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I want to try to start my food growing and hope to develop an execution plan. This would be just for my own family of four's consumption. My goal is to be able to only go to the market for things like oil, spices, sauce, flour, etc.
I currently have land; water is ready (pumped well water). But there is no planting so far; the land is full of grass/weed.
My idea about what to grow:
1. A potato patch (200 sqft?)
2. A corn field (200 sqft?)
3. Vegetable beds growing maybe 20-30 types
4. 10-20 fruit trees
I will build a coop and raise some chicken. Probably need to build a fence to fend off deer. I have high quality fish near by for free. I will buy beef from market if I don't end up having some sheep.
Any suggestion on the homestead plan? Anything else to include? From the day I plant, how long can I start to harvest food? Once planted, can these things "grow on their own" with a lot of attention?
I already suggested quail in another post. You should definitely read up on them as I think they are really hard to beat.
The reason I am replying to this post is to suggest that perhaps you do not have a deer problem. You have a meat-producing field. Sure, you might want to fence off certain areas, but don't be afraid to loose a few veggies to gain a hundred pounds of meat. Or two or three hundred pounds. During normal times when social distancing isn't as much of a concern, would you rather harvest greens which are readily available in high quantity and quality, but buy your meat, or ... would you rather buy high quality greens, but harvest your own highest quality wild game meat?
I suppose there is no wrong answer, but it is something to think about.
Not when the hordes of the city arrive in rural areas.... I posted yesterday on Current Events general discussion CoronaVirus #2...re-posting it here......
In Texas, 10 acres+ and you can shoot on your land......and I hear gunfire frequently.
Nothing is certain but I believe if the city hordes do get out my direction, they will find out just how well armed we are and by that time, we will probably be "irregular forces".
Plus, there's another thing..........fire ants are part of my natural defences.
My parents are in my small, rural hometown area. They are senior citizens. My mom has an autoimmune disorder and is a recent stroke survivor. Definition of high risk.Their local medical clinic is a bare bones triage unit (the full-service hospital closed a decade ago, as is commonplace in rural areas). When my mom had her stroke, she had to be taken to a hospital 75 miles away. The local facilities are insufficient to properly address health complications that are increasingly likely. As has been documented with last pandemics, illnesses such as this take longer to arrive in low-population density areas...but when they do, they are devastating, due to insufficient resources and care.
You're assuming all people are like your parents and move to rural areas or small towns that have inadequate medical care. Many small towns now have excellent medical care because of the large number of seniors moving there, just gotta do some research.......Most people I know who are moving rural are making the hospital/medical care be one of their priorities.....
I would say somewhat. There are probably about 500k in my CSA spread out over an area bigger than NJ with lots of rural mountain land in between the towns. We're more than 75 miles from the nearest metro of consequence at any given point. I'm in Appalachia.
We'll probably have fewer cases per capita here than somewhere like NYC because - 1) we're rural 2) we're not a transit hub 3) we have few travelers from outside the area coming here, and few local residents will be leaving in a time like this.
I think we'll avoid the worst of the disease spread. With that said, if you were to get critically ill, I don't have any confidence in the local healthcare provider to be able to treat it. I've seen medical issues that are relatively simple to treat n a major metro area get referred 4+ hours away frequently.
Our stores are better supplied than what I've seen posted on C-D and what I hear personally among friends in larger metro areas. We're a gun-owning society. Civil unrest or a war on police won't be happening.
I already suggested quail in another post. You should definitely read up on them as I think they are really hard to beat.
The reason I am replying to this post is to suggest that perhaps you do not have a deer problem. You have a meat-producing field. Sure, you might want to fence off certain areas, but don't be afraid to loose a few veggies to gain a hundred pounds of meat. Or two or three hundred pounds. During normal times when social distancing isn't as much of a concern, would you rather harvest greens which are readily available in high quantity and quality, but buy your meat, or ... would you rather buy high quality greens, but harvest your own highest quality wild game meat?
I suppose there is no wrong answer, but it is something to think about.
A lot of people are concerned with availability of medical service in rural areas. I wonder what is considered too far.
If a place is say 150 miles from a major city like NY or SF. Is that considered too far away from medical service?
I'll speak to this.
I live in the Tri-Cities, TN. We are around 100 miles to Knoxville, TN. Most "semi-serious" cases get referred to UT Medical Center. Sophisticated problems often get bounced to Duke, Vanderbilt, or Emory in Atlanta. Asheville NC is closer, but its health system may now be worse than my local system.
My ex turns 26 next month and has lupus, RA, and other medical issues. The lupus steroids caused her hips to essentially dissolve, and no local doctor would do a hip replacement on a high risk patient like her. A Vanderbilt surgeon had her turned around within two hours and no complications. She has other health issues treated with UT Medical Center. Almost none of her care is done locally.
The Vanderbilt surgeon had her walking within a few months (though not walking very far at first) when she was essentially bedbound for a year. If she depended on local expertise, she would not be walking at all.
My mother is 62 and also has autoimmune problems, but she's much better off than my ex is. Mom is also going two hours to Knoxville.
I could give you case after case after case that was bounced to a major metro area because local care was insufficient, didn't have the expertise, etc., to treat the condition.
I already suggested quail in another post. You should definitely read up on them as I think they are really hard to beat.
The reason I am replying to this post is to suggest that perhaps you do not have a deer problem. You have a meat-producing field. Sure, you might want to fence off certain areas, but don't be afraid to loose a few veggies to gain a hundred pounds of meat. Or two or three hundred pounds. During normal times when social distancing isn't as much of a concern, would you rather harvest greens which are readily available in high quantity and quality, but buy your meat, or ... would you rather buy high quality greens, but harvest your own highest quality wild game meat?
I suppose there is no wrong answer, but it is something to think about.
Hope you got the room to store all that meat. I’ve shot deer before and the meat lasts me a long time.
The biggest issue with small towns and Covid-19 is that if you get sick, you're in the worst possible location. Of course, since small towns are more isolated, you're probably less likely to get the virus.
Eventually, though, most people will get it, over the next few years. Most won't even know it.
Oh, it's worse than that, aileesic. Millennials cavort and play because they know if they do get it they are very likely to survive it and be immune for the duration. They see people their grandparents' age as useless. Most of them have no idea who their grandparents are. They see this new flu that will kill millions as a the 'boomer remover". Some think they will be able to just move into an "abandoned" property. Some will get away with it. That happened in 1918 when my grandmother was alive. They would go in and pay the back taxes to the town and the town would give the freeloaders a release deed.
You do realize that millennials are age 24-39, right? Most are working, raising families, and many have no grandparents because their grandparents have been dead for a decade or more. Mine have been dead for 25 years and my sister is a millennial. Our parents are from the beginning of the Baby Boomer generation and are in their 70s. Many of my millennial friends also have parents in their 70s.
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