Whenever I go out to a farm to work on equipment I always try to get the people there to tell me stories about their start in farming and the successes and pitfalls. Well I was out one day and the place I was working was immaculate, not a blade of grass out of place, nice brick home a few outbuildings and a barn.
I got Martin to talking about the place and found out that he and his wife had bought a bare quarter (320 acres) a couple of years after they got married. The first structure that was built was a chicken coop and with that they moved out to the farm to save renting a place in town.
They lived in that little place till the first harvest and once the bills were paid there was enough extra to either build a house or a barn and after a year in what was to become the chicken coop they were both ready for a house. It was a tough descision but Martin's dad told him " you will never pay for a barn with a house but you can always pay for a house with a barn". So the barn was built and filled with hay and grain that was harvested off of the quarter. Now he didn't have to pay storage at the elevator and he would not run short of winter feed for his cattle.
The next year they built a house, they were able to keep cattle through the winter instead of selling them off when the grass got short and was able to sell them at a time when the market was higher. And they were able to build a house that was twice the size of the original plan.
No matter what you do starting out in a new venture is tough and sometimes downright scarey. The needs have to come before the wants and never make just a single descision. Always leave yourself some room just in case things don't go as planned.
I asked Martin about his descision to build the barn instead of the house and he said that for the first year he questioned it every day but he said that in looking back it was the best thing he had ever done. Through the years he had sold millions of bales of hay out of that barn and it had helped them to slide through times when others were struggling financially.
I have kept that story in my mind for years and before I do anything around here I ask myself whrther I am building a house or a barn. If the answer is a house I usually abandon the project and move to one that will bring me closer to the day when I can build a house.
