This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links, with NO additional cost to you.
Every farm must have a dog, right? I mean they just go together. But as with anything there are some things to keep in mind for the cost of caring for your dog.
First up feed. Yep, they need to eat unless you want to start losing animals. Depending on the number of dogs you have, how much you will have to feed them. In the old days the family dog was just fed the scraps from the kitchen and whatever rabbit they caught. Most people, however, feed their dog some kind of dog food. The cost of the dog food is going to be dependent on dietary needs. We choose to feed a higher protein feed and one that is free of gluten and soy for our own choosing (I was highly reactive to the gluten even from touching the dog’s food at one point).
No matter where you fall on the vaccination argument, rabies is the one your dog should have and stay up to date on. Yes, for the sake of the dog and your children’s safety, but also for legal reasons. A dog that bites, even if provoked, and has no rabies vaccination record is put down. Dogs naturally want to protect their territory and occasionally that is even from a wild animal carrying rabies.
There are so many options for dewormer. At minimum I do a 45-day run of diatomaceous earth two times a year for my dogs. This cleans up the internal parasites that can also cross to you or your children. You can also do the commercially available dewormers. A quick note if you have a collie, border collie, or sheltie, do NOT give them ivermectin. It will kill them. All other dogs handle it just fine.
Fleas and ticks are bound to latch onto your dog. Yes, you can do natural repellents. I use guinea fowl to eat the ticks and a monthly essential oil blend. That seems to keep them in check. However, occasionally the ticks get really bad, and I do have to use a commercial tick killer on the dogs. My favorite is Bravecto if I need to treat that way.
Now what the dogs bring to you. These are harder to pen down as far as costs. First guard services. This is mostly against animal predators, though you can get one trained/bred for guarding against people too. Those are just a bit trickier if you have people coming and going from your home.
Some dogs are also good at herding. These are very helpful for moving groups of animals by yourself. Figure their cost at what having another person to help you would cost.
Finally, companionship. Nothing beats the companionship of a good dog. This is also the hardest to put a cost on.
For specific training, like herding, you will probably need to pay for some professional help at least the first time.
For guidelines on picking out the perfect dog for your farm check out that blog here. Now go get yourself a dog.
As I've grown in my journey as an entrepreneur, mom, gardener, and livestock owner, I struggled to find a planner that met my needs and kept me organized. So, I MADE MY OWN. You can look at it on the link below and buy it on amazon below.
Don't want the whole calendar part? I got you! I pulled the gardening and animal care pages out and put them in a book all their own.
Wanting a community to lean into? Join the FREE Helping Your Family Homestead for Food group! This community is for the Mommas, looking to stay home and raise their kids, but unsure how to keep everyone fed and make ends meet. I share tips from my journey from the office to half the income and feeding my family from home, while maintaining good nourishing food. Tips include gardening, bulk buying, caning/preserving, livestock, homesteading, and home remedies. Your family is precious, and this group is to help you gain the knowledge and tools to keep your family well and not reliant on outside professionals. Remedies and tips are easy and simple for the busy momma, time is precious after all, including pregnancy, birth, young kids, and illness. Trust your Momma gut again! This community offers the resources + community you need to help get started on your journey and prepare for whatever future you envision.
Starting to garden doesn't have to be hard! I gathered all the tips I've learned over my gardening learning curve and made them into a simple course to jump start your gardening your life.
Supporting Your Family Naturally from the Inside Out community!! This community is for Mommas, looking to Support Your Family from Nature for Wellness. Tips range from nutrition, herbals, detoxing, natural cleaning, and essential oils. Basically, all the things I’ve learned slowly over the past 5+ years of my journey. We have moved off Facebook, to better serve our community and be able to discuss openly options for providing for your family in the best way possible.
Join the FREE Community
Join the FREE Community
I've had 3 very different pregnancies. After the first traumatic birth, I learned better and how to care for my body naturally and prevent common pregnancy and birth problems before they arise. This quick course will get you the tools you need to have a naturally healthy pregnancy, labor, and delivery. My first pregnancy I had a normal western medicine all the things pregnancy. My second? I flipped to completely natural, no medicine. Bonus: Preventing Preeclampsia Without the Aspirin & Healing from Birth Trauma
Click here to get the stories straight to your email:
For more on wellness tips click here:
For more on homesteading on your budget click here:
For more simple DIY updates click here:
This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links, with NO additional cost to you.
