is this the right forum for what intrests me?

[keith44]

Hello everyone,
My wife and I have moved onto 12 acres we purchased, built a house on, and now our first spring is here.  What we have in mind for this place is a self sustaining or perhaps subsistence farm.  We will eventually have hens, for eggs, multiple garden plots, and fruit trees as well as blueberry bushes, and grape vines, and blackberries. 

There are about 9 acres of woodlands on our "wanna be a farm" (our name for the place) that I intend to maintain for wildlife habitat, and wood source for our use.  I will start on a root cellar later this spring, and hope to have enough storage for at least 9 months of veggies that we grow.

While we do not intend to be totally off grid, it is our goal for the water and electric supplied by the county to be more of a luxury than nececity.

So is this where I need to be, or is another forum more appropriate to my interests?

Keith

[Graybeard]

Sure this forum is right for a lot of that. We also have a gardening forum that has a lot of helpful stuff on it. Between the two they should cover about all your bases.

[keith44]

nice place you've built here Bill.  All the forums of varied interests in one place.  My hat's off to ya.

[Hit or Miss]

Cool beans!!  I figure the more the merrier here!  Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.  I'm working on my "farmette" here in a small rural town.

[bilmac]

I'm starting on a place with most of the same goals. I was gonna build a cabin this spring.  Looks like I'm gonna get a new hip joint instead. When I build it will be built into a south facing hill with windows for passive solar heating. So far I have been getting by without AC power, using solar panels to run a camper trailer.

[keith44]

Hit or Miss,
What are you doin on your farmette?  Critters, veggies, grains, mixed? Do you market your stuff, or just try to produce just what you need?

When I start my root cellar I'll post pics, and design ideas.

Bilmac,
best of luck with that hip hopefully you'll be able to build that dream of yours too.

Keith

[Hit or Miss]

Right now I'm working to grow as much as I can in the garden and can it for later use and fresh eating.  I'm toying with growing chickens for meat and have a ready made location all set up for rabbits we can use.  I live in a tiny town that I grew up in in the middle of farm country so......  What I see for the future is going to have to be something involving most of the people in town and the surrounding area.  I'd be willing to bet there are more cattle in one square mile than people in this town!  As for grain, there is about 1 million bushels of grain storage in the two grain elevators a couple of blocks from my house!   Both of which I have worked in in the past.  Wheat, corn, soybeans and milo are the crop of choice in this area. 

[keith44]

hmm, sounds alot like home, western Ky, and sounds alot like where I am.  Growing (or at least making an attempt to) enough food for a year, and storing it in the best possible condition.  Small quantities of excess will be offered to friends, family and neighbors (in no particular order).  If we have large quantities, I'll commision it to a local farmers market, Oh and we're planning on selling pumpkins right outta the patch, and or off the front porch 

[Couger]

Hello everyone,
My wife and I have moved onto 12 acres we purchased, built a house on, and now our first spring is here.  What we have in mind for this place is a self sustaining or perhaps subsistence farm.  We will eventually have hens, for eggs, multiple garden plots, and fruit trees as well as blueberry bushes, and grape vines, and blackberries. 

There are about 9 acres of woodlands on our "wanna be a farm" (our name for the place) that I intend to maintain for wildlife habitat, and wood source for our use.  I will start on a root cellar later this spring, and hope to have enough storage for at least 9 months of veggies that we grow.

While we do not intend to be totally off grid, it is our goal for the water and electric supplied by the county to be more of a luxury than nececity.

So is this where I need to be, or is another forum more appropriate to my interests?  Keith 

Welcome to GBO and congrats on the 'castle' and the 'estate.' 

Have you thought about erecting a windmill to generate electricity?  And a pond (or sistern)?  Look into building a pond with enough pressure coming from a 3/4in pipe to run a smallish generator.  Also a ram pump to lift water if needed.   

[keith44]

we're thinking solar and battery array, with pond.  I'm looking into ram pump, can't find much in my area as far as parts and designs

[bilmac]

It's pretty easy to build a ram pump out of standard plumbing parts. I made one that I used last season that pumped 100 gallons an hour. I used plastic valves however and one broke right at the end of the season. This year I'll start again with brass valves.

[keith44]

piping is easy, so are the layouts for the stand pipe, supply, drive and discharge pipes, the hang up I'm running into is the impetus valve, and air chamber assemblies, basically the ram itself.  Can they be purchased on the internet, or do you have to make it yourself?

[bilmac]

Google Homemade Hydraulic Ram Pump. Their instructions originally used a modified check valve. That whole set of instructions has been removed from the net. A new set replaced it that uses a swing check valve which isn't modified and is a common valve. I haven't tried it yet with a swing check, but I have the parts to rebuild next spring.

[Bugflipper]

There is a lot of info about ram pumps on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ram+pump&aq=f
 Here is a little info from clemson on a plan. http://virtual.clemson.edu/groups/irrig/Equip/ram.htm

On the root cellar my advise would be to build it bigger than you initially think you need. Store a whole lot of food. When you get the next crop in use the older stock as animal feed. I keep 1 year extra in case of crop failure. So in essence I usually have a 2 year supply. The 3 year old stuff goes to  the animals. A root cellar can be as simple as a buried shipping container. Just be sure whatever it is that you are able to keep rodents out. Here is a little info on root cellars. http://www.tribwatch.com/rootcell.htm BTW a very humid one will rust up the tops on canned goods so you may want to build a dry area in a wet cellar if you want fresh and canned in the same one. I do only a dry cellar because I store dried meat in there as well. It would mold up. And the lids on the jars would rust through in a year or two if I did a wet one.

[keith44]

bugflipper, you are about to make my buddy list!!! Thanks a bunch for the links and info.definately food for thought.

Bilmac, thanks for the input as well.  I will be looking real hard for these parts!!