Em Nichols

Yes, I do eat seafood.  Salmon and shrimp, although my husband doesn't like either of them because we know they aren't wild raised or caught.  As homesteaders, we have to work with what we have.  

We buy our steaks from a local butcher for about $15/pound.   My husband will only eat filet mignon, even though I sneak in rib eyes and sirloin steaks when he isn't paying attention.  We eat about 1 lb per day of steak/meat/beef.  Plus the butter, milk/cream, chicken, seafood and bacon.  We could spend $100 per day eating out every single day and we've cut our food bill by over half when we eat carnivore.  

Out of desperation after 4 years of debilitating pain, I went full carnivore - meat, bacon, butter, eggs, salt and milk. Within three days my pain disappeared. 30 Days into carnivore, I started adding avocado, cucumber and zucchini.  I felt fantastic. I was so happy that I discovered a way of eating that worked for me, and I am able to source a good amount of what we eat from our homestead. That's the point, right?  

Well, the holidays came and mama likes her stuffing, potatoes and gravy!  I need to go back full carnivore. It's cheap, I feel FANTASTIC on it and it is SO easy.  There is very little food waste at all because I don't have to buy a bunch of weird ingredients to make full meals.  Oh, that's another thing - I was eating one meal a day!  I was so full and I wasn't hungry.  If I wanted a snack, I would eat bacon or pork rinds.

Easy. Cheap. Ability to provide 90% of what we ate from what we already produce. Effective.  It is perfect for me.

This was a very interesting thread to read, for sure.  I do love the area, and I am familiar with the area Ted is in.  Anytime we mention "desert" city folk automatically assume barren land with sand dunes. I live in the high desert at 7100' in New Mexico which looks nothing like a desert, LOL.

Secondly, I laughed at "no Burning Man refugees."  Well, "Ted" my husband and I are both burners (since 2010 for me and 2016 for him,) and Burning Man taught us a LOT about how to prepare for our off-grid, gaining momentum towards a self-sufficient and radically self reliant lifestyle.  

I absolutely understand the struggle to keep looking for suitable folks to join you, since we have been on that same struggle bus since 2022. We have had two wonderful WWOOFers and a farmsitter, but most of our experiences were less than ideal. I have had some very strange interactions with people, in fact - one strange real life interaction with a person from here on Permies!  The amount of time and money I put into making visitors feel welcome, stopping what I have to do, taking valuable time out of my day to teach others how we live this way -- for the return, was absolutely not worth it.  You're right, just to have people demand an hourly rate on top of the room and board is just...beyond me.  I spent time as a WWOOFer 13 years ago and I was so grateful for my experiences, I would have NEVER acted the way some of these people have recently acted.  Then again, I am also a burner and take radical reliance to heart.  I was able to provide my own transportation and food and not make outrageous demands for three meals a day (like WWOOF requires.) Who in the hell has time to eat three times a day when we are working on our homesteads and REAL JOBS - let alone it has been proven that one-meal-a-day is optimal for health.  

I get it that many of you wonder what Ted's plan is.  I'm glad I don't have anybody hounding me for that, LOL.  I get through each day, five minutes at a time, never knowing what kind of chaos or situation I will be presented with at any given moment.  Animals unexpectedly get ill, hurt themselves, escape, disappear, and then during lambing season we have anywhere from 20-40 lambs born within one month.  I am the one out with them 24/7 for those few weeks.  Meanwhile, you want me to drop everything to make sure you have a warm vegan prepared meal? Good lord, I don't even feed myself during that time, and it's much easier for me to just do it myself, as much as it sucks, than to worry about hurting someone's feelings because I can't make their homemade biscuits.  

I am very impressed that Ted is able to keep up with all those animals and gardens by himself.  We are able to maintain our animals on our homestead, but we have only had one garden one year, and I just don't have the time or energy to do that again without help.  I work 60-80 hours a week at a JOB 60 miles away that helps pay for all of this paradise.  The downside is that I am rarely home to be able to enjoy it.  I am only home for our weeks of lambing, most weekends, and then we take 3 weeks off to go to Burning Man in August-September.  

Good luck out there, Ted.  I know the struggle. We will wave at you on our way to our annual migration to Burning Man!

Rajesh - my husband's prep for the pole-shift is the main reason why we do what we do. Basically, we live at high elevation (7000'+) as our best chance for survival.  

Me? Well, I do appreciate some of the information and it does help with the planning for when the grid does go down, but I'm not nearly into him as much as my husband is. My motivation for prepping has more to do with the collapse of civilization with some zombies in there for fun.  

Have you been to Observer Ranch? We have not been, although there are some interesting and fun events that take place there.  We also went to an event and met Ben when he was in Phoenix a few years ago.  

We are in NM, on the AZ border and always looking for like minded folk, reach out if you'd like to chat more!

We own three different homestead properties and are currently living on the one that we thought would be our "forever place."  However, for various reasons, we will be moving back to another property, mostly because it is closer to our business where I have to be onsite anywhere from one to seven days per week.  Also, after four years of looking for suitable WWOOFers, HelpXers, work-traders, or intentional community members, I simply give up.  We always gave a lot (especially my time) to our helpers, but the entitlement doesn't sit well with me and I am facing the fact that nobody is interested in community (or this location, or maybe it's me, who knows!?) and that we will just do this by ourselves.  

