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General Homesteading thread

OffgridK9lover said:
they both use different principles and each has their draw backs and benefits, ram pumps you need head pressure, but they can move more volume, bubble pumps move less but only need compressed air and only enough to force it in the pipe.

Bubble, easiest to slap together with minimal stuff, ram pump needs some infrastructure and more complicated
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Nice vids cool stuff!!
 
Bloodwolf said:
And garlic. Slave labor in prisons to be peeling it by hand and no knives .
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I buy US or Mexican produce. Unless I need uncommon ingredients. Preferably I go to the farmers market when its in season because Maryland weather is TEMPERAMENTAL I don't think spring actually sprungs until late March/April here usually.
 
tsbbreirei said:
Deep well pumps have few enough parts and are common place enough to where I'd relent and get something fabricated with longevity in mind and under warranty.

But you're absolutely correct the general design is quite simple. Honestly simple and smart is the best way to do it. Not discounting the complexity of forward thinking to minimize wear and tear on the homesteaders body but hopefully everyone's goal is to work only as hard as necessary and as intelligently as possible.
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For most. It’s not as easy here. That’s one thing people need to consider. Mine is 400 feed down to the table and straight through lime stone. Most places here require bore holes. Once it’s done that’s it. However, at a cost of 12gs
 
For most. It’s not as easy here. That’s one thing people need to consider. Mine is 400 feed down to the table and straight through lime stone. Most places here require bore holes. Once it’s done that’s it. However, at a cost of 12gs
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It's definitely easier up here. Water is invaluable. Probably best to utilize as much viable passive collection as possible. But I'm unfamiliar with your temperate zone and the composition of the soil in the geology of your area.

Something to consider if I move away from here for certain tho.
 
In case anyone else was ignorant of the name behind these methods.

The Polyface Farm method, developed by Joel Salatin, is a method of farming that aims to "mimic nature” rather than fight against it, focusing on sustainable and organic farming practices. This method is characterized by its commitment to keeping the environment as close to its natural state as possible.

This is accomplished through a number of strategies:

1. Diversification: Instead of focusing on one specific crop or animal, the Polyface Farm method encourages farming a variety of plants and animals. This leads to a more balanced ecosystem and reduces the risk of catastrophic loss due to disease or pests.

2. Rotation: Salatin's method promotes frequent rotation of animals and crops. For instance, cows are moved to fresh pasture often, which naturally spreads their manure and provides better nutrient distribution. Chickens follow the cows, eating leftover grains from the cow manure and further fertilizing the soil. This strategy reduces the need for artificial fertilizers and promotes richer, healthier soil.

3. Local consumption: The Polyface Farm method strongly believes in serving local markets. Salatin argues that food should not travel long distances and instead should be consumed as close as possible to where it is grown.

4. Grass-fed animals: Salatin argues that animals should be fed food that is natural to their diet. For instance, cows are ruminant animals designed to eat grass, so Salatin feeds his cows primarily on grass rather than grain.

5. Chemical-free farming: Salatin's method rejects the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, seeking to work with nature rather than against it.

These methods work together to create a farming system that is more sustainable and beneficial to both the environment and the local community.
 
Evidence of the harmful effects of tilling.
 

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You left out one of the largest benefits of rotational grazing, parasite control, by practicing proper rotational grazing you can have a severe adverse affect on the life cycle of most worms, this in combination with holding live stock off grass that has dew on it and developing and using more pest resistant livestock can reduce and even eliminate the need for artificial wormers.

A woman I dated introduced me to black walnut husks as a wormer substitute, peel them and grind them and powder it on feed, it actually works well in conjunction with rotational grazing as a near total pest control solution.
 
OutFarming said:
You left out one of the largest benefits of rotational grazing, parasite control, by practicing proper rotational grazing you can have a severe adverse affect on the life cycle of most worms, this in combination with holding live stock off grass that has dew on it and developing and using more pest resistant livestock can reduce and even eliminate the need for artificial wormers.

