TheBar1 Homestead- From a sword to a plowshare

Well, planning for the homestead is slowly moving forward.  I was able to exchange a few emails with Walter Jeffries from Sugar Mountain Farm, up in Vermont http://SugarMtnFarm.com .  It was a few posts on Walters blog that helped me initially work out what I wanted to do.  95% of the articles I have read about raising hogs on pasture were still predominantly using commercial feed for a majority of their feed.  The program Walter uses relies mostly on pasture with some supplementation of cast of dairy products such as whey from a local dairy or spent barley from a local brewery in addition to vegetables or fruit that they grew (hence why I planted all those fruit trees last year).  Walter is managing this for a herd of 200-400 pigs.   Initially I was looking at raising big black pigs, and I still might eventually but I think I will start off with some selected weaners from Walter first as his pigs have been bred with the ability to excel with fo...

Well, been meaning to get this out since we got back from signing for the house but needless to say I am running behind!  We have had so many people ask why we are doing this now so I might as well try to explain.  Originally we were looking at building a house on the property we got from Terri’s parents but it was quickly obvious that if we did that it would be very difficult to get started on it before we got back.  Add to that it is an unimproved property so besides the long process of building we would have to get electric lines run and a well put in pretty much before anything else.  We are looking at getting back in the March time frame when the ground may still be frozen it could mean conceivably having to stay with Terri’s parents for six months or more while we build the house.  That is something we really did not want to do so it looked like buying would be the best option for now and we could take our time building our retirement house. Now the q...