Our Mission:
To share Rural Homesteading ideas, items, and working experiences of a rural lifestyle with topics inclusive of but not limited to:
Homestead Living, Raising Small Livestock, Holistic Lifestyle, Survival, and so much more.
Please visit often and enjoy along with us the development of this wonderful and informational website.
You can contact us at: info@theruralhomestead.com
Chickens, Rabbits and Goats....oh my! and Worms ?
These are the small livestock that call or have called The Rural Homestead their home. Do worms qualify as livestock? The definition for livestock is: domestic animals raised for use and sale. The definition for animal is: any living organism excluding plants and bacteria, typically able to move about. So, to sum it up ~ yup! worms qualify as small livestock. After all we do feed, water, care for, use them in our gardens, and eventually plan to sell them and their castings. Worms are a great addition to any small livestock and you don't have to live in the country to raise them.
We will talk more about our worms and other animals in the Raising Small Livestock page. See you there.
November 25, 2011 Raising Small Livestock page: Babies 9-14
November 25, 2011 Homestead Living page: The Gardens Grow
November 24, 2011 Happy Thanksgiving
November 10, 2011 Raising Small Livestock page: Treats for my long-toothed
friends
October 26, 2011 Homestead Living page: Fall Planting has begun
October 26, 2011 Raising Small Livestock page: It's breeding season again
June 9, 2011 Homestead Living page: All in a days harvest
May 25, 2011 Holistic Lifestyle page: Flowering Herbs in the garden
March 16, 2011 Homestead Living page: Reuse bags from cereal, cracker boxes, etc.
March 16, 2011 Raising Small Livestock page: Baby Update 52 days old
February 16, 2011 Raising Small Livestock page: Baby Update
February 14, 2011 Happy Valentines Day
As they say LOVE comes in all forms and as these carrots came out of the ground LOVE was truly being felt.
Check out the Homestead Living Page for more pics of our carrot harvest.
Check out the Homestead Living Page for more pics of our carrot harvest.
February 8, 2011 Homestead Living page: Simple two-bin compost structure
February 7, 2011 Homestead Living page: Use broken mini blind for plant markers
January 27, 2001 Raising Small Livestock page: Hay ~ What a Rack !
Accommodating Accessories
Every homestead needs an oversize raincoat and knee-hi rubber boots !
Glorious Eggs
There is something so satisfying about closing the lid on a fresh homegrown carton of eggs!
January 8, 2011 Homestead Living page: Reuse the cardboard roll from aluminum foil
January 2, 2011 Raising Small Livestock page: New residents arrive at
The Rural Homestead
December 2 & 3, 2010 Homestead Living page: Freeze hits Zone 9 Gardens
November 6, 2010 Homestead Living page: Garden Signs a family project
November 3, 2010 Old Greenback 'Returns'
Previously we had written about a 4’ visitor to The Rural Homestead (story below), well it is back and this time it’s hungry! Much to my surprise as I entered our chicken house to retrieve some eggs someone or should I say something else had beaten me to it. (Photos below)
November 1, 2010 Raising Small Livestock Page: New Babies arrive at
The Rural Homestead
October 18, 2010 Snake Invader
On the morning of September 5th we had a somewhat unexpected visitor to The Rural Homestead as you can see in the first picture it decided to greet us at the door. As my husband and I hugged our good mornings with each other, softly in my ear my husband says “Wow, that’s a big snake” thinking he is just being a jokester I smiled and gave him a big squeeze, “No, that’s a big snake” he said again as I turned around there looking in our back door was a big snake! This visitor, a garter snake approximately 4’ long was looking for something; this is the first snake of substantial size to be seen on the property. Eager to get it off the house we both quickly slipped out the door as it turned to continue its journey. It was very well mannered as my husband so gently pulled it off the house with our three pronged cultivator wrapping him around the prongs as he swiftly made his way toward the wooded area of the property to return “Old Greenback” (that’s my name for it) to its natural habitat. My husband admiring Old Greenback’s beauty said it was quite a mellow snake during the moving process. Whew, thank goodness that’s over with I said as I stood atop the picnic table with camera in hand now let’s have some breakfast.
