BoboFarm
Loving the herd life
Hi everyone! 
I've done an introduction already but for those that haven't read it, I'm Patricia and this will be my journal for our new journey.
I'd really like to use this journal to add photos and to give everyone interested in reading an idea of what we're planning on doing. I have all of these visions and putting them down "on paper" will help remind me of some of my silly ideas and of our successes. I'd also like a place for my random ramblings because there's often a lot of those too.
A little more history from where this started. One day about two years ago, DH decided to look at what land was available in our area. Our kids were a year and a half and two and a half at the time. When we originally bought our house it was a new build, cookie cutter house on a fairly quiet street but backed up against a busier street. When the connector to the highway was connected to the street behind us it turned into a major thoroughfare and was getting louder by the day. We had gangs of crotch rockets running through at about twice the speed limit and we had a lot of noise from loud motorcycles from Street Vibrations (look up Street Vibrations in Reno). It was awful trying to raise two little ones surrounded by so much noise. I got increasingly stressed out when the kids got woken up from the noise. We weren't getting sleep either because of the noise. So the search began.
We looked at the very north end of town because there are a lot of houses being built up there with a bit more land. But the traffic is horrific and I work one town south so my commute would have gone from 30 minutes to over an hour. We then looked a few towns south and found some very nice land. We would have had to build a custom home on any of the properties south. Something we’ve never done before but I’ve always been interested in. We found 8 acres that were on somewhat rocky hills. Not ideal but useable. We were days from signing the contract when we decided to look into the school system. YIKES!!!!! We backed out quickly! But in the process we found a builder that built custom homes and he said just let him know if we find any land and he can still build for us. So weeks went by and, being such a busy young family, I put the house/land hunt on the backburner. Then DH called me. “I found an acre in Washoe!” I told him I really wanted more land, 3-5 acres was what I was hoping for. BUT Washoe Valley! It gorgeous and right in between where we work. DH goes north and I go south. My drive time would be lessened AND the land was butted up to BLM so only one neighbor next to us and two in front. We went and checked it out. It was completely covered in sage and bitterbrush and overrun with jackrabbits, cottontail and quail. It was an odd shape because of the BLM land and how it was parceled out but I thought I could work with it. There were trails going up the hills behind the property AND IT WAS QUIET!!! The lady that was selling it owned the house next door. Her husband had passed several years ago and she remarried. She lived in town so was doing Airbnb on occasion with the house next door. She had no use for the acre so she decided to put it up for sale. We contacted the builder from before and he came out to tell us if it was doable to build a house. After all of the inspections for the well, house and septic we got the thumbs up. We owned an acre! Now we had to come up with what we wanted for our house.
Fast forward to today and we’ve been in our home for a little over a month. I cannot explain how much more at peace I am with life now. The first day we actually slept in our home I cried hard. I think it was all of my stress from the whole process of getting from that noisy house in town, to renting with two small children for a year while our house was being built, to moving again. All of that just left me when we moved in. A huge weight was lifted off of my shoulders. Of course settling is taking time but in a house that was designed by us it’s easy.
I’m happy we ended up moving in winter because we have time to settle in the house before we start doing anything outside. Nothing is fenced so we have to accompany the dogs when they go out but they listen (to me) so it’s not too bad. There are t-posts around the perimeter so we will be putting up 4’ woven, no climb fencing as soon as we are able. I have a rough idea about how we will be dividing the land up for different uses. Ideally we will have chickens, turkeys, rabbits, goats (eventually) and maybe a feeder pig or two (thanks for planting that idea in my head, BYH!). I’m not sure about bees yet. The chickens, turkeys and goats will share a space, just under a quarter of an acre. The pigs will be furthest from us at the south point of the property. The rabbit shed will be close to the house. We’ll have a veggie garden and a space for some fruit trees.
So, as I’ve been doing so far, I will be asking a lot of questions as we go. I hope you join me on our journey to be a little more self-sufficient on our little piece of paradise
I've done an introduction already but for those that haven't read it, I'm Patricia and this will be my journal for our new journey.I'd really like to use this journal to add photos and to give everyone interested in reading an idea of what we're planning on doing. I have all of these visions and putting them down "on paper" will help remind me of some of my silly ideas and of our successes. I'd also like a place for my random ramblings because there's often a lot of those too.
