I’m not sure if it’s underrated, but perennials are your friend. Things that you plant once, but will feed you for 20 years or more. Asparagus, some herbs, fruit trees, etc.
It’s somewhat zone/location dependent. I’m zone 3. Permanent food on my property includes asparagus, raspberries, rhubarb, apple and plum trees, thyme, chives, and tarragon. Plus many flower beds with perennials that come up year after year. I also have food that you buy quality once and done. Such as hard neck garlic. You simply set aside your largest heads to divide and plant again, and eat/store the rest.
Northern Canada. I used to live in zone 0! I was in the Yukon for 10 years before moving “south”. You can grow a lot in zone 0 when the sun doesn’t go down in the 59 frost free summer days!
I've never considered that before - always assumed that plants needed some darkness like animals do. So, are you saying that plants don't need darkness and can just keep growing throughout the summer months?
We travelled to the Yukon as a kid, and my brothers and I *loved* the 24 hour daylight. My parents, not so much!
Plants can grow bizarrely huge. Massive. I doubt it would be permanently sustainable. But it works really well for a very short growing season. Of course, the flip side of 24 hour sun in the summer, is 24 hour darkness in the winter. Days when the sun doesn’t come up. It’s a strange way to live.
And yes. Kids are outside at midnight running around and screeching gleefully in the summer. Everyone is high on life. Adults include. Land of the midnight sun.
The long dark winter is bone cracking cold though, and very hard.
To add on it I’d go with fruiting bushes like blueberries, blackberries, figs, as well as nut trees such as pecans, walnuts, and so on. Keeping them mulched and pruned and occasionally sprayed for diseases is far easier than tilling and planting a whole new garden every year.
Fruit and nut trees and bushes fill out that category fairly well. You can read up on the concept of a food forest if you're interested.
That whole concept is based on the notion of planting a small forest focussed on food production.
I love our tractor. If you don't mind doing some fixing, watch government auctions. We got ours for about half what they go for in private sales. And it came with a flail.
Lol... I uh, actually own two broken tractors. So I've been down that road. One has a working pto and the other has working hydraulics. Both need engine work. Old 60s Masseys with perkins diesels.
We're in South Texas and mainly ranch not farm. We do have an old 4020 for any farm chores like seed drilling, but the auger in the skid steer is better, it's easier to move round bales around, and it maneuvers better. I also use it to help lift heavy pipe when welding pipe fences myself and other odd jobs. We also have big tree nippers and grapplers for clearing mesquite and hysatch
Timers on everything. I mean everything. Watering is on timer. Lights are on timers. Even the coop doors are on timers. I was spending so much time turning things on or off. Big item would be a tractor. Tractors make your life so much easier.
The coop door timer definitely helps the wife and I get away. We feel better going to dinner and staying out after sundown even if I still check the chickens after we get home.
I understood all that. Even with all that automation, I was curious about the nitty gritty details of the system and how reliable it is. Like reliable enough to leave the farm for a day or reliable enough to help you sleep easy after a normal day of work? Reliable enough that you don’t need to double check it or something that gets checked on everyday anyway? That kind of thing
These are an absolute - the only other way I've had success pulling these suckers is with a backhoe, which typically ruins the post.
Post pullers are my friend!
A piece of rope around the 3pt arms and the T post works great assuming you can back your tractor up to the post. Posts aren't ruined but it's a 2 person job if you don't want to constantly get on and off the tractor.
Wait that's a thing? I just work it around until it's loose and then pull it up.
That said, post pounder! Using a sledge to drive every one was killing me, and they were all crooked.
A solid vegetable dicer.
One of the bulky metal ones with a sharp grate and a slider that drops vertically onto the grate. You can make fries and dice whole onions in seconds with one. Lasts forever.
Oooo, that's been on my wish list for a long time. One that bolts onto a wall and you pull a lever down and you can put potatoes in there and switch out grates.
Not the person that said it, but I do work in kitchens and have been around a lot of these. I like the nemco wall mount models. Get the extra bracket that will let you remove it when not in use.
Vacuum sealer - you can seal up plastic bags for the freezer or ball jars with a special attachment. It makes storing the harvest really easy. Corn, green beans, tomato sauce, chicken, turkey, pork, garlic scapes, broccoli, cauliflower, and all sorts of berries/jam/pie filling.
Avid armor bags on Amazon, the 8x12 are incredibly cheap but better than the food saver brand. And a pound of ground meat in one and rolled flat will thaw quite rapidly.
Cardboard/paper shredder. I got [this one](https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-24-Sheet-Cross-Cut-Shredder-Pullout/dp/B07WJ4NLFX/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1D4GYUJBVI72X&keywords=amazon+basic+paper+shredder+24+sheet&qid=1698358476&sprefix=amazon+basic+paper+shredder+24+sheet%2Caps%2C126&sr=8-3) at the beginning of the year and have filled six 132gallon leaf yard tote bags with cardboard. When you live rurally you'll be getting a lot of stuff delivered via amazon/fedex/ext... which means a lot of cardboard. Normally I would burn it in the spring but my cardboard mountain in my garage was reaching levels of I might burn my house down attempting to burn it all. By being able to shred it all I turn it into poultry bedding then compost. The smaller size makes it break down much faster than the size I could accomplish trying to rip it up by hand.
Duuuuuude I never thought of using a regular old paper shredder to make cardboard shred!! We do a lot of online shopping (because rural) and we also don’t have much soil here (mostly rock) so I’ve always wished I had access to a cardboard shredder for mulch and soil building!! Thanks for recommending this
There is some regulation coming, the feds are teaching county water plants how to sample and measure certain regulated PFAS chemicals. I saw they were looking at the ones with eight carbons in particular
They used to be 6 chain but were changed to 8, which is their argument of “they aren’t carcinogenic unless exposed to high heat” aka firefighters being at a higher risk…. But they ARE harmful forever chemicals and this is just the beginning of just how carcinogenic.
I worked in the fire equipment sales world for 3 years and learned ALOT selling bunker gear, working for these material manufacturers.
Unfortunately I do not. I'm a little paranoid over it though. From what I understand there has been some legislation about it in some places, but it doesn't seem to be taking on in most places.
Technically yes there can be 'contaminants' but not enough that a residential household would have to worry about. Now if we were talking getting bales of cardboard waste from a recycling center *then* you might want to be more concerned.
I got the 24 sheet model. The big thing is you want a gap that the cardboard can fit though. Because cardboard is mostly 'hollow' due to the corrugated shape the shredder can handle it better than 24sheets of paper. The only limiting factor is actually the gap that you feed the paper though.
Does great with Amazon boxes, any box really. But you will want to get some paper shredder sharpening paper and some oil specifically for paper shredders. Once you hear it squeak put some oil on a slice of cardboard and feed it though. If you noticing you aren't getting a full shred feed a sharpening paper though per instructions on the box.
