Long leaf pine trees, once growing all over the east Texas area, were logged out over about a 100 years of logging. It takes 100 to 150 years for this tree to fully mature. They grow about 300 years. Here at Sabine River Homestead we have dedicated several acres to replanting long leaf pine trees to help reestablish them in this area. We are working with the Texas State Forest Service and the federal agency Natural Resource Conservation Service to help with the ecosystems of East Texas by participating in the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program. If you would like to help, we need a small amount of money, tools and labor to get the planting done in the coming months of November and December of 2010 and January 2011, as well as maintaining the trees after planting. To help you can call 409-625-3641 or send a check to:
Sabine River Homestead
P.O. Box 5
Hemphill Texas 75948
Thank You All For Your Help Making A Better World
You can see more info about Long Leaf Pine Trees here, or by Googling Long Leaf Pine Trees.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
The Dream For Sabine River Homestead
I have dreamed of having a homestead for over 35 years, and back then I wanted just my homestead for my family and I, but over the years I have come to realize the importance of working together and sharing, what we have learned , and giving the opportunity to others to learn from what we have. For we have learned from others and its up to us to give that opportunity to others too. It has taken a lot of time, hard work and money to get to the point of having this place and it being payed off, but nothing worth anything comes easy and if it did, would not be as cared about.
I wish to set this place up as a sustainable eco-agriculture homestead for teaching and learning. A place to show others how they can set up their homestead through agri-tourism, educational tours, u-pick operations, farm store, agricultural festivals as well as bed and breakfast opportunities in cabins, tipis or yurts.
Teaching "back to basics" like training oxen, farming with oxen, pottery, raising livestock, tanning and taxidermy, blacksmithing, cooking and canning, arts and crafts, soap making, cheese making, carpentry, boats and kayak building, wilderness survival, butchering and preserving meat and a lot more.
I would like this place to be the focal point for the intentional community set up here and nearby, giving those working and living here the security of a stable lifestyle that a homestead should provide. A place producing what it needs and buying what it can't produce with money made from what we make and sell. There are lots of opportunities here with the Sabine National Forest here and Toledo Bend Reservoir, which is almost 80 miles long and 3 to 5 miles wide , with its great fishing.
Because this is not just about me , I'm hoping that people wishing to be part of this will put in their ideas. With their help there's lots of possibilities. One of them could be a horse Trail ride into the Sabine National Forest, as well horse stables. The possibilities are endless. We just need people wishing to be a part of it all.
I wish to set this place up as a sustainable eco-agriculture homestead for teaching and learning. A place to show others how they can set up their homestead through agri-tourism, educational tours, u-pick operations, farm store, agricultural festivals as well as bed and breakfast opportunities in cabins, tipis or yurts.
Teaching "back to basics" like training oxen, farming with oxen, pottery, raising livestock, tanning and taxidermy, blacksmithing, cooking and canning, arts and crafts, soap making, cheese making, carpentry, boats and kayak building, wilderness survival, butchering and preserving meat and a lot more.
I would like this place to be the focal point for the intentional community set up here and nearby, giving those working and living here the security of a stable lifestyle that a homestead should provide. A place producing what it needs and buying what it can't produce with money made from what we make and sell. There are lots of opportunities here with the Sabine National Forest here and Toledo Bend Reservoir, which is almost 80 miles long and 3 to 5 miles wide , with its great fishing.
Because this is not just about me , I'm hoping that people wishing to be part of this will put in their ideas. With their help there's lots of possibilities. One of them could be a horse Trail ride into the Sabine National Forest, as well horse stables. The possibilities are endless. We just need people wishing to be a part of it all.
Friday, August 27, 2010
A Little About Me , Mike
I was born in a little town in central Texas where my grandparents lived. My dad worked as an electronics engineer in the aerospace industry at that time for Texas Instruments. We lived in Dallas Texas. Later we moved to Arizona where in the same field of work, he worked for Goodyear, and I got to ride in the Good year Blimp at the air show there with the Blue Angels where performing in their jets. I guess I was about 8 and my parents got my brother, sister and me some Dutch rabbits and with the heat there my dad built a shed off the side of the house and put in a swamp cooler, and this was just the start of my animal raising. Then we moved to the foothills of Los Angeles, California to little towns called San Dimas and Glendora, where my dad worked for General Dynamics and I raised chickens and some Bob White Quail I brought back from Texas on the Jet from visiting my grand parents in central Texas.
