Glad we have horses!
Nana cant ride anymore guess I am just gonna have to trade a cow for a horse drawn wagon!
With the price of beef maybe i can get more than just a wagon!

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdm...

I've been trying to find a donkey or burro or mule for about a year now... Used to be, you'd find folks giving them away, but not now...

Donkeys are selling for $1k - $4k now, Pffft! Folks must be thinking of them as "alternative transportation."

I really need a little "manure factory" for my Victory Garden, LOL.

Meanwhile, until that happens, I'll be visiting my neighbor down the road to shovel out their barn for composting & pick meadow muffins out of their pastures for immediate use.

Goat berries tend to scatter out; chicken takes a while to build up; pig manure has to be composted for over a year...

A llama as a livestock guardian may be the best choice; llamas always put their poop in the same place each day, usually next to a gate. It doesn't burn plants, so that may be an option...

The cost of fuel for that manure factory has gone through the roof - they DEFINITELY do not want us owning animals... it makes us independant.

3 years ago, a 3 string (approx 100lb) bale of orchard grass, was $21... now, $32...

My 1100 horse goes through 55 of those in 6 months.

He produces about 30lb of manure a day. (that all goes into the veg plot to be ploughed under).

He also needs his feet trimming ever 5 weeks - $60

The vet calls 2 times a year for his shots and check his teeth - $500 a year.

You will feed 2 - 3 times and shovel poop every. single. day. No matter what the weather is, or, what your plans are.

Livestock of any variety are a big responsibility, are time consuming, and expensive. But, you will love having them and, once you do, you will not be able to imagine not having them.

Your last sentence said it all. I'm practically a vet, have worked as farrier, I do all my own shoots & float their teeth myself. When one of our dairy goats her udder on a barbed wire fence, we cleaned it, approximated edges & stapled her back together. She still milked perfectly at her next freshening...

Already, my routine is up at 5, start prepping pig food at 6 (they get a hot mash 2x/day), prep dog food at 7, then feed all at 7:30... Fill bathing places & water tubs, yadda, yadda...

The way you describe it sounds like expense & work, but if you're used to doing it all yourself, without vets, once you no longer have stock, you don't know what to do with yourself.

Indeed.

But people need to know what in involved with having animals - otherwise we end up with rescue situations... and that must be avoided whenever posdible.

My horse was a rescue, he was fortunate that there was a horseman who lived nearby, to his original breeder or he would have been dead before he was a year old.

There are those who will rush into this - then regret it.

I am glad you are experienced and knowledgeable. 😊

I wouldn't take it on if I weren't. Breaks my heart to see people spend a ton of $$$$ setting up a "homestead" when they don't even understand what's involved or the FACT that they are committing their lives to the project. You don't take vacations or weekend getaways when you have stock... You have BBQs and invite folks over.

Decades ago, I rescued an old thoroughbred mare who had been on the track... She was 38 years old & skin & bones, but we put 250 lbs on her with the hot bran mash & berries, squash & other little treats & she fattened right up!

Wouldn't attempt that nowadays... Too expensive.

Happily, I am VERY rural & my neighbors are mostly farmers, with about 1/2 of them growing hay. A 100-lb bale of coastal bermuda here is $8, with peanut hay being a bit less expensive.

I miss having goats so much! Did you know that their milk contains a short-chain fatty acid that retards progression of fibromyalgia?

Miracle juice to me.

My Pearl & baby

Your goats are adorable! I did not know that about their milk - but I do love goats cheese. 😊

Chickens, cats, the horse and cooking/keeping house are plenty for me - I know my limits - cancer shortened my batteries considerably, so I have to apportion my energy...

Unfortunately, Kai, is allergic to alfalfa, and won't touch bermuda, or teff, I have never seen peanut advertised here (N AZ)... but on the upside, I do not feed suppliments, and he looks great - even in winter, he is just about to turn 7.

Bless your heart!

That is a HEALTHY horse!

I'm noting the shine on his coat, his bright eyes, and those little creases on the crest of his neck, indicating he's plenty tubby, LOL!

One of the things I'm going to do when not de-turfing my lawn for more garden space is make GOAT CHEESE! I make 7 different kinds of "goat cheese," but also brie, emmental, and cheddar...

This time, we're getting a cream separator so I can make all of our butter! Decent butter is now $6/lb. here; the cheap shit selling for $4, so it's worthwhile doing!

I'm so anal that I make our own garlic salt & stuff... Grew up canning alongside my aunts.

Now it's probably time for me to decant the blueberry watermelon peach wine I made last July into individual wine bottles, LOL! It's just 1 gallon, so I just left it there after final fermentation with an airlock on it.

Time to rejuvenate the SCOBY, too! Now that the blueberries are in bloom, I can afford to defrost my frozen ones for flavoring

Mind you, I don't do that all in one day, or even one week!

But I putter along, bit by bit & eventually get everything done.

I only wish I had more energy these days, or at least a way to store what I don't use for when I need it later!

I am going to give strawberries a try this year, but because we live on tbe edge of the range, anything that gets planted in the open either has to be covered, or be big enough to withstand the voracious birds and insects - the range is pretty poor food, a grass desert, so, anything humans plant has to be big or protected... they mowed my first years onions, and corn, then robbed all the sunflower seeds... fortunately I was really only growing those for looks and a wind break (we get an incessant Southerly wind in summer, as the heat comes up from Phoenix.)

Add in a clay, very rocky soil, and being any kind of gardener here is hard work.

We built raised beds last year, so after a seasons use, and compaction, I only have about 2/5 to fill with sifted soil this time although we have had rain recently, so, if it all gets slowed down too much, I may have to just buy the soil to fill those areas.

New things every year, makes the next year, either easier, or, more productive. 😊

Get some granulated or powdered gypsum; let it be your new best friend! It lightens clay soils & stops blossom end rot on tomatoes, peppers & squash.

I know your area like the back of my hand... Was raised just East of the canyon.

Things that do well there are canteloupe, watermelon & peaches...

Get your bird netting ready & use a row cover to stop critters eating your sprouts.

I'm doing my berries in separate kiddie pools this year, since no way can I de-turf enough lawn before they arrive... One pool for June-bearers, for making preserves & wine & drying; the other for the ever-bearers, mostly for fresh eating.

Go collect some pine needles now - I know you've got them... From any pine tree... Much those strawberry plants with pine needles & you'll get eye-popping flavor from them, nothing like the watery ones from the supermarket.

If you can, put a "lid" with chickenwire over your raised bed; in winter, just add plastic & you've got a mini-greenhouse!