How do you grow your soil? What does that mean, “grow your soil?” Plants live only from what they can get from the soil and the water they either get from the sky or the irrigation you provide. A tomato is about 95% water. What is the other 5%? It’s the components in the soil that the plant has drawn out molecule-by-molecule. If the “building blocks” of that tomato are not (#1) present in the soil and (#2) are not bioavailable to the plant’s roots, the tomato will not form correctly (PERIOD and END OF SENTENCE).
The summer is over, fall is well underway, and winter is knock, knock, knocking at our door. Most of us are thinking “turkey” and “Black Friday” and few of us are thinking “spring” and fewer of us are thinking “compost.” But those are the two things you need to be thinking of to get the spring garden you really want. Let’s think about this:
The word is getting out. Mulching the garden beds is becoming more and more popular. Nonetheless, I still see bare ground on many gardens and that bare ground is bare due to one of three reasons: 1) Freshly tilled and planted. 2) Intensive weeding all the time. 3) Toxic and cancer-causing poison sprayed on the ground around the plants that provide our food...that we eat...and feed our family with. Yes, I kinda drug out the #3 point. Regardless, why don’t all homesteaders and gardeners mulch their garden beds? Maybe they don’t realize how FREE mulch is.
We live in a world that functions by many systems and our homesteads are no different. Watering, feeding, cleaning, pruning, weeding and a whole array of other chores keeps bowed-up busy each day. And with all there is to do we sometimes (more often than I care to admit) neglect family, friends and even personal time. The day-to-day time commitment the homestead requires makes taking a trip away from the homestead only a dream to be wished for.
We are in the dead of summer right now and it’s been hot…and I mean HOT! Our temperatures here in Southwestern Idaho have been 100° for days and will be 100° or more for days to come. Here’s a question: If you were to neglect your daily homestead chores for one day what would happen to your homestead? It’d be okay, right? What if you were to leave for more than a week?
I have toiled over the idea of creating a self-sufficient homestead for years. What is a self-sufficient homestead? Friend, I have concluded that it does not exist. There is no such thing. Every homestead requires some sort of input. But, isn’t that why we do it? A homestead is not something to create, complete and then wish for the next big thing in life. A homestead is like a never ending piece of pie to be savored season after season. Nonetheless, it requires an input from you and the support of your efforts. Without the sweat from your brow and attention to detail, your homestead would dry up and die. Our goal with “self-sufficiency” in mind is to create a landscape that provides all, most or even much of our basic human needs with as little input from the outside world as possible. This way we can have our pie and eat it too.
5 Steps to Take to Avoid Becoming a Prisoner on your own Homestead
1) Automate Ever System Possible
The sun rises, “moves” across the sky from east to west and sets. This system is automated. That may seem like a no-brainer, but think about it for a moment. What if we had to do something to “light” our plants? Thankfully God has set this automatic system up for us. But unlike sunlight that is a (almost) guarantee, the rest of the homestead’s needs have to be obtained and the systems established by using the resources available to us.
On our homestead, we receive our water from a well and from our water rights (irrigation district). For a while I was moving water hoses all about the homestead and watering the many, many potted perennials waiting for their forever spot on the homestead. We also had plants in their spots and needed a daily drink as they began to settle in. I am ashamed to say, but sometimes I’d be so dog-tired at the end of the day and there’d be a few dry, potted plants that needed a drink. I’d say, “Tomorrow. I’ll get you watered tomorrow.” I’d be too tired and it’d be too late for even one more chore. In contrast, there was this one evening where I set the water on at 6pm and forgot about it. I woke up from the sound of a running well pump at one in the morning. This didn’t happen at first. Watering became an issue after the population of plants exploded. And, we’ll only be getting more (and more and more).
Read More at: https://www.backtothehomestead.com/2017/07/11/homestead-passion-prison/
Chicken Coop Build Underway. I am a by no means a carpenter and this is in no way a how to. Let's say that this is an update by a homesteader who wants to offer a bit of motivation. We didn't finish the coop...that'll probably be next week. We'll see.
Visit us at https://www.backtothehomestead.com
The plans for this chicken coop are found at: http://myoutdoorplans.com/
