Maine here

[THEFAN]

What kind of rabbits and chickens do you raise?

We have rhode island reds at this time. As for rabbits we have
New Zealand whites or Californians. Great meat rabbits but my little girl says we can't eat them.

 

[THEFAN]

Welcome!!! We moved to Maine, from Massachusetts, about 1 1/2 years ago. We live in Aroostook County and working on being more self sufficient ourselves. We raise chickens, and are midway through butchering and putting up our first batch of turkeys. This was our second year gardening ( weather made it nearly impossible to get much out of it, but the potatoes and carrots did well!) We burn wood, learn more every day, I'm trying to learn to knit and crochet, and larger animals are on the agenda for the future!

Hello everyone,
I stumbled across this sight and started trolling a little and liked what I read. So here I am. We are a family of three ( daughter 9) up here in the north country. Actually we live on an island off the coast of Maine. A little place called Deer ISle. My family and I have been working on becoming self-sufficient for the last 3 yrs and progress has been great. We have rabbits chickens, big enoug garden to share with others, we make a lot of our own essentials and the woodstove is being put in this week. Next we are looking into solar power. Anyway, nice to see and hope to chat with other like minded people. Don

Mass was a great state in the rev times. Freedom started there and looks to end there. THe complete circle of liberty. Anyway I degreess, Potatoes and carrots did awsome here too. We also did well with green beans, onions, peas, beets ( AWSOME) swiss chard, itailian dandilions, and turnups. Tomatoes did porr do to the 3 frost days in may. Squashs are very small, corn was small but that might be my fault, cabbage we got 1/2, brocolli and cauliflower not good at all, green peppers were small. Just a small amount of blight. My apple trees WOW!!!! The best yr since we moved into the family house. Pear tree did great too. Blueberries were soggy but dried out under a fan. Raspberries did OK. Black Raspberries didn't do so hot. Over all A good yr. This was our third yr at it ourselves. Next yr we will do some different things and cut something out and add others or more to some. This coming spring I'm going to get the greenhouse set up. Don

 

[big brown horse]

Sounds like you had a productive year! We had a strange growing year over here. Summer started late, ended late and a huge drought (IMO, it is my first year here) and higher than normal temps too.

Anyway, welcome to sufficientself! Would love to hear more about your Itallian dandelions and your new greenhouse!

 

[FarmerChick]

Bet you are getting super cold up there now?
BBrrr

 

[NurseNettie]

We had a very cool, VERY WET summer. A lot of things just never took off, and ended up dieing before anything came of them. Other things rotted right off the vines. Oh- did I mention blight? So few tomatoes-- had a few tomato sandwiches and that was it. All SIXTY of my heirloom, started from seed, gorgeous, healthy plants died with blight. The only tomatoes I got were from the volunteers that grew in another garden of mine- among the potatoes ( and all the companion gardening resources say they dont' like each other!!!)
It's getting colder now. Quite a few heavy frosts. Still have carrots and a few potatoes in the ground. The beets did well but the rabbits are the tops of the bulbs and they rotted before I got them all. Swiss chard and Kale did fabulously!
I'm giving up on Brussels sprouts and cauliflower. 2 years in a row and can't get a single one to eat. The plants do SUPER, but no veggies to speak of. Good thing the chickens like the leaves!