My Farm, My home, My shelter

The heading says it all.
I live on a farm and my closest neighbour is my inlaws. They do also have a farm.

We moved to this place 5 years ago. several different excuses for that to happen, but my wife and I has always dreamd about living on a farm. We have slightly different reasons for wanting a farm, but the result is the same. She wants a farm to be able to live with horses. I want a farm to act as the safe haven if anything goes wrong. Anyway, it fits both angles of approach.

The farm we live on has houses over 200 years old. That indicates the possibility to live here after the big crash. We have land, forest, water and a lake. House to live in, stable, work shed, chicke coops, garage/metal work area, hay chamber and a high tech room (my room )

Currently our watersource is a deep well with 3 phase pump but We have a clean water spring as water backup. We have our own sewer and we have wood burning stoves in three rooms at ground level.

I have my own horse. Both for work and pleasure. He fits perfect as a "cover up" for collecting old farm equipment and for actually practicing farming as well. He works with me in the forest, we plow together, harrowing, cutting hay, turning hay and driving kids to the nearby lake for swiming.

4 of our 5 horses are drivable, even the smallest one (119 cm tall). He is perfect for working in the potato field. He is fantastic strong compared to size. Two of him allmost replaces my big one.

My general idea is to be able to support my family with food, heat, shelter and safety even after "the big one".
Thats partly why I practise the old way of farming. I also does it for the joy of it.
Skills needed to be learned is:
* animal husbandry: That includes farrier work, leather work, vetrenarian work and farming.
* Food: Butchering, parting and storage. Making salt meat for storage. Sausages and other charcuterie related products. Smoking. Storage of potatos, onions, leek, carrots, apples and everythig else harvested. Making jam and juices.
* Growing food. Both for animals and man. Plowing, harrowing, planting, harvesting. When, why and how?
* Carpentry: Maintenance off 5 buildings demands tools and knowledge. Saw, hammer, axe, hand drill, some nails and you are allmost there.
* Forrestry: Maintaining the quality in the forrest. Productive at the same time as recreation area. Getting a good price on timber is essential for our stay here. It pays all the bills, even if we are to be unemployed.
* Other technical work. electricity. (Warning: do not work with electricity unless you have a minimum of knowledge. You can kill your family in your effort to make it cheaper or better....) mechanical work (welding and blacksmithing). Communication. Im a certified ham radio operator and have a complete setup in my "tech room". Car maintenance. Buy an old car. Easy to maintain and lasts forever if cared about.
* Health: Luckily my wife is trained nurse, and I receives annual medical education at work. Keep "stuff" at home. Learn to use it.
* Safety: Learning to shoot (can never exclude the possibility of firing against another human), DOG.....Very important on a farm. We have a giant chnauzer, but any dog will do (allmost).

I have concluded that I will NEVER be fully trained. Living on a farm is alot of work, and living on a farm with a survival ideology as guideline is utterly demanding. There will allways be somthing to adress, somthing to fix, somthing to fix in the case of..... somthing to learn.

This was just a brief wiew on my life, on my farm, some of the reasons why i do things the way I do it.

How about you?

I kind of envy you. I enjoy being in the country. Although I currently am living in town (Medford, Oregon) I hope to live long enough to move to the country (we call it; "The Boondocks) again. You are to be envied. Keep up the good work and keep us informed of your progress. Talk to you later. Dario

Wow sounds like a great set up! Good for you.
I live in Salem Ma. and my only claim is that my house has the biggest yard on the street. lol
I live on a dead end street in a great neighborhood with great neighbors. I could probably use it to grow food for my family and friends if needed but have no idea how much food I could grow back there.

AndySan wrote:Wow sounds like a great set up! Good for you.
I live in Salem Ma. and my only claim is that my house has the biggest yard on the street. lol
I live on a dead end street in a great neighborhood with great neighbors. I could probably use it to grow food for my family and friends if needed but have no idea how much food I could grow back there.

I would think that anything you can grow will help your food supply. During WW2 millions of Americans had "Victory Gardens" utilizing every bit of space that they could find. They planted in the back yard, front yard and even window boxes! They found (or made) space to plant food and, as my title says: "Every little bit helps!"

MrDario541 wrote:
...During WW2 millions of Americans had "Victory Gardens" utilizing every bit of space that they could find. They planted in the back yard, front yard and even window boxes!...

Yeah, now a days doing that gets you fined and threatened with 90+ days in jail. No, I'm not kidding.

Site won't let me post URLs still... Chip, can you fix that? In the mean time search the web for "oak park mi garden front yard" and you'll find a bunch of matches.

Last I heard, about a week ago, was that the charges were dropped but only after this created a national outcry.... not that it had anything to do with the dropping but I think the city realized how evil they were making themselves out to be and didn't want to deal with the negative press anymore.

Hi, Northplow: I haven't heard from you lately. I hope everything is OK. I kind of envy you because you already have the kind of experience that I badly need. I hope that all is well with you. Dario

Love hearing about the farm and ranch stuff, thats the next step for my wife and I.

We have a couple of land parcels close by. We started buying lots before we moved here. We are still getting settled here. (3 months into our move to Northern Arizona)

Oddly enough; we are considering "Aquaculture". Fish farm in Arizona, may seem crazy. But crazy suits me and my wife just fine. We are also looking at the more conventional "Sheep and Chickens" which the Navajo and everybody else have done in Northern Arizona for hundreds of years. Cattle are big here as well, but require a bigger investment and risk.

I don't see anything wrong with a "fish farm" in Arizona as long as you have the water. I personally believe that fish is a better food for humans than beef. And, a "farm" might be your only way to get it living up there. If I had a place to do it, it would even be a good thing to do here.

Hi you all again, and MrDario, Thank you, everything is ok.
Well, the last three months has been bussy, frustrating and stressfull.
BIG changes on work. I do not know if I will keep my current job, or if the criterias for my work will change.
It makes me sick not knowing for the future.

I will not whimp about it here, because I know I`m lucky after all. I do got a place to live, I still got my work, kids and wife is well and happy. With all this chaos around me I kind of went in to "preppers burnout", or maybe "preppers frustration level 2"

I have prepped for all kind of situations. I have the farm, all kind of knowledge and tools. Hunting gear, knifes, axes, communication equipment, animals, food preparation equipment and so on. In a preppers point of view I`m well set (never complete). But, when the shit starts to fly, even just small,small bits of shit, I feel that what ever I do, it will never be enough.

The feeling of fear, anger and frustration, when the world starts to crumble around you, will never be cancelled by prepping.
My primary focus for the future is economy. I will do what ever possible to pay down the farm, even if it means cutting down mor of the forest than we planned for. The feeling that I(we) doesn`t own our farm fully, makes me frustrated and angry.

For all you out there. Take a look on your economy. Are you slaves under a bank? Or are you a free person? Get rid of all morgages and credit card shit. It will kill you in the end.
It`s not possible to be morgage free all the time, but head for it as often as possible.

Hi, Northplow: I'm really glad to hear from you. I was kind of worried. I think you are probably ahead of most of us here. We all have to keep on keeping on. I always appreciate your contributions. Thank you. Dario