So I will probably change the name of the blog to reflect the name of the farm. We will register all of our animal herds and get our brand registered in our counties. It's kind of exciting really :). I texted the hubby and told him what I was thinking and that it wasn't really fitting. It didn't really work. So he started throwing out ideas. And it got the thinking started. Then I thought what about 5 Blessings Farm?? Hubby loved it, I loved it and bam a farm name was born :). So far it doesn't seem to be used in our counties. Hope to design a brand 5B. We can also tag the animals that can be branded it looks like. I'm still learning so more to come on that. There isn't a statewide registry so I just have to worry about our county.
I also started the process to sign my oldest up for 4H. Sounds like we will be doing breeding bunnies since she won't want to part with her first show bunny LOL. We can register her in two weeks. She is so excited and they are so helpful at the 4H office. It will also help with the ag exemption.
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Chicken from our flock
So hubby cooked our first chicken tonight. We had to kill one of our Rhode Island Reds because she was an egg eater and killed a baby chick we were trying to hatch out. So yesterday was killing day. I don't have any pictures of that but it was apparently a family affair. I'm out of town due to work. So hubby sent me a picture of the cooked bird. Red looks yummy :). Good job honey.
Water!
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Lessons when buying
Buying rural property is different than buying in the suburbs. A lot different :). Not a bad different just different. You have different things to consider. And your dreams/goals should be one of those many things that you think about.
We first had to think about how much property we wanted. Well hubby wanted hundreds of acres... that wasn't going to happen but we settled on 10-20 acres when we started looking. So off we went to the internet to search. What options were already on the property, what isn't on the property, how much is the property, what does that equal per acre? You get the idea.
Hubby wanted trees, I wanted room for the animals, we both wanted water and power. I wanted a good space for my garden and orchard. Hubby wanted room to grow.
So I found 19 acres with a well that "might" work, power, a trailer that needed to be disposed of, no fencing, no trees, lots of great open space with plenty of options for buildings and a home site. But when you want to move it seems like a great option.
Across the road there was another sign. This one had 26 acres, with two barns (both needing work), a small house, needing to be cleaned out and renovated, two sheds, and a stone building. Three sides were fenced. Power and a septic were on the property but no well... Why was there no well?
Both pastures looked good, and the price was the range I was looking for. Downside was a feed lot right next door.
Hubby found a property. It had 39.7 acres, an unfinished house, fully fenced, well, septic, and power already on the property. From the pictures it didn't appear to have many trees and was outside the school district that we are already in. But the hubby wanted to go look. So we went out and looked. The pastures are recovering nicely, still fully fenced, more trees than we expected and a 2 acre stock pond. The price was higher than I wanted to pay, however it was a great price for the amount of property. Great views.
Around here a working well is a huge plus. Wells can cost well over 10K to have dug. Septic systems are about 9K. Having the whole 40 acres fenced is another huge plus. The cost of fencing is much more than people realize. We fenced 1/4 of an acre with 4x4 panels for the goats and it cost $500 (which included the fencing and tposts). The property has 5 strand barbed wire all the way around. We also knew that when we found the right place we would know. This was our homestead/retirement property. As soon as we went out and looked we knew it was where we wanted to be.
The unfinished house has great potential to be finished. As long as the foundation is good we are going to fix it up. There are no other buildings, so everything can be done just the way we have always dreamed. Part of the agreement was to ensure the well was still working, so power was turned on. We also included that a manufactured home had to be allowed on the property. A 2 acre stock pond can cost thousands to build but we already have one and we can use it for shooting practice. Sure we have to do a lot of building and it won't be a fast process. But since it's completely fenced we could potentially put cows on the property within a year. It fits with our dreams and goals.
If you can't tell we made an offer on the 40 acres and should close by August 22 :).
We first had to think about how much property we wanted. Well hubby wanted hundreds of acres... that wasn't going to happen but we settled on 10-20 acres when we started looking. So off we went to the internet to search. What options were already on the property, what isn't on the property, how much is the property, what does that equal per acre? You get the idea.
Hubby wanted trees, I wanted room for the animals, we both wanted water and power. I wanted a good space for my garden and orchard. Hubby wanted room to grow.
So I found 19 acres with a well that "might" work, power, a trailer that needed to be disposed of, no fencing, no trees, lots of great open space with plenty of options for buildings and a home site. But when you want to move it seems like a great option.
Across the road there was another sign. This one had 26 acres, with two barns (both needing work), a small house, needing to be cleaned out and renovated, two sheds, and a stone building. Three sides were fenced. Power and a septic were on the property but no well... Why was there no well?
Both pastures looked good, and the price was the range I was looking for. Downside was a feed lot right next door.
Hubby found a property. It had 39.7 acres, an unfinished house, fully fenced, well, septic, and power already on the property. From the pictures it didn't appear to have many trees and was outside the school district that we are already in. But the hubby wanted to go look. So we went out and looked. The pastures are recovering nicely, still fully fenced, more trees than we expected and a 2 acre stock pond. The price was higher than I wanted to pay, however it was a great price for the amount of property. Great views.
Around here a working well is a huge plus. Wells can cost well over 10K to have dug. Septic systems are about 9K. Having the whole 40 acres fenced is another huge plus. The cost of fencing is much more than people realize. We fenced 1/4 of an acre with 4x4 panels for the goats and it cost $500 (which included the fencing and tposts). The property has 5 strand barbed wire all the way around. We also knew that when we found the right place we would know. This was our homestead/retirement property. As soon as we went out and looked we knew it was where we wanted to be.
The unfinished house has great potential to be finished. As long as the foundation is good we are going to fix it up. There are no other buildings, so everything can be done just the way we have always dreamed. Part of the agreement was to ensure the well was still working, so power was turned on. We also included that a manufactured home had to be allowed on the property. A 2 acre stock pond can cost thousands to build but we already have one and we can use it for shooting practice. Sure we have to do a lot of building and it won't be a fast process. But since it's completely fenced we could potentially put cows on the property within a year. It fits with our dreams and goals.
If you can't tell we made an offer on the 40 acres and should close by August 22 :).
The journey thus far
So a year ago in July we packed up our house and moved to Texas from Washington. It's been a journey for sure. Lots of lessons learned and lots to learn. Today the hubby suggested I document all we have learned and then document what we learn as we journey to a self sufficient homesteading lifestyle. So while I'm not great at keep up on this stuff, I'm going to try my best. Things I hope to post is the start and improvements to the new property, new recipes, new animals, and just anything that helps us move to a self sufficient lifestyle. I know there are plenty of blog and sites out there that do this. I'm not planning a following this is just so we can look at where we started and where we are.
Events of the last year....
July 2013 moved into rental house in TX.
Dec 2013 moved onto family land in our own manufactured home.
August 2014 moving to our own land 40 acres. Same general area but our own place.
This has been a crazy year. We have learned a lot. We will be moving our 11 chickens to our new property. I will of course be posting pictures of the new coop and run. Next week I hope to post some pictures of the new property so that we can see how it changes over the years ahead.
Events of the last year....
July 2013 moved into rental house in TX.
Dec 2013 moved onto family land in our own manufactured home.
August 2014 moving to our own land 40 acres. Same general area but our own place.
This has been a crazy year. We have learned a lot. We will be moving our 11 chickens to our new property. I will of course be posting pictures of the new coop and run. Next week I hope to post some pictures of the new property so that we can see how it changes over the years ahead.
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