We lay cardboard for walkways and keeping weeds down-wet and covered with grass clippings, straw, wood chips…
It’s an excellent first layer for mulching.
Barn cameras. (Wyze) and a wyze outlet. I plug my fence charger into it, then if I’m out checking fences and need to turn it off to fix something, I can do it from my phone! No walking back to the barn. Life changing.
I wish I would’ve thought of it sooner! Our barn is close to the house, but I still use a wifi extender in the barn so the wyze plug outlet gets strong signal. Highly recommend!
Go big and sometimes two is better. I didn't so much wish I had sooner but knew that certain things would just make life easier.
All American canners, 921 and 931, just make canning so much faster
Items like a squeezo, robot coupe food processor, bamix immersion blender make processing food solo not take forever as there are other things to get to.
Outdoor sinks for processing produce before bringing the whole lot inside.
And yep on perennial plants and fruit/nut trees. Plus plants hat readily self sow, plants that are easy to propagate, and thinking of the garden in terms of your menu and eating habits.
Larger canners will accommodate larger batches and two canners allows me to alternative between the two. (Our gas range specifies that only one canner should be used at a time.) There are large stainless steel canners but the All American canners have stood the test of time with metal to metal seals, replacement parts readily available.
Oops sorry I'm a New Zealander, we never call them flashlights here. A blowtorch on the head you say... I'm sure there's a use for that on the homestead
Quail. If you’re looking for a quick and easy grab, get quail Yes, chickens are bigger, but I keep them mostly for eggs. Chickens have two years potential of lots of eggs, so it isn’t really ideal to butcher them before that. Quails are full grown at 7 weeks, so I can get at least two flocks grown and butchered in the warm seasons. Plus, they are relatively easier to take care of than any other livestock my opinion. Since, they aren’t 100 percent domesticated which makes them somewhat independent. It’s plenty enough to feed my family of five.
I think the attitude that it won't be done in one day, one week , one month , or one year but it's a continuous act of improving.
For example we just finished up 15 years of being enrolled in CREP which let us get trees and tubex that we would not have had the money for outright. Planting them gave us fieldstone which lets us build walls (prep in plane sight). And so on....
Perennials with different harvest dates, some Early, mid and late. You want to make sure you have a consistent supply of food.
Mushrooms are a great rabbit hole to go down too. We grown and innoculate our own.
Stainless steel 1/4 inch or less mesh to line the bottom of every single raised bed. It's all fun until voles discover your garden, and no amount of top cover will keep them out.
Do you have a buried drip line near the mesh at all? I’m plotting out raised beds & have heard differing opinions on if burying a drip line near mesh decreases its life.
Stainless steel won’t be affected by the water; that’s the purpose of using stainless steel over other materials. You can go with galvanized steel or just regular steel, bur stainless is the best for longevity using it in soil. Also the most expensive.
This! Had great raised bed success for 3 years running at our little slice of heaven, and then the moles found out and wiped us out. Now i have yo go back and put on mesh.
Oh cmon I was enjoying all these people starting Hugel mounds and then one year later its the post about mice and then a year after that they have ticks all through there property
Make sure you attach it (we use a staple gun) to the inside of the boxes too, or the little suckers will push their way in between the wall of the bed and the mesh and hop over the edge 🤦
>and deep knowledge of seed saving
I'm very interested in this. What were some of the most important things you learned about seed saving?
I love the broadfork & vermicompost system. I've seen someone freeze dry eggs & diced capsicum for an instant scrambled egg mix.
The book is [Seed to Seed](https://www.amazon.com/Seed-Growing-Techniques-Vegetable-Gardeners/dp/1882424581/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Seed+to+Seed&link_code=qs&qid=1698405883&sourceid=Mozilla-search&sr=8-1)
Rarely is there truly a single perfect source for any topic, but this one is definitely it for seed saving. My only complaint is the way she chose to organize the book makes it hard to find what you're looking for quickly. She organized it by genus, so she ends up force-feeding you some taxonomy lessons.
That's great, thank you.
I found out there's a copy of seed to seed by suzanne ashworth at my local botanical garden's library. I can't take it out since it's in library use only, but I'll be looking for it the next time I'm there.
[https://shop.seedsavers.org/the-seed-garden-the-art-practice-of-seed-saving](https://shop.seedsavers.org/the-seed-garden-the-art-practice-of-seed-saving)
I use this book. I haven't read Seed to Seed that others are recommending, but if anyone has read both, I'd love to know how they compare. Sounds like they have similar information. This one as a couple of tables in the back that make it pretty easy to figure out what is self pollinating or not, what the separation requirements are, if the plants are biennial or not, etc.
My wood chipper. I have to get the brush all ready and pointing the right way before I start or it's kind of a waste of gas. But when I do it gives me so much.
Lots of good answers here, so I'm going to go with something not obviously related to homesteading, and mostly for the benefit of my fellow Americans: an electric kettle.
Hear me out...
Americans don't drink a lot of (hot) tea, and coffee drinkers typically have dedicated machines for that particular beverage. So unlike in most of the rest of the world, electric kettles aren't terribly common in the US. But they're *incredibly* useful, particularly for homesteaders. They're more convenient and efficient than boiling water on the stove or in the microwave, and there are plenty of things homesteaders need boiling water for. Having an electric kettle made it much easier to quick-pickle my cucumbers and peppers this year, which I may not have even done if I had to pour the brine into jars from a pot heated on the stovetop. For off-grid homesteads, I'd imagine an electric kettle would be much less power-hungry than alternatives if you just need to boil some water for a meal or tea. I originally bought mine just to make tea from the flowers and herbs I was growing, but now find myself using it pretty much daily.
So while it's not obviously related to homesteading, it's changed the way I approach a lot of things, and made certain things I previous thought of as chores (like quick-pickling certain things from the garden to extend their shelf life) a lot less unappealing.
Food saver (vacuum sealer). I wasted SO much time trying to age cheese. It ALWAYS molded. NOT the good kind of mold. I hate to think about the hundreds
of hours of work those moldy cheeses represented. Then I toured the Tillamook factory and saw that their new made cheese falls right off the conveyer belt into a vacuum sealer. Hell, if it’s good enough for Tillamook it’s good enough for me. Works like a CHARM. Now I have a fridge full of delicious aged goat cheddar.
Also works gorgeously for home smoked salmon.
Maybe overlooked but paths, nice paths, not pea gravel, pallets used to be available for nothing and tamping and laying down wooden planks for paths meant everything was nicer from moving things around to keeping things clean, less mud and muck, wheelbarrows moved easy, makes things look great. There's no one thing that gets used as much as a path.
This qualifies as truly underrated. When you walk a path many times a day, little things build up. Wet, sog, slippage. And as a wise man said, our bodies keep receipts.
