Can't decide which route to take first

[crazyfarm]

So I have an alloted amount of money for all of my projects. I'm having to prioritize them and I'm having a real problem with that. Help! Which do you think is best?

Fence in 5 acres with livestock fencing for goats and cows. (est 1k)

Buy apiary and bees (est 400)

Build greenhouse (using old windows but would need to buy lumber, paint, etc.) (est- unsure)

Spend $500 dollars buying tons more grapes, berry bushes, fruit and nut trees.

Complete back deck (the railing on it was splitting so I removed it and inted to do planter boxes as the railing. Also our dogs have made right in front of the deck a mud pit so I would be expanding the deck to cover the mud pit to hopefully reduce dirt into the house.) (est- 1k)

Seed the 5 acres to be fenced. (est 500)

Refloor sun room (it's molding because the roof leaks in there. We've mostly fixed that. Bit more to do.) (est 2-300)

Master bathroom has no bathtub as the old one leaked. (est 1k)

buying animals. (est 500 for goats and who knows for 2 cows)



I have about 4k to spend however I see fit. So, what would you do first?

As background I already have 36 fruit and nut trees planted along with 10 grape vines. We are getting all the windows and doors in the house replaced so I would have to wait for them to build the greenhouse. Issue is none of the windows in the house get enough sun to really propagate plants indoors. I'd like to propagate my grape vines from cuttings and some herbs and other things.

The 5 acres I intend to fence already has 3 wires of smooth wire on it. So I don't need any posts just the fencing and the nails to nail it up with. ALso, there is barn access and a corral so that isn't needed, just the fencing for the area. There is 0 grass on pretty much all of our property so we couldn't rely on grazing as a food source at this time.

My dream is to open a U-pick. It'll be the only one in my area. I'd also like to farm animals for our own consumption only.

I love baths. lol

I can't make up my mind!!!!!!!!!!

[idigbeets]

1. fence
2. seed pasture
3. build greenhouse

[Danaus29]

1) BATHROOM!! Although my tub recently cracked but has a temporary repair until we get the $$$ for a new one, so my opinion might be a little slanted.
2) Sunroom. If you have the space in there for growing plants you can install some florescent fixtures and use that as a temporary greenhouse. The fixtures would add to the cost but since it's part of the house the plants would be warmer than in a conventional but unheated greenhouse.
3) Deck, especially if you have children but also for insurance purposes. Our insurance co doesn't like that our small deck doesn't have a railing.
4) fence

The plants can be bought one at a time and usually a better price by shopping local stores and hitting the clearance section, as long as you stick to healthy looking plants.
Check your local craigslist for the apiary equipment and bees. I've seen them here when someone is getting out of it.
If you buy livestock now you'll have to feed and tend them over the winter. The purchase price may be better now but only because the current owner doesn't want to invest the feed and time over the winter.
Seeding the pasture, there might be a reason you have no forage there now. Investigate and address that issue before seeding.

At least you have a plan in place and some money to invest in your dreams. I wish you all the best in your endeavors.

[unregistered353870]

Spend $500 dollars buying tons more grapes, berry bushes, fruit and nut trees.

Complete back deck (the railing on it was splitting so I removed it and inted to do planter boxes as the railing. Also our dogs have made right in front of the deck a mud pit so I would be expanding the deck to cover the mud pit to hopefully reduce dirt into the house.) (est- 1k)

Master bathroom has no bathtub as the old one leaked. (est 1k)

Fence in 5 acres with livestock fencing for goats and cows. (est 1k)

Seed the 5 acres to be fenced. (est 500)

[MO_cows]

Fix the issues with your home first. Protect your property value and your "standard of living".

Then, fencing. If there is already wire up, couldn't you just add electricity and call it done?

[Dixie Bee Acres]

Fix roof, then deck

[rambotex]

roof, tub, deck

[ChristieAcres]

The order I would do:

1- Back Deck (safety...)
2- Bathtub (my man also holds this as a top priority---work hard/need a hot bath)
3- Sun Room (all interior space is very important...resolving mold issues important)
4- Fencing (protect everything you will plant and critters you will have...)
5- $500 expenditure on grapes, etc... (soon in, the better)
6- Seed (preparing for critters...)
7- Bees (increase in pollination, a credit in production results)
8- Build Greenhouse (this amounts to a fast credit)
9- Livestock last (instant increase in expense, a debit for some time...)

[crazyfarm]

Originally Posted by MO_cows

Fix the issues with your home first. Protect your property value and your "standard of living".

Then, fencing. If there is already wire up, couldn't you just add electricity and call it done?

Our current fence could keep in cows but not goats. It's just three strands of smooth wire. We do have electric fence at the top already would just need to rewire it to the box.

[crazyfarm]

Interesting. I thought you guys would discount the house issues. I'm very interested in it being a higher priority. I'd love to redo our entire master bath. There is no tub now, I removed it and am using it as a brooder for chicks. The floor is carpet. So I'd love to tile the floor and put in a new tub. I just figured that was low priority compared to the others in homesteading. Very intersting!

