Homestead Giveaway: 100 Days of Growing Food

100 days of Growing Food - Homestead Starter Kit Giveaway

Are you starting or expanding your homestead? Sometimes getting started is the hardest part - but once you clear this first hurtle momentum can keep you going. Sometimes you just have to plant.

Justin Rhodes is having a giveaway to kick off his 100 days of growing food challenge. 100 days of growing your own food - this challenge is your push to help get your momentum going. To help inspire you Justin is giving away a kick starter that will help you raise your own chickens, grow your own food and inspire you to keep building momentum on your homestead.

Sign up for the Homestead Starter Kit Giveaway

As of Sunday May 6th you have less than 3 days to sign up for your chance to win this starter kit!

In addition to the starter kit everyone that signs up will receive some surprises from Justin to help grow your own food.

The homestead starter kit includes the following items to help you raise your own chickens and grow your own food.

Items in the starter kit:

• 2 Inch Soil Block Maker - Start your plants without plastic waste
• Electric Poultry Net System from Premier 1 - Electric fence and solar energizer
• Justin Rhodes DIY Chicken Tractor for 12 chickens - Plans and $200 Lowes gift card for supplies
• Eliot Coleman's "The New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener"
• Permaculture Chickens, "Premium Edition"
• Great American Farm Tour, "Premium Edition"

Sign up for the Homestead Starter Kit Giveaway



I'm not connected to Justin but I thought this was a great giveaway and figured it would be awesome if a permie won!

If you sign up you also get a link that if you share and someone signs up using it you get an extra couple entries in the contest - and yes this is what I'm doing here!

Good Luck!

Sign up for the Homestead Starter Kit Giveaway

And this is when I debate with myself, "Do I post this in the dailyish, or not? If I don't, I'll have higher chances of winning!"

Nicole Alderman wrote:And this is when I debate with myself, "Do I post this in the dailyish, or not? If I don't, I'll have higher chances of winning!"

lol, ya - to share or not to share

Less than 2 days left in the Homestead Starter Kit Giveaway!

Make sure you don't miss out on this chance to win the awesome items in the giveaway. Just imagine setting up your new DIY chicken tractor with up to 12 chickens in a paddock protected by your new chicken poultry net. Or starting your seeds without using plastic pots with a brand new soil block maker.

Sign up for the Homestead Starter Kit Giveaway

So what is a soil block maker?


Credit: Bare Mtn. Farm

As you can see in the picture a soil block maker lets you make perfect little blocks of soil with an indent in the middle for a seed to be placed. As your seeds germinate the roots help hold the blocks together. Once you are ready to transplant your seedling you just put the whole soil block in the ground. This makes transplanting easy and eliminates the plastic pots commonly used in gardening.

Don't miss out on your chance to win (less than 2 days left!) the soil block and the rest of the awesome prizes - and remember everyone that signs up will get a surprise from Justin!

Sign up for the Homestead Starter Kit Giveaway

Bonus - Soil Block Maker Mix Recipe

From Eliot Coleman's book, "The New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener" that is included in the giveaway:

3 buckets finely milled peat
½ cup lime (use agricultural lime if you can get it)

Mix

Add 2 buckets coarse sand or perlite and
3 cups base fertilizer

Mix again and add

1 bucket garden soil or bagged topsoil
2 buckets screened compost

Mix all ingredients thoroughly

This recipe produces about 2 bushels of soil block mix.

Check out West Coast Seed's blog article talking about soil blocks - including the above recipe.

Sign up for the Homestead Starter Kit Giveaway

Nicole Alderman wrote:And this is when I debate with myself, "Do I post this in the dailyish, or not? If I don't, I'll have higher chances of winning!"

Looks like altruism won out--good job, thanks!

Final 24 hours of the Homestead Starter Kit Giveaway!

You have less than 24 hours to sign up for the Homestead Starter Kit Giveaway! Don't miss out on this chance to build momentum on your own homestead. Everyone that signs up will get a surprise from Justin!

The homestead starter kit includes the following items to help you raise your own chickens and grow your own food.