A woman I dated introduced me to black walnut husks as a wormer substitute, peel them and grind them and powder it on feed, it actually works well in conjunction with rotational grazing as a near total pest control solution.
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It was just a brief summary on general techniques in this specific method but please keep the facts coming we love that s***

It is very impressive how far you can get just by acknowledging and trying to take care of the soil life web because it will interdepend on the plant and livestock life webs as well. They all interdepend which sounds like new age hippie bs but it's literally how nature works
 
OutFarming said:
You left out one of the largest benefits of rotational grazing, parasite control, by practicing proper rotational grazing you can have a severe adverse affect on the life cycle of most worms, this in combination with holding live stock off grass that has dew on it and developing and using more pest resistant livestock can reduce and even eliminate the need for artificial wormers.

A woman I dated introduced me to black walnut husks as a wormer substitute, peel them and grind them and powder it on feed, it actually works well in conjunction with rotational grazing as a near total pest control solution.
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After watching a horse who had grazed under a black walnut (just grazed under it, not ate anything of it) literally take a step and collapse screaming after she literally picked up her foot and left her hoof sitting in the previous footprint, I'd trust that concept just about as far as I can toss the empire state building one-handed. (the horse was put down minutes later - she had no realistic chance of recovery without insane amounts of money for months, if not years, of intensive care and treatment to try to prevent infection from taking her out during the time the hoof wouldneed to regrow) Juglone (the chemical involved) is so bad for horses that you can't even stand one on shavings contaminated by (depending on which study you prefer) about 3-5% percent by weight of black walnut "scrap" - sawdust, leaves, bark, hulls, etc - for more than a few minutes without expecting nasty results.

Don't take my word for it, though - A quick google/bing/DDG for "black walnut toxicity horse" will turn up more material than you can hope to read in a lifetime on the subject - all of it agreeing that it's BAD NEWS for horses. The question among the experts isn't "IF" it's bad, it's "just exactly how bad is it?" The answer, unfortunately, is "anywhere from pretty bad to absolutely devestating".
 
UR20Z said:
After watching a horse who had grazed under a black walnut (just grazed under it, not ate anything of it) literally take a step and collapse screaming after she literally picked up her foot and left her hoof sitting in the previous footprint, I'd trust that concept just about as far as I can toss the empire state building one-handed. (the horse was put down minutes later - she had no realistic chance of recovery without insane amounts of money for months, if not years, of intensive care and treatment to try to prevent infection from taking her out during the time the hoof wouldneed to regrow) Juglone (the chemical involved) is so bad for horses that you can't even stand one on shavings contaminated by (depending on which study you prefer) about 3-5% percent by weight of black walnut "scrap" - sawdust, leaves, bark, hulls, etc - for more than a few minutes without expecting nasty results.

Don't take my word for it, though - A quick google/bing/DDG for "black walnut toxicity horse" will turn up more material than you can hope to read in a lifetime on the subject - all of it agreeing that it's BAD NEWS for horses. The question among the experts isn't "IF" it's bad, it's "just exactly how bad is it?" The answer, unfortunately, is "anywhere from pretty bad to absolutely devestating".
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Not afraid to admit my ignorance and lack of experience with animal husbandry that is cool to know. Sounds like something to just be avoided if you have horses.

Seems like an old practice that got disproven by the science.

This is also one of those drop a link threads so we'd appreciate it if after you stated a fact that you'd drop a link for it.

Hopefully this stays a neutral zone and a good jumping off point for zoos interested in homesteading and animal husbandry

Black walnut: a toxic horse bedding

Identifying Large tree with big, round and symmetrical canopy appearance Leaves consist of 11 to 13 leaflets that are long and toothed Dark brown to nearly black, deeply furrowed bark Flowers appear in April through June Dark shavings
extension.umn.edu extension.umn.edu
 
