August 14, 2019 • 22 mins
One of the most common concerns I hear from people looking to get into homesteading is what happens when you need to leave or take a vacation? While we want all of the joys that a homestead provides, certainly there can be issues when needing to be away for a prolonged period of time. Fear not my friends, I'm here to explain how you can leave your homestead without a great deal of worry. Listen today to find out how we prepare for trips away from the homestead. This episode is sure to inspire some ideas of your own.
Some key highlights from today's episode:
• The best times to leave the homestead
• How to find someone to watch your place
• How to cut down on chores to make things easier
• Why an automatic watering system is great no matter the situation.
If you're ready to begin this homesteading journey, head to http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/grow to access my full library of resources to guide you down the path!
OTHER HELPFUL RESOURCES FOR YOUR HOMESTEAD:
- Sign up for weekly musings from my homestead: http://theprairiehomestead.com/letter
- Get my free homesteading tutorials & recipes here: www.theprairiehomestead.com
- Jill on Instagram: @jill.winger
- Jill on Facebook: http://facebook.com/theprairiehomestead
- Apply to be a guest on the Old-Fashioned on Purpose podcast: https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/podcast-guest-application
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the old fashioned on purpose podcast.
Today's episode is all about howto take a vacation when you have
a homestead or even just a smallproperty and some animals
because let's face it, whetheryou have a homestead now or
you're dreaming of getting onein the future, it's kind of a
(00:22):
big concern.
You know, we don't want to getthis life we love, but then
never be able to leave it againfor the rest of our lives.
There's all times where we needto get away to visit family, you
know, just have a littlevacation, whatever, and we don't
want to be tied down to theproperty for the rest of our
lives.
(00:43):
I am proof that you can have thehomestead you want.
I have a milk cow and a gardenand horses and dogs and cats,
the whole nine yards, and yet westill get away a couple of times
a year and everything is fine.
I'm excited to share some of myactionable strategies and
secrets for having yourhomestead and still taking a
(01:06):
vacation.
I'm your host Jill winger.
For the last 10 years I've beenhelping folks learn how to leave
the rat race and create the lifethey really want by taking the
best of the old ways and weavingthem in to our everyday modern
lives.
This episode was prompted by thefact that we are leaving for my
(01:31):
sister's wedding in about eightor nine days.
By the time you hear thisepisode, we will have already
have gone and come home.
But generally when we're gettingready to leave, preparations
start(at least mentalpreparations) start about now,
about seven to 10 days before weactually get on the airplane or
(01:54):
leave in the car.
Now we have been literallytaking vacations or leaving for
decent chunks of time ever sincewe started our homestead.
So this is nothing new.
There has been a little bit of alearning curve kind of figuring
out our routine and our methodof getting away and making sure
everything is alive when we gethome.
(02:17):
But it's doable.
I do a lot of traveling forbusiness and you know, we, I
speak sometimes at differentconferences, so there's just
times when I have to go on theairplane.
I cannot stay home all the time,be a home body, even though I do
love being a home body and thehomestead generally just keeps
on trucking while I'm gone.
(02:38):
Here are a few of the thingsthat we do and the ways that we
set up our homestead that keepthings flowing when we leave.
First off, it's really importantto be selective about which
times of year you're going to betraveling.
Now this is going to differdepending on what type of homes
(03:00):
that you have and what type ofanimals or gardens that you have
going at a given time.
For us, I find that leaving inthe winter month, which is, you
know, December, January,February, those are a little bit
easier for us just because thegarden is very dead at that
point.
(03:21):
Nothing needs to be watered, youknow, it's pretty easy to just
give everything lots of food andwater and head out.
Now the one downfall to leavingin winter month.
If you live in a very coldclimate like we do, there is
more risk of things freezing,right?
(03:41):
So you want to make sure yourhouse, and this is true, whether
you live in town or in thecountry, you want to make sure
your house has a heat source, isgoing to keep the pipes from
freezing.
If you have outside animals, youhave to make sure that there's a
way for their water to not becontinually frozen over with six
inches of ice.
Whether you have heaters or youhave just a trustworthy neighbor
(04:02):
who comes and hacks on it withan ax every day, that that's one
concern with winter travel.
For us though, that concern isslightly less than the watering
that comes with summertimebecause there's a lot of it and
that's kind of a big deal.
So we are very picky about whenwe leave.
(04:24):
You know, right now the time ofthis recording, it's June, which
is the month for weddings.