A little more history from where this started. One day about two years ago, DH decided to look at what land was available in our area. Our kids were a year and a half and two and a half at the time. When we originally bought our house it was a new build, cookie cutter house on a fairly quiet street but backed up against a busier street. When the connector to the highway was connected to the street behind us it turned into a major thoroughfare and was getting louder by the day. We had gangs of crotch rockets running through at about twice the speed limit and we had a lot of noise from loud motorcycles from Street Vibrations (look up Street Vibrations in Reno). It was awful trying to raise two little ones surrounded by so much noise. I got increasingly stressed out when the kids got woken up from the noise. We weren't getting sleep either because of the noise. So the search began.
We looked at the very north end of town because there are a lot of houses being built up there with a bit more land. But the traffic is horrific and I work one town south so my commute would have gone from 30 minutes to over an hour. We then looked a few towns south and found some very nice land. We would have had to build a custom home on any of the properties south. Something we’ve never done before but I’ve always been interested in. We found 8 acres that were on somewhat rocky hills. Not ideal but useable. We were days from signing the contract when we decided to look into the school system. YIKES!!!!! We backed out quickly! But in the process we found a builder that built custom homes and he said just let him know if we find any land and he can still build for us. So weeks went by and, being such a busy young family, I put the house/land hunt on the backburner. Then DH called me. “I found an acre in Washoe!” I told him I really wanted more land, 3-5 acres was what I was hoping for. BUT Washoe Valley! It gorgeous and right in between where we work. DH goes north and I go south. My drive time would be lessened AND the land was butted up to BLM so only one neighbor next to us and two in front. We went and checked it out. It was completely covered in sage and bitterbrush and overrun with jackrabbits, cottontail and quail. It was an odd shape because of the BLM land and how it was parceled out but I thought I could work with it. There were trails going up the hills behind the property AND IT WAS QUIET!!! The lady that was selling it owned the house next door. Her husband had passed several years ago and she remarried. She lived in town so was doing Airbnb on occasion with the house next door. She had no use for the acre so she decided to put it up for sale. We contacted the builder from before and he came out to tell us if it was doable to build a house. After all of the inspections for the well, house and septic we got the thumbs up. We owned an acre! Now we had to come up with what we wanted for our house.
Fast forward to today and we’ve been in our home for a little over a month. I cannot explain how much more at peace I am with life now. The first day we actually slept in our home I cried hard. I think it was all of my stress from the whole process of getting from that noisy house in town, to renting with two small children for a year while our house was being built, to moving again. All of that just left me when we moved in. A huge weight was lifted off of my shoulders. Of course settling is taking time but in a house that was designed by us it’s easy.
I’m happy we ended up moving in winter because we have time to settle in the house before we start doing anything outside. Nothing is fenced so we have to accompany the dogs when they go out but they listen (to me) so it’s not too bad. There are t-posts around the perimeter so we will be putting up 4’ woven, no climb fencing as soon as we are able. I have a rough idea about how we will be dividing the land up for different uses. Ideally we will have chickens, turkeys, rabbits, goats (eventually) and maybe a feeder pig or two (thanks for planting that idea in my head, BYH!). I’m not sure about bees yet. The chickens, turkeys and goats will share a space, just under a quarter of an acre. The pigs will be furthest from us at the south point of the property. The rabbit shed will be close to the house. We’ll have a veggie garden and a space for some fruit trees.
So, as I’ve been doing so far, I will be asking a lot of questions as we go. I hope you join me on our journey to be a little more self-sufficient on our little piece of paradise
looking great can't wait to hear more about your new adventure!!! 
I hadn't said anything to him because I was concerned about the push back I get from him sometimes with my crazy ideas. But he said they did pigs when he was a boy and he liked them. He did say they were noisy but he doesn't know what breed they had. I'll have to ask my FIL.