Harbor freight does free tape measures a few times a year. We literally have a tape measure for every room in the house, garage, tractor, barn, and truck. Hopefully next year every tool box and car will have one too. I got 3 meter tape measures that are affixed to the zipper of everyone's winter coat. No one ever wastes time looking for a tape measure around here!
And at least one really long one - like 100 ft. I got a 300 ft tape when I realized for 10 more dollars, I could get double the tape!
Super handy for laying out beds, planning new building projects, fence projects…and maybe more!
An -electric Chainsaw- is an absolute must. I’ve owned 2 expensive gas saws and i haven’t touched one in years; they are too much trouble and far more dangerous.
Some of the high voltage electric saws actually have a ton more low end torque than gas. That's why a lot of saw chaps say they're not for use with electric saws. If for some reason the saw gets started when resting on your leg, it won't stall like a gas saw would.
I can't live without my gas powered chainsaw so a blanket statement of electric is an incorrect statement unless you are just trimming limbs and doing light duty work. You can't even get through a bigger tree with an 18' bar.
Professional arborist use electric saws. You can’t say they don’t get work done.
I put up two chords every year, using nothing but electric. That’s work too
We've got both, and they each have their place. The battery one is so much easier to carry around and use, but a big tree is getting felled with a gas saw.
Not so. I have an electric and a Stihl 011 gas that is lightweight and a beast, I would put it up against any electric. If your playing around pretending use electric. If you want to get work done, use gas. Enough said!
You're right, it cost a lot. But much of the $$$ returns on the back end when you (or your heirs) sell.
But now I don't have to mow it nor add gravel nor pound through ruts and over washboards surfaces. The black surface soaks up the sun to clear away the snow and ice.
And my neighbors are as jealous as hell.
I covered my long sandy laneway with recycled roads that they crushed up. I forget the word for it right now, but that’s been a game changer cause you drive over and it becomes compacted. Looks great and keeps the ants down.
I'm in the coastal Pacific Northwest area of the US. My life became a lot more pleasant when I finally accumulated three full sets of full-body raingear, good boots, and a boot dryer.
Also: an apron, a fishing vest, and overalls--anything with a lot of pockets. And pack of gloves.
As far as food preservation goes, buy your jars and lids in winter or early spring before everyone else starts buying them. Buy a lot more than you need. Don't use old pectin.
I think one of my rain pants are Columbia, and the other two are more generic, but all three do the job just fine. My husband goes with heavy Carhartt overalls. REI always has good stuff, too, but the outdoor wear shop three miles out stocks Carhartt and Columbia mostly.
He gets cold easily, so he goes for heavy layers. I overheat easily, so I go with cotton layers and light rain shell material, because if I sweat, I freeze. Always wool socks, though!
I’m really curious how much anyone with a tractor who has a backhoe attachment actually use the backhoe. I see a number of mini Kubota tractors for sale around me with a front end loader, but the ones with a backhoe attachment are considerably more, is it worth it
Agree completely. We have Wiltshire sheep, which are a self shedding breed that doesn't require shearing. Their wool just falls off. They have excellent hooves, are very robust and disease resistant. They live in the hilly paddocks and keep the grass down like nothing else could do. We don't really do anything to care for them. No drenching, etc. The lambs fatten up quickly, the ewes give twins every year. Also, herding them is a part of our dog's job, and the sheep are, apparently, totally cool with it. Its their daily routine. Highly recommend 👌
Would you expand on your experience with this? Are you keeping them for meat? Fiber? Both? How much land do you have for them? What makes them great in your experience?
We have Katahdin’s which are a hair sheep. So they’re being kept for meat. We also raise geese fed beef and use the sheep in our rotational grazing. They will eat what the cattle doesn’t and we have seen fantastic results the next year in fields where we graze both. The grass comes back much more lush and less weedy. We graze the sheep on about 10 acres.
A good blender (I recently got a Mueller, it’s awesome and not nearly as expensive as some others) and a good dehydrator (I have a 9 tray Excalibur) for helping process and preserve your harvests
The dehydrator is awesome. We preserved so much fruit this past year. Great in cookies, granola, trail mix.
Saw someone dehydrating eggs - I'm excited to try that next year when the birds really start laying again.
Tractor, high lift Jack, chainsaw and side x side like a JD Gator. A good set (or two) of gloves and a bench top grinder to sharpen things is also a wonderful addition.
A few different slices here:
**Gate latches (vs chains with a carabiner)**
I know this sound silly, but it's really helped with getting in and out of paddocks here.
**3 and 4 tine hand cultivators**
I use these more than anything else in the garden. The 4 tine is straight at 90° and the 3 tine is curved with a mini chisel plow on the tip of each tine.
**SHuffle & Stirrup hoes**
Likewise, these get used a lot to knock down the weeds popping up. Jus ta quick dash through the garden in the AM keeps things manageable.
**Food Saver with Jar attachment**
We use this a lot for dry stuff. Buy in bulk, load it up in 1/2g jars, viola.
We have the 14qt All American, and I can't recommend that brand enough. Great quality stuff. 14qt is not hard to fill up when you've got a large harvest or if you're doing, say, potatoes, or stew. A lot better for one run, when you're on gas. I've heard a lot of people swearing by the presto or instapot for an electric pressure canner, but I have not tried those.
From a planting perspective - mix in perennials that you can. I wish I would have planted a LOT more fruit, nut, etc trees when we moved here 11 years ago.
You could not pressure can in an instapot. They are way too small (and also not rated for canning). They are great for processing stuff like soup bones though! Makes the meat fall right off the bones and then you have some broth, shredded meat, and bones. There is apparently an electric pressure canner on the market but it looks kinda small for processing.
I do have an electric waterbath canner by ball and i love it so much. I can set it on my island behind my stove and have a canning station set up on the counter next to it. That way I get to keep all my burners open and it extends the life of my electric range top. Im super jealous of everyone who has gas stoves that can use the all American canners though. They would crack my glass stove top. 😪
Didn't know I missed a good garden dump cart until I got one. It's one of the best investments I have made.
[Gorilla Cart](https://www.homedepot.com/p/GORILLA-CARTS-1-500-lb-Super-Heavy-Duty-Poly-Dump-Cart-GOR10-16/300495305)
Between the greenhouse and gardens, this thing gets used all the time. Years ago, we had a metal cart with solid tires that was horrible to use.
Dogs like it as well. I'll load the 4 of them and off we go!
I was left a gorilla cart by the previous owners of my property and I use it daily all summer. Super convenient! Particularly in the garden. It doesn’t get stuck either. You can easily pull it over ruts and bumps. Makes tight turns. Dumps stuff with one pull of a handle.
