short and long term plans

Whatever this farm implement is, I'm guessing we won't need one.

I originally entitled this post "short and long term goals", but the word goal has always bothered me because it suggests that you have failed if you don't achieve whatever it was you set out to do. I am, however, very much a planner and much prefer making plans to setting stupid and potentially unattainable goals and thus setting myself up for disappointment. Plans are much more flexible than goals in my mind - they can be tweaked as circumstances present themselves. So since we're embarking on a pretty fantastic adventure, I though it would be interesting to map out (you know how I love maps - even mind maps) some things floating around in the old noggin that have to do with our future at the holler.

Paying off the land is one long-term plan, and we're hoping to do that sooner rather than later, but since we have no form of income lined up (yet), I'm just going to assume that will take 20 years since that's how long our mortgage is amortized for.

I think short-term plans are a bit more fun to fixate on, so here's the quick and dirty on what we hope to accomplish in the next two years:

Mid 2012: Sell our house and move. Hoping to walk away with a little cash, but if that doesn't happen, we should still have enough of a nest egg to take care of our financial obligations (debt and utilities), ourselves (food, including the pets), and vehicle maintenance for two years.

Late 2012/early 2013: Figure out what farm implements we think we will need and purchase them now while we have cash. I'm still not sure if we need a tractor and think an ATV might suit our needs better, but Jay might be on the tractor side of the fence. I can see the benefit of a tractor for moving things around, but I'm not sure how much will need to be moved anyway due to the permaculture-based approach we plan to take to growing plants and raising animals. Plus, riding ATVs is fun!

Early 2013: Finish the garden infrastructure (this sounds ambitious, but I plan to work on it from the moment we get out there and until my fingers freeze off in the depths of winter). Although I think it would be fun to have a fall 2012 garden if we get out there in time for it, I'm more interested in establishing the infrastructure needed for our long-term growing needs. I've found that filling raised beds with compost in the fall and letting it mellow out over winter worked great for spring planting for me in the past (albeit on a much smaller scale). A spring 2013 garden is essential in my mind for starting our food growing quest. I would like to have the entire garden base according to my OCD plan in place by fall 2013 and be using cover crops by that summer to minimize the need to purchase more organic matter.

A rainy afternoon in town.

Early 2013: Start fencing in areas for livestock. Again, fencing costs money, so we want to get going on that while we have it to spare. Temporary fencing is one option to save on costs, and I don't mind the idea of having to move it around regularly according to my paddock/pasture rotation plan. However, permanent fencing is preferable if affordable enough.

Early 2013: Acquire the start of our farm animal (aka, protein and dairy source) menagerie. I suppose that breeding stock would be logical first purchases, but I'm not sure if I want to dive right in with that or just get some trial animals to see how we do and then move on to semi-permanent animals that we will use for producing more animals. I don't want to overwhelm ourselves with too much at once, but making those purchases as soon as possible would be advantageous. I would really like to eat home-grown bacon by the 2013 slaughter season.

Early 2013: Clear the area for the forest garden and plant fruit trees (I'm not really sure when fruit trees are supposed to be planted, but at least the area can be cleared). How we go about clearing the area depends on what farm implements we decide to purchase. I think a bush hog would be a worthy investment because it would likely have a lot of use in years to come and can be pulled by either tractor or ATV.  I'm starting to think that we may not need a bush hog at all if we get animals that actively forage and don't have finicky palates (especially if our goal is to eliminate commercial feed costs).

Mid 2013: Start preserving the garden harvest in the form of canning, freezing, and/or root cellaring.

Mid 2014: Start making money in some form or other. Probe the local community for what niches might be filled with our skills. We have quite a few ideas and are striving to find income streams that can be home(stead)-based because we would like to avoid taking jobs away from the locals, and plus, we want to be working on the farm, not a nine-to-five (or even a nine-to-noon). But we must remain realistic in that regard because bills must be paid, and we don't pay bills late. As scary as being unemployed sounds, I'm convinced that we can make a home-based income work.

Whenever: Kill some deer on our land. Venison is delicious, and I'm really excited about eating it.

