THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY YEAR 1 AT OUR NEW HOMESTEAD
Homesteady - Stories of Living off the Land
Release Date: 05/06/2019
Starting a Successful Craft Butcher Business from Scratch
Homesteady - Stories of Living off the Land
The Heritage Craft Butchers didn't learn to cut meat in the super market. They learned in a barn. Cutting up their own home grown pigs, and curing the meat in an old refrigerator, the guys decided they would try to follow their passion and start a butcher shop. They found an old bank in the middle of Pennsylvania farm country. Perfect. Lots of elbow grease, experimenting with old world recipes, and bourbon, and here they are running a successful butcher business from scratch. Check them out at their or at
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LIVESTOCK - The 10 Golden Rules
Homesteady - Stories of Living off the Land
I feel one of the best things you can do for yourself, and especially for your children, is to raise some livestock, even if only for a short time. The connection you and your family will form to these animals that are so dependent on you is powerful. And the rewards livestock give back are hard to beat! If you are thinking about getting some livestock in the future but are not sure how, you will enjoy this excerpt of the 4th Lesson in the , Your First Livestock. In this 4th lesson we will talk about The Golden Rules of Livestock What are the best kind of livestock for beginners Basic...
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Chickens, Ducks, Peacocks and Emus, HATCHING ALL KINDS of HOMESTEAD POULTRY featuring White House on the Hill
Homesteady - Stories of Living off the Land
Want to hear the extended version of this podcast? BECOME A PIONEER HERE - https://www.thisishomesteady.com/head-west-become-pioneer/ Hatching and raising poultry on the Homestead can be a great way to feed your family, and entertain yourselves at the same time! Today we are joined by Jake and Becky of White House on the Hill to talk poultry! WHITE HOUSE ON THE HILL CHANNEL - WHITE HOUSE on INSTAGRAM - Jake , Becky and their three boys make up White House on the Hill. YouTubers and homesteaders in NW Missouri that are interested in growing their own food, hatching and raising birds, and...
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OUR BIG HOMESTEAD PLANS for 2020
Homesteady - Stories of Living off the Land
Join myself and a special guest for a live discussion on planning a great year on the homestead! Become a Pioneer HERE - FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM SUBMIT HOMESTEAD LESSONS LEARNED VIDEOS HERE - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1h_VAsoscsEM1WyG4p88X9XBoj0vmm8JI
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START HOMESTEADING TODAY
Homesteady - Stories of Living off the Land
We are going to help you start homesteading this year! TAKE THE COURSE "I WOULD LOVE TO HOMESTEAD! BUT I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO START!" If that sounds familiar, you are not alone. Over the last 2 years we have been doing a survey at our website. We found most of our followers are either new homesteaders, or are homestead dreamers. What was the number one thing people mentioned needing help with on their homestead? Not how to make money raising pigs Not how to raise enough food for your own family NOT EVEN how to fence in goats The number one problem people are having with regards...
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NEAR BANKRUPTCY to OWNING 4 FARMS - Greg Judy talks Making a Living Farming
Homesteady - Stories of Living off the Land
Greg Judy was on the brink of bankruptcy. 3 Yeas later he had paid off his house, 200 acre farm, and went on to buy 3 more farms and lease 12. How did he earn enough money from grazing livestock? Find out in this video. CHECKOUT GREG JUDY'S BOOKS Greg and Jan Judy of Clark, Missouri run a grazing operation on 1620 acres of leased and owned land. Greg and Jan went from near bankruptcy in 1999 to paying off a 200 acre farm and house in 3 years with custom grazing on leased land and are completely debt free. They own 4 farms and lease 12 farms. They graze cattle, hair sheep, woods pigs,...
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SAVE THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS - LEARN TO BUTCHER YOUR OWN MEAT
Homesteady - Stories of Living off the Land
You can save THOUSANDS of dollars every year by raising your own meat or buying farm fresh meat in bulk and removing the expense of butchering that meat by learning to butcher yourself! In this video we are joined by Butcher and Educator Jamie Waldron. Together we explore the world of home butchery and how it can greatly increase your home economy by taking control of how you purchase meat and providing you with more flexibility by purchasing whole carcasses. Jamie was born in Windsor, Ontario, and raised in the small rural town of Harrow. He started his career in a small country butcher shop...
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Your First Cow - Basics, Safety and Where to Start
Homesteady - Stories of Living off the Land
Karin grew up on a mixed family farm in Alberta, Canada, raising and selling backgrounding stocker steers. Her main passion since she was little was with the cattle, from handling to pasture management. She currently works as a forage-beef extension specialist with the provincial government and is working towards getting into farming of her own some day. She shares thoughts, and advice on all things cattle at Karin is coming on the show to talk about working with Cattle. She will help us cover safety, how to make their life as comfortable as possible, and share some tips and tricks to...
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17 Year Old's Secret - How She Built a Successful Family Farm Business With GOATS!
