Building Soil to Regenerate an Old Pasture with Hay

The soil conditions are so poor on this old pasture that cover crops are not helping as they can't get enough nutrients and moisture to grow. To solve this problem, my wife and I spread hay to add carbon and organic material to the soil and to act as a mulch to aid in germination of rye and buckwheat. We'll follow this up with the addition of several head of livestock to manure the ground and spread nutrients. It's going to be at least a three year intensive process followed by many more years of regenerative practices to help my sister bring this farm back to it's former productive glory.
Welcome to our self reliant homestead! Join us, Shawn and Dervla, as we create a resilient, abundant and sustainable ecosystem that feeds our families from the land in Ontario Canada. Using permaculture as our guide, we strive to become independent in water, food, energy and shelter, focused on beauty in form and efficiency in function.
Our Self Reliance is a life of compromise between my two daughters and my wife's preference for culture, comfort and formality, and I, with my love of chaotic and beautiful but challenging and often uncomfortable wilderness living. The resulting homesteads are an eclectic blend of modern with traditional, whimsical with practical, formal with informal, civilized with rustic.
Over the last five years, my wife and I designed and built our dream homesteads from scratch with very little outside help; from undeveloped, declining forest to a comfortable home and cabin with a prolific edible landscape for people and wildlife equally. For many years, we have strived to lessen our burden on others by taking full responsibility for the health and welfare of our immediate family while building a strong community around us, both online and offline. Now that the infrastructure is in place here, we will be spending more time working cooperatively with community members, including extended family, to collectively become more resilient while living a deeply satisfying and meaningful life. Thank you for being part of that!

#homestead #sustainability #farming #offgrid #selfreliance

[josephsecogesjr]

don't worry about the panting pups, we can still hear you...they add so much to ones life..love it

[Esoj.]

The dogs slowly approaching in the background while you were talking lol, you can run but you can’t hide. Thanks for the video have a good day!

[SeatoSky]

I love it when the dogs make you laugh, it cracks me up. So cool they have a pond to play in. Fun to see Callie playing with pups. Nice your wife could be on dog patrol, lol...

[dedwin]

You have a huge heart to help family and leave your work at the cabin on a back burner!😇

[barbsussex]

Really nice to see glimpses of Mrs James. The dogs are an absolute hoot! They steal the show and are such a good laugh. I'm looking forward to seeing how the pasture progresses now it's getting some much-needed TLC.

[wu]

You have the right thoughts. Your videos surely are the best in reality. You and family must surely be inspired. These videos are making everyone think to be self sufficient if they possibly can. Thk you and family. And most of all thks to your wife and her patience

[MichaelCaraway-ek]

What would really work great would be a manure spreader and a few loads of horse manure. That would not only fertilize but add a lot of seeding for grass.

[JRobinett]

I really love this new channel. Keep up the great work!

[scottshultz]

I agree. Whatever you can get down this fall, will go a long way toward the land's recovery next spring. It's a slow process, but well worth it.

[robbobsjobs]

The knowledge and information you're sharing is absolutely invaluable, thank you for going above and beyond for the viewing community.

[rdespura]

Shawn you must be a kind soul. And even the dogs know it, they can hardly be away from you
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[marianfrances]

I love what you are doing, as a family. Heck, even the dogs are happy!😅 Sounds like a win win win. Best of luck to you. 👍😎🇨🇦🌾🌻🐮🐓🌱

[LB-grgu]

Brother and Sister I love to see family come together ❤️❤️ Bless you for all your hard work.. pretty sure it makes your heart sing 😅

[jimjohnson]

Excited about the new channel! It brings back childhood/teen memories of summers spent on my grandparents and cousins farm in northern Wisconsin. Timothy was the grass planted on their farms. Manure was spread after bailing the hay. Dairy cows were the common cattle.

[sallyfrenette]

I think its really great that you and your family work together to be more self sustainable. We are off grid and I have my gardens but unfortunately cannot raise livestock here. We are in hopes to find a good small farm to get meat we don't hunt and fish for from and hopefully down the road purchase some land for livestock. The dogs always "finding you" is a good thing as dogs are usually drawn to good people. 😊

[stephenreiner]

Let that hay compost down and then plant a green manure crop. Turn it in to the soil and make it add additional amendment.

[brucebarrera]

Good morning 🌄, Shawn. Thank you 👍. 🤠 🔥 🦁 🔥 ISRAEL ✨

[bhringer]

I do similar with my lawn; let it grow to seed in Spring & Fall then mow and let it lay. I refer to it as "natural over-seeding". Where I had weeds I now have lush green grass with some clover.

[marygordon]

Thanks Shawn, but we love the pups! 👏👏👏🤩🤩🤩💯💯💯😎😎😎

[elenamariarothenquijada]

Bella persona muy trabajador lo felicito ❤🐕 desde Chile 🇨🇱