DVXU hobby farmers

[mcbob]

Just curious if any other DVX user folks like to spend their free time playing in the dirt and shoveling crap of the non-marketing created variety.

For my wife and I, it started pretty tame with the yearly garden. Eventually we got a few laying hens. Then we started bringing in a couple dozen meat birds to process every year. As the kids grew up, they got into 4H. From there, it was rabbits, then goats, ducks, turkeys... This year, we’ve gone “whole hog” with a quartet a feeder pigs. I spend a lot more time delving into permaculture podcast, as opposed to cinematography and Aputure-product-hawking YouTube channels. We are building soil, shaping land ( despite being a fairly meager 3 acres), and trying our best to make ethical edibles.

The pacing of it all consistently makes me wish I had started on this a decade ago. One small thing done right now can have such a huge impact later on.

Be interested in hearing about some of your own experiences and projects, and also whether or not I’m alone in considered using a stock trailer to transport grip and electric to location.

 

[DLD]

I practically grew up on a micro farm (aka "dacha") as a kid. No live animals were allowed but lots of apple/pear trees and berries, all densely packed onto a 600 m2 lot with a 2-story 700 ft2 summer house. And one could take naps outside in the shade. Which was preferable to waiting on a herd of the organic cows to walk by, so you could scrape up their organic manure. But we did that too.

PS. Since the demise of the USSR, most dacha owners switched to using it for R&R only, as one can shop for fruits and veggies in city supermarkets.

 

[mcbob]

weird... no live animals, even chickens or rabbits? Those are like the most low-impact, low-effort animals anyone could have... and provide more than enough organic manure themselves

 

[DLD]

weird... no live animals, even chickens or rabbits? Those are like the most low-impact, low-effort animals anyone could have... and provide more than enough organic manure themselves

Officially, dachas were for R&R only. Within a couple of miles from us, there were the state owned/run collective farms but most farmers also had their own private livestock. When we wanted fresh milk, we'd walk there and wait until the cows came home - once again, literally - and bought a gallon or so of freshly squeezed warm milk. Which was delicious. The lady farmers would place a gauze over the glass jar to keep the undesirable elements out.

Now, back in - hmm, 1964, I believe - my parents decided to spend a month on River Naroch, in North-Central Belarus. It was very rustic. We rented a room at a collective farmer's house. No radio, no TV, no electricity. I was chased by chickens. They were probably older than I. But we had fresh eggs, milk, bread and cheese for breakfast. Then our hosts married off their daughter. The whole yard was stuffed with tables, benches and bottles of moonshine. My dad, naturally, overdid the moonshine and promptly threw up. But that was as close to the real farmer life as I have ever been.

 

[combatentropy]

whether or not I’m alone in considered using a stock trailer to transport grip and electric to location.

lol, I have my Farm Theory, which is that most of us are glad we don't have to work on a farm but spend all kinds of money to make up for it:

- buying organic
- gym membership
- tanning beds
- camping
- pets

Even so I have no desire to work a farm, not even part time. I might enjoy sitting on a porch as an old man, though, overlooking a ranch that someone else works

 

[Run&Gun]

lol, I have my Farm Theory, which is that most of us are glad we don't have to work on a farm but spend all kinds of money to make up for it:

- buying organic
- gym membership
- tanning beds
- camping
- pets

Even so I have no desire to work a farm, not even part time. I might enjoy sitting on a porch as an old man, though, overlooking a ranch that someone else works

Yep. I love trees and grass, but farming and yard work are not for me. Some people love it and it’s their relaxation and “zen” and they can have it. The second I moved into my own house and out of my Mom’s, I stopped cutting grass. I’ve had the same guy cutting my grass for YEARS, now, and my best friend started a lawn/yard care business about five or six years ago, and he does everything else I need, yard wise.

One of my cousins(in his late 80’s, now) has told me stories of plowing some of the fields, with a mule, when he was a kid(maybe teens), where at least part of my backyard is now(if not my entire house and yard). Which is kind of crazy to think about, because that means at least part of my block was still farmland well into the 40’s and maybe the 50’s, too.

 

[mcbob]

Yep. I love trees and grass, but farming and yard work are not for me.

With the right system, the animals do most of the work. Electronetting and chicken tractors let you mob-stock defined areas with animals to accomplish whatever you need.

Goats mow and fertilize 2500 sqft at a time, and yield milk and baby goats to sell for a few hundred a pop

Chickens scratch out thatch, bugs, and weeds, and parasites, further fertilize, and give us awesome orange-yolked eggs in return

Rabbits get edge high grass trim and keep our garden plants fed and our home awash in hassenpfeffer

Pigs are excellent and delicious roto-tillers, churning up new clearings or blasting problem areas... since I also have two teen daughters, they'll eat just about anything you give 'em and won't leave a trace


In all, I'd say the three kids spend about 30 minutes a day tending to the basic beastie chores and I do some bigger stuff here and there, maybe 2-3 hours every week. It fits in pretty darned well with the indeterminate freelance video schedule. I reckon it's just a different sort of creative exploit, and a hell of a lot more rewarding than TV or video games.

 

[Dante Yze]

I practically grew up on a micro farm (aka "dacha") as a kid. No live animals were allowed but lots of apple/pear trees and berries, all densely packed onto a 600 m2 lot with a 2-story 700 ft2 summer house. And one could take naps outside in the shade. Which was preferable to waiting on a herd of the organic cows to walk by, so you could scrape up their organic manure. But we did that too. When in summer we usually use repellers to get rid of mosquitoes. They are very useful in that

PS. Since the demise of the USSR, most dacha owners switched to using it for R&R only, as one can shop for fruits and veggies in city supermarkets.

"
Had similar experience in farming but we didn't keep live animals because it is a huge responsibility. Dacha is a great tool for "productive meditation", i.e. for doing there something soothing in a slow manner. Great for recovering nerve system after some stress at work.

 

[firehawk]

I used to do quite a bit of work on a farm growing up. We had a large garden that required tractors to work and several hundred cattle. Farm work is hard, hot, dirty, humid and can be dangerous but it makes you feel kind of good in a way since it's pure old fashioned respectable work.
I really don't like working outside anymore

 

[Peter C.]

I grew up on a farm as a kid so I like to dabble with a few veggies (tomatoes, squash, and herbs) but nothing too serious. I find it relaxing and rewarding if kept to a small scale.