If anyone is interested in an 11 acre homestead in western New Mexico, feel free to reach out.  It is only 2 miles over the border from Arizona.  I'm not listing it (yet) because really, it will be even more work for me and we don't plan to move until possibly October.  I'm willing to consider trades, and creative financing.  

We run solar but have both on-grid and generator backup.
17,000 gallon water catchment system
Three livable homes - a 2 bed/1 bath mobile home, a 1 bed/1bath mobile home/stick build hybrid home and a studio apartment (my husband uses it as his office.)
All three homes have wood stoves.
Three 150 gallon propane tanks.
TONS of storage, including one climate controlled Conex container.
A covered carport attached to a workshop.
A small greenhouse - approximately 10x12"
We currently raise sheep, chickens, turkeys, rabbits and dogs on the property and will probably be taking our sheep fence panels, but 2 acres of the property is enclosed with no-climb fencing.  (If you don't know, fencing is one of the most important aspects of homesteading to keep animals in and predators out!)

Message me and I can send you more information.  

$50 per day.

Sorry, yes, location is important...25 minutes east of Springerville, AZ.  We are 2 miles over the border from AZ into New Mexico.

We have many posts here - so I will let you read through those.  

We need to be away from our homestead from about August 15-September 10.  We would hope someone would come prior to that to learn how to care for sheep, chickens, rabbits, turkeys, dogs and cats.  It is maybe 1.5 hours per day, total.  We have downsized considerably.  We provide housing, have Starlink, plenty of eggs and meat.  Please contact me if you're interested.  We've been WWOOF hosts and have been looking for the right fit for our little homestead for a while. The closest town is 20-30 minutes away.  

No smoking at all, please.  

Hi Wendy.  We have several options, if you'd like to private message me we can go from there.  

Tish Toren wrote:The problem with "new breeds", especially crosses of breeds with wildly different histories and selected working balances, is predictability.

Genetics are not like cooking, where you can add a little of this or that and get a uniform blend of "flavors" in a litter the way you would in a pot of soup. In dogs, the F1 cross will get a more predictable balance of traits, simply because the 2 fullblooded  parents will each contribute roughly 50%. Once you breed on with crossbred parents the proportions of traits can vary wildly. Even within the LGD breed group there will be variation, add in and akc pet breed like St Bernard and it's a crapshoot, add a highly prey/chase driven breed, like GSD, and any chance of predictability goes out the window. LGD/herding crosses are everywhere now, they are the most common farm oops breeding, and are often downright dangerous.

I just wanted to speak up here, in case others that are researching this breed (or any LGD breed, really) happen to find this page.

First of all, I want to say up front that I love ALL dogs.  All dogs deserve loving and safe homes.  I do have my own preferences when it comes to the dogs I choose for myself and for our homestead.  I love the creativity that *can* go into breeding dogs.  However, this is where we start to teeter on that slippery slope...

I absolutely agree with what Tish said.  Genetics are tricky and it's not just a matter of mixing one beautiful breed with another beautiful and hardworking breed to create a new wonderful breed.   There is no way to determine how you will get the traits you want (less barking or less wandering) versus keeping the traits such as heightened alertness and unnerving courage facing predators that we want to see in our livestock guardians.  To breed for these wanted qualities will take several generations.  In the meantime, what will become of the puppies that are made along the way?  Sure, they can be general farm dogs, family dogs, therapy dogs or companions.

I really am trying to find the words to explain how this makes me feel without offending anyone.  

I fully understand that this is how the present day dog breeds we have came to be.  As the humans in this equation, we have a responsibility to these dogs to promote the best version of these dogs and this is why ethical breeders adhere to strict breeding guidelines set by our specific breed clubs.  Read about the St Bernard, their history and previous experimental breeding efforts here: https://saintbernardclubofamerica.club/breed-history/  I found it interesting that they attempted to breed OUT the long hair because the weight of the ice that formed in the long hair would incapacitate the dogs.  I am VERY well aware that wonderful dogs can be bred without health testing or adhering to breed standards.  That is a whole other discussion and for the purpose of this post, I don't think we need to go down the AKC/CKC registry rabbit hole.

My advice for anyone researching LGDs for their farm or homestead is to 1) research all breeds (breed club sites, YouTube, etc.) and their specific characteristics.  There is a specific purpose for each and every attribute of dogs (coat, ears, eyes, shape of head, eye color, shape of tail, dewclaws, etc.) 2) visit and observe as many dogs and breeds in their own environment as you possibly can 3) talk to LGD owners and ask them about their experiences; why they chose their specific dogs, what challenges they faced 4) build your fences NOW and 5) recognize that anyone that talks to you about their dogs probably has a bias for specific breeds.

I prefer to see everyone set up for success including the dogs and the dog owners.  Can this mix of two breeds make wonderful LGDs?  I would cautiously say "yes."  It may not be a breed for me, but it can work for someone else.  I just don't particularly like the idea of mixing breeds, hoping for the best and promoting this as a new designer breed (:ahem: ...Labradoodles.)  Like I said, it's a slippery slope between creating good working dogs versus the concern for diluting pure working dog breeds.

Oh boy, I'm ready for the very emotional responses to this post!  I tried to be as respectful as possible to have a mature conversation while stating my personal concerns.