Introduction

Old intro, I will be updating it soon...

Some general info: We are a family of 6 and on one budget, which makes a person get creative and diligent. This year we have saved a lot of money by raising our meat in a regenerative manner and by growing my garden the way I do. It’s basically my personal challenge to grow as much food as I can in my garden on minimal funds… the cheaper the better.

What’s fun is this also translates into healthier food because I am not tilling, not using pesticides-herbicides-fungicides or store-bought fertilizers. I’m focusing on soil health, only using resources on our property to make fertilizers. To accomplish this, it takes some out-of-the-box thinking. I also have out-of-the-box thinking when it comes to animals as well and was able to raise the hog last year without any store-bought feed. Against common thought, the hog grew great and tasted great… unlike what I was so encouragingly told. I also like some alternative feed for my chickens and sometimes grow fodder and things. This fall we were able to snag chicken feed for $5 for a 50lb bag…. So, we stocked up. Having store-bought feed helps me be lazy this winter as I am starting all my garden plants from seed. Not planned but i like a deal. Generally, I would be growing fodder and fermenting the seeds I forage, etc. So, it’s a nice little break but I prefer them not to eat store-bought feed.

I also try and forage for me and the animals (mostly animals), I try and cook and make what I can at home, so many different things to save money. This year I added so many things to my ‘make at home’ list and was able to knock them off my shopping list, which was very satisfying. So those sorts of things I will be posting about to help encourage others that there are different options out there and new information that we can learn together. I am by no means an expert, just a rebel doing my own thing and trying to live healthy and sustainably. Growing nutrient-packed food – Growing on the cheap – Raising animals regeneratively – Growing a food forest – Growing herbs and learning some herbalism – Foraging – Animal feed crops – Making your own fertilizers – Using insects as your pesticide army – Soil Health – Preserving – Self-sustainable living – Homesteading – Ever improving.

Some things we are looking at doing different this year or upping:
I want to do even better at timely harvesting and preserving when it comes to the garden and food forest. I did better in 2023 but still have a lot of improving to do. Less food loss… and by that, I mean less food going to the compost. I can make myself feel better by telling myself that at least the discarded garden food is growing compost, and that the chickens eat off the compost… but it’s a sad excuse! More should be preserved to help feed us!

Also, we are looking to possibly try and source a dairy calf… or a meat breed that we would milk, lol. Did you know you can do that? Just far less milk. We will see what we can afford and get. Either way, getting a calf means a good two years before we would even be getting milk. This time would help us get prepared. Time to build the stanchion, source all the products we need for milking etc. We want a calf so the calf can grow up to be accustomed to our pasture, so it can get use to us, the kids and being touched, our animals etc. Of course, you can bring in an adult, in milk and that might be an option but prefer a calf.

Also, we are hoping to get sections of our woods fenced off and ready for pigs to be ran back there. We have it all planned in our head, how we will water it with rainwater (275gal tote), the certain way we want to do the entrance etc. But executing is a different story... for sure. We are also hoping to do more than one pig this year. Possibly two for us and a few to sell (ambitious!) This also depends on what kind of funds we have and what hogs are available when we want them. Last year we did 100 cornish cross meat chickens just for us… it may sound crazy, but we are honestly considering doing 150 this year because we would eat them easily! Plus, if you are already doing 100… is adding 50 really that big of a deal? We have the chicken tractor compacity for it. Another crazy thing this year is I will be attempting to start trees and bushes from seed since I can’t afford buying them from nurseries but want far too many! I will be working on my food forest and adding in a lot more perennials.

I will be upping (hoping) the amount of a lot of the plants I want to grow and working on more densely polycultured plantings in ALL my beds. I also started prepping a bed for einkorn wheat. I’m not sure if the bed will be ready by this fall for planting or if I will need to wait another season. I don’t till and this bed was started straight on grass and since I need to direct sow, I don’t feel like I can cardboard and deep mulch like I usually do for fast bed prep. But I could always do the cardboarding and deep mulching this spring, adding some fungal inoculant and letting it sit till next year so it can be even better. That would take patience… which is hard for me.

I always want to do too much, so we will see what all will really get done this year. Even if I get half of it done, I will be happy! Always have a mindset to hope for the best, but not be devastated if things don’t go as you hope.