Introduction, A bit about all of us

Discussion in 'Barnyard Basics' started by dilligaf, Oct 29, 2007.

  1. dilligaf

    dilligaf Banned

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    I was born on a small homestead in upstate NY. we had approximately 5 acres and raised goats, cows, horses, sheep, chickens and a whole lotta garden. The homestead was moms idea ,as she was coming of age during the summer of love she came to the realization city life was not for her and moved out to the small town where i was born. Knowing nothing about any pets other than dogs n cats, everything was cute to her and she needed it. Needless to say, i was born right in the beginning stage of her farming days on what was known as the "funny farm". (yes it was a rather funny little farm). Growing up I learned the basics of animals, raising for fun n profit , for food and product. I saw the life and death cycles and the hard work and joy it brought. I did the 4H thing and fairs, suffered in the freezin cold and sweated bringin in the hay . I decided it was too tough a life. As most teenagers do, I ran from the farm life .
    I found myself going to nursing school, had a couple kids, married , divorced and quickly realized that animals were more my forte. Circumstances led me back to a small family run farm. Over the years i worked my way up through the ranks, went to more schooling and seminars and got to see govt testing on animals. (joy joy) Over time the farm grew into more of a factory type farm and after 12 years and differing views on farming , I left.
    In 2002 , i came to the mountains of north GA and began homesteading here. We have about 15 acres nestled into the northern part of the ga mtns and needless to say the terrain and soil are an issue and always will be.
    Currently we have a pig ,11 goats and about 40 chickens and roosters. We also employ two dogs in the protection of both animals and ourselves. All of our animals are raised here for a purpose, none of them are raised for just the fun of having a pet.They either have a job, produce something we use or will become meat.
    In addition to the animals we also have a couple acres of veggie gardens and several herb beds. We grow and change and learn with each season and will keep on doing so in order to diversify and make improvements upon what we are doing here. When you raise your own animals in addition to gardens it makes a nice rounded life in my estimation. You not only grow your food and products but you incorporate them all in way that makes a nice balanced circle if done properly.
    The biggest lesson I personally have learned through the years is that everything ties in together in some way, shape or form. Animals, gardens , living on the earth , environmentalism, you name it . It is all a very precise balancing act that can not be taught in books or otherwise. It is something you truly have to live n learn. That being said,This, isn't going to be the easiest class to get through without actually having the animals in front of us to work with and walk us through hands on . Thankfully the internet has produced some pretty informative, almost hands on things that we can work with in order to demonstrate pretty well. If any one has any sort of question at all during this please ask. If i do not bring something up over the course of this feel free to bring it up for discussion. I hope we all enjoy the lil farm adventure we are about to embark upon and that we can all learn and benefit from it .

    For today ,lets just give an introduction to one another.Perhaps, why you are interested in barnyards friends and what it is you would like to see during the class... your situation at present,rural or city etc,,, and what land if any you have as well as goals for the future. This way i can hopefully tailor some parts more to those of us that are specifically here now in order to make it a bit more personal for all of us. i will be compiling a reference thread here in the next day or two . If anyone has a favorite website or book that they refer to when needing a bit of help , feel free to add to it as well.
    I look forward to sharing my knowledge with everyone here. I know i will be learning as we go along too.
     
  2. hillbillygal

    hillbillygal Member

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    I live in a rural area in TN. We don't have a lot of room but I would like to learn about the different types of livestock. Eventhough I don't have anything now, I would be very interested in having livestock once I have some knowledge about the care and what to expect. Right now I could see us building a small chicken coop but I really need to learn a lot more before we attempt it. I always wished I could say I grew up on a farm (We always had a small garden and barn but didn't really have a "farm") so now I want to let my kids know what the farm life is about. Ultimately, I would like to have the knowledge that my great-grandmothers had when it came to self-suffiency. (My great-grandfather's had the knowledge too but they married younger women so the women ended up doing the majority of the farm work when the husband's were too old to work in the fields.) I look forward to learning with everyone!
     
