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Have your son read up on Carey Reams, he has passed away but his work on small scale with big results is very impressive. He stated in his work if you treated your soil properly 40 acres could produce equal to 200. If your son applied that to his 11 he can support himself. Also the man who wrote the book This is not normal folks, Joel S. can't remember his last name would be of interest to him.
He will do fine.
I'm not familiar with Carey Reams but I am with Joel Salantin .
I know my son reads a lot and does a lot of research; I will ask him if he's read anything by either of these guys. I think I may even have one or two books by Salantin around here I'll try and find for him.
They went in the other day and finalized all the paperwork. My son said the only thing that can go wrong now would be if something turns up with the inspection.
Best of luck Cinebar! That place sounds great. Sometimes I wish I would have skipped school, the many office cubicles and supervisors and gone straight to the west Texas farm as a young man right of off my military service. We bought our place about four years ago for our retirement. It was a 20-acre bank repo and all I have been able to accomplish so far is to restore the house and barns to serviceability. We still have much work to do.
Best of luck Cinebar! That place sounds great. Sometimes I wish I would have skipped school, the many office cubicles and supervisors and gone straight to the west Texas farm as a young man right of off my military service. We bought our place about four years ago for our retirement. It was a 20-acre bank repo and all I have been able to accomplish so far is to restore the house and barns to serviceability. We still have much work to do.
Thank you!
He has huge plans for the place; I just hope he paces himself (both financially and otherwise) and doesn't get overwhelmed - and realizes that it will all take time.
I just hope he paces himself (both financially and otherwise) and doesn't get overwhelmed - and realizes that it will all take time.
Yes, I suppose that is one good thing about buying a farm when you are older. I always tended to over extend myself as well. A farm early in my life may have driven me to the poor farm or killed me getting there.
In regards to being overwhelmed, I was when I bought this place. It was an old farm place built ca 1940s and in the typical bank repossession condition. The people had moved out about three years before I bought it and had left old furniture, clothing and even bags of trash and garbage inside the house. With all the trash removed from the house and barns, tree trimmings from the overgrown trees, I ended up with a burn pile the size of a small house. The pile even had an old kitchen sink in it! I had to wait until conditions were right (wet), and the County had released the burn ban, but when I set the match to that pile, two of my neighbors came rushing up the road to see if my house was on fire. I've had two more burn piles since then as I began to clean the acreage and remove some dead trees. The property had an old iron pile (tractor parts, steel cable, one old car, etc) in the rear of it. What I wasn't able to give away to local metal scrappers, I sold myself making several hundred dollars.
I had to replace doors and flooring in the house and barns, rebuild one of the bathroom, replace sheetrock in the house, lots of painting, lots of tractor mowing and brush removal, a storm cellar door to rebuild, a well pressure tank to replace along with some plumbing in the house, a pump house to repair, one barn to completely cover in metal and I could go on and on. It's taken me two years just to get the house in a liveable condition and the barns where they could be used. Had it not been a labor of love, I could not have done it.
I'm just glad to hear there are still young people who love and appreciate rural America. It's always been a large part of my heart and thoughts even when I felt I was being buried by urban life.
Yes, I suppose that is one good thing about buying a farm when you are older. I always tended to over extend myself as well. A farm early in my life may have driven me to the poor farm or killed me getting there.
In regards to being overwhelmed, I was when I bought this place. It was an old farm place built ca 1940s and in the typical bank repossession condition. The people had moved out about three years before I bought it and had left old furniture, clothing and even bags of trash and garbage inside the house. With all the trash removed from the house and barns, tree trimmings from the overgrown trees, I ended up with a burn pile the size of a small house. The pile even had an old kitchen sink in it! I had to wait until conditions were right (wet), and the County had released the burn ban, but when I set the match to that pile, two of my neighbors came rushing up the road to see if my house was on fire. I've had two more burn piles since then as I began to clean the acreage and remove some dead trees. The property had an old iron pile (tractor parts, steel cable, one old car, etc) in the rear of it. What I wasn't able to give away to local metal scrappers, I sold myself making several hundred dollars.