My sister's getting married in aweek or two and so we can't
really avoid leaving right now,but there's a lot going on,
right?
The gardens coming up.
Everything needs to be wateredwhen you leave for more than a
day or two, the weeds just takeover.
(04:45):
So it's a little bit trickier toleave during the summer, at
least for us.
Another tip, which is kind of anobvious one, is to find a
trusted caregiver.
Even though we do a lot ofdifferent strategies to really
minimize how much work there iswhen we're gone, you still
(05:06):
really are gonna want to havesomeone come and check on
things, especially if you'regone for more than a day or two.
You know, maybe if it's just anovernight or you can get away
with filling up all the feedersin, the water's really full and
calling it good.
But for us, we always have aneighbor coming up just to check
on things just to make surenothing weird is happening.
(05:27):
Cause you know, animals can getsick or get caught in a fence.
We've never had something likethat happen.
But I'm always thinking aboutthat in the back of my mind.
So this time around we have ournephews thing here and he's
going to be house-sitting andwatching the dogs, doing the
watering and just keeping an eyeon things, which I really do
(05:49):
prefer to have someone here atthe house if possible just cause
it gives me more peace of mind.
But there's been plenty of timeswhen we have someone come up
once a day and that works aswell.
Now generally this kind ofbrings me to my next point about
minimizing chores.
And this applies to actuallywhen you're not on vacation as
(06:11):
well because the more you canminimize or streamline your
chores, even when you're home,the better because it just frees
up your schedule more.
It prevents burnout, it justkeeps things flowing.
But I do like to keep chores,especially when we're on
vacation down to a minimum sothey can be accomplished in one
(06:33):
visit per day.
When we are having neighborscome up to check the place, I
generally kind of hate to askthem to come up twice a day.
That's a lot because most ofthem live at least a few miles
away.
I try to shoot for once a day,usually in the morning and call
it good.
Now let's dive into a few of thespecifics of how we actually do
(06:55):
that chore minimization becauseit's gonna depend a little bit
on what type of animals you haveand where you live.
But I think if you have thestrategies that we use the most
are pretty universal, so youmight get some good ideas from
this.
Okay, so chickens, I know a lotof you have chickens.
(07:16):
There are ways to keep chickenssimplified.
What we do when we're ready toleave is we have a big chicken
feeder.
You might have one just like wedo pretty basic.
We fill it really full and theykind of just free choice feed
while we're gone.
Now free choice feeding isn'talways a great option because
(07:39):
they can get a little chubby.
It gives a chance for the miceto come and steal food so you
could actually create kind of arodent problem.
It creates a little bit morewaste, but for five to seven
days if we're on vacation, Ifeel like it's doable.
It's okay trade-off.
And so we'll just let them dothe free choice thing.
(08:01):
One little side note, if yourchickens have never had free
choice feed their entire lives,I'd probably just wouldn't give
them a giant five gallon bucketwhen you're like heading out of
the driveway because they couldeat too much and make themselves
sick and gorge themselves, youjust don't know.
If you are going to switch overto free choice feeding, make
(08:23):
sure that you give them a littlebit of an adjustment period
first.
As far as chicken watering goes,there are some pretty cool
chicken automatic waters on themarket.
We actually don't have one ofthose yet.
I just fill a big tub or a panwith water.
Sometimes in the summer when wehave a waterfowl like ducks or
(08:45):
geese, we'll have a big swimmingpool or not a big swimming pool.
It's like a kitty pool, right?
One of the plastic blue ones.
And that's filled at all times,so I know that's another, if
their initial water pan isempty, they have the pool, but
our caregiver, whoever that is,a neighbor, whoever, they
usually will check the chickensor they will check the chickens
(09:06):
every single day and that's justgoing to ensure that the water
is good.
They don't have to fill the feedeveryday, but they're just going
to check that and make surenothing weird has happened and
that usually is plentysufficient to keep the chickens
happy and healthy while we'regone.
Now, one issue we have had whenwe are traveling is predators.
(09:28):
Now, even when we don't haveregular predators coming
through, it seems like when ourplace gets quiet, especially if
the dogs are at the Kennel andwe're not out in the yard all
day, we tend to have more of anissue with coyotes or raccoons
coming around, so that issomething you'll want to keep in
(09:49):
mind if you have your chickensoutside.
Right now we have ours locked inour coop because we're
rebuilding our chicken run soit's not ideal because it can
get a little hot in there.