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tsbbreirei said:
Not afraid to admit my ignorance and lack of experience with animal husbandry that is cool to know. Sounds like something to just be avoided if you have horses.
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That would be a reasonable summary. Basically, horses and pretty well anything to do with black walnut trees should be kept as far apart as possible. (including, to my absolute astonishment when I first read about it, the GROUND around where a black walnut tree once grew - depending on which study you like best, anywhere from 5-15 years after the actual tree is gone, the roots left in the ground "leak" juglone in high enough quantity to the keep the ground where it once stood a danger zone for horses)
 
OffgridK9lover said:
Long story short: Some people near by me, (Non zoo) got a nice Fuck you from power company (they're supposed to read meter and warn if amount gets over 1k, they did neither) So they got a 3k bill out of no where due to lazy company. Well they know I told power company to fuck off years ago. So they wanted to do the same, being rural they don't need to grovel to a city or any thing.

So not having to deal with codes and policies meant to chain you to leaches and demand you bleed for them.

So with that, one can throw together a livable power system for apx 6k dollars. That will be 240/120 @ 6kw

2Kw's of solar in this area costed apz $1700 Cad (this is scalable, you can buy 1kw to start and add on as needed, all though it is ideal to build array in one go as less head aches matching panels)

Inverter, Chinesium Hybrid (Built in AC charger, and Solar controller) 6Kw split phase dual chargers
(How they make these is they take 2* 3Kw Hybrids and put it in one case and do all the seting up for you in the box)

- Flooded lead acid batteries, 2K dollars new 8 * 6v 225AH = 48V at 225AH, Now here where it gets complicated and some tricky balancing needs to be done, for best life, you never want to take your batteries much below 25% for flooded batteries, so 225 * 0.25 = you'd only have 56AH usable for best calendar life, that is not much at all, So most chose 50% depth of discharge, this will give you middle of the road life (Apx 10 years)

Type: Traction battery (True deep cycle) Can be paralleled up to 3 (As per manufacturer) Actual up to 4. ( 4 * 6v 225AH = 6V @ 900AH )

Options? Fork lift Batteries (Best bang for the buck, and sized right can last up to 20+ years)

Enhancements? Single point watering system, Strongly recommended ; Cell Balancers, Strongly recommended (Imbalance is what often kills a battery bank the fastest)

Pros of FLA? Resilient, hard to kill, tolerates rather good screw ups, not very sensitive to temperatures. a good beginners battery, and cheapest per watt.

Newer tech? Lithium Iron Phosphate

Pros: can be used to 80% depth of discharge with no affect on life cycle count so you buy a 200AH LiFePO4 you get 160Ah usable, Fast absorption of power from solar panels, Long lived, will not catch fire like other lithium techs.

Cons: Cost, High initial cost (slightly higher than lead acid now days) , more temperature sensitive, must be kept above 5c. Must have a management system (commercially made ones come with it)

So what is the best choice? Depends on what you have available, Lead acid is easy to get, easily to change around as needed as you learn how much power you need for your life style, As such I oft recommend people start with lead acid while they learn, once you hit a happy medium start saving money for a lithium bank when the lead acid finally fails.

Now days Inverters especially hybrids are getting cheap, So you want to invest the bulk of your money on a good reliable inverter, next will be the solar panels, third is wire, you want a good heavy gauge wire, this is the cause of poor performance of systems is under sized wiring.

My rule is no less than 2 awg for the system core, no matter the voltage, so that means 2 awg wire from the solar panels to the charge controller (if separate from inverter) to batteries to inverter. but practicalities come in here, higher voltage is your friend, most charge controllers can take up to 100 or better volts, this allows much smaller wire per watt from your solar panels to charge controller / Inverter.

but to get your feet wet, you can cobble together a workable if not enjoyable system fairly cheaply, in that case I can tell you I was rather comfortable off a 540w array and an 12V 1800w modified sine wave inverter, and 6 * 6V 230ah flooded lead acid batteries.
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I call BS on LFP batteries not catching fire. I have a 30,720 Wh bank of them connected to my off-grid solar array system and it just decided to go up in flames one day after working fine for 5 years! It took the fire department forever to put it out. :( Thankfully they had a 10-year warranty on them so I got them replaced but my solar shed took some major damage.
 