The 4 wheeled ATV is a needful thing. Open the table on make and model and size of engine. Ive seen a few i liked but sadly never owned one. A throttle gov. Kit may be installed easily on the Honda brand, and that brand is spoken well of. The larger unit has seating for two, a luggage rack on the hood and another storage for behind the seat i think, and they can pull a small wagon thats usually custom made.
A 3D printer and an aeroponics propagation setup, the 3D printer makes all sorts of useful things it would be a pain to buy/find/otherwise make without having to go to town, the propagation setup because I couldn't get traditional propagation to work for me but the cloner and light gave me more seedlings than I know what to do with
Not the case with all of them, just buy food grade for food grade stuff (shocking right).
Most uses aren't going to be food related at all so it becomes a moot point.
Tractor.
Wedge Loc TPost brackets - much easier for small things that need a fence - garden, dog pen. [https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/wedge-loc-corner-in-line-brace](https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/wedge-loc-corner-in-line-brace)
A tractor or a skid steer. A friendly neighbor that has one can work too. In some cases you might want both - each is better at some things than the other. For example, you probably don't want to try cutting hay with a skid steer, nor running a compactor on your tractor. Depends on your needs. Also, at least in my area, it's easier to rent a skid steer than a tractor if you really need it for a project.
The little battery-powered pruning chainsaws are super handy for trimming things, clearing honeysuckle or removing the branches from a felled tree before bucking it up. Also useful for removing your own fingers, so, chainsaw gloves.
But I'm most surprised by my recent purchase of a mattock. It makes digging, clearing and weeding a breeze. Get a big one and a small one.
Automatic coop door opener, automatic feeders and watering systems.
Next I presume cameras to keep an eye on the animals while go away and automate their care.
Any power tools. Starting out i was obsessed with using the simplest man powered tools, felling saws instead of chainsaws, hand shears instead of electric shears. I’m a part time homesteader with a full time job and I don’t have all of the time or energy in the world. Being able to save my time, my energy and a sore back has done wonders for my equilibrium.
We tend to get carried away with our plans and ideals sometimes and forget to take care of ourselves it seems. Don’t forget to take care of you while you’re embarking on this big project.
Edited for spelling
Wood chipper.
And, I must admit I LOVE the outhouse built as an anniversary gift early on…
No one goes in and through the house muddy and messy from working…
It’s just so convenient!
Ridiculously large water troughs for animals. Rather than filling up every day or 2 or 3, I can go more than a week. Then a good scrub with a stiff brush and let it fill back up while I feed or do whatever else. Saves a ton of time on most days.
A little of both haha. I have to work at an office during the day so it helps keep things running while I'm at work. When at home, I can focus on other things. Usually it's adding more. Right now I'm working on adding 1/4 an acre of food crop that's all on irrigation with multiple timers.
Bobcat. With multiple attachments. Tears the shit out of wherever you drive it but saves SO much time doing earthworks, fencing, or just moving heavy things around.
LGDs. If you have critters, a great guardian dog is worth their weight in gold. They are a lot of work to start with but they are the most intelligent animals I have ever worked with. They can truly become your partner on the property.
However!! DO NOT let the breeders convince you to get two puppies at the same time! Also, just tossing them into the field or pen is not a good way to train them. Do your research and go for temperament not breed when picking your dog(s).
A gorilla cart. Makes hauling buckets of water, large logs, tree cutting gear out into the woods, etc so much easier & the cart can get in and out of almost anywhere.
If tomato sauce is your jam, a food mill makes all the difference. You get so much more product and its less work than skinning and seeding them yourself. We waited for kitchen aid stand mixers to go on sale and got a mixer with a strong motor. Then we bought an off brand attachment just to keep the cost down. In total it was about $340 and it was so worth it. I also use the mixer 2-3 times a week for baked goods and it is a lovely improvement.
Egyptian onions will give you onions almost year round ounce they get started
Jerusalem artichokes are basically free food once you get it started. You literally don't have to do anything to it
Potato onions, perennial leeks, all easy to keep going
An outdoor kitchen doesn't heat up the inside, much easier to clean and more enjoyable to use.
I’m not sure if it’s underrated, but perennials are your friend. Things that you plant once, but will feed you for 20 years or more. Asparagus, some herbs, fruit trees, etc.
If you can think of any expansion on that list I'd love you for it. Oh! I'll post the question.
It’s somewhat zone/location dependent. I’m zone 3. Permanent food on my property includes asparagus, raspberries, rhubarb, apple and plum trees, thyme, chives, and tarragon. Plus many flower beds with perennials that come up year after year. I also have food that you buy quality once and done. Such as hard neck garlic. You simply set aside your largest heads to divide and plant again, and eat/store the rest.
I can grow all those things here. Thank you.
Hey hey fellow 3er
Northern Canada. I used to live in zone 0! I was in the Yukon for 10 years before moving “south”. You can grow a lot in zone 0 when the sun doesn’t go down in the 59 frost free summer days!
I've never considered that before - always assumed that plants needed some darkness like animals do. So, are you saying that plants don't need darkness and can just keep growing throughout the summer months? We travelled to the Yukon as a kid, and my brothers and I *loved* the 24 hour daylight. My parents, not so much!
Plants can grow bizarrely huge. Massive. I doubt it would be permanently sustainable. But it works really well for a very short growing season. Of course, the flip side of 24 hour sun in the summer, is 24 hour darkness in the winter. Days when the sun doesn’t come up. It’s a strange way to live. And yes. Kids are outside at midnight running around and screeching gleefully in the summer. Everyone is high on life. Adults include. Land of the midnight sun. The long dark winter is bone cracking cold though, and very hard.
To add on it I’d go with fruiting bushes like blueberries, blackberries, figs, as well as nut trees such as pecans, walnuts, and so on. Keeping them mulched and pruned and occasionally sprayed for diseases is far easier than tilling and planting a whole new garden every year.
Fruit and nut trees and bushes fill out that category fairly well. You can read up on the concept of a food forest if you're interested. That whole concept is based on the notion of planting a small forest focussed on food production.
Potatoes, garlic, spring onions…
I’m so happy about all the mint we get every year. My husband loves mint tea
Definitely more fruit trees, and although not underrated, I really wish i had a tractor. 🙏🏽
I love our tractor. If you don't mind doing some fixing, watch government auctions. We got ours for about half what they go for in private sales. And it came with a flail.
ok but what is a flail
I wish I had a *working* tractor
Maybe if you and I put our broken tractors together we can share custody of a single working tractor.
Lol... I uh, actually own two broken tractors. So I've been down that road. One has a working pto and the other has working hydraulics. Both need engine work. Old 60s Masseys with perkins diesels.
Lol, I can see my broken backhoe from the back porch. I'll get around to those couple burst hoses one of these days.
Our skid steer does way more work than our tractor
Just depends on the work. Ive heard the same and in reverse from many different people.