Um, but we'll probably leavethem in there while we're gone.
Just to reduce any Predatorattraction.
Once we get our chicken runfinish, it's going to have
(10:10):
really tall walls and probablyas ceiling of wire on top.
And then I'll feel pretty goodabout letting them go in and out
of the chicken coop at will intothe run.
And I won't be as concernedabout predators coming by cause
they're not going to be able toaccess them as easily.
Now when it comes to largeanimals, like for us, that's
(10:32):
horses and cattle.
We keep those really lowmaintenance pretty much year
round even when we're home.
When we feed in the winter time,we feed big round bales.
They're the kind that you haveto move with a tractor.
And I realize that's not anoption for everyone.
But if you do have the abilityto move those, you have the
(10:53):
equipment in this space, thesesave a lot of time because
you're not out there flaking hayto your animals, you know, twice
a day.
So we let our horses in, cattleon the big bales and that'll
usually last, depending on howmany animals we have, four to
five days.
If we're gone longer than that,we have the neighbor come up and
(11:13):
put another bail in our feeder.
But sometimes for our shortertrips we don't even have to do
that because it'll last all theway through.
And the summertime, of course,that's actually one area that
gets even easier because we canjust turn the animals out to
pasture super easy.
They're good to go and we don'thave to worry about it.
(11:35):
For watering our large animals,we have a giant tractor tire
like I'm talking, you couldalmost, well you could take a
bath in it if you want it.
It's kind of gross sometimes.
Or a little swimming pool sizeis pretty good size and we have
that with a concrete base and wefill that with water.
And put a float on the hose thatregulates the water level.
(11:59):
That doesn't work in the wintercause it'll freeze and it'll
break the float and then you'llhave a disaster.
But in the summertime whenthere's no danger of frost, it
works really well.
We just let the hose run to thefloat, turn on the Faucet, leave
it on, and it regulates thosewater levels, which is important
in the summer because theanimals drink so much more and
(12:22):
it's just a lot more work to befilling it with a hose, you
know, twice a day.
Along with the large animals,many of you know we have dairy
cattle and that's probably theone area of homesteading that
people really, really getconcerned about tying them down.
Milk cows, dairy goats, it'sconsiderable, you know, it's an
(12:47):
amount of chores that's farbeyond your regular chickens and
gardening and whatever.
That being said, we still areable to keep our milk cows and
travel.
Now, full disclosure, right nowour cows are dried up, which
means they are not in milk andwe are not milking them.
(13:08):
It's kind of a long story.
We'll talk about this on afuture episode.
We got a little bit off trackwith our breeding.
Christian has been workingthrough trying to figure out if
he potentially has a dairyallergy.
So we were a little bit slowerto breed them back cause we
weren't drinking as much milkand so we're going to be
breeding our cattle this month,then they'll be calving next
(13:30):
year.
We're gonna have a periodwithout milking, which is sad
because I love the fresh milk,but it also simplifies my life
just a little bit.
But anyway, we had still hadplenty of vacations where we've
had a cow and milk and we havestill left.
This is a little trickier tocoordinate, but still a hundred
(13:51):
percent doable.
What we do is we will leave thecalf or if you have goats, the
kids, right.
We will leave those on themother.
So on the cow or on the doewhile we're gone.
And it just really solves allthe problems because we're not
having to give the babies thebottle and we're not having to
(14:15):
find someone to come milk Mamaand everyone's happy.
Now of course there are going tobe a few times a year or maybe
just one time.
I think primarily where youdon't have a baby on the Momma,
there's a period of time whenyou get ready to ween the baby
where you are going to bemilking kinda solo for that
(14:37):
period.
And that's going to be a timewhere I would recommend you're
gonna either have to findsomeone to do milking chores for
you or just not leave.
Cause that is the most intenseperiod of keeping a dairy
animal.
However, if you schedule youryear out, that period isn't
super long and you can evenleave the calf or the kids on a
(15:02):
little bit extra if you knowyou're going to be traveling
during that time, you know, justdon't ween them until later in
the year.
And so that will take care ofthat issue.
There are ways to work around itwith a dairy animal.
But for us, choosing to have thecalf with the cow and just
milking once a day, even whenwe're home has been the best
(15:23):
option for us.
And I will definitely go indeeper into our once a day
milking routine in a futureepisode.
So stay tuned for that.
Alrighty.
So I know you may not have amilk cow.
Hopefully that was interesting.
