College Hill Farm

  We are continuing our series about what homesteaders need for a successful homestead and whether or not you should buy a functioning homestead or start from scratch. Today we will be discussing water and in particular Cisterns. Most homesteads will not have tremendous rises on which to build a “gravity feed” system that will have a 300 ft head. In Appalachia where I am from there are plenty of mountains and streams from which to gather water and use gravity to create massive amounts of pressure. However, our homestead here in central Kentucky has some rises but not sufficient to generate the kind of pressures like municipal water. When we bought this homestead there were 2 old dilapidated barns that were too far gone for us to save. But one of the features of these old barns is that they had concrete cisterns that was there to catch the water that ran off the barn and utilize it for the homestead. One cistern is 10 ft wide by 14 ft long and 8 feet tall. Just so you know that cist

  Should we buy and already operating homestead or start from scratch? Well, I have had eight years to dwell on this question. It would have been so much easier had we been able to purchase an already established working homestead outright.   It might even have been easier had we purchased a prefabricated home and put it on raw land. But, we got the homestead we were destined to have. There are some real considerations that most people who have not lived this lifestyle or lived rural just never considered. I think I will do a multi part series on just this topic. There are so many aspects that can be explored. Today we are going to explore WATER, Mountain stream water to be exact. First things first, when you are considering a homestead and you have checked all the boxes on the location that fits what you and your family needs, the first thing to look for is water. No homestead in existence can function without water. Fresh, clean, potable water is an essential. Living in eastern Ken

There is a Rhythm to my homestead. There is a natural order of things. When things are out of order it seems like the world is spinning out of control. Back before all of the modern technology that we have today farmers and gardeners lived and died by that rhythm. The closer you get to nature the more you understand some of the passages in the bible. Don’t get me wrong, most of the authors of the Bible were wealthy men far separated from the daily rhythm of the farm if they wrote what was there or if they had someone else do it I don’t know. The presidents of today don’t write their own Memoirs they have a ghost writer. I wonder if it was that way back then. Either way whoever wrote this passage must have lived on a farm at one time.   "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to b

  I was talking to one of my  friends recently about activities here in the Paint Lick Area. They have put in a new sewer system and they are considering extending it out to and past College Hill Farm. Now having a sewer system would increase the property value of our property without a doubt. No longer would you have to have a big enough piece of property to construct a septic system. Thus you could section our property off into ¼ acre lots and sell each lot at a considerable price as a building lot. Or construct houses or set mobile homes and do the same. I know the kids will probably not adopt this lifestyle and would probably sell this property when we are gone and this would increase the value for them. But, I don’t know. Crystal and I had basic criteria when we moved to this homestead. We wanted to be in proximity to a decent size hospital – we are getting older. We wanted to be within 30 minutes of a city of larger than 18,000 so we could get services, we have always lived 3 h

Do you have a section of your property set aside for scrap metal? Right now I do. Since moving to the property in January of 2015 and beginning the renovation of the house we have accumulated a pretty good amount of scrap metal. Some of it I have used in other projects but there are some things that just will never be used for another project and is just lying around. Most of the stuff I have came about as we renovated the house or from daily life. For example: there is a riding lawn mower, washing machine, dryer, 2 old grills, water heater, 2 cast iron bathtubs, cast iron waste pipe, an old boat trailer, and various other pieces of metal and old roofing scraps from the old barns here on the property. There are 3 or 4 truck loads that I need to take to the scrap yard. So many in our society would take these to the landfill but that is not in my nature. Metal can have endless uses and tomorrow that water heater could become a car door or microwave. I also have an old aluminum fishin

Since I have been doing videos I never knew I was fat. Thank God for the folks who are so ready to help me on my road to fat redemption!! From the 14 year old who called me a fat Bastard to the recent guy who thought he was helping me out by pointing out that I am fat in a comment.   “ absolutely no offense im a personal trainer and bodybuilder. if you wanna save your back once again no offense you need to lose a lot of body fat percentage overall on your frame. our frames arent made for carrying over 200 lbs of weight trust me i have experienced it myself with muscle tissue. the less weight that your skeletal and muscular system has to carry the easier it will be for it. you wouldnt overload your tractor loader and expect it to work perfectly either am i right. good luck with your back ”   For the record I have overloaded my tractor bucket a lot since moving to the homestead. Sometimes these folks don’t realize the offense they are giving. It is like they think that all fat pe

  One of the hardest things this year is waiting to plant the garden. Since the Greenhouse is not finished I have not planted any of our own plants this year. Crystal has urged me to cut down on the garden some this year. Well with building a tractor shed and other projects that makes sense. But, I love gardening. I don’t know why. Early in the morning before the sun comes up it is like communing with God. It is a personal experience like meditation, which I have never been good at. So quiet motionless time is not my thing, but as I get older I am slowing down. However, patience is still not my greatest virtue. I should have planted in the basement again this year under the lights but I didn’t do that. I decided to let the local plant dealer sell their stuff to me. They carry plants propagated by the local Mennonite and Amish communities. There are many heirloom varieties to choose from. The last few years the cost has been $16 per flat of 48 plants. This year the price has gone up t