Homesteady - Stories of Living off the Land
In this episode of the Podcast, we interview Rachyl Travis, of Travis Family Farm. At 9 years old, milking her first goat, Rachyl had no idea that someday she would be running a successful family farm business. A pet goat given to her at 9 years old soon turned into multiple goats, and when Rachyl wound up with 15 goats in milk, and 15 gallons of milk a day to process, she had to figure out something to do with all of the milk. Rachyl didn’t want the milk to go to waste. She enlisted the help of her older sister and together they came up with the first goat milk product: the famous goat...
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10 Factors to Growing a PROFITABLE HOMESTEAD - with Accountant Mike
Homesteady - Stories of Living off the Land
Homesteading roots began with people trying to turn their life around by making a profit. Signed into law in May 1862, the Homestead Act opened up settlement in the western United States, allowing any American, including freed slaves, to put in a claim for up to 160 free acres of federal land. Modern Homesteading is similar. Google pallet homestead projects and you will know, it's often people with little, that dream big. But dreaming and reality are 2 different things. Is it possible to run a profitable homestead? Let's see if our guest can help. GUEST INFO : Accountant Mike Mike...
info_outlineWe are settled into our new homestead. Finally. But it was a LOT of work getting to this point.
When our homestead in CT went onto the market to be sold things moved quickly. In just 10 days we had an offer on the place and accepted it.
Suddenly we needed a place to live in PA WAY FASTER than we expected. We needed to figure out what we were going to live in.
We have wanted to live in a Yurt for almost as long as we have been married.
The dream of the yurt resurfaced. We needed a inexpensive structure that could house us for at least a few months, that we could put up quickly.
The yurt seemed like a perfect idea. But a harder look at the yurt, and the expense, made us decide otherwise.
On the family farm there was already a Pole Barn build, with insulated walls and electricity run to it. The shell was done, and upstairs above the pole barn was 1000 square feet of unfinished space. It was a no brainer.
The yurt dream had to die… once again.
Maybe someday K and I will wind up as empty nesters, living our days within the round cozy walls of a yurt. But for now, that remains just a dream.
Work began on the pole barn. Turning an unfinished pole barn into a home takes a LOT of materials!
The upstairs space was wide open. The floors were plywood, and the walls and ceilings metal. There was big LED lights on the ceiling and electric already run, but the rest of what we needed to put into the house we needed to buy or scrounge.
We purchased lumber, sheetrock, flooring, paint, and all the hardware and supplies needed to build the interior. In addition to those supplies we needed to buy a toilett, 2 sinks, and bathtub. We put in a washer, dryer, and dishwasher. Also we added an electric hot water heater and 2 heat/AC units.
The kitchen cabinets were a steal for us, as we had a family member who was turning a home into a salon and was getting rid of an entire kitchen, cabinets, stove and fridge. That we got for FREE and it was a big savings to us! The only added expense to the kitchen was the counter tops that needed to be made to match the new layout.
We couldn’t DIY the entire project, we would need to hire some contractors.
We wanted to finish the space all ourself, but unfortunately we still had a farm in CT to run (until move out day) and so we could only dedicate 1 week to working on turning the pole barn upstairs into a living space.
We spent about $30,000 turning this unfinished space into a beautiful little living space for our large family.
When the dust settled, about 12,000 was spent on supplies and materials for the space, and between the carpenters, electricians, and plumbers we spent about 18,000 on labor.
All and all it was worth it.
Our family had a great space to live in for the last year while the second house on the family farm was being built, and now that we are out of the pole barn, we have a great guest space for visitors, and I have a awesome office to run my business out of.
Once the place we need to live in was built we could move onto the new homestead.
Since we had moved onto a homestead once before we had a good idea of what NOT to do and what we should spend our time doing on our new homestead.
3 Things You Don’t Want To Do On Your New Homestead
- DON’T Invest a Whole Bunch Of Time and Money On Infrastructure.
- DON’T Get New Animals Right Away.
- DON’T Expect to Make Money Right Away.
You are going to make mistakes the first year. Mistakes are a natural way we learn. The first time you burned your hand on something hot you learned not to touch hot things in the future.
If you avoid these 3 mistakes you will be ahead of us when we were new homesteaders, and you will get to learn your own lessons the hard way 😉
So what should you spend time doing on your new homestead?
Take walks daily on your new property.
Get to know it. Spend some time learning it. Whatever you see on those walks… capture it. Photos, journals, videos, whatever way you can capture what you are observing on your walks.
Setup temporary movable infrastructure.
If you have animals or are getting a few new ones, don’t setup permanent fences and waterlines yet… use moveable electric, hoses, and whatever other moveable infrastructure you can to learn your property before investing in permanent changes.
Fix what is broke.
If you don’t spend a bunch of time and money on new permanent infrastructure you will be saving it for the things that are going to break on you.
Our first year on our new PA homestead is done. We have settled in. What is in store for us? What farm plans do we have in our future? Find out in the next episode of the Homesteady Podcast.