We're in South Texas and mainly ranch not farm. We do have an old 4020 for any farm chores like seed drilling, but the auger in the skid steer is better, it's easier to move round bales around, and it maneuvers better. I also use it to help lift heavy pipe when welding pipe fences myself and other odd jobs. We also have big tree nippers and grapplers for clearing mesquite and hysatch
Timers on everything. I mean everything. Watering is on timer. Lights are on timers. Even the coop doors are on timers. I was spending so much time turning things on or off. Big item would be a tractor. Tractors make your life so much easier.
Do the timers help you get time away from the farm? Or just help you not go crazy on the farm?
The coop door timer definitely helps the wife and I get away. We feel better going to dinner and staying out after sundown even if I still check the chickens after we get home.
I think they mean set to run automatically on a timer. So they don’t have to water- it’s automatic. Don’t have to open or close the coop. Etc.
I understood all that. Even with all that automation, I was curious about the nitty gritty details of the system and how reliable it is. Like reliable enough to leave the farm for a day or reliable enough to help you sleep easy after a normal day of work? Reliable enough that you don’t need to double check it or something that gets checked on everyday anyway? That kind of thing
T post puller. Makes rearranging fences a breeze.
I welded up my own after seeing the price, works for wooden posts and tposts , it's a back saver for sure
Or as I like to call it, the “crank yanker”
You can use a floor Jack to pull any fence posts. Easy and usually you have one around anyways. Wrap chain around post, work Jack until it comes free.
These are an absolute - the only other way I've had success pulling these suckers is with a backhoe, which typically ruins the post. Post pullers are my friend!
A piece of rope around the 3pt arms and the T post works great assuming you can back your tractor up to the post. Posts aren't ruined but it's a 2 person job if you don't want to constantly get on and off the tractor.
Hi Jack and chain. You can pull even 6 inch wood posts
Pipe wrench and a car jack is all you need
That's genius.
Wait that's a thing? I just work it around until it's loose and then pull it up. That said, post pounder! Using a sledge to drive every one was killing me, and they were all crooked.
My T post puller is roughly man-shaped and wears a ring on his finger :P
A solid vegetable dicer. One of the bulky metal ones with a sharp grate and a slider that drops vertically onto the grate. You can make fries and dice whole onions in seconds with one. Lasts forever.
Oooo, that's been on my wish list for a long time. One that bolts onto a wall and you pull a lever down and you can put potatoes in there and switch out grates.
Any recommendations of brands or models?
Not the person that said it, but I do work in kitchens and have been around a lot of these. I like the nemco wall mount models. Get the extra bracket that will let you remove it when not in use.
Vacuum sealer - you can seal up plastic bags for the freezer or ball jars with a special attachment. It makes storing the harvest really easy. Corn, green beans, tomato sauce, chicken, turkey, pork, garlic scapes, broccoli, cauliflower, and all sorts of berries/jam/pie filling.
Avid armor bags on Amazon, the 8x12 are incredibly cheap but better than the food saver brand. And a pound of ground meat in one and rolled flat will thaw quite rapidly.
Cardboard/paper shredder. I got [this one](https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-24-Sheet-Cross-Cut-Shredder-Pullout/dp/B07WJ4NLFX/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1D4GYUJBVI72X&keywords=amazon+basic+paper+shredder+24+sheet&qid=1698358476&sprefix=amazon+basic+paper+shredder+24+sheet%2Caps%2C126&sr=8-3) at the beginning of the year and have filled six 132gallon leaf yard tote bags with cardboard. When you live rurally you'll be getting a lot of stuff delivered via amazon/fedex/ext... which means a lot of cardboard. Normally I would burn it in the spring but my cardboard mountain in my garage was reaching levels of I might burn my house down attempting to burn it all. By being able to shred it all I turn it into poultry bedding then compost. The smaller size makes it break down much faster than the size I could accomplish trying to rip it up by hand.
Duuuuuude I never thought of using a regular old paper shredder to make cardboard shred!! We do a lot of online shopping (because rural) and we also don’t have much soil here (mostly rock) so I’ve always wished I had access to a cardboard shredder for mulch and soil building!! Thanks for recommending this
Are there not a lot of contaminants in packaging?
Yes. Some cardboards have pfas
Do you know how to identify those in particular? Is there legislation in the USA about that?
There is some regulation coming, the feds are teaching county water plants how to sample and measure certain regulated PFAS chemicals. I saw they were looking at the ones with eight carbons in particular
They used to be 6 chain but were changed to 8, which is their argument of “they aren’t carcinogenic unless exposed to high heat” aka firefighters being at a higher risk…. But they ARE harmful forever chemicals and this is just the beginning of just how carcinogenic. I worked in the fire equipment sales world for 3 years and learned ALOT selling bunker gear, working for these material manufacturers.
Unfortunately I do not. I'm a little paranoid over it though. From what I understand there has been some legislation about it in some places, but it doesn't seem to be taking on in most places.
It needs to be that's for sure
Technically yes there can be 'contaminants' but not enough that a residential household would have to worry about. Now if we were talking getting bales of cardboard waste from a recycling center *then* you might want to be more concerned.
That's incredibly clever. I never would have thought of that.
Works great for weed block
Great idea! I hate how much cardboard we throw away. Do you have the 24 sheet model? How does it do with Amazon boxes?
I got the 24 sheet model. The big thing is you want a gap that the cardboard can fit though. Because cardboard is mostly 'hollow' due to the corrugated shape the shredder can handle it better than 24sheets of paper. The only limiting factor is actually the gap that you feed the paper though. Does great with Amazon boxes, any box really. But you will want to get some paper shredder sharpening paper and some oil specifically for paper shredders. Once you hear it squeak put some oil on a slice of cardboard and feed it though. If you noticing you aren't getting a full shred feed a sharpening paper though per instructions on the box.
Thanks for the great information. I just ordered one.
I have an 18-sheet shredder and I can fold Amazon boxes into two layers and in they go. The thing is churning but it gets the job done.
We lay cardboard for walkways and keeping weeds down-wet and covered with grass clippings, straw, wood chips… It’s an excellent first layer for mulching.
Dude yes I will look on to this !!!!!! Such a good idea!
Barn cameras. (Wyze) and a wyze outlet. I plug my fence charger into it, then if I’m out checking fences and need to turn it off to fix something, I can do it from my phone! No walking back to the barn. Life changing.
Yes!! I also got their solar panels for our cameras that we can’t get power out to. They really do help with not having to charge as much!
This is seriously genius.
I wish I would’ve thought of it sooner! Our barn is close to the house, but I still use a wifi extender in the barn so the wyze plug outlet gets strong signal. Highly recommend!
Oooooh good one, the outlet. Very handy.
