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Old 09-11-2013, 18:33   #17
mugwump
Area Commander
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 1,403
Quote:
Originally Posted by craigepo View Post
A. Whether you have a way to keep swine or goats contained?
B. Whether you have a smokehouse or similar building?
C. Whether you have determined a way to operate your water well w/o electricity coming in?
D. Whether you have a home heat source that you can fuel with stuff from your land (wood)?
E. Do you have a root cellar or other structure to use for both storage and protection from dangerous weather?
I bought some farmland about two years ago and we're slowly turning Casa Mugwump into the family retreat. Some time I'll write about my foray into "gentleman farming" as I'd really like to get some advice on homestead security/defense from the hive-mind here. But that's for another day. I have looked into some of the issues above:

A. There is no way to keep goats contained. None. They can get through or over 5-wire barb, chicken wire, tanglefoot and toe-poppers, etc. They will then eat in like 5 minutes all of your new apple trees that you researched and sourced for local conditions and disease resistance and then spent two days planting. Or they'll escape and eat all the poison ivy in the lower pasture and then run over to you and act all affectionate while they smear you with toxic sap. The best solution other than selling the damn goats, and it's a poor second believe-you-me, is 5-wire barb with 2 strands of electrified wire on a solar powered energizer. Note: if you don't alternate pasturage like every 3 days, goats get wormy. Note: the coyotes will dig under the fence. They like goat. A lot. I know nothing about hogs but if they're anything like goats, good luck.

B/E. Nope, no smokehouse or root cellar on my land, and I've never seen one around the area. The farmers around here aren't Little House on the Prairie types. They seem to be more into getting their bacon on Wendy's Double Bacon Cheeseburgers, extra cheese, gimme three, they're small. Now the hippies around Madison, they're likely to have smokehouses and root cellars. And bees. And hemp.

C. If you have 4-6 inch casing that's more than enough room to get a manual pump head onto your well next to the electric pump. I have 6-inch casing and our water table is only 35 feet or so, so that was a pretty easy solution for me. The young couple who rent the house from us did the labor and said it was easy, but the guy is some kind of savant with that stuff so who knows. People have told me that newer wells use smaller diameter casing, though, so keep that in mind. I also pulled the 220V AC pump and replaced it with 24V DC pump fed by a solar system and two deep cycle batteries, but then you need to pressurize a holding tank (with a 12V pump/solar this time) so you get water pressure. That's obviously a more expensive option, especially factoring in the holding tank.

D. Yep, wood stoves and lots of hardwood trees in the woodlots that need thinning.
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