Just wondering what everyone's idea of the perfect homestead is? If you could have it just like you want it, what would you have? Animals, garden, orchards etc. What kind of projects? Spinning, candle making, etc. What kind of home? Would you try to do it all or just a little?

-- Cindy (atilrthehony@yahoo.com), April 19, 2000

Answers

A LOG HOME ,GARDEN, ANIMALS,FRUIT TREES ,AND LOTS FO KIDS. WE WENT FULL STEAM AHEAD ,AND THATS WHEN THINGS WENT CRAZY !!!! OUR HOUSE IS A200+ YR OLD HOUSE NEEDS WORK {WATCH OUT FOR LEAD PAINT } THEN WE HAD 4 CHILDREN IN FOUR YEARS A 4YR OLD 2 1/2 YR OLD 8MONTH OLD TWINS ,THE GARDEN NEEDS HELP , NO RAIN FOR TWO MONTHS DID NOT HELP, MAYBE THIS YEAR IT WILL BE BETTER. OUR ANIMALS ARE GREAT CHICKENS, GOATS, HOGS, A PONY,POT BELLY PIG AND GREAT PYRENEES DOGS. THE FRUIT TREES SHOULD DO BETTER THIS YEAR, WE WILL WAIT AND SEE. ONE THING I WOULD SAY IS MAKE A PLAN AND STICK TO IT ,WE DID NOT WE TRIED TO DO IT ALL AND FORGOT TO ENJOY LIFE. THIS YEAR WILL BE DIFFERENT. SEND EMAILL ADDRESS LIKE TO HEAR BACK

-- renee oneill (oneillsr@home.com), April 19, 2000.

Ideal home.. that's easy PAID FOR! Electricity - off the grid or grid as a backup Heat - Free Gas Animals - a few Pigs, a couple Jersey Cows, a team of Belgians, Ducks and 2 dozen chickens, a dozen basset hounds and a Boston terrier. Garden about 6000 sq ft and a greenhouse. Fruit trees - dozen apples, a few pears and cherry trees Nut Trees - Hazel nut, Butter nut, Black Walnut, Chestnut and Hickory

We're not there yet... oh, well maybe someday.

-- Eagle (rangereagle@iwon.com), April 19, 2000.

Definitely the ideal homestead is PAID FOR!!! No rocks in the garden or tillable areas. Several acres of mixed mature woods -- useful for projects as well as firewood. Pasture, fenced tight with hi-tensile electric -- goat and dog-proof. A flock of sheep, about twenty- thirty head and a Great Pyrenees guardian dog, a couple of good milk goats, twenty bee hives and about the same number in each of four more off-site bee yards (for my husband -- he's got twenty now), a couple dozen chickens in chicken tractors, a mixed fruit/nut orchard, berry patch with every small fruit that will grow in our area, a kitchen garden and a winter-storage garden, a well-planned and sturdy barn, a windbreak around the house and barn-yard, shade trees, good water and plenty of it, a well-built and well-planned house with a BIG kitchen, a pantry, and a root cellar, also a sewing room and a screened porch. Mostly solar heat and hot water, with a masonry stove (with bake oven) for back-up. Off the grid. Step out the back door to a solar clothes dryer. A big workshop with a honey house so my husband wouldn't have to extract honey in the kitchen -- also a meat house for butchering in the shade and away from insects. A woodshed full of good dry hardwood. An "Old Shep" dog to lie on the porch, let us know when strangers come, keep critters out of the garden, and bring in the sheep. Grandchildren to play in the swing that hangs from one of the shade trees, and float home-made boats in the little creek that runs through the pasture. A fat, lazy pony. And while we are all dreaming here, how about having it only rain at night, and never get too hot or too cold, and no poisonous or noxious reptiles or insects!! And I s'pose I'd better add the necessary farm equipment for making hay, and harvesting our own grain, and a team of oxen to provide farm power (I like horses, but oxen are a lot cheaper).

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), April 19, 2000.

By the way, Eagle, how did you get red in there??

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), April 19, 2000.

My ideal homestead? Hmmmm...

Well, it would be paid for, I'd have plenty of free discretionary time, it would be paid for, the soil would be deep, rich loam, it would be paid for, it would be partially wooded with mixed hardwoods and pine, it would be paid for, I'd live outside of the county I work in but close enough to come to work with a reasonable commute, it would be paid for, no one would put in a cement plant, nor large dairy, hog or chicken operation upwind or upstream of me, it would be paid for, the weather would always hit the rainfall average with no droughts (and accompanying severe fire seasons) nor monsoons (with accompanying floods), it would be paid for.

I suppose if it really came down to brass tacks if it was just paid for so that I didn't have the drag of a major mortage I could make nearly any situation work for me.

.........Alan.

The Prudent Food Storage FAQ, v3.5

http://www.ProvidenceCo-op.com

-- A.T. Hagan (athagan@netscape.net), April 19, 2000.

Karen, while everything sounds truly wonderful, I want it to rain once in a while during the day so I could get inside stuff done.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony@yahoo.com), April 19, 2000.

A wonderful Suprize...my wife and agree on some thing !!!! Now how to pay for it without woking so much off site that I cant enjoy it?

