Stumbling Homestead » Podcast Feed

First, I respond to a few listener comments and questions: * Is cholesterol bad for us? * Can you consolidate all your references into a single list? * Should only those living on farms drink raw milk? Is a cow in your future? Things to consider: * Lifestyle shift: life becomes more centered around the home. * Breed: why a Jersey is an ideal family cow * How many cows? * Machine or hand milking? * Equipment and cost: * Fencing * Hay and Straw * Stanchion * Buckets, hay feeder, shovel and wheelbarrow, water source and drinking containers * Other things needed: truck and shelter, tractor... * Your cow economy References: * Don Miller, M.D., Keeping Us Sick, Stupid, and Broke * Health Benefits of a Low-Carbohydrate, High-Saturated-Fat Diet * The Weston A. Price Foundation (westonaprice.org) * Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon * Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, by Weston A. Price * Keeping a Family Cow, by Joann S. Grohman * Keeping a Family Cow online forum

Doing full-out living off the land homesteading is very hard, and may not be sustainable if you jump into it too quickly. As always, smaller steps seems the best approach. Here's our experience: * Working from a home office in the country * One full-time spouse, one part-time * Get a decent high-speed connection if possible * Homesteading activities are time consuming, especially preparing most or all of your food from scratch. This can be eased into while living in urban areas, to get you used to the time demands. * Renting as an option to try out the lifestyle and check out the prospective area * Doing it for yourselves and for your kids. Your kids need to help out with this adventure. Everyone contributing to the family economy. * Priority shift: there will be less time to run around to social obligations, including lessons and sports games for the kids. * Don’t try and do everything at once. * First thing: figure out where you’re going to get local good food. Get a chest freezer. * Start a garden. When you feel you can handle it, take the next step and get chickens. Involve your kids in each of these activities; otherwise you’re not going to be able to do them. * Getting a milk cow is the biggest farm obligation we’ve taken on thus far. * We’ve been brainwashed into thinking that we always have to go elsewhere for our needs. Giving your kids a life more rooted in the house is a good thing. * Eating better and fresh air with exercise will increase your coping skills. Think of this as health insurance. * It’s the hardest thing we’ve ever done, but it is also the best thing we’ve done. * Good neighbors are a godsend. * Biggest advice is to make sure you’re okay with the whole concept and lifestyle of farming and country life. Most of us need to actually do this in order to really answer the question. We decided to get our answer sooner rather than later. References: * Check out my Beef Heart Chili blog, on saveourskills.com! http://www.saveourskills.com/beef-heart-chili * See You In a Hundred Years, by Logan Ward * Family Friendly Farming: A Multi-Generational Home-Based Business Testament, by Joel Salatin

The Untold Story of Milk by Ron Schmid * Overwhelming evidence for the health benefits of raw milk * The disturbing reluctance of medical professionals to consider the well-established benefits of raw milk or to challenge anti-raw milk dogma * The self interest of the dairy industry, which has succeeded in taking from most people their freedom to choose raw milk * All statements are supported by references How did pasteurization become the norm for the last 100 years? * Cities, distillery cows, and the advent of pasteurized milk. * Grass-fed versus grain- fed cows * The main culprit: E. coli O157:H7 evolved in grain-fed cattle. Health of raw vs. pasteurized * http://www.fda.gov/Food/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/ucm079516.htm * http://www.raw-milk-facts.com/ * Research of Dr. Francis Pottenger: demonstrating superior nutritional value of unheated milk Free choice and liberty * Milk debate comes down to "protection" of the public versus free choice of a grown up. * An infringement of our basic constitutional rights? * Raw milk raids... unnecessary force? Opposing side: * Bill Marler and the superbug argument. * http://www.marlerblog.com/ Are raw milk figures being distorted by public bias and faulty science? * http://www.realmilk.com/washington-lessons-learned.html * http://www.marlerblog.com/legal-cases/as-a-mars-pa-man-is-on-life-support-sally-fallon-spins-her-tales-update Keeping A Family Cow by Joann S. Grohman

I don't claim to be an expert on raising chickens, but here's the knowledge gained on the subject thus far from experience and research: Caveat: everyone's approach is going to be different. Purist approach versus doing what's within your reach. It doesn't need to be perfect to be a worthwhile pursuit. Eggs How many eggs, how long to produce: ours started laying at 18-20 weeks and now are giving about 1 egg per day (expect less in the winter). Source of chicks Breeding vs. ordering Feed * Growing grain versus purchasing it... * Supplementing feed with other sources: greens, house compost, stable cleanings * Feed: around $9 for 50 lbs of laying pellets. Will contain soy and corn. Make sure it's not GMO. * Feeding chickens from mostly pasture and farm produced input: http://waldeneffect.org/blog/Chicken_forest_pasture_experiment:_Year_1/ Watering * Chicken waterer: drip vs. tray (gravity fed) * Keep off the ground for sanitation Predators Can't kill off everything, nor would you want to. If you have problems, fencing or structural is the best solution. Accommodations * Coop with fixed yard * Eggmobile with netting (moveable). Follow the cows, seems better for large operations * Chicken tractor * Free range (in the traditional sense, the non-commercial term) * Neighbors approach with our barn * Greenhouse http://matronofhusbandry.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/free-range-sustainable-right/ Egg allergies: try eating the yolks raw, shooter style or in drinks, smoothies, etc. If you purchase eggs... * Free range is most often a misused term. Free range means an open door to a packed confinement coop. * Chickens are not vegetarian. A vegetarian diet will produce less healthy eggs. * Once again, you really need to see the farm that's producing your eggs. Labels are convenient for us, but they are also convenient for hiding bad farming practices from you... So, when possible, buy directly from the farmer. Go see the chickens in person.