Because my dad's work in aerospace at the time was about designing bombs for the Vietnam war, my dad left that job and we moved to Monterrey County, Calif., where I raised chickens too and worked at a poultry farm veggie stand where we sold feed too. At the poultry farm I learned a lot about chickens, feeds, egg processing, vegetable production and sales to the public. I went to School at Carmel High School where i had some great teachers , no they didn't teach me to spell but more importantly things like wilderness survival, photography and lots more. Some of those teachers where Ralf Kall, Peter Loins and Jack Savage, who had people like Ansel Adams and Edward Weston come to our photo class to help teach use photography. After that job at the poultry ranch I started working in the really nice restaurants of Carmel. One of them was Clint Eastwood's. Here again I learned a lot; about food, serving the public, food safety and the restaurant business.
But after many years I got tired of being inside all the time. I got a job as a carpenters helper on multi-million dollar custom homes. At the same time I was care taking ranch and hobby farms for a place to live and learn more about it and raising my own chickens, garden and dairy goats. This was on the beautiful Big Sur rugged coast of central California, where I lived on Partington Ridge. One of the ranches I helped out on was Al Jarden's , one of the Beach Boys.
One summer we had some bad forest fires and had to be evacuated, but they stopped the fire before it got to our houses and cabin. About 20 families lived on that ridge. After that the rains came and it rained and rained, then the mountain gave way and a mud slide closed the highway to the south, then another mud slide came down on the north side of us. The highway department worked to reopen it , but as they worked on it, a bigger slide came down the mountain, taking the D9 Caterpillar and its driver over the road and off a 1000 foot cliff to the ocean beach below. It took the highway department a year to move, repair and reopen the highway. During that time we either had to hike over the slide to get out, and every 2 weeks Air National Guard would fly us supplies in and give us rides. I lived there for over 15 years, most of it in my little cabin in the red wood forest canyon just below the ridge and most of that time without electricity.
Over the years I saved my construction money and put that money down on 120 acres I found on a salmon/steelhead fishing trip to the rugged south western coast of Oregon. There I set up my homestead, worked at a feed store, did some carpentry for people and was a caretaker of other people's land and animals too. The property I got had been logged off and needed replanting, so in a 3 month period, I planted 12,200 fir trees in the rain and snow. I lived there for about 6 years where I was married with my wife, than she ran off with a friend that was the building inspector there. We where divorced and shortly after that I got a phone call from my grand mother. She told me that my dad wanted her to move to the rest home, that she needed help, and she didn't want to be in a rest home. So for all my grandparents had done for me in spending their time with us kids, I felt that I should help, so I sold my place and moved to the flat land of Texas.
What a shock. From the wilds of the Oregon forest to living in a hot brushy area of central Texas in a town. I took care of her for almost 9 years so she could live out her life in her home. I got 10 acres outside of town to have a place to go between helping her and making her meals, that I could raise some chickens, a nice garden and, yes, dairy goats. When there I also stopped a federally funded airport from being built on some of the valuable farm land there, when they already had a nice airport that had worked out for the people there for many years and would for many more. I also helped organize a 3-D archery club and course that is going strong today. I also was a care taker there of a 375-acre cattle and high fence deer ranch, as well as helped caretake another exotics hunting ranch, where I was Ted Nugent's guide and tracker for 5 days of hunting and filming for his hunting show, "Spirit of the Wild." To you, Ted!
At 96 my grandmother had a stroke and shortly after, died. So I sold my land over there and found this place in east Texas Piney Woods, Sabine National Forest and an eighty-mile lake Toledo Bend where I could kayak all I wanted to. Land was a very low price. I got 14 acres, a barn, pond and a 4 bedroom brick house for $69,000, with the mineral rights. Sounded good to me, so here I am and I have since gotten 4 more properties around here, and one on the water in a protective cove. In the cove, when kayaking, I have seen a momma river otter and her 3 babies, some beavers and eagles, and have caught big bass and catfish that were 36 pounds. It's a wild beautiful paradise. Sorry about the spelling. Got lots of work to do so I'll have to come back some time and fix it, or you could stop by and help me with it and have a glass of ice tea on the porch.