-- Greg Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), April 19, 2000.

Most of the above! We have friends with a log home and while it is beautiful I wouldn't want one. We built (are building) our house to look like an old farmhouse. We want it to look like it's been a part of this land for a hundred years. But in my secret heart I have always fantasized about a medieval manor with all the buildings connected around a big courtyard with a garden and orchard. A huge gate that had to be let down, and tall rock walls. Oh well. I've got it pretty good the way it is.

-- Peg (wildwoodfarms@hushmail.com), April 19, 2000.

Ours is paid for, I worked so he could do the work here, we have an orchard started, the berry patch goes in this year (and more fruit trees), the are getting bred this week, the 100 chicks will arrive next week with the 16 goslings, next month 100 pheasant chicks and a 2 beehives, the garden will be 75'x100' plus herbs in the "flower beds", our first lambing went well and all 10 ewes and 8 lambs are great,The smokehouse and drying racks wiil be ready by harvest, we start homeschool in Sept., we are very healthy AND WE ARE HAPPY:)!!!

All we need now is to get the roof on the barn more reliable, get the fruit trees and bushes grown up and bearing,get the garage rebuilt and a windpower system lined up (that's the biggie!)

The "dream" part is that if we had to rebuild the house from the ground it would be a Irish style stone cottage. Otherwise we are living it every day!!:):)

Peg, I see your medevil place!

-- Novina West (lamb@stellarnet.com), April 19, 2000.

PAID FOR! !

-- (dontspam@me.com), April 19, 2000.

I forgot the projects part of the ?

I desperately want to learn to spin! I taught myself to crochet ( in a sraight line), I recently learned the basics of felting (now to learn to shear!), I tanned a deer and rabbit hide but am not great YET, I hope to get my first batch of soap made in a week or two, I made cheese but didn't use enough milk and it cracked in the middle before it finished, I dipped tallow candles, canned like mad last year and will have more this year, we make stuffed sausage and smoke them, and I'm trying to learn about herbs (growing,drying using). My husband wants to build a buggy and learn to drive a team, also bought a forge and plans to learn that to.

The only thing missing is I desperately want a horse but since it's a luxary still at this point it goes on the back burner.

Basically, by the end of next year we will be pretty sound and set (just after my 30th birthday!), except for the power system, and debt free! And in 3 years, barring any unforseens), about as self-sufficiant as you can be in this country I think (short of a mountaintop maybe) and should have just enough eggs, berries, dressed chicken, sheep, and crafts to help pay for the upkeep of them without being a burden to us. My husband will still work but can except "smaller" jobs as we won't need as much then. We are living our dream everyday!

-- Novina West (lamb@stellarnet.com), April 19, 2000.

I forgot the projects part of the question, too. I'd like to learn to knit ( I do crochet), and make cheese -- my trials so far haven't turned out too well! My husband is interested in historical reenacting, and I have been making costumes for that -- very interesting project! We have made quite a few hand-dipped beeswax candles, should do more and sell more of them. And I'd really like to have a good woodworking shop -- I'd like to make our own furniture, and I'd like to make my own bow, and learn to hunt with it. Oh, and put my grandfather's book on the web so people can read it. I think that is enough to keep me busy for a while!! :-)

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), April 19, 2000.

Ours is paid for. I worked so he could do the work here, we have an orchard started, the berry patch goes in this year (and more fruit trees), the rabbits are getting bred this week, the 100 chicks will arrive next week with the 16 goslings, next month 100 pheasant chicks and a 2 beehives, the garden will be 75'x100' plus herbs in the "flower beds", our first lambing went well and all 10 ewes and 8 lambs are great,The smokehouse and drying racks wiil be ready by harvest, we start homeschool in Sept., we are very healthy AND WE ARE HAPPY:)!!!

All we need now is to get the roof on the barn more reliable, get the fruit trees and bushes grown up and bearing,get the garage rebuilt and a windpower system lined up (that's the biggie!)

The only thing missing is I desperately want a horse but since it's a luxary still at this point it goes on the back burner.

I desperately want to learn to spin! I taught myself to crochet ( in a sraight line), I recently learned the basics of felting (now to learn to shear!), I tanned a deer and rabbit hide but am not great YET, I hope to get my first batch of soap made in a week or two, I made cheese but didn't use enough milk and it cracked in the middle before it finished, I dipped tallow candles, canned like mad last year and will have more this year, we make stuffed sausage and smoke them, and I'm trying to learn about herbs (growing,drying using). My husband wants to build a buggy and learn to drive a team, also bought a forge and plans to learn that to.

Basically, by the end of next year we will be pretty sound and set (just after my 30th birthday!), except for the power system, and debt free! And in 3 years, barring any unforseens,we will be about as self- sufficiant as you can be in this country I think (short of a mountaintop maybe) and should have just enough eggs, berries, dressed chicken, sheep, and crafts to help pay for the upkeep of them without being a burden to us. My husband will still work but can except "smaller" jobs as we won't need as much then.

