From city mouse to country mouse!
 

Hi everyone!

I was born and raised near St. Paul, MN and lived there for most of my life. Now, my husband, 3 children and I just bought a home on 12 acres in East Texas. We've got a couple enclosed gardens and a small green house but alot of the acreage is tied up in our 10 acre hay field.

We moved in about a month ago and I just didn't know where to begin to decide what to grow so I started surfing the web and I found this site with all sorts of folks in similar situations and I was exctatic! There is so much great information and you all seem so friendly and helpfull.

Currently we're trying to decide if we should continue the hay field or try something else such as livestock. . .

Also, I just canned my first preserves ever this week! Pears from my neighbors trees and it felt great to put something up. I'm wondering what other stuff I can grow that puts up really well? :cowboy:

~Laura

Welcome to the country life, and these forums. One thing you probably want to consider is how much input(work and cash outlay) goes into the hay and how much reward you get out of it. And compare that to the input/reward ratio for other endeavors. Don't forget to consider the value of your time!

Any fruit can be preserved. Cucumbers, tomatoes, and beans can be preserved. Leafy veggies cans be frozen. All root veggies can be stored in a root cellar or canned. I can't think of anything that can't be preserved in some form or fashion.

Welcome to the forums.

I would suggest putting livestock on your grass as opposed to haying it. Making hay requires either a lot of equipment or a lot of labor to cut it and put it up loose. You can try to find a neighbor with equipment that will cut and bale it on halves, but then you're selling or trading away your fertility. By running livestock on it you will actually increase the fertility and turn the grass into something more valuable (meat).

You can buy calves (or whatever you want to grow) in the spring, let them graze during the spring and summer while the grass is growing, and sell them off in the fall. You can even keep one or two to butcher for yourself. The others will make you a small profit or at least pay for your meat in the freezer. You can sell them at the auction markets at first, and develop your own markets to sell direct in the meantime. The more of your calves you sell direct the better your profits will be.

Welcome. It is a small world, I was born and raised in MPLS, and am now in E. TX!

Plan your fruit tree's first.

When you plan your garden make sure to plant what you love to eat the most. Visit your area feed store when it is time to plant they will know a lot about what types of veggies are growing well in your area.

Make sure you have your animal shelters and fencing ideas planned out and possibly started before you start shopping or looking for animals. Don't forget whatever animal you choose will need to be cared for everyday regardless of the weather or if you have the flu.

If this is your first foray into the country life don't bite off more than you can chew. Start small and add to it as your time and energy allow. That way you won't be overwhelmed.

One of our neighbors is currently harvesting the hay. . .of has been for the past few years for the previous neighbor. He told us that the previous owner seeded (about once every 3-4 years) and fertilized as needed and he cut the hay. Then he said we'd get to keep about a third. In the past they've gotten about 2000 square bales off the lot in a year.

It seems to me that he's feeding us a line of bull. How can getting one third of the bales be adequate recompense for land usage, seeding and fertilizing???

I'm thinking that the cattle are definitely the way to go, thanks tyusclan, we'd need to fence in only about 50 feet of the pasture for a complete enclosure, but we're also thinking of getting a couple horses maybe next year. (we might have to board them for a bit until we learn all the ins and outs of REALLY taking care of them)

Thanks Granny,

It's great knowing there's another E. Texan, Twin Cities transplant out here!! :)

We've got 6 or 7 native and hybrid pecan trees we're planning to harvest this fall and I do definitly want to plant some fruit trees out back too! I'd put them along our pasture line and fence them off if we put cattle our there. That way they shouldn't interfere with the gardens. I'm so looking forward to getting them started in the greenhouse this winter!

We don't have a cool dark place here to store stuff roots and preserves though. Any suggestions?

Pick up a copy of the Ball Blue Book. WalMart here has it with the canning supplies - $6. You may be surprised at just how many different things you can preserve by canning.

Next, consider getting a dehydrator. Although more expensive than some, I recommend the Excalibur. Don't buy one of the inexpensive round $29 dollar versions from discount stores. Because they don't have a thermostat, they don't work very well. I gave away the one I tried. Then bought a 9-tray Excalibur. It's been well worth the expense. As with canning, you may be surprised at just what you can dehydrate.

Both of these methods yield a longer storage life than freezing or storing in a root cellar. While canning and dehydrating aren't ideal for everything they do cut down a great deal on the amount of food that has to be stored in those environments.

Lee

Welcome to Texas, I grew up in a suburb of Minnneapolis and then lived in St Paul in my 20's and western WI in my early 30's until I smartened up and moved south (living near Dallas now)

Much of what can be grown in Minnesota can be grown here, The seasons are different and you have to water a lot more but with a bit of planning you can get 2 crops a year here. Usually you have to prepare the soil (unless the previous owners already did)as IN GENERAL the soil here is not as fertile as the soil in MN, but with some work it can be great, I have just had my best garden ever and it's still producing.

