DarkhorseFarmer
In the Brooder
Hello everyone. My wife and I bought a home 3 months ago that is essentially in the country. We both work jobs in financial planning and commute into the city. We have enjoyed living out here and have already gotten started in building our new lifestyle. My goal is to give you all some background, with the hope that some of you may be able to offer some advice. I'll add some pictures int the next few days when I have a moment.
So we have a home with a large pole barn that is really just the structure on a gravel floor. I plan to run power in the near future, and finish it off down the road. We have 15 acres, most of which is woods. We have probably about an acre of lawn space where the house, driveway, pole barn, and front ditch is. In addition, we have about a half acre, maybe more, at the very back of the property. This was utilized by the previous owners as a dirt bike course for their kids, and it has jumps throughout and is overgrown with tall grass. This was once a corn field and the land next to it was as well (more on this area of the property later).
We have a small SUV and trailer, but are limited on what we can tow (2,200 lbs). I recently had an f150 but sold it partially to get married and buy this home. We also have a small John Deere 2305 tractor with FEL and Yamaha ATV. Otherwise, aside from a wood splitter/chain saw, it's all simple hand tools.
It's our goal to be as self sufficient and sustainable in our lifestyle as possible. We have no kids (yet), one dog (possibly another soon), and 16 chickens with room to go to 40 under our current coop/run arrangement. We also have a small herb garden and tomatoes growing on our deck. It was our plan to have a big garden this year, but the spot we picked to till up, was in an area that won't get ideal sun, and has too much water runoff.
It's my goal to get more into farming. I would enjoy selling produce to stores, CSAs, or the local farmers markets. Our biggest challenge here is marketing ourselves. If we're too big, we might not be able to place our product, and if we're to small we wouldn't have enough. We are looking to do a garden on the half acre of land at the back of our property, and sell it at the market next summer. Our main concerns are Deer and animals eating our crop. There are a ton of deer in the area, and it's probably too big of an area to use blood meal and products like that. There are also millions of rabbits. In addition, we would not have power out there, and no well water, though we could use rain catchers. So if we decided or needed to do a greenhouse, I'm not sure how effective that might be? How would we heat it? Would we need to heat it? Do we have to fence the garden? That would hurt our bottom line...
One of my main goals is to transition my wife into this being her full time job, in addition to raising our future children. Then down the line, I would retire from my current work and help as well. Our business ideas include what I have laid out already, in addition to purchasing more land to have a pumpkin patch, apple orchard, spruce/pine tree farm, larger vegetable garden, beer brewing/hops growing, and grape growing/winery. I realize that is a wide net to cast, but we like the idea of being diversified and all of these are potential money makers. We have also explored tending bee hives, aquaponics, and other live stock.
So my question to all of you is, what areas should we be focusing on, do you have any tips for us, and what other areas should we be potentially exploring for business ventures within sustainable living/farming?
Thanks everyone, and sorry for the long winded post!
FWIW, we are 25 minutes south of St. Paul, MN.
So we have a home with a large pole barn that is really just the structure on a gravel floor. I plan to run power in the near future, and finish it off down the road. We have 15 acres, most of which is woods. We have probably about an acre of lawn space where the house, driveway, pole barn, and front ditch is. In addition, we have about a half acre, maybe more, at the very back of the property. This was utilized by the previous owners as a dirt bike course for their kids, and it has jumps throughout and is overgrown with tall grass. This was once a corn field and the land next to it was as well (more on this area of the property later).
We have a small SUV and trailer, but are limited on what we can tow (2,200 lbs). I recently had an f150 but sold it partially to get married and buy this home. We also have a small John Deere 2305 tractor with FEL and Yamaha ATV. Otherwise, aside from a wood splitter/chain saw, it's all simple hand tools.
It's our goal to be as self sufficient and sustainable in our lifestyle as possible. We have no kids (yet), one dog (possibly another soon), and 16 chickens with room to go to 40 under our current coop/run arrangement. We also have a small herb garden and tomatoes growing on our deck. It was our plan to have a big garden this year, but the spot we picked to till up, was in an area that won't get ideal sun, and has too much water runoff.
It's my goal to get more into farming. I would enjoy selling produce to stores, CSAs, or the local farmers markets. Our biggest challenge here is marketing ourselves. If we're too big, we might not be able to place our product, and if we're to small we wouldn't have enough. We are looking to do a garden on the half acre of land at the back of our property, and sell it at the market next summer. Our main concerns are Deer and animals eating our crop. There are a ton of deer in the area, and it's probably too big of an area to use blood meal and products like that. There are also millions of rabbits. In addition, we would not have power out there, and no well water, though we could use rain catchers. So if we decided or needed to do a greenhouse, I'm not sure how effective that might be? How would we heat it? Would we need to heat it? Do we have to fence the garden? That would hurt our bottom line...
One of my main goals is to transition my wife into this being her full time job, in addition to raising our future children. Then down the line, I would retire from my current work and help as well. Our business ideas include what I have laid out already, in addition to purchasing more land to have a pumpkin patch, apple orchard, spruce/pine tree farm, larger vegetable garden, beer brewing/hops growing, and grape growing/winery. I realize that is a wide net to cast, but we like the idea of being diversified and all of these are potential money makers. We have also explored tending bee hives, aquaponics, and other live stock.
So my question to all of you is, what areas should we be focusing on, do you have any tips for us, and what other areas should we be potentially exploring for business ventures within sustainable living/farming?
Thanks everyone, and sorry for the long winded post!
FWIW, we are 25 minutes south of St. Paul, MN.
