In our new home!

[farmerbrian]

After a little less than a year of searching, we have finally arrived on our homestead! 41 acres, old but well cared for 2bd ranch home and a few small and sturdy outbuildings.

We received a lot of good advice during our search, so first a big thank you to everyone here on the forums. Been so busy the last six months that I haven't done much posting, but I've been checking in every now and then for inspiration.

Lay of the land is about 10 acres in hay pasture right now, about 1/5 acre fenced off for goats next to the goatshed/barn. Almost all the cleared land has a gentle southern slope. The house, garage, and machine shed (20X60 ish) and surrounding lawns take up about 1 acre, the remainder of the place is mixed hardwood forest with smattering of softwood. The back side of property abuts roughly 700 acres of state forest.

The only compromise we made landwise is there is no permanent surface water...but this also means there is very little that can even be thought of as wetlands. There are two acres down by the road that i think are officially classified wetlands but during the summer and fall is pretty much just as dry as the rest of the place. CT gets fairly steady rainfall anyways and now I get to add building a pond to the longterm goal list....

We moved in on Friday and Sunday I saw a 3 point buck and least 3 different kinds of Hawks/falcons/owls. Sunday night in full moonlight we saw 6 deer mosey across the lower field. This made 3 thoughts pop into my head at the same time
1. Very beautiful scene
2. I must find a way to fit our big freezer in the basement
3. Welcome to the country, now how do I keep all these critters off my crops/animals!?


So where the heck to start on the shorterm goal list? Well, heres what I have in mind right now

1. Add a lot more detail to the survey maps
2. Start gathering next years firewood
3. Meet all the neighbors
4. Get ready for our first animals in the spring (not sure what they'll be yet!)

Brian

[oth47]

Well let me be the first to congratulate you as I turn green with envy..what I'd give for 41 acres..or even 4.1 acres..best wishes and may you enjoy the place for many many years..Charles

[FoxyWench]

welcome to ct it certainly has its splendor (just wish it wasnt so expensive)
sounds like you found yourself a not so little peice of paradise!!!

hope your prepped for the snow! lol.

[Linkovich]

Pictures pictures pictures!

[Our Little Farm]

Firewood would be at the top of my list, then fencing for a garden area to keep the deer out.
I'd also start a compost pile for the garden, and consider fencing for whatever livestock you are getting.

It's best to wait a while to do too much, or you may build or erect a fence in the wrong place. Do lots of walking on your land. Get the feel of it.

[DamnearaFarm]

Exactly what OLF said And what everyone else said thus far, lol!

Congrats and welcome to your new home. I hope you have many years of success there.

[farmerbrian]

We are definitely NOT prepared for snow...lived in CT all our lives though. THis place is 40 minutes from our last house. I dont want to rush into equipment purchases this winter so hopefully a neighbor can help us or we will just hire it out this winter. I'm hoping this will be an average or better winter in terms of snowfall so we should only get 3 or 4 storms that are worth plowing for.... About 800' of driveway and its down hill so at least we can get out of the place, we'll have to see about getting

I will post some pictures as soon as we get internet access.

Our Little Farm, good advice all around. Compost pile will get added to the list! And yes, I have been walking on the land every morning. Cant get enough of it!

[kirkmcquest]

Dude that is awesome!! Congrats. Sounds a lot like my place, I have a few acres of 'wetlands' (only really wet in spring), an acre of lawn around the house, about 8 good crop acres and the rest woods (hard some soft).

I got my place this past august so I'm only a few months ahead of you. I've been on the firewood for about 2 months now and I'm about halfway there. Like you, I didn't want to rush into too many purchases. Lets take our time and choose wisely!

[unregistered65598]

Congrats on the new place!!! can't wait to see some pics.

[Timberline]

Congratulations! And, how dare you start a post like this with no photos!

