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The bush-hogging is done. The perimeter fence
will go up next week, after I cash in a CD. I’m rigging up a
Quonset-hut shelter out of PVC pipe and a tarp for my dogs. Tow in
the camper and I’ll be ready to move. My homesteading adventure
begins!!
Well, I guess that’s not strictly true. My homesteading adventure
probably began on a small family farm in upstate New York. My father
was already sick when I was born, but my mother managed to keep a cow, a
few chickens, and a vegetable garden going. She had four kids and a
dying husband to feed. Emphysema finally claimed him when I was
eight, and a year later we moved into a neighboring town.
Since that time I’ve been a “city kid”, although “suburban kid” might be a
little more accurate. My mother tried to have gardens wherever we
lived, and I always felt an affinity for the rural life even when all I
could manage was a potted tomato plant on an apartment balcony.
And now it’s my turn. I lost my own husband a
little over a year ago, and there is nothing holding me in this city.
I’ve bought 15 acres in a neighboring rural county (in north Florida) and
I’m “going back to the land.” Most people who say they’re going “back” to
the land never left it to begin with, but I did. My mother is gone
now, but I know she’d be laughing at my agrarian pretensions (though
secretly, I think she’d be pleased that I am returning to the life she
left behind so many years ago).
I remember helping her to plant the garden, and watching her butcher
chickens (and I remember with some discomfort how I laughed hilariously as
the headless chicken ran around and flopped its little life out on the
ground). Killing meat animals is the only part I truly dread, but I
know I will do it quickly and painlessly when the time comes, and as I’m
not prepared to become a vegetarian, I don’t see that I’ve got much
choice.
I’ve been doing loads of research in preparation for my homesteading
adventure. I’ve read many of the Storey books and others, and spent
uncounted hours online reading up on livestock breeds and sheltering
requirements and diseases. The chief thing I’ve learned is that I’ve
got a LOT to learn! Thank heaven for the internet – I would’ve had
to set up a cot in the city library to have acquired this much information
in “the old days,” not to mention how beneficial it is to be able to
“chat” with people online who have done, and are doing, what I plan.
Just think how many years of trial-and-error (mostly error!) it would have
taken me to learn all this on my own!
I’m planning to begin with chickens, and my breed research so far favors
Barred Rocks. They seem to offer the best combination of eggs, meat,
and docile temperament. I want to raise meat goats, and am leaning
toward a Boer/Kiko cross – Boers for their meatiness, and Kikos for their
parasite resistance. Future plans include meat rabbits as well.
Here in north Florida, the lack of a long cold winter is both blessing and
bane. Rather than choosing stock for their cold-hardiness, I have to
consider their ability to withstand the brutally hot summers.
Livestock shelters need not withstand extreme cold, but must provide
well-ventilated shade and survive the occasional hurricane. The lack
of extended freezing temperatures means that parasites thrive year-round,
and both plant and animal pests are rampant. On the other hand, I
can have crops in the ground nearly year-round, though not much will
survive the summer’s killing heat. What you haven’t harvested by the
end of June, you’re not likely to get. In September you start
planting your fall garden, and in November and December you put in your
cold-season crops, such as the cruciferae (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage,
Brussels sprouts), English peas, and greens of various hardy types.
Some fruit trees do very well here, peaches, figs and persimmons among
others. I’m too far south for apples, too far north for most citrus.
Nurseries will tell you there are varieties of both that will grow here,
but surviving and bearing fruit are two different things. Banana
trees are used as ornamentals here, and if kept wet enough they will bear
fruit, but it’s not the nice sweet bananas you get from the grocery store.
They’re starchier, perhaps closer to plantains than the commercial banana
varieties. I’ll be putting in berries of several types –
strawberries, blueberries, as well as blackberry and raspberry canes.
I’ll need to acquire a large freezer to preserve my (anticipated) bounty,
but I’ve got to have a place to put it. To start out, I’m going to
be living in a little 28-foot travel trailer until my house in town sells
and I can build on my land. The current real estate market means
that will take many months, and considering that my house is old and not
in the best condition, I’m unlikely to get a very good price for it.
It was the equity in this house that allowed me to purchase my homestead –
I refinanced the house mortgage and bought my land outright, with no
mortgage on it!
I’m very lucky to have found a terrific piece of land – nice regular
boundaries, near a major road, good soil, and with two wells, a septic
tank, and a power pole already in place. The previous owners had
started to build a house, and the foundation (with plumbing rough) and
some wall framing is already in place. That has been exposed to the
elements for seven or eight years, so I will have to replace some of the
lumber, but the foundation and plumbing rough alone will save me thousands
of dollars. Coupled with the fact that I got this land at a
tremendous bargain (A, because there is a power line right-of-way running
through the middle of it, and B, because the sellers were divorcing and
desperate for money), it’s the only way I could ever have afforded to make
this move.
Continued
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