Are there any retired homesteader's?

My DH and I are newly retired and living in Florida. Last year we bought 2 acres in Caneyville, Ky. We want to get away from all of the confusion of city life and relax. We need to cut down on the bills and start from scratch. We plan to make the big move in the spring, depending on the weather in Ky.

Hi, Pici,

Welcome to Dave's Garden and welcome to the neighborhood! What made you decide to buy in Caneyville? Family? Weather's great....come on up! LOL!

Robin

They just wanted to be near you, Robin.
Welcome to Dave's.
And you are only 100 miles from KY Round UP!
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1036874/
Bernie, Hi Robin & Happy New Year!

Hey, Bernie! Happy New Year to you and your lovely wife!

I'm just so excited about having a DG member so close! The closest ones are 45 miles away.

Another DG friend (Hineni) just moved to Paris, TN yesterday and she'll be going to the KYRU too.

Sounds like everybody who is anybody will be in Kentucky! Welcome to DG and the homesteading forum.

I don't envy your ambitions at retirement age but I only say that because I know how difficult it is to take on tasks or learn new things when one is 60+.

How developed is your property and how serious a homesteader do you wish to become? Livestock or gardening or?

If you both desire the same outcome and your hearts/minds are in agreement, the body will follow even tho it may protest some.

Best wishes on your move.

The bodies will actually be healthier when being out & about working in the fresh air. Anything you grow will definitely be better for you, too.

Hi to everybody and thank you for the kind welcomes. I just found Dave's Garden the other day and I just think it is great! There is so much information here, it's a goldmine. I saved it to my desktop so I can open it often in between doing other things.


Hi Robin,
Nice to get to know someone from the neighborhood. To answer your question, I found the property on the internet. We searched for about a year for properties. Then I found a site that had quite a few listings on it. Have you heard of Green Farms or know of Leland Green? Anyway, it's just outside of the town. Another fact I found interesting is that I found out that I had family living in KY about 5 generations back. We have been watching the weather on the internet, but aren't brave enough to make the move yet. We were in Caneyville last April and the road was full of water and we couldn't get to the property, again in June and it was still raining, did manage to camp a couple of days. So we will try it again this year and somehow deal with mother nature. But we can't wait to get started! Good to know I can ask somebody questions about the area. We did meet some of the people and were blown away at how friendly people were.


CountryGardens,
The KY Round Up, sounds like something we would be interested in. I clicked the link and it took me to the Gardening Forums. Is that where I should be? I love this site!


podster,
Thank you for your post. Yes, tasks do become more difficult at 60+. I am a retired nurse
and turned 62 in Nov. and my DH is a retired roofer and turned 67 in Oct. We are both still pretty active. To answer your question, the property is undeveloped, treed and hilly. I
think homesteading for us this year will be clearing the land, some gardening and building a small cabin, making a driveway to get to the property. Things like that. At least, that's what the plan is.


Thank you all for the good wishes. Happy New Year to all of you!

Pici/Sandy

Some of the forums & threads are for subscribers only. Round Up forum must be one of them, sorry.
In a nutshell, it's held at Prizer Point Campground on KY Lake near Cadiz, KY.
http://www.prizerpoint.com/
Some stay for a whole week, others a few days, & still others just come for Saturday. Lots of food & fun. You meet lots of Daves members. We come from all over the country.
All are great people by the way!
It's held around the 18th of September.
Bernie

Forgot the picture I was going to add.
A little fun on Saturday afternoon.

Sandy, it's well worth the price to join and there's so much more information you'd be able to access. There are absolutely wonderful people here....just one big happy family! I had the pleasure of meeting several members at the Round Up last year.

I sent you a D-Mail. The link is at the top of the page. If by chance, you can't open it, let me know. I don't know if it's available to all members, or just subscribing members.

Hi Pici, and congratulations on deciding to live the rural life. You will certainly benefit from more healthful food, and lots of outdoor exercise.
This is a wonderful way of life, and I bet you will love it. Getting back to basics is such a relaxing and rewarding way to live.

You are not really old, you know. I will be 77 in April, and still working my garden without power tools. I love working hard and going to bed tired. No problem sleeping, and no drugs needed. My DH is disabled and can't do anything physical, so I need to keep healthy & strong..

We moved here in 1970, and raised five healthy kids. They were kept busy with chores & taking care of the animals. Besides the garden, we raised rabbits, pigs & chickens for food, and had dairy goats that they had to milk before and after school each day.
Three sons still live close by, and are such a help when I need something done that I can't do by myself.