About any farm at some point has a dog or dogs. A dog just goes with a farm or homestead. They are companions, guards, and working partners. They bring much more than themselves to the farm. However, as with anything on the farm, they can also have common problems.
The first is cuts. Dogs, like kids who run on the farm, are bound to get cuts at some point. The truth is most of the cuts you won’t notice and won’t become a problem. If they are more than a surface scratch but less than needing stitches, there are a few things you can do to help speed healing.
If the dog has long hair trim or shave around the cut. This allows it to drain and prevents the hair to matting up in the cut as it heals. When the hair mats up in the cut there is an increased risk for maggot infection. After the hair is clear, make sure the cut is clean. By washing with clean water, then applying disinfectant. Gentle iodine or witch hazel works well here. I then apply my calendula salve to the wound and in a few days, it usually heals up.
If you are unsure of if the cut needs stitches or not, be sure to call your veterinarian and ask. Most rural veterinarians are happy to teach you what to look for in cuts and how to clean them.
Occasionally you don’t catch a cut and it does become an issue in the form of an abscess. This isn’t an emergency. Shave the abscess and the area below closely. Next using a large needle (16 gu or less), puncture the abscess at the bottom and allow to drain. If it is a new abscess, it will drain liquid. If it is older, it will be white/yellow and thick.
If it is not draining, you may need to get a scalpel and cut into the abscess at the bottom. An abscess that does not drain are usually older and have thick puss in them that will not drain through a needle. Once the draining has stopped, gently squeeze the top of the abscess and massage down to work out the rest of the infection.
Then take gentle iodine and dilute in clean water to the color of tea. Take a large syringe (35 cc or bigger is best), and slowly inject the solution into the abscess through the hole. Gently massage and then allow to drain. Repeat 2-3 times. Allow the abscess to remain open and drain. Check daily to make sure it stays open, removing any crust from the opening.
If you are unsure of draining an abscess on your own, be sure to call your veterinarian and ask. Most rural veterinarians are happy to teach you to drain and clean an abscess.
The most common problem when you first get a dog on the farm is the dog not staying home. Most can be solved by simply kenneling or tying your dog up for a week or so when you first bring him home to teach him where home is. When you are in the yard, allow them out and about the farm with you. Some dogs naturally have a bigger territory range than others, so you may need to consider that when selecting a dog.
If they are older and know where home is but persists in exploring the neighborhood while you’re not looking, you may need to invest in some kind of fence or collar. I don’t like having my dogs tied up or kenneled all the time, but the cattle dogs will not leave my yard birds alone. So, I invested in a wireless invisible fence for them with the PetSafe system. This allows them to stay up by the house freely but allow my yard birds to free range peacefully.
My LGD has a much larger territory naturally. Our yard he believes is the center of his territory not the edge. This means he is across the road or on it quite frequently once his tracking collar broke, or we left and were not able to buzz him back into the yard. We are trying a new system and have had better success. The collar has a larger range and can communicate with my phone.
LGD are very intelligent, but also very stubborn. Now that the new collar is on, he is staying off the road and accepts that he is not allowed on the road. We have allowed him a larger territory into the field behind our house not that he is fully grown and bigger than most coyotes (the biggest predator threat here). If you have a dog which you want to roam the entire property, but also stay home, you will need to invest in a gps hunting tracking/training collar.
Farm dogs are very much worth it and issues with them are few. The common ones are fairly easy to treat or re-train too. Have a happy time with your 4-legged partner.
As I've grown in my journey as an entrepreneur, mom, gardener, and livestock owner, I struggled to find a planner that met my needs and kept me organized. So, I MADE MY OWN. You can look at it on the link below and buy it on amazon below.
Don't want the whole calendar part? I got you! I pulled the gardening and animal care pages out and put them in a book all their own.
Wanting a community to lean into? Join the FREE Helping Your Family Homestead for Food group! This community is for the Mommas, looking to stay home and raise their kids, but unsure how to keep everyone fed and make ends meet. I share tips from my journey from the office to half the income and feeding my family from home, while maintaining good nourishing food. Tips include gardening, bulk buying, caning/preserving, livestock, homesteading, and home remedies. Your family is precious, and this group is to help you gain the knowledge and tools to keep your family well and not reliant on outside professionals. Remedies and tips are easy and simple for the busy momma, time is precious after all, including pregnancy, birth, young kids, and illness. Trust your Momma gut again! This community offers the resources + community you need to help get started on your journey and prepare for whatever future you envision.
