M14 Forum

GeneCo

I wanted to give a pictoral of our homestaead. We'd been looking for a place to settle in and become self sustaining......being a native of Florida, we both love the Gulf, but coming from Central and South florida, decided it was too hot too long( 8 mo out of ther year), so we found this place in the Panhandle. The weather is lot nicer( 2 mo of winter, 2 mo of Summer and 8 mo of Spring and Fall).

So we found 5 acres, half pasture and half woods. well, it used to be all woods and thick brush, but someone had just bulldozed half of it back, so now we have big berms of dirt and piles of trees. Cool instant shooting range and firewood.




So this shed was on the place...



...so I turned it into a chicken coop








And put some chickens in it




Then we got some goats. Some boy goats



And this place was on the property




So we made a girls goat pen




And then got some girl goats


well, we bred the grils to the boys and had some kids






Then we collected some eggs and put them in a incubator



And they began hatching



So we went to the restore and got an old kitchen cabinet and I cut holes in the doors and layed it on its back and we made a brooder out of it...




And then we got rabbits....the DW developed a meat rabbit that would consistantly produce 12-15 babies and they get 4-5lbs at 12 weeks old. We call them Genellies( combining mine and her names)...



Part of our garden last year...

huntinghawk

Excellent pictorials. Are you milking the goats?

HH

GeneCo

Yes Sir, they're dairy goats. we figure we can sustain about 20 on this property without any feed, as they forage quite well....the DW pasturizes all of it and we get cream, butter, cheeses( cottage, cream, soft{motzerella and hard) and she also makes soap( with the milk we can't drink).

Now, I don't like anything that tastes "goaty", but this milk is sweeter than cow's milk. They say it's more easlily digested than cow's milk. They say lactose intolerant folks can drink goat's milk.

Also, since our chickens are free ranging, the eggs have twice the protein and 3-5X the Omega 3 than store bought, not to mention they're days old instead of weeks old.

M1A ricochet

Thats awesome...keep up the good news!

huntinghawk

I would suggest finding a neighbor with a dairy cow & do some milk trading. Unbelieveable the additional varieties of chesses you can do with a combination of goat & cow milk. Plus there is the making of soap.

The young male goats can be butchered in the fall. Same with any young roosters.

But you have two of the most important items for a homestead which is the chickens & milk.

Don't know if you like them, but excess eggs can be turned into pickled eggs.

HH

GeneCo

Yep, all bucks get wethered go into the freezer and so do buck rabbits and roos goes in the stewpot. The good thing is, we can do them young and tender.

Oh yeah, I love pickled eggs, with beets. We can alot of that, also along with Summer fruits.

What we barter for is produce, as it's hard to have a garden with goats. We have neighbors that have gardens instead of livestock, so we both have something the other wants and both can get it fresh.

huntinghawk

Noticed you had some buckets so you might be able to do some tomatoes in them. Maybe a small area well fenced the goats & chickens can't get to them.

54321

Great looking place! Thanks for sharing. We moved away from Pace Fl. 2 years ago, miss our friends dont miss the summer(Westerners at heart). The panhandle is a solid place to have a retreat. Well Done!

Seventh Fleet

That's a mighty fine looking spread you've got there and it's easy to see why you're so proud of it. I originally started out with five acres but through the years I've bought additional acreage and I'm now up to slightly under seventeen acres.

I was born in Bay County Fl but I haven't lived there since I got back home from Vietnam in late 66. I went to Niceville Elementary School and Crestview High School. Your land looks quite similar to where I grew up. All of my kin folks down there are long dead and gone and there's no reason to go back at this late date since I have deep roots here.

IMO the pan handle is the very best part of the state with lots of good folks with their feet firmly planted on the ground and the best parts are in the Bay, Walton and Okaloosa County area. The farther you go South in the state the more Yankee transplants and furriners you begin to see. I totally hate what they've done to the beaches in my home town of Panama City with all of those ugly condos right on the beach.

7th

charlesPOSTLEwade

Wow simply Wow. Thank you for sharing.I love the goats

Whatsinaname181

very cool. im jealous.

parashooter

Yep. Very very cool sir. Thanks for sharing with us. I too am very jealous.

GeneCo

Thankyou....yeah, we want to get it to where everyone is living off the land , without any store bought.

I's born and raised in Manatee/Sarasota county and agree things have changed dramatically. I remember as a kid, we could ride our bikes all up and down the keys and not see any homes. By 10yrs, we all had little skiff boats and cane poles and cast nets and could go all thru the intercoastals with no problems. Folks knew each other then. My grandparents had bait shops and boats to take folks out deep fishing.

This here is in American Farms, if it looks familiar. We're a stones' throw from Nichol's creek, 1/2 mile from the Yellow river, which runs into the Blackwater river, which runs into the Gulf. ALOT of fishing here, fresh and salt and brackish.

GeneCo

Thanks, the bucks are pure Nigerian Dwarfs, the white does are Sanaan and the chocolate brown is a Pigmy....we actually picked up some Nigerian Dwarf does and sold off the Sanaans as we're breeding smaller.

Here's a couple from Johnny, he's a card...

GeneCo

Actually , we got those Topsy Turvy planters, that hang upside down and have them hung high, out of reach. We grow tomatoes, peppers and strawberries. The buckets are gfor water for the critters( goats and dogs).

Speaking of dogs.....












And this freak of Nature...