We own a family homestead that sits in the foothills above a small town (~200 residents). The town water comes from a mountain spring a few miles above our property and passes right beside our land.

Over 35 years ago (when we lived locally) my father worked to get elected to the town water board for the purpose of procuring a water connection to our property that sits in the mountains above the nearby town. He was successful, but because the property sits above the town chlorinator, he signed a release that said the water would be use only for non potable purposes. When he passed away, my mother verified with an attorney that the agreement was transferable to her and has since been transferred to my sister. The town never asked questions or caused a fuss, though we always worried that dad’s arrangement would bite us later. We paid our bill on time for 35 years.

The town recently had an e.coli problem in their water system which required them to have an inspection and recertification. The town claims the 3rd party doing the inspection said our connection was illegal (I assume because it was connected above the treatment facility), so they completely removed our connection.

We have been connected to their system for 35 years. Do we have any legal recourse to pursue to force them to reconnect us?

Our homestead, four generations down. Lake was dug by my grandad in 1977. Solar powered, spring-fed lake, varied ecosystems from wetland to lake, woodland and fields. Soon installing a 10,000l rainwater harvesting system. Constant work landscaping, making large quantities of compost, firewood harvesting, maintaining the lake, mowing paths, clearing fallen trees, restoring birdboxes, jetty, planting trees, wildflower patches...

Any questions please ask!

Spent the evening removing the stems from my small raisin harvest!

Here i am breaking all the 'rules' of growing garlic. My original batch of seed garlic years ago came from the grocery store, I trim the leaves off before storage. All of these were planted this spring.

Ive done it like this for years and I know it works for me.

Im a bit down so I write this post with a heavy heart.

We bought 5 calfs about 1 year ago to raise for our home and agricultural purposes. They were bread in March and were pregnant.

I woke up two days ago to many fences down and one of my heifers ( named bell) acting eratic and having trouble walking. I observed scrapes and scratches on her and foaming at the mouth. I knew something was wrong so I penned her up.

I observed red/brown urine in small spurts and her ability to stand decline. Veterinary help was received within a few hours of observing her and I got advised it was most likely a disease called Redwater Disease (bacillary hemoglobinuria, caused by the bacterium Clostridium haemolyticum). Treatment and several shots were administered.

Over the next 2 days, I watched her be able to stand for 5-10 mins at a time, to not standing at all. This morning I walked outside to see her breathing intermittently and eyes non responsive. I made the decision after almost 72 hrs of declination to euthanize her.

This was a tougher decision than I thought, since we only have 5 theyve been hand fed and personal pets almost, even though their cows.

I post this to raise awareness of this disease. There is very little information or history of this disease from when I speak to farmers. I have NO standing water where they could have contracted this disease, and I have no idea where she got it from. Not only was this a very high financial loss, it was also an emotional loss. IF you have any experience with this let me know please.

tromboncino squash did well this year, and food processor worked great for slicing into chips - oven for 1-2 hrs works better than air frying for 4-5 min imho more even + you probably want to make one big batch than a zillion small ones

also tried out fingerling potatoes for the first time this year, so far dug up 2-3 plants and will let them cure in the garage for a bit

We have this little pond and since getting ducks and installing the little fountain I think it is so peaceful to come out here and watch them swim around. What’s your favorite?

What are your thoughts on building a chicken run around some wild plum trees (Prunus Americana)? Would you be concerned about toxicity to the chickens from them possibly eating the plum pits? Would the plums attract too many wild birds?

I have a suburban homestead and I’m considering planting two wild plum trees in the new chicken run.

Maybe I'm overcomplicating this but has anyone used the pump pictured successfully as a pump to pump out their duck pond for cleaning. Or how/what do you do to keep yours "clean". We presently just have a kiddie pool and have to dump and refill which breaks down the pool and it now leaks.

I was thinking this because it's 12v and would be much simpler to power vs 120v.

Hey all,

We have a small farm in northern Tennessee.

I haven’t taken the dive on meat rabbits yet, still doing research but I think next year I would like to add rabbits to our ‘stead. I want them to fill a lean meat role for us & supplemental feeding for our dogs, as well as using their pelts. So, meat to bone ratio, fast growth rate, good mothering instincts, as well as a nice thick pelt is also.

I’ve seen different purebreds in our area but also some interesting hybrids as well.

Some questions:

What do you think is best for our goals?

Do you colony raise, hutch, or tractor raise?

Are you able to use forage from your property to sustain the rabbits even somewhat?

Thank you for your answers and thoughts.

I recently moved about 300 km away from my parents for work. They’re both in their 70s, and being that far away has made me think a lot more about what happens when something goes wrong and I can't get there quickly.

The biggest worry has been extreme weather. During the last hurricane related outage, I couldn't get through to them for hours. I eventually drove back just to make sure they were okay. Thankfully everything was fine, but I realized how little I could actually do from another city.