As for the sunroom I should clarify that it is not really part of the interior of the house. It was an add on. The doors to the back yard go into the sun room and then from the sun room to the yard. The dogs use it mostly. I cannot use it as a greenhouse because of it's location. The garage sticks out and blocks all eastern sunlight. So it's in the shade most of the time. It was carpeted and had underflooring but with the leaking the underfloor bubbled and the carpet molded. I've been ripping it up which has been impossible since they glued both down heavily. Anyway, the plan is to tile in there so even if it does leak it can be taken care of easier. We just need to fix some of the rotted base boards and tile.

[Danaus29]

You have to take care of yourself before you can take care of your livestock and gardens. If I had the $$$ and the co-operation needed I would have several little improvements done on this house.

As for the no-sun sunroom, do you have the space in it to set up some wire racks equipped with lights? You can rig up a really nice growing shelf unit for around $100 or less if you get the racks and shop lights used.

[cfuhrer]

Originally Posted by lorichristie

The order I would do:

1- Back Deck (safety...)
2- Bathtub (my man also holds this as a top priority---work hard/need a hot bath)
3- Sun Room (all interior space is very important...resolving mold issues important)
4- Fencing (protect everything you will plant and critters you will have...)
5- $500 expenditure on grapes, etc... (soon in, the better)
6- Seed (preparing for critters...)
7- Bees (increase in pollination, a credit in production results)
8- Build Greenhouse (this amounts to a fast credit)
9- Livestock last (instant increase in expense, a debit for some time...)

I couldn't have said it better myself... So I won't.

[crazyfarm]

Originally Posted by Danaus29

You have to take care of yourself before you can take care of your livestock and gardens. If I had the $$$ and the co-operation needed I would have several little improvements done on this house.

As for the no-sun sunroom, do you have the space in it to set up some wire racks equipped with lights? You can rig up a really nice growing shelf unit for around $100 or less if you get the racks and shop lights used.

There is absolutely nothing in the sun room. It's kind of like a glorified dog house at this point. lol We could do anything in it.

[crazyfarm]

You all make absolute sense I just hate waiting for my animals. I want it and I want it now! lol

[bluefish]

Take this with a grain of salt since in my whole life since leaving home, the house has always been way down the priority list. Also our livestock are our food supply, so........

Fencing. Maybe even take that 5 acres and split it up into paddocks for rotational grazing. That's what I'm working on.

Seed the acreage

Animals

Does the sunroom area have spigots? As in, does it double as the laundry area? If so, for now, I'd tuck a tub in a curtained off section of that room and fill with hoses connected to the washer spigots. Or something like that. One place we lived had only a tiny shower in it so my tub was outside. Granted, it was a summer only sort of thing, but still enjoyable.

Greenhouse. Are you in a high hail area? If so, the window thing may not work so hot. I decided against here because of that. Mine is going to be inground with a polycarb roof.

If the back deck safety issue bothers you, it wouldn't be too hard to put a temp railing of cattle panels. Although I like your planter box rail idea. If you move the deck out, will the dogs just be able to make a new mudhole? As in, will it really fix anything or just rearrange the mess? This would be way down the list for me. And, yes, I have a little one.

Also, give thought to alternative bee hives. There are some you can build for next to nothing. I like top bar hives and am going to experiment with another type, can't remember the name, but basically a large box that is never opened but I should be able to tweek it a bit to get honey off of small boxes on top of it. Similar to langstroth small honey supers.


So, for me the house issues that you have would be down at the bottom of the list and food stuff would be at the top. I would also love the money to spend on the fruit trees and such, but since you have a fair bit already, I'd look at some other things. Just me, though, have fun with it whatever way you go!

[kilgrosh]

Master bathroom remodel
Fix leaking roof and sunroom
Repair back deck
Beef up fencing
Greenhouse
Seeds
Grapes and fruit plants
Livestock

Fix your home first, then upgrade what you already have, then add to your property which benefits you most first (greenhouse can propagate cuttings but cuttings can't propagate without a greenhouse), then buy the perishables (plants, seeds, livestock).

Just what I would do...

[crazyfarm]

Originally Posted by thermopkt

Take this with a grain of salt since in my whole life since leaving home, the house has always been way down the priority list. Also our livestock are our food supply, so........

Fencing. Maybe even take that 5 acres and split it up into paddocks for rotational grazing. That's what I'm working on.

Seed the acreage

Animals

Does the sunroom area have spigots? As in, does it double as the laundry area? If so, for now, I'd tuck a tub in a curtained off section of that room and fill with hoses connected to the washer spigots. Or something like that. One place we lived had only a tiny shower in it so my tub was outside. Granted, it was a summer only sort of thing, but still enjoyable.

Greenhouse. Are you in a high hail area? If so, the window thing may not work so hot. I decided against here because of that. Mine is going to be inground with a polycarb roof.

If the back deck safety issue bothers you, it wouldn't be too hard to put a temp railing of cattle panels. Although I like your planter box rail idea. If you move the deck out, will the dogs just be able to make a new mudhole? As in, will it really fix anything or just rearrange the mess? This would be way down the list for me. And, yes, I have a little one.

