[Homesteadingfamily] Re: newbie

Hi Jennifer!We have been living the homestead lifestyle for about 15+
years now. I was raised near the city of Atlanta and have always been a
"city dweller". After I married this dear man, who had been raised on a
working farm, he said he did NOT want to go back to that lifestyle...it
is hard! Well, not to bring in religion, but I became a believer in
Jesus about 20 years ago. He put in the desire to live the life that I
had been studying about for many years before. You see, I research
health and nutrition and it's effects on the body, animals and human. I
have been studying this for over 30 years. I use naturopathic remedies
whenever possible and conventional meds last, if a choice. I have also
studied about the sustainable lifestyle. So my preparations began a
loong time ago and we are living that life today.
We do use and enjoy electricity, but heat by wood and use a Heartland
Oval wood cook stove, to cook on as well as heat our home during the
winter. We also have an Lp gas back up for the furnace, should we be
away for a length of time in which the fire would die back and have to
be restarted to warm the house. We have two wells on our property..one
shallow and one very deep, as well as a fast moving deep (seasonally
deep with rains) creek the whole length of our 25 acres.
I am an avid reader and I believe that reading can take one to places
faster, in growth as well as knowledge. So I study many areas of
preparedness. I use the Square Foot Gardening method to grow our
veggies. We have 4-5' X 25' raised beds and a small greenhouse for
seedling starting. I do save seeds, too, from year to year for our
veggies. Around the perimeter of that greenhouse, I have planted
medicinal herbs along with a few flowers for color. :-) We have a small
orchard for our fruits (peaches, apples, pears, figs, concord grapes,
raspberries and blackberries which grow wild, scuppernongs and
muscadines). We only have two Stewart Pecan trees which will probably
not even produce fruit in my lifetime! LOLOL So, this is one area
where we lack....I have to buy raw nuts for storing. I pressure can all
I get from our bountiful beds and share with senior citizens the extras.
I even "can" cakes for a treat and would be happy to share how I do
this, if anyone is interested!
We raise Scottish Highlander cattle for low cholesterol grass fed beef.
We have 5 standard Jerseys for milkers (plus a few mini's), along with
bulls for each breed. So, I make our cheeses, butter and buttermilk,
etc. and we use it raw. I do disease test all of our livestock bi-yearly
for certain things. I am a stickler for health...even in our animals!
LOL We are also a "soy free" farm and use no soy (unless fermented) in
our organic chicken feed, cattle or us.
I am a "talker" (can you tell??? LOL) and I love to learn, so I could
go on and on, but maybe this will give you a picture of how we live.
There is still SO much to learn, though! I really do look forward to
"meeting" each one of you and glean whatever we can from each other.
Things in our world seem to be getting more precarious day by day....and
time to prepare may becoming short!
If there is anything I can help anyone with, just ask!Thank for
listening and allowing me to join your group!~Deb
--- In Homesteadingfamily@yahoogroups.com, Jennifer Llane
<jenniferllane@...> wrote:
>
> Sounds like you have a lot to share. Share please.
> How long did it take for you to get to the point you're at now in your
> self sufficiency?
> It sounds like you are where I'd like to be.
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Deb debsbread@...
> To: Homesteadingfamily@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Thu, October 7, 2010 1:53:51 PM
> Subject: [Homesteadingfamily] newbie
>
>
> I live in the NGA mountains. We raise most all of our food from our
own
> raised bed gardens, livestock and chickens. We do everything here
> natural and organic when possible. We milk our own Jersey cows to
> provide our dairy. We are home schoolers and have our last son, in his
> junior year of high school. I am married with two grown (nearly!)
sons.I
> already prepare to survive what this way comes, but like to gain info
> and ideas from other in this area. We are living in perilous time
> indeed!Thanks for allowing me to join your group!~Deb
>
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