, exercise, etc and then decide what part of the homesteading life or how much homesteading they want to do.
If you work an 80-hour week with frequent business trips you’d be hard pressed to keep a potted plant alive much less grow enough vegetables for your family’s dinner table. Even if this is not your situation, how much time you spend running kids to sports, working out at the gym or even hanging out with friends will affect how involved you can be in your own suburban homestead.
I think too, we have to remember that homesteading isn’t all about growing vegetables and raising livestock. It also includes recycling, conserving energy, and producing energy. The challenge and fun (I think) of suburban homesteading is finding ways to incorporate all five into your daily life.
So – how do I manage both?
Simply put – better on some days than on others. Honestly!
Farming Across the Pond
I found this magazine breezing through Tractor Supply this past weekend and bought it because it looked interesting, something I hadn’t seen before. It’s called Home Farmer , and is about small scale farming and homesteading, with a heavy emphasis on backyard livestock. I snatched it up and thumbed through it over the weekend (while Brianne and I were at a sheep auction). When we got home, lambs in tow, it kind of got lost in the shuffle and tasks of settling in a new batch of lambs. But, last night, after designing my new quilt project (and an excellent DVD on Queen Elizabeth) I finally had a chance to dig into it. It is wonderful!
Turns out the reason I wasn’t familiar with it is because it’s a British publication. But I was so excited reading through it because it was like walking around a backyard in England talking about gardens and chickens and farming in small spaces. I’ve spent many weeks in England on vacation and can tell you the British have perfected raising backyard birds. Not to mention the array of gorgeous and fanciful coops. (Check out Forsham.com and Framebow.)
Anyway, my favorite take away from the magazine is how universal homesteading is. This was an English publication, but could easily apply to suburban homesteaders from the beltway of Washington, D.C. to the tract houses of Los Angeles; same birds, same dreams, same understanding; that freedom isn’t in our bank accounts or the cars we drive—it’s right in our own backyards, just past the garden gate.
This is one of my favorite things about suburban homesteading - everyone needs to eat, and we all want to eat a little better, a little fresher, a little more local. To some “better” may mean a better restaurant, but to others it means a hen house and a veggie garden. I’ll always be on the back side of those options, and I’m excited that the later is so well undertaken “across the pond”.
If you haven’t checked out a Tractor Supply store yet, click here to find one in your area
Come on in and have a seat
So we’ve been writing about suburban homesteading for some time now, almost a year actually. And since this site started we’ve met a lot of great people along the way.
People from all over the world take part in all the little triumphs (and troubles) of homesteading. We want you to know we really understand what you all are trying to achieve and hope that in some way we’ve been helpful. To say something on our little electronic soapbox and have people (hundreds a month) read it from the ether is a good feeling. Readers are what turn blogs into communities and not an exercise in self-aggrandizement. Thank you. We think you’re all neat.
So, now we want to ask you a favor. If you read this blog regularly, please respond to this post with a comment about yourself. Tell us where you’re from, what you do, what’s on your homestead, or what your favorite book is. Let us know if homesteading is a future dream of yours or a current reality? What would you like us to write more about? Is there anything we can explain better? The more we know about the people reading the blog, the better we can write stuff you’ll be interested in taking time out of your busy lives to read. (and honestly, there’s so much stuff rolling around our collective heads that it’s hard to think of topics, sometimes.)
But, beyond comments and criticisms, we’d just really like getting to know you. So please come on in, grab a sit, and say hello.
Six Reasons - Holding You Back from Homesteading
1. Overconfidence – The assumption that a crisis or disaster will never hit your neck of the woods. The idea that if disaster does strike, city, county and state government agencies will swoop in put everything back to normal.
Overconfident in your judgment and abilities, that they are greater than your actual skill level or knowledge. Never assume you know everything or even enough. We can always learn and expand our knowledge base. I learn new things and contemplate fresh ideas all the time, the guy or gal thinking they know all there is to know will likely be the first one in trouble.
Be open to useful information or insights from the unlikeliest of places or people. Small tidbits can garner useful information.