Starting to garden doesn't have to be hard! I gathered all the tips I've learned over my gardening learning curve and made them into a simple course to jump start your gardening your life.
Supporting Your Family Naturally from the Inside Out community!! This community is for Mommas, looking to Support Your Family from Nature for Wellness. Tips range from nutrition, herbals, detoxing, natural cleaning, and essential oils. Basically, all the things I’ve learned slowly over the past 5+ years of my journey. We have moved off Facebook, to better serve our community and be able to discuss openly options for providing for your family in the best way possible.
Join the FREE Community
Join the FREE Community
I've had 3 very different pregnancies. After the first traumatic birth, I learned better and how to care for my body naturally and prevent common pregnancy and birth problems before they arise. This quick course will get you the tools you need to have a naturally healthy pregnancy, labor, and delivery. My first pregnancy I had a normal western medicine all the things pregnancy. My second? I flipped to completely natural, no medicine. Bonus: Preventing Preeclampsia Without the Aspirin & Healing from Birth Trauma
Click here to get the stories straight to your email:
For more on wellness tips click here:
For more on homesteading on your budget click here:
For more simple DIY updates click here:
This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links, with NO additional cost to you.
What is a farm without a dog? It’s like an unspoken rule that if you have a farm or homestead, a dog is needed to complete your home. But how do you find the right one? The glorious thing about dogs is they are wide open with hundreds of choices. There are a few things to consider, but it is truly simple to choose.
First are you looking for a companion, or a dog who will have a job working on the homestead with you? Dogs have been selected over time for different jobs or to fit niches. Jobs on the homestead that dogs can have include Livestock Guardian (LGD) and Herding. Working dogs can also make great companions too.
If you are looking for a dog to fit one of those jobs, you will want to select a breed in that category, FROM actively working parents. This is key, because a LGD raised around livestock with their parents have a head start on their training, as the parents will start training them as soon as they can move. Key breeds to consider here are Anatolian, Pyrenees, and mixes.
If you are looking for a herding partner, check out the herding breeds, and again make sure they are from ACTIVELY WORKING PARENTS. The instinct in puppies from working parents is stronger and therefore easier to train when they come from working parents. Again, they also watch and learn. Popular breeds are the Collie, Border Collie, Australian Shephard, and Red/Blue Heelers.
If you are simply looking for a companion on your farm, you really have no limits. Even a companion dog hanging around will still tend to keep predators at bay as they establish their territory around your home. They may not be strong or driven enough to take on a coyote head on though.
Keep in mind when selecting a companion whether they will be mostly outside or inside and how much brushing/grooming you want to do. When selecting a companion dog, the best way is honestly to let them select you. Find a shelter and start hanging out with the dogs. One will kind of attach to you a bit more than others and the connection is off.
In summary, when choosing a dog for your home, keep in mind if they will be working or companion, mainly hanging out inside or outside. And above all if you can, let them choose you.
As I've grown in my journey as an entrepreneur, mom, gardener, and livestock owner, I struggled to find a planner that met my needs and kept me organized. So, I MADE MY OWN. You can take a look at it on the link below and buy it on amazon below.
Don't want the whole calendar part? I got you! I pulled the gardening and animal care pages out and put them in a book all their own.
Wanting a community to lean into? Join the FREE Helping Your Family Homestead for Food group! This community is for the Mommas, looking to stay home and raise their kids, but unsure how to keep everyone fed and make ends meet. I share tips from my journey from the office, to half the income and feeding my family from home, while maintaining good nourishing food. Tips include: gardening, bulk buying, caning,/preserving, livestock, homesteading, and home remedies. Your family is precious and this group is to help you gain the knowledge and tools to keep your family well and not reliant on outside professionals. Remedies and tips are easy and simple for the busy momma, time is precious after all, including pregnancy, birth, young kids, and illness. Trust your Momma gut again! This community offers the resources + community you need to help get started on your journey and prepare for whatever future you envision.
Starting to garden doesn't have to be hard! I gathered all the tips I've learned over my gardening learning curve and made them into a simple course to jump start your gardening your life.
