The Vail Benton's
Lovin' The Homestead
Hi all! This is Stephanie.
I live with my husband, Mark on a single desert acre about 20 miles east of Tucson, Arizona in a small town called Vail. He bought this place about 3 years ago because he didn't want neighbors living on top of him. Other than putting in a driveway, clearing a pad to set a doublewide MH and building a small shed out back, he really didn't have any plans other than to "live" here, and I use the word "live" in the loosest sense of the term since he spent as little time here as a person possibly could and still claim it as a residence.
And then came me and I moved in on June 8th, 2008. Sice then we have built 3 chicken coops which house a total of 25 hens and 6 roosters (not including the babies that still live inside the house). The hens provide us enough eggs to eat, sell & incubate. Ever.y few months or so we thin the flock and put chicken in jars
We have 2 goats; Annabelle is an alpine that I acquired last March with a rip-roaring case of mastitis that took months to heal. Lets just suffice it to say that Annie's days of being a productive dairy goat are over. But she's such a wonderful personality that I wouldn't part with her for the world. Fortunately, I had the forsight to purchase Annie's daughter, "Emily", who is an alpine/boer X. I intend to breed her back dairy and cheesemaking is definitely in my future.
We have tried our hand at pigs and successfully put one in the freezer last spring. We pick up our second one from the butcher in a few days. There isn't anything like home-raised.
We have a garden which is no small feat in this alkaline soil but having discovered the joys of composting, the biggest obstacle is water (they don't call it desert for nothin') We still haven't been able to set up a rain water collection system to take advantage of the monsoon.
We are discovering that we can grow about anything here but whoever puts "full sun" on the seed packets has never lived in Southern Arizona!
Mark and I both drive dump trucks for a living which is anywhere from 8-50 hours per week in this horrible economy, and is a big part of the reason we find it so important to get back to basics. I can't always be sure I can afford to go to the grocery store anymore! And the price of fuel? okay, it's better here than it was a year and a half ago but don't get me started! My Peterbuilt doesn't run on water... but if all goes well, Mark will (in the near future) have our SUV converted over. I don't understand a word he says about it, but water is cheap compared to gas and deisel so I'm excited!
My hobbies include quilting and well, quilting.
Oh and lest I forget... I'm also the proud mama of Champ, who is an English Bulldog and Bella, an American Bulldog. I am step-mama to Scooby the German Shepherd and Abu, THE cat.
I've been a member of sufficientself.com for a whole day now (24 hrs) and must admit that I find it rather addictive! I guess I came here hoping to offer something and what I found is that I have ALOT of catching up to do just to keep up with all of you!
You guys are amazing!!! I'm so happy to have found you and look forward to tapping into your vast wealth of knowledge and experience.
I live with my husband, Mark on a single desert acre about 20 miles east of Tucson, Arizona in a small town called Vail. He bought this place about 3 years ago because he didn't want neighbors living on top of him. Other than putting in a driveway, clearing a pad to set a doublewide MH and building a small shed out back, he really didn't have any plans other than to "live" here, and I use the word "live" in the loosest sense of the term since he spent as little time here as a person possibly could and still claim it as a residence.
And then came me and I moved in on June 8th, 2008. Sice then we have built 3 chicken coops which house a total of 25 hens and 6 roosters (not including the babies that still live inside the house). The hens provide us enough eggs to eat, sell & incubate. Ever.y few months or so we thin the flock and put chicken in jars
We have 2 goats; Annabelle is an alpine that I acquired last March with a rip-roaring case of mastitis that took months to heal. Lets just suffice it to say that Annie's days of being a productive dairy goat are over. But she's such a wonderful personality that I wouldn't part with her for the world. Fortunately, I had the forsight to purchase Annie's daughter, "Emily", who is an alpine/boer X. I intend to breed her back dairy and cheesemaking is definitely in my future.
We have tried our hand at pigs and successfully put one in the freezer last spring. We pick up our second one from the butcher in a few days. There isn't anything like home-raised.
We have a garden which is no small feat in this alkaline soil but having discovered the joys of composting, the biggest obstacle is water (they don't call it desert for nothin') We still haven't been able to set up a rain water collection system to take advantage of the monsoon.
We are discovering that we can grow about anything here but whoever puts "full sun" on the seed packets has never lived in Southern Arizona!Mark and I both drive dump trucks for a living which is anywhere from 8-50 hours per week in this horrible economy, and is a big part of the reason we find it so important to get back to basics. I can't always be sure I can afford to go to the grocery store anymore! And the price of fuel? okay, it's better here than it was a year and a half ago but don't get me started! My Peterbuilt doesn't run on water... but if all goes well, Mark will (in the near future) have our SUV converted over. I don't understand a word he says about it, but water is cheap compared to gas and deisel so I'm excited!
My hobbies include quilting and well, quilting.
Oh and lest I forget... I'm also the proud mama of Champ, who is an English Bulldog and Bella, an American Bulldog. I am step-mama to Scooby the German Shepherd and Abu, THE cat.
I've been a member of sufficientself.com for a whole day now (24 hrs) and must admit that I find it rather addictive!
I guess I came here hoping to offer something and what I found is that I have ALOT of catching up to do just to keep up with all of you! You guys are amazing!!! I'm so happy to have found you and look forward to tapping into your vast wealth of knowledge and experience.
