Homesteading

Having a healthy and productive homestead

My over all goal is to be off grid 100% over the next three years.I am planning for the spring of 2012; This lens is for some of the best homesteading resources on the net.

Learning to maximize everything on your homestead is very important to success.; It is fun to be a frugal homesteader and you are also helping the environment by recycling everything possible.; A prosperous homestead will be both financially and environmentally sound.;

I would not call myself a survivalist but rather I do not like to depend on others for my basic survival needs.; We all have gone through economic ups and downs, my goal is to provide my basic, food, water, shelter and income via my Homestead.; Now do not get me wrong, I will maximize every advantage which is both available and affordable.; I have started to break down each process via lenses.; As the months go by so will the number of lenses.; Lots of cool things to learn about. :)

I will create lenses on subjects and tasks I learn about while building my homestead.
Change the World

>Purchase the Mittleider digital gardening books.;

Maximizing your current Homestead and land

You have more on your Homestead then you mght think you do.

This weekend I had the fortune of some friends pulling me away from the computer to go help them clear some land. There was lots of food and fun so it turned out great. Everyone knows I like to garden so when they said there were lots of different plants they wanted to clear I was interested.

What could I help them save to use in their small garden? It was carte blanch so anything I wanted was mine. It is good to drive the old Ford station wagon in cases like this. Note the wagon saw her last days, I will miss all that storage space.

So I get to my friends house and what do I see right off the top? Wild raspberries, at least fifty separate groups, well developed and bearing fruit in excess. We started by digging up the Berries.

A quick tip makes sure you dig out a few feet from the base of the stalks; you will find wild berries can have a very large root system. If possible clear at least three feet around the bush before you dig. This will help you get the greatest amount of the root system. You need to see what you are digging up. As with any uprooted plant make sure you keep the roots wet and transplant ASAP if not immediately.

Our second cool find was a huge area of orange day lilies. Because there were so many we only dug up half the plot. We picked the rest for gifts and for them to sell at the country market. With day lilies it is hard to mess up. Just clear a foot or two around the base of the lilies and dig away. One good problem with Day lilies is the spread rapidly. My suggestion is set aside a whole area just for the lilies and watch out.

Our third find was a patch of wild grapes. It looked like someone had set up a grape arbor out of wood which just about rotted away. This is a wonderful find because if grapes grow well in wild, if you give them some attention they will do fantastic

Change the World

Building your own home

Home building is part of the Homesteading experience

If you want to build your own house as part of your homestead, I highly
recommend purchasing this detailed guide to building
your own house

Maximize your Homestead

Part two maximize what you have.

It appears our grape find are Concord. Concords turn a dark purple when ripe. My understanding this is a good wine grape. I see a how to make wine essay in our future.

Our forth interesting find was an old sad looking Black Walnut tree. I estimate it is about forty years old. It had seen better days and appeared to be pretty wind and weather damaged. The great news was it was at the edge of their property just forty feet in. This was far enough from the neighbors where they would not complain but far enough from the back of the house not to be an eyesore. Now why am I all excited about this old Black Walnut tree?

Because it is still bearing lots of nuts that can either be eaten, sold or planted for your Grandchildren and Great Grand children's college funds. Have you taken a look at the price of Black Walnut per board foot or veneer for that matter?

The stand of Walnut has five manageable seven to ten year old trees growing. We will harvest them to replant elsewhere. The nuts we will examine and either eat, sell or plant and sell the seedlings in five or so years.

What is my whole point of this article? Please take the time to really examine what you already have on your homestead property. Accurate plant identification is very important aspect of homesteading. In the coming weeks we will interview a leading expert on wild plant identification. The first rule is never eat anything you are not 100% sure of. The second rule is have fun, and learn about the different plants that surround you.

Till next time happy homesteading.

Homesteading

Having a healthy and productive homestead

Contents at a Glance

Contents at a Glance

Maximizing your current Homestead and land

You have more on your Homestead then you mght think you do.

Building your own home

Home building is part of the Homesteading experience

Maximize your Homestead

Part two maximize what you have.

Homesteading links

Are you a Homesteader add a link

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Homesteading bookmarks

Books about Homesteading

Frugal living

Frugal living on a homestead bookmarks

If you make less you need to spend less

Hello to all the Homesteaders

Are you a homesteader please say hi

Homesteading Photos

Homesteading equiipment

Food for Everyone Foundation s

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