It’s been another week of enjoying our blessed life here on the homestead. The winter season is a time where the pace slows a bit, we can actually complete everything on the “to do” list, and have a few minutes to savor it all. Here are some things we enjoyed this week. Delicious Pork We […]
Posts Tagged ‘homestead’
Friday on the Farm 1/20/2017: Pork & Piglets
Posted in Friday on the Farm, Hogs, Meat, Uncategorized, tagged hogs, homestead, meat, piglets, pork on January 20, 2017 | Leave a Comment »
“Our Rabbits” Page Updated with Photos
Posted in Rabbits, tagged food, homestead, rabbit meat, Rabbits on January 17, 2017 | Leave a Comment »
Over the last few weeks we have taken photos of all our breeding rabbits and posted them on the Our Rabbits page. This was no small feat! First, we have a lot of rabbits. Also, trying to get a rabbit to pose can be a challenging endeavor. We do not show, so our rabbits aren’t […]
Friday on the Farm 1/13/17: Pork Here, Rabbits & Piglets Growing, Farm Store Open Saturday 9am-1pm
Posted in Farm Store, Hogs, Meat, Rabbits, tagged homestead, meat, pork, rabbit meat, Rabbits, winter on January 13, 2017 | Leave a Comment »
Happy Friday! We’ve had such wonderful weather the last few days. Who would imagine it’d be over 70 degrees in January? I know more character-building cold will come, and I’m fine with that. But I will enjoy today. Pork is Here! We now have a freezer full of pork from the two pigs we took to […]
Rabbit Tractor Updates: Door Removal
Posted in Rabbits, tagged homestead, kits, meat, rabbit meat, Rabbits on January 11, 2017 | Leave a Comment »
On Monday I posted about how we updated our rabbit tractors by installing feeders. You can see a video of our tractors here. Another change we recently made to the tractors was removing the door to the “house” part of the tractor. We did this because we never closed the door, so it was always tied […]
Goats Enjoy Christmas Greenery
Posted in Goats, tagged goats, homestead on January 9, 2017 | Leave a Comment »
The best thing I can say about today’s weather is that it isn’t as cold as yesterday’s was. Today we can look forward to a high of 29 degrees! The animals are handling the cold well, and we are thankful for that. Goats Enjoy Christmas Trees and Wreath Over the weekend the goats were given […]
Friday on the Farm 1/06/17: Snow! Piglets!
Posted in Friday on the Farm, Hogs, tagged american guinea hog, hogs, homestead, meat, pork, winter on January 6, 2017 | Leave a Comment »
Snow! This morning we awoke to our first snow of the season. A pretty dusting of snow added some charm to the morning chores. We’re thankful for what has been a pretty mild winter so far! Our two types of pigs had very different views on this snow. Our American Guinea Hogs were out of […]
The Homestead’s Own Immunity Booster Tea
Posted in Food & Beverage, Health, Household, tagged food, health, homestead, kitchen on January 6, 2017 | Leave a Comment »
This winter one addition to our farm store is our very own Immunity Booster tea blend. This tea is a caffeine-free blend of herbs that strengthens your immune system and helps you stay healthy during cold and flu season. The tea is packaged in a glass mason jar, making a beautiful gift. The jar is also […]
Farm Store Open This Saturday 12-4pm, Beeswax Candles on Sale
Posted in Household, Uncategorized, tagged farm store, homestead, winter on January 5, 2017 | Leave a Comment »
Farm Store Open This Saturday 12-4pm We are enjoying our new arrangement of having the farm store open the first Saturday of every month. It’s great to have this regular time to welcome customers and share our offerings with you! We work very hard to offer high quality products, and it’s a joy to see […]
This Saturday: Feed Your Christmas Tree to the Goats & Greet the New Pigs
Posted in Goats, Hogs, Uncategorized, tagged goat milk, goats, hogs, homestead, pig, pork on January 4, 2017 | Leave a Comment »
New Pigs We recently welcomed seven new pigs to the homestead. We acquired these pigs to provide you with more delicious, farm-raised pork in 2017. We take pride in offering our customers an alternative to the factory farmed meat in grocery stores that perpetuates a system that isn’t healthy for the animals or the people […]
Rabbit Sales Updates
Posted in Rabbits, Uncategorized, tagged homestead, rabbit meat, Rabbits on January 3, 2017 | Leave a Comment »
We look forward to selling many Silver Fox rabbits in 2017, and to facilitate that we have made some updates to our sales process. We now have pages on our website dedicated to communicating with our breeding stock and pet rabbit customers. Each page has a rabbit order form where customers can tell us what […]
Rabbits for Sale- 12/28/2016
Posted in Rabbits, tagged homestead, kits, rabbit meat, Rabbits on December 28, 2016 | Leave a Comment »
UPDATE: SOLD OUT. We have sold out of the rabbits listed below. We will be weaning two doe kits this month, and several litters at the beginning of February. If you interested in rabbits, please contact us via our breeders or pets pages. As we head into the new year, we are making some updates […]
Homemade Chicken Rollout Nesting Boxes
Posted in Layers, tagged chickens, eggs, homestead on December 27, 2016 | 1 Comment »
We’ve been trying some new setups for laying hens this year, and creating a new hen house meant making new nesting boxes. I used the opportunity to make improvements on prior designs, and here’s a summary of what resulted. Key Characteristics: 4ft long 4ft high 2 levels 15″ deep Roll-out style (tilted floor, covered egg […]
Rabbit Colony Free Feeder
Posted in Rabbits, tagged feed, feeder, homestead, meat, rabbit meat, Rabbits on December 22, 2016 | Leave a Comment »
