Reluctant Homesteaders Top Ten Tools For Homesteading

Sometimes, as I walk up and down the hill, up and down the hill, I think about the things I use to get things done here at the Homestead.
I have started playing a game in my mind. Like one of those "Stranded on a desert island" games. If I had to pick 10 items to start with on a Homestead, what would I want to have with me?
One of the benefits of blogging is that I get to really pin down my thoughts on a subject, so what better subject to do this with than:

My Top Ten List of Favorite Tools For Homesteading:
(This is a list in which I unabashedly endorse name brands, because I believe in them. I appreciate honest recommendations when I can get them, so I will do the same for you.)

Broadband Internet with WiFi amplifier: I know it's preaching to the choir, but I think the Internet is the single most valuable tool for a Homesteader. Aside from entertainment and providing camaraderie, which helps with the isolation, the Internet makes so much valuable information available to us. Although it may not seem to fit the "down to earth" idealism of getting back to the land, the Internet is the number one way to gain the knowledge we have lost on the way through our industrialized society. When our fore-mothers and fathers moved from the farms to the cities, the knowledge we need now on our Homesteads was lost to most of us. Luckily it was not lost to all of us, and even more importantly we can now share what we do know with each other! I have filled many holes in my farming knowledge with the help of others through the Internet.
The WiFi base is important. I daisy chained two of these so we could get a signal wherever we needed it. That was a boon for us because, until we had a strong enough signal to reach our comfortable living spaces, we had to sit in a field to get a signal.

 

16" Stihl Chainsaw: Stihl chainsaws have always been the best of our assortment. I have seen many brands come and go from the Homestead and Stihl is the one that keeps on working. My favorite is the sixteen incher. It's good for trimming limbs, cutting brush and can do more than it's fair share around the farm. And it's not so big that it wears you out to lug it around. I LOVE the quick chain adjuster.
Maintenance Tip: Take the time to find a supplier of non-ethenol gas to use in your saw. The side effects of ethenol will make your "quick job" a "half-the-day job" as you struggle to get your saw started and run smoothly. Why mess with it?

Snapper Side-Discharge Lawnmower: Many of you regulars can attest to my rhapsodic tendencies when it comes to my mower. Snapper is the only one for me.

4x8 Trailer that can be pulled by a car: Man, do we love our trailer. And when gas prices are high, we love that we are driving cars and not pick-up trucks.

Felco Loppers and Pruners: I cannot stress enough the importance of a quality tool when it comes to pruners! These babies are the best thing since sliced bread. They are expensive as an initial investment but they are fully serviceable with replaceable springs, handles and blades. You will never regret the purchase of these Felco tools and the minute you buy one you will stop using all of your other pruners.
If you have a helper on the Homestead, buy one for them also or you will soon be in a slap-fight over who gets to use the Felco. Every day.
Purchasing tip: register yourself at a wholesale nursery supply where you can get these at a substantial discount. Don't be afraid to ask at the desk. Most are more than glad to make a sale and don't even care if you are a real business or not. They prefer the don't ask, don't tell method.

Cordless Drill/Driver: Cordless is the way to go. Our little Makita can do just about everything we need, and when it can't (like bore a 1" hole through a green 6"x6") Our DeWalt can. The Makita doesn't have a place to stow bits like our DeWalt does. As small of a detail as that seems, it is continually a downer for me when I get somewhere on the Homestead and realize I don't have the star bit or the bit I have in the driver is the wrong gauge. Also, jeans pockets full of bits tend to end up in the washer, not the tool box.
But the Makita has a fantastic light that shines when you pull on the trigger. I love this feature and have used it, like crawling under the house, several times to get out of a dark place.

Loop Handled Wheelbarrow: Although this may seem to be a small feature, believe me, it is worth looking for! We have 5 wheelbarrows and this is the one that wins hands down, because of the looped handles. They afford a tremendous amount of control and never slip out of your hands while pulling it up hills or bumping over rough terrain.
Possible Hack: For those who are taller than 6 foot, I think the handles would work just as well flipped up.