2. Procrastination – Putting things off to the last possible minute; giving more importance to other tasks, chores, and parts of your life than how to take care of your family. Procrastinating can get you killed. In a true economic or societal collapse you may not have time to run to the corner grocery to stock up. And, if you do have the time there may not be anything to buy once you get there.
Everyone, who didn’t plan ahead, will be doing the same thing – running to the nearest store. The lines will be long; the trip can be dangerous as people vie for the same products. It is a situation that is best avoided. It’s better to get off your butt now, stock what you need and get it done. A lot of people fear stocking up and being prepared because they think they will never use what they bought, eventually there stocks go bad and they waste money.
This is nonsense. You will always need to eat, so the solution is simple - eat what you store and replace what you’ve eaten. First in - first out. Repeat. This way you never spend more money than you normally would. All you’re doing is buying what you already need, just in advance of the need.
3. Inefficient use of resources -Wasting money (resources) on things of lesser importance, while neglecting the stuff needed for your homestead to survive and thrive. Concentrate your efforts on food supplies, garden supplies, livestock supplies and the ability to filter drinking water and collect water for outside watering.
It’s important to protect what you have, but eating and drinking are more important to your family’s long-term survival and comfort. Sure we need to protect what we’ve put away, just don’t neglect the other stuff.
4. Failure to act - This one ties in with procrastination and indecision and many of us suffer from it. Not only will it interfere with your homestead plans it can stop you from planning at all.
Look at your situation, form a plan (write it down), break it down into manageable projects and do it. No excuses.
Anything worth doing well is worth doing badly in the beginning. We all started from scratch. None of us started knowing it all. The difference is we started, learned from our mistakes, asked questions, and moved forward one step at a time.
5. Lack of persistence - Most people start their homestead with the utmost determination and desire to get things done - but they stop when they run into the first obstacle. They lack persistence.
Most things aren’t easy, if you give up before completing your goal, you will never get anything done. Quitters never succeed. Set realistic goals (write them down), break them down into phases and work through it until each goal is completed.
The key word is realistic, never set goals that are impossible to reach. Most of us can’t afford the country retreat, herd of cattle, flock of sheep, or acres of fruit trees . We don’t have the time, between jobs and family responsibilities to tend acres of vegetable gardens. Thinking this is what you need to homestead will only discourage you before you even start. Set realistic goals, not pie in the sky dreams. Write it down and work at it until it is a reality.
6. Divided actions - Many homesteaders run around like the chicken with its head cut off. Their actions are divided, fragmented, disorganized to the point where they never get anything done.
A raised bed here, a few bags of beans there, maybe work on a chicken coop or rabbit hutch - but they never meet their goals, never get anything done. You know who I’m talking about…
Take a look at your personal situation and decide, what is the most important consideration for your homestead to begin and survive? Again make a list. List the most important to the most trivial. Work down the list in descending order until your goals are completed.
What’s been holding you back from starting your suburban homestead? What advice do you have for others who are considering the leap? Let us know what helped you or what you think will help others.
photo credit: Inside Disaster
Homesteader Resolutions for a New Year
The first week of 2010 is almost over. The decorations are boxed and put away. The tree is at the curb. Relatives have returned to their respective states or homes. The dizzying speed of the merry-go-round has stopped and life seems like might – just might – get back to some semblance of normalcy.
It’s a time for reflection on the past 12 months, our accomplishments and our not so perfect moments. We shoulder our disappointments and look toward the New Year with hope and bright light. We’re determined to do things differently, to be different, think different.
There are a lot of people living in suburban environments who would love to bring a little more homegrown goodness into their lives, but don’t think that it’s possible. Whether limited space or lack of experience is holding you back, not to worry, there’s plenty you can do to step off that merry-go-round. Every day people are bringing the simple life to places that have more area codes than barns, and while their efforts do start out small, they are still able to grow some of their own food, tend some small livestock, and bake bread in their own ovens. Small simple actions like these help keep food closer to home and it’s also giving back the basic responsibility of feeding ourselves in a world where no one seems to really know how to do that anymore.