Also, give thought to alternative bee hives. There are some you can build for next to nothing. I like top bar hives and am going to experiment with another type, can't remember the name, but basically a large box that is never opened but I should be able to tweek it a bit to get honey off of small boxes on top of it. Similar to langstroth small honey supers.


So, for me the house issues that you have would be down at the bottom of the list and food stuff would be at the top. I would also love the money to spend on the fruit trees and such, but since you have a fair bit already, I'd look at some other things. Just me, though, have fun with it whatever way you go!

Well we have 3 bathrooms in our house. We have a tub in the kids bathroom. It's just super shallow and not one I'd climb into to soak. To say I'm spoiled is an understatement. :P

I don't know that the deck is a real safety hazard. It's really only a foot and a half off the ground. I should put pictures. The railing has been removed pretty much all summer with 0 accidents. I just prefer a railing myself and the planter boxes would look amazing!

As far as the mudhole I do think covering it would remedy it. It really only happened because our great pyr used to have to be on a chain. He jumped the fence. So everything within chain distance is nothing but dirt which becomes mud everytime it rains. We fixed the fence (with electricity) and the jumping has stopped. We haven't chained him at all this summer. Still, it's a mud pit. I wouldn't plant it with grass or anything because I do think it gets too much foot traffic (and dog traffic) for that to survive well. I think they'd make ruts. I was considering putting a frame around the area I want to un-mud and putting a few inches of gravel. It'd be a sort of cheap form of patio for that area. Could even manage to put chairs and a fire pit there.

The thing with the dog run- now yard is that having kids changed it's purpose. It used to be for dogs and we never gave it a second thought. Now we have 2 toddlers running out to play and it's changed. I wanted to fix the mud pit because of mud issues but now I want to make the whole area just a little bit more user friendly for the kids.

[MOSSYNUT]

Originally Posted by crazyfarm

So I have an alloted amount of money for all of my projects. I'm having to prioritize them and I'm having a real problem with that. Help! Which do you think is best?

Fence in 5 acres with livestock fencing for goats and cows. (est 1k)

Buy apiary and bees (est 400)

Build greenhouse (using old windows but would need to buy lumber, paint, etc.) (est- unsure)

Spend $500 dollars buying tons more grapes, berry bushes, fruit and nut trees.

Complete back deck (the railing on it was splitting so I removed it and inted to do planter boxes as the railing. Also our dogs have made right in front of the deck a mud pit so I would be expanding the deck to cover the mud pit to hopefully reduce dirt into the house.) (est- 1k)

Seed the 5 acres to be fenced. (est 500)

Refloor sun room (it's molding because the roof leaks in there. We've mostly fixed that. Bit more to do.) (est 2-300)

Master bathroom has no bathtub as the old one leaked. (est 1k)

buying animals. (est 500 for goats and who knows for 2 cows)



I have about 4k to spend however I see fit. So, what would you do first?

As background I already have 36 fruit and nut trees planted along with 10 grape vines. We are getting all the windows and doors in the house replaced so I would have to wait for them to build the greenhouse. Issue is none of the windows in the house get enough sun to really propagate plants indoors. I'd like to propagate my grape vines from cuttings and some herbs and other things.

The 5 acres I intend to fence already has 3 wires of smooth wire on it. So I don't need any posts just the fencing and the nails to nail it up with. ALso, there is barn access and a corral so that isn't needed, just the fencing for the area. There is 0 grass on pretty much all of our property so we couldn't rely on grazing as a food source at this time.

My dream is to open a U-pick. It'll be the only one in my area. I'd also like to farm animals for our own consumption only.

I love baths. lol

I can't make up my mind!!!!!!!!!!

1st I would seed the pasture let that get started.
2nd put up fence to protect the seed. I to would be ready for the critters.
3rd greenhouse
4th back deck
5th maybe by now there would be enough grass to get the cows and goats. If not for heavens sake fix the bathroom. I know by this point taking a whore bath every day has got to be getting old
then bees
then grapes and such
Whichever way you choose good luck in all of your endeavors. It sounds like you have your own little slice of heaven there.

[Yvonne's hubby]

Get that roof fixed right.... thats first!

You seem to have quite a few time consuming projects ahead... you dont need the critters sucking up all your time at this point. Seeding the pasture is a good way to get a project finished.... and it can be growing while you are doing other things. Get your porch railing fixed... that would be a safety issue. Whatever order you do any of your other projects... do yourself a big favor. Do one, do it correctly and finish it before starting another! Doing something halfway sucks up your time and money, and you still have nothing. Always remember that when you know down to the penny that a project is going to cost you X dollars and take Z amount of time that when its done you will have spent twice as much and it will take twice as long as estimated. Good luck on getting the most out of your money!

[bluefish]

Originally Posted by crazyfarm

The thing with the dog run- now yard is that having kids changed it's purpose. It used to be for dogs and we never gave it a second thought. Now we have 2 toddlers running out to play and it's changed. I wanted to fix the mud pit because of mud issues but now I want to make the whole area just a little bit more user friendly for the kids.

There's something more user friendly for kids than mud?!