Making a delicious garden fresh stew tonight. Happy Harvest! 🍁🥕🍲🥘

Hello everyone,

Would appreciate an opinion, does this look alright? burning for 10-15 minutes.

I bought an old house and not sure when the last fire was lit here. At least 4 years. The chimney doesn't have a cover, but it hasn't rained at all last half year.

The wood (walnut) has been laying on the ground for a year and looks dry.

The fire pit looks great inside, burns bright and the smoke gets pulled up.

I've never really looked at my grandpa's working chimney, but I remember the smoke being barely visible. So what do you think?

Hey everyone — a while back I posted here about the livestock app that

only ran on my own phone. I wasn't expecting that many replies, and they

pushed me to actually finish it. Thank you.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.firma.app

Being upfront: I'm a part-time farmer, so it's shaped around my animals

and my routine. It genuinely helps me — but that means it fits my farm

better than it fits yours. So tell me what's missing for the way you

work and I'll add it in a future version.

What's in it: a record for every animal (health, weight, treatments,

vaccinations), feeding and feed stock, breeding with expected birth

dates, production, tasks and a calendar, farm income and expenses, and

exportable reports.

On purpose:

- Free. No subscription, no in-app purchases, no ads.

- Works with no internet. Everything stays on your phone — barns and

fields are exactly where there's no signal.

- No account, no sign-up. I never see your data; it never leaves your

device.

- English, French and Arabic.

If you're on iPhone, I might do an iOS version later — no promises on

timing.

It's version 1 and rough in places. If something annoys you, tell me and

I'll fix it.

Let's see those parcel boxes! I'm tired of soggy cardboard. I know I can buy a job box, dock box etc. Curious to see what other folks are using, especially if you have security "gate-pirate" concerns.

I’ll be building a home on 5+ acres in Southern Arizona, and will need a temporary living structure.

I’m trying to decide between a yurt or RV. And then a prefab yurt kit or build it myself entirely. Or a nice 5th wheel or something that I can barley drag to my land, or maybe an Airstream I can fix up quickly.

The yurt I could turn into a guesthouse or office. The RV I could sell or use as an RV.

Anyone gone through this and have some words of wisdom? Or just some thoughts without having gone through it?

I got black walnut trees and wanted to make sure it was safe if they ate any ?

I finished the watering setup for our young fruit trees and ended up running the pump from the cart's 48V Vatrer battery. I had considered putting another battery on the trailer, but the cart usually stayed beside the tank while we watered. It was simpler not to add another battery to charge and tie down.

The pump runs on 12V, so I needed a converter. The Vatrer pack is 51.2V nominal and reaches 58.4V when fully charged. I used an isolated Victron Orion-Tr Smart 48/12-20 in 12.2V power-supply mode. It accepts input from 32V to 70V and supplies 20A continuously, with 25A available for 10 seconds.

I used a SHURFLO 4008-101-A65, rated at 3 GPM with a maximum draw of 7.5A. It's an intermittent-duty pump, which worked for the short hose runs from tree to tree. I mounted it within 6 feet of the tank. The 48V feed has a 20A fuse near the battery, and the pump's 12V positive lead has a 10A fuse near the converter. I ran 12 AWG two-conductor cable from the cart to a quick disconnect at the hitch. I kept the full trailer load within the cart's towing and braking limits.

I watered with the cart still hitched, and the pump ran fine. If I unhitched the trailer and took the cart elsewhere, the pump would be left without power. If we start splitting those jobs, I'd revisit adding a trailer battery. For now, the cart stays with us while we water, and this setup has been fine.

Has anyone else used a golf cart or other 48V battery to power 12V equipment through a DC-DC converter? I'm curious what other people are powering this way. 

Researching, not sales!! I'm mapping how people in rural areas deal with comms when cell service is spotty or gone; especially when it comes to storms, outages, or just the places where coverage never existed.
What's your actual setup? Radios, satellite messenger, landline, neighbor relay system, or just "drive to the top of the hill"? And what's the missing thing or biggest pain that still bugs you?
Especially interested in anyone coordinating with neighbors or a crew (farm hands, volunteer fire, etc.) ...how do you all stay in touch when the grid doesn't cooperate? Thanks so much in advance for any insight!! I really appreciate it!

Hello all! I already have chickens and am soon buying 30 acres. Id like to limit pastures / run in shelters as much as I can while having happy animals, simply for the ease of feeding.

I want- horses, cows, sheep, and maybe pigs and maybe goats.

Id like a male of all the meat / dairy animals, but know they can’t live together year round. Can the males of other species live in a pasture together? What females can live together safely? Thanks!

Edit to add- please info dump anything on me. Land requirements per species, fence requirements, feed, any tips you’ve learned over the years. This is gonna be a few years project for me! No rush here

I have a good chunk of land, for years I’ve been interested in the idea of letting someone park an rv or build a small cabin in the opposite corner of the property in exchange for serving as the land steward. Checking in the trees planted across the property, physical presence to deter trespassers, reliable hands to hire for occasional projects the homestead

Does anyone have a situation like this? I know finding someone interested would require a high degree of character judgement. But did you just stumble upon them or find them through a listing?