The sooner we start these projects, the sooner we'll be prepared to live the lifestyle we yearn for if we're able to earn a modest income (or return to the work force if we need to resort to that to pay our bills). These may sound like laborious chores to most people, but we can't wait to get started on what we see as interesting projects that will bring us closer to our homesteading goal (gasp, that word!). Jay's thoughts differ somewhat in that he more willing to find a real job sooner than what I have in mind, but we're on the same page with regard to infrastructure (and eating homegrown pork as soon as possible!).

~ Mitsy

future farm critters - part 3: sheepies

There's a lot to farm animals that kinda scares the crap outta me, like de-worming medications and susceptibility to parasites and poor mothering skills and finicky eating habits and hoof rot. I really don't want to get farm animals that I am ill-equipped to care for due to misinformation on my part, stupidity, fear, or just plain bad luck. One of my favorite blogs to read is Farmgirl Fare - I love Farmgirl Susan's blunt honesty about farm life coupled with charming photographs that were just enough to whet my appetite for a farm of our own - but the trials and tribulations that she has talked about in detail sometimes make me want to just become a vegetarian again and forget all about raising our own meat.

Fortunately, I'm lucky to have a partner in crime that shares my lust for all things related to self-sufficiency and is not a sissy like me when it comes to the not-so-fun stuff. When I first started backyard homesteading (if you can really call it that), I was determined to cut the head off my first home-grown chicken to prove to myself that I really could pursue such an existence on a grander scale. But I much prefer to have Jay do it because his aim is better than mine, and besides, I still do the plucking and gutting and carcass dressing and cooking and what not.

So I figure we should try to tip the odds of homesteading success in our favor by focusing on breeds that are relatively fool-proof and don't require a lot of input on our part. I previously reviewed the merits and applicability to our future homestead of Scottish Highland cattle and Ossabaw Island as well as Red Wattle hogs, and I've pretty much decided which breed of sheep would likely suit our situation best: St. Croix hair sheep.

I adore this scene and wish to replicate it in its entirety. Well, maybe not quite so many sheep. But definitely the LGD.
[ image courtesy Five Ponds Farm ]

They're not really anything special in the aesthetics department, just white, although the boys do get a pretty rad lion's mane type thing that can grow all the way to the ground. Hair sheep don't produce wool and are bred primarily for their meat whereas wool breeds sacrifice meat quality for wool quality. I could care less about wool. I might take up knitting again someday, but that's pretty low on the totem pole. And the idea of shearing a sheep with sharp shears and possibly severely injuring myself or the sheep because I'm too stubborn to hire someone to do it is not a pleasant thought. Besides, hair sheep look funny when shedding their coats without any need for intervention from myself, and I'm always down for some free entertainment.

St. Croix sheep originally hail from the Virgin Islands, and I'm all about bringing a lil tropical flair to our Appalachian mountain backdrop.

But the big kicker is that if well managed, St. Croix sheep generally don't require any de-worming medication, which apparently is expensive and a pain in the ass to administer, and I've said time and time again that I'm lazy and don't want to be wrangling a sheep just to shove some medicine down its throat that it shouldn't need in the first place.

We, like, forage and shit instead of demanding hay like picky other sheep breeds. We RULE.
[ image courtesy Lenox Ranch ]

But I've read that even the most parasite-resistant sheep breeds sometimes still need some de-worming, so I hope to take Farmgirl Susan's advice and try to stick to a hippie garlic/apple cider vinegar concoction that supposedly really works in addition to using diatomaceous earth (aka DE). The combination of extremely hardy sheep and natural remedies will hopefully prevent us from ever having to buy some de-worming medication that I cannot pronounce the name of. Take that worms!

Lenox Ranch in eastern Kentucky says that they raise their St. Croix sheep on pasture alone with no supplemental feed, even in winter. This is what sold me on these guys. I'm confident that we have enough pasture to support enough lambs to fill our freezer. According to St. Croix Hair Sheep Breeders, Inc., they also have a high lamb survival rate, are good mothers, don't have horns to get caught up in fencing, and provide delicious meat.

We're not trying to run a major farm operation here. Our goal is not to make money farming but to provide food for ourselves. If we have bumper garden crops and are successful in breeding our stock that, in turn, generates an income, all the better. Which is why I feel extra blessed that we can be choosy in our farm stock and pick the best breeds suited to our needs instead of focusing on profits.

Next farm critter: goats!

~ Mitsy