  3. bunjies

    bunjies Member

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    i live in somerset in the uk.
    i live in a little 2 up 2 down house until i persuade my man to sell up and buy land ;)
    at the moment i have 3 dogs 5 cats 6 rabbits 3 rats and some fishies.
    i used to keep my own sheep, they were fab and for once i could feel 100% gulit free about meat eating because i KNEW exactly how my lamb was reared.
    i have worked on a goat farm, i have kept hens and quail, helped look after alpacas and horses and pigs.
    my father was a cowman and i would like to have a few cows one day, probably english shorthorn or dexters.
    in the spring if i can find some lamb to rent i will be getting some more sheep cos i miss the little buggers! last time i had shetland X gotlands, but the dont flock and i want to train up my bc bitch for shepherding, sooooo this time round i think i am going to get some jacobs or some fat old commercial cull ewes that'll do me proud with a bit of tlc!
     
  4. bunjies

    bunjies Member

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    ooops i forgot to add i mainly joined here because stock keeping seems to have many similarities AND many differences between the UK and the US and i'm a nosey bugger!
    but i would like to know more about keeping piggers as the place i worked where i helped with the pigs wasnt very nice :(
     
  5. philipsburggirl

    philipsburggirl Member

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    Hey guys, I just joined the class today. First of all, I'm 16, female and live in New York. Although I don't have any farm animals of my own (I have two extremely spoiled cats), I work at a historical reconstruction site, meaning we do everything as it would be done in 1750. We have 4 oxen (2 are 2500 lbs each, and the younger ones are about 900 each), 20 chickens (1 rooster), 20 sheep (1 ram), a cow (we used to have a bull calf too, but we sold him) and 3 cats. I know this class is probably more about modern farming, but I thought it still could be informative.
     
  6. dilligaf

    dilligaf Banned

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    hi there. . the historic site you work at sounds wonderful :)If ya dont mind me asking what one is it.I was raised about 10 minutes from one of those places n loved it... Actually what i am attempting to show folks isnt time related .So hope you can get something out of it...
     
  7. ChronicTom

    ChronicTom Banned

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    Hello all,

    I joined up a couple of days ago but was having a problem til I actually read the instructions and saw you need to be in the free school group to post in a class... but you can join the class without being in the free school... lol

    Anyway...

    I'm 36, in Northern Ontario Canada. I grew up in the area. From around 6 til 14 I lived on a subsistence farm, 6 miles from town. We had no electrical service, no water or sewer system. We had a hand pump for water, kerosene lanterns and candles for lights and a pail for a bathroom.

    After spending a couple of years hitchhiking canada, the military,college, and working in Toronto I moved back to Northern Ontario and ran a couple of businesses, worked in real estate, ran a hog farm and played the hermit for a couple of years.

    In all, I have had experience with most typical barnyard animals, and some non-typical, including Emu's. I get along with all animals better then I do with all people. Always have... likely always will...

    This spring we are heading back into the middle of nowhere to start a community, theres a posting about it in the proper folder for that.

    Raising animals and having gardens is central to what we are doing. We will be starting with chickens, goats, pigs and a jersey if we can find a good one. Eventually, this will be expanded to include more cows, Emu's again (awesome animals), geese, ducks, turkey's etc... oh yeah, and bees... (I don't like bees... but thats besides the point, I'll learn to love them... unless of course I die trying, but what the hell, need some excitement... lol)

    Why am I here if I have already done it all? Because you should never pass up the opportunity to learn something you may not know... :)

    Besides... what I know sometimes fades into a smokey haze... being reminded helps... lol
     
  8. dilligaf

    dilligaf Banned

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    glad to have you here Tom. Please feel free to add to this, start a new thread if you would like etc...It takes input from everyone to create something awsome that others can learn from... hmmmmmmmmmm you seem to like emus:D n i dont know much bout them :) hint hint lol

    seriously though please contribute anything you feel would be pertinent to anything i may have ...

