What I Have Learned So Far....

[badlander]

We took possession of our new homestead last Friday and spent the last week settling in.

Here is what I've learned so far.

1. 4 month old foals won't be caught if they don't want to be caught when they get out of their pasture.But momma is a strong motivator when it comes to coaxing a filly back where she belongs.

2. Brown Swiss are sweet,gentle, creatures of the earth that make you think that beef should never be eaten-just enjoy their milk!

3. Sheep are not as dumb as they look!

4. The back cooking lid of my box stove cooks hotter than the front lid.

5. You never have enough chopped wood.Also, lighters and butane torches are invaluable commodities and you learn to keep them numbered.

6. Watch where you walk in the pastures.

7. Chickens are as dumb as they look. When the rooster started crowing at 3 am I wanted to look for my .22.

8. Gravel roads turn to slime and muck when it rains. I wanted to trade our van in for an Amish wagon and a team of Hafflingers.

9. You can live without electricity easier than you can running hot water. Also, outhouses are valuable commodities.

10.You can never have leather gloves TOO thick when stringing barbed wire.

You are also never too old to learn how to live the homesteader life. We had a great time our first week on 'the farm'. We cleaned the barn, raked yards, bush hogged overgrowth, and set on the front steps and looked up at an unbelievably beautiful night sky that was unblemished by city lights. We heard 'yotes sing, owl screech and hoot in the woods and the soft bleating of sheep in our pasture. We woke up to the sun rising in our east bedroom window and fell asleep by 9pm every night totally exhausted with muscles aching that we hadn't used in years.

There has been a lot of discussions on the board about should I or shouldn't I buy a homestead. I don't know, every one's personal needs are different. This I can say without a doubt. I wish we had done this a lot sooner. There is a pride you feel when you walk your own fence lines and watch sheep grazing in the field and look at a forest line and know that it belongs to you.

There is a feeling of accomplishment when you cook your first pork roast with potatoes in a dutch oven on your own wood burning stove and it turns out delicious.

And there is no fountain of youth better than knowing that past 55 years on this earth, you can still split logs by hand and stack firewood with muscles aching, but know it's a good ache.

We have a lot of work ahead of us. Fences to repair, a bathroom to remodel, windows to update. We took lots of pictures and I will post them once we get them uploaded to a computer.

[Cheribelle]

Welcome!

[Tricky Grama]

Welcome, Happy Bewildered!
I hope you've come back to this site, even tho it was down sooooo long! I've been depressed!! However-bet lots of us got a lot of things done since we couldn't get on here.

Congratulations on your place, and glad you are here. Hope you learn as much as I have and sounds like you'll be teaching some things too!

Patty

[BoldViolet]

badlander - do you have a blog?

[Conniperous]

What a great learning curve. My husband and I have gone on a similar journey. Great to read your post and be encouraged!

[badlander]

What I have learned after our first month on our homestead.

1) Hot water from a faucet is almost a necessity.
2) Barns have dirt floors...somewhere under all the horse poop.
3) Horse poop is black gold!
4) There is no EASY way to repair barbed wire fence
5) Barbed wire fence develops new breaks over night. I think it's self perpetuating!
6) People can accumulate an amazing amount of farm trash in just three years.
7) Tractors are like old west horses. If somebody steals your tractor, hang em!
8) Nothing beats cooking on a wood stove!
9) More than that, nothing beats laying in bed at night and watching shooting stars out your bedroom window!
10) Life is incredibly good!

One month later and Baadlands as we have come to call it, is starting to feel more like ours. We spent last weekend cleaning 6 inches of sawdust out of our work shop that was left behind when the previous owner moved his cabinet making machinery out of it. Bright and early Saturday morning, I heard the dogs barking and looked out to see two buggies in the drive way. The Amish Cleaning Army had come to clean up the mess. Great! Pull on clothes, forgo coffee, grab brooms and pitch in. An hour later and we had a cement floor under our feet and 40X80 feet of open space to play with. The rest of the weekend was spent riding our pastures on our dirt bikes, checking out fence that needs repaired and exploring another 20 acres of wooded hills that we are going to buy from our neighbor the first of the year. It has really been an amazing experience. I missed the site being down for the week and I'm sure glad it's back!

Good job site administrators!

[Bluebird]

Congratulations on your new life!! One of the best things is that you will learn something new nearly everyday and always wonder why you didn't make the move sooner.

[kabri]

Great posts! Sometimes I think we would have been better off buying a place like that and fixing it up, rather than starting from raw land out in the wilderness!

[lmrose]

Congratulations Happily Bewildered on your move! It sounds like you are having fun learning a lot of knew things ! One good thing to do if possible if you can is to pay off any loan on your place as quickly as possible. Even if you have to sacrifice comfort getting the place paid for will take off a lot of stress in your life.

It took us ten years and we couldn't afford to really fix things up here. But once the place was paid for we just fix things a bit at a time and make sure we can pay our property taxes. It has taken years to make a little progress but as long as we can feed ourselves and the animals, the house and barn don't leak, keep up fences and we can keep warm in the winter we are content. Anything else can wait to be fixed.We rather enjoy the beauty around us rather than striving for more money to do more to this old house. So enjoy your new life!

[glazed]

I really am truly happy for y'all ... hearing these stories makes my longing much stronger ... I am sooooooooooooo ready to experience life as y'all are experiencing it.

Please keep the stories coming ... please.