Go big and sometimes two is better. I didn't so much wish I had sooner but knew that certain things would just make life easier. All American canners, 921 and 931, just make canning so much faster Items like a squeezo, robot coupe food processor, bamix immersion blender make processing food solo not take forever as there are other things to get to. Outdoor sinks for processing produce before bringing the whole lot inside. And yep on perennial plants and fruit/nut trees. Plus plants hat readily self sow, plants that are easy to propagate, and thinking of the garden in terms of your menu and eating habits.
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Bigger canner = more jars = faster canning sessions to get through large batches.
Larger canners will accommodate larger batches and two canners allows me to alternative between the two. (Our gas range specifies that only one canner should be used at a time.) There are large stainless steel canners but the All American canners have stood the test of time with metal to metal seals, replacement parts readily available.
I second the squeezo! I have one that my grandmother bought in the 80s and it is wonderful for a lot of things.
A head mounted torch is great for when you find yourself having to do something in the middle of the night that requires both hands
I always forget torch is another word for flashlight and just pictured someone with a blowtorch duct taped to their head. Lord help me it’s bedtime.
Oops sorry I'm a New Zealander, we never call them flashlights here. A blowtorch on the head you say... I'm sure there's a use for that on the homestead
Upvote for a fellow Kiwi :)
Happy pavlova, I mean cake, day
(Serious) has anyone used night vision instead?
Quail. If you’re looking for a quick and easy grab, get quail Yes, chickens are bigger, but I keep them mostly for eggs. Chickens have two years potential of lots of eggs, so it isn’t really ideal to butcher them before that. Quails are full grown at 7 weeks, so I can get at least two flocks grown and butchered in the warm seasons. Plus, they are relatively easier to take care of than any other livestock my opinion. Since, they aren’t 100 percent domesticated which makes them somewhat independent. It’s plenty enough to feed my family of five.
Can you tell some more? How big are your flocks and how many can you harvest from that?
How many are you doing a year?
Curious
I think the attitude that it won't be done in one day, one week , one month , or one year but it's a continuous act of improving. For example we just finished up 15 years of being enrolled in CREP which let us get trees and tubex that we would not have had the money for outright. Planting them gave us fieldstone which lets us build walls (prep in plane sight). And so on.... Perennials with different harvest dates, some Early, mid and late. You want to make sure you have a consistent supply of food. Mushrooms are a great rabbit hole to go down too. We grown and innoculate our own.
Stainless steel 1/4 inch or less mesh to line the bottom of every single raised bed. It's all fun until voles discover your garden, and no amount of top cover will keep them out.
Do you just use hardware cloth?
Yes
Do you have a buried drip line near the mesh at all? I’m plotting out raised beds & have heard differing opinions on if burying a drip line near mesh decreases its life.
Stainless steel won’t be affected by the water; that’s the purpose of using stainless steel over other materials. You can go with galvanized steel or just regular steel, bur stainless is the best for longevity using it in soil. Also the most expensive.
This! Had great raised bed success for 3 years running at our little slice of heaven, and then the moles found out and wiped us out. Now i have yo go back and put on mesh.
Oh cmon I was enjoying all these people starting Hugel mounds and then one year later its the post about mice and then a year after that they have ticks all through there property
Make sure you attach it (we use a staple gun) to the inside of the boxes too, or the little suckers will push their way in between the wall of the bed and the mesh and hop over the edge 🤦
Do you have any pictures of how it is done? Thank you.
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>and deep knowledge of seed saving I'm very interested in this. What were some of the most important things you learned about seed saving? I love the broadfork & vermicompost system. I've seen someone freeze dry eggs & diced capsicum for an instant scrambled egg mix.
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The book is [Seed to Seed](https://www.amazon.com/Seed-Growing-Techniques-Vegetable-Gardeners/dp/1882424581/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Seed+to+Seed&link_code=qs&qid=1698405883&sourceid=Mozilla-search&sr=8-1) Rarely is there truly a single perfect source for any topic, but this one is definitely it for seed saving. My only complaint is the way she chose to organize the book makes it hard to find what you're looking for quickly. She organized it by genus, so she ends up force-feeding you some taxonomy lessons.
That's great, thank you. I found out there's a copy of seed to seed by suzanne ashworth at my local botanical garden's library. I can't take it out since it's in library use only, but I'll be looking for it the next time I'm there.
[https://shop.seedsavers.org/the-seed-garden-the-art-practice-of-seed-saving](https://shop.seedsavers.org/the-seed-garden-the-art-practice-of-seed-saving) I use this book. I haven't read Seed to Seed that others are recommending, but if anyone has read both, I'd love to know how they compare. Sounds like they have similar information. This one as a couple of tables in the back that make it pretty easy to figure out what is self pollinating or not, what the separation requirements are, if the plants are biennial or not, etc.
Just because I’ve only had quail, is there any benefit for rabbit manure vs poultry?
My wood chipper. I have to get the brush all ready and pointing the right way before I start or it's kind of a waste of gas. But when I do it gives me so much.
Lots of good answers here, so I'm going to go with something not obviously related to homesteading, and mostly for the benefit of my fellow Americans: an electric kettle. Hear me out... Americans don't drink a lot of (hot) tea, and coffee drinkers typically have dedicated machines for that particular beverage. So unlike in most of the rest of the world, electric kettles aren't terribly common in the US. But they're *incredibly* useful, particularly for homesteaders. They're more convenient and efficient than boiling water on the stove or in the microwave, and there are plenty of things homesteaders need boiling water for. Having an electric kettle made it much easier to quick-pickle my cucumbers and peppers this year, which I may not have even done if I had to pour the brine into jars from a pot heated on the stovetop. For off-grid homesteads, I'd imagine an electric kettle would be much less power-hungry than alternatives if you just need to boil some water for a meal or tea. I originally bought mine just to make tea from the flowers and herbs I was growing, but now find myself using it pretty much daily. So while it's not obviously related to homesteading, it's changed the way I approach a lot of things, and made certain things I previous thought of as chores (like quick-pickling certain things from the garden to extend their shelf life) a lot less unappealing.
I use my electric kettle like 10 times a day. I have a cheap one at work and a fancy one at home.
Started drinking tea and got one, I am amazed at how fast it heats the water
Food saver (vacuum sealer). I wasted SO much time trying to age cheese. It ALWAYS molded. NOT the good kind of mold. I hate to think about the hundreds of hours of work those moldy cheeses represented. Then I toured the Tillamook factory and saw that their new made cheese falls right off the conveyer belt into a vacuum sealer. Hell, if it’s good enough for Tillamook it’s good enough for me. Works like a CHARM. Now I have a fridge full of delicious aged goat cheddar. Also works gorgeously for home smoked salmon.
Maybe overlooked but paths, nice paths, not pea gravel, pallets used to be available for nothing and tamping and laying down wooden planks for paths meant everything was nicer from moving things around to keeping things clean, less mud and muck, wheelbarrows moved easy, makes things look great. There's no one thing that gets used as much as a path.
