My wife and I are working towards being self-sufficient. Or as self-sufficient as one can be in the 21st century.
The problem is, the word "self-sufficient" has been used over and over so many times that it starts to lose its effect. I think another good term would be "indefinite sustainability". Meaning a lifestyle that can be maintained for a long time.
What "exactly" does it mean to be "self-sufficient"?
In my opinion, it would be easier to change your lifestyle, then try to adapt your current lifestyle. My goal is to have a blend of both, my current lifestyle, and a lifestyle that can be maintained with as little help from the outside as possible.
Within the next year my wife and I are looking at moving to a rural area. We already live about 4 miles outside of Jasper Texas. But we want to move a little further from town.
When I was a child, my great-grand parents on my mom and dads side of the family lived in rural areas.
On my moms side of the family, my great-grand parents lived in a small house on the banks of the Neches river just south of Dam B. My great-grand father ran trotlines all the time and caught some huge catfish. They made their weekly or monthly trips to town for beans, bacon, medicine, and other basic supplies. The house they lived in was a very basic 4 room house - bed room, kitchen with a tv, fridge, stove and oven, bathroom, and enclosed wrap around porch.
On my dads side of the family, my great-grand parents lived on a homestead with around 30 acres in a rural area. They had cows, a horse, garden, barn, chickens. And one thing they seemed to have a lot of was peace and quiet.
Both places had several things in common. They caught or raised some of their own food, and they lived off the beaten path. I want to achieve both in the near future.
Over the past year or so I have been putting a lot of thought in my homesteading project. The goal is to have a garden and livestock that complement each other.
Here is my plan for a combination chicken yard / garden. This is my original plan and was not lifted from another site.
Access to each side of the chicken yard / garden would be controlled by 2 doors in front of the coop. For one year 1 door would be open. When I am ready to work the area where the chickens are, the door to the coop will be closed and the opposite door opened.
On the backside of the fenced in area are a couple of acres for growing corn, watermelons, pumpkins,,,.
One of my main goals is to have a garden and chicken yard that work together.
Length – 100 feet
Width – 50, maybe 60 feet. The width will be divided in half with a dividing fence running long ways. This leaves a section 25 or 30 feet wide by 100 feet long.
Sixteen 4 foot x 8 foot raised bed per side, 8 per quarter.
During the off season, the side of the garden not being used will act as compost bins and a chicken yard. Table scraps and grass clippings will be dumped into the raised beds. The chickens will dig though the compost bin, keep it rotated, and add their own fertilizer.
Rainwater off the chicken coop can be caught, stored in drums and used in the garden.
Something else I could do, is build some rabbit coops, then add the rabbit droppings to the garden. Since the garden is fenced in, maybe let the rabbits run free inside the garden from time to time.
Water
Water is the biggest of my concerns. The plan is to put a well in. Besides having an electric pump, also have a manual pump, something like a Bison.
Rainwater can be collected off the shed and the house, then use the rain water to water the garden.
With a nearby creek, I thought about using a solar trickle charger to pump water from the creek into the garden.
Livestock
Under my plan, my main sources of meat would be chicken, goat and supplemented with wild game from time to time.
I do not have the goat yard figured out yet.
Electricity
The thing that has made on modern life possible.
The plan is to have solar panels attached to a deck in the backyard. Solar is still a ways for me, but the plans are in the back of my head. I want to get the garden complete, or at least 1/2 way running, then look into solar.
What I thought about doing, is where the power go into the house, build a shed there with all of the solar controllers. Power goes out, go to the shed, flip a switch, and then we would be on battery backup.