Eccotemp LP Instant Hot Water Heater: Hot water is what keeps a muddy, dusty, cold and doggie life civilized. Not to mention the psychological and sanitary benefits. These units are very affordable and even if you are lucky enough to have a house with running hot water, you could use one of these. Dog baths have never been so easy! I also use it to wash stinky boots properly and hand wash halters and other horse paraphernalia. If you show dogs or horses this would be perfect in the barn.
One Caution: Do not let this unit sit un-drained when it is freezing outside, even just a frost. (And I mean PROPERLY drained, with the little plug on the underside removed and the water supply not only shut off, but open so air can get in. The copper tubing in them is very thin and delicate.)

Good Boots: Good boots make my life so much easier. Here are my favorites. Muck brand rubber boots: They are warm and comfortable with a good arch support. The middle boots are Sorel men's boots I bought on sale. They are my construction boots. I wish they were water proof, but they fit well, and they are comfortable for a 12 hour day.  The furry ones are my newest and favorite. They are Columbia Sportswear and are the warmest waterproof boots I have ever owned. For farm boots they are super cute. Hmmm. In the past I had heels and sandals, now I just wear boots with everything. Well, honestly, I haven't worn a dress in over a year so...

 

Farm Dogs: They're good company and good security. Nothing is more valuable for security on a Homestead as having barking and menacing dogs. Especially when you have no neighbors to keep an eye on the place. They also keep the wild monkeys and rubber chickens under control.


Next post: The Top Ten List of My Favorite Homestead Gadgets!

Our Homestead Anniversary, 5 years and 200 posts

Finally, all the raspberries I can eat.

That's right, this is The Reluctant Homesteaders' 200th blog post! And it has been 5 years, almost to the day, since Buck and I cautiously and at that time, a little reluctantly, took up the reins of my family's dilapidated and blackberry covered Homestead.

 

There had not been a major repair or replacement on the farm for over 30 years.  We had a huge job ahead of us and had enough house rehabilitation experience to know that the obvious visual signs of neglect were probably only the tip of the money and time iceberg. 

In honor of this momentous blip on the work work work timeline I have put together a collection of time lapsing photos of just some of the things we have accomplished here on the land. But there are many things that have gone by on the Homestead without a post or a picture because we are so busy with Homestead work here and $$ work in the world that it scarcely leaves time for writing about it.

 So, here goes my effort to collapse 5 years into our 200th post!

One of the first things we had to do was bring in something to live in. The house on the property had plumbing problems and a leaking roof. It was also completely infested with termites and carpenter ants and was not fit to live in, so we bought this RV off a friend of a friend and they moved it up to the Homestead for us.

What we don't dwell on in our blog is that we were sleeping in our cars until the arrival of the RV. We didn't just wake up one day and say "Let's be Farmers!" Instead we were faced with 3 burglaries of the property in 2 months and the last one was to pull the wire out of the buildings, as Meth addicts are prone to do. We did install a beefy security gate, but it was broken down and then after the third ransacking it became very evident that the pillaging would not stop until someone was physically there to stop the thieving.  So there we were, instant Homesteaders.

Early developments included building a chicken pen, which was meant to be a "tractor" but never was.

 Another thing we did right away was to put in a garden.

May 2009

May 2010

and to plant some apple and pear trees.

 

Then we really got into it and learned how to graft our own fruit trees.

 

Many hardships befell our little trees. Including a bigger tree falling on them and killing 4.

 

But 9 made it to their third year and I finally got them planted on the hill this spring. I would have liked to have gotten them in the ground last year, but it just didn't happen. Most had to be cut out of their pots because they had taken root in the garden, but they transplanted fine and are growing very fast.

 

We started the Hay House pretty early in the process since a Homestead needs somewhere to store feed and hay. The Hay House was literally still standing because I had shoved a 4x4 under the low corner, the year before. That casually placed 4x4 ended up keeping the whole building from shearing sideways and falling down.

2009

2010

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Shortly after the Hay House was finished the Loafing Shed

was constructed to keep Rio dry.

Then Chiquita came to keep him company. 

Then Long John Silver moved in for a little while.

