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CKMe
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I live on 14.5 acres in Amish country in Ohio. I have raised chickens, turkeys, ducks, rabbits & sheep. I’ve planted cherries, hazelnuts, peaches, mulberries, paw paws, apples, pears & nectarines. I garden (badly) but I am learning more every year. I work remotely for a bank as a mortgage underwriter- fingers crossed I am still doing that when you read this. I hunt on my land - have gotten 5 deer since I moved out here. Into everything homesteading.

Check you wallet. Damus is no longer telling me when I get zapped, but my wallet is telling me that I was. I don’t know who/what post etc, but I am still receiving them

Me too! But it’s feeling better now than it was yesterday so I am definitely on the right path

Morning Nostriches!

Morning pond report is snow! Lovely snow globe going on out there. I’m snuggles on the couch right now nursing a knee injury, gotta head off to that loan mine soon. Glad it’s Friday. Ready for that weekend.

#coffeechain

Very nice to hear & congrats on overcoming the issue

Replying to Avatar Jimmy

GM

Morning Jimmy

I’ve done the large Pekins - these are great! We had to pivot out of them as hubs is not a fan of the duck dispatch. They carried a lot of meat though & are very tasty. We also had 2 Muscovy that were the best tasting duck I’ve ever had, they’re small though.

Chickens are a gateway drug. They’re super easy to start with as they’re really hard to err with, and their turnover is easy so if you do have something catastrophic happen you can reboot easy. I like buckeyes, but I like buckeyes because I am in OH, my chickens walk in snow & need to be cold hardy, yours don’t. Buckeyes would be unhappy in your land. You need to find a heat tolerant breed to start with. What do you want? Meat birds? Laying hens? Dual use breeds? Look into heat tolerant birds who fit the bill. If you’re going dual use I recommend an incubator so you can grow some out if your females don’t go broody.

For sheep - I currently have shetlands which are gorgeous! They are also a wool sheep. Hubs & I have discussed switching to Khatadins over the next year, but I currently have no experience with them.

I like a California rabbits. I’d like to restart my rabbitry, but hubs has a real problem with rabbit dispatch so all I have right now is a male that I keep around for rabbit manure for the garden. If you go this route I’d recommend 3 does & a buck to keep you in dinners year round.

No experience with goats at all.

Morning Nostriches!

Morning pond report is more snow! It just didn’t stop falling until sometime overnight, couldn’t get out to the rail for the pond pic so I got the icicles on the eaves. It’s awesome that I have icicles on the eaves. They’re almost as pretty as the pond

#coffeechain

Start with one animal. Build infrastructure for one animal. Give it at least a year & if you do good with that animal add in a second one. Build the infrastructure for the 2nd animal & give it a year. If it goes good add in a 3rd animal. I can’t stress this enough. If you try and do it all on day 1 you won’t be happy & neither will your animals. Take the animal from start to finish to make sure you have it in you to go all the way. For fruit trees I kinda winged it. They’re all over. Fruit trees, but trees it’s chaos out there. I’ve not been as successful in that realm as I have with the animals