Category Archives: How-To

More on Turning a New House into a Homestead

It is a beautiful fall day on the new homestead out here in Wisconsin. Rain has been falling for the last two days and the temperatures are cooling down to the mid 50’s during the day and mid 30’s at night. The leaves are now brilliant shades of yellow, orange, red and browns. I took these pictures about an hour ago to share how the barn floors are working out and had to share this one of Do out in his pasture.  Now, about the barn floors. We kept the sand we’d ordered in and moved over 7 yards of sand to build up the two big box stalls and a center stall between the two box stalls. The stall that the horse uses needed much more build up and was like walking on a beach. Each step was quite a bit of effort so we talked to some folks, did some research and finally decided to go with a friend’s advice to add shavings to the sand. This firmed up the footing tremendously!!! It’s super easy to keep clean too. We bought a 10 tine manure fork and the sand / shavings drop through and the manure, whether cow or horse, stays on the fork. Clean up takes minutes per evening, especially when they spend so much time in there on these rainy days! We added a total of four bags of shavings to the horse stall and two bags of shavings to Cookie cow’s stall. Her stall required about half the sand as what was needed in the horse stall. We have less than half of the sand pile left and when it dries out a bit after these rains, we’ll bag up 2500 pounds into sand bags (we bought 50 bags which will hold 50 pounds each) We plan to hang onto this for future projects and will toss a few in the back of the truck for traction this winter. I do believe we will call this sandy learning experience a success. The urine drains down well and dries up quickly while the barn still smells of pine bedding. We’ve done some other small projects over the past few weeks. We trimmed up several trees that were weighed down by heavy, low level limbs. We also got our hands dirty with some plumbing projects. My brother is out visiting from Arizona and showed us how to sweat copper fittings with flux and soldering. We had two valves that wouldn’t completely turn off and he gave us a DIY plumbing lesson on changing out the valves to a better type of water valve. The project was a leak free success! Now, we are all ready to enjoy a home made pot of chili that I made earlier today along with some fresh corn bread!
Happy Homesteading and I hope you enjoy the pictures below!
Nance
The horse stall with shavings mixed into the deep sand base.
Here is the other end of the horse stall. We have rubber mats down for him to eat his grain on.

This is Cookie Cow’s stall. It didn’t need quite as much sand (about half)

Here is the other end of Cookie’s box stall. She’s been bedding down in here at night now that it’s cooler.

Here is Cookie in Do’s stall (they were both in here) waiting out the rain today.

Homesteader’s Supply Featured in Podcast with GNOWFGLINS!

The folks here at Homesteader’s Supply enjoy Wardeh’s work at GNOWFGLINS very much. She does an amazing job on her e-courses and podcast which help other homesteader’s learn the lost traditions of food preservation, cheese making and all things homesteading! Wardeh recently invited both Jerri and myself (Nance) to be a part of her teaching endeavor!

I was featured a couple of weeks ago in a Podcast on raw milk and keeping a family cow. Wardeh and I had a great conversation about our move from Arizona to Wisconsin and how all of us, including Cookie cow, handled the move. We talked about cheese making a bit, but more about how to keep a cow healthy and why we put all that work into milking a cow twice a day! You can hear the podcast by clicking on this link or on any of the photos of me below.
Jerri was also featured this week on Wardeh’s podcast discussing cheese making and the “Ultimate Cheese Press” manufactured by Homesteader’s Supply. They talked about why make your own cheese? How to get started with some easier recipes and how to troubleshoot when thing go wrong. Listen to Jerri from her home in Arizona talking with Wardeh on this Podcast.
We hope you enjoy the podcasts and welcome any feedback you have! 
Happy Homesteading!!!!!!

Barn Stalls Update… and a Give Away!

