I live in a small town as well Mike. Just a blinking light. There are hardly any young people living in this area and as you drive down the road you notice just about everyone has some kind of garden. Traverse City is about 15 miles away. The main food bank there is busy all year long and admittedly the shut down in Michigan was much stricter than a lot of other places but I think we were shut own on March 23 and by the first week in April the bank was on TV begging for donations. The point being that most people cannot provide for themselves for much longer than a week before they get desperate. I donāt think the government is ever working in my best interest but when they start recommending you have at least three weeks stored food and water there is something up. Crops were lost on millions of acres of farm land in Iowa and other heartland states earlier this month. Millions of tons of grain rotted in storage this spring. Thatās not a conspiracy theory. The hurricanes that are hitting the gulf coast right now may be mostly affecting energy production but turn them east where all the pesticide vegetables are grown and shipped around the country and the same holds true if some natural disaster were to hit the valleys in Cal. These storms and events are happening all the time now, one after another. Millions of calves and cows destroyed by the floods up and down the Mississippi last year. You can probably tell this subject in important to me. Out of many contacts in the homesteading world I only know four people that are totally food self sufficient and it took them a long time and a lot of money to get there. Iām certainly not one of them.
Nice fence Mr Gibb. It would stop deer but it wouldnāt stop coon. I pretty much quit trying to grow corn.
Home growing for any portion of your food does reward with a big āEā for effort.
True: that you do not have to be self-sufficient on all foods. Nearly no ones climate can support that; let alone all of the continuous working.
Wife and I practice a modified version of the Mormon Four as a base. Rice and dried beans instead of their wheat. We can actually grow the beans. And dry IF I use woodheating. Rice is one of the BART four legs. Tolerated by almost everyone.
We carry over from the elders annual what we can grow, seasonally buy, preserve. Freezing for us versus their mostly heat-jars canning.
A ground shaker event make a real mess of shelfs of glass canning jars! The food freezers just jump around a bit and keep working.
The electrical power for these food freezers; water pumping is the priority.
IF we had the year around solar. Iād go big on PV and batteries. We do not.
IF we had the continues predictable, controllable Winds, or year around water flow, Iād go that way.
Nope got trees. Got tree limbs galore. Got brush. Solid fuel Solar energy.
In the past this was kitchen wood burning stove used for heat preserving glass jar foods canning. And we still do have the 1000+ family canning jars. Then you do need the once-use lid caps. Only a very few are the oldest glass dome tops with the captive metal spring retainers using the old red rubber sealing rings.
I bought Tattler reusables for a few hundred, ever come the need.
Three of the current modern dark-hole controlling factors is the insistence to go strictly Vegan, Vegetarian, and always certified Organic.
Yep. Our home free range chicken do make us dependent on bought out animals foods.
Doesnāt have to be. Fall bugs and green growing done you then āharvestā the majority of the chickens and freeze store them for once a week stretched meats.
Keep a base flock to two roosters and the proven brooder hens over-winter to multi-birth out the following Spring.
In reality in true in all-fall-down historic situations you simplify, simplify, simplify.
It is near impossible to do this simplifying when all is Right, Flush, and Cheaply offered.
We; like the carried over particular chickens, breeding stock cows, etc. just must prove your worth. No different than you select out the best of seeds for re-planting.
Social stress situations does this humans weeding out. The too-sad emotionally weak as going first.
The immoral brutes getting knocked off too, sooner or later, by the social cooperative middle grounders.
S.U.
Thanks, we keep that one. We tried food, was the best stuff to consume! Right from the garden to the table! Very nice (excellent) feeling. Tried meat to, went to a forum meeting several years ago. They slaughtered some rabbits. No way I am going to do that, way to soft, sorry. My wife said, we buy a calf and later we have meat. I said no, off course not. After a few years we have a cattle and still no meat! Hypocrite, for sure. Chickens are still on the list. Bring them to butcher and get meat back. These times show that that is important. Food is mostly from the supermarket, all bio but from the supermarket. No supply , no food. But I donāt have green fingers. Raised beds, or whatever construction, yes. But no thinking after my daily work. Give me orders and I will do it, but donāt ask what to plant on what time. Apple, peer, walnut trees and so on need little attention. Part of permaculture, yes that works. Very nice to see what you are doing Kr.
Year round? The good life from Helen and Scott Nearing was my bible. The first time I read it, I was halfway and realized that they lived a hundred years ago! Impressive! And only worked 4 hours a day. I have to do clock round and not enough. To old for that. After 40 decay starts, now over 50 and it is a free fall. Aiai. Anyway, enjoying free food from the garden. Not enough but it is something.
For the moment concentrating on energy. Solar is super, only not in winter. Just found a charger that uses only surplus of electricity. The EV will be charged just with solarpower! Next step is that generator on solargas. Charcoal, and the residu from making that will go in the garden. Just find some time.