Supporting Your Family Naturally From the Inside Out community!! This community is for the Mommas, looking to Support Your Family from Nature for Wellness. Tips range from nutrition, herbals, detoxing, natural cleaning, and essential oils. Basically all the things I’ve learned slowly over the past 5+ years if my journey. We have moved off Facebook, so to better serve our community and be able to discuss openly option for providing for your family in the best way possible.
Join the FREE Community
Join the FREE Community
I've had 3 very different pregnancies. After the first traumatic birth, I learned better and how to care for my body naturally and prevent common pregnancy and birth problems before they arise. This quick course will get you the tools you need to have a naturally healthy pregnancy, labor, and delivery. My first pregnancy I had a normal western medicine all the things pregnancy. My second? I flipped to completely natural, no medicine. Bonus: Preventing Preeclampsia Without the Aspirin & Healing from Birth Trauma
Click here to get the stories straight to your email:
For more on wellness tips click here:
For more on homesteading on your budget click here:
For more simple DIY updates click here:
This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links, with NO additional cost to you.
No matter the dog you have, working or pet, they will need some training. Training is needed for your dog to have manners and not be knocking people, kids, and more over. Below I’ll describe the difference between basic obedience and working and tips for each. Obedience is needed for any job. Working dogs vary from guarding, herding, sporting, and more.
Every dog, no matter if they will be officially working, or simply hanging around, they need basic obedience. Basic obedience is walking on a leash without pulling, sitting, laydown, stay, and leave it. All of these are important for the safety of people and your dog. Walking easily on a leash makes it safe to walk in public and walks pleasant. “Sit”, helps to keep them from jumping on others. “Leave-it” keeps them from pulling on you, or chasing something that could be dangerous, like a car.
Most dogs are eager to please you, if you have established a relationship with them and they respect you. Treats can help establish the understanding of reward, for dogs who need more than just praise. You may have to help them into a sit or down the first time, make sure you praise your dog right after they do as you wish.
For working dogs, they will need a bit more training. Depending on what job your dog will be doing, what training they will need. For guard dogs, you will be able to train them. The biggest thing to teach them in addition to obedience, is to teach them their boundaries. In the beginning you will need to stake or pen them close to what they are to be guarding. Then you can begin to take them on perimeter walks. Depending on the size of the territory, you may need a fence collar to keep them in.
If you are looking at a herding dog, you may need some outside help to get started. Most good herding dogs have an innate ability to know what to do. But you will need to learn how to communicate with them and how to slow them down if needed. Basic communication between the dog and you should be directions (left and right), down, come, stay, and heel (walk with me).
Dogs are eager to please and easy to train. They are good at their jobs no matter what it is. Dogs make an excellent extra set of hands for work, or even companions. Basic obedience is the foundation of all training.
As I've grown in my journey as an entrepreneur, mom, gardener, and livestock owner, I struggled to find a planner that met my needs and kept me organized. So I MADE MY OWN. You can take a look at it on the link blow and buy it on amazon below
Don't want the whole calendar part? I got you! I pulled the gardening and animal care pages out and put them in a book all their own.
Wanting a community to lean into? Join the FREE Helping Your Family Homestead for Food group! This community is for the Mommas, looking to stay home and raise their kids, but unsure how to keep everyone fed and make ends meet. I share tips from my journey from the office, to half the income and feeding my family from home, while maintaining good nourishing food. Tips include: gardening, bulk buying, caning,/preserving, livestock, homesteading, and home remedies. Your family is precious and this group is to help you gain the knowledge and tools to keep your family well and not reliant on outside professionals. Remedies and tips are easy and simple for the busy momma, time is precious after all, including pregnancy, birth, young kids, and illness. Trust your Momma gut again! This community offers the resources + community you need to help get started on your journey and prepare for whatever future you envision.
Starting to garden doesn't have to be hard! I gathered all the tips I've learned over my gardening learning curve and made them into a simple course to jump start your gardening your life.
Supporting Your Family Naturally From the Inside Out community!! This community is for the Mommas, looking to Support Your Family from Nature for Wellness. Tips range from nutrition, herbals, detoxing, natural cleaning, and essential oils. Basically all the things I’ve learned slowly over the past 5+ years if my journey. We have moved off Facebook, so to better serve our community and be able to discuss openly option for providing for your family in the best way possible.