Thank You'All
Mike
[Editor's Note: I've fixed the spelling, but there is still iced tea and a porch.]
Because my dad's work in aerospace at the time was about designing bombs for the Vietnam war, my dad left that job and we moved to Monterrey County, Calif., where I raised chickens too and worked at a poultry farm veggie stand where we sold feed too. At the poultry farm I learned a lot about chickens, feeds, egg processing, vegetable production and sales to the public. I went to School at Carmel High School where i had some great teachers , no they didn't teach me to spell but more importantly things like wilderness survival, photography and lots more. Some of those teachers where Ralf Kall, Peter Loins and Jack Savage, who had people like Ansel Adams and Edward Weston come to our photo class to help teach use photography. After that job at the poultry ranch I started working in the really nice restaurants of Carmel. One of them was Clint Eastwood's. Here again I learned a lot; about food, serving the public, food safety and the restaurant business.
But after many years I got tired of being inside all the time. I got a job as a carpenters helper on multi-million dollar custom homes. At the same time I was care taking ranch and hobby farms for a place to live and learn more about it and raising my own chickens, garden and dairy goats. This was on the beautiful Big Sur rugged coast of central California, where I lived on Partington Ridge. One of the ranches I helped out on was Al Jarden's , one of the Beach Boys.
One summer we had some bad forest fires and had to be evacuated, but they stopped the fire before it got to our houses and cabin. About 20 families lived on that ridge. After that the rains came and it rained and rained, then the mountain gave way and a mud slide closed the highway to the south, then another mud slide came down on the north side of us. The highway department worked to reopen it , but as they worked on it, a bigger slide came down the mountain, taking the D9 Caterpillar and its driver over the road and off a 1000 foot cliff to the ocean beach below. It took the highway department a year to move, repair and reopen the highway. During that time we either had to hike over the slide to get out, and every 2 weeks Air National Guard would fly us supplies in and give us rides. I lived there for over 15 years, most of it in my little cabin in the red wood forest canyon just below the ridge and most of that time without electricity.
Over the years I saved my construction money and put that money down on 120 acres I found on a salmon/steelhead fishing trip to the rugged south western coast of Oregon. There I set up my homestead, worked at a feed store, did some carpentry for people and was a caretaker of other people's land and animals too. The property I got had been logged off and needed replanting, so in a 3 month period, I planted 12,200 fir trees in the rain and snow. I lived there for about 6 years where I was married with my wife, than she ran off with a friend that was the building inspector there. We where divorced and shortly after that I got a phone call from my grand mother. She told me that my dad wanted her to move to the rest home, that she needed help, and she didn't want to be in a rest home. So for all my grandparents had done for me in spending their time with us kids, I felt that I should help, so I sold my place and moved to the flat land of Texas.
What a shock. From the wilds of the Oregon forest to living in a hot brushy area of central Texas in a town. I took care of her for almost 9 years so she could live out her life in her home. I got 10 acres outside of town to have a place to go between helping her and making her meals, that I could raise some chickens, a nice garden and, yes, dairy goats. When there I also stopped a federally funded airport from being built on some of the valuable farm land there, when they already had a nice airport that had worked out for the people there for many years and would for many more. I also helped organize a 3-D archery club and course that is going strong today. I also was a care taker there of a 375-acre cattle and high fence deer ranch, as well as helped caretake another exotics hunting ranch, where I was Ted Nugent's guide and tracker for 5 days of hunting and filming for his hunting show, "Spirit of the Wild." To you, Ted!