You have mentioned your growing season a couple times, Steve. Curious about what area you are living in. We do a lot and thatās a real understatement, of pressure canning. The area we live in is geologically stable so I donāt worry about them breaking but you are right. It is a necessary consideration. I think Dairy goats and chickens would be good animals to keep. Iāve just never wanted to be responsible for more than dogs. I know people whoās whole life centers around breeding, doctoring, growing feed and butchering livestock. Way more than I ever want to try. Iām not a vegetarian. I eat all kinds of dairy, and eggs. I just donāt eat flesh. We grow organic and try and buy organic, though I donāt really trust big produce companies claims of organic certification. Not even sure how that certification is done or monitored. If push came to shove though Iād eat the ass out of a goat.
TomH,
WE live in in SW Washington State in the foothills beginnings up slope of the Cascade Mountains. Pacific ocean maritime. With a Goldilocks 6-8 week drought July and August.
Here it is long north south altitude directed bands of class 3 to 4 growing.
Want the good field corn? Just go 15 miles down into the lower Columbia River basin climate. Growing zone class 5, 6 and even 7.
We do (barely) with a hybrid 63 day corn. Ate out first fresh last night.
As hard a problem as the short frost to frost is the 30% ground volume in round glacial dropped rocks.
Once you do de-rock some and dirt bring in to get above the 250 feet stack of rocks mix then you do not 3 year ground rotate to starve out the accumulated bugs and viruses.
I can grow potatoes
IF I chemically near daily under leaf dust for blight.
Tomatoes and heat-days loving peppers we can barely get maybe once in five years.
And now again with a young vigorous wild rabbit killing dog we are getting more of the cabbages.
KristtijanL,
Yes on the chickens. The 50% hatching out as roosters will very young start to fight and be obnoxious rapists and the Sheās in your life will demand you do something. Food freezer meat. The guts and feathers good for nitrogen garden soil enrichening.
We did have Muscovy ducks. They were no-quack quiet. And much better year around foragers. But the hens were much more able to fly and harvest the garden. Actually dangerous arriving home and being greeted by flying hen ducks wanting their daily āfreeā seed fixes. They were the plant eating slugs abatement. They would strip the blueberry bushes while the berries were still green.
With the ground scratching chickens we are nearly bug free. Wife has had to convert to hanging flower baskets.
Bad, bad bugs areas a person should get Guinea fowl. They are the best for that.
Terrible photos above as with a handheld laptop. I tried to crop out the now close adjacent westside neighbors.
We have now 10 neighbors wrapping around our remain 5 acres. Two of the newest and youngest now home gardening too. We advise. And produce exchange with them.
And learn to from their many optimistic; try-itās.
One, a hobby home beer brewer, is growing four climbing tall hops plants.
Never seen that here before.
Area properties do OK with northern climate white wine grapes. No till. And they are not bothered by rock and stones. Challenged. Just like our native trees.
Regards
Steve Unruh
Iām on a peninsula that juts out into Lake Michigan. The water moderates our climate enough that we can get a 120 day season and sometimes up to three weeks more but I donāt count on it. My property borders a big swamp and I had to carve the garden area out of a long slope. Itās not a good location because itās about a hundred and fifty feet lower than the hill my house is on and it is a bad micro-climate. I seldom get fruit out of my trees because frost tends to settle in that area after it is OK higher. Itās the only area I have that is clear of trees though. The four people I mention that were totally food self sufficient have multiple hoop houses and live in places like NC and Georgia. Not my kind of climate. Iād love to have a large hoop house like them but not down in my meadow where my garden is now. If the lake levels rise anymore, which Iām pretty sure they will, that area will be under water. But I do have a greenhouse and like to experiment with just what is possible for year round growth in there.
This area is hilly like the view behind your garage. I hate flat land.
Steve, l have mixed thods on that. For some reason l have never had a rooster fighting problem. I usualy have about 5 adult roosters just for ornamental reasons, and l currently have 15 with 10 young hens! They do their neck feather erected dance towards each other from time to time but it usualy ends there. Allso it seems mating is only alowed to the oldest 3 of them, a white Sussex rooster, a dwarf hibrid and a real dwarf fooster. The latest is hilarious, about the size of a pigeon, sneaking on a hen when the big guys aint looking 
Seems they established a good pecking order.
Culd be the breed allso?
A nother great thing to do is to capoonise young chicks. Capoons will have no sexual instinct and most importantly, they grow much larger, fatyer and tastyer
Agree on ducs and guineas!
The versitility of a pickup is unlimited! This was not shot in Asia l swear
Haha! One more straw and you will get top heavy enough to roll down the hill
Yes, but there is some room in front too. Enough for another pile.
Same-same low frost pocketing here TomH.
I did try to garden down in the deep fines soil ~8-10 feet lower in our annual flooding drainage ditch. Where born-in-Germany Wifeās Grandma used to grow her cow fodder beets.
Lost 15 days in June and late Aug/early Sept to cold settled air frosts.
Oh well.
We each do what we learn we must do, eh.
Regards
Steve Unruh
Oh this is actually a 1.5 x 5 mile intermountain valley. Near 1000 feet on the valley floor. The local mountains 2200-4100 feet. The near Columbia River basin is tidal 50 feet to at most 500 feet. Were I āflatlanderā actually grew up. Clay soils. They fog a lot down there. But can actually grow and tree ripen even peaches most years.
