Lets Chat! Talk about your Farm!

[samssimonsays]

Wow that looks great mike! and so happy for you Mikiz! That is so exciting! I have always dreamed of owning 20+ acres of property but we are happy on our 5.76 acres currently. No kids yet but we are looking and open to finding land to purchase to do the same, build and get it ready for when we are ready to move. Blessedwithgoats that is great news that you have most everything done! it seems that is the hardest thing to do!

I have my goat pen done but I didn't use the typical tposts for it. I used the garden tposts for a temporary pen because I plan to expand it/ move it and only bought babies. Hopefully I can start purchasing the actually tposts and start pounding them this summer and then by fall or spring run more fencing wire and expand their pen. We also only built, well, "I" only built a small shelter for the two goat babies but we will be building them a shed that they will have stalls in and be locked in at night for protection this summer as well as for hay storage. I also hope to rip the two 1960's single pain windows out of my rabbit barn and insulate and board them up to increase the heating and cooling efficiency of the building. We will be replacing the door and putting in some new cages too. Hoping to add chickens at some point but not sure if it will be this year, next year or the one after...

 

[Mike CHS]

For the first several months I could just walk to the edge of that jungle and just keep asking myself "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?"

We will start fencing the middle section next month and that will be our main paddock fairly close to the house. I have a small flock of registered Katahdins set up to buy once we get there full time this fall.

We have been taking our Aussie to upstate SC once a month to work sheep and she is coming along great so far. The sheep we will be getting will be dog broke so our lack of experience won't hurt too much we hope.

 

[samssimonsays]

That is great! I wish I would have been able to expose our pups to goats and livestock before bringing home our babes.

 

[BlessedWithGoats]

Oh absolutely! I've got a word document with all the breeds (with photos) I want planned out, breeding plans, housing plans, how much space I'll need to store food, all of it! I won't be putting any animals on the land until I have my house built and the sheds etc, I live and work about 5 hours flight away from the property so I can pay it off and save more money to build and fence and all the rest. It's more of a future security so when I'm ready to move and have kids and stuff I'll have all my house and infrastructure set up perfectly.
I just have to come up with a name for my front gate once I secure the loan and then I'm ready to start REAL planning!!

Congrats!! How exciting!!

 

[BlessedWithGoats]

We bought our place just over two years ago but only get there 4-5 days a month. Most of the time has been spend renovating the house but I usually spend a full day getting the pasture under control and making runs to the county dump. I still have a mountain of stone that will be used to fill in an attempt at digging a pond by the previous owners. We are on a 1300' limestone bluff that won't hold water. Even our well is a little over 1300'.

The 1st two pictures are taken pretty close to the same spot on the driveway. The undergrowth was so thick and tall enough to be over my head and thick enough you couldn't walk in it. The 1st time I put my little tractor cutting the brush, I had to go super slow and had the front end loader floating on the ground since I didn't know how the terrain was. !st time took me 18 hours to cut. After that I can do it in just over 7 hours.

I'm posting some before and after pictures of the outside and once we finish the house I'll post a thread to show what we did to it. If I didn't have the most capable and wonderful wife in the world I would have given up not long after we started due to all the initial set backs.
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Congrats Mike! It looks beautiful!!

 

[BlessedWithGoats]

Wow that looks great mike! and so happy for you Mikiz! That is so exciting! I have always dreamed of owning 20+ acres of property but we are happy on our 5.76 acres currently. No kids yet but we are looking and open to finding land to purchase to do the same, build and get it ready for when we are ready to move. Blessedwithgoats that is great news that you have most everything done! it seems that is the hardest thing to do!

I have my goat pen done but I didn't use the typical tposts for it. I used the garden tposts for a temporary pen because I plan to expand it/ move it and only bought babies. Hopefully I can start purchasing the actually tposts and start pounding them this summer and then by fall or spring run more fencing wire and expand their pen. We also only built, well, "I" only built a small shelter for the two goat babies but we will be building them a shed that they will have stalls in and be locked in at night for protection this summer as well as for hay storage. I also hope to rip the two 1960's single pain windows out of my rabbit barn and insulate and board them up to increase the heating and cooling efficiency of the building. We will be replacing the door and putting in some new cages too. Hoping to add chickens at some point but not sure if it will be this year, next year or the one after...

Thanks Samantha! I really don't have a whole lot done yet... I need to get up a moveable pasture, as at the moment I only have a small area to keep the contained in. I've been giving them hay and/or tying them out to graze. We're getting there though!
Sounds like a lot of work ahead of you, but a lot of fun and excitement too! Best wishes on all your building plans!

 

[mikiz]

Exciting times for everyone by the sounds of it, and Mike I'm sure I'll be the same for a while asking myself "what was I thinking?" (I get really bad buyers guilt for expensive things but it'll pass) It's not a jungle that I know of by any means but it's a big commitment. Apparently the vendor ran sheep on it, so hopefully it's good pasture.
Luckily it's at a price that I can easily pay the whole loan off in about 10-15 years, which is what I was hoping for.

 

[luvmypets]

Wow I never thought anyone would reply! Anyways our ewe lamb lily is heavily pregnant and due in about a month

 

[BlessedWithGoats]

Wow I never thought anyone would reply! Anyways our ewe lamb lily is heavily pregnant and due in about a month

Congrats!! What kind of sheep is she?

 

[mikiz]

Sigh, the registered easement for the second property runs right through the MIDDLE of the 60 acres I wanted to buy!
What idiot puts someone else's driveway through the middle of their property??? So on that note I've decided to pass on the land, it's no wonder nobody was buying.
I've decided to buy in my home state instead, there seems to be a lot of land for sale at the moment for decent prices, and honestly I don't need the temptation of SO many animals being available.
Plus I want to be near my mum and dad, I want my kids to have their grandparents around more than mine were, no fault of theirs we just all lived so far apart. I just couldn't imagine having kids without my parents around.