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Backyard Livestock the Second Pillar of Homesteading – Epi-3210

The Survival Podcast Posted on by

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I get a lot of requests for more “old school” episodes of TSPC and most of those focus on homesteading, permaculture, hard skills, etc. which lead us to the pillars of homestead series that we will continue today.  In part two of this series we are going to cover the second pillar, back yard livestock.

Note this series is not about commercial farming for a profit, scaling food production to feed 50 families, etc.  Rather old school American homesteading like our grand parents did.  Feed yourself, store surplus and share surplus with your neighbors.  That is not to say a side hustle market garden or similar won’t fit with this series just that the foundation is first about “feeding the family”.

So what are the pillars, for this discussion there will be four….

  • Gardening
  • Back Yard Livestock
  • Perennials and Herbs
  • Local Hunter Gatherer Knowledge (foraging and trade)

 

Like any set of “pillars” these are not end all, be alls, just the foundation on which to build.  Each is connected to others though function stacking and additional systems.   Gardens create waste, animals create waste the two are connected via composting, compost feeds the garden which feeds the humans and animals as one example.

Small scale livestock is about as old as human settlements are.  We have tons of fossil records of humans keeping animals going back many thousands of years.  Early hunter gatherer societies as they formed more permanent settlements figured out that game was not always cooperative with being harvested but livestock could be relied upon to always be there.

Join Me Today to Discuss…

  • The four pillars and why we are talking about them at the beginning of winter
    • Gardening
    • Small livestock
    • Perennials
    • Hunter/gatherer/local-trade knowledge
  • Why livestock are the second pillar
    • Protein and fat production
    • Can be done very inexpensively
    • Process waste material into fertility
    • Likely there is an option for almost anyone
  • The primary small livestock for small landholders to consider
    • Worms or BSF (black solider flies)
    • Bees
    • Chickens
    • Quail
    • Rabbits
    • Ducks (conventional)
    • Muscovy Ducks
    • Geese
    • Fish
    • Sheep (hair sheep)
    • Pigs (smaller breeds)
  • The rules that keep you from hating yourself
    • One at a time
    • Get rid of what doesn’t work for you
    • Infrastructure first, I MEAN IT!
    • Develop a system of management so simple you can teach it to a 10 year old
    • Have realistic goals

 

Resources for today’s show

 

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