If you have a neighbor close by, treasure them, as there is nothing better than a helping hand, and country folks help each other.

Good luck on your venture....bet you can't wait to get started.

Welcome to Dave's, Homesteading and Caneyville Pici! MsRobin is a wonderful friend of mine and will be a GREAT neighbor for you (when I'm not borrowing her down here in Paris...LOL!)

I just got 2/3's moved and I am exhausted; working a 14 hour shift tonight then PILLOW TIME for me.. ZzzzzZZzzzz

Hineni, springs a'comin, so better get the garden tools unpacked first.
To heck with the rest of unpacking, except for comfortable garden shoes, bandanas, and jeans or overalls.
Once when we moved, we didn't ever unpack everything, and it was still packed up the next move. I finally figured that we should just get rid of it, if we didn't 'need' it for several years. The military moved us, so we didn't notice that we were overloaded with junk.

I was just remarking to MsRobin today that I know where my seeds are, but not much else (okay, I do have the coffee and coffeemaker located...haha!)
If I move again, which I'm hopeful that I will not (unless of course I win the lottery and buy a REAL farm), I will either pay for movers or just sell it/give it all away and replace what I really need when I need it.

I may have to move everything either upstairs or downstairs just so I can have walking and breathing room. I tried to put it in the related rooms, but I have too much kitchen and bath stuff...oy! Oh, and plants. Lotsa plants in the house currently.

And I guess this year I will have to garden with shoes on, as I hear from the neighbors that copperheads are an unwelcome bonus around here, along with wasps and seed ticks. I was wondering if I should unpack or just keep going after that spiel. o_o

Welcome! Glad to have you join us, looking forward to hearing about your adventures in self-sufficiency. =0)

Hi, get yourself a pit bull. They are awesome on snakes.

Pici, welcome to Ky though you will be across the state from us. The weather is tough right now but it's unusual. Be glad when Spring comes back to town.

Hineni, come and get some of our fireants...they very effectively get rid of ticks....since we have fireants, our tick population is nil. Of course, we do not have many cottontails, horned toads, etc. either, as the fireants have killed them off.

I welcome red wasps in my garden, as they patrol for hornworms, and cabbage worms, and seldom sting without a warning. I am not crazy about yellow jackets, as they are always mad, but I don't kill them, unless they build on the porch.

Copperheads are not numerous but are scattered pretty much everywhere, and I don't appreciate them, as they don't give you any warning. Rattlesnakes have the manners to at least warn you to get out of their way.

Cats are often great at killing small snakes, at least our barn cats were. Armadillos kill rattlers by rolling on them, so I am told, although I have never witnessed that.

The only snake I kill with abandon is a copperhead. They do not fight fair. I hate them. I do not miss the fireants. Guineas are great for clearing out the ticks.

We have coppper heads and water moccasins but they are pretty lazy. You really have to harass them to get bitten. We also have a dog that kills them fairly regularly. I tend to just ignore or relocate them.

I think I'll pass on the fire ants, but thanks Caliche...lol; I wouldn't want my little Jack to get eaten up. We had copperheads when I lived in GA, neighbor caught two in his yard near the kids play area so he put them in a Rubbermaid tub and paraded them around. They basically looked like they just wanted out of there. I don't know what he ever did with them.

Last year I bought some of that snake out, or whatever it is called; supposed to make a perimeter they won't cross. However, I never saw a snake at the other place except for in the barn and it was a black snake so I didn't use it. The dogs worried that one that I saw silly one day when it came down from the rafters and then a few days later I saw one dead on the road, maybe it was moving away from the dogs and had bad timing in regards to crossing the road since we didn't get much traffic out there. I just don't like snakes to startle me. If I see them, I'll usually leave them be as they normally keep on moving and don't like me any more than I like them. I do worry that the dogs will get bit, since they tend to go tearing off through the woods chasing some thing or the other and are likely to scare one in that manner. Right now they are discovering a love of chasing cars, so they may not be around when snake season comes if they keep that up. Most of the drivers will slow down, but we have one grain truck driver that tears through here; if they decide to chase that bugger I suspect they will lose. Maybe they have more sense than that, at least I hope so.