Sand… Sand… and more Sand!!!! Ok, if you ever have the notion to buy 13 yards of sand… DON’T DO IT!!!! So, now that I didn’t get that advice in time… we have 13 yards of sand to deal with!! I ordered it to fill in the box stalls in the barn. They are dirt floor and after many years of poop scooping the stalls were about 8″ too shallow and a bit bowl shaped. After adding about 3 yards of sand to the first box stall, we found the flooring to be too shifty… Cookie and Do’s hooves sunk in the sand and Do seemed to be a bit unsteady on his feet. We needed to add something to the sand to keep it from shifting beneath the hooves. We pulled up the stall mats and raked the stall level and smooth again. After many chats with others who own livestock, we decided to go with the advice to add shavings to the sand to help firm it up and create a stall floor that they can bed down in this winter and will wick away moisture.
Once it was all raked smooth, we added three bags of shavings and it did make an immediate difference! The horse walked in and his hooves were solid on the shavings and didn’t sink down into the sand! All was wonderful… UNTIL.. the cow came in… I will post a few photos below to give you an idea of the happy cow dance… Seriously, she made a mess, but didn’t hurt the added stability of the floor with the shavings mixed into the sand. We have since added the sand foundation to two more stalls and just have to add the shavings . Keep reading after the pictures for some give away fun…

Here is Cookie diving into the shavings… notice the horse looking over like “What the HELL!!!”

Now, she’s really blending the shavings into the sand… and the horse with bad fetlocks is staying way out of the way!!!!

So, as you can see… the cow loves the changes to the stall!!! While we continue working on the barn we need a bit of help from you… WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH ALL THE EXTRA SAND????????????????

Some ideas we have… fill sand bags and put them on a pallet. We can load them in the back of the truck for weight this winter and traction should we get stuck in the snow… actually, we’ll put some in each of the three vehicles..

Other idea provided by my son Matt… HORSE SHOE PITS!!! so now we are trying to figure out a location for those…

As for the give away… I have a 3 pack of Pickle Pro lids for the best suggestion on what else we can do with the sand. We only have about 6 yards left – maybe 5 by the time we fill sand bags…

I look forward to reading the many ideas and suggestions!

Happy Homesteading from the great state of Wisconsin!!!!

Creating a Healthy Pasture for Livestock

Now that we are getting unpacked and finding time to walk the property, we’re seeing the weed growth that has taken hold in the two pastures here on the new homestead. Weeds have taken over where nice grasses once lived and I find myself seeing the need to lay the groundwork now for a healthy pasture this fall and into next spring.

The horse is still on the skinny side from the move across the country and then moving from the boarding place to the forever homestead. We find the need to feed him hay from our newly purchased winter hay stash and it’s only September. While we know we’ll be needed to call the hay guy for another hundred bales or so… we are also looking ahead to see what will need to be done for next spring to get the pastures healthy enough to support livestock next year. So many questions arise! Do we rent a tractor and till up the land and plant fresh for next year or do we seed right on top of what’s there and see what takes root?

Much of the arena is sand based and is in need of top soil if it will host alf alfa or clover. The horse loves to stay in the soft sandy areas because of his dropped fetlocks and the cushion it seems to provide his hooves. The larger area is very wooded and has a lot of fallen branches to clean up, as well as some trees that need to come down so sunlight can reach the seeds and encourage growth. I know that all of this will take time and much planning, yet being a typical modern day American… I want it all done NOW!!! hahaha…

I am resisting the urge to just go in there and til it all under… my concern is that the soil that is there will run off with a good rain due to the sloping nature of our parcel. I’m leaning toward taking our time and pulling the large weeds that have grown into the fence line as well as the weeds that have crowded out the grass in certain areas. Perhaps with that done, we’ll be able to germinate some seeds this coming spring and begin the process of creating a healthy pasture for Cookie cow and Do the horse.

Any thoughts and ideas are welcome!!!! Happy Homesteading!!

Turning the New House into a Homestead!

new homestead
I apologize for the time since my last blog… We have been trying to unpack and get settled here on the new homestead. While walking the property, talking about what to do to turn this little hobby farm into a working homestead, I had the idea to invite all of you to share the journey with us. So, with that thought in mind, here is our first installment of “Turning your new home into a working homestead”.

new homesteadMoving from Arizona to Wisconsin was quite an adventure. I am happy to share that we are all finally on one parcel of land. Cookie and Do were delivered last Sunday from the boarding facility and the big rig truck has been completely unloaded. While we moved from Arizona to Wisconsin with the desire of getting back to the moisture and green of the Midwest, we were quite surprised with the subtle differences between the two states…

Climate aside, there are a few differences that take a bit of getting used to. Now, I’m sure that had we arrived in any other year I wouldn’t have noticed quite so many differences so soon, but being as the “worse drought since the 50’s” was in full swing when we arrived, the difference jumped out right off the bat.