Just that you kind of hear howit goes, but I bet you probably
have a garden or even just somebeds or some pots.
(15:44):
How do you leave when you haveveggies growing?
We have a raised bed gardensthat up, but that really, you
know, these tips we use appliedto you, whether you have raised
beds or pots or just an inground garden.
One of the very best things weever did with our garden was to
(16:07):
put in a drip system.
It's an automatic wateringsystem and it took a little bit
of work, took a little bit of upfront investment, you know,
buying all the pipes.
Then the sprinkler attachments,it has been a lifesaver because
hey, when you water plants theygrow better.
And I actually didn't realizethat even when I was home hand
(16:30):
watering or watering with asprinkler, I wasn't quite
watering as much as I should be.
Cause you know life gets in theway and you may be cut the time
short or you forget on a givenday.
So the automatic water has beenfantastic for actually helping
my plants grow.
Imagine that, but it makes usbeing able to leave much less
(16:52):
stressful because the sprinklersare on a timer.
We have them come on twice a dayfor just a few minutes.
Then everything stays watered.
So if you do plan on having alarge garden, I would highly
recommend just doing thefootwork to set up some sort of
automatic automated system.
It's going to save you a lot ofheadache, whether you're home or
(17:14):
you're on vacation.
Now of course we know we haveour big garden, this automated,
but I still have little pots andpieces of the yard that need
watered.
That is an area that if we aregone in the summer, I do have to
have someone come and waterthose.
One thing I do with my pots, Ilike to, it's a little bit more
(17:36):
work for me, but I like to pullthem off of all the various
areas of the yard and just kindof put them all on my porch so
the caretaker can find themeasily.
There's no danger of themmissing a pot or missing a
section.
And I also, this may not beapplicable to you depending on
where you live, but we havehorrendous hail in the summer,
(17:58):
just damaging devastating hailand you never know when it's
coming.
And when I'm home and I see theweather forecasts, I run outside
like a mad woman and bring allmy pots in.
But when I'm gone, you know,that's not a possibility as well
.
So I pull all the pots and I, wehave like an iron table and
(18:18):
chairs that is knda grated orhas slats though.
It's partially, you know, openair.
It's not like a solid table, butI stick all my pots under the
table and under the chairs,which looks bizarre, but it just
shields the pots from if therewere really large hailstones
it's going to give them a nicebuffer but it still allows them
(18:41):
to get sunshine because it's notlike a solid top, if that makes
sense.
So that's my little trick withpots and watering.
The other thing I like to do,and I'm actually working on this
today and tomorrow inpreparation for our upcoming
trip and that is to mulch likecrazy mulch, mulch, mulch.
(19:02):
Right now I'm mulching withgrass clippings from the yard
because we have prairie grass,right?
We had to mow the prairie grassaround the yard.
So we put that in our bagger andI've been using that because
it's pesticide free, herbicidefree.
We don't spray it so it's safe.
And I've been mulching that inmy vegetable garden just to cut
(19:25):
down on weeds and keep the soilnice and damp.
And I believe, I'm hoping,fingers crossed that when we do
leave in a couple of weeks,we're going to have a little bit
easier time when we come home.
And that's going to suppress theweeds just a bit.
So I'll let you know how thatgoes.
So those are my best tips forleaving with a homestead.
(19:48):
It's going to be a little bitdifferent depending on your
situation and what sort ofanimals and plants that you have
and your unique climate.
But it is so doable, I promise.
Just takes a little bit ofcreativity, a little ingenuity
and a little bit of thinkingahead, but it's good and healthy
to leave your homes that once inawhile get away, especially if
(20:10):
you're feeling a little bittired or a little bit burned
out, you're going to come backhome with though much renewed
passion for the lifestyle isjust absolutely worth the
effort.
As you start planning out yournext vacation, I encourage you
to start thinking right nowabout how you can minimize your
(20:32):
current chores.
And remember, this is going tohelp you even when you're not
vacationing.
You know, we want to keephomesteading streamlined and
simple because if weovercomplicate it, we're going
to be prone to, you know, ditchit if that couple of years
because we're just burned out.
To prevent that burnout and keepyourself loving this lifestyle
(20:55):
that you've built, think abouthow you can minimize chores,
whether that's mulching yourgarden, installing an automated
water for your animals or yourgarden, you know, feeding larger
bales of Hay, whatever.
Get creative with yoursituation, but it's going to
make your life easier all theway around.