Join the FREE Community
Join the FREE Community
I've had 3 very different pregnancies. After the first traumatic birth, I learned better and how to care for my body naturally and prevent common pregnancy and birth problems before they arise. This quick course will get you the tools you need to have a naturally healthy pregnancy, labor, and delivery. My first pregnancy I had a normal western medicine all the things pregnancy. My second? I flipped to completely natural, no medicine. Bonus: Preventing Preeclampsia Without the Aspirin & Healing from Birth Trauma
Click here to get the stories straight to your email:
For more on wellness tips click here:
For more on homesteading on your budget click here:
For more simple DIY updates click here:
This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links, with NO additional cost to you.
The basics of a pen is to contain animals to a specific area for management or safety. This can give you a lot of freedom to design with resources you have to meet your and your animals’ needs. There are a few design differences to keep in mind for birds, or dogs.
First up the birds (chickens, turkey, guinea, ducks, geese, etc). If you are keeping birds locked in a run, you will need a predator proof fence. Chicken wire isn’t going to cut it. It is not strong enough to hold up the long term. Save yourself time and money and invest in welded wire. Bury 4-6 inches into the ground to keep predators from trying to dig in. You will need a fence at least 8 foot tall as well. If hawks are a problem, you’ll need some kind of overhead protection. That could be a physical fence top, or string wires across the top.
If you free range your flock, I highly recommend having a shed or night base for the birds to gather in that is protected. I lock my birds in at night, but I know people who don’t. The main thing is you will have to protect your flock somehow. I use a combination of geese and guardian dog. Our house has fields around it that in the summer, create a natural fence the birds don’t like to go into. The LGD knows his border and keeps the land predators pushed out, keeping the birds safe. The geese keep an eye on the sky and alert the LGD if there is an issue. It really is fun to watch them work together.
Mobil chicken tractors are also an option, but you have to have an open landscape for them work. In my home, I have too many trees for that to be a feasible option.
Now the farm dogs. This is probably the easiest. Once a farm dog knows his home base and his boundary, you really don’t need to keep them in a physical fence. When introducing a new dog or puppy to the farm, have a kennel or tie line to help them learn this is home. Then gradually let them out with supervised time, walks around the property. As they show themselves trustworthy, you can leave them free all the time. Keep the tie out handy for the times they do go too far, and you can tie them back up. For a time.
What about if you have a dog that just won’t stay home, or will not leave flocks/animals alone? In this case you will need some kind of fence or collar. Full disclosure. I have 2 cattle working dogs that will herd and terrorize the chickens non-stop. I have a pet safe wireless fence that keeps them in the front yard. The birds stay outside their fence, and everyone lives in peace (most of the time).
For a dog prone to wandering, I’d recommend a gps hunting collar. I had one for our LGD to keep him on the property, because we have such a small land base (3.4 acres). However, I must be within .5 miles to keep connection with his collar. The good news he’s most prone to wondering at night, so I keep the remote by my bed. I am looking at upgrading to a collar that connects to my phone. Currently, he is running without a collar and if he leaves, he is tied back up for a time.
Fence for bird flocks and farm dogs, doesn’t need to be complicated. It is important to keep everyone as safe as possible. A few tools and thinking through your landscape and you’ll have the best adaptable solution for you.
As I've grown in my journey as an entrepreneur, mom, gardener, and livestock owner, I struggled to find a planner that met my needs and kept me organized. So I MADE MY OWN. You can take a look at it on the link blow and buy it on amazon below
Don't want the whole calendar part? I got you! I pulled the gardening and animal care pages out and put them in a book all their own.
Wanting a community to lean into? Join the FREE Helping Your Family Homestead for Food group! This community is for the Mommas, looking to stay home and raise their kids, but unsure how to keep everyone fed and make ends meet. I share tips from my journey from the office, to half the income and feeding my family from home, while maintaining good nourishing food. Tips include: gardening, bulk buying, caning,/preserving, livestock, homesteading, and home remedies. Your family is precious and this group is to help you gain the knowledge and tools to keep your family well and not reliant on outside professionals. Remedies and tips are easy and simple for the busy momma, time is precious after all, including pregnancy, birth, young kids, and illness. Trust your Momma gut again! This community offers the resources + community you need to help get started on your journey and prepare for whatever future you envision.
