Hi, JJ...Thought about pumpkins, too, but am not sure my thumb is green enough, yet! I planted a few seeds last spring in a big bare spot by the shed. Didn't do anything except loosen the soil in a foot wide/deep hole. Obviously will need to do more, as what few pumpkins there were, were really small.
I started rooting ornamental bush cuttings early in the summer and when we left home in September they were doing pretty good. We watered them well and put down lots of mulch, so hopefully they will survive until we get back. Also, planning on Gladiolias, if I can find the bulbs cheap.
Anyone doing a Bootstrap Business?
When we lived in La. back in the day, I raised rabbits. We used them for meat and I had a few regular customers that I sold dressed rabbits to, as well. I would breed so the litters would be ready to wean at Easter. Then I would set up a roadside stand and sell Easter bunnies. I would make enough money with the Easter bunnies to fund the business the rest of the year. They were easily maintained and I got fertilizer for lots of other projects.
Where are you now and when will you be going home?
Cajun, still in Hobbs, New Mexico. Al's part of the project is almost done. He might roll over to another phase of the construction project in mid-December. If he does, we'll be here till spring. If not, we'll be home by Christmas. I'd just as soon stay here for a few more months, since we can't do a whole lot outside at home till then. (Seems like the more we accomplish at home though, the harder it is to be away!) I'm running the tool room now, so the extra money is sure nice. But it's wearing on us both, as we're working 7 days a week, 10 to 12 hour days. Guess we're just getting too old for this line of work.
Rabbits are on my list. We started twice with rabbits, but unable both times to stick with it long enough to have much success. I'm having a really hard time finding a good source for chickens and rabbits. I had a good source a couple of years ago, but he's no longer selling them. And I guess now I have "sucker" written on my forehead, because I sure got took on the last rabbits and chickens. LOL
Have you got any animals now?
Yes. We have a few. LOL We have 2 dogs, a flock of free ranging chickens, 1 rooster tied on a chord and 11 horses. Sadly, our pet possum passed away. We were all devastated but my DGS took it the worst. He banged his head against the couch and cried himself to sleep. She was a member of the family. Hopefully we can rescue and release any that need help this spring. Many times when the mothers get killed on the road, they have babies in the pouch. We stop on the road and check. So many are killed on the road. We are planning to have rabbits again when we buy the barn and move there. Maybe a milk goat, too. We love animals. We will also have to have a couple of barn cats. Can't do without them.
Cute picture! Possums aren't too welcome around our place though...found a couple of little ones coming out of the chicken coop one night. Other than those, we really haven't seen any other little furry creatures on our place. My Dad found a baby raccoon years ago in Omaha after it's mama was hit by a car and he raised it for about 6 months. Found a place that rescued them to take it, when it started climbing the curtains and tearing wallpaper off the wall. Love to watch the critters waddling though!
Itty Bitty Glass Company coming soon........
Investment ?? $500 or less in tools/supplies.
Material: we live in wine country ..FREE bottles
Return: we'll see. So far all the few 'orders' I have had paid for the tools and supplies....
Very pretty glassware. Do they sell "Bawls" energy drink where you live? My DD drinks them. Darker blue glass than yours and has evenly spaced bumps or dots. Looks like 2" wide. They might work for you and they'd be free if you drank the drinks. I don't know what they taste like.
Pretty cool, CascadeMom! You do really nice work.
We still haven't gotten anything up and running. Lots of things in the works, but the demands of life keep slowing us down. Hoping we get the workshop built soon, so I can get back to painting furniture. Will start listing my paintings on ebay again when we get home from this trip. But the competition is fierce! (And I am not nearly as accomplished as some of the artists on ebay.) Am planning on doing a couple of art sales in Bowling Green, Ky. in a few months.
Haven't replaced the critters yet, that we sold last fall before the New Mexico trip. And my plant propagating didn't produce enough plants to sell. But if we can manage to stay home for a few months, may be this summer...
Cajun: I haven't heard of 'Bawls' but I will watch for some at the recycling center.
I don't really buy things like 'energy' drinks unless you count coffee. ;0
If I find any I check it out.
Late to the thread, but you're in a good location to set up targeting "Vacation Homes at The Lake" (Yes, I'm local...) People are used to looking for crafts in Amish country on their way through and the lake home business is still booming if you can find a spot to grab their attention. Maybe one of those small shops or spots coming in from rt60? I'm located on the way to the "other" lake and hoping to set up a seasonal all-sorts stand stocked with whatever I feel like making at the time. We gave away 10 free kittens here and you know you usually can't pay people enough to take free kittens. In my book that means we have a good market!
Good idea! I'm about an hour away fom Nolin Lake and an hour and a half I think from Barkley Lake (?) down by Hopkinsville.
Rough River Lake is also a good one, though you may have to cross it to find a good spot. I've been having pipe dreams about felt bags and hats to go after the baskets veggies canned goods cheeses painted gourds and other stuff I'm going to do Oneday. I'm in a prime spot to target Nolin, but we might even (when I get it together) do a tandem/tagteam type thing -hit'em from both sides (lakes) so-to-speak. Kelly
I've only seen the west side of Rough River up 79 out of Caneyville. Didn't know there was more to it. I don't get out much in my own "backyard". Too busy following DH all over the country! He's in industrial construction and there's not much of that going on around here.
