Anna Morong

I milk my cow by machine, then have about two gallons of water with dish detergent and a hint of chlorine beach to pour out after cleaning the machine. I’d like to plant a nice little garden next to my milking parlor with plants that will enjoy being watered 2x a day and aren’t too fussy about the detergent and bleach. So what sort of flood- tolerant, unkillable plant monsters can you recommend? USDA Zone 5a, temperate forest climate, shade hardy would be a plus.

And yes, I’m aware I could handmilk but my cow lets down much much better for the machine. I machine milk when she is producing 2+ gallons/ milking and then handmilk once her production drops and she gets less picky about “get it out - NOW!”.

Thank you, this is so helpful! I’m growing amaranth this year for the first time and I hear it takes about a month to get going, during which time it has to be weeded and messed with. With little kids, I don’t want to set myself up for endless hoeing. But… I’m pretty sure I can talk my tots into filling seedling trays with potting soil

I’m considering starting a bunch of plants before transplanting outside. But I like to be local and sustainable. So to want to make a habit out of transplanting, I would need a DIY mix to start my plants in that can be made from stuff I have. Possibilities:

compost made from manure from goats, pigs, cows, horses, or poultry.

Rotten hay

Sand

Leaf compost from oak, maple, cherry trees

Am I like to be able to make a decent potting mix out of this stuff? Pasteurizing it would not be a problem.

After some thought, I also wanted to ask if you have ever considered whether you might have an anxiety disorder. I have an anxiety disorder, and I find it a common misconception that those with anxiety worry “excessively” or that our concerns are irrational. However, that is not really what an anxiety disorder is about. There are huge existential threats out there. It is helpful to worry about them enough to plan for them and work to mitigate risks. None of that is excessive or irrational. BUT, when concern for the future interferes with enjoying the present, it could be a cause for concern. In modern day America, far more men die of stress-related conditions like heart disease than of starvation or freezing to death. Stress and overwork is a clear and fatal threat far more than food security, and perhaps more than warmth. It makes little sense to prepare for SHTF if that means facing it alone because you failed to learn sustainable relationship skills or how to balance the present with the future. I’m getting to the point where I’m realistically assessing my ability to provide for my family if SHTF. And I’ve gotten the chip off my shoulder and realized that those “soft skills” I thought wouldn’t matter when we have “bigger problems” have actually been prioritized by most societies which succeeded at lower levels of tech. Many Native American tribes run by consensus managed to live for millennia and have enjoyable lives with time for the average person to pursue crafts like quillwork or to fulfill spiritual needs through elaborate ceremony. By contrast, authoritarian societies in the Near East obsessed with physical security (having massive granaries and armies) degraded their land leaving the average person’s life short and impoverished, with a continual Red Queen problem going on between petty warlords each attempting to establish their family for all time. The pursuit of security at the expense of the here and now can result in less security. It has even been argued that our current social, political, and economic problems have their roots in the unbalancing of the need for physical security from the need for human connection and community. On a personal level, researching into these trends has led me to realize that the #1 thing I need to make my family sustainable is to make being sustainable fun for us all- even when doing not fun stuff. And that’s hard for me, because I prefer to work alone and get shit done, not to play into games where the kid’s imaginary dinosaur friends are helping them stack wood (shoot me now…). But having a 9 yo and. 2 yo I find myself taking more time to get my tot involved even though it means nothing gets done. Her learning the skills and to enjoy work and creating a family culture where we work together and make things fun is worth so much more than the tasks. And I know that is hard when working full-time and building things up. But there comes a point where it is unrealistic to expect to build up a homestead faster than allows for doing so in a feelings-friendly way. Your homestead is unsustainable if your family hates you. It is unsustainable if it is a source of stress. You have mentioned your wife watching friend’s vacations- but you are hear hearing about all these cool permies ideas you probably want to implement. I know I can get quite stressed feeling behind the curve if I spend too much time reading about what others are doing- even if I tell myself these are plans for five years from today, not for tomorrow. With all that is is going on in the world, all the skills that have been lost, it is so easy to develop rational worries that nevertheless have a detrimental impact on life, happiness, and relationships. It might be worth considering whether your dedication to ensuring a secure future is serving you and your family or running the show. It might be helpful to set a schedule of what self-sufficiency tasks you want to accomplish with a timeframe and discuss it with your wife, so that if all the boxes get checked, then it isn’t on to the next project but time to rest, relax, and enjoy the good things in life.

From your side of the story your wife makes no sense. At least not from what I assume from your story- that this desire to paint is relatively recent and began after you started your house project. Was she always very concerned about aesthetics? If not, what do you think is driving her desire to paint? It seems way too simplistic and easy to put it down to “women care about feelings and men about realities”. That is neither accurate nor helps to solve your problem. Besides which, it carries a whiff of the assumption that you are right and she is a capricious female obsessed with aesthetics and unconcerned about the realities of life. With that assumption, it would be easy to ignore her, ignore your relationship problems, and then wonder why she left after you drive her away not listening to what she is telling you. And I can’t figure out what she is trying to communicate from what you have said. But that is why I asked if this was a recent development. If she was always very concerned about aesthetics perhaps it is just her value system and you will have to decide if that is a dealbreaker for you. But if this is a recent development, it is likely that it is a poor attempt to communicate. Does she feel appreciated in the work she does? Let me repeat that- does SHE feel appreciated? NOT- do YOU feel you appreciate her work? Do you take charge on the home repairs and leave her feeling like she is just your laborer and needs an outlet for her own creativity? Is she stressed out over what sounds like a stressful situation and looking for an aspect of her living situation she can control?

