Comments on: Townhouse Homestead?

By: Lykaios

Lykaios — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:05:13 +0000

Hey!

I think your goals are great– if you have any questions abotu growing plants or livestock including chickens (and in the future perhaps bigger like cows) don’t hesitate to ask, as I was raised in a small farming village with experience in all of these things My family raised laying hens and meat hens and turkeys, my mother worked on a dairy farm for several years and we had a large garden for a few years. I definately think your goals are attainable. Try not to worry too much (I know easier said) and just plow on ahead. It seems you are being quite realistic towards the whole thing, so that’s definately a good start.

By: AZ

AZ — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:39:13 +0000

I wanted to use cloth diapers. I regret to say that I did not end up doing this. The breastfeeding, yes, one year per child. I grow my own herbs. I dehydrate and dry at the end of summer. I don’t bring mine in during the winter, as they are planted in the ground. Solar panels? No idea. We kept chickens for a while and I LOVED it. No, the hens don’t attack you when you go out to gather the eggs, but the rooster will. Unless you plan on letting your hens set (get their eggs fertilized to hatch chicks), you won’t need a rooster. For our purposes, about 5 hens would be plenty to keep us in eggs. Unfortunately, we had 17. Chris built a chicken coop and fenced it in I didn’t like keeping the chickens in the pen. There weren’t enough bugs and grass for them to eat. They would have been much happier if they could have roamed free during the day and then hopped onto their roosts at night. We tried this, and they ended up roosting on our porch rails, ignoring their chicken coop and crapping all over everything. Also, because this is the country, there are many stray dogs. The dogs ended up eating our chickens. And Chris had to battle a 6 foot chicken snake to get it off of Juliet (a hen). That was not fun.

If I had it to do over again (and I may), I would have 5 hens, no roosters and take all my grass clippings and leaves from yard work and put them in the henyard, along with the chicken food. And I would understand that chicken snakes are par for the course, and not freak out and assume they will bite me and kill me.:-)

By: TopVeg

TopVeg — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 05:48:07 +0000

Well done! Great to have some goals – and to go for them. Good luck – and buy youself a small pot of herbs – which will keep you in fresh edible leaves for months!

By: Aunt Ruth

Aunt Ruth — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 20:29:31 +0000

It is good to have goals, even big ones that seem impossible. You have some smaller, achievable ones too. I used cloth diapers and they worked well, and I made my own baby food too. Both saved a lot of money. I find growing fruit and vegetables is time consuming when I am working, so I try to support local farmers instead. I do grow tomatoes, lettuce and herbs though for seasonal meals.

By: peppylady

peppylady — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 03:26:17 +0000

I bet you’ll do just fine.

By: Jaspenelle

Jaspenelle — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 23:59:35 +0000

I’d have to find out if my landlady would let me attach a window box to the siding… for some reason I don’t think she would but now I got some food for thought!

I do have a big inside windowsills though, so I can keep some plants there. I have to leave room on the upstairs ones though, the cats would knock the plants down if I didn’t… ^_^

By: Reisaf

Reisaf — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 23:47:05 +0000

You should see if you can get those mountable window planter things, the ones that hang outside might not be much but could get you a little more room for growing some things where they definatly won’t get steped on.

By: jett

jett — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 19:22:25 +0000

You have some great goals and your year, no matter what, is going to
be pretty amazing. I just wish I had half your discipline.