Starting to garden doesn't have to be hard! I gathered all the tips I've learned over my gardening learning curve and made them into a simple course to jump start your gardening your life.
Supporting Your Family Naturally From the Inside Out community!! This community is for the Mommas, looking to Support Your Family from Nature for Wellness. Tips range from nutrition, herbals, detoxing, natural cleaning, and essential oils. Basically all the things I’ve learned slowly over the past 5+ years if my journey. We have moved off Facebook, so to better serve our community and be able to discuss openly option for providing for your family in the best way possible.
Join the FREE Community
Join the FREE Community
I've had 3 very different pregnancies. After the first traumatic birth, I learned better and how to care for my body naturally and prevent common pregnancy and birth problems before they arise. This quick course will get you the tools you need to have a naturally healthy pregnancy, labor, and delivery. My first pregnancy I had a normal western medicine all the things pregnancy. My second? I flipped to completely natural, no medicine. Bonus: Preventing Preeclampsia Without the Aspirin & Healing from Birth Trauma
Click here to get the stories straight to your email:
For more on wellness tips click here:
For more on homesteading on your budget click here:
For more simple DIY updates click here:
Support animals are animals that don’t directly feed you or your family but help you to care for the animals that do or help you to care for those animals. The goal of any homestead or farmstead is to have all the animals integrated into a system that works together to support each other. For example, the horses don’t feed my family directly, but they produce the fertilizer for the garden and help move the cows around, which do feed my family. So how do you feed them all? Let's take a look!
Bees
These could be debated as a support animal because they do feed my family with the honey they produce. However, they mostly feed themselves and help with pollination in my garden and orchard. The biggest thing with bees is making sure they have water, ideally close, bees will fly 2 miles for resources. However, I want them drinking from my water, not the pivots around us. I usually just leave a board in the closest pool/water tank, and they quickly learn to get water from there. Really this water is then watering multiple livestock.
As far as feeding the bees, going into winter you want to make sure they have 2 deep boxes full of honey, in Nebraska. I then put an emergency feed of sugar, sprayed with water to crust it over, on top of the last box. This is because I may not be able to get into the hive and check the bees for 2 months because it is so cold.
Horses
Horses need forage, ideally 20 hours a day. Grass pasture is ideal, but not always accessible. Most horses will do fine with good grass hay, just be aware of mold in the bales. Older horses will need more special feed (you can read more on that in my blog Caring for Your Senior Horse). If more protein is needed, alfalfa can also be fed. Also have a salt block available (iodized if you are in an iodine deficient zone).
Many people feed their horse grain. There are so many options there and will depend on the age and workload of your horse. My horses’ work is light and are easy keepers. They get prairie hay and some oats to deliver their vitamin/mineral supplement. Whole oats are usually an easy and safe option for most horses.
Dogs
Dogs need some kind of food, unless you want them feeding themselves with the chickens. A good farm dog may run free on the property and not need a lot of actual dog food, if they are catching rabbits. However, it is good to have it available for them. Growing up my dogs were free fed from a communal bow. The bowl of food was filled once a day and they at as they felt and shared. Now? I have 4 very different dogs, with very different needs (blue heeler to great Pyrenees). I cannot leave a bowl of food out all day, as the blue heeler would eat herself to death. I do still feed them all together, but in their separate bowls.
The easiest way to feed them is to get them some dog food from your local farm/feed store. You will need to pay attention to the protein amount, as many feeds do not have enough protein for working active dogs. You can feed dogs the scraps of food from the kitchen, and if you have a milk cow or make your own cheese, they love the whey. Our dogs also get other animal organs once a week to stretch the dog food.
I do strongly recommend communal feeding, especially if you have more than one working dog. Dogs that eat together as a pack, work together as a pack. You can retrain them even if they haven’t been eating together. Start with their own bowls and slowly move the bowls closer together. If anyone growls, they lose their food and are sent away from the food circle. There will be days a dog will go hungry, but they very quickly learn to eat together. My dogs now eat all with bowls touching, and the fighting has greatly decreased.
Cats
News flash, barn cats can survive on dog food. I know, send me the hate mail now, but here me out. The main difference between cat and dog food is most dog foods don’t have taurine, and definitely not enough to meet a cat’s needs. Dog food also tends to be lower in arachidonic acid, niacin, and vitamin A than cats need. Here’s the thing, if your barn cats are doing their job, hunting mice and small rodents), they are going to get those nutrients.
