Does your home/farm suit your needs

[barnyardgal]

for yourself/your animals?? I mean do you always have to put up some fencing or change things around to suit the needs of your animals??

As an example~I have lived here 9 years where i am at,had to build a chicken/goat house,then fencing...this was mainly a beef farm before i bought it..

I have been keeping my ducks/geese in the yard at night but let them out to the pond during the day when i am home...i am getting tired of reseeding part of my yard every year,so now am putting fencing up outside the yard to keep the ducks/geese in at night..gonna cost about $400.00..i should had done this a few years back i guess...my chicken coop is finally critter proof...

My land is gently sloping and when it rains i have run offs and that makes mud everywhere..this place is not ideally for what i really like but am making due for now..

The place where i have my garden was an old house and i burned it and that is now the garden spot in the yard to keep critters out..I have composted and fertilized and recomposted and refertilized and after 9 years its finally good soil it seems...

Just wondering if you had to make a bunch of changes to your place when you bought it to accommodate yourself and your animals and your garden???

Yes,i also have a watch dog that alerts me when something is not right after dark...

Sorry this is long and i hope my question makes sense...

[Our Little Farm]

Yes ours suit our needs. Hardly any changes needed. We tweak a few fence lines once in a while, put up electric, change the veggie garden fence, that kind of thing, but nothing major. Whoever lived in this house up to 100 years ago did a very good job of planting trees and so on.

[Lazy J]

Not yet. We need to put up a machine shed for the farm equipment, probably a 60 x 120 pole barn. I also need to build a riding arena for my wife and daughter, hoop barn 72 x 150.

Eventually we want to have a grain storage setup, hopefully a farm site with bins will come up for sale that will meet those needs.

Jim

[Callieslamb]

Ours is pretty good. We don't expect the land to work miracles. I have to keep rearranging fences, but their elec mostly or cattle panels anyway. It's not the property's fault, I just can't decide what I want to do or how I want to do it. We have a nice barn already. We used part of it for DH's shop. It isn't the very best arrangement, but it's what we have and it's working. A couple more water hydrants would be nice.

[olivehill]

Well, considering it was a bare piece of land covered in trees before we moved onto it, yeah it meets our needs well enough. We add a little more and change a bit here and there every year. Eventually, probably just before my funeral, I'll get it "done". Or not. The journey is what keeps us on our toes anyway.

[DaleK]

Not quite there yet, and we've been here over 100 years. Got a 10,000 sf tiestall barn that just doesn't do much for me anymore, a 44x88 pole barn I'm still in the process of turning into a shop/machine shed, nowhere else to put machinery, and I'm about 60,000 bushels short of where I'd like to be for grain storage.

[agmantoo]

I am close to where I would like to be but I am running out of land. None of the neighbors with acreage have any they would sell. I would move but no one else in the family is interested in making a change.

[MO_cows]

We have been here over 20 yrs and we had some projects we knew we wanted to do when we moved here, and many, many more have been added over the years. The short list:
Built a corral, planted 5 acres to pasture (former soybean field), fenced the perimeter, built chicken house and run, built 3-sided shed for large animals, planted 12 more acres to pasture and fenced it, re-wired the house, remodeled the kitchen and bath, put on siding and replaced windows, replaced roof (added sheathing and insulation), built 30 X 48 barn, ran electric and water to outbuildings, built pig pen and hut, and there is still plenty more to do.
Sometimes it might seem overwhelming, but once you get it set up right it makes life easier. At some point you will look around and appreciate what you have been able to accomplish.

[10kids]

We've lived here 19 years and have learned and changed a few things as we go. For the past several years we have mostly been able to concentrate on adding things...this year we're working on an additional shelter for the pigs, and a bigger compost set-up. Other years it's been fencing, a bigger chicken coop, outdoor boiler/furnace, etc. Almost every year we add some type of fruit and/or berries.

[COSunflower]

I've lived here for almost 40 years and I am ALWAYS reconfiguring and changing things! LOL It's just part of live I think - kind of like moving furniture around every so often.

[countryboy84]

Mine dont really. I am going to have to build a new barn as mine is an old tobacco barn that leaks like crazy. The land is steep as a cows face. My Pap and I had a fence all the way around the property but no pastures set up so I have had to do all of that. I used the only flat place to build my house. There was no road of any kind to my holler so I have to have one pushed in over the cliff. Still got to build a chicken coop and run, Dog kennel, run in shed for live stock, and a bunch more stuff. I also can only grow half my corn on the my land the rest I have to rent some where close by. But since most of the area is owned by family it is not been that big of a deal. I have to buy all of my hay right now. My land has NO land that can be a hay field, and that is the biggest down fall. But I will live here till I die since I own it out right and I am the 4th generation of my family to own it. Some day one of my kids will be able to cuss this steep hillside piece of heaven just like I do. lol

[7thswan]

This place was real bad when we bought it,but the view and soil made it Good Enough. I've redone the inside of the house, put up a big arbor over the deck,put in hot tub,deck and fence. Covered that area with Cedar shake. Built a Greenhouse, 2 chicken coops, rabbit cages,put up 3 smaller Arbors(dh helped with one)Put in herb garden,regular garden(fenced) and many flower beds.Planted 25 fruit/nut trees,strawberries,raspberries,blueberries ,blackberries,kiwi,grapes,etc. Together we put up picket fence(the front yard) for the dogs, a area for the sheep and goats with stock fencing, and hi-tensile elec. fencing for the cows-about 18 acres. Spring is almost here and I'll start working on more,mostly garden stuff. But real soon,I need to reroof the house. A small part of that will be done by the Amish-it's way too steep for me. I don't think the work will ever be done around here,but isn't that normal?

[laughaha]

Ours was a brush/wild rose/russian olive covered side of a small mountain/big hill. Steep slopes, no buildings. We are doing everything ourselves. 5 springs running downhill, everything turns to mud in the spring, gotta wear rainboots to get to the geese (who happily have 2 springs running through their pen). We move pens around constantly. It's kinda fun and we knew what we were getting into. Hopefully in 20 yrs we'll have it done the way we want it, but it's not too awful for us being here for only a year.

[JJFarmer]

When it comes to poultry our fencing is never done. All of the poultry is pastured so we're always moving an isle way of fencing. Other than that the main pastures are set. I bought this place with nothing on it but a little 25x16 barn so I built to suit.

It's not my final resting ground though. I'm almost ready to outgrow this area and looking at a larger plot 10 miles away that will give me a lot more breathing room even though I'll have to start over again with fencing and barn building. But that's half the fun.

[houndlover]

After 25 years here, we're in the process of redesigning our pastures and refencing the entire 25 acres. We used to raise and train horses. Now we have about a hundred head of sheep and goats, different needs for sure. We're also trying to keep in mind that we aren't getting any younger and want the chore routine simplified. I have a huge chicken coop, but decided I'm tired of being able to smell chickens from the house, so it's being moved. Son and hubby are building a bunch of small chicken tractors, which weren't really popular when we moved here, but we are finally seeing the light on some things.