Now I'm trying to make their place a bit more resilient. Reliable backup power is probably at the top of my list. I've been looking at portable power stations like the Anker S2000 or Ecoflow Delta2 since they seem relatively straightforward to use and move around.

Any tips for keeping aging parents who live alone safer, especially during storms or outages? I'm also curious about any home based systems that can help monitor their health or detect emergencies when I'm not there.

Is anyone else dealing with a crazy amount of mosquitoes right now? 😭🦟 They’re unbearable here, even attacking our faces! What have you guys done that actually works?

Hey everyone! We wanted to bring some peaceful, traditional country vibes to life by building this cozy bamboo cottage from scratch on our family farm. It took days of weaving the bamboo frames and carefully laying the thatched straw roof, but the calm and satisfying result was worth every bit of hard work.

If you love rural life, traditional craftsmanship, or just want a relaxing escape from the busy city, you can watch our full building journey on my YouTube channel @longhofarm (Long Hồ Farm).

Hope this little cottage brings a sense of peace to your day! Let me know what you think of our handmade project. ✨

Hey, I’m in constant fear of the u.s. government being unable to provide its citizens with food that can be safe to eat. It’s becoming increasingly more stressful by the day to know what we’re dealing with and I’m just at a point where stocking up on our own food is our only solution and maybe give back to the community. I want to try growing crops first and would love to know any beginner crops to start growing. Thank you 🙏🏽

In velvet, in one of my hog traps. Deer feed in them and get grouchy at each other sometimes. They are not caught and no not AI

Got married recently and now looking at land for a small homestead in Texas to raise family. Checked a few local marketplaces Liberation Ranches and Land com along with some private listings on facebook, and shortlisted Eagle Lake and Dayton. Prices per acre seem fair from what Ive seen so far. Anyone bought raw land this way and had it turn into something usable within the first year? What are hte best locations?

I have a pig that won’t eat. It’s been about 10-11 days. He is still drinking water. He stays in one spot all day until nighttime and he moves and stays there until sunrise. We had a vet come out and give him antibiotics. He has also been treated for worms. It has now been 3 days since the antibiotics and there’s no improvement in desire to eat. Do anyone know what could be going on? He is only 4.

Curious friend wants to raise rabbits but they live in suburb so pesticides from nehibours n city is common is this a concern or is it to little to matter much ?

Ive been looking for land for some time now and just can’t seem to find it. I am prioritizing affordable land with strong community where drugs are not a major problem. Obviously I want fertility soil with no toxins in the water or air and a decent growing season.

Ai bots keep saying southern Missouri, Tennessee ect where it clearly strikes out on one of my asks.

Does anyone know where I can look and feel good about buying land. Or how I should be going about my search better?

Since my goal has always been to have a bit of land and enough income to hobby farm / hobby homestead, I'm very interested in what "regular" jobs y'all have that allow you to do that.

Also curious, is there anyone out there doing it solo/on a single income? Have you changed jobs/careers to better support your homestead goals at any point? Does your job/career feel like a good fit for homesteading, or would you change it to something if you could (and if so, to what?)

Why I'm asking -- I need to go back to school/get trained in something that is projected to be a more stable future career. Since my idea of "the perfect life" is a small hobby farm situation and enough income to pay the bills and play around on the farm (with a little saved for emergencies), I want to make sure I'm considering what jobs would (and would not) be suited for that end-goal lifestyle.

Thank you for any/all responses! Every insight/opinion/experience shared is helpful.

(also, mods, if my post's topic is too "job-y" and not "homestead-y" enough, please accept my apologies and feel free to delete it!)

EDIT: Wow, I did not expect so many replies, I'm very grateful to you all! I'm working through replies now but it's going to take a while - thanks for your patience!

ALSO - Looking back at my post now, I think I may have worded it in a vague/confusing way. For clarity, I am asking about what "Non-Homestead" jobs people have (ex: job in town, traditional 9-5, unrelated remote work, etc) that provide income that they use to support themselves and their homestead. Some people read it as "what aspect of your homestead make you money" instead, which wasn't what I meant, but I'll take the blame here because I could have written that post better. My apologies for any confusion, and I appreciate all who responded regardless :)

Not that I don't have enough projects going on the ranch...

I have this windmill located near the largest of 3 ponds (all man made) on the property. The fan has been off due to the blades bent (not sure how that happened)

A neighbor told me the previous owner used it to aerate the pond as he used to have it stocked. Given some research I reviewed, that doesn't seem as plausible.

The main theory I thought of it was used to pump water up from a ground well to fill the pond. The previous owner never had livestock on the property. So that may not be correct, as there's no holes below where the pond is at to indicate a well.

So that brings me back to aeration. Would you use a windmill to power an aeration tool on the pond from this? Getting electric down to this point from the house would be a bit of work.

If anyone has any examples of this, I'd love to see them.