Homesteading is not so much about moving out to the country to live off of the land--this focuses too much of the effort on the move. While I'm not saying don't consider the move, if it's right for you and your family, what's more important is developing the skills now. Think of the process of "trying on the lifestyle" associated with homesteading. Suburban and rural: the process is the same, whether you're preparing for a move to the country, or just living better where you are now. Some examples that should be a part of the process: Composting: just do it. Find out where to locate it so you sustain the practice Water: get a gravity fed filter system Power outages: earthquakes, storms, etc. Have a blackout kit. Foraging: blackberries, miner's lettuce, etc. Food storage: dehydrating apples when they're in season, biltong and jerky Learning to cook from scratch and make healthy food: easy sauerkraut, make dairy from farm fresh milk. Retained heat cooking: http://pocketsofthefuture.com/blog/?p=903 Chickens and your neighbors: good neighbors and the law. The importance of developing good neighbor relationships.

Specialization has allowed us to achieve many things, but at what cost? We never consider that doing something ourselves, however poorly, might be preferable to turning that task over to someone who can do it better... Why do so many of us have hobbies? For all the emphasis we put on a rounded childhood and well-rounded education, or society doesn't reward the generalist--it rewards the specialist, who, is also the consumer. Roughly 90 percent of the American populace prior to 1830, was self-sufficient. Among all the things that we've lost, worst is that we've lost our ability to produce our food. Specialization, by its very nature, turns us into consumers for everything that cannot be produced by our specialized skill. Someone new to homesteading would naturally ask: is it worth it? From the specialist point of view, you might think, "did we save money doing all this hard work?" Probably not. After all, we've been indoctrinated with the notion that time is money. But there are other benefits: * At some point, the cost of energy and food is going to go up. Producing more of it directly will make more monetary sense as this happens. * Health benefits * Connectedness with earth * Better for the planet * Preparedness * Child-rearing At the risk of being an iconoclast, I think that our society needs to rethink it's heroes: Einstein versus a typical pioneer homesteader, like Pa Ingalls. I'm not advocating a society without specialists--I just think that the balance has been skewed in the opposite direction.

Measure twice, cut once... with homesteading, this adage, taken too far, can leave you drowning in a sea of contradictory advice. Many times I measure 3 or four times and still seem to cut twice or more. But that's why I like to think of this as a Stumbling Homestead. I like to make my mistakes as quickly as possible, and move on. Some examples of our many missteps: * Garden: what plants, collapsing raised beds, compost turning versus not, what size of bin, purchased or homemade bin? * Chickens: what number to get, tractor size, dealing with weather and the rainproof feeder * Cows: amount of hay to get, number of cows to get, how to transport a calf, hand or machine milking, how to milk, what is a stanchion? * Food preparation: what to eat, dairying, sauerkraut, new foods, getting kids to eat * Food storage: sand or straw, biltong versus jerky, dehydrating berries versus apples, etc. * Tools: start doing and buy as you go, cordless impact driver, borrow with consideration * Finance: start a plan and allocate money before you spend, ontrol where it goes rather than trying to catch up * Offer to help when you want to learn a new skill * Health: taken care of automatically by increased physical activity and better diet Related links: * The Weston A. Price Foundation (westonaprice.org) * Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon * Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, by Weston A. Price * The Humanure Handbook, by Joseph Jenkins * Keeping a Family Cow, by Joann S. Grohman * Family Cow Forum (http://familycow.proboards.com)

Ten things we’ve done since starting our homestead here a year ago. These are some portfolio investments that guarantee results: 1. Composting: the average small family generates enough food scraps in a year to produce pure garden gold. 2. Chickens: there are so many sites and books out there. Just do it. 3. Family cow: here’s an investment recommendation you won’t hear often. Buy a milk cow or goat. Get Keeping a Family Cow, by Joanne S. Grohman 4. Garden: gaining experience and knowledge in gardening is a worthwhile investment. It also does the body good. 5. Local farmers and CSAs: get to know and support your local farmers. http://www.localharvest.org/ 6. Storing surplus food: the one thing everyone needs to do every single day is eat. So storing food may be the most secure investment of all. 7. Preparing for emergencies: part of being a responsible individual is preparing for likely emergencies. 8. Paying down debt: the more that we’re in debt, the more that the system dictates our options. 9. Living a healthier lifestyle: all of the points listed above improve our health. 10. Teaching our children: this is a big one for us.

This is a short introduction podcast. It lays out the general approach of this podcast, and what to expect. It explains our move from the city to the country, why we chose to do this, and what we hope to achieve. It also touches on the pros and cons of a specialized society, stepping outside the mainstream industrial food system, and people as the most valuable resource.

As Rahm Emanuel once said, never let a good crisis go to waste. The recent outbreak of salmonella eggs has given new steam to the Food Safety Bill. Folks, this is a bad thing. Every time the government ratchets up a little tighter on food regulation, it does nothing to prevent the next outbreak, but instead serves to crush smaller competition and limit our ability to choose alternative, healthy food. Today's show discusses: * Taking personal responsibility for daily needs like food * Decentralization as a solution to many of today's crises * Homesteading is what socialism tries to be * The egg salmonella scare and food safety. Salvation by legislation? * Confined animal feedlot operations (CAFOs) * How to raise backyard chickens with a chicken tractor (backyardchickens.com, thecitychicken.com) * Community supported agriculture (CSAs) and the support of local farmers (localharvest.org) * Farm fresh milk (The Untold Story of Milk by Ron Schmid)