i swear you people with your big farms make me sick

[babylady4]

I'm with you on the wishing for a farm!!!

I know the work involved but it has got to be better than sitting on the 60x120 lot we are on right now!!!

Plus the running space for the kids/dogs/grown-ups would be an added bonus! A 'real' garden would be nice too, instead of growing piddly amounts of veggies in containers. Fruit trees, berry bushes, etc... better than driving 30 miles to go and pick my own.

Right now; no chickens, goats, sheep, cows..... just dogs and cats and budgies (and some fish).

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Hey... I grew up on about 23 acres in an area that was in town. Awesome to grow up on but with the land being split up by the family to build homes I slowly lost rooms to have my dream farm.

At 22 I had no clue what to do as I knew I couldn't afford any amount of land close to a city. However I didn't give up. After about a year of trying to find a house with land I decided that I may go back to school to get my degree that I started... two weeks prior to the schools deadline to enroll I came a cross this great oppurtunity with the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio (half hour from where I grew up). They offered a 60 year lease on a farms throughout the area. I went for it with no regrets. Submitted a proposal and 8 months later... I was accepted! I got my dream farm to run my buisness on. Bottom line is... I didn't give up... stuck with what I knew best and it panned out.

Figured you could go for a good story as many are showing the other side of farming. As much work as it may be, I wouldn't have it any other way. I guarante it's the same for everyone else too that has a small hobby farm.

Here are a couple of articles about my journey and my new farm...

http://www.bathcountryjournal.com/pdf/2009_07_web pdfs/B0709.pdf

http://www.cleveland.com/living/index.ssf/2009/06/cuyahoga_valley_national_parks.html

http://www.thesuburbanite.com/homepage/x599197218/Jeff-Brunty-awarded-lease-for-historic-farm

I wish you the best of luck... you don't need much to make it work. I'm on 17 acres and I only use about 4 of them at the moment with bigger plans to come. Set a goal for yourself and stick to it!!

 

[kagedgoddess]

i d like to know how on earth ya ll afford those big farms! dh and i want to buy property but HAHA! we can pay $1000/mo in rent but cannot get approved for an $80,000 loan??? so much for obamas tax credit if the banks wont lend! the place we rent now is on almost 2acres and has a leaky basement and MOLD all thru the ventalation. our old place with 5acres had NO HEAT! the landlord forgot to mention when we signed on that the woodstove wasnt being replaced after the last tenant blew it up! he suggested buying space heaters. so after putting up with all ths crap, we would rather be responsible for ourselves.
5acres is a little much for us right now, but 2 or 3 would be nice. *sigh*

 

[halo]

Work work work....spent the last 2 days spraying Roundup on my fence lines, trying to get them done before it rained. Mowed 2 fields today, I swear they need mowing 3 days after I mow. We've had so much rain its growing before our very eyes.

I wouldnt trade it for NUTTIN>

 

[LittleChickenRacingTeam]

I sold my 50 acres to the developers a couple years back. Then continued to rent back the property while they did zoning changes.

My wife passed away recently & I have just purchased a 5 acre spread & am looking forward to less work & more chooks.

 

[AK Michelle]

Quote:
Have you sent soil samples for testing? My friend sends hers to the local extension office, she said it was like $5 a tube that she sends for testing. You might be liming/fertilizing with the wrong stuff.

My ground is an old glacial bed, no organics. I can fertilize until the cows come home and in a few months when the fertilizer washes out the grass would die.

I began with a small area and let my goats do the work, they fertilize as they go, eating the weeds down to the ground, effectively killing the weeds

Anyway, test the soil. Find out what you are working with and proceed accordingly.

 

[Andora]

Quote:
Maybe you're looking in the wrong place to get a loan?!? We make $37,000 a year and got approved for a $130,000 mortgage to buy an acre and a nice house in the country, in addition to the $100,000 loan we already have on our current house which we were going to rent out. (Decided to sell it instead of renting it though...)

The only thing that sucks now is that they don't do the 80% mortgage and 20% mortgages to let you get around that stupid PMI payment if you don't have 20% to put down. When we bought the house we're currently selling, we had it set up so we didn't have to pay for PMI but now they changed the rules so that it's not possible and we have an extra $80 on our mortgage payments each month.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

Can't get more than 3 tv channels at any one time, even with the switch to digital (that's soo much better!)

hey Antwerp! i'm totally laughing myself silly over this... yes we DO live in the same place!!!!

oh yes i remember civilization.. i had the big cable package on TWO tv's just in case the sun was in my eyes in the front living room.. i just moved to the back and listened for the delivery guy... or i could drive the half a city block up to the luxury grocery store and have THEM make my dinner. ha!

in our county they have the online way to report your electric out - and they have a map that shows the reports.. we were the last sad little dot over the winter in the big ice storm! we kept driving the big truck down to the library to get updates

hee hee hee "camping out" for 4 nites was fun for exactly one hour. then trying to find a way to cook on a small woodburning stove with no tools or pots that would take the heat ....and then trying to open and close the fridge/freezer **really fast** so all our stuff didnt spoil. oh yes. good times! ha!

how did we afford it, kagedgoddess ?? i worked my butt off for almost 20 years, did without, and didnt over buy. dont believe the hype that it cant be done! and frankly, stop watching tv so you wont believe what all the marketing folks think you need to be happy! see having only 3 channels is a blessing!

​

 

[deerman]

Well I have 42 A , but still cant let my birds free range. Because people think its ok to free range dogs but not on their land.

More wild predators too. Also some people think they have the right to hunt animals on my land.

Yes lots of trouble when you have more land, I do love it even with all the trouble.

 

[Lady_Cluck]

Quote:
That sounds exactly like our summers; we have 6 acres, too! We always say: There's no such thing as the lazy days of summer. Or winter, or fall, or spring...

But just as deerman says, I do love it even with all of the trouble.