January Homestead tour

 It honestly feels like it hasn't stopped raining for months now. So with a few days of clear skies I thought I'd do a quick walk around the homestead and show what we've got going on. 

Of course, compared to summer things can seem a little quiet, but I feel like I have so many jobs to get through, as well as trying to do everything else. 

Book Review - 5 Acres & A Dream

I've got a lot of books on smallholdings and homesteads but this is the first one I've read from a fellow blogger. 

It's written by Leigh Tate who has the blog "5 Acres & A Dream", its a blog that I visit regularly and I enjoy seeing what she and her husband do with the same sized piece of land over in the US.  

The book is well written, easy to read and broken into sensible chapters. Certain things in it have really given me food for thought - seeing things like how their master plan changed through the years of being there made me wish I'd drawn up more definite plans for here on paper so I could alter them as ideas and needs change.

One chapter I really enjoyed was about food self-sufficiency for animals. This is something that most books skip over, but if you really want your own patch of land to completely support you then it's no good bringing in feed for the animals the whole time. And although they've no where near cracked it in terms of animals feed she shares all their failures and what they're planning to do next.

The book isn't a "how to" or a "guide" but more of the story of how they came to be in the position they're in and the way they are tackling each issue of self sufficiency. I could see that Leigh has a same kind of approach to self sufficiency as I do, whilst still paying the bills and mortgage, and I guess that's part of what makes it so appealing to me.

If you enjoy her blog, then you'll enjoy this book.