I think they also get a lot of L'ville and maybe Owensboro traffic via Rt 60..
Question about the freecycle site. Is it freecycle.com or another name. My computer just keeps bring up alot of different free names but no site.Some nights it is a pill. msrobin nice paintings.Have thought about taking a course but seem to be too busy.Havs a new grandson on the way so am soon going to be sewing for a nursery. deanna
Hi, Deanna! Thank you for the compliment.
Congratulations on the new grandbaby!
Here's the link to freecycle. You need to register/apply, then you will get an email a day or two later letting you know you have been accepted into a group before you can access anything. http://www.freecycle.org/
Ms. Robin, I've sold artist trading cards on ebay and done really well. They are 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches....the size of a baseball card. Artists and others collect them. I do mostly animals but any subject that's really well done will sell. I've sold them for over $60.
Now, lots of artists are opting out of ebay and migrating to etsy.
My name's also Robin, btw, and my husband designs the electrical power in nuclear power plants!
A belated welcome to Dave's Garden!
And my husband builds nuclear power plants! What a coincidence!
I tried the artist trading cards on ebay. I got a bunch of nasty messages from people saying they are NOT to be sold. I think the most I got for one was around $10. Do you have any on ebay now, so that I could look at some of yours? If you do, D-Mail with the web address.
Edited to add a note....I found your home page...OMG! You are fantastic! I do a lot of artwork and painting, but mostly landscapes and decorative painting. I've tried people (no one in particular) and I really struggle at it. We've about decided to stick with my decorative painted furniture and DH wants to build country furniture and refinish furniture. Hopefully, when he retires, we can earn enough money doing that.
Robin
This message was edited Sep 20, 2008 7:40 PM
msrobin, i'm new to this site but i am in the middle of starting a aquaphonic system where you grow tilapia fish and run their waste water threw growing beds then back to the tank.
i've told some of the oriental ladies at our farmers market and i thought they were going to jump on me with delight they all gave me their numbers so that i could call them when i had my first batch ready.
the talopia are ready in 6-9 months from fry size and if you grow lettuce you could have a crop every 30 days.
i don't think i am going to have trouble getting rid of the fish and if the veggies i grow don't sell i can always can or eat them.
http://www.rdaquafarms.com/ is a site that will sell you small amounts of fish so that you can start small.
just one idea out of thousands now just got to make the money to start them all lol.
Welcome, Gt!
Good idea! I've read a little bit about raising fish, but I don't think I've run across that website before. Thanks for sharing the link.
Great Idea They Do a Lot Of that Here to In Florida Paul
i've got about 80 perch and five catfish in our pool right now that i am going to half to put into a tank so that my wife will get off my back lol. if your interested i have other sites that have a little more info and i am thinking about starting a thread to keep everyone informed about this project. because you can go large or small with this one guy i read about use small rubber made tubs.so when i say small i mean small. sorry i'm rambling late.
What do you mean Perch? Talipa? Paul
ha paul perch and tilapia are fish tilapia are omnivorous but preference for soft aquatic vegetation you can see a picture at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilapia perch you can catch in any lake,pond or river some people call them pan fish.
paul i meant hay paul not ha paul in my last post. lol
I spent years trying to make money off the homestead. It is not easy. I had chickens, ducks, cows, pigs, rabbits, bees, turkeys, a stocked pond, a huge garden and of course children and their cats and dogs. We ate good but not much money was to be had. Folks expect you to deliver the eggs and want them cheaper than store prices. No market for honey or rabbit fryers. The farmers market had more farmers than customers. The kids are grown and I no longer have livestock. It is more work than I care to do when I just have little old me to feed. The fresh meat, milk and eggs were needed when I had a houseful of hungry mouths to feed.
I did the flea market thing with my crocheting and other crafts. Again, no real money there. It was hard to break even on expenses. The Ebay thing did not work out either. I always hear about the great ways to make money but have seen little success for the average entrepreneur. I have gathered wild grapevines and made wreaths. The money from the sales was pure profit but it was not enough to pay bills. That is sad because the only bills I have are electricity and phone. I own my land and my old beat up car. There are no payments to make there. Most of the jobs around here have either gone to Mexico or overseas.
I craft now for fun and don't worry about profit. I garden for pleasure. Money comes from working for someone else. I have a great job. I work 16 hours a week for $12 an hour. It is enough to keep me going and still leave time to garden and such. It is a good life and free from stress. My needs are few and I am not a slave to a 40 hour a week job that is going to disappear anyway. I have time to enjoy living.
Kathy, way to go! That's what it's all about....being able to "enjoy life" while we are still healthy and young enough.
No doubt it takes a lot of work to make any money from the homestead. At best, we can hope to make enough extra to make ends meet. Lucky you to have found a happy medium!