I had to replace doors and flooring in the house and barns, rebuild one of the bathroom, replace sheetrock in the house, lots of painting, lots of tractor mowing and brush removal, a storm cellar door to rebuild, a well pressure tank to replace along with some plumbing in the house, a pump house to repair, one barn to completely cover in metal and I could go on and on. It's taken me two years just to get the house in a liveable condition and the barns where they could be used. Had it not been a labor of love, I could not have done it.
I'm just glad to hear there are still young people who love and appreciate rural America. It's always been a large part of my heart and thoughts even when I felt I was being buried by urban life.
Well, luckily there isn't really anything that needs repair. The sellers have done what looks like a pretty good job to make sure the house passes inspection (hopefully) - with a new roof and new water pipes under the house, new hot water heater, etc. Anything that the kids do in the house will be by choice and most of what they want to do seems to be in the kitchen. So, hopefully, they don't try to do too much at once.
The only thing that looks to me that needs any kind of repair is the barn/chicken coop/shop; my son plans on eventually tearing that down and replacing it with a pole barn.
He'll have to do a little fencing before he runs animals; it is fenced on three sides with barbed wire, which is suitable for cows, I guess, but not for goats. So, if the only thing he gets at first are a couple of steers, he really only needs to run some fencing across the top of the property. He does want to fence the yard in, though, because he wants to take one of my dogs that he's particularly fond of and that he thinks doesn't get enough attention because of all my other dogs (I'm not quite sure how I feel about that, though).
My biggest concern for him this first year is that there is quite a bit of property up by the house and around the buildings that will need to be mowed. It's too much to do with a push mower and I don't think he'll be able to afford a riding mower for a while.
But.....baby steps. I'll help him with what I can (I'm going to give/loan him my 8 h.p. Troy-Bilt rototiller, which will help him work up some garden beds).
I think the first thing he's going to do is to get gravel; since no one has lived there for so long, whatever driveways there are have been overgrown with grass.
I'm not sure what he's planning on doing about the stumps that are left over from the logging. Luckily they're all concentrated down at the bottom of the property and probably only encompass only four acres or so (I'm guessing).
Quote:
I'm just glad to hear there are still young people who love and appreciate rural America.
I raised all five of my boys in the country. I've always been a little disappointed that they didn't all want to continue that lifestyle; my oldest son has a place in the country but my second to the oldest - age 35 - just bought his first place last year and it's a townhouse! It has a tiny postage stamp front yard, which he tore out and planted a couple of trees and covered it over with that landscape bark. The back yard is just a patio. Boy #3 is married and he and his wife are happy in an apartment that's close to restaurants and the gym. My youngest is still here with me but he's looking forward to living closer to stores and entertainment and has no interest in growing food or doing anything like that.
It's got a brand new pressure tank and water filtration system, with all the paperwork and manuals sitting on the kitchen counter. Since no one has lived there for a long time, this stuff is brand new and never even been used.
I know about wells - I had to have my pump replaced less than a year after I moved here. I've also had to re-do the wiring and replace the pressure switch several times.
Well problems are on-going for me; luckily, that has given my son a certain amount of experience in dealing with them.
I am sooo jealous! especially the greenhouse.
Not to keep dwelling on it-but I think the testing was referring to the water. With all the timbering off equipment, and the people doing the work not really caring, not their home, all kinds of yukky stuff could have drained into the water supply.
Better safe than sorry.
Good luck to your son. I wish them well. (no punintended)
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cinebar
...My biggest concern for him this first year is that there is quite a bit of property up by the house and around the buildings that will need to be mowed. It's too much to do with a push mower and I don't think he'll be able to afford a riding mower for a while.
But.....baby steps. I'll help him with what I can (I'm going to give/loan him my 8 h.p. Troy-Bilt rototiller, which will help him work up some garden beds).
I think the first thing he's going to do is to get gravel; since no one has lived there for so long, whatever driveways there are have been overgrown with grass.
I'm not sure what he's planning on doing about the stumps that are left over from the logging. ....
Good luck... I too thought this was gonna be a thread about FULL TIME Farming, but... we all start somewhere,
1) keep the JOB (preferably get on evening or night shift) It is BETTER to go to work tired, than to try to come home tired and maintain acreage. I did many yrs on nights, which was good for my FARM, for my KIDS (homeschooled), and for my HEALTH. No sitting, and for Career (no bosses and MUCH better pay to work nights)
2) GOATS for trimming up the homestead. (My first riding mower was $100 and it was fine for about 10 yrs.) Gave me time to locate my current Hydrostatic John Deere for $800 (80's vintage = HEAVY DUTY + FRAME rather than sheetmetal).
