LMK17
Loving the herd life
Hi, all!
We're a homeschooling family of 4. We have been *talking* about homesteading for several years now, and we're finally working mightily to get our homesteading dreams off the ground! Unfortunately, finding the right property for us has been proving more difficult than we had anticipated, so we're stuck in the suburbs for the time being with an overbearing HOA. We are actively looking and have put offers on 2 places so far, only to find each had issues of various kinds. So the search continues, and in the meanwhile, I'm ramping up my efforts to read and learn as much as I can before I actually get my hands in the dirt on our new place! (I have been subscribed to various homesteading and hobby farming blogs and publications for many years now, though-- Like I said, it's a long-held dream.)
Here on our little 1/10 acre plot, we maintain several raised beds of fruits, veggies, and herbs. We also have a few producing fruit trees (plums and oranges, plus baby lemon and pomegranite trees in pots that'll hopefully go in the ground at our new place) and grape vines, as well as native plant landscaping/xeriscaping, which acts as a wildscape of sorts for those wild critters that have been plucky enough to survive in our densely populated neighborhood. All gardens and landscaping are grown organically, and I can't imagine doing it any other way. We also compost, brew our own kombucha and milk kefir, have dabbled in soapmaking, can/dehydrate/preserve produce, use natural or organic remedies on the family and pets when feasible, and do almost all our cooking from scratch using our own produce, when possible. In a way, we've been "homesteading" to the degree possible where we are. Still, I am really itching to get out on more land!
My ideal homestead at this point would be 12 acres. In my mind's eye, the house, gardens, orchard, and play area for the kids would sit on 2 acres of that, and the rest would be pasture. I'd like to get into rotational grazing-- rotating paddocks as well as species-- and I picture 2-3 head of cattle (milk cow + 1-2 calves for freezer and/or to sell), a small flock of laying hens + larger flock of meat birds, 3 feeder pigs, and a couple large standard donkeys (which I'd love to train for driving and riding), and a beehive. I love the idea of animal power and would like to use it as much as possible, keeping tractors and the like to a minimum. It's a multi-year plan, of course, since I want to take on just a couple big projects a year, but I am thrilled just to think about it! My husband works in town, so fortunately we'll have his income and will have the ability to keep things on more of a hobby level for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, we won't be able to move more than about 1 hr from San Antonio due to his commute.
Anyone else here in the San Antonio area?
Looking forward to meeting you all on the forums!
We're a homeschooling family of 4. We have been *talking* about homesteading for several years now, and we're finally working mightily to get our homesteading dreams off the ground! Unfortunately, finding the right property for us has been proving more difficult than we had anticipated, so we're stuck in the suburbs for the time being with an overbearing HOA. We are actively looking and have put offers on 2 places so far, only to find each had issues of various kinds. So the search continues, and in the meanwhile, I'm ramping up my efforts to read and learn as much as I can before I actually get my hands in the dirt on our new place! (I have been subscribed to various homesteading and hobby farming blogs and publications for many years now, though-- Like I said, it's a long-held dream.)
Here on our little 1/10 acre plot, we maintain several raised beds of fruits, veggies, and herbs. We also have a few producing fruit trees (plums and oranges, plus baby lemon and pomegranite trees in pots that'll hopefully go in the ground at our new place) and grape vines, as well as native plant landscaping/xeriscaping, which acts as a wildscape of sorts for those wild critters that have been plucky enough to survive in our densely populated neighborhood. All gardens and landscaping are grown organically, and I can't imagine doing it any other way. We also compost, brew our own kombucha and milk kefir, have dabbled in soapmaking, can/dehydrate/preserve produce, use natural or organic remedies on the family and pets when feasible, and do almost all our cooking from scratch using our own produce, when possible. In a way, we've been "homesteading" to the degree possible where we are. Still, I am really itching to get out on more land!
My ideal homestead at this point would be 12 acres. In my mind's eye, the house, gardens, orchard, and play area for the kids would sit on 2 acres of that, and the rest would be pasture. I'd like to get into rotational grazing-- rotating paddocks as well as species-- and I picture 2-3 head of cattle (milk cow + 1-2 calves for freezer and/or to sell), a small flock of laying hens + larger flock of meat birds, 3 feeder pigs, and a couple large standard donkeys (which I'd love to train for driving and riding), and a beehive. I love the idea of animal power and would like to use it as much as possible, keeping tractors and the like to a minimum. It's a multi-year plan, of course, since I want to take on just a couple big projects a year, but I am thrilled just to think about it! My husband works in town, so fortunately we'll have his income and will have the ability to keep things on more of a hobby level for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, we won't be able to move more than about 1 hr from San Antonio due to his commute.
Anyone else here in the San Antonio area?
Looking forward to meeting you all on the forums!
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