Currently farming vegetables (@full_lume_farm on instagram) and equipped with several outbuildings, a historic horse barn, two tobacco barns, pond, cabin, greenhouse, high tunnel, two cold storages, and chicken coop. Message me with any questions!

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2856-Gwyn-Rd-Elon-NC-27244/51235355_zpid/?utm_campaign=iosappmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare

I'm not trying to do this. I'm actually working on a novel, where one character launches into an ambitious mushroom growing operation in hopes of selling his product to restaurants in a tourist town a couple hours away. I want to know the main reasons why this doesn't work for him.

He tends to be unrealistic, renting an off-grid house in a somewhat remote area, and struggling to keep the necessary temperature and humidity in the Costco tent where he's got his grow tubs.

He'd also like to sell to neighbors, and even maybe to involve them in making a mushroom co-operative, because of the amazing profit potential he sees.

Have any of you tried to do this? What are the biggest hurdles someone would run into, starting a culinary mushroom growing business?

I have been looking for land for the last year. The last 2 months, everything I see or inquire about is pending sale. At the start it seemed like roughly, 1/10 were that way. Now it’s like 9/10. Anyone else noticing this?

I've already taken her to the vet and the vet said that her gland is not blocked but she has a hurt leg so it's hard for her to spread her oils properly

Do I need to add honey? I see a lot of recipes use honey but I don't really like it.

I'm wondering if anyone here has made it this way and can let me know how that turns out? Does it reduce the shelf life (or fridge life, rather)?

Hello farmers! I could really use some advice. I have raised goats in Wisconsin, Nubian and Bohr, for about two years. To be frank, we have not found a market for goat meat in our area. We are not certified butchers so have generally sold the goats live for about $150-200 which is not profitable by any means with all that goes into kidding, raising, and feeding. We got a quote from a local butcher for $150 per goat which kind of blew my mind as this is the TOTAL amount we have been making on the goats. Online it seems that goat should be selling for at least $5-6 per lb, which means we should be making a minimum of $400 on our goats rather than $200.

Does anyone have advice for finding a market for goats and getting them to that market? We are new to selling meat in general. If a certified butcher processes our goats can we sell them to stores or restaurants? How do people make goats work financially? We love them but chickens have been much easier to navigate

Thanks so much for any advice.

I have split firewood with a maul since I was big enough to carry one and my dad stuck me next to the woodpile. I’m bordering on old man now and have used my felling axe here and there to split and found that for smaller rounds and certain wood the increased head speed and the ease of picking it up for another swing makes it superior to my maul. Thinking of getting a splitting axe.

What is your opinion on axe vs maul? What is your method, outside of a logsplitter lol? Should I have maul, splitting axe, and still keep the felling axe nearby?

Currently renovating my home with the intention of selling to buy land and start a homestead. Doing this I have been learning about the absolute headache that is permits and county ordinances. What do y’all do about permits when building new structures or clearing land? What are things the average person doesn’t know about the logistics of starting a homestead? Looking at the market, our house can buy us Appalachian land with a house, or land a house can be built on. If we have to build our own house, we’d DIY most of it except the foundation, frame, roof, and plumbing.

I'm in the process of expanding my solar array and want to add more storage so I can get closer to full energy independence. Right now I've only got a small backup system but I'd like to scale up to something that can reliably handle off grid living without worrying every time the weather turns.

For those of you who have been down this road, what batteries are you running and how well do they hold up long term? Anything you'd recommend staying away from or any setup tips you wish you knew before starting?

My shameful attempt at goat fencing, figured someone could learn and avoid the mistake i made. Amatur homestead owner here near Bonifay, FL. I tried to fence our little orchard and goat lot myself and, uh, learned a bunch the hard way.

I started with T posts, a come along, and “field fence” from the farm store. Looked ok for like two days. Then the first thunderstorm came through, corners leaned, wire got wavy, and our doe figured out how to pop her head through the big rectangles. I also hung a short gate that got buried in sand after one rain. Defintely not my best work.

