preparing to start a home stead

[johnandrea1026]

As I have posted earlier am looking and hopefully going to be buying land and a home soon, and obviously love sshomestead and J-max and the Queen. I currently get hobby farms and mother earth news mag. Was wondering if anyone knew of good blogs or anything about someone starting out on the homestead? Their trail and errors. Just more resource's besides sshomestead. Cost wise free er the better.

[Johnny-Max]

Hummm, I will keep my eyes open, you would think there would be a lot. I am drawing a blank... 

[SouthernLiving]

Check these guys out:

http://www.naturesharmonyfarm.com/

They have very informative blogs and a great podcast.

[ppillard]

I have a mistake you can learn from:  If you are like me and would like to raise your own protien on a small scale (like rabbits), I found out the hard way that it is likely better to establish your renewable food source for them before you actually get them.

I spent a lot of time building a really nice rabbit/chicken yard, threw a bunch of both in, and started to feed them store-bought feed until I got my duckweed and cat-tails up to feed them with.  But the daytime job started shipping me out of town more and more and I never got around to said duckweed and cat-tails planting.  The rabbits multiplied as they tend to do, and suddenly the rabbits were not cheap to keep.

I ended up finding homes for them, because I had done things out of order.  Grow your feed first, then feed it to something.  That's where I am starting from now.

[Johnny-Max]

I wonder if you could make a good rabbit food from spent grains from a brewery?
You are right about the cost of feed. It do add up!

[johnandrea1026]

Thanks ppillard Thanks ppillard for the advice I plan on having both rabbits and chickens. After I buy a home w/land, I will be broke for like 30 years. so planning ahead so I don't have to spend money on feed is a great plan. any tips on the duckweed and other homegrown feed would be great too.