Its hard to tell what is going on in those pictures. It looks like the roof is racking. Is the only connection between the roofs ridge beam and the rest of the structure (with the exception of the end-walls) that one post that you have a chain on?
no south wall , staircase to south , east west walls standing . north wall leaning to north , whole roof is heading north and seems to push more to north the more I try to push or pull roof back south . It has been like this for years . just want this part of building to cover stairs . to the north is concrete pad covered in sod and trees . I could extend building or shorten it . I do not know what is holding it up , just bent broken lumber and too many layers of roof .
I am having a hard time following you, and the pictures do not provide the full picture. But, what it looks like is that the roof was built without any bracing to provide shear strength. There needs to be something to prevent the ridgebeam from being able to head North, which seems is where it wants to go. That could be diagonal bracing on the underside of the rafters from the peak down to the top plate of the wall; or diagonal braces from the ridge beam at the north and south walls down to the centerline of the building somewhere. You could add those in, but you are going to lock in any lean that cant be winched out ahead of time. Really, those rafter could also stand to have some collar ties on there.
As to what is holding it up, if I am understanding right, is that whatever provides shear to the east and west walls is what is holding this thing together. What it would really like to do is lean far enough north that the walls lay themselves down south-north, which would free the rafter ends, and let the roof flatten itself on top of the ruined walls. I am guessing there is no plywood anywhere in this structure, so the shear is provided by the siding and paneling, and any braces that were included in the walls. But, judging from the roof, the builder was maybe not big on bracing.
If it was my barn, and I absolutely needed to keep it intact, I would:
- Try and figure out why it leans North - is the foundation still sound?
- Try and winch the walls and roof back to being somewhat plumb. (As you have discovered, this is not likely to actually work)
- Liberally apply bracing to the roof.
- Carefully remove any paneling on the inside of the wall studs in small sections, and put up plywood as I went.
I of course might change my mind if I saw it in person, so dont put too much stock in my free advice. 
I have always kind of wanted to burn my old cabin down during a big rain storm, but your barn would make a much bigger bonfire.
So on the north side of barn support beam had deteriorated and I put in a tree and jacked up one side of barn six inches higher then the other side and then cut off a bolt holding two buildings together "Bing-bing-bing! Ricochet Rabbit
How I loved that cartoon on a Saturday morning. Thanks for the reminder. 
The more I hear, the less I like it. Do be careful, and try not to crush yourself.
We have an average of two hours of sun per day. Not enough to justify solar unless one is off grid as I am. I only have 1kW of panels and would like 2-3kW total. I have eight 420Ah batteries which is enough to last us 1- 1.5 days in the summer. In our winter where weāll receive -30 to -40F temperatures we lose half of our battery capacity. Nov through Dec we may have a week total of sun. Anyday we get a sunny day saves money on diesel to keep our batteries charged. Someday when Iām done building necessary buildings, I will be back into wood gas. I have enough materials to build a few gasifiers if needed. Even though I have a wood gasifier built already, I will build a charcoal gasifier to charge my battery bank. Once I succeed, I will bring my mini WK in the garage and go through it and bring it back to as new as possible. I am curious to see how well the nickel plating has prolonged the life of the gasifier. Iām not a fan of having to rely on diesel for my power but right now itās necessary. I take comfort in knowing Iāve ran an engine on wood and when Iām ready to have a go at it again, I have a support group here on DOW to remind me of things I may have forgotten and learn a few new things.
Self sufficient? Not hardly. I feel a lot more sufficient than I was when I lived in the city 5 years ago. I have a head full of ideas and I just need time. Iāve finished my garage last winter and now putting in a floor. Right now Iām cutting doors in my shipping containers so I can access them from inside of the garage. This will allow me to store tools and material in the containers and keep my 20āx26 garage free of clutter to have room to work.
Living in zone 3 as Steve has mentioned is tough to grow/raise food. Freezers cost money to keep running so I will finish my root cellar to store veggies. We are learning how to can our veggies, spaghetti sauce and V8 juice. I found out I need to raise above ground veggies in a greenhouse. Root vegetables do well outside. We have 7 chickens, 6 turkeys and 4 pigs. The birds I will keep, I will keep(freeze) 1 pig and the other 3 are going to people Iām raising them for. The 3 pigs pay for our pig, processed and packaged. Right now we are able to make enough maple and birch syrup to make us enough money to live without debt. Iām learning and hopefully someday itāll all come together.
Itās a real good idea not to have all your tools and supplies in one space. Itās a bad feeling when you stand and watch fifty years of accumulated and often very expensive tools go up in flames. Everything I build now is concrete and steel.
Iād be real interested is knowing more about your power system. What kind of batteries and how you charge them. My climate is much better than zone 3 but we still get very little sun for a large part of the year because of the cloud cover generated by living near the Great Lakes. I have done quite a bit of what you would call alternative growing. Be happy to swap stories.