Please understand- I am not trying to say you are a bad man running roughshod over your wife. I don’t know you or your wife or your situation. She could just be one of those people who has no concept of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. But, I am a deep pragmatist myself. Over the years, I’ve learned that the need to feel respected and appreciated is a need as deep as the need for food or shelter. People will vote for politicians who promise to take away their food and shelter because they are promised a sense of worth and dignity. (And btw, I see that on both sides of the aisle so please don’t try to nitpick this into a political thing.) I think we owe those we love and live with the benefit of the doubt, to not assume that they are not acting in accordance with their own needs. It’s an easy out to blame “woman’s nature” for why your marital problems, but in general it takes two to tango. And you can really only change yourself. Please understand that in general, I understand where you are coming from- I’m the pragmatic person who has not yet let my husband redecorate all our walls despite the fact that they are just primed and our kids have ruined the primer at this point. We’ve been working on fixing the house and food production, so I’m kind of mirror image to your situation. So I’m not at all unsympathetic to wanting to get the needs met before the aesthetics come into play. But I hope you will take the time to figure out why your wife has put everything I assume she wants as well on hold to paint. From my own experience as a retired tradeswoman married to a retired tradesman, I could speculate that men (even men who are easy to work with at work) tend to treat their wives as apprentices or junior partners. Which may or may not be the slightest bit relevant, or might not upset your wife at all- many women don’t care about that. It could be so simple as she needs a little break from the stress of the big necessities and maybe you’d get more done more happily after a weekend away. I know I desperately wish my hubby and I had taken more time away together being romantic before we had kids. We worked responsibly on saving money and getting educations. And then lucked into land and money and have no time for anything but our kids and farm. I was never a wine and roses girl, but now that that is not convenient option I see what we missed. So, please don’t take any of this as being me saying I know your problems or have solutions because I don’t. I’m just encouraging your to give your wife the benefit of the doubt and to share a couple of things from my experiences that may or may not be AT ALL relevant

Carol Chung wrote:Is it possible for women to homestead ALONE?  

I'm 38.  Living in nature and being self-sufficient has always been my dream.  But I have a few worries.  One of them has to do with the safety of living alone in the rural areas.  Because I have heard stories of single women getting robbed (even though she was living very close to neighbours).  And it seems it's not uncommon to hear about burglaries in the countryside, in both developed and developing countries.  I'm worried.

Reality is you are more likely to be harmed by an intimate partner than by a stranger breaking into your home. Get a livestock guardian or estate guardian type dog and you’ll be safer than a man could ever make you.

Toko Aakster wrote:Anything which you primarily eat the leaves or roots of, instead of the fruit. Fruit-producing is what usually needs the most sun.
So:
Salad greens: Arugula, lettuce, sorrel, endive, spinach, collards, kale, mustard greens swiss chard... any of those 'mixed greens spring mix' seed packets.
Roots/Stem Base: Beets, Carrots, Potatoes, Radishes, Rutabaga, Turnips, radicchio, Kohlrabi
Flowers: Broccoli, Cauliflower, brussel sprouts, cabbage
Herbs: Mint, chervil, chives, coriander/cilantro, oregano, parsley, thyme, oregano

Rhubarb and Asparagus also seems to tolerate partial shade/dappled shade, but they will be slow to mature and so you may not be able to harvest from them for a few years, until they get well-established.

While none of them like DEEP SHADE, I've had decent luck with most of these growing under the edge of a tree canopy.

Really interesting to see you have had luck with potatoes in partial shade. I have a few food plot type clearings I’ve been thinking about planting to potatoes, so I think I’ll try that.

Recommendations for shade-tolerant veggie varieties and seed sources? I’ve heard Withner White beans produce pretty good in the shade, but seeds seem out stock everywhere. I have a lot of silvopasture and full sun areas are reserved for things that will die in the shade. And even “full sun” at my place mostly means 6 hours of sun a day (I live in a series of little clearings in the deep dark woods.) I’m not inclined to clear land beyond what I can intensively manage because if the sun hits the soil around here it just turns to sand.

William Bronson wrote:I don't have huge amount, but I favor stockings and laundry bags made of netting for hanging them from the ceiling.

If I had this as an ongoing issue, I think I would favor dehydration of flesh and roasting of seeds for human consumption.
Lactose bacillus ferments can survive a lot of temperatures and still be edible, even more so for animals.
I don't think it would take much energy  to keep an insulated container above freezing, maybe use a water deicer in a barrel.

I like this dehydration idea. Also just FYI I ran across an article detailing how to make pumpkin silage by putting pumpkin flesh in plastic bags and sealing it up for pig food. It ended up being excellent food at 18% protein (far higher than raw pumpkin) so you are definitely on to something with the fermentation idea. I just don’t want to use that much plastic but someone who has access to leftover silage or haulage bags might do great with that

Pearl Sutton wrote:Questions:
What climate zone?
What kind of house? (in general: apartment, basic suburban tract house, etc)
What do you want the squash for: human food or animal food?
Do you have a freezer with space?
Do you pressure can?

I'm in zone 6, cheap tract house.
I use them for human food.
I have a freezer that I put a bunch down into, and I pressure can.
My storage solution is a mostly unheated but attached to the house garage that I get creative in for stacking or hanging them. Milk crates and hammocks are my friends!

Zone 5, house is a former hunting lodge- older and small-ish (about 1100 square feet for a family of 4 with an unfortunate amount of stuff that requires heated storage), no basement although the encapsulated crawl space is a possibility for low-humidity storage.

My attitude toward animal vs people food is to “skim the cream” by which I mean I grow more than I need, then cook up the best portion for myself and allow the waste to go to pigs and chickens. So storage methods which bring a small percentage through in good shape and create a lot of pig food would be acceptable to me.

I have a freezer but prefer to use it for high-calorie and high-dollar foods. I do pressure can, but then I need a storage space for jars which doesn’t freeze, so it’s not that much of a benefit spacewise