schmism
Super Member
as for your self sufficiency goals.
what experience do you currently have with gardening and raseing livestock?
It took us 3 years to learn our way into a large vegi garden and we still dont have a 100% solid grasp on what it takes. (due to such a small data set on weather conditions and planting times, grow times, harvest dates, etc)
nothing worse than banking on a second (fall) crop of something and neglect to get it in early enough (aka middle of summer) and find out its all going to die in a hard freeze a week before you can harvest anything off of it and now your stuck with only half what you expected to get you through winter for canned/frozen goods.
How are you set for equipment for a large garden? do you currently have tillers? do you have the flat farm space for a row crop garden maintained by CUT tractor (see bayou gardner for an example YouTube - webcajun's Channel)
I can use 3 different tillers on my garden not including my turn plow. from my 5' rear tine tiller on the CUT to the 2' gravely walk behind (and rotary plow) to the mantis. all in all i use 4 different mechanized tools to maintain my garden. I have only one small hoop house and we only use it to start early greens and run late greens as well as other seeds we transplant. I would assume that in your climate you would have to have a full size hoop house as well as a traditional green house for starting seedlings.
We did pasture raised chicken this year for the first time. but i had been raising a layer flock for 3 years with a fresh batch of chicks each spring so it was realitvly easy to move to the broilers. I copied heavily off of Salatin's setup for both processing and movable pasture pens.
same could be done for his timber raised hogs and pasture raised cattle. although take care to note the breeds he chose to use, its important.
Are you ready to build 2 to 3 or more out buildings? Are you going to have the equipment to make your own hay? figure on a second tractor (something more than a CUT) and another 10-20K for entry lvl used hay equipment if you do plan on haying. It sounds easy to keep livestock till you start counting costs for fenceing, buildings and equipment all to support it. Will you process your own livestock? if so plan on having a clean room to do that in. dont expect to be able to do that in the garage or kitchen of your house. Ive heard converted shipping containers work well but again... expect the cost to outfit it with stainless tables and washable surfaces.
how do you plan on dealing with bulk feed? plan on having grain bins? or just useing old grain carts? Going to mix/grind your own feed? if so plan on a mixer grinder. dont forget to include a livestock trailer.
how are you on canning? we have been doing it for 2 years now and some things we can do well, but others we still struggle at. Its taken us at least that long to pull together enough equipment also to determine what works best for us and what quantities it makes sence to process things in.
Dont under estimate how long it will take to establish berry plants. We are on year 3 of ours and still struggling with the blue berries although the strawberries did well last year and are set to do even better this. Although our first year we put the strawberries in was a near 100% failure. I was able to get replacements but had to wait till the next year setting back the schedule of when we were going to have them. We planted new fruit trees also but know not to expect much for 3 years if not more. (I dont know if youll be able to do fruit trees in your area) The cultivated raspberries/blackberries have been a complete failure (two years in a row) but we are lucky that we have wild versions of both so not so much an issue for us.
I also started bee keeping and my first year i started with splits that came late in the year from a fellow bee keeper. While free, the hive didnt make it over winter. The next year i bought 2 packages and only one made it. Last year i caught a swarm and while they seemed to do well durring the year, they also didnt make it through the winter. I know keeping bees that far north you will also experience difficulties in the first few years and they have gotten VERY expensive to buy recently. (like doubled in price since i started keeping) But the honey is a great product which will do your farm well.
Solar PV. there are a number of good threads on the forums about guys who live off grid and their trials and tribulations concerning the systems, installs and maintenance. The only real advise i have is choose your site well and for gods sake keep it out of the shade! (wink at 3rrl)
what experience do you currently have with gardening and raseing livestock?
It took us 3 years to learn our way into a large vegi garden and we still dont have a 100% solid grasp on what it takes. (due to such a small data set on weather conditions and planting times, grow times, harvest dates, etc)
nothing worse than banking on a second (fall) crop of something and neglect to get it in early enough (aka middle of summer) and find out its all going to die in a hard freeze a week before you can harvest anything off of it and now your stuck with only half what you expected to get you through winter for canned/frozen goods.
How are you set for equipment for a large garden? do you currently have tillers? do you have the flat farm space for a row crop garden maintained by CUT tractor (see bayou gardner for an example YouTube - webcajun's Channel)
I can use 3 different tillers on my garden not including my turn plow. from my 5' rear tine tiller on the CUT to the 2' gravely walk behind (and rotary plow) to the mantis. all in all i use 4 different mechanized tools to maintain my garden. I have only one small hoop house and we only use it to start early greens and run late greens as well as other seeds we transplant. I would assume that in your climate you would have to have a full size hoop house as well as a traditional green house for starting seedlings.
We did pasture raised chicken this year for the first time. but i had been raising a layer flock for 3 years with a fresh batch of chicks each spring so it was realitvly easy to move to the broilers. I copied heavily off of Salatin's setup for both processing and movable pasture pens.
same could be done for his timber raised hogs and pasture raised cattle. although take care to note the breeds he chose to use, its important.
Are you ready to build 2 to 3 or more out buildings? Are you going to have the equipment to make your own hay? figure on a second tractor (something more than a CUT) and another 10-20K for entry lvl used hay equipment if you do plan on haying. It sounds easy to keep livestock till you start counting costs for fenceing, buildings and equipment all to support it. Will you process your own livestock? if so plan on having a clean room to do that in. dont expect to be able to do that in the garage or kitchen of your house. Ive heard converted shipping containers work well but again... expect the cost to outfit it with stainless tables and washable surfaces.
how do you plan on dealing with bulk feed? plan on having grain bins? or just useing old grain carts? Going to mix/grind your own feed? if so plan on a mixer grinder. dont forget to include a livestock trailer.
how are you on canning? we have been doing it for 2 years now and some things we can do well, but others we still struggle at. Its taken us at least that long to pull together enough equipment also to determine what works best for us and what quantities it makes sence to process things in.
Dont under estimate how long it will take to establish berry plants. We are on year 3 of ours and still struggling with the blue berries although the strawberries did well last year and are set to do even better this. Although our first year we put the strawberries in was a near 100% failure. I was able to get replacements but had to wait till the next year setting back the schedule of when we were going to have them. We planted new fruit trees also but know not to expect much for 3 years if not more. (I dont know if youll be able to do fruit trees in your area) The cultivated raspberries/blackberries have been a complete failure (two years in a row) but we are lucky that we have wild versions of both so not so much an issue for us.
I also started bee keeping and my first year i started with splits that came late in the year from a fellow bee keeper. While free, the hive didnt make it over winter. The next year i bought 2 packages and only one made it. Last year i caught a swarm and while they seemed to do well durring the year, they also didnt make it through the winter. I know keeping bees that far north you will also experience difficulties in the first few years and they have gotten VERY expensive to buy recently. (like doubled in price since i started keeping) But the honey is a great product which will do your farm well.
Solar PV. there are a number of good threads on the forums about guys who live off grid and their trials and tribulations concerning the systems, installs and maintenance. The only real advise i have is choose your site well and for gods sake keep it out of the shade! (wink at 3rrl)