Untrained Housewife was started to celebrate the journey to knowledge and self-sufficiency. The thing is – it’s not an easy journey.
Baby milk goat. So adorable with those floppy ears, right?
I’ve grown so much the past few years and we’ve added a lot of milestones in our path to increased self-sufficiency. And we’ve had a few set backs as well.
Milks Goats and Meat Chickens
The biggest set-back: Last year I barely milked the goats at all. I had an infant to tend to, a business to run and it was crazy weather. We weren’t consistent enough to keep our goat in good milk and then the terrible heat wave began and she dried up.
No big deal. I will pick it back up again this year. We’ve taken our two goats to the neighbor’s house for a month-long rendezvous with a buck. And we’ll have new babies this April-ish and get a chance to try again.
Our colorful flock of mixed laying hens in their portable coop in the garden.
Our biggest success: 2011 was the year we ordered baby chicks in the mail. Half were for egg production and half were a meat breed of chicken that we were able to process last May. In fact, my mother-in-law is making a big pot of chicken soup with one of the last of those birds right now.
Talk about an amazing feeling! By the end of the afternoon when we finished processing the birds, the freezer was full! Of the highest quality, most nutritious, and least expensive meat available for my family. Such a fabulous feeling.
The Importance of the Journey
I don’t think self-sufficiency is ever fully achievable. We grow, change, learn. Our circumstances change. Our focus shifts.
And that’s ok. Or so I’m learning.
Developing a more self-sufficient lifestyle is partly about understanding your boundaries. Your personal limitations.
And taking the risk and the chance to push the boundaries of where those limits are. Do you just “know” that you could never have a backyard chicken flock? Do you “know” that you have a terrible black thumb and could never grow your own food?
Why not try again! This is the year for taking a chance and pushing the limits of what your family considers normal. Choose one thing to focus on this year as you take the next step towards self-sufficiency.
For me this year it’s starting the garden from seeds – heirloom seeds that I can try my hand at saving for the first time. It could be a colossal failure, but it could be a brilliant success. Chances are it’ll be something in the middle and that is ok with me.
What step will you take this year to increase your family’s self-sufficiency?
I’d love to know how your chickens were the least expensive meat for you. Every time we’ve figured all the costs, it costs us more to raise our own than it would be to just buy it in the store. However, it is WELL worth it, imo.
I guess it depends on what you’re comparing it too and how much feed you’re having to purchase yourself. We feed the chickens almost all our kitchen scraps and let them free range, making feed costs pretty low. This past year they ate lot of the high-protein feed mix my FIL made himself…alfalfa hay, and feed beans he grew and then ran through the feed grinder they have.
We did buy high protein to support the rapid growth of the meat birds but even still at $7 per bag and a bag a week for 8 weeks. that $56 for feed. And $48 for buying the birds (half the shipping/purchasing costs of the 80 birds total we mail ordered). That’s just over $100 total for a grand total of 38 birds in the freezer at 5-6 pounds average size. Roughly .50 per pound.
For ORGANIC, FREE-RANGE chickens. If you’re comparing to cheap, crappy, sick birds where 50% of them are infested with salmonella and they are raised in less than a square foot of space then you might be able to find sales on meat for the same price. But that’s apples to oranges imo.
There are a lot of plants you can grow as homemade chicken feed to cut back costs. But even without growing any feed, even purchasing it all, you would still be cheaper compared to buying organic or free range chicken from the store. quality to quality I don’t think you could buy it cheaper from the store. Even the co-op birds I’ve seen have been $7-9 per bird while ours were less than $3.
Also, what are you growing from seed? Just started perusing the Baker Creek catalog ourselves tonight. Last year, we got them all from Baker Creek and let the kids each pick 10 items to try. I think we’ll go with 5 each this year. We still have a bunch of seeds from last year that will be okay to grow this year. It’s always fun to see what they pick out and talk about their choices with them. One last year was the African jelly melon. We had tons of them…but ended up that nobody like the taste of them. I was wishing we had a roadside stand at that point. lol
We are going to try the Large Farm package with the 60+ full sized seed packets in the bucket for $99 or whatever it is. I’m kind of excited about the idea of just getting what I get and trying things out from there.
You go girls! Growing from seed is so rewarding and it’s so much cheaper than buying seedlings that often get eaten by the snails. Sowing your own seed means you can afford to lose a few along the way withoutngetting too precious about your plants.
I am so impressed! I would love to be able to be self sufficient in that way, but until we no longer live in a town home, that won’t be possible. At this point, I’d like to just spend more time making our garden flourish. it’s a start, right?
Absolutely! I think gardening is a huge step. It’s just one more way to lessen your impact and increase your independence.
I am sooo jealous! We don’t have much room to garden (even though we have one of the largest lots, the open space is direct sun in Texas, and it WILL die 🙁 ) I have a few herbs and strawberries in my front flower garden, but I really REALLY want to do more on the unused side of the house. And chickens! Ahh! Sigh. LOL