Now loaded with a fantastic story to tell, we had no idea there would be more chapters to add. It was about four days later and we were outside closing up the homestead for the evening when my husband turned the corner and said “now that’s a big snake”, once again I thought for a moment he was kidding, so I followed his eyes and as I looked over my shoulder there it was making its way up the side of our chicken house. This time it managed to wrap its self around the temperature gauge mounted on the outside wall which gave the snake enough leverage to stretch that long, strong 4’ body up to the rafters and just before my husband could get a grab of its tail inside it slithered. Now it is in the chicken house with…yup, the chickens needless to say they were not happy campers at this moment. So, once again, armed with his extractor of choice my husband bravely opened the door to retrieve Old Green back. Up in the rafters so gracefully balanced Old Greenback was resting, we took a moment to devise a plan (all I knew was that I was not going to be anywhere near that snake when it is coming out) basically the plan came down to this, my husband would do everything and I would hold the camera and video recorder from the porch, smashing idea I thought. Holding the flashlight in his mouth, so he could have two hands free, my husband turned to me and said “go up to the porch” with the flashlight still in his mouth it was no longer shining on Old Greenback and when he turned back to address the snake Old Greenback had stretched off the rafters about one foot in the direction of my husband’s body heat, face to face was not the extraction plan we were going for and fortunately Old Greenback returned to the rafters. Gently my husband hooked and twirled the snake on the three prong cultivator and out the door they came the two, once again, made their way to the edge of the wooded area and with kind words they parted ways. Yahoo, another meet and greet was over. We knew we would have to put up some small panel fencing around the top of the chicken house to keep our new friend at bay but that would have to wait until tomorrow evening.
The next morning I feared Old Greenback had made its way back inside the chicken house, my husband the wonderful man that he is gracefully accepted my plea for him to open up the chickens and check for the snake. His first reaction was to look up, since that is where Old Greenback entered the night before, but no snake then he looked down and there curled up in the first nest box he lay, I guess it thought it had found its new winter bed and breakfast hideaway… here we go again. I think both my husband and Old Greenback were starting to get used to this song and dance they have been playing, without hesitation my husband reached in with the three prong cultivator and out the two emerged (note the picture of Old Greenback in an “S” pose belly side showing), one last waltz to the woods and a toss for good measure. So far, that is the last time we saw Old Greenback!
Now loaded with a fantastic story to tell, we had no idea there would be more chapters to add. It was about four days later and we were outside closing up the homestead for the evening when my husband turned the corner and said “now that’s a big snake”, once again I thought for a moment he was kidding, so I followed his eyes and as I looked over my shoulder there it was making its way up the side of our chicken house. This time it managed to wrap its self around the temperature gauge mounted on the outside wall which gave the snake enough leverage to stretch that long, strong 4’ body up to the rafters and just before my husband could get a grab of its tail inside it slithered. Now it is in the chicken house with…yup, the chickens needless to say they were not happy campers at this moment. So, once again, armed with his extractor of choice my husband bravely opened the door to retrieve Old Green back. Up in the rafters so gracefully balanced Old Greenback was resting, we took a moment to devise a plan (all I knew was that I was not going to be anywhere near that snake when it is coming out) basically the plan came down to this, my husband would do everything and I would hold the camera and video recorder from the porch, smashing idea I thought. Holding the flashlight in his mouth, so he could have two hands free, my husband turned to me and said “go up to the porch” with the flashlight still in his mouth it was no longer shining on Old Greenback and when he turned back to address the snake Old Greenback had stretched off the rafters about one foot in the direction of my husband’s body heat, face to face was not the extraction plan we were going for and fortunately Old Greenback returned to the rafters. Gently my husband hooked and twirled the snake on the three prong cultivator and out the door they came the two, once again, made their way to the edge of the wooded area and with kind words they parted ways. Yahoo, another meet and greet was over. We knew we would have to put up some small panel fencing around the top of the chicken house to keep our new friend at bay but that would have to wait until tomorrow evening.
The next morning I feared Old Greenback had made its way back inside the chicken house, my husband the wonderful man that he is gracefully accepted my plea for him to open up the chickens and check for the snake. His first reaction was to look up, since that is where Old Greenback entered the night before, but no snake then he looked down and there curled up in the first nest box he lay, I guess it thought it had found its new winter bed and breakfast hideaway… here we go again. I think both my husband and Old Greenback were starting to get used to this song and dance they have been playing, without hesitation my husband reached in with the three prong cultivator and out the two emerged (note the picture of Old Greenback in an “S” pose belly side showing), one last waltz to the woods and a toss for good measure. So far, that is the last time we saw Old Greenback!
