Elyssia001 - Homestead Adventure Journal

[Elyssia001]

Hello everyone! My name is Angelina, but on the internet I go by the name Elyssia from a bunch of video games I've played throughout the years. I am 30 years old and have been married to my high-school sweetheart for over 12 years now. We currently rent a small house on 1/10th of an acre where we live with our mixed GSD Jessi, two guinea pigs, and a tank of tropical fish.

I grew up in Missouri where my grandparents on both sides were from farming stock and had gone through the Great Depression living on the land. Both had huge gardens by the time I was old enough to remember, but they had all given up on raising animals due to needing "real" jobs to provide for their families.

I've always loved animals and growing things, and I prefer to be outdoors in the sunshine whenever possible. I'm very good at working with my hands and enjoy it immensely. It was one of my dreams as a child to grow up and live on a farm. That dream became unlikely when I fell in love and married a city-boy from Michigan. I figured I would have to settle for a few pets and a big backyard garden in the suburbs. Truthfully I think I would have been happy in my ignorance.

However that was not to be. Late one night over a year ago I was channel-surfing and stumbled upon an episode of Bizzare Foods: America in which the host was visiting a family in Seattle that grew almost all their own food on their suburban lot, including chickens and pygmy goats. I was immediately intrigued. Surely if a city as big as Seattle allowed livestock, then perhaps a city around our location would also! Lo and behold, there were a few!

This discovery awoke a sleeping passion inside my soul. Suddenly I could not read enough about homesteading and self-sufficency. I learned so much from what I could find online about organic gardening and the nightmare that is our national food system. Some of what I learned was very eye-opening, such as how animals are treated in CAFOs, and about GMO crops. Some of what I learned made me incredibly angry too! The rest fed my passion, and to expand my knowledge I've been purchasing and reading several books ( I think my collection is over 30 now all told) on a wide-range of home-steading topics.

My husband and I want to purchase our first House, and I have my heart set on finding enough land to provide for most of our needs. He, on the other hand, is less enthusiastic about this, though he is happy to go along with it provided he doesn't have to do too much yard-work, and the drive to work for our 9-5s remains under an hour. We've just started saving for our down-payment, so it will still be several months before we can make the pludge.

In the mean-time, I will continue to learn, plan, and dream.

 

[ragdollcatlady]

Congrats on dreaming!!!!

I have a small yard of 1 1/4 acres and I have nigerian dwarf goats for milk (and pets) and I am hoping to start breeding a couple of boers for meat ( Andy and Ravi are not for meat but hopefully their babies will be). I raise chickens, turkeys, muscovies for meat and eggs and most are pets of course. I could not eat my sebastopols or the old rescue geese, but other geese I could.....

I am a vet tech and have always had animals in my blood. My DH is a city kid that misses that life, but our kids are OK knowing where their food comes from and are surely healthier for it. I can't do much about a garden cause the temps here just eat me alive 112 or so during the summer, and what the heat doesn't kill the gophers take out pretty quick, but I am working on it....I grew up with big gardens from mom and grandma. I too am concerned about GMOs and big Ag, animals raised in that way and the environmental and social factors and problems caused by all of the above.....

I hope you enjoy journaling here. I don't really like to write but I enjoy sharing my farm and life adventures, interesting and insanely boring, here on BYH.......

 

[Elyssia001]

I finally picked an avatar for my account here, and there is a little bit of a story here. My husband's ancestry is pretty black and white. On his mother's side of the family, it's pure polish, going back to when his grandparents came over on the boat. His father's side of the family is similar, except German immigrants who fled their homeland during World War II. There were two lines in Europe with his family's sur-name, the Dutch line and the German. The black cock on the yellow field is the symbol for the German line, and the name itself means plowman!

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I thought it would be neat to list all the books in my little Homesteading Library.