(21:16):
If you are ready to do thishomesteading thing, but you're
feeling just a little unsure ofwhere or how to start, well
that's my specialty.
I happen to have an entirelibrary of resources that I've
created for homesteaders justlike you.
And you can get complimentaryaccess to this library right now
(21:38):
at theprairiehomestead.com/growand we'll leave that link in the
show notes now.
That's all for this episode.
Thank you so much for listeningand remember, please subscribe
and drop a quick review over oniTunes.
That would mean so much to me.
That's all for now, but I can'twait to chat with you in the
(22:01):
next episode of the oldfashioned on purpose podcast.
Welcome to the old fashioned on purpose podcast.
Today's episode is all about howto take a vacation when you have
a homestead or even just a smallproperty and some animals
because let's face it, whetheryou have a homestead now or
you're dreaming of getting onein the future, it's kind of a
(00:22):
big concern.
You know, we don't want to getthis life we love, but then
never be able to leave it againfor the rest of our lives.
There's all times where we needto get away to visit family, you
know, just have a littlevacation, whatever, and we don't
want to be tied down to theproperty for the rest of our
lives.
(00:43):
I am proof that you can have thehomestead you want.
I have a milk cow and a gardenand horses and dogs and cats,
the whole nine yards, and yet westill get away a couple of times
a year and everything is fine.
I'm excited to share some of myactionable strategies and
secrets for having yourhomestead and still taking a
(01:06):
vacation.
I'm your host Jill winger.
For the last 10 years I've beenhelping folks learn how to leave
the rat race and create the lifethey really want by taking the
best of the old ways and weavingthem in to our everyday modern
lives.
This episode was prompted by thefact that we are leaving for my
(01:31):
sister's wedding in about eightor nine days.
By the time you hear thisepisode, we will have already
have gone and come home.
But generally when we're gettingready to leave, preparations
start(at least mentalpreparations) start about now,
about seven to 10 days before weactually get on the airplane or
(01:54):
leave in the car.
Now we have been literallytaking vacations or leaving for
decent chunks of time ever sincewe started our homestead.
So this is nothing new.
There has been a little bit of alearning curve kind of figuring
out our routine and our methodof getting away and making sure
everything is alive when we gethome.
(02:17):
But it's doable.
I do a lot of traveling forbusiness and you know, we, I
speak sometimes at differentconferences, so there's just
times when I have to go on theairplane.
I cannot stay home all the time,be a home body, even though I do
love being a home body and thehomestead generally just keeps
on trucking while I'm gone.
(02:38):
Here are a few of the thingsthat we do and the ways that we
set up our homestead that keepthings flowing when we leave.
First off, it's really importantto be selective about which
times of year you're going to betraveling.
Now this is going to differdepending on what type of homes
(03:00):
that you have and what type ofanimals or gardens that you have
going at a given time.
For us, I find that leaving inthe winter month, which is, you
know, December, January,February, those are a little bit
easier for us just because thegarden is very dead at that
point.
(03:21):
Nothing needs to be watered, youknow, it's pretty easy to just
give everything lots of food andwater and head out.
Now the one downfall to leavingin winter month.
If you live in a very coldclimate like we do, there is
more risk of things freezing,right?
(03:41):
So you want to make sure yourhouse, and this is true, whether
you live in town or in thecountry, you want to make sure
your house has a heat source, isgoing to keep the pipes from
freezing.
If you have outside animals, youhave to make sure that there's a
way for their water to not becontinually frozen over with six
inches of ice.
Whether you have heaters or youhave just a trustworthy neighbor
(04:02):
who comes and hacks on it withan ax every day, that that's one
concern with winter travel.
For us though, that concern isslightly less than the watering
that comes with summertimebecause there's a lot of it and
that's kind of a big deal.
So we are very picky about whenwe leave.
(04:24):
You know, right now the time ofthis recording, it's June, which
is the month for weddings.
My sister's getting married in aweek or two and so we can't
really avoid leaving right now,but there's a lot going on,
right?
The gardens coming up.
Everything needs to be wateredwhen you leave for more than a
day or two, the weeds just takeover.
(04:45):
So it's a little bit trickier toleave during the summer, at
least for us.
Another tip, which is kind of anobvious one, is to find a
trusted caregiver.
Even though we do a lot ofdifferent strategies to really
minimize how much work there iswhen we're gone, you still
(05:06):
really are gonna want to havesomeone come and check on
things, especially if you'regone for more than a day or two.
