Hang in there. It takes time to figure out what works best for your own family!
Great post BB! I agree 100%BarredBuff said:I may be able to help with that. I was thinking about this a few weeks ago. I am going to give you my top five things to do first and in order. Then five principles you need to remember. I hope it helps!
TO DO
1. Take a month or more if need be to analyze your specific needs. This includes: vegetables, meats, dairy, household items, fruits, grain products, and maybe even household utilities. Write this stuff down, and organize it. How much you eat of it, use of it, etc.
2. After you see what you need to make or produce, always start with the vegetable/fruit side of it. Plants are the foundation of agriculture, and the makeup of most meals. Plant what you eat, and eat what you plant. If you don't like cabbage, then don't plant it. Plan a small garden, and you can always expand it. This is also the time to think in the long term for fruits and vegetable that take longer to start production. For example apple trees, strawberry beds, or blueberry bushes. Again, plant what you will eat.
3. Next learn how to preserve those foods, and research it before you do. Preserve how you will eat it, and how it fits into your storage plan. (This also the time you start making some of your home products like bread, cleaners, or maybe even soaps). Like I don't recommend freezing foods if you are preparing for a doomsday scenario. Electricity is always the first utility to go.
4. Now that your orchard and berry patches are going and you are becoming comfortable with gardening. NOW is when you take on the animals, and start small like we did. We started with a hive of honeybees and 10 chickens. Learn the ropes of those animals before you expand to larger animals. Learn how to incorporate the chickens into the garden. In expensive black netting works great for locking them out, and some old tobacco sticks, you have yourself a chicken proof fence. Then when you are done harvesting, let them have it all.
5. When you have the small animals incorporated and all is running smoothly to a degree. Now you add more animals, we added a few rabbits that formed the basis of a meat rabbit breeding hutch. We also added the ducks here as well, which we use for pest control, eggs, and occasionally the extra drake is harvested. This is also when some people add Dairy Goats, but I was not set up for her and we sold her. We may try it again one day but for now we are just adding more Small Animals like Turkeys, Geese, etc.
Just take it in stages, going in to fast will usually, if not always end up in Homestead Burnout.
TO REMEMBER
1. PATIENCE. It is a learning process, you cannot plant some seeds and expect a bountiful harvest. It takes time, learning, and patience to do anything successfully.
2. COOPERATION. This applies to everything, make the animals cooperate with garden. Through after season pest control, and fertilizer from their droppings. This also goes with you and your family. Everyone needs to cooperate to make it work. YOU cannot do it all, neither can I, or anyone else here.
3. HAVE A GOAL. Just going into it with no focus, will make you crash and burn. Make your goal to be SS, and press it hard.
4. REUSE. Never let anything go to waste! Compost those tater peelings, feed the chickens that stale bread, etc. I think you see where I was going with that
I hope this helps, and best of luck to you.
)
What this and BB said....Wannabefree said:My number one was stock the pantry. Two was hunt and fish. Three was livestock, WITH good fencing for the garden areas. You have to have a good foundation to build off of. Build your foundation first, then the others will fall into place. Sorry you're having troubles and getting frustrated.
But they are good animals to have, and you can make pelts from the hides to use in one thing or another. 
