Devonviolet
Lovin' The Homestead
Hello to all you self sufficient people. I have been a member on Backyard Herds for three years. My husband and I are working towards being as self sufficient as possible.
We moved to East Texas in December of 2014, after leasing a tiny apartment in Dallas (near our daughter), while we looked for land. We have come a long way, since moving here, with two house cats.
We bought 5 acres (3 wooded and 2 cleared), with a workshop, a small loafing shed and a small metal building, that we are now using as our feed shed. The house was 2 years old, and is a small, one story, 2 bedroom, 1-1/2 bath bungalow. We have since built a 16x24' barn (up on a deck, to keep things dry, from water runoff, since we are on a slight hill), an 8x8' chicken coop, with three 8x16' chicken runs, with wire across the tops, to keep birds of prey out) and an 8x8' hoop hut, for my milking parlor.
We have two LaMancha dairy goats (Ruby and Falina), which I milk once in the morning, and a doeling, from Ruby this past April. I have been learning to make cheese, and am getting the knack of it.
We also have two livestock guardian dogs (LGDs), 2 Pomeranian (gray saddleback) geese, one cranky turkey hen, 11 chickens, 8 Pekin Ducks, 5 gray and white Muscovie Ducks, and 11 juvenile Khaki Campbell ducks.
When we first moved here, we got 4 Nigerian Dwarf wethered goats, at the same time we got our LGD puppies. They are purebred Maremma, whose ancestors, on both sides, come from the Abruzze mountains in the Italian Alps. They are amazing LGDs. We have a lot of coyotes, owls, Hawks, vultures, raccoons, skunks, armadillos, wild pigs and opossums, and we have never lost an animal to a predator. Our female (Violet) guards the sky. If a hawk or vulture flies overhead, she has her paws on the fence barking her head off, and they fly away. It's kinda fun to watch!
We have since sold the 4 wethers and have recently taken the two weathers, that were born this past Spring, to the butcher and are now enjoying the meat.
Over the past three years, we have had quite a few chickens, and have learned to butcher them. We've learned that if we try to butcher more than 6 or 7 birds at a time, it wears us out, since we are in our retirement years. We have to gauge our workload, and spread it out.
Every summer, we have planned to start a garden, but for a number of reasons, we haven't been able to do that. This Winter, we are hoping to build three 4x16'x 20" high planter boxes (with 1/2" hardware cloth attached to the bottom), since we have very stubborn Bermuda grass and moles.
We have a two year old (10x17x9'h) canvas garage (from Harbor Freight), that we are planning to convert to a greenhouse so we can do aquaponics. We also have 3 - 275 gallon food grade water totes, that we can use, to build the system. A friend has agreed to help us learn to do aquaponics.
We moved to East Texas in December of 2014, after leasing a tiny apartment in Dallas (near our daughter), while we looked for land. We have come a long way, since moving here, with two house cats.
We bought 5 acres (3 wooded and 2 cleared), with a workshop, a small loafing shed and a small metal building, that we are now using as our feed shed. The house was 2 years old, and is a small, one story, 2 bedroom, 1-1/2 bath bungalow. We have since built a 16x24' barn (up on a deck, to keep things dry, from water runoff, since we are on a slight hill), an 8x8' chicken coop, with three 8x16' chicken runs, with wire across the tops, to keep birds of prey out) and an 8x8' hoop hut, for my milking parlor.
We have two LaMancha dairy goats (Ruby and Falina), which I milk once in the morning, and a doeling, from Ruby this past April. I have been learning to make cheese, and am getting the knack of it.
We also have two livestock guardian dogs (LGDs), 2 Pomeranian (gray saddleback) geese, one cranky turkey hen, 11 chickens, 8 Pekin Ducks, 5 gray and white Muscovie Ducks, and 11 juvenile Khaki Campbell ducks.
When we first moved here, we got 4 Nigerian Dwarf wethered goats, at the same time we got our LGD puppies. They are purebred Maremma, whose ancestors, on both sides, come from the Abruzze mountains in the Italian Alps. They are amazing LGDs. We have a lot of coyotes, owls, Hawks, vultures, raccoons, skunks, armadillos, wild pigs and opossums, and we have never lost an animal to a predator. Our female (Violet) guards the sky. If a hawk or vulture flies overhead, she has her paws on the fence barking her head off, and they fly away. It's kinda fun to watch!
We have since sold the 4 wethers and have recently taken the two weathers, that were born this past Spring, to the butcher and are now enjoying the meat.
Over the past three years, we have had quite a few chickens, and have learned to butcher them. We've learned that if we try to butcher more than 6 or 7 birds at a time, it wears us out, since we are in our retirement years. We have to gauge our workload, and spread it out.
Every summer, we have planned to start a garden, but for a number of reasons, we haven't been able to do that. This Winter, we are hoping to build three 4x16'x 20" high planter boxes (with 1/2" hardware cloth attached to the bottom), since we have very stubborn Bermuda grass and moles.
We have a two year old (10x17x9'h) canvas garage (from Harbor Freight), that we are planning to convert to a greenhouse so we can do aquaponics. We also have 3 - 275 gallon food grade water totes, that we can use, to build the system. A friend has agreed to help us learn to do aquaponics.
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I've seen you over on BYH and recognised your username. It's great to have you over here 