So, if 2010 seems like the right time to start adding some sustainability, self-reliance and local food to your suburban lot - here are some simple first steps to get all you eager suburban homesteaders started, right in your own backyard.
Start the New Year with these simple resolutions and you’ll be on the path to a homesteading life.
Reduce your trash impact. Find a dedicated trashcan or reuse large shopping bags for recyclables. Set recycling containers near your normal kitchen trash keeps recycling in the forefront of your mind. Plus it’s close at hand.
Build your own soil. While you’re busy shopping those post holiday sales be on the look out for a stainless steel compost bucket that can sit on your kitchen counter. (I saw one on clearance at TJMaxx for $7.00). Saving scraps and peelings of fruits and veggies will become a positive start to building your own soil. Augment kitchen waste with dried leaves, grass clippings and prunings. Check with your city to see if they offer low cost compost bins and set it up near your garden area.
Plant one new veggie or plant an extra row of your favorite veggie, then freeze or can the harvest. If you’re new to homesteading, plant one or two edibles to get your feet wet. Many veggies, herbs and even fruit can be grown in containers.
Resolve to take a five minute shower or bath for a week. Use a simple kitchen timer to keep you on track. You’ll be surprised how quick showering goes when you get down to business. And the savings on water ain’t bad either.
Decide this is the year to start shopping with reusable bags, refusing store bags when you only have a few items and carrying a reusable bag in your purse, backpack or tote.
Determine to change the way you shop, to buy locally, both food and non-food items and help bolster your community’s economy.
You may not have been raised in a barn, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn to raise livestock. Resolve to find out if chickens are allowed in your area. If they are, think about how you could simply and inexpensively add them to your suburban homestead. If you can’t, decide to buy eggs and chickens through local sources, preferable grower direct.
Resolve to think seriously about each new purchase. Ask yourself if they are needed or just useless crap you’ll have to figure out how to get rid of in a few months.
Drink for free rather than buying bottled water. Carry re-useable sports bottles with your beverage of choice.
Save on your electrical use by loading electronics onto a power strip that can be turned off when you’re away from home. Use less energy by lowering your thermostat just one degree this winter and raising the air conditioner one degree this summer.
Make this the year you use fewer paper products or stop using them all together, opting for washable, reusable cloth instead.
Save money and reduce waste by making coffee at home and taking it to work in a thermos. Same goes for you tea drinkers too.
Cut back on eating out - eat one extra meal at home week or take lunch to work, make it fresh and make it locally grown.
Use up and reuse what you already have before you go out and buy more.
Take one weekend and make fresh baked bread using our post on 5-minute bread making.
Pick one resolution or a few to incorporate into your life each month and by the end of 2010 you’ll be on your way to becoming more self-reliant and self-sufficient.
Focus on small meaningful steps.
And remember - a thousand miles are traveled one step at a time.
Happy New Year and Happy Homesteading!
photo credit: Carlos Andrés Restrepo
Feast or Famine?
Feast or Famine?
The population grows,
The need for meat, dairy and crops increases,
Tillable land shrinks, and water supplies dwindle.
So, how do we manage feeding a population pushing 9 billion with limited inputs and a climate in crisis?
That’s the BIG QUESTION!
Check out this YouTube video from the Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota
An Empire of Dirt
I stumbled across this article and video from an issue of New York Magazine and thought you all might enjoy it. It’s about a Brooklyn family man who takes his 40×60-foot backyard and makes it his soul source of food for one month. He spends his entire summer changing his home and yard into a small farm in the middle of New York City. It’s fabulous, frustrating and inspiring.
He’s doing exactly what SuburbanHomesteading.com is trying to encourage people like you to do right in their own backyards, no matter where they live. We may not do it all in one summer, but the article can give us hope that with hard work and dedication we too can be gathering ingredients for our next meal just feet from our backdoor.
The entire article talks about his experiences with planting, rabbits, chickens, ducks and other things many of us have become familiar with. With the “eat local” and “100-mile diet” movement quickly building, it’s a really fascinating read. You can read a bit of the article below, just to wet your appetite, and follow the rest by clicking the link at the end.