In Arizona, we shopped at one of two local feed stores for hay, C.O.B. (Corn, Oats and Barley with Molasses) and these nifty alfalfa pellets called Estralla. Cookie and Do survived the desert living off this diet for their entire life! Arriving in Wisconsin with brown pastures and no rain in sight, I set out to find a feed store… and was shocked when I couldn’t really find one! No one sold hay! Farm and Fleet sold a sweet feed but it was pelleted – not whole grains and NO ONE carries Estralla pellets out here.new homestead They were designed for the southwest apparently! Who knew???!!! We ended up buying the sweet feed in pelleted form and found alfalfa hay cubes that were shipped in from Canada. The horse lost some weight, but we kept them going until the rains came back and the pastures greened up. I’m sure that when I am able to experience a normal Wisconsin summer, I too will scoff at the notion of a feed store in the Midwest, but right now… I’m longing for my Olsen’s Grain in Chino Valley, AZ!!!

Other differences… the grocery stores are so incredibly different. We had to dry up Cookie cow for the trip and left much of the condiments in AZ with friends. The grocery stores out here are TINY and a bit specialized. While this is fun and an adventure each time we go shopping, it’s also difficult because several stores become involved to accomplish an entire grocery list. We did find a large Safeway type grocery store in Middleton and will likely do most of our shopping there for the non-homestead created essentials.

Complete side note….. While I am all about the homestead and growing / raising our own food… I have to confess that there is this cheese spread called Owl’s Nest Port Wine Cheese that has me completely addicted!!!! It’s now my favorite after work snack with some salty butter pretzels!!!

Another very fun difference… you can buy fishing worms… live bait… booze and sub sandwiches from the same store!!!! The one closest to us claims “LIVE BAIT AND LIQUOR!!!” ahead one mile on a sign!!! I went into the store just to check it out… and found it to be quite a neat little country store!

new homesteadThough, despite the differences, I wouldn’t change a thing! I am LOVING the Midwest and now that we are starting to find sources for a winter stock pile of hay… I am feeling secure for Cookie and Do too!

Hope you enjoy the new homestead adventure journey with us and wish you all the best!!!

Nance – with Homesteader’s Supply!

 

Tending Livestock During a Drought

Hello all. It’s Nance… the geeky homesteading side of Homesteader’s Supply… Jerri is still in Chino Valley, AZ while I and my family have recently moved from Chino Valley to Arena, Wisconsin. The move was for many reasons, one of which was that homesteading in the dry Arizona landscape was super expensive and almost impossible in many respects.

Gardening was super challenging… I tried straw bale gardening, in ground beds and container gardening… none of which offered enough harvest for canning and all of which required at least twice a day watering.

Then there was the challenge of having livestock in a land of no pasture grass…. We bought hay year around and with two dairy cows, a horse, a goat and two dairy calves, the feed bill peaked at $1,000.00 per month. Each time gas went up… so did hay prices because all of it had to be trucked in… then when gas prices when down – however hay never did go down in price… What was an $8.00 bale of hay is now a $22.00 bale of hay!

Along with the homesteading issues we faced… we were also looking for a school for my son to attend for auto mechanics… so we pack up the house in to a U-Pack truck and load Cookie cow and Do, the horse into the trailer and set sails to Wisconsin where we had a college for Matt and green grass for the furry kids, along with the hope of easy gardening!!! Little did we know we were moving from the driest place on earth to the…. second driest place on earth!

Our trip was welcomed on day two with 102 degree temps in Missouri and day three offered 106 degrees in Illinois. To say it was hot in a pickup and civic – both with no air conditioning – is an understatement!!! We bagged up ice into Ziploc bags for the cats to cool off on. We wrapped ice into bandanas and tied them around our necks to keep us somewhat cool. We arrived into Wisconsin during the worst drought since the 1950’s! The pastures we planned for Cookie and Do was now brown and void of nutrition.

So, how do you tend to livestock during a severe drought????

I ask because we ran out of transition hay for the furries and had to resort to buying cubed Alf Alfa hay… I have yet to find a store that has any hay to sell and need to make sure these two have some food with nutrients!!!

How are all of you fairing in the drought????

Here’s to hoping for rain and a quality hay supplier by fall for a winter stock pile! Despite the drought, we are all very happy with the move and look forward to a good hard rain!!!