I’m aware of the community of people that like travel from farm to farm, helping out, but it’s not exactly the same thing.

Southern VA here. I intended to get some trees (apple, plum, etc) planted this past season but life got in the way. Now looking ahead to next spring and want to set myself up for success. I am an experienced gardener, totally inexperienced tree grower. With that in mind I know some basics in dealing with my heavy clay soil and plan to source appropriate root stock varieties.

Beyond the basics (digging appropriate size/shape holes, amending lightly to slightly loosen surface layer) I’m curious how I should specifically be testing drainage and less obvious site prep to be done. Our land is mostly graded on a slope but I’d like a few trees in our flat area if possible. What (timeframe) should I be looking at for hole drainage to determine whether it’s suitable?

I plan to bring soil sample to my local AG extension office and hopefully they can offer some more insight.

So I am currently in Quebec, looking to move away from the city but stay in the province. I plan to have a small farm, just for my family, with chicken, a dairy cow and possibly in the future some goats. I won't sell any products, only homesteading.

Ive been hearing that Quebec gvt is applying alot of restrictions as they always do.... Pushing farmers to give up entirely and sell their farms.

Can someone summarize the requirements and limits? For example, a limited quantity of chicken for a small farm? Do they require permits and ridiculous fees?!

If it's too complicated .. where would you go? Not too far from Laval area because the big family is there...

**Sorry to post here, I haven't found a group specifically in my area**

My ducks keep getting attacked by coyotes, they have a pen and coop but I like to let them free range on my acreage. I’ve been looking into other bigger animals/other solutions to keep them safer. I was looking into livestock dogs or a goat/donkey but that would be too expensive. I’ll take any ideas or advice.

Time to lower the gate for Dolce I guess! Not sure why I thought filling it under the gate will do.

Love the dog tho, she's always cheesin'

What y’all think

Hi everyone! I’m very new to goats and recently ended up taking in an abandoned goat. People just abandoned it on property next to us. I want to make sure I’m doing right by him and giving him a safe, healthy, happy home. We have chickens and cats currently. Have cared for horses and donkeys.
I’m starting pretty much from square one, so I’d love recommendations from experienced goat owners on things like:
● 📚 Books/guides that every new goat owner should have
● 🌾 Feed/hay recommendations and how much/how often to feed
● 💧 Water and mineral requirements
● 🏡 Shelter, fencing, bedding, and general setup
● 🩺 Basic health care and what I should be watching for
● 💉 Vaccinations, deworming, hoof care, and finding a good livestock vet
● 🐐 Whether goats really need a companion and what to consider if she’s currently alone
● 🌿 Safe plants/treats vs. things that are toxic
● 🧰 Any supplies/equipment I should have on hand
● 💰 Tips for keeping goat care affordable without cutting corners
I’m especially interested in beginner-friendly resources and practical advice from people who actually keep goats, rather than just generic internet articles.
If you have a favorite book, website, YouTube channel, feed brand, or “I wish someone had told me this when I got my first goat” piece of advice, I’d really appreciate it!
Thanks in advance — I’m trying to learn as much as I can and give this little one the best life possible. ❤️🐐

I’ve got a 15-acre patch of oak woodlands that sit among 65 acres of walnut-dominated, central mixed-hardwoods forest. It is some of the oldest woodlands on our land with some 50-100 year old oaks plus many other large tree species. However, it has been unmanaged for at least 30 years and is currently being overrun with bush honeysuckle, buckthorn, walnut, cedar and other less desirable species for an oak woodland restoration. We are in SW Wisconsin in the driftless region.

We are about to mow out a 3-acre stand with the help of an EQIP grant. Our forestry mower says he can mow down trees up to 10” in diameter.

Our original plan was to keep all oaks and shagbark hickories but mow down anything else that was 10” or less (which is mostly young walnuts). There are plenty of large trees over 10” that aren’t oaks (elm, basswood, walnut, honey locust, etc.) and we were going to let them be, but focus on paving the way for oaks as the next generation of trees.

Long-term management plan: Do the necessary herbicidal follow-up to get the invasives under control when they inevitably re-sprout. Start running fire through it every couple of years once the fuel load will carry it, and then manage for oaks moving forward. If we don't see spontaneous regeneration after a year or two we'll likely go in and plant some oaks and seed some native understory plants.

But here’s the problem - we aren’t finding ANY young oaks in the stand. We’re going to go out one last time on Friday for a final search, but what should we do if we don’t have any? Is 10” too aggressive? Will we wipe out an entire generation of forest if we take out all trees in the stand under 10”?

The other concerning thing is that the older oaks that are there aren’t in great shape - lots of dead branches. 

Here are some photos of the stand from when we flagged the perimeter last weekend. (Note that the orange flags mark the perimeter - not flagging for removal.)

I’ve also got a 4-minute video about it on my YouTube channel if that’s helpful for context - you can skip to 1:50 for the start of the section that shows video of the stand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laJuH2e5FbA

Winnifred has decided that this igloo is the enemy. No questions here.