Yes, that is what it is all about. You have to set your priorities and they sometimes need to be reset. With young children in the house the priority is simple. Sometimes we forget that there are time in life when priorities can change. Some of us need the biggest paycheck and newest car. Sometimes, you discover that there are other things that make you happier and do not cost so much. It is the things with the smallest price tags that can bring the most joy. Standing at the edge of the woods and watching a pair of fawns play in the pond like a couple of children with mama standing watch has no price tag. It truly is priceless and never would have happened if I was still working 60 hours a week at a job to pay for a car that would never bring me such joy. I wish good fortune to anyone trying to make a living from the homestead. My advice to everyone is to take time to breathe and enjoy what is around you. I see many people who have forgotten how joy truly feels.
I totally agree. We have never been well off and neither DH nor I came from well off families so we have always known how to make do. When our kids were small we always found ways to enjoy life on a small budget and we continue to do so today. We have horses and trail riding and camping are the most enjoyable things in the world to us. Our 7yo DGS lives with us and I love to see his contented smile as he rides along through the mountains. We are fortunate to have some beautiful state campgrounds very near us and we like to drive over and hike and take pictures. Only costs fuel and a bit of sweat equity. Nothing like the memories we are making.
Just-picked non-polluted veggies, fresh air, peace of mind, time to enjoy nature - things that are not money put directly in a bank account - but priceless!!
Unfortunately, my debt's been rising though because I haven't worked at my normal decent-paying job lately. It's been great to work part-time at a fun job and my health is better - but it will be hard to climb out of debt. I am very sad that I haven't done better with the bootstrapping and I know I just haven't tried hard enough. Need to clear much more garden space and get livestock to help build up the poor soil. Around here (eastern Massachusetts), farmer's markets do wonderfully and are jam-packed with customers, so I know there is opportunity. And with continuing reports of melamine in food from China, I think more people will be eating organic. I keep watching this thread hoping for more ideas!
Kathy, I bet producing your own food helped the bottom line. We also worry about having animals tie us down too much. Have you looked into Etsy for your crafts? Glad you found a happy balance!
It's so good to see people still interested in this thread!
Sounds like we all are doing the same sort of things. So....what skills do we each have for a niche market?
One thing we want to do here is build country style furniture and refurbish old wood furniture with decorative painting. The main barrier we had was lack of a building to work in. DH built a two-car garage/shed earlier this summer and we are finally getting it set up and everything organized. Should be able to get started on some projects next time we get to stay home for a few months.
I also started making some concrete leaf castings yesterday to make up birdbaths and fountains next spring. Got 5 done so far, and have enough concrete mix on hand to make 10 more.
Mayflwrhen How Fat Are You From The Narrows?
Msrobin, I saw some leaf castings written up in a mag recently - very pretty. Do you feel like showing yours off to us?
yes phicks I am close to the narrows. I think we discussed quite a while ago that you have been up here. Have you been back lately?? I haven't been fishing lately or crabbing or shellfishing, but it's great to know that I can. I get too busy planting/weeding etc. Even though the soil is horrible, it is great that there is food everywhere around me. If I don't get my act together soon I'll be eating tree bark LOL.
Oh wait phicks - I didn't read your question correctly - luckily I don't go to the Narrows restaurant often enough to get very fat. I can get fat pretty well at home ROTFL!
Just forming the leaves now. Wanted to get them done to cure over the winter, so won't paint them till we come back home after the next job. I'll be taking a picture of them though in the next couple of days, that I'll post here. Love the leaves that other DG members are doing!
Since I am just now in the process of trying to sell two properties to buy my dream farm, I'm not an expert on farm businesses. But I did live way out in the boonies for almost 20 years before moving back to town, and from what I saw it was not easy making money on a small farm. My experience with trying to sell vegies was that in the country, most people grow their own stuff and don't need to buy yours (we would drive 45 miles to the nearest town of 10,000 people and try to sell vegies on the square). We did have success growing and selling dried flowers wholesale to the floral industry. We had the garden disked twice/year and then kept it cultivated with a horse and had an old mobile home that we put black plastic over the windows, strung wire back and forth across the ceiling to hang flowers to dry without fading . I kept track of hours spent vs. sales and it came to about $5/hr - this was almost 20 years ago, so not too bad! My plan nowadays is to work for H&R Block during tax season and hopefully make enough to keep me the rest of the year. This is my 2nd year - we'll see how it goes. There are some tax preparers that make $20,000 - $30,000/yr for 4 month's work, but they have a large, loyal client base. But I'm hoping.
What my friends do so they can stay (mostly) at home...
accounting for small businesses
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marry well
Update: Well, we're starting a CSA this spring. We're about 50 miles from 2 different cities. One has no CSAs (also no farmers market that I can find), the other has 1. Figured we're in a prime location. Will also be growing cut flowers and ornamental plants, bushes and trees. Still shooting to make enough to live on without having to travel for work.
What is a CSA?
Basically, instead of me going to a farmers market every week, customers would pay for their produce in one lump sum at the beginning of the season and I would deliver their share every week.
http://www.localharvest.org/csa/M26077
Well, that's cool. How do you get your customers?