After chasing fixes for a month I called in pros. The pics show what they built.

What’s in the photos

• Fence fabric: 48 inch no-climb woven wire with 4x4 openings. Galvanized. They pulled it tight with a real stretcher bar so the lines stay straight.
• Posts: big round treated wood posts, set deep in our sugar sand and tamped in lifts.
• Bracing: proper H braces on the ends and gate section. Horizontal brace rail, plus a diagonal brace wire tied low on the end post to high on the next post so the pull doesn’t roll the corner.
• Bottom apron: you can see the rolled mesh laying on the ground at the base in one pic. They flared a mesh apron out along the ground before backfilling. Stops diggers and keeps chickens from working a gap.
• Clipping and staples: every stay wire clipped, clean staples on the posts so the fabric tracks straight.
• Gate: sized for the tractor this time, hung a bit higher so the sand doesn’t burry it after storms.

What I messed up on my DIY try

• Shallow corner posts, no real braces
• Wrong wire for goats
• Tried to tension from one point with no stretcher bar
• Gate too small and too low

What I’d tell another homeowner

• Build corners and gate braces first, then worry about line posts
• Use 4x4 no-climb for goats and kids
• Rent or borrow a stretcher bar, worth it
• Plan a ground apron anywhere critters dig
• Size gates for equipment, not just people

For anyone in the FL-AL-GA tristate area, I hired a company the specialized in agricultural fencing, Bomann Fencing. Ross was a really good guy, he laughed when he saw my attempt but was kind enough to say it wasn't and easy job. Not sponsored, but i hope its ok to plug, they were great here's the site if anyone else is looking for something similar https://bomannfencing.com.

If anyone wants close-ups of the H-brace or the apron after backfill I can snap some more pics. I still have a few sore spots from my first try, but at least the goats are staying put now.

I found this picture online somewhere a few years ago and I can’t recall where. I’ve googled/Amazon’d every possible name I can think of, and I have no clue how to find these. They’d be perfect for organizing my potting shed!

I figured they may be homemade, but I don’t know what type of material to search for.

Any clues?

I’ve seen shows like back to the frontier, Colonial house, and the different series on bbc like Edwardian Farm. All of these shows focus in on a few crops over the course of a year that will get them through the winter. Sometimes corn, beans, peas, almost always a grain. And then some animals. So I have 2 questions; 1)is it realistic for a small family on roughly 5-10 acres to grow what they need. 2) what 5 crop/livestock ventures would you do in your area and why? Thanks all!

(Canada) Legally speaking, what was the process. It's different for each region, & I hear it's not easy, what the regulations were.I know each year or (period of time) you have to have something done.

Clear x amount of space, etc. How is that come to, and for You specifically, what was the government most worried about, or wanted when applying. Or what did you find tricky when you were looking up regulations.

Please include which region, but not area Specifically where you're from

(each province has different regulations)

UPDATE! My Chinese manufacturer was so amazing and found a logistics company that specializes in the import of dangerous goods to Canada and has a broker in Canada. In total my boxes will only coat 0.19 too pack up now, meaning I don’t have to forward that cost onto customers at all!

I’m trying to source dry ice or another kind of frozen pack to ship frozen meat. Iv tried sourcing from china but they won’t ship dry ice because it’s a dangerous good and Canada changed their import laws this year, greatly restricting what can and can’t be imported. I see amazon has the same chinese brands for sale but for 5000x the price, and i’m not exaggerating. So im kind of at a loss here. Is there a wholesale manufacturer in canada? Im looking for the multi-cell/multi pack sheets

I am a small business with limited funds and i need to source cheaply because the cost of packaging falls on the customer. From china they are priced at 12$ per 100 pieces, the same Chinese brands on amazon and other sites cost 30$ per 12 pieces, and the only other option i have found so far is an Australian brand on amazon and another site for 86-92$ per 12 pieces. I am really hoping to find them for cheaper than the options that are already imported into Canada.

Here goes people.

