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You can start out any way you want, but it will take time. I don't think 10 years to establish yourselves is out of the question. Pick up a couple of jobs immediately upon landing to keep yourself afloat. You will probably need all the cash you come up with, and then some, to pay for your hobby farm. It will be the equivalent of a hobby farm for the near future, as far as the IRS is concerned. The advantage being you can file schedule F and C, etc., to offset your costs against potential tax liabilities.
Take serious the advice these forum members are offering. Even what seems like a huge cushion financially can dissapear within a short amount of time. You are entering a poor state that is still recovering from the great depression. The business climate should improve with the new leadership in Augusta.
K thought this morning that our luck might have ended. When he let the dogs out at dawn, there was a VERY strong smell of skunk! He raced for the chicken coop, heart in his throat, but thankfully all was well. There were not even any tracks to indicate where the stinky one had come from, but it had not bothered the birds and was gone.
It's mating season. Coons are out too. They'll be more active during the warm weather later in the week.
Quote:
Originally Posted by starwalker
Look at how long it takes for something to germinate, and to mature and compare maturity date with the length of your growing season (first frost in the fall is a sure giveaway that it's over!)
It's only over at first frost if you want the growing season to end. Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, beets, carrots, radishes, turnip, rutabaga, peas, some lettuces, spinach and some other greens are still growing strong after first frost and even light snow without cover. Some vegetables are better after being hit by frost. Adding season extenders like low tunnels can keep the garden going into December.
The best advice I can give is to work for someone else that is doing a similar operation like you want to do. Example. After commercial fishing for a limited time in coastal Maine, N.H.and Mass. I had a crazy idea to try longlining in the Gulf.
I read all I could and met with fisheries experts all over the East Coast. I thought I had it pretty well figured out, (pre internet). Well, the months of research proved to be about ten percent of what I really needed to know. The best thing I did was to find the highline boat and convince the owner to let me make a trip with him for free. I learned everything I needed in that week to get me through the novice stage... even with several years in other fisheries. Once I got my boat fitted out and started fishing, the learning never stopped. After eight years I was fairly successful.
I've seen many business failures due to the fact that experience was not considered into the equation.
Ohhhh... that reality check is harsh. When I left high heels and business suits I was not expecting to ever:
have half my forearm inside a goat trying to move a stuck kid...more than once.
shoot the goat I'd become very fond of.
swing a friend's lambs by their back legs, in circles without getting dizzy, at 2 am, to clear their lungs because of our lack of knowledge in what our soil lacks. Honestly - because of what the soil lacks. We didn't have a clue.
learn how to do a c-section on a ewe that was pregnant with triplets, because of white muscle disease, and watch the lambs die
own pigs before ever touching one
catch my toe on the fence and fall on my @ss in the mud in the pig pen
curse at the rain
curse at the lack of rain
watch helplessly when disease wipes out a crop that provides a substantial part of my income
pull and tear muscles I didn't know I have and discover muscle relaxants
have a starving, growling bobcat only 6' from my face, that wanted my rooster a lot more than I wanted my rooster
be pinned to a barn wall by a p*ssed off cow while home alone with nobody to rescue me (she went to slaughter three days later)
first aid on goats and horses
grow a spectacular crop of weeds and rocks
There's a lot more. I'm grateful for not having neighbors to see what a dumb@ss I've been out here.
It's a nice dream. I love it in spite of some painful lessons...
It's not simple but it's rewarding if you get past the learning curves.
MaineWriter, if you haven't already done so, there's a book in there. Just reading your bullet points was darn interesting, you mix that in with humor....and you're already a writer.......
Edit to add: It may have been written somewhere before but it hasn't been written by you. Thousands of books cover the same topics...I mean, sheesh, look at romance novels. How many times can it be written that "his skin glistened", (or whatever), but people still gobble those things up. There is a HUGE interest in learning from the mistakes of others, especially from someone who used to be a city person and moved to the farm, screwed some things up, found themselves in harrowing situations, the 'icky' factor, the joys, the triumphs....yah, it may have been written before but it's still a different story and people love to read about it. Otherwise, Bill Bryson wouldn't be as well known as he is.
Last edited by Three Wolves In Snow; 02-15-2011 at 07:53 AM..
You want to get to know the neighbors. Watch the beginning episodes of Green Acres. They're very funny. Mr. Haney is the guy who helped Eddie and Zha Zha move into their farm. There may be someone like that in Burnham. There will be lots of people who you will interact with on a daily basis. Burnham is close to Unity, which is a college town that also has Mofga in it. It's a bit different from Unity, however.
Hard to tell what's going on sometimes. You will be the new people, and might find a group of other farmers with the Mofga community you can work with, to learn and to interact with.
We could, but honestly, most of it has been written somewhere before. All the general stuff... I wish I had an encyclopedia for a brain -- or even a card catalog -- so I could could list off relevant publications I have read along the way.
But in the end, most of what sticks is from experience.
