Finally, after 6 months of aging in carboys, the last batch of plum wine from 2024 is ready to be bottled. This is the first time we've tried filtering the wine, and turned out beautiful and clear. Now into the root cellar to bottle age for another few months ( or until we run out of our last batch of wine, and pop open these early!)

Totals for last harvest season were 24 gallons of plum wine over two batches, and 7 gallons of apple cider.

First time breeding a pig. The piglets are Duroc and I am wandering what a fair price would be to sell some.

Up until this morning, said chicken, a 2.5 year old hen we call Mitzi, was acting normal and healthy. This morning I found her sitting under a tree with her beak on the ground looking very lethargic. First thing I thought was bird flu. I masked up and decided to isolate her in the greenhouse in the event she did have bird flu to protect the other hens. By the time I came back with water, she passed.

For context, we have six hens who have a nice large run and are very healthy. We live in a rural area. The grain does attract wild birds, so exposure could have came from there.

I will bury her with PPE (mask, gloves, etc.) but is there anything else I should do to protect the flock or report the abnormal death?

Over the years I have owned a D7E, 850k, and this 550G. I have stuck them all. I have been dug out by excavators, backhoes, self extricated using logs chained to the tracks, and chained up the grousers to a tree. IMHO there are 3 types of stuck when it comes to dozers and only about 10 seconds of run time that separate them.

1. Stuck
2. STUCK STUCK
3. DAMNIT BOY! stuck

Had to rechain 3 times and a spotter would have been nice but I got her out.

I used to always get "DAMNIT BOY! stuck".... but with age I now stop when I am just "stuck".

Photo 1 is mature tree. They do come in smaller cultivars, but it's atound 6meters high and 6meters wide. Make a fantastic fruiting hedge. They like a Prune too but I don't bother. It's mostly so birds can get into it for pollination. Photo 2 Feijoa graveyard lol. Chickens eat these. Photo 3 on tree. You actually collect feijoa from ground when they drop off tree. Photo 4 cut fruit in half Photo 5 eat. Or freeze. Or make wine, chutney, jam, good in baking etc. There is a feijoa appreciation society for recipes online. Photo 6 Feijoa and apple crumble. Please excuse the chipped old plate.tee hee. This tree requires no maintenance hardly, and is a constant producer. I love it.

10% permethrin emulsifiable concentrate

Has anyone had any luck with this? They are attacking my log home and just want to start taking them down.

Spring is coming to the boreal forest, which means we'll soon be dishing out another grand or two on class 5 and black dirt.

We have a long driveway to maintain, and a constant supply of projects that need posts set and areas backfilled.

We compost and our main gardens are using hugelkultur so we don't need that much fill. But any additional beds or potato boxes just blow through black dirt, which is hard to come by in our area.

We have 80 acres, and it's driving me nuts that I spend so much on what amounts to earth.

Any pro tips on how source these things, or produce our own, or stretch what we've got? It's feels like a big expense that I didn't really anticipate when getting started. Thanks!

I'm so stoked about this. It's took a couple of weeks of adjusting its position, bribery, and pleading, but most of my hens have switched to using it. I can finally take nice pictures of all the egg colors while they're unwashed

We have this chick waterer and I hate it. I have a hard time carrying it without leaking, I have a hard time flipping it without losing a bunch of water or having it come unscrewed and losing ALL the water.

If you have a better design to recommend, please let me know! Or any modifications to this one would be fine too.

(We use a 5 gallon pail with poultry nipples in it once they're older, but find that doesn't work as well when they're really little.)

Tent spikes are a little more than I want to pay, but I have some rebar. If I cut it down to 10"-12", is there any reason that isn't as good as a tent spike? This is to train fruit tree limbs to go down. I didn't want to buy screw in anchors, unless it's too only way.

Edit: I don't mean to stake to the trunk. Only the limbs for training.

2nd year growing sweet potatoes. Got some big bois.

curious if anyones had one and what are something i should know about them that aren’t to commonly talked about

Any opinions on homesteading in Mississippi? It's on the list of possibilities. Currently have an acre in northern Missouri. Looking to sell it and move up in size

I have some nice French Copper Maran hens and a rooster. I’m thinking of candling a few eggs to hatch. What type of light will give me a look into these eggs?

Perfect temps last night and today meant overflowing sap buckets.

Does anyone have plans, or know where I can find plans, for a 40x60 pole barn with trusses or walls high enough to allow for a loft over part of the building?

Just cleared what we thought was just a creepy dog house off our new property. Super heavy construction, vapor barrier and insulation under the roof and two stories inside lined with old sacks and foam bedding. It smelled like death. Rabbits?

I have these puddles formed from falling drops in rain . I was thinking about raising this area with a gradient platform taking water away from the foundation .anyone else done anything similar ? What's the most cost offecthve way to go on about it ?

Hey folks! I’ve learned so much from this community! thank you all for sharing your wins, tips, and honest stories.

A few of us recently started a new subreddit called r/Farming4Life. It’s meant to be a laid-back, supportive space for anyone passionate about:

Homesteading and rural life

Sustainable farming and gardening

DIY projects

Eco-friendly living

Sharing your setup, your animals, your questions, and your progress

We're building it as a community-first space, not a salesy promo zone—just a place to connect, learn, and grow with others who love this lifestyle.

If that sounds like your kind of thing, come check us out! Everyone’s welcome—from backyard growers to off-grid dreamers.

Here’s the link: r/Farming4Life

Hope to see you there! 😀

I moved to my current home last year, buying the place sight unseen since it was cross-country and rushed. I'm a relatively experienced gardener, but didn't expect it to be so hard to figure out where to start growing here, or maybe I'm just overthinking it?

Here's an hrs of sunlight map with some horrible Paint drawings over it. Red is 12hrs+ sunlight, yellow is 6-7, green to blue is 4-0.

The current raised bed location is nicely tucked behind the house and convenient for watering, but too shaded. I'd also like to have much more planting space than this. That said, I didn’t have much deer or small mammal pressure there and didn’t need a fence. Fruit tree plantings farther from the house weren’t so lucky with the deer.

I've marked a few key features that are making this tricky:

• The dusty road is very dusty, with lots of ag traffic and about six houses using it.
• The open area to the west is far from water, and I’m concerned about proximity to the cornfield (spraying, etc.).
• The open area to the east feels too exposed

Right now, I’m thinking I might risk it and start placing beds around the geothermal loop. It’s not too far from water and near the house. From what I’ve read, it should be safe to garden near/on a horizontal ground loop, as long as I don’t dig too deep or plant anything with huge roots. Still, I'm probably limited to raised beds there, which isn't what I'm used to. And, I don’t love the spot. It’s right at the front of the house, which is logistically awkward and I just don’t enjoy hanging out front.

I'd love any thoughts from folks who’ve dealt with similar challenges.

The Tobacco Valley animal shelter in Eureka, Montana is running a fundraiser raffling off a piece of homesteading property. It’s a cool piece of land and a cool way to support animals. Tickets are $20 to enter and all the revenue goes directly to the shelter.

Editing to add the website https://www.tobaccovalleyanimalshelter.com (it’s at the top of the page)

So is there a stigma when it comes to feeding an animal the same animal? Feeding chicken to a chicken, pork to a pig, beef to a cow, etc… I’m guessing they wouldn’t really care what they eat but aside from any possible stigmas or morality issues is it even healthy for them to consume their same species? Hopefully this doesn’t sound like a joke, I’m genuinely curious.

Foggy day in a Sycamore. Would have never noticed him if my wife didn't see him land.