BOUGHT LAND--WHAT NEXT?--SUGGESTIONS PLEASE

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We love CS Mag. and the forum! We read the msgs but this is the first time writing. We just bought an 18-acre "farm". Hubby says it's not a farm yet--just woods. We have started clearing brush and finding boundary lines (only one side partially fenced). The farm is actually three "lots" front to back. The surveyor located only corner points on each lot. The front two sloping lots were logged #? years ago (the stumps are very rotten). Mostly sm hdwds and taller pine. The back lot wasn't-- lots of older trees.

We don't want to do anything major the first year--just get familiar with the land. But WHAT DO WE DO FIRST, SECOND, ETC? We paid cash so no mortgage pmts. but no money either. :-) David says put in a road. I think finishing the fencing of the property would be good. Also we need a well drilled (prof or DIY?); septic tank (prof or DIY?)--outhouses are ok here (no zoning) but too cold :-) ; house (DIY log), sm animal barn (DIY), garden (me), hayfields (him), etc, etc. So much to do and can't wait to start!

We are living in our house until we get moved to the farm; then we plan to rent the house for extra cash. If we mortgage the farm, we can do the above within a couple of years but we sure hate to be in debt. If we don't, we pay as we go but will have to wait longer to get on the farm. PLEASE, we would love to hear any suggestions and/or similar experiences.

more info if interested: We have two teenage boys and one pre-teen boy. We live in an old-fashioned house on a city lot which we heat w/ a wood-burning stove. Love my house but not the location.

We have two cats, four dogs (ABCA border collies), 10 meat rabbits; also small garden, herb garden, strawberry patch, grapes, blueberries, rose bed, one peach, one mulberry, and three dwarf apple trees.

David has been buying hand/power tools over the years and has done most of the work on fixing up the house. He also works full-time. Our boys are home-schooled. They are learning carpentry skills from their Uncle. I've been gardening, canning, sewing, redecorating (painting, wallpapering, flooring, etc.) for years. Last year we butchered rabbits for the first time. Loved the meat. Would love goats for milk/meat and chickens for eggs but need to wait till we live on the farm. SIL raises Dwarf Nigerian goats. Also looking at maybe mini cattle -- Dexter? and sheep for the collies:-)

I know this is long--thanks for reading/answering!

Vicki

-- Vicki Woehr (dwwoehr@yahoo.com), January 03, 2002

Answers

Where are you located? How deep does one go to get water? Here where I live, a well is 230-250 feet deep, and needs state/county inspection. Not exactly a DIY job. Here the septic needs licenced installation, and very careful county/state inspection before/during/after installation. Mostly all mound systems, nothing else really allowed any more. If you can't fit a 'proper' septic, you can't build a house! And this is out in the rural, no city involved. Certainly not allowed to be a DIY operation. :) The well & the septic typically cost $10,000 each. Hope you are right on your local laws.

I'd want to walk around with the neighbors and be sure we understood where the property lines are _before_ digging a hole to put a fencepost in. See if everyone is on the same page as you with the boundries. A survey is nice, but find out how the neighbors feel, which way the wind is blowing, and how it goes - survey paper doesn't mean much to someone who _knows_ where the boundry should be & always has been. You might end up giving up 10 feet somewhere. But, these are your neighbors, you will be around them every day for the next, 20 years? Going on a friendly border hunt _with_ them, and reaching some common ground can make the next 20 years pleasant. Not doing this can make the next 20 years heck on earth - read messages about all the border wars. It's the #1 issue, makes everybody mad. You may want to mention why you are building a fence (why are you?) and if any of your neighbors have a 'problem' with livestock, you could maybe rethink hay fields & pastures & barn location to help ease some of the problems. (I'm not saying your neighbors should run all over you and you should let them kiss your behind. I'm saying a little friendship & give right now could give you 20 years of much more happieness. Some people you just can't work with, but you might as well find out now if that is the case.)

Oh, and here where I live, when people build a fence on the border with any road or govt easement, they get a letter within a month telling them to move the fence back 18 feet. For a rural place, Minnesota sure likes to tell people what to do.

Here there are all sorts of regulations on how many livestock you could have (about 10 would be the limit here) and how close the barn is to the well, etc. In fact, here there would be wetlands issues, and you can't go cut down trees willy-nilly to make agricultural land, and so forth. You would need permits for any of this.

--->Paul

-- paul (ramblerplm@hotmail.com), January 03, 2002.


I would not DIY on something as important healthwise as a well or a septic. What if you had to sell the property (say family emergency) right after putting in all the work on a well and septic? These days only a really uninformed buyer (and no one using a real estate agent) would buy without insisting on an inspection of both, and many would go so far as to see if the proper permits were pulled originally, and if you didn't, not only would you have to pay out big bucks to have it done properly, you would probably incur penalty fees for trying to get around the regulations anyway. Too big a risk.

-- GT (nospam@nsospam.com), January 03, 2002.

Hello Vicki,

Sounds like you are on your way. What I did first when I bought my land was to clear the areas for my gardens. Since I started building my house in early Spring, I focused as much energy on getting the gardens planted, so they could grow while I was building my house.

After the gardens, I built the chicken coup and chicken moat. The chickens are a prime source of our proteins so they were nearly as important as the garden.

