The secrets to year-round homesteading | Farm Dreams

[Music] I realized from my time on the homestead that being a part of where you source your food is one of the greatest things you can do with your time. I had so much more respect for just a single tomato because I knew how much time, how much care, and how much love I was putting into all of my plants.

This soil feels great; it's like so spongy. Thank you! We've been working really hard on the soil health, so it's so nice when someone sees it and appreciates that. It's the off season for Melissa's Garden, but I can tell she knows all of the tricks to get the most out of her soil.

This is the berry patch. So, our autumn bearing raspberries, they start producing fruit August, September, October, until we get our really hard frost. Then these ones start in June for the raspberries, so I have fresh raspberries coming on all the way from June through October. So, you're having berries pretty much all year long? Pretty much all year! You're amazing! I feel like that's the key to homesteading.

Yeah, Melissa has this gardening thing down to a science. She knows exactly how to get berries all year long by planting different species. I can also see how rich all her garden soil is, but none of it would be possible without fertilizer, and for that, she needs her chickens.

Oh, the chickens are excited to see us coming because I have not let them out yet. Hi, chicks! As soon as I walk over to the chicken coop, I realize it's unlike any I've ever seen. I love that you have this chicken tractor on wheels. The wheels are great!

So, this is just nice because it gives us both the protection of the chicken tractor and directing where I want their manure for our pasture health. But then I can also let them out. So, these were like often old, broken down riding lawnmower that didn't work anymore. So, as long as the bearings are good, like grab those wheels! There are so many things you can do with it.

So great! And then it keeps it in that closed system feeling where you're just able to upcycle things that you already have. So, you can bring your chickens all over the homestead; they till things up with their feet and then they add in their chicken poop that, as we notice, is just so great!

Could I see this thing moving? I want to see it enough! Yeah, absolutely! An ATV is a homesteader's best friend. Awesome! This mobile chicken coop idea could be a game changer for Will and Grace.

Wow, that's so perfect! That makes moving your chickens around so much easier. That's so cool; I love it! No wonder Melissa's crops are so abundant; she can put the chickens right where she wants them to nurture the soil.

I always like to make sure that I've got enough manure for the springtime planting. We're actually seed starting those! I love seeds! We love seeds! Yeah, let's go check them out. [Music] Thank you.