We have lots of mule deer here and I fence them out of the garden area and hay sheds. Other than that, they are welcome here (yes, occasionally one goes in the freezer). I would not want to live in a place with no wild things. I see so many people who move here from somewhere else and the first thing they want to do is chase away the wild things that were here first and, in too many situations, have nowhere else to go. Not saying you would do anything of the kind, but I've seen it so often and it's sad.

[SilverFlame819]

Why don't we have the "This Thread Is Worthless Without Pictures" emoticon pic in our options?!?!?! There are a bajillion little smilies but this one is missing, as well as the "No Pix = Didn't Happen" and an innocent kitty face (no, Hello Kitty does NOT count)...

Pix please! Many, many pix!!

[Trixie]

Yes, Congratulations - and pictures when you get time so we can all share it with you.

[TJN66]

Congratz!! Now how about some pics =)

[Texasdirtdigger]

Congratulations!! Yes, Pics, as soon as, you get internet!! PLEASE!!!

[Bluebird]

Congratulations and best wishes to you!! Yes to all of the advice so far especially the fencing your garden to keep the deer out. Nothing more frustrating that having taken all the time to grow/water/weed to waking up one morning and strollout with your coffee find your beautiful hard work nibbled to the ground....GRRRRRR

[geo in mi]

Congratulations on your new home. Because of my own experience I always recommend, if you haven't done it already, getting a property survey made with irons located and marked, and plenty of flags on the lines. Then use your camera and tape measure to docoment them for future reference. Doing this now will save you possible loss of neighbors in the future. You will be showing them that you are not a property line patsy and cannot be taken advantage of.

Then, before tilling/bushhogging any fields, I would really walk them beforehand to discover any pieces of scrap, wellheads, old steel posts, stumps, rocks, that might break your equipment or put holes in your tires.

I would get soil testing done on the fields and my garden area.

I would design(at least try) my garden and orchard fencing for critter control so as to get tractor and power equipment into them--to be able to turn around, etc.

I would consider security needs--gates, alarms, TV monitors, gun(according to your own beliefs...) and so forth.

I would see if you can travel into forested acreage to cut and get downed firewood...

I would secure my water supply--by pond, driven well, whatever would work for your property.

This list could get longer, but, hey, you've got all winter...................

Best of luck, and keep everybody posted.

geo

[Rickstir]

Congrats, hope you like your place just like we like ours. One (and only one) word of advice. Don't bring too many different kind of animals in at the same time. Try chickens first, you will learn about housing needs, feeds, protection and best of all, capacity planning. Of course a good garden spot is very important too. Oh, and plan your outbuildings (if you don't have any and are needing to build). Guess it wasn't just one word of adivce! Have a ball.

[Wags]

Congratulations! Take some time to get to really know your new land before you add fences or livestock.

[farmerbrian]

Sorry about the lack of pictures! Bad form I know .... I was having a really hard time staying on track at work yesterday and just wanted to spill my guts!

I cant edit my OP so the pictures will have to be all the way down here.

Top of the field looking down towards the house and buildings. Big white building on the left is back of machine shed


Leah and I, and the two goat poop cleaners. Behind us is fenced in area where the previous owners goats were, 3 of them. one Saanen and im not sure about the other two but they had big curled horns. I was very surprised these goats stayed in this area given the condition of the fence...the whole if it wont hold water it wont hold a goat saying didnt apply here.


From same spot as above but turned 90 to the south, most of this is the neighbors land...but nice for us to llook at none the less


From same spot again except looking north, shop/garage on the left, goat shed /barn on the right, machine shed in the back.


Looking south out the living room window, ponds belong to neighbor. Little reflection in there


Looking north at big field. Taken from front deck of house


Looking south form in front of shop


inside shots of the goatshed/barn/someday a multipurpose small livestock building. I would love to hear some thoughts on how this space could be used. Its about 40X15 plus 10X10 footprint Same goes for the big shed up the hill...i should have taken a better shot of that one.

[farmerbrian]

and one shot of the house!