As Manny puts it - “A farm essentially is… Dirt. Death. Sex.”
-Manny Howard, The Farm Project
At 6:40 a.m. on August 8, the tornado hit my house in Brooklyn. Most people viewed it as a snow day in summer, a meteorological oddity. Not me. After a sleepless night listening to the wind and the rain intensify, I watched the sky turn green, then heard the hemlock tree in the yard next door split in two, clip the gutter on the third floor of my house, and bounce off the roof of what used to be our garage and had come to be known as “the barn.” As the wind torqued up even further, the limb of an oak torpedoed the most productive quarter of my vegetable garden, smothering a thicket of tomatoes, snapping the fig tree, pulverizing the collard greens, burying the callaloo, and splintering the roof of my main chicken coop.
That’s right, my chicken coop, which happens to be in my tiny backyard farm—800 square feet of arable land.
A tornado hadn’t struck Brooklyn since 1889, when Flatbush was farmland; this one laid waste to the lonely little farm that I had planted in my backyard and that, within days, I planned to rely on as my sole source of food for an entire month.
I started my farm, hereafter referred to as The Farm, in March, with my eye on August as the month I’d eat what I had grown. It was, in original conception, equal parts naïve stunt and extreme test of the idea that drives the burgeoning “locavore” movement. According to this ethos, we should all eat food produced locally, within 100 miles—some say 30—of where we live, so as to save our planet and redeem our Twinkie-gorged souls. Now that the “organic” label has rapidly become as ubiquitous and essentially meaningless as the old “all-natural,” the locavores have established a more sacred code, one meant to soothe our anxieties about what goes into the food we eat.
Homesteading – Gets Under Your Skin
As you walk your path to a simpler more self-reliant life, homesteading can easily intrude into every corner of one’s life, even if it’s not exactly welcome or invited. It becomes the stray that adopts you, the guest that won’t leave, or the rain that won’t subside.
During the most unusual times, where the homestead has no business being, it finds its way in and distracts you. It comes on softly, sometimes without warning. In the middle of a meeting you realize you haven’t cleaned your shoes and the smell of chickens wafts through the office. Or people stop you to ask if you have suffered an injury because your jacket is covered with hay or straw. Or while sitting at your desk, going about your daily job, the phone rings suddenly, announcing your order of baby chicks has arrived at the post office and must be picked up right away. Or a co-worker, out of the blue, invites you on a field trip to a much admired quilting show.
There was a time, in the not-so-distant past that you might have gotten out of these situations if you wanted to.
You thought you could quit this homesteading life anytime you wanted. But, that train has left the station. You’re hooked. You’re in this life and it’s in you. The lines between your former life and your homesteading life have blurred, even grown dim. You know this to be true because even in your world of business or bio-tech, commerce or computer science new friends beckon you deeper into the world of self-sufficiency.
Come on now folks! How can you turn it down? The invitation to bake bread, make jam or set in a load of firewood with new found friends. Spending a weekend with people that think and live the way you are now trying to live is both welcoming and satisfying. It’s comforting to be with people that are willing to share their knowledge, their experiences. To make you part of a group that are the lucky recipients of closely held recipe secrets. You get to watch and learn; take notes and pictures; all the while laughing in the process.
This isn’t light stuff friends. To be amongst those who understand what you’re trying to accomplish. The way you’re trying to live. They offer an ear, answer questions, and lend a hand.
It’s a fine way to live – amongst friends.
photo credit: Travis Seitler
Fall Homesteading Chores
As summer fades in many parts of the country and trees start to show their brilliant fall colors, our minds turn to preparing for a change of seasons. Autumn is a favorite time for most – long walks spent admiring nature’s glory gives way to reflecting on what has passed in the summer just gone and what is yet to come with the approaching winter.
No matter where you live there are always chores and preparations to be made for the coming fall and winter months. The list below is just a sampling of the kinds of things you should be thinking about to ready your suburban homestead for the coming months.