Next, I built a toolshed and an outhouse. My toolshed is just a temporary structure as I plan to build a pole barn after finishing construction of my house. The out house is a good idea if you can build one, as it will allow you to use the toilet while working on your house. We use a compost toilet in the house, so we did not have to worry about a septic system. The grey water is diverted into the garden. After you build your house and the bathroom is finished you can still use the outhouse instead of coming into the house while you are working in your gardens, etc.

We get our water from a creek that runs on our land. We pump it directly out of the creek and have 450 foot of pipe running up to the house. This was far easier and less expensive for us instead of drilling a well. We had to rent a backhoe and do all the trench work ourselves and laying the pipe is relatively easy.

We are living in our house now, but it is not finished. We work on it when we can and have done all the work ourselves. This has also allowed us to live mortgage free.

Before we began building the house we lived in a 21 foot camper. As soon as the electric company install the power lines we moved our camper onto the land and used it as our base of operations while we worked on the other projects.

This is our second year on our land and so far our progress has been pretty good. We will be selling the camper this summer as we will no longer need it. We will probably get what we paid for it. It served as our home for about a year and a half. This (I thought) was a good idea since it allowed us to have a free place to live and also allowed us to be on the land so we would not have to travel back and forth to work on it.

We cleared the different parts of our land for our outbuildings and home ourselves, using a chainsaw, some chains and our pickup truck. It allowed us to avoid excess damage to the land that a bulldozer might have done. We used the trees that we cut for building the chicken coup, toolshed and some fencing. We used the rocks that we cleared to build our cellar. Any left over wood was used this winter in our woodstove.

This is how we did it! You will probably do it a similar way too. If you want to see a step by step progress in photos you can take a look at our webpage.

Sincerely,

Ernest

-- http://communities.msn.com/livingoffthelandintheozarks (espresso42@hotmail.com), January 03, 2002.


Get your water first, with out water supply nothing else works.

-- David (bluewaterfarm@mindspring.com), January 03, 2002.

I say water and getting a garden spot ready. The first couple of years are hard to establish a good garden. You need to compost or spread some stuff like hay and old peels, etc. to rot. Give the ground lots of stuff to work with. It will make a rich spot when you decide to garden in a year or two. I put chicken manure out, but you can find a neighbor with cattle? or rabbits? or something to put on there. The straw rots and when you go to garden, it will hold in moisture.

You could plant a raspberry patch. It will go like crazy in a few years, but needs to get established. It is hardy and will give you a ready supply of berries for muffins. Does not need to be watered constantly like some plants to start off. Strawberries need too much attention to start somewhere you can not keep an eye on them.

Have fun! It's o.k. to call it your farm as you have a vision in your head of how it will turn out. :o) Mine was a farm before the chickens, rabbit, dog, cat, raspberries, appletrees, pear tree, gardens, comfrey, tree house, etc. It starts with the dream.

-- notnow (notnow@blabla.com), January 04, 2002.



This may sound silly, but watch the weather for a full year before you clear anything major. There could be a reason why things grow where they do. I had the good fortune to have a house and starting point. I then watched the winds and storms to decide where to plant stuff and put outbuildings...

-- Gailann Schrader (gtschrader@aol.com), January 04, 2002.

Is the land level or is it hilly? Do you want to clear it all or have some woods? What are your neighbors (farmers (if so do they have livestock, plant crops, or a combonation), or just a house on property, any businesses)?

If your land is hilly, consider leaving trees for erosion control. For getting the land cleared faster, check with a logging company (since one portion of the land has already been logged once), unless you wanted the wood for something (ie. house, fence, or wood for heating next winter). You can have a portion left untouched (future fire wood), have them clear cut (many times its easier for them & you get your land cleared also) & pile any logs, branches, sticks, & stumps they don't want in one place. This last is handy for you as you have something you could use for firewood, fencing, etc... already piled up for you (their not likely to want young trees that are about 3-4 inches thick (can't make lumber from them very easily) but they are great for fencing or firewood). If they don't take the stumps (needs to be part of contract) you could do it yourself or use what they pay you for the logs to have them removed. Reguardless of how you get your land cleared (or how much), I strongly recommend you plant for erosion control (something with at least 50% legume) until you are ready to put in a garden, hay field, buildings, etc... (This way you aren't walking on mud, the legumes are helping the soil, & if you get some grazing stock you have something for them to eat until your pastures are ready.) And you can always hold a B-B-Q to meet your new neighbors, & let them know what you plan for your land. They can help you with boundry lines & will let you know how they feel about having a barn in a certain place (also let you know who is friendly or not). Some people like having someone else close to them that could raise a steer (or something else) they could buy from (maybe a small discount for being a neighbor, or some produce from the garden or eggs etc..a small gesture not a pay off). Some will be happy if you just put up a screen along some of the fences (like to hide a manure pile). Any way a B-B-Q for your neighbors is a good way to meet them, & get some opinions (maybe iron out some compromises).

As for mini cattle, take a look at www.minicattle.com/minicow/index.cfm www.minature-zebu- cattle.com www.dextercattle.org as there are several mini breeds of cattle (dexter, angus, herford, zebu, mini jersey, a mini belted breed & several others to choose from). I even found one farm (while searching for hair sheep breeds) that crossed their dexter bull with a neighbors belgien blues (double muscled), & have a mini heavy muscled cattle (without the birthing trouble of the belgien blues) they call baby blues. wieowen.tripod.com

I know this was a long post but hope I helped some.

animalfarms

-- animalfarms (jawjlewis@netzero.net), January 04, 2002.


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