A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2005 Farm Start Up

My wife and I have started a small scale farming operation. At our home we have raised flowers and vegtables of sorts for the last 35 years for our families use mostly, but in the last three years fortune has changed the path we are on. I am getting ready to retire from a public service job so I hunted for and bought our dream property. Eighty-five acres of heaven on earth, consisting of a spring fed stream and both sides of the valley. This gives me a south facing and a north facing hillside. Shortly after this purchase my mom died unexpectedly, leaving me the family homestead consisting of seventy-five acres of flat farm land, an older farmhouse, and two barns. My youngest son is living in the house.
At present we have horses, dogs, cats, two grown sons, and grand children. Our hobbies consist of woodworking, tractors, antiques, gardening, cooking, and country living. People tell me I may be a workaholic, but I don't believe it. As a sideline I run a small site prep business that involves tree removal, driveway installs, stump grinding, utility digs, trucking of stone, topsoil and such. One benifit of this business is I bring home some excellent logs that I process on a portable sawmill. The lumber it makes is an easy sell.
On the homestead I have slowly rehabbed about fiveteen acres that are now back to useful farm production. This spring we hope to have our first cash crops, approximately two acres of berries, planted last year. Also about ten acres of high quality grass hay for the horses, and hopefully some to sell. The homestead also has a woodlot that is slowly being culled.
My hillside property is thirty miles away and so far only has a cabin on it, but the hunting is great and the taxes are low so for now we have not decided where we will move to when I retire in a bit over two years. I do know that the house I am in now will be sold. Sorry about the length of this post , but I wanted to show my pleasent dilema.

And it does sound like Heaven on Earth!!! Here's hoping extra special crops for you this year!!!

Oh, I am so excited for you. I too am in a pleasant dilemma. We built a house for ourselves 10 years ago but last year my father in law signed us over a farm house and 99 acres of farm land with a barn and machinery. We hope that in the coming years that we can put the farm to use.

As far as the farm house, it needs alot of work so we are giving it to my sister in law. She doesn't have a home so it is cheaper than starting anew for her.

I guess we are both in the process of fulfilling a dream for ourselves. I wish you luck and success in all your endeavors. Think you could spare a couple of horses?

You guys keep us posted on the progress of things.

It is no wonder I stay in shape. This morning I awoke to brillient sunshine and about 30 degrees with no wind. My job for the state has kept me quite busy for the last week or so and my horse stalls got away from me.Does anybody have any idea how much manure two horses can make in eight days? Well I do 90 bushels, I filled my two wheeled 10 bushel wheelbarrow 9 times. But my girls are happy to have clean stalls and my gardens will be 90 bushels happier this spring. Tomorrow I am going to level the pile that I have built over the winter with my tractor and dig some indentations in it that will get lined with straw. My wife likes to start flats of vegetable seeds in the manure pile, it gives us a jump on the season. Once she has her flats in the pile I cover the holes with some old storm windows. It makes one mighty fine hot house and you do not even have to water.