# Homestead so far



## Greybush (Mar 30, 2014)

Hi my wife and I moved to our house with 7 acres last September and I've been working my butt off lol
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So far I've cleared out about an acre or more of land, put a good sized garden in,
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built a chicken coop that houses our two game hens and ameraucanas and shamo/red hatch rooster and
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started clearing out around two abandoned homes that are on the property and will possibly salvage some stuff off if but it's not looking too great so ill probably just burn it up 
In the future I plan on building a pole barn and clearing out about 3-4 acres and putting some cows on it and looking to get a small rent cabin on the far side of the property for extra income and install a lean to green house on the frontage of the garage since the majority of the sun comes on that end but first and foremost is getting the house off electric dependency and royal water dependency as well


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## Bret (Oct 3, 2003)

Good work. Congratulations. That must have taken a lot of red paint. Enjoy.


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## Greybush (Mar 30, 2014)

Bret said:


> Good work. Congratulations. That must have taken a lot of red paint. Enjoy.



Yea about 500 gallons to get enough to see it on google


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## used2bcool13 (Sep 24, 2007)

Great job, Is that broccoli? Coop is nice!


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## 1shotwade (Jul 9, 2013)

Alright! Break is over! Back to work!


Wade


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## Greybush (Mar 30, 2014)

used2bcool13 said:


> Great job, Is that broccoli? Coop is nice!



That's radish, and thank you it's pretty sturdy and it didn't cost me but $50 it's made out of all free wood


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## Greybush (Mar 30, 2014)

1shotwade said:


> Alright! Break is over! Back to work!
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Mowed last night lol


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## Greybush (Mar 30, 2014)

Just made this to put my strawberries in now just got to let them do their thing
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Added a little rustic roof for looks and a little solar light my dog got ahold of and ate the base


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## giles117 (Jun 22, 2012)

Nice. The joy of working your butt off today, to sit back and relax tomorrow.


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## Bret (Oct 3, 2003)

Greybush said:


> Just made this to put my strawberries in now just got to let them do their thing
> View attachment 27978
> 
> Added a little rustic roof for looks and a little solar light my dog got ahold of and ate the base


This looks interesting. May I please, ask for more information? Is this a pallet? What holds the strawberries? Fun.


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## Greybush (Mar 30, 2014)

It's a pallet I took and put plywood on the back and bottom and used black plastic on the sides to hold the dirt in and filled it up with dirt and packed it all in, stained most of the wood as for the strawberries they hold themselves in I added some rye grass in with it to help hold the dirt in till I get some more plants put in and the strawberries start multiplying you'll need to leave it flat on the ground for a week or so till the roots get established also make sure you have help flipping it I did mine by myself and it was pretty heavy


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## Greybush (Mar 30, 2014)

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## Greybush (Mar 30, 2014)

Was looking up different styles of pole barns and ran across this site http://farmhandscompanion.com this guy builds and lives like the old days and it's actually a pretty cool web page and the way the stuff he does goes together it comes out looking pretty darn good check it out if you get a chance


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## Bret (Oct 3, 2003)

Thank you.


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## dancingfatcat (Jan 1, 2008)

Greybush, great link!


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## Greybush (Mar 30, 2014)

I thought so, I'm planning on doing the same build for a pole barn in the near future I've got a lot of cedar trees on my place


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## Greybush (Mar 30, 2014)

Well was at work and found some ducklings without a momma we think they might have washed from someplace from all the rain we've been getting going to raise them up they're a wood duck and look to be about a week if not less they seem to be taking on the feed and water one of them died fatter this picture was taken but the other two are a lot livelier then before
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## Greybush (Mar 30, 2014)

Unfortunately the ducks didn't make it, getting some more chickens today my buddy got for me for doing some air conditioning work for him 
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He paid the fella for 12 at $60 and I just got to go pick out which ones I want it's a mixed cage of different breeds


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## Greybush (Mar 30, 2014)

Got me 25 chickens from the fella and they're growing pretty quick







Started laying out and building my enclosed garden area that I will be putting raised beds and a shed with a greenhouse attached it's going to be roughly 113ft by 30ft


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## Twobottom (Sep 29, 2013)

Greybush,

Good work looks to be coming along nicely. What did you do with the stumps on the land that you cleared? Did you dig them out by hand or with a backhoe? Grind them?


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## Greybush (Mar 30, 2014)

Twobottom said:


> Greybush,
> 
> Good work looks to be coming along nicely. What did you do with the stumps on the land that you cleared? Did you dig them out by hand or with a backhoe? Grind them?



Wasn't many stumps more like underbrush and I just pulled them out with my David bradley still got 6-7 acres left to clear though lol looking at this tractor a buddy of mine has for sale only $1500 with implements













Just got to get her running


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## HoldenCaufield (Jul 27, 2014)

Wow that looks beautiful! 
How long did it take you from day one to where you are now? 
This looks like a really great startup and I'd like to know how the process went for you!


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## Forcast (Apr 15, 2014)

nice job, So next week I would like you to plant a nice big flower bed in the top right corner of the property so people on that big road "say OH look at that so pretty" as they drive by! Where are you?


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## Mattie420 (Apr 2, 2013)

Looks nice! We are working on the same idea here in western NC. If only we had more time in the day right?!? Lol keep it up its looking great greybush!


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## Greybush (Mar 30, 2014)

I'm in northeast Texas zone 8 we get a pretty decent grow season here so far I'm just a month under a year of working the land the wife and I moved in last September













Took it easy this weekend smoked up some beer butt chickens


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## Greybush (Mar 30, 2014)

Took me a week off from work and got caught up around here between working all day and schooling at night I haven't really had time to do much but I knocked out a lot 
Slaughtered 10 chickens













Built my kitchen raises bed













Screened in my back porch







Built deck chair







And I finally got all my poles set and cut and fencing ran around my main garden and got my seeds in the ground and the radishes are already popping up out of the ground got all that done and still managed to take the wife out on a night on the town


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## michael ark (Dec 11, 2013)

Looks great ! On the raised bed you can use the limbs you have laying around to fill the bottom and make the bed require less water.Look up hugelkultur if you want to know more.


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

Very nice. Thanks for sharing photos.


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## Greybush (Mar 30, 2014)

Filled my raised bed with about six inches or so with potting soil an peet moss and also straightened my tomato tree up here's a picture , it sits behind the raised bed and I can reach about 6.5 foot high I'd say that it's roughly 7 foot if not more and there's only 1 little green tomato ATTACH]37321[/ATTACH] it's a Bonnie Goliath


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## Greybush (Mar 30, 2014)

So the wife and I have been talkig about removing the paint on the house and have been trying to find affordable ways to remove it what ways are there not including blasting the wood


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## Greybush (Mar 30, 2014)

Alrighty so almost been here for two years we've been through chickens and found some that work for us now we got some goats but the lady I got them from says they're Pygmy goats but they don't look like any so was going to see if anybody on here might know the breedhttp://cdn.imageserver.c-m-g.us/homesteadingtoday_com/

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## Greybush (Mar 30, 2014)

Not sure what breed they might be a buddy of mine said it's your standard goat but that doesn't tell me anything lol if anybody has any ideas just from the looks of them that would be great


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## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

My goodness! Look at all the green LOL I forget there are places like that. Good looking animals too!


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## Greybush (Mar 30, 2014)

Why thank you we had about two months worth of rain so everything is really green now goats are loving it but my vegetable garden isn't lol


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