I don't see any post mentioning animals for survival apart from hunting. When I lived off grid I had hens and a few goats. the hens were for the eggs and goats to keep the bush back but I often thought if the need arose it's a food source. I also have 2 huskys which can be used for mushing so without having a horse I can still haul stuff across land.
I think the animals are intermixed in the threads. There are alot of people with chickens (and eggs) =) and a seperate thread is interesting especially if we discuss how to plan to feed dem animals easily. Most animals you can make foder out of sprouted grain if you have too and its pretty high in protein for horses because they need bulk, as do cows.
I am actually holding out, and trying to get everything set in place, to reach out for animals. Looking hard at what lasts in my AO, been leaning towards trying out either sheep or a draft animal first. One for wool and food, the other to get more work done, so that I can move on to more tasty wee beasties.
I decided against horses at the time because they take a lot of work and I have a. car. Maybe if something did happen and fuel was in short supply I might get one. But again this is all location based as I was living within walking distance from the sea so a plentyful food source on my door steps. I think you can sirvive without having to plow fields for grain and live easly from small plants and a few animals for occasional meat . Sheep are good because they don't need much intervention but a few huskys would give you all the wool you could need as mine shed loads
Sheep are a royal PITA, some breeds much worse than others. The only reason I always preferred them to my goats was they did not spend all frikkin night and day looking for escape routes. At one point I was running close to 150 goats and just under 100 hair sheep. The sheep eventually won out for the fact I wasn't getting calls at work to come round up the herd of goats merrily making it's way down the highway, though it took nearly a decade and thousands of dollars in fencing to reach that logical conclusion. And they were hair sheep. I'd rather just go naked than ever shear a stinking, greasy sheep again. If I really wanted the hair I'd get Angora goats. Psycho little things, but the mohair is sweet.
Goats would be great as they eat almost anything and reproduce quickly. They can be milked, eaten, sheared and bartered. Cattle need more food and attending to. Living where I do chickens and goats can forage for food with little extra in the winter.
Looking in the back yard . Chickens, ducks, goats and rabbits. Yep, got the protein covered. Waiting for the snow to melt so get the green stuff going.
Rabbits and Chickens here. ten acres of food plots and grass. W e are thinking about two nanny goats and a billy .
They have a now endangered breed, the Gulf Sheep, which evolved for my AO the same way that wild boar did. Pretty cool breed. I have been arguing between horses and oxen. I would prefer the horse, but the ox has a LOT of advantages as a draft beast.
The first time I was over here in Ireland there was a huge sheep cull because of an outbreak of foot and mouth. The farmers were compensated but afterwards were complaining because they had generations of sheep which were used to grazing certain areas but the new sheep were not localised so kept wandering and they found it difficult to contain them .
I had a Belgian once. I'm 5'4". It was a long way up there, particularly since I didn't have a saddle to fit her so I rode her everywhere bareback. It did provide additional incentive to pay attention to my seat as it was an equally long way down.
Same as vegetables from the garden; eggs from the coop taste better than from the store.. The senior mess sergeant of the kitchen and wife says wild rabbit tastes better than domestic.
have you ever ridden a draft horse? I got to ride one of the budweiser clydsdales bareback once. Your lets stick out the sides unless you are over 6' tall and have long legs. Lol I'm a good rider but that beastie was difficult to grip with the knees and because they only walk and trot the show Clydesdales, your choice is post or bounce. Bouncing was easier but those horses hit the ground hard so its not an easy ride.
