Man, what a good day!
We changed the chicks bedding and enclosure and harvested our auxiliary water catchments TWICE! We're up to about 285 gallons, which means in 24 hours, we've been blessed with over 200 gallons! So much progress this week on two of our three main focuses for the year: chickens, water, and soil. This will be cool because we'll get to see more directly how much we're watering.
All the leaves are soaked and they don't appear to be working well as bedding, so I picked up some bedding and grit this morning. pointed out that the chicks needed grit as soon as they're eating things other than their growing feed.
So. Much. Water! What a blessing :)
Quick shoutout to for suggesting this free permaculture intro course! I'm listening to it right now and will listen to it many more times, I'm sure!
I wanted to post today about our property. Particularly about the term homestead.
I post often under the #homestead and #homesteading tab, but that's because I don't know what other word to use. I don't know if we are a homestead yet, though our goals and actions show that we are working that way.
I don't know what makes a homestead a homestead.
I listened to a podcast episode that claimed simply working toward the goal of self sufficiency makes a homestead. I read a post that said that young homesteaders are just trendy hipsters with a dream of a microfarm. There seems to be a lot of variation, and I'm not sure if my chickens, small garden, and water tote count as a homestead. Yet.
What are your thoughts? Is there a point when an operation becomes a homestead? Is it one from conception? Does it require a percentage of your intake production, or could someone with a few chickens and an herb garden be a homestead? I'm lost in the variety of definitions. I want to have a homestead and call it a homestead, so it would be cool to see if that fits in my goals. If not, whatever, there's work to do. :)
Gonna go spend some time with my lovely wife before work. Hope yall have a lovely evening!
Stay relevant
Nate