My first farm (hobby farm) I bought a NICE weedeater. That takes HOURS / week and is of LITTLE lasting value to spend time doing.
Consider a good dose of Round-Up for the area around buildings. / fences. (this will save him many hours)
3) RENT a trencher and put in LOTS of freeze proof hydrants (with plenty of shut offs for when the hydrants need repair)
4) How big are the stumps? (what variety), depends what he wants done with the land. Rocks?
Can rent a bobcat or excavator for a weekend. I can do an 18" stump in ~ 3 minutes with my Bobcat and grinder, I can whip around and be into another stump in 30 seconds. I have done ~ 100 / day but NOT the BIG ones (I have some stumps that are over 10' dia, they can take a few hrs to get 8" below grade...) T770 Compact Track Loader with Stump Grinder | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
If you get an excavator it need to be HEAVY, my 12,000 # excavator is SLOW on any 'fresh' stumps over 12". My neighbor's D8 with a stump splitter is NICE, but you need a 50,000# excavator to stack and burn the remnants of 8-10' stumps
5) Get to the extension service and create a forest plan. NOW!!! NEED TO DO THAT SOON as forests need to be MANAGED to create optimal revenue / health. Forests / woodland is SO ez to 'put-off', and what a serious mistake to do so.
Good luck to all, happy 'blisters'. (Sounds like you will have a GOOD place to get rid of extra stuff if YOU downsize. EXTRA chainsaws, chopsaws, post diggers?) My kids will be well equipped.
Gravel... UGH... ours is $1,400 per 'transfer' load (~25 yd) Thus he needs to KEEP the JOB. I rented a dumptruck and hauled 28 loads one weekend (that was about 1/10th delivered cost, including fuel). I HOPE his is cheaper!! I now can use my MACK, (22' flatbed dump). BUT that is not CHEAP to run either (insurance).
No......dumping the job is not an option, nor is it anything he was even considering. He's fully aware that an eleven acre "hobby farm" (I actually hate that term myself) will not be able to support itself - and them.
And since he already has a job - the same job he got right out of high school - he works the shifts they give him, which are twelve hour shifts, two weeks on days, then two weeks on nights. It is what it is and he has no say in the matter.
His girlfriend works two part time jobs.
Moving to the farm will actually put both of them closer to their jobs, which will make for a shorter commute.
One of the reasons he gives me for wanting me to move onto the place with them is that I can help with animals and the garden.
It really sounds like it is what it's supposed to be.
(That may not make sense but I'm a firm believer that if something is meant to happen, it will. The way everything is falling into place for them, I think this a 'meant-to-be' thing.)
As far as goats for keeping things trimmed up, since I have almost twenty goats (with my milker due in June), I can easily provide him with some of my goats. But first he has to have good goat fencing and shelter for them and I'm pretty sure he doesn't want them up by the house and around the fruit trees and berry bushes (he's quite familiar with what goats like to eat ).
Hopefully he will be able to pick something up in the way of a riding mower pretty cheaply. Maybe off Craigslist; I wouldn't be surprised if maybe his best friend's father doesn't have something tucked out in his barn somewhere - it's like a Pandora's Box of hidden treasures.
As for RoundUp, he's hoping to go as non-chemical as possible. I think RoundUp would be a last resort.
We haven't had a chance to talk much since they went in and signed the papers because he's been working (a couple of quick texts is all) so I'm not sure what his ultimate plan is about the area that was logged - whether he wants to replant it or turn it into pasture. He's off tomorrow and the next day and I'm sure I will see him on at least one of those days and we can talk more.
One thing that he can do that won't cost money is to give the fruit trees a good pruning.
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It has a tiny postage stamp front yard, which he tore out and planted a couple of trees and covered it over with that landscape bark. The back yard is just a patio. Boy #3 is married and he and his wife are happy in an apartment that's close to restaurants and the gym. My youngest is still here with me but he's looking forward to living closer to stores and entertainment and has no interest in growing food or doing anything like that.
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