At 96 my grandmother had a stroke and shortly after, died. So I sold my land over there and found this place in east Texas Piney Woods, Sabine National Forest and an eighty-mile lake Toledo Bend where I could kayak all I wanted to. Land was a very low price. I got 14 acres, a barn, pond and a 4 bedroom brick house for $69,000, with the mineral rights. Sounded good to me, so here I am and I have since gotten 4 more properties around here, and one on the water in a protective cove. In the cove, when kayaking, I have seen a momma river otter and her 3 babies, some beavers and eagles, and have caught big bass and catfish that were 36 pounds. It's a wild beautiful paradise. Sorry about the spelling. Got lots of work to do so I'll have to come back some time and fix it, or you could stop by and help me with it and have a glass of ice tea on the porch.
Thank You'All
Mike
[Editor's Note: I've fixed the spelling, but there is still iced tea and a porch.]
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
What Is The Modern Homesteading Lifestyle For ?
This is a question that covers past, present and future. It's about working together for all those living on and around the homestead and their security, of food, living space, kids, grandparents, jobs, water, fuel, you and your partner and the savings associated with working together, Like the dumbness of sending your kids to day care to be taught by other who knows what and sending your grandparents to the rest home to be treated badly too. It would be smarter to have the grandparents living on the homestead in there little cabin or just down the street and having the kids and the grandparents taking care of each other when you're working on or off the homestead. Then there's the help making meals and the savings that come from the fact that it takes almost as much time and energy to make a meal for 1 or 2 as it does for 6 and is much more fun eating together. Growing a garden is a lot better too. The grandparents cant do all the digging , but there are lots of weeding and watering that they can do , especially if you find ways to make it easier, like dip irrigation, a seat with big wheels that can go down the rows for weeding. The list of reasons for homesteading will grow as you start thinking in this way and living this way. When you're the grandparents farther down the road, you will be a lot happier there than in the rest home. There on the homestead you will get to see your grand kids growing up and helping you do the watering and weeding .
Monday, June 14, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Save the World Train Oxen And Sell Your Tractor
Stop the madness of easy, couch potato homesteading, and dreaming about a little house on the prairie, where you can live the same way you did in the city, getting fatter, lazier, less healthy and then handicapped. The Homesteaders life style is all about the opposite. Making your dream of little house on the prairie come true, and though your dream tricking you and your loved ones into better health , caring for All - each other - your live stock - your grandparents - your neighbors - your county - your country - the Earth... It's about living on less and making more of what you need and when you do need to buy some thing , buy it locally- or nationally-made , that's caring , caring that your neighbors or countrymen and women have a job.
OXEN are better for your homestead. You can get 2 at a dairy or action for about $110. Bottle feed the calves, and if you don't have milk goats to feed them your own milk, 2 bags of milk replacer will cost you about $130. In a year you will be doing light work with them. The fun you and your family will have raising them and training them , will last a lifetime in all your minds. For less then 500 dollars you can plow your garden and pull fire wood from the forest. A tractor is $20,000. Go to YouTube look up oxen plowing. Google oxen; there are books, videos and classes on doing it. And ask yourself how many carrots or what ever will you have to grow to pay off that $20,000 for a tractor. Ask, do you wish to keep being a slave to the bank, tractor repair and the gas station?
What comes out the back end of an ox will grow some great veggies, but what comes out of the exhaust pipe of the tractor will not.
OXEN are better for your homestead. You can get 2 at a dairy or action for about $110. Bottle feed the calves, and if you don't have milk goats to feed them your own milk, 2 bags of milk replacer will cost you about $130. In a year you will be doing light work with them. The fun you and your family will have raising them and training them , will last a lifetime in all your minds. For less then 500 dollars you can plow your garden and pull fire wood from the forest. A tractor is $20,000. Go to YouTube look up oxen plowing. Google oxen; there are books, videos and classes on doing it. And ask yourself how many carrots or what ever will you have to grow to pay off that $20,000 for a tractor. Ask, do you wish to keep being a slave to the bank, tractor repair and the gas station?
What comes out the back end of an ox will grow some great veggies, but what comes out of the exhaust pipe of the tractor will not.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
The Goats and Calves
The lady called from the dairy and said she would have more calves in June, so some time this month training will start on the Oxen. The 5 momma goats have had 10 babies so far. One more momma to go and so far 6 are baby girls . Hopefully some one will help me get those photos out of the camera and on here for you all to see all that's going on here. The garden is really looking good. Eating fresh veggies out of it and canned some dill pickles the other day.
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