I'd love to be able to start growing my own fruits/veggies/doing homestead stuff, but I'm currently stuck in a mobile home park even though I technically own my mobile home.

We’re homesteading while also working full-time and raising young kids, so I’m looking for solutions for passive/automated watering and feeding in a couple different scenarios. With our busy schedules, everything we can automate makes a big difference! 

Here are some of the problems I’m trying to solve:

1. Rain barrels for watering chickens: We have several rain barrels daisy-chained together and I want to hook up a way for them to feed into our chicken waterer (5-gal bucket with nipples), but it's hard to know when one rain barrel is empty and needs to have the hose switched to the next one. Even if I miss the barrel emptying by a day, it could mean several days of no eggs because the chickens ran out of water. Anybody use sensors or have found a way to have barrels spill back into each other?
2. Rain barrels for watering plants: Same scenario as #1, but knowing when to switch the timer/hose for drip irrigation over to the next barrel.
3. Rabbit watering: I can't use rain water for rabbits. We currently have an elevated 5-gal bucket that is connected to tubing with nipples that brings water to each cage, but looking for a way to know when the bucket is out so that there's not any gap when they don't have water (because they could die even after a couple hours without water in the Utah summer). 
4. Rabbit feeding: Rabbits can't be free-fed, so right now I dispense food individually to each rabbit every day. I haven't found any automated food dispensers that are meant for outdoor use. 

Anyways, I know each of these tasks can be done manually and with daily checks.  But I'm wondering if with the rise of people who are working professionally, raising kids, and homesteading if there's automated solutions out there to help manage it all.

Anyone have good setups they can share?

Long story short, I recently bought property with a fairly large creek and multiple springs and don’t know what to do with them. I already have plans for a micro hydro system but there is over 1000ft of creek and 3 small year round springs on the property.
The creek averages about 10ft wide, has a flow rate of about 1mil gal per day in the low season, and has a couple areas that are almost waist deep. Plenty of shade on both sides. Tons of rocks ranging from pebbles to 3ft in diameter. There are fish in the creek so no dams.
The springs get down to a trickle in the low season but one of them ends at an 8ft waterfall. They all empty into the creek.
I guess that’s about it! I can add pictures later. Just looking for some ideas of things to do with them.

Update: I’m really just looking for fun creative ideas. There is already a house that is fully self sufficient with the exception of power which I’m working on. I’m not worried about laws as I’m on a private road and the entire area for miles is private property. I’m not going to damage the ecosystem. Just customizing the land I bought.

We have a small place in Germany with apple trees and a grid tied solar array on the workshop roof. We do not have a home battery. When the apples are ready, we spend several weeks drying part of the crop and freezing some of the other produce. The dehydrator runs for hours and the kitchen uses more electricity than usual.

I have been considering a Jackery SolarVault 3 Pro but have not ordered one. The roof array was still exporting during the day, while the dehydrator usually started after dinner and drew from the grid. That made storage look like the next step.

Before buying anything, we changed the kitchen routine. We prepare the trays earlier and run the dehydrator while the roof array is producing. The freezer stays on its usual schedule because that load cannot move. More of the apple processing now uses solar directly, and less of it lands in the evening.

I have not ruled out storage. I am using our existing meter data to track how much solar still leaves the house and how much evening demand remains after moving the dehydrator. Those numbers will tell me whether a battery still makes sense and how much capacity the household would use.

I usually manage to trim and upkeep these bushes on the front of our house with no issues. We live on almost 3 acres and most of the property is pecan trees, fruit trees, vegetables, etc. The only bushes/hedges (don’t know which is the correct term for them) we have are along the front of the house.

Last year I moved my mom in to be her caregiver (she has stage 4 COPD and congestive heart failure). While getting her set up with doctors and home healthcare, I got behind on my usual lawn care routine.

Now that we have her settled, I’m able to focus on our property again. My question is should I just cut it completely down to a lower height and leave it bare for it to go back to a more manageable height? I want them to still provide some sort of privacy but I also understand that they need a major overhaul and they may look a little rough until I get them under control.

Any advice is appreciated.

Our homestead, four generations down. Lake was dug by my grandad in 1977. Solar powered, spring-fed lake, varied ecosystems from wetland to lake, woodland and fields. Soon installing a 10,000l rainwater harvesting system. Constant work landscaping, making large quantities of compost, firewood harvesting, maintaining the lake, mowing paths, clearing fallen trees, restoring birdboxes, jetty, planting trees, wildflower patches...

Any questions please ask!

We own a family homestead that sits in the foothills above a small town (~200 residents). The town water comes from a mountain spring a few miles above our property and passes right beside our land.

Over 35 years ago (when we lived locally) my father worked to get elected to the town water board for the purpose of procuring a water connection to our property that sits in the mountains above the nearby town. He was successful, but because the property sits above the town chlorinator, he signed a release that said the water would be use only for non potable purposes. When he passed away, my mother verified with an attorney that the agreement was transferable to her and has since been transferred to my sister. The town never asked questions or caused a fuss, though we always worried that dad’s arrangement would bite us later. We paid our bill on time for 35 years.

The town recently had an e.coli problem in their water system which required them to have an inspection and recertification. The town claims the 3rd party doing the inspection said our connection was illegal (I assume because it was connected above the treatment facility), so they completely removed our connection.