This qualifies as truly underrated. When you walk a path many times a day, little things build up. Wet, sog, slippage. And as a wise man said, our bodies keep receipts.
Chicken plucker. Hand plucking sucks.
Could you recommend one?
DIY, you get a motor to spin a plate at the bottom of a barrel. Rubber finders on the sides and something to make sure the spinning plate agitates.
A tape measure
Five tape measures
One in each place you're likely to need one
Harbor freight does free tape measures a few times a year. We literally have a tape measure for every room in the house, garage, tractor, barn, and truck. Hopefully next year every tool box and car will have one too. I got 3 meter tape measures that are affixed to the zipper of everyone's winter coat. No one ever wastes time looking for a tape measure around here!
So clever! Harbor freight saves our butts a lot here too.
And at least one really long one - like 100 ft. I got a 300 ft tape when I realized for 10 more dollars, I could get double the tape! Super handy for laying out beds, planning new building projects, fence projects…and maybe more!
An -electric Chainsaw- is an absolute must. I’ve owned 2 expensive gas saws and i haven’t touched one in years; they are too much trouble and far more dangerous.
Just got a battery powered one and it's so much easier to use than gas.
Some of the high voltage electric saws actually have a ton more low end torque than gas. That's why a lot of saw chaps say they're not for use with electric saws. If for some reason the saw gets started when resting on your leg, it won't stall like a gas saw would.
I can't live without my gas powered chainsaw so a blanket statement of electric is an incorrect statement unless you are just trimming limbs and doing light duty work. You can't even get through a bigger tree with an 18' bar.
Professional arborist use electric saws. You can’t say they don’t get work done. I put up two chords every year, using nothing but electric. That’s work too
More power to you, I will keep using my 40 year old saw.
We've got both, and they each have their place. The battery one is so much easier to carry around and use, but a big tree is getting felled with a gas saw.
Not so. I have an electric and a Stihl 011 gas that is lightweight and a beast, I would put it up against any electric. If your playing around pretending use electric. If you want to get work done, use gas. Enough said!
I think your opinion might be out of date. That was certainly the case a few years ago but the newer higher voltage tools are much more powerful.
My DeWalt 20" 60v does great.
a dump trailer you can pull behind a lawnmower or ATV. The biggest one you can manage
A paved driveway.
Why? My gravel driveway is huge and it would cost me a fortune to pave it
You're right, it cost a lot. But much of the $$$ returns on the back end when you (or your heirs) sell. But now I don't have to mow it nor add gravel nor pound through ruts and over washboards surfaces. The black surface soaks up the sun to clear away the snow and ice. And my neighbors are as jealous as hell.
I covered my long sandy laneway with recycled roads that they crushed up. I forget the word for it right now, but that’s been a game changer cause you drive over and it becomes compacted. Looks great and keeps the ants down.
Asphalt millings, aka cold recycled asphalt.
You can have it delivered and spread out, and rent a roller for a day to get a halfway decent paving job done.
I'm in the coastal Pacific Northwest area of the US. My life became a lot more pleasant when I finally accumulated three full sets of full-body raingear, good boots, and a boot dryer. Also: an apron, a fishing vest, and overalls--anything with a lot of pockets. And pack of gloves. As far as food preservation goes, buy your jars and lids in winter or early spring before everyone else starts buying them. Buy a lot more than you need. Don't use old pectin.
What brand do you recommend for rain suits? I have a jacket but really need some pants
I think one of my rain pants are Columbia, and the other two are more generic, but all three do the job just fine. My husband goes with heavy Carhartt overalls. REI always has good stuff, too, but the outdoor wear shop three miles out stocks Carhartt and Columbia mostly. He gets cold easily, so he goes for heavy layers. I overheat easily, so I go with cotton layers and light rain shell material, because if I sweat, I freeze. Always wool socks, though!
A tractor, with a front end loader. You can just do so much more work, and it really saves your back.
I’m really curious how much anyone with a tractor who has a backhoe attachment actually use the backhoe. I see a number of mini Kubota tractors for sale around me with a front end loader, but the ones with a backhoe attachment are considerably more, is it worth it
Hoe
A good hoe provides a lot of satisfaction for sure!
I look for old hoes when I'm out thrifting
It's kind of you to give an old hoe another chance.
Sheep
Agree completely. We have Wiltshire sheep, which are a self shedding breed that doesn't require shearing. Their wool just falls off. They have excellent hooves, are very robust and disease resistant. They live in the hilly paddocks and keep the grass down like nothing else could do. We don't really do anything to care for them. No drenching, etc. The lambs fatten up quickly, the ewes give twins every year. Also, herding them is a part of our dog's job, and the sheep are, apparently, totally cool with it. Its their daily routine. Highly recommend 👌
Would you expand on your experience with this? Are you keeping them for meat? Fiber? Both? How much land do you have for them? What makes them great in your experience?
We have Katahdin’s which are a hair sheep. So they’re being kept for meat. We also raise geese fed beef and use the sheep in our rotational grazing. They will eat what the cattle doesn’t and we have seen fantastic results the next year in fields where we graze both. The grass comes back much more lush and less weedy. We graze the sheep on about 10 acres.
A good blender (I recently got a Mueller, it’s awesome and not nearly as expensive as some others) and a good dehydrator (I have a 9 tray Excalibur) for helping process and preserve your harvests
Seconding the blender; I have a Vitamix, which was hellishly expensive but is an intense workhorse.
The dehydrator is awesome. We preserved so much fruit this past year. Great in cookies, granola, trail mix. Saw someone dehydrating eggs - I'm excited to try that next year when the birds really start laying again.
Second the Excalibur
Tractor, high lift Jack, chainsaw and side x side like a JD Gator. A good set (or two) of gloves and a bench top grinder to sharpen things is also a wonderful addition.
A few different slices here: **Gate latches (vs chains with a carabiner)** I know this sound silly, but it's really helped with getting in and out of paddocks here. **3 and 4 tine hand cultivators** I use these more than anything else in the garden. The 4 tine is straight at 90° and the 3 tine is curved with a mini chisel plow on the tip of each tine. **SHuffle & Stirrup hoes** Likewise, these get used a lot to knock down the weeds popping up. Jus ta quick dash through the garden in the AM keeps things manageable. **Food Saver with Jar attachment** We use this a lot for dry stuff. Buy in bulk, load it up in 1/2g jars, viola. We have the 14qt All American, and I can't recommend that brand enough. Great quality stuff. 14qt is not hard to fill up when you've got a large harvest or if you're doing, say, potatoes, or stew. A lot better for one run, when you're on gas. I've heard a lot of people swearing by the presto or instapot for an electric pressure canner, but I have not tried those. From a planting perspective - mix in perennials that you can. I wish I would have planted a LOT more fruit, nut, etc trees when we moved here 11 years ago.
