Brown Coat Ranch

03/11/2026

Just another day…

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03/10/2026

Time to plant? Well. It’s a bit early for NorCal. With nice weather like this though, can you blame us?? For more videos, subscribe to
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01/30/2026

Love this!! Grow where you are!! 🌱 💚🥹

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1366123618862238&id=100063938386009&mibextid=wwXIfr

You do not need acres of land to homestead.
You need intention, systems, and a shift in how you use the space you already have.

Here’s how to homestead without a lot of land, step by step:

1. Grow up, not out
Vertical growing changes everything. Use trellises, cattle panels, tomato cages, or fences for beans, peas, cucumbers, squash, and even melons. You can double or triple production in the same footprint.

2. Choose raised beds or containers
Raised beds let you control soil quality and drainage, even in poor yards. Containers work on patios, driveways, balconies, and porches. Start with what you’ll actually maintain. One good bed is better than five neglected ones.

3. Grow high-value crops first
Focus on foods that cost more at the store or taste better fresh. Herbs, salad greens, tomatoes, peppers, garlic, onions, and berries give the biggest return for the least space.

4. Preserve instead of expanding
You don’t need more land if you preserve what you grow. Freeze, dehydrate, or can small batches as they come in. A tiny garden can still fill a pantry when you preserve consistently.

5. Replace, don’t add
Look at what you already buy and replace it slowly. Start with bread, broth, jam, yogurt, or eggs from a local farmer. Homesteading doesn’t mean producing everything, it means being intentional.

6. Use your kitchen as part of your homestead
Scratch cooking, baking, fermenting, and preserving count. Learning to make food from basic ingredients is one of the most powerful homesteading skills, and it requires zero land.

7. Compost small and smart
You don’t need a big pile. Use a small bin, tumbler, or even countertop scrap collection for garden beds and containers. Closing the loop matters more than scale.

8. Learn season by season
Don’t try to do everything at once. Pick one skill per season. One garden year. One preservation method. One new habit. Stack skills over time.

9. Source locally
You can homestead without land by buying bulk from local farms, ordering a quarter cow, or trading skills and goods. Community is part of homesteading.

10. Redefine what homesteading means
It’s not about size. It’s about self-reliance, skills, and using what you have well. A backyard, a patio, or a kitchen can all be homesteads.

Homesteading isn’t a destination.
It’s a way of living, built one small, intentional step at a time.

02/14/2025

01/01/2025

12/31/2024

12/22/2024

During the last storm here in NorCal we had lots of rain and 50mph gusts. One side of our back garden gate broke off and fell during the storm. Now the deer have 24/7 access to the garden. Thankfully I don’t really have much planted right now. But the gate will definitely have to be repaired sooner than later.

12/15/2024

We need to get more ladies for laying in the spring! This 💩 is crazy.

11/03/2024

Most people have lost so much; so many lost skills. Just a couple of generations ago folks were self sufficient. They grew food. The bartered with their neighbors. They repaired things instead of buying new. They went without. They didn’t rely solely on the supermarkets and they cooked from scratch. How many of you would be able to get by if the markets were empty? Can you even cook a meal from scratch? Hmmm.🤔 Just a little “food” for thought…

11/03/2024

Yep. Tonight’s the night! ⏰ Be sure to turn your c***s, I mean CLOCKS back one hour tonight before you head to bed! 🛌 🐓

10/31/2024

Lol. I actually don’t think this, though the fall time-change does make things a bit interesting on the farm. More light in the morning is nice. It’s a bit easier to get the kids up and moving for school (I did say a BIT better, NOT much better 😂). The evenings are a little crazier. With darkness coming earlier here in the foothills of the Sierra’s it means that evening chores such as feeding the LDG’s and the goats has to be done before 5pm. That makes it a little tight when my son’s bus arrives near our road after 4pm on the week days. Then there’s the ducks and chickens. We need to make sure they are locked up by sundown since we have raccoons, foxes, and coyotes. The ducks sometimes make that a challenge because they like to wait until the very last minute and sometimes, even after it gets dark to go inside the coop. There will be times when we have to sort of herd them into the coop. Once we find them that is! Not that it’s really difficult to do because our four runner ducks are quite chatty. We just follow the quacking! On the other hand, if a rooster is left out, it’s fine! One less crower in the morning is okay with me if it becomes a late night snack. 🦊 The really nice thing about the time change at this time of year, is earlier bedtime. I tend to feel nappy when the sun goes down. Combine that with a cozy warm fire in the wood stove and I’m ready for bed right after dinner! So yes, the fall is definitely a time to slow down in the evenings. But not until the final chores are completed. 🧡

10/28/2024