Sustainable in this day and age?

[Dan Collins]

OK ... time to stir the pot .... 

My wife and I purchased our farm a few years back with the intention of having a nice, rural place to retire to and live in a more relaxed and sustainable manner.  We ended up retireing much earlier than we planned, since both our companies went through some major internal changes just as the rest of the economy was starting it's rather deep tanking process.  At any rate, we really are striving to be as self-reliant as possible and maintain some sort of integrity with the land around us.

My question ... what is everyone else doing towards this end?  And even more importantly, why?

[KevinC]

Well... I can relate VERY well to your comments.  I was laid off a bit over a year ago and have found work for only a few months of that time.  We too bought a farm 3 years ago with similar intentions.  Ours however, is 3 hours from town, so is normally just a weekend place for now.  I too needed a few more years to pull it all together via "the plan", but that has obviously changed.

It is my intention to try and rebuild a small family farm similar to what you are doing:  cattle, sheep (maybe goats), chickens, perhaps a few pigs - and as much of it in heritage breeds as possible.  Hoping to find Java chickens.  Looking for animals that will help me take care of the farm.  For chickens, that's those that come home at night, but range free in the day.  If I get an egg a week per, that's fine.  Key is I don't want to feed them - at least not during the spring/summer/fall.  I want them to seek out and concentrate protein for ME!

FYI - we have a sister forum:  http://homecomer.mysticplains.org that I created for those wishing to discuss small scale diversified farming.