September 16, 2010 Please Take Us Home
We have two new feline additions to The Rural Homestead, they haven't received names yet and I hope they will be with us for a long time. They were abandoned, along with the property in which they lived, about two months they were making it in the world because of the kindness of strangers leaving cans of food.
As we approached the property we were both curious to see if these little creatures were still "hanging around" and much to our surprise when we spontaneously decided to stop there sitting at the gate was the older of two kittens almost as if to be waiting for her ride home with us. We parked the car and I proceeded to make an effort to become friends, she was very affectionate but cautious of being held so we figured a carrier would be in order to get her home, it truly was an immediate unanimous decision. After about five minutes there was still no sign of the other kitten so we decided to head home to get a transport ready when all of a sudden out of a half dilapidated carport came running the second kitten who was younger and equally as happy to see us but even more cautious than the first. Once again the decision was immediately made both would be coming home. The transport went well with just a few minutes of anxiety and upon arrival at the Homestead we placed them in a large wire crate with optimum viewing of the goats and chickens. I am sure they were wondering where in the world are we? But again with in minutes they were enjoying the warmth of the sun with an afternoon snooze. Later that evening we decided to open the door and let them explore their new surroundings, we figured if they didn't want to stay that was their choice. Morning came and only one kitten showed her face the younger of the two was still with us. We surmised the other may have decided to go back or maybe just head into the woods, worst case senerio was that an owl or some other predator took her, we understand the laws of nature and settled with the understanding that "what will be will be".
Later that morning I was out watering my herbs when I heard a very faint meow, I listened for a moment to make sure it wasn't our youngest arrival when I heard it again and could determine it was coming from the direction of our shed. I immediately started calling "here kitty kitty" and lazily from around the corner she came stretching her legs and following with a big yawn...she decided to stay with us after all.
They are both enjoying the human contact much better than the friendly canine contact our dog would like to show them. We know it will be just a matter of time before all three are enjoying the warmth of the sun together. Welcome home !!!!!!!
We have two new feline additions to The Rural Homestead, they haven't received names yet and I hope they will be with us for a long time. They were abandoned, along with the property in which they lived, about two months they were making it in the world because of the kindness of strangers leaving cans of food.
As we approached the property we were both curious to see if these little creatures were still "hanging around" and much to our surprise when we spontaneously decided to stop there sitting at the gate was the older of two kittens almost as if to be waiting for her ride home with us. We parked the car and I proceeded to make an effort to become friends, she was very affectionate but cautious of being held so we figured a carrier would be in order to get her home, it truly was an immediate unanimous decision. After about five minutes there was still no sign of the other kitten so we decided to head home to get a transport ready when all of a sudden out of a half dilapidated carport came running the second kitten who was younger and equally as happy to see us but even more cautious than the first. Once again the decision was immediately made both would be coming home. The transport went well with just a few minutes of anxiety and upon arrival at the Homestead we placed them in a large wire crate with optimum viewing of the goats and chickens. I am sure they were wondering where in the world are we? But again with in minutes they were enjoying the warmth of the sun with an afternoon snooze. Later that evening we decided to open the door and let them explore their new surroundings, we figured if they didn't want to stay that was their choice. Morning came and only one kitten showed her face the younger of the two was still with us. We surmised the other may have decided to go back or maybe just head into the woods, worst case senerio was that an owl or some other predator took her, we understand the laws of nature and settled with the understanding that "what will be will be".
Later that morning I was out watering my herbs when I heard a very faint meow, I listened for a moment to make sure it wasn't our youngest arrival when I heard it again and could determine it was coming from the direction of our shed. I immediately started calling "here kitty kitty" and lazily from around the corner she came stretching her legs and following with a big yawn...she decided to stay with us after all.
They are both enjoying the human contact much better than the friendly canine contact our dog would like to show them. We know it will be just a matter of time before all three are enjoying the warmth of the sun together. Welcome home !!!!!!!
Gray and Blackie settle in at their new home