Welcome to Texas y'all

LauraG, IF your hay field was here you could get a bit over $5000 for your 1/3 of those bales which ain't too bad in my mind. Seed and fertilizer every 3 years or so will cost hardly anything compared to the $15,000 you could possibly reap over that same period of time. Also 10 acres is not really much "pasture" for very many cows and the beef market is bad lately and continuing to fall greatly. NO market for the animals at a price that even comes close to the expenses of the cattle. If your neighbor is willing to continue the hay sharing, it may very well be worth YOUR while to continue the arrangement. You can always sell to horse folks also, especially it you can "barn" your hay bales and secure a market in the winter when good hay is REALLY scarce.

Welcome Laura! I would suggest taking a Google at the NRCS soil survey maps. They'll show you exactly what's under that pasture, and are a huge help for planning where to put gardens and things. Enjoy!

Well glqd to here that I was not the only one driving to texas on I 35 last month, I ersonnaly went to the hill country in central texas

Thanks for all the advice, and it's nice to hear there's a few folks on here from MN (hi mnn2501) that can relate to this kind of change :)

I'll definitely be picking up one of the Ball blue books NCLee. The previous owners left behind one of those round dehydrators too. now I guess I know why ;)

I'm personaly settled just north of I-20 between Canton and Van.

Think I might've found a good spot for my pantry too! We've got a pretty big hall closet near the kitchen, so I think I'll have to put in some shelving.

First, welcome Laura! Second, goatlady, I'm wanting to know what size bales you are expecting to get $7.50 per bale? Up here in NY, $3 a bale for about a 40# bale of first cut, and $4 for second cut grass hay. Just curious, is all.

Welcome! You're sure to find answers to just about everything.

Patty

Around here hay is usually put up on halves.

Welcome! It's always good to meet someone new!

Hi Rose, We've got a very good well (huge aquifer that recharges well) that we'd use to water them with. We'd have to put out watering tubs but the plumbing is already there. We're holding off on any major livestock decisions until we're good 'n settled in and are more familliar with all of this stuff. . . so much to learn!

I'm not sure how many pounds our square bales are each but I don't see us getting more than $4 a bale at a premium price. Alfalfa was going for $7 per same size bale at Atwoods. I still don't see how it's a great deal. . . we're paying the mortgage on the land, planting and fertilizing and giving away 2/3rds of the yield for cutting and bailing. :shrug: We've already got a couple tractors and looking online, it seems like we could get ahold of a decent cutter and baler for around 2-3K

Anyone know how deep you can fill a 5' x 5' compost bin? I think we might need to build another one. . . this ones getting to be around 2' deep already?:cowboy:

Thanks All!!

Welcome to the forums.

I think this is a very good idea.

Go to www.pharocattle.com. He has an excellent website, a free paper or email newsletter that you can subscribe to, and old newsletters archived that you can go back and read. He can teach you a lot about low-input cattle raising, what type of cattle to look for, etc. The newsletter comes out every 2 months, and with that comes a weekly update email. He is a Christian and sends out a Sunday Morning Inspiration email as well.

Stockman Grass Farmer is also a good magazine to subscribe to, and read any of Joel Salatin's books that you can.

Welcome, so you moved into the heatbelt of texas..oh goodie..i have no info to offer on planting or growing or animals..as i'm from Mich..but welcome to the forum

I agree. I like the idea of pasturing animals. It costs nothign to harvest the hay. Fertiliser is being applied right back on the feild wiht no fuel or tactor costs. You can buy 300lb feeder cattle in the spring, feed them for almost no cost till late fall, then sell them.

I keep a milk cow, and pasture her. She gives me a calf every year to raise to eat, and all our milk for 9 months of the year.

NObody in this area bales in small squares any more and the rounds are useless for goats! I have been paying $7.0 to $8.50 for 60# sq. bales of grass/alfalfa hay for the last 3 years here. It is trucked in from Iowa and THE only place to get it. The local straight grass is nothing but "filler" and bedding as far as goat feed would be concerned. I did find some at $6.00 a bale 3 years ago, delivered at 100 bales per delivery and half was moldy and must have been at least 2 years old it was sooo brown and brittle. Back to the local feed mill for the decent stuff for the girls. Straight 2nd cut alfalfa is the same price, but a tad too rich for the girls as a steady diet.

Whew, east TX can be [& usually IS] HOT HOT HTO.

Lots of ticks, chiggers spiders, you name it they are there. My cousins used to live in Mt Pleasant, I so remember the sweltering heat.

Coming from nice dry NM, the Hill country was about the only place i would accept in TX.

If it was me, I would renegotiate the hay baling arrangement. Taking 2/3 is a lot. But baling it yourself is a lot of work, and keeping the equipment going is hard I understand.

Welcome to the Lone Star State from a native Texan.

Thanks everyone! Lots to think about. . .

And I've already gotten a good taste of the heat AND torrential rain in the past month. Whew! Not to mention the brown recluses that like to hang around like house spiders. . . found 2 in my bedroom in one day last week :eek: They seem rather inclined to scurry away though than be agressive.

Also found a king snake in the garden, but I hear those are the good ones. :)

Just got done clearing out the old tomato garden and mixing in some compost so it'll be ready this spring.<--- 20' x 40' (only 1 more acre of garden prep to go)


Wind in her Hair, the previous owners left some onions from their spring harvest in the "barn/shop" they arn't good for eating anymore, but can I use them for planting new onions in the spring?