What is needed to maintain 20+ acres?

[hiknapster]

Not to mention that you will never be able to take a vacation, again.

[2mares]

[quote=gemstone1;30550695]

If you choose to do the haying yourself (I tired of waiting for someone else to
fit me into his schedule, so I chose to be self sufficient), there is the
tractor to buy, the mower, the rake, the baler...the grain drill (seeder) can be
rented from the Soil Conservation Service...and you don't want all that
expensive equipment sitting out in the weather, so you'll want a barn for it and
to keep your hay dry....Oh, did I mention that it always rains just after you
mow, and again after you bale....but before you've had a chance to get it into
the barn...thus rendering it almost worthless.

Isnt that the truth!

....goats, well, don't give 'em anything to climb on, "cause they have an innate
ability to get on top of anything...including your fence/car/tractor (even round
bales).

Or get their heads stuck in, fences, trailers, buckets, gates, doors...and the list goes on.

Lets see...then there is the cold weather, the mud....with critters, it's not
fun...they still need to eat and drink when it's zero outside....

The fear of slipping in the mud or poop on a rainy day and having the pigs eat you.


Good post gemstone

[2mares]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

Not to mention that you will never be able to take a vacation, again.

And there's that.

[TooHappy]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

Not to mention that you will never be able to take a vacation, again.

Haha, exactly. I've read that other places and it is the main reason we want to take this entire thing slowly. With aging parents and growing kids that will someday have families, vacations will always be a part of our lives.

Originally Posted by gemstone1

I used this book: Finding & Buying Your Place in the Country - Les Scher, Carol Scher - Google Books when I moved from CA to a 20 acre farm in the Ozarks in the 70's, and again when I moved to a 22 acre farm in Indiana in the 90's. One realtor wanted to know where I was coming up with so many spot on questions...I owe it to the book.

Thanks for the recommendation. I will have to check it out.

The rest of your post was great as well and lots of good points. Taken all together it does sounds a little overwhelming but individually each of those things sound enjoyable. But, there won't be any big undertakings on the property until we get to be a part of the community where we can help others and at the same time learn from the local experts.

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by TooHappy

Haha, exactly. I've read that other places and it is the main reason we want to take this entire thing slowly. With aging parents and growing kids that will someday have families, vacations will always be a part of our lives.

We are glad to help.

I've had two uncles that were farmers. Very small operations, they both had some dairy cows. Both of them lived and died and never took a vacation. One of them lived in Canada and occasionally his wife and kids would come down to visit but if we wanted to see him, we went up to visit. Both started their day at 4 a.m., and neither one ventured very far from their farms. One of the uncles once traveled 74 miles to see his daughter get married. That's it.

[Ginsaw]

My impressions are that once you get livestock involved it's a totally different experience and level of hands on labor intensiveness. Some enjoy that, and for others the interest doesn't run in that direction. By definition that doesn't require as much daily attention.

What we've found is, that the interest is primarily recreational in nature. Mainly hunting, and if we had a lake, it'd be fishing. And gardening and working on that little cabin. And just generally enjoying the place. And hiking and exploring new things and learning about nature and what all is in it. For instance, finding a hidden spring was cool. Literally. The water runs cool year around and we were surprised when I put a 9 foot branch down in it and it didn't even touch bottom. Rather neat find I think. And finding an old road that hasn't been shown on maps since the 1920s. Or discovering a creek bed that was once a major stream eons ago. Or just listening to the silence in the deep woods and wondering if anyone else has ever stood on that spot. Or seeing what all interesting "stuff" shows up on trail cam pics - two big ears in the lens (a deer), a close up of a bunch of turkeys, a pic of a rabbit and 30 seconds later in the exact same spot a pic of a fox, or a 3 a.m. pic of just a faint outline at the limit of the cam flash, and you enlarge it all the way and can just barely make out the shape of a deer head and on top of the head something resembling tree limbs - at least a 10 or 12 pointer that will probably never be seen in day light.

Anyway, there's a world of new stuff to enjoy each trip out there, and what we're finding is that after a lifetime of vacations to just about everywhere, THE vacation now is built around weekend trips to the "farm".

No matter if you raise livestock, or use it for whatever other purposes, the property becomes a consuming interest and greatest source of enjoyment and pride in ownership itself and in your own hidden talents you discover and develop in working with it...

[Shalako]

Ok, I have a LOT of experience living in both Country and City-currently live on 100 ac res in Tn. As for the wooded land you don't have to do anything. Whatever falls out there will decayand disappear sooner or later-good for the soil. If you're going to regularly mow the entire remaining 10 acres, I recommend a 35hp Tractor and an 8ft. mowing deck-a lawnmower would take a LOT of time. You could get a used Tractor and a new mowing deck. You would also likely need to spray with Amine once a Year to keep the weeds/Briars under control. Also an application of Lime every 5 Years will keep the
sage grass down-pesky stuff. If you plan to have an average sized yard and leave the remainder of the 10 acres idle,it would be cheaper to get a mower for the Yard and hire a local to Bush Hog the rest a time or so each Year. Forget about Cattle. You don't have enough property to raise enough to even break even, plus you would have to buy hay for the Winter. If you don't have a natural source of Water and have to use the County water system, the cost might be prohibitive as Cattle each drink around 25 gallons per day each. Next problem is that if you don't have an existing fence even short stretches of fence are pretty expensive these days. Animals aren't economically feasible on small acerage--hobbies are a differen't matter.

[Bama Man]

Hello, The Wife and I are looking into purchasing property in Tenn, I have been trying to find out what Tenn, counties will let a property owner build off grid and ( with out inspections or building codes )? Is a permit required? Any information on this would be very helpful. We were looking at East Tenn, possibly Monroe county.

[NY Annie]

You probably won't get many replies since you tacked your question onto a 5 year old thread. But, here's my 3c.


First you have to understand that there are 2 governments besides the state - county and city/town. Not all property is located in a city/town so you mostly just deal with the county. That concept took me a while to adjust to (originally from NJ but lived in the northeast until retiring here). Counties (as a rule) don't have zoning/building codes - there is one from the state governing septic systems, mostly the location and size need to be recorded. Some of the more populous counties surrounding the largest cities may have county regs - Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Memphis. I live in a southern county halfway between Memphis and Nashville and there are no regs of any kind. There are land-use classifications for tax purposes.


A while ago - maybe 6 years - there was a thread by a woman named "youngLisa" (not 100% sure of her name) who chronicled her 100% off-grid home in eastern TN. I'm sure you can find a lot of helpful info reading her story.

[Jim37680]

A while ago - maybe 6 years - there was a thread by a woman named "youngLisa" (not 100% sure of her name) who chronicled her 100% off-grid home in eastern TN. I'm sure you can find a lot of helpful info reading her story.[/quote]


The full story can be found on Mike and Lisa's Blogspot:

Mike and Lisa's World: Our Off Grid Story

The property went on the market earlier in 2018 and seems to be "pending". Not inexpensive. They have underground Mountain Electric Co-op service to the barn down near the highway but I don't think this was ever extended up to the residence.

The Tennessee county is Johnson which is the northeast most county in the state. Johnson has resisted Tennessee state efforts continuously to adopt building codes and associated enforcement bureaucracy. I don't know current status. Installing septic systems falls under state requirements and permitting is done through health department of counties (no exceptions).