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I started keeping goldfish in my water trough about four years ago. I currently have the same four fish who started out as quite small 9¢ in my 100-gallon stock tank, and another two goldfish in my 35-gallon sheep stock tank. The fish overwinter well in the troughs, especially because they have the added comfort of a submerged trough heater in the winter time. The fish require no supplemental feed; they eat the mosquito larvae on the top of the water, and also eat the bits of hay and forage that fall from the horses' mouths when they drink.
Because my Clydesales are so large and require 35 gallons of water each per day, and I also have five sheep to one 35-gallon tank, I'm refilling water troughs constantly. The continuous refilling generates clean water full of bubbles--and the animals only add more as they play with their water before they drink. The fish get the aeration they need, the food they require, and a large tank for swimming all while keeping our mosquito population down. Do the horses ever eat the fish? No--they swim to the bottom when the horses approach. Do any other animals or birds of prey hunt the fish? Nope--not once here on our farm. How do I know they're healthy and thriving? My vet friend says as long as they're eating, creating manure, growing, and swimming they're doing great.  I rotationally graze my animals here at the homestead. Sheep ingest many parasites when they graze that affect horses, and the parasites are killed because they’re not ingested by the desired host. The horses do the same for the sheep. All the while, different nutrients are added to the soil through manure.  Most often, the sheep follow the horses. You can see my rotation plan I put together when I was in school in the second slide. In these shots, however, the horses and sheep are lumped together, tandem grazing the backyard. My recent travels affected my pasture schedule so we’re using the backyard as a buffer while it all comes back in. Animals are introduced to a space when forage grasses reach 8-10” high, and forage legumes reach 10-12”. All animals are pulled from a space and it’s allowed to rest at 4”. Anything under that is considered over-grazed, and grows back much more slowly. Let’s revisit permaculture fruit tree guilds, for an apple tree specifically. What is a guild? A guild is a neighborhood of plants that work together to support the main fruiting tree. We strive to include nutrient accumulators, mulchers, a nitrogen fixer, weed suppressors, beneficial insect attractors and bad insect repellers. Often this style of gardening is called companion or polyculture planting.
Want to know what to plant around your fruiting tree? Check out page 160 of my book The Sustainable Homestead for guild “recipes” for loads of different fruit tree varieties. Friends! I have been sharing about my new book, The Sustainable Homestead, for almost a year and a half. The day has finally come! The Sustainable Homestead is now out at most book retailers.
This book is the missing resource I wish I had when I first started "holistic homesteading." At that time I had no idea what the term permaculture was or that it was essentially the back-to-nature mindset of farming that I was trying to implement. I've broken the book down into 8 chapters with soooo many graphs, charts, and illustrations in an effort to communicate my points clearly and easily. Chapters include: - Site Assessment - Soil - Growing - Incorporating Animals - Pasture Setup/Rotation - Composting - Orchard - The Role of the Homesteader I hope you'll have a look! And if you've already purchased, it would mean so much if you would take the time to leave a review on Amazon or GoodReads. Many thanks for the continued support! Overwhelmed with where to start on your permaculture homestead? Unsure of where everything should go? Don't waste your energy, time, and dollars by guessing. There are four simple steps that apply to ANY site in order to steer yourself in the right direction. Gather information, create realistic goals, brainstorm how to achieve these goals, and implement them. Problems and challenges such as flooding can actually steer you into solutions, just like they did for my own farm. Watch this video to learn how to navigate starting a permaculture farm.
What's a Cover Crop? How to Feed Animals and Soil at the Same Time with Forageable Cover Crops.3/7/2023
What if your pasture seed could feed your animals AND improve your soil? Seeding pastures with something like Kentucky Blue grass is great for horses, but really not so great for the soil. All it really does is hold soil in place.
I started using forageable cover crops a few seasons ago and I won’t go back. Rather than sow plain grass seed, I mix a few cover crops that meet the nutritional requirements of my animals while performing different functions like decompacting soil, improving tilth, fixing nitrogen, attract beneficial insects, suppressing weeds, etc. If the soil is healthy, the forage my animals eat will be too. My favorite free resource is The Rodale Institute’s free Forageable Cover Crop chart. You can look up different cover crops suited to your climate. Be sure to cross reference that with what is appropriate grazing for your animal species. Note, what works for me will not work for you. Take into consideration your climate, sun, moisture, landscape, animals’ needs, etc. It might be a bit of research up front but I promise it’s worth the work. I’ll have lots more info on this and dividing pastures up for rotational grazing in my book, The Sustainable Homestead, out in just two weeks! Rodale Institute Chart Here The Sustainable Homestead What is the point of raising animals if you don’t eat them? Lots of reasons. Consider function, helping endangered species—and remember how stock density plays into all of that.
So many people ask me, “Why do you have animals if you’re plant-based?” The short answer is that animals offer way more function to the homestead than just meat. The long answer is that every animal contributes to our permaculture ecosystem here. The horses provide pulling power, trail riding, manure for compost, and they are dead-end hosts for our sheep parasites. The sheep are dead-end hosts for horse parasites, keep the equines healthy. They also are a good fit for our natural grassy forage. Wool is just a plus. The grazing activity of both the sheep and horses maintain forageable cover crop growth and height, which is what encourages carbon absorption. Their droppings also return nutrients to our soils. Ducks are great for our wetlands and for snail, slug, and pillbug control. Their eggs are sold at our farm stand and livestock conservancy duckling breeds are sold to help threatened populations. The geese eat the weeds left behind by the horses and sheep, graze lawns, lay eggs, and act as alarm bells for our duck flock. Guinea fowl graze our yards, woods, and pastures drastically decreasing our tick population. Our barn cats and invited native owls work to keep rodent populations in check.
I’ve seen A-frame and water levels for marking swales. They’re clunky, often require two people, and the A-frame string is prone to wind movement. Then I found this idea from @WestTexasGardenExperiment I whipped one up in 5 minutes and in another 20, had my new swales marked.
I’m digging a swale not just as a permaculture to-do list item—it’s actually going to help slow, catch, and spread water in my sacrifice plot. It will be staked with flags and bamboo poles post construction to protect my livestock and keep them away from the trench. In my previous YouTube video, I created a level and marked my swales on contour. Today I finally just went for it and dug out the swale ditch, piling the dirt on the downhill side as a berm. In the video I said I dug to a depth of 6-8” since livestock graze the area. I actually ended up doing about 10” deep and plan to keep the stakes and poles in the ground for now, for the safety of the animals. After 24 hours the swale filled and the downhill side was drying up! After the first rainfall the water was successfully collected, spread and waiting for slow absorption.
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Angela is the farmer and content creator behind Axe & Root Homestead LLC. This historic six-acre permaculture farm is home to two Clydesdale horses, ten honeybee hives, five sheep, two guardian dogs, barn cats and a flock of 40 geese and ducks. The farm produces maple syrup, fruit from a small orchard and loads of garden produce for consumption, preservation and donation to the local food pantry.
The Sustainable Homestead, is out for pre-order NOW!
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