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mrbstephens
Lovin' The Homestead
whoops
How do I get my family on board?
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mrbstephens
Lovin' The Homestead
Seriously?Beekissed said:Stock panels, T Post, and a few weanling pigs...drill holes in the ground around the stump and pour corn in them. The pigs will root that stump right out of the ground and till up/fertilize the soil for you. Takes awhile, but should be done by spring and then you can sell your piggies!
Then you can re-use the stock panels and t post for around your garden!
Beekissed
Mountain Sage
Yup...that's how we do it here in the boondocks! Pigs don't make much noise and they aren't too smelly if you take care of them. They usually poop in one corner of the pen, which makes it easy to add carbonaceous material to the area, throw in a little whole grains and let them mix and compost their own wastes.
That stump will be hanging by a thread by spring if you keep drilling new holes and filling with corn.
Pigs don't make much noise and they aren't too smelly if you take care of them. They usually poop in one corner of the pen, which makes it easy to add carbonaceous material to the area, throw in a little whole grains and let them mix and compost their own wastes. That stump will be hanging by a thread by spring if you keep drilling new holes and filling with corn.
patandchickens
Crazy Cat Lady
If you are not sure about your neighbors or zoning restrictions vis-a-vis the pig thing , you can get rid of the stump pretty well, although a bit more slowly, by drilling the same whole buncha holes that Bee describes, but instead filling them with a mixture of dirt and manure or dirt and high-nitrogen fertilizer, and then piling up dirt over as much of the stump as possible. This will rot it out extra fast, probably in a few years to get it to the point where you can chunk it up with a shovel and axe and remove the bulk of it.
Good luck, have fun,
Pat
, you can get rid of the stump pretty well, although a bit more slowly, by drilling the same whole buncha holes that Bee describes, but instead filling them with a mixture of dirt and manure or dirt and high-nitrogen fertilizer, and then piling up dirt over as much of the stump as possible. This will rot it out extra fast, probably in a few years to get it to the point where you can chunk it up with a shovel and axe and remove the bulk of it.Good luck, have fun,
Pat
keljonma
Epicurean Goddess
The book The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan, published by Storey, talks about how much harvest you can get with a small landholding. Carleen Madigan is a gardening editor at Storey Publishing, and the managing editor at Horticulture magazine.
Of course, what animals you can have on your property depends on your ag zoning, but from the back of the book...
From a Quarter of an Acre, you can harvest:
1400 eggs
50 pounds of wheat
60 pounds of fruit
2000 pounds of vegetables
280 pounds of pork
75 pounds of nuts
100 pounds of honey
Visit your local library and take out lots of books about farming or ss subjects that interest you. Leave them about the house as you read them; leaving them open to pages of specific interest might spark someone's attention and get them reading and interested.
It sounds like you are off to a good start. I think adding a bit at a time, instead of trying to do everything at once is the best way to go. Farmfresh has a small lot and does wonders with it!
Farmfresh
City Biddy
By the way WELCOME! 
I say start small. Most really successful self sufficiency projects take a while to get rolling anyway!
Show 'em what you can do!
If hubby is a tree lover - then by all means PLANT some more trees! Dwarf fruit trees that is. If you plant them in the front yard they make beautiful flowering landscape pieces. (and produce food!) Think of all of the flowering crabapples and Bradford pears that are planted just for the flowering effects! You can have those beautiful flowers AND fruit too! (You might even want to REPLACE the magnolia in a few years with another fruit tree!)
Fruit trees take at least two or three years to start producing anyway (depending on the size when planted).
Next I would re-do or start some nice "flower beds". I grow "Bright Lights" Swiss chard where others grow hostas. Cherry tomatoes and pepper plants can look quite lovely in the back of the bed.
Feathery foliage like carrots, and asparagus or bold foliage from beets (bull's blood variety are really pretty!) and rhubarb is also quite pretty. There is "Purple Sprouting Broccoli" and cauliflower in orange, purple, yellow and red! Cabbages come in ruffles and colors as well.
Blossom it up with squash! Okra flowers look very exotic and some of the varieties of okra like "Burgandy", "Bowling Red" or "Jing Orange" have beautiful fruits as well.
I also like "Purple Podded Pole" beans, "Scarlet Runner" beans or my favorite "Rattlesnake" pole beans for beauty on the vine. "Christmas Pole" limas and "Japanese Climbing" cucumbers are also on my favorites list.
Herbs are lovely too and many of them work well in pots! Oregano, thyme, sage, rosemary, basil, and mint all quite beautiful, useful and easy to grow.
Then there are the real flowers. Nasturtiums, violets, roses and daylilies are all VERY edible. (not Asian or Oriental lilies which are poisonous just the good old fashioned ditch weed with the orange flowers.) Nasturtiums in the salad. Violets and roses in your sweet treats and you haven't lived until you have eaten daylily fritters!
Now who would be grudge you a little "flower bed"?
I say start small. Most really successful self sufficiency projects take a while to get rolling anyway!
Show 'em what you can do!
If hubby is a tree lover - then by all means PLANT some more trees! Dwarf fruit trees that is. If you plant them in the front yard they make beautiful flowering landscape pieces. (and produce food!) Think of all of the flowering crabapples and Bradford pears that are planted just for the flowering effects! You can have those beautiful flowers AND fruit too! (You might even want to REPLACE the magnolia in a few years with another fruit tree!)
Fruit trees take at least two or three years to start producing anyway (depending on the size when planted).
Next I would re-do or start some nice "flower beds". I grow "Bright Lights" Swiss chard where others grow hostas. Cherry tomatoes and pepper plants can look quite lovely in the back of the bed.
Feathery foliage like carrots, and asparagus or bold foliage from beets (bull's blood variety are really pretty!) and rhubarb is also quite pretty. There is "Purple Sprouting Broccoli" and cauliflower in orange, purple, yellow and red! Cabbages come in ruffles and colors as well.
Blossom it up with squash! Okra flowers look very exotic and some of the varieties of okra like "Burgandy", "Bowling Red" or "Jing Orange" have beautiful fruits as well.
I also like "Purple Podded Pole" beans, "Scarlet Runner" beans or my favorite "Rattlesnake" pole beans for beauty on the vine. "Christmas Pole" limas and "Japanese Climbing" cucumbers are also on my favorites list.
Herbs are lovely too and many of them work well in pots! Oregano, thyme, sage, rosemary, basil, and mint all quite beautiful, useful and easy to grow.
Then there are the real flowers. Nasturtiums, violets, roses and daylilies are all VERY edible. (not Asian or Oriental lilies which are poisonous just the good old fashioned ditch weed with the orange flowers.) Nasturtiums in the salad. Violets and roses in your sweet treats and you haven't lived until you have eaten daylily fritters!
Now who would be grudge you a little "flower bed"?
Solarbum
Enjoys Recycling
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My advice? Make sure you are saving as much energy as possible before you consider solar panels. It's much, much cheaper to save energy than it is to create it. Insulate, weatherproof, upgrade appliances. Then when you do move to solar start small.
