Come take a tour of our new homestead on YouTube, where we are building a recycled wood house and forest garden — all for just a few thousand dollars.
Come take a tour of our new homestead on YouTube, where we are building a recycled wood house and forest garden — all for just a few thousand dollars.
Amazing introduction! Harvesting worms is a great thing! When I was ranching out in Hinkley, CA the soil was about the same, heavy clay and sand but the land owner and a bunch of wwoofer’s built up the soil with manure and straw, like you said, and the soil came out perfect. I can’t wait to see more!
Thanks. I just learned a new technique for improving clay soils — plant daikon radish and leave them in the ground. So simple but effective. The guy said it’s more effective than rototilling, which allows the clay to recompact. But again, we have to go slow on these sort of techniques so we don’t waterlog the plants.
This is great Owen! Chalk full of affordable and simple ideas, literally from scratch. Kudos!
Thanks. Glad you like them. They’re really fun to do.
Good to see what you are up to, Owen! Great project.
Thanks Zana. Glad you like the new site. I’d been describing the project to you and Kelly and now you can see for the first time what we’re doing.
Very nice Doc. This will be fun to watch it grow. I take it you’re moving from a more closer net neighborhood? Lots of people hunh?! Get yourself a water buffalo and you’ll have all the fertilizer you need and then when you finally complete everything…..you’ll have steaks to celebrate! Nice going and I wish you well.
We probably won’t live on the homestead permanently. We have a comfortable home in town with decent Internet, easy access to stores, etc. The main reason for the homestead is the forest garden. Having fresh, organic, super healthy food is very important. The recycled wood house is for weekends or other short stays. In addition, the homestead provides extra land for experiments. There’s no space at all really at our home in town. I’m always coming across ideas for projects but no space to work. Barrel oven? Worm farm? Workshop? Solar water heater? Experimental gardening ideas? Now we can do lots more things like this. However, we don’t have lots of land, only half an acre or so. We may never raise any animals due to space limitations and time constraints.
How far apart are your two houses? The one in town vs the one at the Food Forest?
I wonder if instead of a Water Buffalo if it might make sense to get a horse. I can’t think of a more enjoyable mode of transport between the two sites. The horse can help with chores on the property, and supply fetilzer.
Plus there is the added benefit of getting a nice lightweight two person carriage. Imagine you and your girl… sunset carriage rides at sunset back and forth. Fresh food from your forest. You don’t have to become Amish. You can still have a car, but the pure enjoyment of commuting back and forth via horsepower, from an animal that will become your friend, with your dogs following along in formation. Ahhhhhhh. Can it get more beautiful than that?
Yes, I have a love affair with horses. They are more trustworthy than most humans.
Be sure to watch Part 2 and Part 3. The Introduction looks pretty rough because we were just getting started. Part 2 shows how things look now two months later. Big difference!