The Backyard Homestead - Carleen Madigan
The Backyard Homestead Guide to Raising Farm Animals - Gail Damerow
Hedges and hedge-laying: A Guide to Planting, Management, and Conservation - Murray Maclean
The Small-Scale Poultry Flock - Harvey Ussery
Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits - Bob Bennett
Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens - Gail Damerow
Storey's Guide to Keeping Honey Bees - Malcolm T. Sanford & Richard E. Bonney
Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks -David Holderread
Storey's Guide to Raising Sheep - Paul Simmons & Carol Ekarius
Storey's Guide to Raising Dairy Goats - Jerry Belanger
Storey's Guide to Raising Turkeys - Don Schrider
Storey's Guide to Raising Pigs - Kelly Klober
Backyard Homesteading - David Toht
MiniFarming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre - Brett L. Markham
Square Foot Gardening - Mel Bartholowmew
The New Organic Grower - Eliot Coleman
The Winter Harvest Handbook - Eliot Coleman
The Holistic Orchard - Michael Phillips
The New Self-Sufficent Gardener - John Seymour
The Butcher's Apprentice: The Expert's Guide to Selecting, Preparing, and Cooking a World of Meat - Aliza Green
Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables - Mike & Nancy Bubel
Artisan Cheese Making at Home: Techniques & Recipes for Mastering World-Class Cheeses - Mary Karlin
Nourishing Traditions - Sally Fallon
Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods - Sandor Ellix Katz
Radical Homemakers - Shannon Hayes
Homesteading in the 21st Century - George Nash & Jane Waterman
Everything I Want to Do is Illegal - Joel Salatin
The Mushroom Book for Beginners - Frank Randall
The Encyclopedia of Country Living - Carla Emery A Householder's Guide to the Universe - Harriet Fasenfest
The Permaculture Handbook: Garden Farming for Town and Country- Peter Bane


I'll add to this list as I find more that I just "have" to read.

 

[Elyssia001]

My current hobbies as a city dweller include a wide range of activities. My husband and I play various video games together after the sun goes down or when the weather is too nasty to be outside. He's much more into them than I am, so when I don't feel like playing games, I'll watch him play while I crochet. Just recently I've started learning to spin yarn from wool, which is really exciting for me.

One of my Aunts on my mother's side has a farm back in Missouri, and she is an enthusiastic enabler of farm life. I mentioned to her back in October, when we went to visit for my birthday, that I wanted to learn to spin wool with a drop spindle, and the very next day she gifted me with a sindle and a few hanks of pretty grey and brown wool. Then just this week past, out of the blue, she mailed me more wool! I hope I will have enough of it spun soon that I can make her a floppy hat. I would like to learn to knit eventually too, but one proficency at a time. ( I can sew too, btw).

I'm also a prolific reader, and one of my favorite things to do on a cold winter night is to curl up in a hot steamy bubble bath with a book, whether it's a romance, adventure, or gardening book! Books are another shared passion between my husband and I, and we have set up the spare room in our rental as a library. We both enjoy High and Medieval Fantasy, but where he likes scifi, I like historical romances. We both agree that the new e-readers can't beat a real book, not matter how "convenient" they are for some people.

I enjoy cooking and baking, though it has taken many years of trial and error until I could make a loaf of bread that wasn't hard, dense, and dry in the middle. I don't cook during the week, since we both work so late, but I try to cook us wholesome dinners on the weekends with enough leftovers to get us through part of the following week. Every year I grow cucumbers, and every year we make refigerator pickles. This year I'm planning a large bed of tomatoes so we can try real canning! I'm really looking forward to becoming a stay-at-home mom when the time comes, not only so I can take care of our future children, but so I can take better care of my husband as well.

My other hobby/interest that I can indulge right now is organic gardening. We live on just 1/10th of an acre, with a 800 sq ft house in the middle, and a 2 1/2 car garage taking up most of the backyard. It doesn't leave much room for planting, but I have managed to carve out almost 100 sqft of garden beds. I start most of my plants from seeds inside our home, and then transfer them out into the garden. This year I am attempting to grow everything from seed. I'm also attempting for this first time this year to grow 3 seasons of vegetables with the help of a few season-extending row covers. I just need all this dang snow to melt so I can start!

This spring I want to grow: potatoes, onions, brocolli, cauliflower, swiss chard, radishes, carrots, peas, beets, lettuce and spinach. In the summer, I will swap most of them out for beans, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, melons, celery, sweet corn, and a little herbage. Then when cooler weather returns, I'll replace the less productive or finished summer vegetables with more of the spring type ones. That is, if we're still living there!

 

[Elyssia001]

So this being the Backyard HERDS community and not the Backyard Gardens community, I suppose I should talk about my herd!

Right now it consists of two very old guinea pigs (almost 7 years old) and a 12 year old german shepherd mix. The piggies are both female and named Tally and Meggie. Our dog is named Jessi, and he's 1/2 GSD, 1/4 Husky, and 1/4 Australian Cattle Dog. He has big blue eyes, the body and coat of a GSD, and the ACD comes out in the "blue" on his legs and his love of chasing small things. He's also a horrible shedder and an escape artist, so unforunately he spends his day in his crate while we're away at work. I am glad that I only worked part time when his was younger and I could walk him a lot. I'm pretty sure he spends most of his time sleeping during the day now. He's a good dog.

We also have a large tank of tropical fish. They are very pretty to look at, but they aren't very interactive.