You know, maybe if it's just anovernight or you can get away
with filling up all the feedersin, the water's really full and
calling it good.
But for us, we always have aneighbor coming up just to check
on things just to make surenothing weird is happening.
(05:27):
Cause you know, animals can getsick or get caught in a fence.
We've never had something likethat happen.
But I'm always thinking aboutthat in the back of my mind.
So this time around we have ournephews thing here and he's
going to be house-sitting andwatching the dogs, doing the
watering and just keeping an eyeon things, which I really do
(05:49):
prefer to have someone here atthe house if possible just cause
it gives me more peace of mind.
But there's been plenty of timeswhen we have someone come up
once a day and that works aswell.
Now generally this kind ofbrings me to my next point about
minimizing chores.
And this applies to actuallywhen you're not on vacation as
(06:11):
well because the more you canminimize or streamline your
chores, even when you're home,the better because it just frees
up your schedule more.
It prevents burnout, it justkeeps things flowing.
But I do like to keep chores,especially when we're on
vacation down to a minimum sothey can be accomplished in one
(06:33):
visit per day.
When we are having neighborscome up to check the place, I
generally kind of hate to askthem to come up twice a day.
That's a lot because most ofthem live at least a few miles
away.
I try to shoot for once a day,usually in the morning and call
it good.
Now let's dive into a few of thespecifics of how we actually do
(06:55):
that chore minimization becauseit's gonna depend a little bit
on what type of animals you haveand where you live.
But I think if you have thestrategies that we use the most
are pretty universal, so youmight get some good ideas from
this.
Okay, so chickens, I know a lotof you have chickens.
(07:16):
There are ways to keep chickenssimplified.
What we do when we're ready toleave is we have a big chicken
feeder.
You might have one just like wedo pretty basic.
We fill it really full and theykind of just free choice feed
while we're gone.
Now free choice feeding isn'talways a great option because
(07:39):
they can get a little chubby.
It gives a chance for the miceto come and steal food so you
could actually create kind of arodent problem.
It creates a little bit morewaste, but for five to seven
days if we're on vacation, Ifeel like it's doable.
It's okay trade-off.
And so we'll just let them dothe free choice thing.
(08:01):
One little side note, if yourchickens have never had free
choice feed their entire lives,I'd probably just wouldn't give
them a giant five gallon bucketwhen you're like heading out of
the driveway because they couldeat too much and make themselves
sick and gorge themselves, youjust don't know.
If you are going to switch overto free choice feeding, make
(08:23):
sure that you give them a littlebit of an adjustment period
first.
As far as chicken watering goes,there are some pretty cool
chicken automatic waters on themarket.
We actually don't have one ofthose yet.
I just fill a big tub or a panwith water.
Sometimes in the summer when wehave a waterfowl like ducks or
(08:45):
geese, we'll have a big swimmingpool or not a big swimming pool.
It's like a kitty pool, right?
One of the plastic blue ones.
And that's filled at all times,so I know that's another, if
their initial water pan isempty, they have the pool, but
our caregiver, whoever that is,a neighbor, whoever, they
usually will check the chickensor they will check the chickens
(09:06):
every single day and that's justgoing to ensure that the water
is good.
They don't have to fill the feedeveryday, but they're just going
to check that and make surenothing weird has happened and
that usually is plentysufficient to keep the chickens
happy and healthy while we'regone.
Now, one issue we have had whenwe are traveling is predators.
(09:28):
Now, even when we don't haveregular predators coming
through, it seems like when ourplace gets quiet, especially if
the dogs are at the Kennel andwe're not out in the yard all
day, we tend to have more of anissue with coyotes or raccoons
coming around, so that issomething you'll want to keep in
(09:49):
mind if you have your chickensoutside.
Right now we have ours locked inour coop because we're
rebuilding our chicken run soit's not ideal because it can
get a little hot in there.
Um, but we'll probably leavethem in there while we're gone.
Just to reduce any Predatorattraction.
Once we get our chicken runfinish, it's going to have
(10:10):
really tall walls and probablyas ceiling of wire on top.
And then I'll feel pretty goodabout letting them go in and out
of the chicken coop at will intothe run.
And I won't be as concernedabout predators coming by cause
they're not going to be able toaccess them as easily.
Now when it comes to largeanimals, like for us, that's
(10:32):
horses and cattle.
We keep those really lowmaintenance pretty much year
round even when we're home.
When we feed in the winter time,we feed big round bales.
