Larsen Poultry Ranch - homesteading journey

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

I got an email late Friday that the loan was approved!!! Appraisal came in ok! Lender said we are still on track for closing next week.

Selling realtor wants us to release the contingency for loan and appraisal, but for some reason they don't want us to do a walk through. Or at least, keep pushing it back; originally we were supposed to do one after the 18th when tenant was out. Then needed to wait because seller was cleaning their stuff out. Husband getting worried about what they are taking out, I really hope they aren't removing stuff that is supposed to stay with the house.

I told our realtor we won't release the contingency until we get our walk through. We are getting impatient, we want our property!

 

[Bruce]

Yep, don't let them off the hook until the walk through. Here that usually happens just prior (same day) to closing.

 

[Baymule]

Never release until you get your walk through and closely inspect everything.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

We should be closing this week, not sure what day. Walk through is still on for tonight, we want to walk the property to see if it's fenced all the way around. Sunset is at 6:10, I get off work at 5, probably won't get there till 5:30. I'm assuming it is fenced all the way, but we don't know how good the fencing is. I'm hoping it's enough to keep the goats in so we can put them there and have them remove the brush.

I need to learn how to identify trees, at least more specific than I can right now. I know an oak from pine, etc, but I don't know how to tell what type of oak or type of pine. I should look to see if someone has made an app to do this.

There are certain oaks protected in CA, and others are ok to harvest/remove. The fines can be big so I don't want to take out wrong trees. Having to work around protected trees will make figuring out the layout interesting. We want to have a trail/road going the length of the property, and probably some outbuildings lower down.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Hubby is as bad as me! We went to Home Depot this weekend to grab some potting soil and a ceramic pot. As we walked past the citrus area he pointed out the orange trees. I think they are Washington Navel oranges, for juice? We ended up getting two, and big pots to replant them in. They are going to stay in their new pots until January-ish at least. I now have a citrus grove: 2 orange, 1 lime, 5 lemons, all sitting in pots waiting to move to the new house. The lime keeps putting out fruit. I cut all the fruit off before because I wanted to make it grow more greenery, gave it some rabbit poop and it took off. It did get a bit bigger, but it's covered with tiny limes.

 

[Bruce]

Perhaps there are foresters that can come help with tree identification? I hope the protected ones are easy to identify!

I'm surprised you didn't check the fencing prior to making the offer. Knowing how much money you would need to have complete fencing would have been nice. I hope the fence you have is in far better shape than the fence we got. I knew the fenced area behind the barn was cr@p, didn't know the fence around the yard was rotting away under the latex paint.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Perhaps there are foresters that can come help with tree identification? I hope the protected ones are easy to identify!

I'm surprised you didn't check the fencing prior to making the offer. Knowing how much money you would need to have complete fencing would have been nice. I hope the fence you have is in far better shape than the fence we got. I knew the fenced area behind the barn was cr@p, didn't know the fence around the yard was rotting away under the latex paint.

There's a fence along the two long sides, at least as far as we could see from the house, because they are a boundary with the neighbors, south was wood (6' privacy fence) and the north I think was wire. The east side has a wire fence as the boundary to that property. There was a broken fence partway down to the west on the property that we didn't go past when we looked at it before, because the other side was full of brush and we were in nice clothes. I know that needs to be repaired before we can add animals, I just don't remember if it was a no climb, grid, or 3 strand barbed wire, and I don't remember if there was a gate. I need to remember to take pictures. We don't know if the property line on the far end is fenced. That backs up to a very large parcel.

We have hog panels, and some small rolls of wire from various projects we can use already, but we will probably have to buy more fencing. I have a small gate and a long gate I'm pretty sure my parents will let us have. Less clutter around their place. I need to ask about that tonight.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

The fence doesn't go all the way down the property line, either side! Argh! We ran out of daylight before we made it to the far end. We did find the canal ditch (empty) so we know we made it at least 1/2-2/3 down the property. There are parts that are quite steep, but some shallower areas too. Lots of deer scat, hubby was excited about the potential hunting possibilities.

In laws pointed out we might be able to use the fence panels to make temporary enclosures to put the goats in to make them eat the brush. There is so much poison oak! That's probably going to take years to get rid of! Unless goats are magic and eat it all in one year?

I saw lots of oaks, pines, buck eye trees, something that looked like an olive, all on the fenced out downhill zone. The zone up towards the house is mostly oaks with some pine. There's a garden zone (needs to be bigger) and some fruit trees scattered in the front yard zone. Nectarines, apples, peaches, black mission fig, pomegranate, possible grapefruit, and a random citrus.

 

[Baymule]

You can put up temporary shelter with bowed over cow panels. The movable pens are a good idea.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

You can put up temporary shelter with bowed over cow panels. The movable pens are a good idea.

I think the tentative plan is to make a secure pen to keep them in at night, and a temporary pen or two that will be moved as the shrubbery is consumed. We would have to move them back and forth morning and evening though. Time change is going to make that fun. We need a buck too, then we can get the does reproducing and expand the herd. I think we can lead the goats with grain, but I'm thinking about trying to halter train the goats. They were owned by FFA'ers before we got them, so I think they know how to be led on a halter, they just haven't done it since we got them. I don't want them to take off and eat unapproved plants while I'm trying to lead them.