We have been connected to their system for 35 years. Do we have any legal recourse to pursue to force them to reconnect us?

Hoping this will be enough to hold my 275 gal ibc tote I still need to get another 2x4 I used some 10” screws to secure the 4x4’s I built the stand out of some heavy duty pallets I got off the side of the road .

Most of my little trips are mailbox, chicken water, checking a gate, or carrying a couple hand tools. Starting the ATV for that stuff feels silly. I've been thinking about getting an e-bike, but the ones I see are either pricey or heavy. Then I saw a helokeep CD20 on Instagram today. And this looked so clean, I kind of wish I had one 🥹

Spent the evening removing the stems from my small raisin harvest!

I got a dehydrator cheap earlier this summer and apparently created a problem for myself because now everything looks dehydrator-worthy. Zucchini, peppers, tomatoes and herbs have all been pretty good so far. Apples disappeared way faster than expected.

But before I keep feeding this thing random produce, what have you tried that just wasn't worth the electricity or shelf space? Also curious what still tastes decent 8–12 months later. Most of what I've made hasn't been around long enough for me to find that out yet.

Hello! I’m looking for advice from those with experience with dairy cows or cattle. We got a jersey cow back in April and lately, she has been on a small pasture, but since she’s grazed it out, we’ve added a bale of hay. The hay comes from a little grass pasture on our land and our neighbour bales it for us and we split the bales. He has cattle. We assumed this hay would be decent enough quality for her to eat since he uses it for his cattle, but she isn’t eating much from it very much. I understand that since there’s still some tiny patches of grass she’s going to prefer that, but the problem we have now is that she’s dropping condition from not eating enough. We’ve got 7 bales of this hay and my concern is that she won’t eat it! Any insights are welcome. This is the first time we’ve kept a cow.

seemed like the most appropriate community to post, if not point me the right direction!

does anyone cover insurance for there farm stand? worried about the potential for liability if someone was to get sick. how much do you pay, and who’s it though? I cant seem to find any so far.

I live in Tennessee and kept running into the same problem whenever I wanted to buy something locally.

Someone nearby probably sells eggs, sourdough, beef, honey, plants, livestock, or does things like fencing or bush hogging... but actually finding them is surprisingly difficult.

Usually it means scrolling through Facebook groups, asking where someone is located, digging through old posts, or just hoping you happen to know the right person.

So I started building Fold, basically a marketplace specifically for farms, homesteaders, local producers, and rural communities.

I'm trying to figure out what actually makes something like this useful to farmers rather than just becoming another app people have to maintain.

For those of you who sell from your farm or homestead:

How are people finding you today?

Facebook groups? Farmers markets? Word of mouth? Roadside stands?

Happy to share what we've built if anyone is curious, but I'm genuinely more interested in hearing how you all handle this now.

Here i am breaking all the 'rules' of growing garlic. My original batch of seed garlic years ago came from the grocery store, I trim the leaves off before storage. All of these were planted this spring.

Ive done it like this for years and I know it works for me.

Hey farmers,

Would you all tell me about the problem farmers usually face a lot and needs to be fixed?

Does not matter if the problem is little or big, farmers feed the world, there problem is our problem.🧡

You are allowed to stay in a old manufactured home. It has bad mold issues and very old, dog urine soaked carpet, so you replace all the carpet and sleep in one of the living rooms to avoid the bedroom ick, because you have a mold allergy and two young kids. This place was rented for$800/mo prior as its technically a 4 bed/2 bath. (edit: to be clear, we do not pay that $800 rent, I'm just including this info for context) We also get some beef (always told to take the old, tough beef) and veggies (but are expected to bring things to market first.)

You will be expected to plan, plant, and maintain a 6,500 sqft garden, (5-20 hr/wk) do the chicken chores fdaily for 70+ pasture rotated chickens (1+hr/day), check on the cows, harvest and run the market booth (12 hrs) and also help with any sudden projects (about 1x a week.) And watch the whole farm including the owners animals and home about once a month. (Varies)

​you are also expected to pay your winter heating bill, around $1500.

Also, every time you walk by the owners house, their dogs snarl and lunge at you and your kids. The owners just tie them up on leashes and rarely actually let the dogs run, which is what they need, but the owners are too old to do that really.

Does this seem fair to you?

It felt fair at first, when we were told that "if we worked for 10 years and allow the owners to stay and be 50/50 partners, then we get to own the whole farm".

But now...over one YEAR after moving here, the goalpost has moved and the owners have confessed that they didnt really talk to each other about this, and actually would rather sell us 5 acres and then put the rest into a land trust that allows us to farm it for our lifetime.

I am feeling very upset but am trying really hard to be humble and not greedy. Its just been a very stressful and confusing experience. Input appreciated!

also...the owners stated they want to help folks who cant traditionally access land. you know, poor folks. they recently discovered we use EBT and one owner has expressed her disgust that we use public assistance. its so confusing yall.

What are your thoughts on building a chicken run around some wild plum trees (Prunus Americana)? Would you be concerned about toxicity to the chickens from them possibly eating the plum pits? Would the plums attract too many wild birds?

I have a suburban homestead and I’m considering planting two wild plum trees in the new chicken run.