Homesteading with animals...post a pic!

[BrookValley]

Just click on the link under my avatar. They are really easy to do. Beekissed you should go to www.freewebs.com and make you a website to. It's easy and best of all, it's free.


<--------------------------------------- Click on Website

I got it! Cute website...all the animals look so clean and happy! Thanks for the info on the websites, TCC, I will probably do that soon. I would like to eventually sell gift baskets of my products online. I do like free!!

I can just tell that we are all going to be great help to each other on this site!

I also have freewebs site, and so far I have been very pleased with it. You do have the annoying ads at the top of the page, but they are far less obnoxious than those I've seen on other sites. The service is easy to use, and they have a lot of nice templates to start your site with. If you want, you can pay for service and forgo the ads at the top of the page. So far though, I like my little site just fine the way it is, so I'm with you--I like free!

This has really been a wonderful thread. You guys are rockin' the self-sufficiency!

 

[ticks]

I have lame google pages.

 

[unclejoe]

We have about 12 acres in S. central Pa. Not a for profit farm, just our little corner of the world. Originally it was part of an 800 acre apple orchard. We believe our house was once housing for the orchard help. It sits at the SW corner of the original plot. The main house is up on the NW corner. When we found it, it had been empty for 5 yrs and it shows. That was 5 yrs ago. The first thing we did was reclaim the grounds. We had the whole placed mowed down and took down all the old dead trees. Then fenced in 8 acres for the horses.
The house itself is about 130 yrs old, but it doesn't have the character you would expect from an old house. It's basically a square box although nothing in it is square. It has a 3' wide stone foundation and 12" square main beams, some with a little bark still on them. The horse hair plaster walls are mounted on a framework of 4x4 studs that run from the foundation wall all the way to the attic. The outside is pine boards which someone covered with asbestos siding. It's rather ugly but we didn't care about the house, we needed the land for the horses. We've replaced half the windows and both doors so far. Someday it will look livable. Here are a few pics of the grounds. Sorry I'm not posting pics of the house till I have before/after.
The pasture at sunrise. If you look really close you can see silhouettes of the horses.

The house, shed, and run-in from the edge of the pasture.

The run-in with a couple of goats CJ and Lefty

The chicken coop. Not quite finished

The corn plot before the corn.

The wood processing center. Our only source of heat.

The garden before planting

Becky on Hola.

Banjo

Ginny

Victor

Having lunch at the Round Bale Cafe.
Clockwise from the left- Ginny, Moose, Victor, and Jordon.

This one we enlarged to an11x14 and hung on the wall
http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/uploads/335_018_15.jpg
And last but not least - Buster - Our 42 yr old gelding QH.

Hope you enjoyed
Joe

 

[FarmerChick]

great pics. I used to live near Scranton PA. Great state but chilly..HA HA

Horse maniac here, I loved the horse pics! I had a QH that was 32 when he passed....your horse is super fortunate to make 42--that is unheard of !!

 

[Beekissed]

UncleJoe! Thank you for posting those pics...the horses and goats are lovely! So fun to see other parts of the country and the landscape differences.

 

[unclejoe]

great pics. I used to live near Scranton PA. Great state but chilly..HA HA

Horse maniac here, I loved the horse pics! I had a QH that was 32 when he passed....your horse is super fortunate to make 42--that is unheard of !!

For the past 3 yrs we've been considering having the vet come out and put him down but just can't do it. To see him close up you would think we never feed him, he's soooo skinny. He can still run with the others just not as fast.
What we really dread is going out some morning and finding out he didn't make it through the night. Don't know what to do, so we do nothing. Don't know if that's right or not. Opinions?

 

[FarmerChick]

If he can run still, let him keep going! When they lose that ability than it is over. Willy had severe, severe arthritis and his hip was punched out wierd, and he could hardly walk at the end. I didn't want to do it, but with hurting while walking and not walking, then I had no choice. Other than that Willy was in great shape??? But without that quality of legs to a horse, what can one do? Your horse looks great. Skinny is normal at old age!!

But with that horse running like that in the pic....let him go on and have fun! He is lucky he has you for a good retirement!!!!

 

[Woodland Woman]

Wonderful pictures! It looks like you are really enjoying your little corner of the world. I would think that as long as your horse isn't suffering let him be.

 

[Homesteadmom]

For some reason my computer won't let me upload any pics(I really need to reformat it). We did raise 5 steers a few yrs ago we got one for us & 4 to sell. If we had not sold them it averaged out to $1.99/lb for the meat when we butchered. But it ended up we had 2 whole ones to go in the freezers & the profits were eatten up by buying a new upright freezer(already had a small chest(14cu ft)). But it was okay as I did not have to buy any beef for about 2 yrs. Plus I did sell some to my mom & 2 sil's.
My chickens I am working on getting my brood up to 12 layers then I will have about 5 dz eggs to sell each week & @$3/dz I will make about $5/mo profit not to mention our eggs being free to us then. I feed organic feed so it is not cheap. If I can get more layers then even better as the profits will go up. Right now my mom is my only regular customer, but I have a few waiting in the background to start buying & dh's co-workers keep giving him empty egg cartons so I am getting a good stock of them built up now.
The cow we bred hoping to get a bull calf to raise to butcher & got a heifer, she is almost a yr now & in Nov we can have her bred too & hopefully between them we may get a bull calf to raise to butcher if we get 2 then we will sell one again.
The ram was originally bought to raise to butcher but ds#2 fell in love with him when they ent to get him, he was adorable & only cost $45 at 4 mos old. So he now just is a pet but supplies me with wool(I have about 4 garbage bags full). I am going to learn to spin it soon. Not sure if I am going to keep it or sell it once I get going on it. Although if I never learned to spin I could sell the wool to an individual who does & then he would be paying his own feed bill at least.
Just got a duck chick on Sat.(ds won it in a game). Not 100% sure what we will do with it. Not sure if it is boy or girl at this point.
2 cats, one goes in & out & helps to keep the mouse population down big time. The other is injured & crippled so he lives an inside pampered life now.
Roosters except for one are going into the soup pot as soon as the weather is cool enough to butcher them.
We are talking about getting a hog soon to butcher next spring. And dh & ds want to get goats too. I am thinking we should get milking ones then we can have a good benefit from them.
At this point that is all we have or plan to have here on our little homestead.

 

[love blrw]

Hello there Homesteadmom,
Just wondered where you will learn to spin. I need to get a sheep or goat for companionship for my horse. He will be coming home soon, and i still haven't decided what type of animal I want to keep with him.
I'll post pics as soon as I get some.
lin