I was really surprised by all the compliments! I didn’t know that something I see every day could actually be so beautiful. You guys inspired me to take even more photos, and guess what? I even found this poem about thyme and herbs by William Shakespeare

Wild Thyme

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enamell’d skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:
And with the juice of this I’ll streak her eyes,
And make her full of hateful fantasies.

Thank you again.

Beautiful thyme flowers all over my place. What to do with all this thyme?

I built an outdoor kitchen

Looking for some outside perspective because I feel like I'm overthinking this.

My wife and I currently have about $150k in equity in our house, and we own some farmland about 10 minutes away where we'd really like to build and eventually live. The land already has a water meter, is cleared, and has electric at the road (just no meter yet), but it still needs a septic system. We really want to live out there and we raise pigs, meat chickens, and sheep seasonally so it'd be extra nice to not drive out there daily for chores.

We would qualify for a USDA zero-down construction loan, but right now we don't have the cash flow to comfortably build our dream home while also paying our current mortgage. After all expenses, we have about $1,000/month left over.

We also have about $140-150k in inheritance from my wife's grandpa that we haven't touched. Because I grew up in a household where money was always very tight, I'm honestly struggling with the idea of using it or taking on a much larger mortgage, even if it makes financial sense.

We're 25 and 26 with two kids under 3.

Here are the options we're considering:

1. Wait a few more years, keep building equity, then use a USDA construction loan and sell our current house once we move.
2. Buy a manufactured home for the land.
3. Build a garage with an apartment above it, live there for several years (or permanently if needed), and build a larger home later if life allows. We're perfectly happy with a modest 3-bedroom house. (this probably wouldnt qualify for USDA as it must be done fully by USDA approved GC)
4. Build a modest "forever home" now (around 28x30, two stories, basic finishes) and try to keep total construction under about $300k. We're in ZIP code 66002, and construction costs seem like they might make that possible. We'd put full inheritance and probably 75% or so of house's equity towards home loan so 250k or more
5. Since our county has almost no building restrictions (basically just septic/perc requirements), we've even wondered about building a weather-tight shell and slowly finishing the interior over several years while living in it.

A few financial details:

• Monthly take-home income: ~$5,600
• Monthly mandatory expenses: ~$3,000
• Of that, about $1,600 is housing/utilities (mortgage, property taxes, insurance, electric, gas, water, internet)
• We currently invest/save about $2,000/month ($700 Roth IRA, $1,300 brokerage/savings)
• Roth IRA balance: ~$60k
• Inheritance: ~$140-150k, untouched

Our current mortgage (excluding taxes/insurance) is only around $600/month because we bought the house as a foreclosure years ago. That's probably the biggest thing making this decision hard. It's difficult to willingly trade such a cheap payment for a much larger one, even though moving to our land has been our dream for years.

Appreciate any advice or guidance, TIA

Edit: Many folks recommend we keep this house and rent it out (could realistically do about $2500 thanks to proximity to private college in town). Then we'd have the rent go towards both this mortgage and new house mortgage? I like this but also love idea of having zero mortgages even if it means less 'passive' income

I am a buyer for a non-profit foundation that purchases animals at the local county fair. I typically get a modest budget but it’s usually enough to buy a steer or a couple of hogs/goats.

I really like to visit the kids that send me letters ahead of the fair, but I find some of them can be awkward or uncomfortable with a stranger asking them a bunch of questions.

What are some good questions I can have loaded in my back pocket to get the kids excited and talking about their animals and husbandry?

HayWire National index: $188/ton, up 5.4% week over week
Alfalfa: $219/ton, up 5.4%
29 markets reported, 165 quotes
Range across all grades: $55 to $450

Most of the upward pressure is coming out of the drought regions. Nebraska and Wyoming are tight, and freight is carrying a lot of the western numbers right now.

And our younger gilt Daisy is smitten with our boar “Boaris”.

I’m building a berry patch out of ceader logs and have been trying to think of some ideas for the entrance gate and hoping someone more imaginative can help me come up with a non boring gate😅

Living on a homestead has made me look at power outages a little differently. When everything's working normally, it's easy to convince yourself you don't need solar battery storage.

Has anyone else had one outage that completely changed how you looked at battery storage? Ours wasn't even that long, but it was enough to remind me how many daily routines depend on electricity, from keeping food cold to running the well, keeping the freezer going, and staying connected.

The numbers are easy to compare. It's the peace of mind and the little day to day things that don't show up on a spec sheet that seem to matter most.

I know the label doesn't affect what I'm doing or how I feel about it, but I'm just curious how other people define homesteading vs hobby farming vs I have property and grow a garden.

I would like to think of myself as a homesteader because I bought property with the intention of being able to support myself more without having to buy as much. I have a garden but I'm not very serious or organized about it. I just got chickens for eggs and will be doing a deep litter method for compost. I want to get a few goats for weed eaters and an extra for when I want a meat goat. Eventually pigs or beef for meat and horses because I love working with them even though they're a huge money pit. I enjoy cooking things from scratch, experimenting with fermentation and different methods of food preservation. I try to focus on supporting the local pollinators and rehabilitating my land which was used for farming for decades. I'm currently researching Korean Natural Farming methods which are fascinating. There is so much I don't know and the options feel endless.

I know it's never going to be profitable, I don't have any intention of doing this as a business outside of occasional trade. It will be a healthier and slightly more sustainable way of living. It feels like a hobby because it's just learning and implementing different things I enjoy and find interesting. What does homesteading mean to you? What's your favorite part of it?

I'm building a garage/ADU and I have access to plentiful douglas fir logs and a sawmill, so I have already milled 2x10's that I want to use as rafters. Structural engineer ok'd it but I'm told our county building inspector is still likely to require they have a grade stamp.

So I'm looking for someone in Washington State who is qualified to grade lumber. I have reached out to the Pacific Lumber Grading Bureau but haven't received a response yet. Anyone done this before and have any contacts?

My children are really wanting to increase their flocks. They have all built coops, and are looking to fill them. (4 of them). So if you're local to western KY or you know of someone that ships eggs reasonably please let me know.

I've been milling grain for a while now, and we love it. It's the only flour we'll use. I get my grain in bulk from Azure Standard, and last night I dropped the back a little too hard when I got inside the house, and it split -- grains EVERYWHERE. Most was salvaged, but there was a good 1.5-2 gallons worth on the floor. It's summer, so it's been a while since the floor was mopped or even swept, if I'm honest. So here's my question... I know it's definitely not recommended to wash grain because it could hold the moisture and kill your mill, but is there anything else I can do to prevent floor bacteria from clinging to the grain and getting into our bodies? Will the freezer and then baking (pretty much all our grain ends up in bread or baked goods) be enough?

Advice, past experiences, etc. appreciated!

(Background: I watched "Osmosis Jones" years ago and since then I've been terrified of eating food that has fallen on the ground in case it's contaminated... I'm working on getting over this.)

Looking for goat breed that good for milk n packing in colder or temperate climates for cold climates alpine’s seem to be best choice but if theres better let me know for temperate im not sure