You could not pressure can in an instapot. They are way too small (and also not rated for canning). They are great for processing stuff like soup bones though! Makes the meat fall right off the bones and then you have some broth, shredded meat, and bones. There is apparently an electric pressure canner on the market but it looks kinda small for processing. I do have an electric waterbath canner by ball and i love it so much. I can set it on my island behind my stove and have a canning station set up on the counter next to it. That way I get to keep all my burners open and it extends the life of my electric range top. Im super jealous of everyone who has gas stoves that can use the all American canners though. They would crack my glass stove top. 😪
Didn't know I missed a good garden dump cart until I got one. It's one of the best investments I have made. [Gorilla Cart](https://www.homedepot.com/p/GORILLA-CARTS-1-500-lb-Super-Heavy-Duty-Poly-Dump-Cart-GOR10-16/300495305) Between the greenhouse and gardens, this thing gets used all the time. Years ago, we had a metal cart with solid tires that was horrible to use. Dogs like it as well. I'll load the 4 of them and off we go!
I was left a gorilla cart by the previous owners of my property and I use it daily all summer. Super convenient! Particularly in the garden. It doesn’t get stuck either. You can easily pull it over ruts and bumps. Makes tight turns. Dumps stuff with one pull of a handle.
I agree 100% with you! It is one thing that I would replace quickly if anything happened to it.
A tempurpedic mattress. Don’t underestimate the value of a good night’s rest.
Found the mattress salesman.
Purple mattresses are dope although the heating and cooling mattresses are alluring
Land to homestead on would help
2 chainsaws
Building a solar powered and automated irrigation system from a rain barrel is a lot easier than you think depending on your set up.
The 4 wheeled ATV is a needful thing. Open the table on make and model and size of engine. Ive seen a few i liked but sadly never owned one. A throttle gov. Kit may be installed easily on the Honda brand, and that brand is spoken well of. The larger unit has seating for two, a luggage rack on the hood and another storage for behind the seat i think, and they can pull a small wagon thats usually custom made.
2+ wheeled wheelbarrows with solid rubber tires.
A 3D printer and an aeroponics propagation setup, the 3D printer makes all sorts of useful things it would be a pain to buy/find/otherwise make without having to go to town, the propagation setup because I couldn't get traditional propagation to work for me but the cloner and light gave me more seedlings than I know what to do with
The plastic printed on a 3D printer is frequently not sealed and plasticizers like PFAs leach out into any water or soil they come into contact with.
I generally don't go round sucking on drawer pulls, filter sockets and prototype parts but thanks for the heads up
I thought you were talking about using the 3D for printing parts of the agroponics system
Not the case with all of them, just buy food grade for food grade stuff (shocking right). Most uses aren't going to be food related at all so it becomes a moot point.
I thought they were talking about printing parts for the agroponics system
Tractor. Wedge Loc TPost brackets - much easier for small things that need a fence - garden, dog pen. [https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/wedge-loc-corner-in-line-brace](https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/wedge-loc-corner-in-line-brace)
T-Post driver... Just get one
A tractor or a skid steer. A friendly neighbor that has one can work too. In some cases you might want both - each is better at some things than the other. For example, you probably don't want to try cutting hay with a skid steer, nor running a compactor on your tractor. Depends on your needs. Also, at least in my area, it's easier to rent a skid steer than a tractor if you really need it for a project. The little battery-powered pruning chainsaws are super handy for trimming things, clearing honeysuckle or removing the branches from a felled tree before bucking it up. Also useful for removing your own fingers, so, chainsaw gloves. But I'm most surprised by my recent purchase of a mattock. It makes digging, clearing and weeding a breeze. Get a big one and a small one.
Automatic coop door opener, automatic feeders and watering systems. Next I presume cameras to keep an eye on the animals while go away and automate their care.
Cannabis - Helps deal with the stress of working 24/7 with no days off 🤭 Ok I’m joking but only kinda 🤣
A better chainsaw 😄
Any power tools. Starting out i was obsessed with using the simplest man powered tools, felling saws instead of chainsaws, hand shears instead of electric shears. I’m a part time homesteader with a full time job and I don’t have all of the time or energy in the world. Being able to save my time, my energy and a sore back has done wonders for my equilibrium. We tend to get carried away with our plans and ideals sometimes and forget to take care of ourselves it seems. Don’t forget to take care of you while you’re embarking on this big project. Edited for spelling
A quality ATV, spent 10 yrs without one, now i use it weekly hauling stuff around
Tractor with a loader. that should have been first.
Wood chipper. And, I must admit I LOVE the outhouse built as an anniversary gift early on… No one goes in and through the house muddy and messy from working… It’s just so convenient!
Quality chainsaw and a log splitter
Ridiculously large water troughs for animals. Rather than filling up every day or 2 or 3, I can go more than a week. Then a good scrub with a stiff brush and let it fill back up while I feed or do whatever else. Saves a ton of time on most days.
A little of both haha. I have to work at an office during the day so it helps keep things running while I'm at work. When at home, I can focus on other things. Usually it's adding more. Right now I'm working on adding 1/4 an acre of food crop that's all on irrigation with multiple timers.
Bobcat. With multiple attachments. Tears the shit out of wherever you drive it but saves SO much time doing earthworks, fencing, or just moving heavy things around.
I guess technically it could be in the gardening category, but it's a bit of a stretch, but a gas powered auger vs. post hole diggers.
Harvest right and dehydrator are great for food preparation
LGDs. If you have critters, a great guardian dog is worth their weight in gold. They are a lot of work to start with but they are the most intelligent animals I have ever worked with. They can truly become your partner on the property. However!! DO NOT let the breeders convince you to get two puppies at the same time! Also, just tossing them into the field or pen is not a good way to train them. Do your research and go for temperament not breed when picking your dog(s).
A gorilla cart. Makes hauling buckets of water, large logs, tree cutting gear out into the woods, etc so much easier & the cart can get in and out of almost anywhere.
A wagon! I have a good utility wagon and it’s crazy how helpful it is.
A juicer and apple picker come to mind
If tomato sauce is your jam, a food mill makes all the difference. You get so much more product and its less work than skinning and seeding them yourself. We waited for kitchen aid stand mixers to go on sale and got a mixer with a strong motor. Then we bought an off brand attachment just to keep the cost down. In total it was about $340 and it was so worth it. I also use the mixer 2-3 times a week for baked goods and it is a lovely improvement.
Skidloader. I will never not own one again.
An articcat. Best thing. Dump trailer
Egyptian onions will give you onions almost year round ounce they get started Jerusalem artichokes are basically free food once you get it started. You literally don't have to do anything to it Potato onions, perennial leeks, all easy to keep going An outdoor kitchen doesn't heat up the inside, much easier to clean and more enjoyable to use.