When we settle into our future homestead, the animals I want to start with first are rabbits and chickens. I think I can successfully care for a small flock of chickens (10-15) and 3-4 breeder rabbits while still working full time. I'm interested in preserving/improving heritage breeds, and would like to work with the Barred Holland chickens. I have not yet decided between American Chinchillas or Rex rabbits. While neither or classic "meat" rabbits, the dual purpose as fur rabbits appeals to me.

If all goes well, I would want to add a few milking goats (haven't picked a breed yet), and a small flock of tunis sheep. (another heritage breed!) If the stars align and we end up with more property than I expect, then I would also like to add a guinea hog or two to the mix!

I don't want to take on too much too quickly, and then find myself overwhelmed or burnt out. I will take things slow and focus on adding new resources to our homestead one year at a time.

I'm not interested in any sort of camelid, equine, or bovine. I think they're awesome animals and all, but they are usually large and can be rough on the land they are kept on. Since our homestead will be between 5-10 acres, I just don't see how they could fit comfortably into our plans and they don't fill a niche in the homestead. If we really want beef, I think we can find someone who is doing grassfed beef in the area and purchase 1/4-1/2 a steer instead of trying to raise a single cow alone for two years. Horses/donkeys are hobby animals, and we just won't have the room for their expense on our homestead. And llamas/alpachas spit!

 

[Elyssia001]

Spring is trying hard to push back old man Winter, but he's not giving up without a fight! We still have over a foot of snow on the ground, plus all the ice buried beneith it, and more is promised before tomorrow morning. But ever so slowly, by small incriments everyday, the thermostat is showing the Spring's inevitable victory.

To show my support for Spring, and to boost my drooping morale, I started my broccoli and cauliflower seedlings on March 1st. I checked them this morning, and they are already pushing their tiny root nubs into the 3/4" soil blocks I dropped them in. Ten of each were planted, and I will put the best 8 into the garden when the snow has been vanquished and my row covers are up to protect them from a hard freeze.

This weekend I intend to start a few scallion type onions inside from seed. My husband loves green onions on everything, so I consider them an important crop for our little garden. (The more fresh veggies my husband will eat, the bigger I can make my garden.) I directly planted onion seeds outside last spring, but since I plant things so closely together, they were quickly smoothered by the tomatoes and melon. I am hoping the indoor time will give them the head-start they need to keep ahead of the other plants.

I have yet to decide if I want to start the lettuce this weekend or not. The swiss chard can wait a while longer.

 

[Elyssia001]

So this weekend as not a pleasant one. My eldest guinea pig, Tally passed away while I was at work on Friday. It took a very long time on Saturday to break up the frozen ground enough to bury her. She was a very sweet pig, though incredibly shy too. I don't want to get another, so I am hoping that Meggie will be ok by herself.

My original set of seeds I started last weekend were kept in the dark too long, and became more spindle-y than I liked, so I started a fresh batch of them on Saturday night: 10 Broccoli, 10 Cauliflower, 10 Green Onions, 10 Bronze Onions, and 10 Celery.

The weather has gone above freezing the last 4 days and the snow is slowly melting, but now they're forcasting 4-7in more for tonight. I'm not going to let that prevent my push to et my garden started this weekend. Any snow that hasn't melted off of my beds by friday will be shoveled off, and then I will be covering them with black garbage bags to help warm the soil enough to work in my compost.

When the soil has warmed sufficently (over 45F) I will get my seeded spring plants going (radishes, carrots, peas, and beets). The indoor-started ones will join them after they've had a chance to harden off for a few days.

While I was grocery shopping on Sunday, I came across these hanging 4" pot kits, that use plastic wrapped wire to attach 3 pots vertically. I tought t ould be perfect me to attempt growing herbs again. I love cooking with fresh herbs, but I my green humb never seems to extend to them. I planted dill one year for homemade pickles, and the butterflies got to it before it grew much. The basil I planted into a pot lasted all of 2 months before Jessi knocked it off the patio. And the bed I selected for herbs I did not provide with proper drainage, and lost the whole group during one soggy spring.

In these pots I am attempting to grow chives, parsley, and sweet basil. D likes the chives, I put parsley into everything I home cook, and I want to try the basil for fresh salads. Once they've sprouted and the weather warms up, I will let them grow outside during the summer, and then I have the perfect place for them to live through the winter (if we haven't found a place of our own by then).

In addition to all the heritage breed animals I mentioned in in a previous post, I'm also interested in managing a few bee hives, keeping a dovecote of free-flying squabbing pigeons, and I have several ideas for a few aquaponics systems to raise our own fish. I think we could successfully raise tilapia during the summer, and trout fingerlings in the winter. I love trout! Aquaponics could allow us to raise crawdads, freshwater prawns, and crabs as well.