They're the kind that you haveto move with a tractor.
And I realize that's not anoption for everyone.
But if you do have the abilityto move those, you have the
(10:53):
equipment in this space, thesesave a lot of time because
you're not out there flaking hayto your animals, you know, twice
a day.
So we let our horses in, cattleon the big bales and that'll
usually last, depending on howmany animals we have, four to
five days.
If we're gone longer than that,we have the neighbor come up and
(11:13):
put another bail in our feeder.
But sometimes for our shortertrips we don't even have to do
that because it'll last all theway through.
And the summertime, of course,that's actually one area that
gets even easier because we canjust turn the animals out to
pasture super easy.
They're good to go and we don'thave to worry about it.
(11:35):
For watering our large animals,we have a giant tractor tire
like I'm talking, you couldalmost, well you could take a
bath in it if you want it.
It's kind of gross sometimes.
Or a little swimming pool sizeis pretty good size and we have
that with a concrete base and wefill that with water.
And put a float on the hose thatregulates the water level.
(11:59):
That doesn't work in the wintercause it'll freeze and it'll
break the float and then you'llhave a disaster.
But in the summertime whenthere's no danger of frost, it
works really well.
We just let the hose run to thefloat, turn on the Faucet, leave
it on, and it regulates thosewater levels, which is important
in the summer because theanimals drink so much more and
(12:22):
it's just a lot more work to befilling it with a hose, you
know, twice a day.
Along with the large animals,many of you know we have dairy
cattle and that's probably theone area of homesteading that
people really, really getconcerned about tying them down.
Milk cows, dairy goats, it'sconsiderable, you know, it's an
(12:47):
amount of chores that's farbeyond your regular chickens and
gardening and whatever.
That being said, we still areable to keep our milk cows and
travel.
Now, full disclosure, right nowour cows are dried up, which
means they are not in milk andwe are not milking them.
(13:08):
It's kind of a long story.
We'll talk about this on afuture episode.
We got a little bit off trackwith our breeding.
Christian has been workingthrough trying to figure out if
he potentially has a dairyallergy.
So we were a little bit slowerto breed them back cause we
weren't drinking as much milkand so we're going to be
breeding our cattle this month,then they'll be calving next
(13:30):
year.
We're gonna have a periodwithout milking, which is sad
because I love the fresh milk,but it also simplifies my life
just a little bit.
But anyway, we had still hadplenty of vacations where we've
had a cow and milk and we havestill left.
This is a little trickier tocoordinate, but still a hundred
(13:51):
percent doable.
What we do is we will leave thecalf or if you have goats, the
kids, right.
We will leave those on themother.
So on the cow or on the doewhile we're gone.
And it just really solves allthe problems because we're not
having to give the babies thebottle and we're not having to
(14:15):
find someone to come milk Mamaand everyone's happy.
Now of course there are going tobe a few times a year or maybe
just one time.
I think primarily where youdon't have a baby on the Momma,
there's a period of time whenyou get ready to ween the baby
where you are going to bemilking kinda solo for that
(14:37):
period.
And that's going to be a timewhere I would recommend you're
gonna either have to findsomeone to do milking chores for
you or just not leave.
Cause that is the most intenseperiod of keeping a dairy
animal.
However, if you schedule youryear out, that period isn't
super long and you can evenleave the calf or the kids on a
(15:02):
little bit extra if you knowyou're going to be traveling
during that time, you know, justdon't ween them until later in
the year.
And so that will take care ofthat issue.
There are ways to work around itwith a dairy animal.
But for us, choosing to have thecalf with the cow and just
milking once a day, even whenwe're home has been the best
(15:23):
option for us.
And I will definitely go indeeper into our once a day
milking routine in a futureepisode.
So stay tuned for that.
Alrighty.
So I know you may not have amilk cow.
Hopefully that was interesting.
Just that you kind of hear howit goes, but I bet you probably
have a garden or even just somebeds or some pots.
(15:44):
How do you leave when you haveveggies growing?
We have a raised bed gardensthat up, but that really, you
know, these tips we use appliedto you, whether you have raised
beds or pots or just an inground garden.
One of the very best things weever did with our garden was to
(16:07):
put in a drip system.
It's an automatic wateringsystem and it took a little bit
of work, took a little bit of upfront investment, you know,
buying all the pipes.
Then the sprinkler attachments,it has been a lifesaver because
hey, when you water plants theygrow better.