I wrote an article for Backwoods Home Magazine many moons ago on timing for starting seeds and planting in the garden, based on frost free date, but that is not part of their online archives (too old). Another on how to build a solar food dehydrator, with plans and cut list that I knocked out on a hold fashioned manual typewriter -- after BHM and I had both entered the computer era -- when I moved from the off-grid solar powered home I shared with my husband into a primitive cabin prior to our divorce.
Where you are now... start trying to grow SOMETHING! If you have a yard, dig up a section, find out when the last frost date is and go at it. If you don't have a yard, put pots in the window sill or on the balcony. You will learn. Read seed packets and find out the difference between "as early as the ground can be worked" and "when all danger of frost is past". Look at how long it takes for something to germinate, and to mature and compare maturity date with the length of your growing season (first frost in the fall is a sure giveaway that it's over!)
I'd start with plants because, frankly, it's cheaper and if you don't treat your plants right, you don't have neighbors and the Society for the Protection of Vegetables on your neck, although they are living beings too. Where do you get your food now? If you don't patronize a local farmers market, find one -- or more -- and get to know the flow of the seasons. Talk to the farmers! If we aren't busy, we are usually glad to "talk shop" even with rank beginners. We know everyone had to start somewhere and while amongst ourselves we may chuckle at some of the offbeat questions we are asked, it's with good humor.
I am sort of trying to work on a book from my experience, myself.. but between starting seeds (some of my herbs, the leeks and onions go into their first soil blocks this time of year, to be nurtured in the house as I don't have a greenhouse or "high tunnel" yet, until time for them to go outside and then into the garden) and building web sites for clients, painting my folk art commissions and working part time... well, time is hard to come by.
So better dig in and start working, as you don't have time for wait on our memoirs in you want to fulfill your dream.
Thank you starwalker. I have been reading up on starting a garden. We have planted gardens the past few years, but the harvest was very minimal. I think its the soil. Most of our property is land fill - the first owners filled it with the dirty stuff - terrible. We will be on the lookout for some good soil and will start to planting a few weeks before the last frost. We also plan to get two egg laying chickens from a local agway store. My teenage son has been reading up on chickens for a while now, and he is excited that we are actually going to get some this spring. We hope to eat the eggs ourselves, and sell any surplus. I also hope to get meat chickens, and start leanring how to slaughter them humanely for our consumption as well. This has been about a 3 year process for us to actually start physically working toward this. I am glad you all are here!
Thank you starwalker. I have been reading up on starting a garden. We have planted gardens the past few years, but the harvest was very minimal. I think its the soil. Most of our property is land fill - the first owners filled it with the dirty stuff - terrible. We will be on the lookout for some good soil and will start to planting a few weeks before the last frost. We also plan to get two egg laying chickens from a local agway store. My teenage son has been reading up on chickens for a while now, and he is excited that we are actually going to get some this spring. We hope to eat the eggs ourselves, and sell any surplus. I also hope to get meat chickens, and start leanring how to slaughter them humanely for our consumption as well. This has been about a 3 year process for us to actually start physically working toward this. I am glad you all are here!
I think if you go in to this taking the advice you have been given, you could make this a success down the road. I'd love to hear about your adventures. I hope, if you do this, you keep us updated--including the good and the bad.
Just yesterday, as I scoured, yet again, real estate in Maine, I found a property with 50 acres, 28 of it ready for tilling and growing. You can just imagine how my mind started to wander off, daydreaming.
But I also know, I don't know enough about farming, even a little tiny farm like that, to think I'm going to buy that up and just be a farmer. I have some experience thanks to my parents but I, too, have to start small. Thankfully, I have and currently do know some chickens. Maybe ours are spoiled because they are some characters.
You can start out any way you want, but it will take time. I don't think 10 years to establish yourselves is out of the question. Pick up a couple of jobs immediately upon landing to keep yourself afloat. You will probably need all the cash you come up with, and then some, to pay for your hobby farm. It will be the equivalent of a hobby farm for the near future, as far as the IRS is concerned. The advantage being you can file schedule F and C, etc., to offset your costs against potential tax liabilities.
Take serious the advice these forum members are offering. Even what seems like a huge cushion financially can dissapear within a short amount of time. You are entering a poor state that is still recovering from the great depression. The business climate should improve with the new leadership in Augusta.
Thank you. Yes, I will take all that everyone has shared very seriously. I think what gets to me is that all of my older family (on my mother's side) were ALL farmers in the past, and owned and farmed a 100 acre plot in NC. Once they moved to Massachusetts (where we live now) it seems that they did not want the following generations to ever experience that way of life. My mother (who was a farmer) never really talked about it. I think that the surviving members of my mother's family would think I was crazy if I started asking questions about farming. They REALLY hate talking about anything from the past. So, with that, this forum and what I have read on here, is like water for a weary soul. I am greatful for this resource, and I hope I can help someone else as much as you all have help me.
It's mating season. Coons are out too. They'll be more active during the warm weather later in the week.
It's only over at first frost if you want the growing season to end. Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, beets, carrots, radishes, turnip, rutabaga, peas, some lettuces, spinach and some other greens are still growing strong after first frost and even light snow without cover. Some vegetables are better after being hit by frost. Adding season extenders like low tunnels can keep the garden going into December.
Thank you!
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