This fall we’re experimenting with a rabbit colony setup. This experiment is ongoing, so we cannot yet say whether or not it’s successful. One nice characteristic of the colony, though, is that we can quickly feed and water several rabbits at the same time. To feed the rabbits, we made a rabbit feeder comparable to […]
Winter Tips & Tricks
Posted in Rabbits, tagged homestead, Rabbits, winter on December 20, 2016 | Leave a Comment »
Here at Independence Homestead, winter begins when we switch from automatic waterers to bottles for the rabbits. We do this when the temperature stays below freezing for an entire day, so the automatic waterers will be frozen and won’t work. Well, that happened last week and bottles are up! If you’re facing chilly temperatures as […]
Farm Store Open This Saturday 12/17 for Holiday Shopping
Posted in Farm, Food & Beverage, Health, Uncategorized, tagged homestead, store on December 13, 2016 | Leave a Comment »
The farm store will be open this Saturday, December 17th, from 12-4pm so you can shop local and get great gifts for the holidays! Address and directions are here. We have many items available that would make great gifts, including several new offerings! Here are a few great gifts: Immunity Booster Tea: Handmade by us with […]
Dispatching Rabbits
Posted in Rabbits, tagged homestead, meat, rabbit meat, Rabbits on December 5, 2016 | Leave a Comment »
We’ve had some questions about how we dispatch rabbits when processing them. We’ve had a lot of success with the method detailed in this YouTube video: We’ve found this method is quick and humane. Additionally, it requires no special tools as long as you have a broomstick around. I hope this helps those of you […]
Storm the Goat and his Meningeal Worm Infection (Part 3)
Posted in Goats, tagged goats, homestead, parasites on November 16, 2016 | 2 Comments »
Read Part 1 and Part 2 to hear the first part of the story! At this point in the story Storm is still showing rear end weakness, and we’re pretty sure he has a meningeal worm infection. The curative treatment we followed was oral dosing of Safeguard at 10 times the standard rate for 5 […]
Storm the Goat and his Meningeal Worm Infection (Part 2)
Posted in Goats, tagged goats, homestead, parasites on November 15, 2016 | 1 Comment »
In Part 1 I detailed the situation and symptoms we found in Storm… He had a low temperature and weakness in his rear end. The symptoms seemed unrelated in that I couldn’t find one illness that listed both problems as symptoms. I decided the first priority would be to address his low temperature, which indicated […]
Storm the Goat and his Meningeal Worm Infection (Part 1)
Posted in Goats, tagged goats, homestead, parasites on November 14, 2016 | 2 Comments »
This fall our goat wether Storm fell ill with what we believe was a meningeal worm infection. We cannot confirm this was his illness as that would have required lab testing of his cerebrospinal fluid, but the situation and symptoms would indicate a meningeal worm infection. Today I’m sharing our experience in the hopes it […]
Reusable Ice Sheets, Perfect for Transporting Milk Home
Posted in Food & Beverage, Household, tagged eggs, food, goat milk, homestead, meat, rabbit meat, raw milk on November 4, 2016 | Leave a Comment »
We all have situations where we need to keep things cold. For some of you, that includes transporting home your farm fresh herdshare milk! For that situation and many others, I highly recommend flexible ice sheets. Here are some that are a great value. We bought these about a year and half ago, and they’re […]
New in the Farm Store!
Posted in Household, Uncategorized, tagged farm tour, homestead on October 10, 2016 | Leave a Comment »
In anticipation of Loudoun’s Fall Farm Tour, we’re updating the farm store with some new products. Today I’ll highlight the farm-themed magnets we’ve made! These magnets were made ourselves from wood we had leftover from various projects. We cut the wood into squares, stamped them with fun farm stamps, sprayed a sealant, and attached magnets. […]
August Events at the Farm
Posted in Goats, Meat Chickens, Rabbits, tagged chicken, chickens, goat milk, goats, homestead, meat, rabbit meat, Rabbits on August 3, 2016 | Leave a Comment »
Goats 101 Class Saturday August 13th, 10am! This month we are again offering our popular Goats 101 class! We’ll focus on goats as pets or dairy, land clearing, and proper fencing. This class is family friendly, with opportunities to brush the goats, and get a squirt or two of milk out of the does, too! The class will […]
An Overview of American Guinea Hogs
Posted in Food & Beverage, Hogs, tagged american guinea hog, food, hogs, homestead, meat on July 28, 2016 | Leave a Comment »
Many people have come to the homestead to visit the American Guinea Hogs. Those with small acreages or new to homesteading tend to find the breed more approachable than conventional pigs. Recently I found this article by Mother Earth News that provides a lot of insight into American Guinea Hogs. For those considering the breed, […]
Proud To Support
-
Recent Posts
Post Categories
- Farm (269)
- Animals (239)
- Friday on the Farm (17)
- Garden (21)
- Farm Store (27)
- Food & Beverage (54)
- Meat (18)
- Health (9)
- Household (33)
- Land (5)
- Reviews (10)
- Uncategorized (24)
- Farm (269)
Tags
american guinea hog barn cats barrel bee hives beekeeping bees chicken chickens chicks comb conservation dogs ducks eggs farm store feed feeder food garden gardening goat milk goats health hens hive hogs homestead kits meat piglets pork rabbit meat Rabbits rain rain barrel raw milk review top bar tractor video water wax winter wood yard