OffgridK9lover said:
Well they can smoke and swell, but unlike Lithium Polymer they do not "explode in flames" this heat can spread to other flammable things, the plastic cases ones can burn if the fault persists

I'd love to hear more details of your set up to do a failure analysis.

ANY battery bank should be in an Isolated area from every thing ells, no matter the tech it should be in fire box. atm I am taking epic risk by not having my lithium polymers in a box, I am starting to make a fire box for them.
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As you can imagine mine cost a lot more than the system you described! I've done everything myself with help from YouTube and forums. ;)
 
Yeah, I don't want to hijack the thread talking just about solar but the fire was just at the beginning of February and I'm in the process of redesigning everything. The system was 12V and now it will be 48V. I just bought an EG4 3kW Off-Grid Inverter. I had Renogy everything before. The fire department destroyed just about everything I had in the shed. I'm so glad I didn't decide to put everything in my attached garage like I almost did. A fire cabinet or some kind of fire suppression system is definitely something I'm thinking about too. I think a cheap Chinese BMS is what started the fire in one of the batteries and because they were connecting in parallel and charging it just kept smoking and heating up until it burst into flames.
 
wishboner said:
Yeah, I don't want to hijack the thread talking just about solar but the fire was just at the beginning of February and I'm in the process of redesigning everything. The system was 12V and now it will be 48V. I just bought an EG4 3kW Off-Grid Inverter. I had Renogy everything before. The fire department destroyed just about everything I had in the shed. I'm so glad I didn't decide to put everything in my attached garage like I almost did. A fire cabinet or some kind of fire suppression system is definitely something I'm thinking about too. I think a cheap Chinese BMS is what started the fire in one of the batteries and because they were connecting in parallel and charging it just kept smoking and heating up until it burst into flames.
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Please side bar for solar if you want. It's a viable homesteading technology
 
OffgridK9lover said:
If you are in the states you can get some Halon 1211 automatic system, clean agent and very effective!

and ya, I suspected the BMS would been the likely source, all ways want to incorporate a temperature fail safe, any BMS you get you want to have that feature.

www.herbertwilliams.com

6 lb FM200 Automatic fire extinguisher Class A & C 139 cuft Class B 139 cuft

SFS 6 lb FM200 TORRENT SERIES Automatic Clean Agent Fire Extinguishers Class A & C 139 cuft Class B 139 cuft Automatic fire extinguishers act fast to stop fires before they can spread and damage your assets. With discharge times of 10 seconds or less, installations benefit from fast response...
www.herbertwilliams.com www.herbertwilliams.com
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Worked in tech. EXTREMELY EFFECTIVE FIRE SUPPRESSION. don't breathe it in obviously but it will make plastic brittle and easy to break so use caution and just be aware of the effects.
 
UR20Z said:
After watching a horse who had grazed under a black walnut (just grazed under it, not ate anything of it) literally take a step and collapse screaming after she literally picked up her foot and left her hoof sitting in the previous footprint, I'd trust that concept just about as far as I can toss the empire state building one-handed. (the horse was put down minutes later - she had no realistic chance of recovery without insane amounts of money for months, if not years, of intensive care and treatment to try to prevent infection from taking her out during the time the hoof wouldneed to regrow) Juglone (the chemical involved) is so bad for horses that you can't even stand one on shavings contaminated by (depending on which study you prefer) about 3-5% percent by weight of black walnut "scrap" - sawdust, leaves, bark, hulls, etc - for more than a few minutes without expecting nasty results.

Don't take my word for it, though - A quick google/bing/DDG for "black walnut toxicity horse" will turn up more material than you can hope to read in a lifetime on the subject - all of it agreeing that it's BAD NEWS for horses. The question among the experts isn't "IF" it's bad, it's "just exactly how bad is it?" The answer, unfortunately, is "anywhere from pretty bad to absolutely devestating".
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I once saw a guy's head explode while he was drinking water from a canteen, clearly drinking water from a canteen is super dangerous.

I am confident grazing under the walnut tree was the only factor involved.