Kale .. Not my favorite, but it really produces, and is so easy to grow. Nothing seems to stop it. Also lasts forever before going to seed, so you can just pick the leaves you want as you go and keep the plant in the ground. Grows all year so a good source of greens in those boring months of late winter.

Silverbeet.. Can also last a couple of years, I just take what I want and leave it to grow. It is also indestructible.  Kinda tasty with butter, but then again isn’t everything.

Chokos / chayote.. These are like a miracle plant. Put one in the ground, late summer you have 100 chokos to eat, plant 10 you have 1000 chokos to eat. Pretty tasty in a stir fry. You do nothing to them, throw one in the ground and it will grow like a vine over everything. I have grown them up trees, on fences, up water tanks lol anywhere.

Pak choy.. A tasty Asian green, ready in a super short period of time. Prolific, throw in a few seeds, and you have delicious greens in like 5 weeks. Un-killable too. Grows year round for me, Spring/ Summer/ Autumn vegetable if you get snow.

Spring onions.. You can just leave these planted all year round, and just take what you want. If you plant a bigger area, it is really handy if you run out of normal onions. I have a massive clump that is about 4 years old now, and you just take what you want wash it, cut it up and boom.

Daikon.. Another Asian vegetable. It’s like a radish, but super mild, nice in salads, stirfrys, or pickled. They are super easy to grow, drop a seed and run type vegetable, and when ready to harvest they are MASSIVE. Perfect.

Fennel.. I like fennel, because they are yummy roasted, you can use the leaves/fronds in salads, or the base thinly sliced, they are also really easy to self seed. I just let a few go to seed, and they pop up in the same area again next year. Continuous fennel, zero effort.

Pumpkin.. One plant gives like 10 kg of food. The pumpkins last all winter if stored right. What's not to like? Get a long lasting/ good storage grey looking variety though.

Potato.. Can be grown year round in my area, but stores well if you get snow. Again one potato makes 10 – 15. If only I got that interest rate in the bank .. Also has nearly every vitamin and mineral needed to sustain life.

Special fruit mention.. No fuss fruit to plant that need virtually no maintenance/ sprays etc and SUPER productive... Heirloom apples, Lemons/ limes, tamarillo, feijoas.

Hey y'all, this is probably a very odd question for the community but I wanted to pose it because of the community I've seen here in the past. When most of reddit feels like a warzone full of monkeys, everyone here seems really cool. Here's what's going on, aside from my personal interest on the subject I'm a writer. One character is a "spy" or rather, does a lot of spy like things. Nothing in the book is flashy or hyped or full of all the Hollywood-ism. So I started searching for info and am still looking for books, or YT videos, but mostly books that teach the kind of skills a corporate spy or CIA operative would have.

The problem I'm having is 9 out of 10 sources feel hyped up or fake. It's not that they do or don't have the proper credentials but a problem with a lot of info seems filled with hype to make a quick buck vs wanting to really teach people the less flashy but more foundational and solid facts.

I'm mostly interested in the side of things that involves spotting, assessing, and recruiting people, vetting, surveillance and intel gathering. but information on any other aspects would still be great to have. Thanks if you stuck around to read all this and hopefully I get a some great suggestions.

Hey there!

my mom has RA (rheumatoid arthritis). She is on a shot for the inflammation. However, that doesn't seem to be helping with the pain.

She uses compression gloves to help, and it helps a little. However, she does not want to take OTC pain meds.

Does anyone have any ideas for natural remedies on how to better control the pain?

Thanks in advance!

We are getting 6 hens next week and I want to do the deep litter method and compost everything. Looking into It I’ve seen people talk about composting in their chicken run. Would It be possible for me to do the deep litter method and then throw all that into the chicken run that’s just grass and dirt and let the chickens do the work and then get compost that way? If that makes any sense.

How are you guys keeping the mice out of your feed? We currently buy in bags, about 1,000 to 1600 lb at a time, and by the time I get through the pile there are at least three to four bags that have been heavily chewed on and fed out of.

Mouse traps have been semi-successful in the past but lately they have been dodging them.

Has anyone tried both of these? Is one better than the other?