And I actually didn't realizethat even when I was home hand
(16:30):
watering or watering with asprinkler, I wasn't quite
watering as much as I should be.
Cause you know life gets in theway and you may be cut the time
short or you forget on a givenday.
So the automatic water has beenfantastic for actually helping
my plants grow.
Imagine that, but it makes usbeing able to leave much less
(16:52):
stressful because the sprinklersare on a timer.
We have them come on twice a dayfor just a few minutes.
Then everything stays watered.
So if you do plan on having alarge garden, I would highly
recommend just doing thefootwork to set up some sort of
automatic automated system.
It's going to save you a lot ofheadache, whether you're home or
(17:14):
you're on vacation.
Now of course we know we haveour big garden, this automated,
but I still have little pots andpieces of the yard that need
watered.
That is an area that if we aregone in the summer, I do have to
have someone come and waterthose.
One thing I do with my pots, Ilike to, it's a little bit more
(17:36):
work for me, but I like to pullthem off of all the various
areas of the yard and just kindof put them all on my porch so
the caretaker can find themeasily.
There's no danger of themmissing a pot or missing a
section.
And I also, this may not beapplicable to you depending on
where you live, but we havehorrendous hail in the summer,
(17:58):
just damaging devastating hailand you never know when it's
coming.
And when I'm home and I see theweather forecasts, I run outside
like a mad woman and bring allmy pots in.
But when I'm gone, you know,that's not a possibility as well
.
So I pull all the pots and I, wehave like an iron table and
(18:18):
chairs that is knda grated orhas slats though.
It's partially, you know, openair.
It's not like a solid table, butI stick all my pots under the
table and under the chairs,which looks bizarre, but it just
shields the pots from if therewere really large hailstones
it's going to give them a nicebuffer but it still allows them
(18:41):
to get sunshine because it's notlike a solid top, if that makes
sense.
So that's my little trick withpots and watering.
The other thing I like to do,and I'm actually working on this
today and tomorrow inpreparation for our upcoming
trip and that is to mulch likecrazy mulch, mulch, mulch.
(19:02):
Right now I'm mulching withgrass clippings from the yard
because we have prairie grass,right?
We had to mow the prairie grassaround the yard.
So we put that in our bagger andI've been using that because
it's pesticide free, herbicidefree.
We don't spray it so it's safe.
And I've been mulching that inmy vegetable garden just to cut
(19:25):
down on weeds and keep the soilnice and damp.
And I believe, I'm hoping,fingers crossed that when we do
leave in a couple of weeks,we're going to have a little bit
easier time when we come home.
And that's going to suppress theweeds just a bit.
So I'll let you know how thatgoes.
So those are my best tips forleaving with a homestead.
(19:48):
It's going to be a little bitdifferent depending on your
situation and what sort ofanimals and plants that you have
and your unique climate.
But it is so doable, I promise.
Just takes a little bit ofcreativity, a little ingenuity
and a little bit of thinkingahead, but it's good and healthy
to leave your homes that once inawhile get away, especially if
(20:10):
you're feeling a little bittired or a little bit burned
out, you're going to come backhome with though much renewed
passion for the lifestyle isjust absolutely worth the
effort.
As you start planning out yournext vacation, I encourage you
to start thinking right nowabout how you can minimize your
(20:32):
current chores.
And remember, this is going tohelp you even when you're not
vacationing.
You know, we want to keephomesteading streamlined and
simple because if weovercomplicate it, we're going
to be prone to, you know, ditchit if that couple of years
because we're just burned out.
To prevent that burnout and keepyourself loving this lifestyle
(20:55):
that you've built, think abouthow you can minimize chores,
whether that's mulching yourgarden, installing an automated
water for your animals or yourgarden, you know, feeding larger
bales of Hay, whatever.
Get creative with yoursituation, but it's going to
make your life easier all theway around.
(21:16):
If you are ready to do thishomesteading thing, but you're
feeling just a little unsure ofwhere or how to start, well
that's my specialty.
I happen to have an entirelibrary of resources that I've
created for homesteaders justlike you.
And you can get complimentaryaccess to this library right now
(21:38):
at theprairiehomestead.com/growand we'll leave that link in the
show notes now.
That's all for this episode.
Thank you so much for listeningand remember, please subscribe
and drop a quick review over oniTunes.
That would mean so much to me.
That's all for now, but I can'twait to chat with you in the
(22:01):
next episode of the oldfashioned on purpose podcast.
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