I have heard guineas are good at keeping the ticks down, but that they are very loud. How about chickens, do they help? Eventually I'd like to get a few chickens, but I'll have to get or build something to keep them in first. I have heard several owls and so I know I won't be open free ranging them; plus I have no idea how the Pyrs will react. Probably chase the things and make them have a heart attack! I honestly don't know if I will get any additional animals this year because my workload is going to be pretty stiff just getting in a good veggie garden and an herb garden, and getting fencing up after I have a survey done. By then I'll probably be out of money and will have to wait till the following year for more improvements. But we'll see. G-d willing I've got plenty of time and I don't want to rush and overdo it, as is my normal tendency :D

Hineni ~ bite off no more than you can chew... just take one step at a time ~ it will amaze you how fast things will be accomplished.I know with your Pyrs you couldn't have cats but I find they help keep snakes at bay. They kill/eat all the little critters that a snake would come around hunting for. When there is no food source, the snake goes elsewhere. I also have had both cats and dogs receive poisonous bites and it is not an issue. I doctor with antibiotics. Infection is the main issue after a snake bite.

OTOH, do watch where you put your hands and feet. A copperhead doesn't "keep moving on" and will lay there and let you step on it or pick something up right next to it. In this area, I know many folks that have survived copperhead bites. It is a most common bite as their camo is excellent, blending in with pinestraw or our red dirt. Do not worry, you will live in harmony with them. A friend swears that his judicious plantings of garlic repel snakes. Maybe that is worth a try.

Hi, Sounds like you may not be wanting the goat kids this year? You and robin can still come visit, right? I still have not had the nannies bred. The weather has me waaay behind.

Hiya Cajun...I'm not sure yet what livestock I will add this year, if any. I'm really still trying to wrap my head around what it will take to maintain what is here already, plus the existing fur crew. But yep, we can surely visit whether or not I'm getting goats or not :D

Did we scare Pici away? I'm very interested on how they do at their new place!

Hello,hope retirements it going ok,took me some getting the hang of a new routine.Best of luck to you.

Pici, when do you think you will move?

u know mint plants are good at keeping mice and snakes away snakes come in looking for food if the mice arent there the snakes wont be there my mother used to line the property with mint plants and we never had a problem with any of them critters when we lived in western ky

That's a good idea. Thanks.

Pod, the Pyrs didn't really have a say when this critter showed up. If it lasts a week I guess it can stay...LOL! So I'm trapping mice, planting mint and now have a dropped-off cat in addition to my existing fur-crew. One more thing to feed and get shots for...sigh. My animal budget is getting too big! Although finding the meat processor less than two miles away helped immensely with the feed costs. Now if someone would just drop off a miniature milk-cow and three chickens, I'd be set :D

That looks like kinfolk of the last two we trapped in town and brought home. They are the most charming, bestest hunters. I advocate neutering/spaying and unless required by the vet when he neuters them, I only get their rabies shot which is mandated by our state every two years, I believe. We have two cats that are now 14 YO with this care and have had two live to be over 20.

That little one promises she won't eat much and will definitely earn her keep. I like her "tree bark" camo... lol

Was that an April fools trick?

This message was edited Apr 1, 2010 6:33 AM

Wow, she looks like she'd put a serious hurt on a mouse! =0)

Cat got a mug like a women scorned--------steer clear hahahahah Remember a wise monkey never monkey`s around with another monkey`s monkey! Say it aint so!

Yep, that's a "You are sooooo dead" look... a thousand yard stare, don't they call it?

Sunny, he looks like my big old fat cat did when she was young... and little!

Yeah, he's pretty sassy, but he sure loves on me when it is feeding time. He loves up on the Jack and then turns around and smacks his face...LOL! As for the Pyrs, he can run and climb FAST! He apparently alternates between the barn and the woods out back, as he usually comes sauntering up from the woods behind the hayfield hollerin' once he sees the Jack outside - he's figured out that the Pyrs aren't around when the Jack is. He's been weaseling to get in the house, but my seedlings can't take cat treatment and every other high surface has dishes or something on it. He must have had a party or company in the barn last night, because when I went out to feed him all the pots and stuff were all over the floor and some were tipped over on the workbench. I was looking around for a snake or something while I was in there, but didn't see anything.

He loves to chase the galls that I find on the ground from the trees. If he makes it through tomorrow, he gets a name. I told him if he made it a week I'd keep him, so I guess I ought to name him something other than 'kitty'. :) The local vets are giving reduced rabies vacs for the month of April, so I'll take the crew up and get them done; I guess I'll get the Jack done this year too, as although he's a house pooch (my indoor alarm system), I don't want him tangling with something unexpectedly and being unprotected. I only let him out during the day or if I am out with him. He's made the transition from city dog to farm dog pretty well I think, although the mice drive him crazy.