    I am working toward something with adding videos to here as well.. i know the site has abilities i just do not quite know how... eventually i shall get it all worked out though;)

    anywho glad to have ya here n again,,, join in n add your input:)
     
  9. Helter-Skelter

    Helter-Skelter Member

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    I'm from Canada, and although it's not my farm, it's my boyfriends, and I live there. We have just over 500 sheep (now) and we're hoping to gt up to 1,000. We also have goats, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, rabbits, and pigs. (And lots of dogs!) It's a good place to be, there is lots of work to be done in a day, but I love the work, and knowing where the food I eat comes from is a lot nicer. :)
     
  10. philipsburggirl

    philipsburggirl Member

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    The farm I work on now has a 2 1/2 week old bull calf now. If anyone has any questions about oxen or farming in the 1700's, I'm more than happy to share my knowledge.
     
  11. shameless_heifer

    shameless_heifer Super Moderator Super Moderator

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    Hi Dilli,
    I've been in your class since ya opened it, I want to say what a wonderful job your doing with the classes, very informitive and an interesting read.

    Of course my asperations to be free in the country can from my hippie beliefs of raising your own, from the 60s. My father wanted to farm, but there was no living to be made from it back in the 40's.. so he just dreamed the dream. I suppose that's where I got my love of the land from as my mother was not as interested in it as my father. They did, however move to the country in 72' but my father was then too sick to enjoy living off the land.

    I returned to Texas after being in Haight-Asbury/Oregon/Ari/NM for 11 astonishing yrs of living a free life as a Hippiechick. I met my Darlin' Lynn, who has been a farmer all his life here in East Texas and we bought us an old farm house with around 8 achers and started filling it up with animals.

    We started with one goat and some fancy chickens our neice Angel had given us, then we got a goose someone had also given us. Then ame the pigs.. three to start with 1 Bore and two sows, then a friend gave us another sow.. we ended up with 164 pigs.. they were Yorkshiers, Longest pigs I ever did see, we finely sold them all when the boys left home.. no help, so those little piggies went to market.

    We had one cow and bred her with a neighbors Bull and started raising cows for a few yrs.. we had 15 cows and they all went to market too.

    As of now, we have around 12 goats, 20 Turkeys, 20 Guinies, maybe 100 chickens..(we just hatch off 60 or so pullets and a couple of hundred to go in the incubators). I have a little Buro, I got for Mothers Day 6 yrs ago, my cute lil ass, Crackerjack. A Black Mare Breeze, 3 rabbits, a cocolate Lab, a pit bull, 5 mini schounzers, 4 chuawuas, a pom, a shitz su, and two cockatiels. I had 5 cockatiels and three parakeets but downsized and now only have two cockatiels. I keep no cats bc I an highly allergic to them.. but there are cats around... Ohh and we raise Koi also, we have three huge ones over two foot long and a school of babies.. the Koi are worth $300.00 apeice and the fingerlings are about $10.00 apeice. It's hard to keep the cranes out of our ponds, one pond has Goldfish for bait we use on the trotlines.

    We also raise hugmungous misquitos and satanic FIRE ANTS, but not by choice.

    We also Garden..My hubby has another 8 achers 3 miles down the road which was his inheritence land. He has his deercamp there and also plants Purple Hull Peas, Corn, Melons/cantaloups, Okra, Sqwash and larger crops. We grow our tomatos, peppers, onions, potatos and beans here at the house, along with our fruit orchard and my berries and grapes. I can all the veggies and make jellies and jam with the fruit, I also make salsa, chunty. picadilly and other misilanious items. I aalso have a passions for flowers and my yard is covered in beautiful blooms almost all yr long. I grow gourds and make birdhouses out of them, as well as make my own soap and beauty aids.

    I love Love Love living off the land.

    Bright Blessings
    sh
     
  12. yugogypsy

    yugogypsy Member

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    I have been doing most of this stuff since I was 10, think I'm in the wrong place!
     
  13. hillbillyhippy

    hillbillyhippy Member

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    My grandparents grew up on farms in virginia and I seek to go back to living like they did. Currently I am in the city and only have a garden, which I am very good at. After saving up some money from joining the air force, and other jobs I hope to buy myself a small farm which I can live on . Something relatively close to a metropolitan area, so that I can still be a tattoo artist. If all else fails I have an aunt in indiana who said if I ever wanted to she would give or sell me some land of her 80 acres.
     

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