We have had more rain that we can remember. The picture above is of one of the fields on our road. Ours is not nearly as bad, but the gro...

We are able to be sustainable on our farm with meat. Because we concentrate on larger animals for our meat, sustainability is possible. B...

Lots of animals eat chicken! We have discovered that over the years. We are so thankful to have such a wonderful Great Pyrenees livestock...

This post is from my 13 year old grandson. He says it well. In this past century, rabbits have exploded onto the scene of homesteading. W...

Back in the day, I had decided that maybe we should switch to guernsey cows. I had been doing my “research.” I had decided maybe guernsey...

“Don’t keep a bull.” “For heaven’s sake, don’t keep a dairy bull.” “If you’re going to keep a dairy bull, don’t ever keep a jersey bull.”...

We get a lot of milk, but in general, we use every drop. But there are weeks where we end up being gone every night. The kids have been s...

Mike's grandmother, Pluma, was an amazing woman. She lived in the Appalachian mountains where they dip into northeastern Alabama. When I ...

Two of the grandkids fed the dogs and the chickens before 7:00 AM. We only had half a bucket of scraps this morning so it required feed s...

You would not consider us wealthy by many people’s standards. We have always been somewhat careful with how we spent our money. Early in ...

Everything loves guinea or hates them. Their sound is some of the most annoying noise ever. It is SO LOUD!! We have had guineas for years...

After losing so many squash plants and dealing with so many bugs, we decided we needed to be smarter, much smarter. Enter a new variety o...

From the first time you decide to homestead, you make the choice to sacrifice your time and build your skill sets. Even if you do not hav...

The single most dynamic change to our homestead has been the adding of the milk from our cows. One gallon a day will fatten a pig to slau...

The pigs and chickens are the clean-up crew of the farm. We plant kale for us and the animals. We plant lots of extra squash to store for...

We built our smokehouse from trees we cut and had milled on our property. It will hold 18 hams plus middlings, bacon, fatback. At Thanksg...

Our plan for pasture development is rotational grazing and trying not to overgraze the grass. We want the grass to still be tall enough t...

We harvest the pigs for ourselves on the farm. We made the decision to sell the excess pork which our customers can pick up from the butc...

Our first venture with pigs was feeder pigs. We were amazed at how easy they were to raise and how much meat they gave us. We decided to ...

If money is no object, then spend it on good breeding stock. Buy the best breeding stock you can afford from a breeder you trust. This is...