The key with barn cats is to feed them some, enough to keep them around, but not enough that they don’t want to go hunting for the mice around the barns. Also only feed them in the morning or early afternoon, so the food is cleaned up before evening when the opossums come out.
Feeding your support partners doesn't have to be complicated. There are a few things to keep in mind though to make sure everyone stays healthy.
As I've grown in my journey as an entrepreneur, mom, gardener, and livestock owner, I struggled to find a planner that met my needs and kept me organized. So, I MADE MY OWN. You can take a look at it on the link blow and buy it on amazon below:
Don't want the whole calendar part? I got you! I pulled the gardening and animal care pages out and put them in a book all their own.
Wanting a community to lean into? Join the FREE Helping Your Family Homestead for Food group! This community is for the Mommas, looking to stay home and raise their kids, but unsure how to keep everyone fed and make ends meet. I share tips from my journey from the office, to half the income and feeding my family from home, while maintaining good nourishing food. Tips include: gardening, bulk buying, caning,/preserving, livestock, homesteading, and home remedies. Your family is precious and this group is to help you gain the knowledge and tools to keep your family well and not reliant on outside professionals. Remedies and tips are easy and simple for the busy momma, time is precious after all, including pregnancy, birth, young kids, and illness. Trust your Momma gut again! This community offers the resources + community you need to help get started on your journey and prepare for whatever future you envision.
Starting to garden doesn't have to be hard! I gathered all the tips I've learned over my gardening learning curve and made them into a simple course to jump start your gardening your life.
Supporting Your Family Naturally From the Inside Out community!! This community is for the Mommas, looking to Support Your Family from Nature for Wellness. Tips range from nutrition, herbals, detoxing, natural cleaning, and essential oils. Basically all the things I’ve learned slowly over the past 5+ years if my journey. We have moved off Facebook, so to better serve our community and be able to discuss openly option for providing for your family in the best way possible.
Join the FREE Community
Join the FREE Community
I've had 3 very different pregnancies. After the first traumatic birth, I learned better and how to care for my body naturally and prevent common pregnancy and birth problems before they arise. This quick course will get you the tools you need to have a naturally healthy pregnancy, labor, and delivery. My first pregnancy I had a normal western medicine all the things pregnancy. My second? I flipped to completely natural, no medicine. Bonus: Preventing Preeclampsia Without the Aspirin & Healing from Birth Trauma
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Let's talk about the nasties with pets, fleas and ticks. Typically I have given our dogs bravecto or frontline. The ticks are nasty around our house, and the flies eat the dog’s ears raw every summer. The dogs try to hide from the flies and are constantly scratching at their ears. I’ve tried baby oil on their ears in the past and even sprayed them with the horse’s fly spray to give them some relief. The baby oil worked the best, as long as it was wet, but as soon as it was dry the flies were back. My daughter loves to hang out with the dogs and loves them, but I realized I don’t want to apply anything to dogs that I don’t want her to get on her. Which meant I needed a new dog pest control plan.
We already use fly predators for the stable flies, which helps immensely for the horses. I also plan on getting guineas and other birds this summer to further take care of bugs around our house, without having to apply chemicals. My kids love to be outside, so I don’t want to have to worry about what has been applied to the yard that they will be running barefoot through.
This year I decided to try something different. Something that would hopefully prevent the problem from ever starting. I went searching and found spray for the pesky flies, that like to eat the dog’s ears, and a dropper for the fleas and ticks. The dropper I applied it like you would frontline, down their back, starting at the end of April. I did a slow jumpstart of sorts for both dogs, applying it every couple days for a week, then once a week, then once a month (I’ll adjust if needed as the summer progresses). So far the dropper has been working to keep the ticks at bay and I really haven’t noticed the flies yet. The best part is it doesn’t matter if my two little kids are climbing and petting the dogs right after, because any of these oils are safe for my kids when they are pure.
Spray Dropper
4 oz Bottle 2 oz Dropper bottle
4 drops Purification 9 drops Palo Santo
4 drops Citronella 6 drops Peppermint
1 drops Cedarwood 6 drops Citronella
2 drops Palo Santo
1 drop Thyme
Top with water and gently shake before each use.
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