Items in the starter kit:

• 2 Inch Soil Block Maker - Start your plants without plastic waste
• Electric Poultry Net System from Premier 1 - Electric fence and solar energizer
• Justin Rhodes DIY Chicken Tractor for 12 chickens - Plans and $200 Lowes gift card for supplies
• Eliot Coleman's "The New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener"
• Permaculture Chickens, "Premium Edition"
• Great American Farm Tour, "Premium Edition"

Sign up for the Homestead Starter Kit Giveaway

So what is the electric poultry net system?


Credit: Abundant Permaculture - Public Facebook post

I think this picture really captures what the chicken system (net, solar energizer, and chicken tractor) could bring to your homestead. This system lets your chicken system be truly mobile which will improve the lives and health of your chickens. Other advantages this system brings to your homestead:

• Keep your chickens healthy by moving them regularly and easily
• Fertilize specific areas of the garden to promote fertility
• Use chickens to prepare your garden for winter
• Lightly till your soil to prepare for future plantings
• Easy to maintain - No need to clean out droppings
• Combine your chickens and your garden to create more abundance
• Keep your chickens safe with two layers of protection - electric fence and chicken tractor (coop)
• Let your chickens do the hard work of spreading mulch and compost
• Solar electric energizer keeps your chicken system flexible to meet your needs

If this system would help kick start your homestead than make sure you sign up for the giveaway! Less than 24 hours left in the giveaway!

Sign up for the Homestead Starter Kit Giveaway

Bonus - Link to Raising Chickens 2.0 by Paul Wheaton

Paul is the founder and owner of Permies.com and wrote a great article comparing the various ways you can raise chickens: Raising Chickens 2.0

Paul compares raising chickens in a factory, coop and run, chicken tractor, truly free range, pastured poultry pens, and in pastured poultry paddocks. Paul ranks each of these options using the following criteria:

• Vegetation factor - How much quality vegetation is available to the chickens
• Bug factor - How many bugs can the chickens get
• Poop cleaning factor - How much effort is exerted in cleaning up chicken poop
• Poop hygiene factor - How healthy is the system for the chickens
• Work factor - How many hours per week does the system take
• Natural habitat factor - How natural is the habitat the chickens are in
• Confinement factor - How confined are the chickens
• Food cost factor - How must does it cost to feed the chickens (forage versus feed)

From the point of view of the chickens the paddock system and letting the chickens be truly free range rank first. But Paul argues that the paddock system is easier to setup well since unless your chickens are feral-ish on lots of acres you will run into problems with having the chickens be truly free range.

So what is the paddock system? The article goes into it in detail but here is a quote that explains it in a nutshell:

There are two basic approaches:

1) Four or more fenced areas. Put the chickens in an area and after 7 to 10 days move to the next area. Each area gets at least 28 days of rest until the chickens return. The more areas you have, they can be smaller and the time spent in an area can be less. If the chickens consume more than 30% of the vegetation, you have too many chickens or too small of a paddock.

2) Get the same effect with portable fencing.

The electric poultry netting, solar energizer, and chicken tractor being given away would let you set up a paddock system on your own homestead.

Raising Chickens 2.0

So what are you waiting for? If you have not already sign up for the giveaway for your chance to win this chicken system along with the other items being offered by Justin.

Less than 24 hours to go!

Sign up for the Homestead Starter Kit Giveaway

Final 6 hours of the Homestead Starter Kit Giveaway!

The giveaway is closing in less than 6 hours as of 1:00pm Pacific Time! Don't miss your chance!

The homestead starter kit includes the following items to help you raise your own chickens and grow your own food.

Items in the starter kit:

• 2 Inch Soil Block Maker - Start your plants without plastic waste
• Electric Poultry Net System from Premier 1 - Electric fence and solar energizer
• Justin Rhodes DIY Chicken Tractor for 12 chickens - Plans and $200 Lowes gift card for supplies
• Eliot Coleman's "The New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener"
• Permaculture Chickens, "Premium Edition"
• Great American Farm Tour, "Premium Edition"

Sign up for the Homestead Starter Kit Giveaway