Any worming method is by definition toxic, most medications of any kind are toxic depending on dosage
 
OutFarming said:
I once saw a guy's head explode while he was drinking water from a canteen, clearly drinking water from a canteen is super dangerous.

I am confident grazing under the walnut tree was the only factor involved.

Any worming method is by definition toxic, most medications of any kind are toxic depending on dosage
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If we could please, sight the sources for our perspectives and keep it civil. I'd be most grateful. We can tear each other up in the dumpster. Lets learn and share here together please.

Anyone speaking in terms of equestrian husbandry from experience has valuable anecdotal evidence that is admittedly out of my league, we can draw our own conclusions and go from there.
 
tsbbreirei said:
If we could please, sight the sources for our perspectives and keep it civil. I'd be most grateful. We can tear each other up in the dumpster. Lets learn and share here together please.

Anyone speaking in terms of equestrian husbandry from experience has valuable anecdotal evidence that is admittedly out of my league, we can draw our own conclusions and go from there.
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My source is 30 years of animal husbandry, I've owned at least one horse continuously since I was 5 years old.

Hoofs don't fall off due to poisoning in my experience that's either a symptom of hoof rot or severe infection or truly severe and massive trauma to the hoof.


Possibly from snake bite but that's an extremely unlikely case.
 
OutFarming said:
I once saw a guy's head explode while he was drinking water from a canteen, clearly drinking water from a canteen is super dangerous.
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Talk as much stupid as you like, the facts remain fact - A horse that escaped the pasture to the front lawn where a black walnut grew and spent some time grazing under it developed acute laminitis within 18 hours of the event - laminitis so severe that she literally stepped out of her hoof less than 24 hours later. Black walnut trees are *LONG* known to be dangerous to horses - whether they eat them, or just stand on shavings that include black walnut for a short time.

And then you come along claiming to actually *FEED* it to them?!?!? Are you out of your everlovin' MIND?!?!?

OutFarming said:
I am confident grazing under the walnut tree was the only factor involved.
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And I'm confident that it's the only reasonable explanation for an otherwise healthy horse to develop such a severe case of laminitis in such a short amount of time. Especially when the many reports of horses exposed to black walnut developing the same symptoms within hours of such exposure match in every significant detail.

OutFarming said:
Any worming method is by definition toxic, most medications of any kind are toxic depending on dosage
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When you can give me *EXACT* details of *SAFELY* using black walnut as a horse wormer, we can talk. Until then, I'll continue the current-best-known-practice of keeping horses as far from black walnut trees as practical, and using wormer that isn't likely to kill them instead.
 
UR20Z said:
Talk as much stupid as you like, the facts remain fact - A horse that escaped the pasture to the front lawn where a black walnut grew and spent some time grazing under it developed acute laminitis within 18 hours of the event - laminitis so severe that she literally stepped out of her hoof less than 24 hours later. Black walnut trees are *LONG* known to be dangerous to horses - whether they eat them, or just stand on shavings that include black walnut for a short time.

And then you come along claiming to actually *FEED* it to them?!?!? Are you out of your everlovin' MIND?!?!?



And I'm confident that it's the only reasonable explanation for an otherwise healthy horse to develop such a severe case of laminitis in such a short amount of time. Especially when the many reports of horses exposed to black walnut developing the same symptoms within hours of such exposure match in every significant detail.


When you can give me *EXACT* details of *SAFELY* using black walnut as a horse wormer, we can talk. Until then, I'll continue the current-best-known-practice of keeping horses as far from black walnut trees as practical, and using wormer that isn't likely to kill them instead.
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Never claimed to feed it to horses and don't, horses are gastrics and have issues with many commercial wormers and some antibiotics that I use on ruminants but again something else was going on for the hoof to come off.
 
OutFarming said:
Never claimed to feed it to horses and don't, horses are gastrics and have issues with many commercial wormers and some antibiotics that I use on ruminants but again something else was going on for the hoof to come off.
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What did you mean by sprinkling on feed then?
 
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