The squabbing pigeons are something I need to further investigate. I like the idea of allowing them to free-fly and find their own food, but at the same time, that opens them up to predation, and they could become a nuisence to future neighbors. Also, we need to try squab first, to make sure it is something we want to eat!

 

[jodief100]

That is funny, I have a brown thumb for everything but herbs! I am trying a garden again this summer. I have tomatoes and peppers started in the little pots. My indoor greenhouse is showing some sprout but just a little. Hopefully we can get the beds started in a few weeks. The ground is still rock hard.

 

[Elyssia001]

This weekend past I transferred the best 6 broccoli and cauliflower seedlings into the 1 1/2" soil blocks. It was fun, just dropped them into the dents made by the little attachments I purchased when I bought the mini blocks on Amazon.com. They fit perfectly.

However, I wouldn’t recommend the specialty soil block soil I also purchased (I’ll have to add the name of the place when I get home) as I had to sift the mix for the ¾” minis, which resulted in very tight, hard little blocks that the seed roots had trouble penetrating. And then when I went to use it for the 1 ½”, the rock-like white stuff they added was really large and seemed to encourage the soil blocks to break when pressed from the form. I had to make almost three times the blocks I needed to come up with just 12 nicely formed blocks that didn’t break under very light handling (moving them from the dirt pan to their tray) when they were removed from the press. Personally I suspect there isn’t enough peat moss/coir in the mix. I think I will go back to the Jiffy seed starter mix I used last year, as I produced nearly perfect blocks every time with it when packed tightly.

The herb seeds for the hanging baskets have all begun to spout, which is really exciting. My seedling table is becoming very crowded around the single long plant light I am using. I’ve seen designs of these really fantastic seed starting set ups with these all metal shelves with pairs of lights hanging under each shelf to shine down on tray after tray of seedlings. It’s most definitely something I want to implement when we get our own place. After all, a bigger garden is going to necessitate more seedlings!

As if all that wasn’t enough for my home-made table, we bought a fresh pineapple on Friday, which spurred a debate between my husband and myself on whether or not my green thumb is up to the task of growing a pineapple plant. I am confident that I can nurture it into growing a new fruit. My husband is doubtful that I can maintain the conditions necessary for it to bear fruit. We’ve agreed upon a time-frame of two years. Fifty dollars of “I can spend it on whatever I want and you can’t argue with me about it” is on the line here! Perhaps it will fund one of my future projects of dubious potential.

 

[Elyssia001]

Two of my cauliflower seedlings failed to prosper, leaving me only four to put out into the garden. To fill the future empty space, I decided to attempt to sprout some ancient Brussels sprout seeds my neighbor gifted me. The packet is so old the picture on the front has faded to yellow, but enough of the seeds sprouted that I was able to select the two largest and get them started in their own mini cubes over the weekend.

As I said before, I only have a single long plant light. As a result, my broccoli seedlings have grown longer stems than I prefer, causing them to flop over. After propping them up with carefully placed pinches of soil and a series of toothpicks, I looked to the internet for help. One website I found suggested that people should use a fan on "leggy" seedlings to force them to strengthen their stems. I was doubtful, but somewhat desperate to fix the problem, so I gave it a go. And two days later, the seedlings were holding themselves up instead of leaning on the toothpicks! Amazing! I will be giving them the fan treatment every night until they go outside to keep them strong and keep new seedlings from getting floppy.

I also started my new head lettuce variety called "Pablo". It looks like iceberg, but with red in it! I'm excited to try it. I started 5 this week, and in two weeks, I will start 5 more. I also started my Rainbow chard, though it's recommended to direct sow outside.
I'm starting to think my pineapple top is a dud. It was pretty rough when we picked it out, and now I am worried that I didn't keep it in the water long enough. I haven't seen any new growth from the center. It's only been a week, but I am nervous; I want to win the bet! I'll give it one more week before I try the "pull" test, and if it doesn't pass, I know it's no good.

On Thursday I received an email from Urban Farmer Seeds that they had shipped the Yellow Finn seed potatoes I had ordered back in January. I didn't think much of it, though I was excited to get them this soon. They didn't show up on Friday, and on Saturday we left work before the mail arrived. All weekend I made plans for how I was going to chit them for a few weeks while the ground outside continued to warm. Unfortunately when I arrived to work today, the potatoes were in the mail box and had sat there for two nights in freezing temperatures. As it stands now, I have them sitting in one of my office drawers defrosting. If they are not squishy when they finish, I will give them a go. I did write the company and complain. I mean, who ships perishables on a THURSDAY?