I've built and run it with minimal fuss, but am trying to find a good small app to really wrap my head around how to work in a wildly decentralized space. Anyone got a good idea for a particularly useful app with a solarpunk lean? I was thinking of something like local mutual aid, but am open to all kinds of wild ideas.
We tried to see how close to food self-sufficiency we could get last year. We hovered about 90% from May - Jan 1, that was all just myself and my partner. Mostly what we bought was sugar, flour, coffee, oat milk, and spices.
This year we're taking it a little easier, and have had 4 different helpers come through for 1-4 weeks at a time. They've been a huge help, and report that what they learn and get from the experience feels just as valuable to them. We also got our maple sap boiling system set up, so next year we can probably get off of sugar as well.
Self-sufficiency isn't really the goal, though. We just want the skills so we can help teach folks when community sufficiency becomes necessary. It's impossible to do everything yourself, but together we can go a long ways.
Yep! This year we're growing sheep, goats, chickens, tomato, potato, corn, beans, chickpea, snap peas, apples, peaches, mushrooms, and probably 20 more things I can't remember.
We're on 50 acres, half wooded, so lots of foraging too... dandelion, lamb's quarter, thistle, ladies thumb, lots of berries, apples, mushrooms, walnuts, dock.
Usually some volunteer kale and squash, but not so much this year. We stopped growing greens since there's so much edible green stuff that just pops up around the yard and beds for free.
Been 10yrs remote on a homestead. I know some people don't like it, but it's prefect for me. Not sure if the work I do could be considered useful, but homesteading doesn't pay the taxes.
I'm a little late to this party, but we're working on homesteading / regenerating / solarpunking ~50 acres of central NY. Lots of foraging, gardening, a few sheep / goats / horses. Currently experimenting with letting volunteer trees grow sparsely in some of the large fields to see how things around them fare in comparison to full sun.
We generate more power off of solar than we consume, and have enough storage to last indefinitely (if uncomfortably in the winter) off grid.
We're slowly learning to make clothes from raw wool to woven cloth, and have a 200yo barn frame loom just waiting for enough spun wool to set it up.
We teach like to teach and learn, so host folks who want to get their hands dirty. Renovating rooms in the house so we can host more folks!
Just caught this, sorry for the delay. While looking for a place we almost got one near Ogdensburg! We've ended up a couple hours south of there, but that's basically the same neighborhood. Hope you all aren't getting the smoke too bad. It's been of and on terrible here, got to imagine it's worse up there.
That's a great idea too, we have a lot of random mounds because we mostly mulch by rotating where we dump horse stalls and the spring cleanup of the sheep/goat deep bedding. It'd be nice to keep them all from spreading downhill a bit better.
We're similar. We only have a little wood burner, but will be doing maple over wood instead of propane turkey fryers next year so hopefully that will use some up.
I like to keep a pile of branches about 300 cu ft for no-dig mortality composting in case something medium sized dies. Infinitely easier than burying. If our luck is good and a pile starts to rot I chip it and start a new one.
Hugel mounds for sure, and this year I'm cutting into any soft logs, putting cut side down so they get good and gross for next year's hugel beds and mushrooms.
If it keeps going like last winter I'm just going to start making rough cut benches everywhere. Who doesn't like a bench?
I'm a huge fan of my electric chainsaw. It uses the same batteries as my snowblower so I've got enough juice to do just about anything and don't have to mess around with starting and stopping all the time on bigger projects.
Never had any problems with my Kubota tractor, 10 seasons in. Just replaced all of the bucket hydraulic hoses, which cost a small fortune but that's been the biggest maintenance. Also got a Howse bush hog that's probably 15 yrs old and beat to hell, but gets the job done year after year. Don't think they make them anymore, though.
Hi all, just joined up and figured I'd share in the berry love. My partner and I moved on to 50 acres of land on a windy hill in Central NY about 10 yrs ago. When we're not trying to keep the 200 yo farmhouse from falling down we're raising a small flock of all purpose sheep, a few Nigerian dwarf goats, and 15-30 free ranging chickens. Our weird flock is self-perpetuating, so a mix of australorpes, barred rocks, jaerhons, etc.
We've also got a couple of horses, a donkey, and a couple of dogs. We're mostly in it to feed ourselves, but one of these years we'll figure out the short season here well enough to start a market garden. Last year we managed to eat about 90% off the land from May - November, and of course have a few things we're still working through. Not going so hard on it this year due to some health issues, but growing peas, corn, beans, chickpeas, a million pounds of potatoes, tomatoes, wine cap mushrooms, and usually get some volunteer squash or pumpkins. Found some wild grapes so threw up a trellis and they're going gangbusters.
Tapped some maple and birch for the first time this spring, and definitely looking forward to more of that. We also forage greens, berries, wild quinoa, nuts, and all manner of things I'm told are edible. Our pond used to be stocked but between the previous owners overfishing and some beavers a few years back I doubt there's anything much left at the moment.
We process the sheep wool by hand and are trying to get enough spun up to try weaving on the huge, ancient barn frame loom a friend gave us.
Also experimenting with a food forest, between our established heritage (aka bitter, sour, and mealy) apples, new honeycrisps, walnuts, chestnuts, paw paw, and one lonely peach.
Anyways, that's us. We like to keep busy. Looking forward to learning from you all!
🌞 Arlo @sh.itjust.works Growing food, relationships, and myself on 50 acres stolen from the Onʌyote’a•ka (Oneida) people. Likely writing about a variety of small farming and animal husbandry techniques with many dubious outcomes, and climate resiliency.
Longer form stuff currently seems to end up on Mastodon.