(This is by no means a complete list, as different parts of the country have different requirements, but a way of getting you thinking about the cycle of a homestead and how a homestead’s activities are affected by the seasons.)
In the Garden
Gather fall leaves to feed your compost pile, or pile them around plants that are less cold tolerant to help keep them warm during the winter. Even pine boughs can be used to lessen the damage from freezing and thawing temperatures.
If your garden is new or limited in selection, take advantage of seasonal fruits and vegetables for canning and freezing.
Pick and store beans that have dried on the vine. Even small amounts can be used to enliven soups and stews, or made into small pots of baked beans. Any beans not picked young and at their peak can be left to dry on the vine.
Trim vines and berry canes of debris and dead canes. Cover with mulch or straw.
Pull up, clean and store garden trellises, stakes and tomato cages.
Cut back spent perennials and lightly prune fruit trees, removing broken branches.
Pull all dead and dying annuals; chop and add to compost.
Plant garlic for a wonderful spring harvest.
In temperate areas, cool weather crops with short growing times can still be planted.
Rake and lightly till garden areas. Add compost, leaves or mulch to enrich the soil over the winter.
Clean, repair and store gardening tools.
Clean and store rototillers and cultivators.
Clean, repair and prepare cold frames for planting cool weather crops.
In the Barn
To extend your egg production, set up lights in the chicken coop to give hens the illusion of longer days. Simple, inexpensive timers can also be installed to automatically turn lights off. If freezing is a problem, set up heat lamps over water troughs to keep water thawed.
Final batches of meat chickens should be ordered so they finish off before the weather turns too cold.
Put down thick layer, 3 to 4-inches, of litter (straw, shavings, leaves, etc) in chicken coop for winter bedding. Don’t forget nesting boxes.
Enclose rabbit hutches or move to a protected area to protect against cold winds, rain and snow.
Wrap pipes, especially in the garden, chicken coop and outbuildings, to prevent bursting from freezing weather.
Check all livestock supplies and reorder if necessary. Pay special attention to supplies needed for newborns.
Check lighting and repair or replace bulbs for winter use.
Administer any seasonal booster shots or vaccinations.
Around the House
Make sure alternate power sources, like generators are in good working order.
Relocate outdoor clothes lines to more accessible indoor locations like basements or garages.
Lay in a supply of firewood to take the chill off early fall temps and to augment the use of your furnace.
Air out cold weather bedding like wool blankets and down comforters.
Check weather stripping and replace or add where needed.
Store garden and lawn furniture and BBQ’s so cold winter temperatures don’t cause damage.
Inspect any equipment used in winter, like snow blowers or snow plows and service if needed.
Review household expenses for services or regular purchases you seldom use – then cancel or alter contracts or monthly plans to fit your budget. Make sure plans have not been altered or prices raised without your notice, causing you to pay more.
Fall is a great time to start the de-cluttering process. Choose one cabinet, closet or drawer per week to clean out and organize. Donate cast-offs to charity or plan a garage sale.
In the kitchen: Rotate stockpiled food items, especially canned foods, bottled water and emergency supplies.
Update family phone lists and emergency information. Include any new work, school, family or neighbor information.
In the Kitchen
If you live in an area that is prone to harsh winters with power outages, school and road closures, stock up on staples and enough food to last several days to a week. Don’t forget about pet and livestock feed as well. Running to the grocery or feed store may not be an option if the weather gets really bad.
Clean and reorganize freezer in preparation for fall harvests.
As a homesteader, autumn gives us time to assess what has worked in our quest to be self-reliant and what may still need our attention. It also gives us a break from the constant list of chores to plan, start new projects, or learn new skills.
Enjoy this time of year; pour over every new seed and livestock catalog that arrives in the mail; dream beyond all imagine, before you have to stop yourself, take a deep breath and reexamine every aspect of your overall homesteading plan.
A great way to remind your self of seasonal chores is to make a chart of what you want (or need) to accomplish in any given season. That way you can “check-off” completed projects while still being reminded of those yet to finish. Keep your chart handy on an Excel spreadsheet so you can add to it.