Fun times are often had with Rio, the funny mustang, who never tires of finding things to make us laugh.

For those who don't know, he has turned his halter sideways somehow and thinks it is very funny.

We learned a lesson about raising Heritage turkeys. Just don't.

2010

 Although we would have missed out on knowing Gimpy McGimperson if we hadn't tried raising those delinquent turkeys.

 We have had great success with raising meat chickens under our Cuckoo Merans hens.

And we pursued a harebrained idea I had about making a Micro House out of this 8x12 granary and a 1958 Oasis travel trailer. We named it the Art Shack.

2009

2010

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2011

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2012

2013

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2014

Last month. Starting plants for the new garden at the Art Shack.

The tub at the Art Shack is getting good use.

I discovered that a hedge trimmer does a very good job of getting a giant wall of blackberries down to mowing height. Mowing has been our number one organic method of keeping down the invasive weeds. Without mowing we would make zero progress around here with Herbicides.

I also learned not to leave these tip-rooted plants to just regrow a new wall.

I built my first Top Bar Hive and filled it with bees.

2010-I built my first Top Bar hive

I built 2 more hives and then got stung on the face and had an allergic reaction. Thus Buck became my Deputy bee helper even though I don't think he would have ever pictured himself doing such a thing 3 years before. The same goes for our son Jake.

 

 

I got an idea I might want to roast my own coffee while I was in the middle of nowhere, miles from good coffee and invented a roaster out of a George Foreman Rotisserie Oven.

Since then we have drunk gallons and gallons of home roasted coffee and our son has started an online custom coffee roasting business, Black Market Beans.

 

I planted raspberry plants in my Blueberries and wished I hadn't. Then I planted Raspberries in the back of the garden.

2010

2010

2011 we had only a hand full of berries

2014 more berries than I could eat! QUARTS AND QUARTS.

And I finally achieved my dream of having all the Raspberries I could eat and extra for the freezer.

2014

Now we are expanding the garden with cattle panels to make room for more kinds of berries and to have room for winter squash and cucumbers this year.

We found out that our 2 dogs adapted very well to the farm life.

While our farm dogs grow old, we seemed to keep adopting Rescue dogs that love the Homestead but are not really farm dogs.

Mr. J

 

Ms. Bonnie

 

There is talk here of making a move to adopt a couple of farm dog puppies before our beloved Mr. B (12.5 years)

 and Mrs. B (14.5 years) die of old age.

 If we could afford it, we would clone them!



We also have had to deal with many years of accumulation of what I'm sure seemed like a good thing to save at the time, but was not so great for us, the ones who had to clean it all up.

 The Smoke House is the last existing building from the original Land Claim Homestead. It is very close to collapsing and so it is slated for a renovation. We can't let this piece of history just fall into a pile! Stay tuned for the details.

 

There are so many things that need to be done for this land to function as a real working Homestead. There are also many buildings left to be rehabbed or salvaged. Like this out-building which was originally built for chickens but which now holds an amazing amount of salvaged building material and future usefuls.

 

 I call it the "Junk Zoo" because each category of item is in its own chicken cage inside. Windows in one cage, pressure treated lumber in another and so on. We walk down the center isle looking into each cage to choose the item we need and then unlock the cage door to pull it out. The roof is still good and it's structure is sound but the walls are just chicken wire with old plastic and even though the roof does not leak it is damaged and covered in 5 inches of fir needles on the north side.

 

2014- there is a gate in there if you look closely. There is a pasture past that...I think.

Five years have flown by and we have accomplished a lot, and yet, there is still much to do.
We have, literally, miles of fences that need be repaired or built, acres and acres of land to be cleared of invasive Blackberry and Scotch broom, and some big decisions in the future about the ultimate use of the land.

Do we graze beef cattle or plant orchards or plant alfalfa to be sold on the feed market?
Or do we just realize that a hill of rock is no farm and create a space to be used for workshops and peaceful retreats.

But these decisions are another 2 or 3 years ahead and right now we are keeping our nose to the grindstone and moving in the right direction, "Slowly but surely" as my Granny used to say.