Just saw I noted your location not the OP.@Duckfarmerpa1 YES! YOU SHOULD JUMP ON THIS PARTICULAR ONE! As it's only about 20 miles up the road from me, when you pick her up, you could stop by for a visit and teach me about rabbits, first hand.
AMEN! I too remember most of that. Still shiver when I think of the outhouse in the winter. I say the "good ole days" are tomorrow.
Mini horses, glad to meet you. It sure is nice to know your not alone in the world. As i lounge here beside my oil lamp, contemplating how I'll get the water from the lake quarter of a mile down the road to the stock, since i just got a pic line. No i already know how because we've been there and are doing that. I at 68 still canand do ferment sauerkraut, kimchi, tempa, raw acv, kombocha, pickles, make cheese, hard apple cider. Dry and smoke my meats, veggies, fruits. Cast candles, and make soap. While the local government was put in a sewer line they wrecked some farm equipment, killed some maple trees, poisoned my well, and ruined some pasture. But don't get me started on the outhouses and human footprint, just read the book Humanure Handbook by Joe Jenkins. But life goes on. I'll get through this but yes it can be done now a days. I now have my nat gas back up, my new (used) 3.5 kw generator is almost ready to go on line. And instead of only having one working pump, after the well is shocked, generator running, and replumbing completed I'll have 2 sources of well water plus that catchment system i was working on. Something that is bothering me a little is the fact that so many of this new generation although they are interested in homesteading, farming, I never hear any cautions, warnings. I'm not trying the scare anyone but its important to know what your getting into when you start raising livestock. My grandma went through life with a stub for her first finger and a crooked finger for the second one, but boy could she crochet, an accident from fatm eqipment when she was 8. I have raised a dozen cows, steers and calves of all sizes. Sheep, goats, dogs, chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, guinaes, fish, cats and even sold mice, the white kind. Never the brown kind. Not. But we need to realize that we can never really turn our backs on our animals. I have scars when our most trusted mare out of the blue just up and took a chunk out of my side, turned around and had a cow lift me right off the ground, standing between my sheep and goats my suffolk ram nailed me in the thigh at full thrust, i watch a rabbit bite the back of a man's hand and hold on for 3 mins, not that he didn't deserve it, went to pick up a cat that I was caring for for my sister and ended up in the hospital for a week with cat scratch fever, been flogged by my roosters and hens leaving blood blisters, and seen children had the same, been bit by the neighbors dog, saw a bull decide that he wasn't going to walk the way he should and drag my uncle under a rock sled. Have seen at butcher time, my uncle who had many times put a big animal down pull the trigger and have the bull just stand there and look at him. Although I'm here lounging on my bed my aussie laying at my side, can i trust him. I hope i can. But what if when i had my back turned he got stung and had an allergic reaction or a punk kid pinged him with a pellet gun and in his pain he reacts. When my heifer gets spooked and gallops up the road pulling a 20 foot chain with a cement block tied to it in mid air right in my direction. Yes I've given a lot of examples. All actual. But although animals, farming, agriculture is very, very, very enjoyable it can also be dangerous. Your dealing with 900+ lb cattle and horses, 2 to 400 lbs sheep and goats, 3 to 600+ lb hogs, poultry who can be fire balls. Folks be careful and never totally trust an animal, even if you raised that sweet little thing from day one and it wouldn't ever hurt you. Then why in nature do animals not get along with each other all the time. Why in life do humans not always get along with each other. We have our bad days and so do they. Oh ya and i do plant non gmo corn, soy, wheat, oats, mangels, milo and sorgham, ten types of heirloom beans, many vegetables, chia, quinoa, amaranth, and my herbs and spices and also cultivate and harvest many wild plants, so i can keep myself busy. One thing I'm trying to do is teach the present generation how we use to do things. Had a young man and his brother and his 9 year old son come and after he raised 25 chickens helped him butcher them. Helped my daughter butcher a deer, raised a few hogs with a 20 year old man and butchered them. Not only do we have information that is helpful to them but we also can teach them some of the techniques we learned as youngsters. And I still enjoy my corn bread and apple pie done in the dutch oven since i don't have a modern one yet. Clan and community.