WE ARE LIVING OUR DREAM EVERYDAY!!!:):):

-- Novina West (lamb@stellarnet.com), April 20, 2000.

oops sorry that got in ther etwice. It was returned to me from someones forward aparently but I edited it and resubmitted it before I re alized my mistake. Sorry!

Nobody told us yet how to get the colored letters!?!?!?

-- Novina West (lamb@stellarnet.com), April 20, 2000.

To get the colors in type

< font color="red" > ...type your words here... < /font >

Other safe colors are aqua, black, blue, fuschia, gray, green, lime, maroon, navy, olive, purple, red, silver, teal, white, yellow

To add links ... type in

< A HREF="htto:www.what link address" > ...Add you Description here... < /a >

To add picture, they first must be located on the web somewhere ...

the code looks like this < src="http://www.geocities.com/ranger_eagle_2000/Gdog.jpg" >

I'll post some more information and tricks in a few days.

-- Rich (pntbeldyk@wirefire.com), April 20, 2000.

Oops

the code for the image is

< img src="http://www.geocities.com/ranger_eagle_2000/Gdog.jpg" >

-- Rich (pntbeldyk@wirefire.com), April 20, 2000.

My ideal homestead would be of course, 1. PAID FOR! 2. Have two cows, 1 or 2 pigs a year, 3. a flock of chickens, 4. raise the calves for beef, 5. a LARGE raised bed garden, 6. fruit trees, 7. berries 8. wood heat backed up be propane, 9. a cordwood house with, train room for my husband, sewing room for me, root celler, wood shed, and large pantry, built around a central kitchen, dining, living room. 10.Grid electricity and water, just so I can use my dishwasher and washing machine, ( the only 2 appliances I can't live without) 11. Enough land for pasture, woodlot, and everything else I've mentioned, and 12. close enough to my family that I can visit often.

As for my projects, I want to knit, crochet, quilt,(working on that one), make soap, learn to do wood working.

annette

-- annette (j_a_henry@yahoo.com), April 20, 2000.

I thought I had that all figured out just in time for Y2k! Ha.. Mine would be in some mythical part of this state (where there's less people!)and paid for sounds pretty good. I would like to have room for our friends to stay for indefinite periods of time, so that would mean something more than the size of our current bunkhouse. I would like to have a running stream so we could set up our own hydropower, enough sun to justify more than passive solar power, and less reliance on wood heat. I would want all the usual: perfect pastures, secured from predators; and of course away from fire hazards, etc. A barn that I could get to in the winter, without walking through a lot of snow/rain (connected to the house,even). Healthy livestock. Great crops. My own grain mill. Fruit trees. Tomatoes that actually get ripe on the vine. A studio for my looms, spinning wheels, wool,and a cookstove in it, too. Berries, a pond to swim in, and oh yeah, a hot tub, too. (great, that hydrotherapy after a long day doing chores).

I would also want to be near a college or university, and near a diversified enough and creative enough thinking population so that when I wanted to interact with folk, they might be expected to be open minded and courageous. Maybe about 50 miles away.

I would want good soil, clean water, beautiful views.

Mostly, I would want my husband and the rest of my family (mom, bro, sister in law, nephew) to be near to me as well. And my very favorite fantasy... would be to have enough room to have some live-in (a few acres away, and with their own "stuff" including stock and garden) caretakers who could watch our stock and place while we roamed around the when we felt like it... fair exchange for room/board and learning usefull skills! Oh BTW, my husband would like a shop about the size of a commercial airline hangar!!!LOL

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), April 20, 2000.

My dream homestead would have a nice big,well built barn,with feeders that you can drop the hay in from up above ,in the loft.It would be a banked barn,so that we could back right into the barn with the hay on the truck. The bottom part would be a combination goat barn and milk room,with the buck pens far away from the milk room,and the milk room would be equipped with hot running water. The top part would be a combination hay loft (directly above the goat pens and feeders), and house.That way I wouldn't have to trudge through the snow in the middle of the night to check on kidding does.It would be nice if there was a window in the floor somewhere above the kidding pen! The goats would all be registered Alpines of top quality,and we would sell the bucks for breeding stock not eat them,as well as some of the does. The garden would be on a south slope below the barn,so all the manure would go downhill.There would be between 5 and 10 acres of nice pasture for the goats. There would be an orchard of apple trees,mostly antique varieties, and varieties that taste good and store well, and we'd sell apples in the fall. The extra or wormy ones could go to the goats. There'd be plenty of good clean water on the place, and nice decent neighbors near enough but not so close they could watch our every move and action, and the neighbors would have only well behaved dogs! Between the goat sales and the apples, we'd make enough money to get by happily, so I'd have my husband at home with us. Maybe we could make and sell some really good goat milk soap or something to bring in more income.We would have enough spare time to sew all or most of our childrens' clothing, and I would keep making quilts. We'd have a nice collection of daylilies and maybe breed those a little or sell a few daylily plants. In the summer we'd take the goats to shows and have fun doing it, and go to the county fair all together in the fall as a kind of vacation. Aside from the goats,we'd have a small (12 or less) flock of runner ducks,either in a big pen with water, or else fenced away from the garden, and maybe one border collie that would herd the goats when asked to.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), April 20, 2000.