How to Handle Farm Visitors

ChristieAcres · #41 06/26/13, 12:03 PM

Ernie, I could hand out "How to Survive in the Forest" books to everyone I know... You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink! For those familiar with the area I live? We have wild edibles in abundance! This is also a mild climate.

Our property is finite, so is the amount of food we have to share. So, obviously, the number of folks we could feed is finite. That is no different than how many extra rooms a home has... We are both self employed and work very hard to provide for ourselves and have anything extra!

For those with lots of extra food, share with as many folks as you can. That is great!

Ernie · #42 06/26/13, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lorichristie

Ernie, I could hand out "How to Survive in the Forest" books to everyone I know... You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink! For those familiar with the area I live? We have wild edibles in abundance! This is also a mild climate.

Our property is finite, so is the amount of food we have to share. So, obviously, the number of folks we could feed is finite. That is no different than how many extra rooms a home has... We are both self employed and work very hard to provide for ourselves and have anything extra!

For those with lots of extra food, share with as many folks as you can. That is great!

Heh. You're not going to convince me of that. I've SEEN pictures of your garden that you've posted and I have an idea of your gardening skills.

If you didn't have to worry about property lines, and you had a hundred pairs of hungry hands there willing to help, you could fill bellies like nobody's business.

The first few months they arrived might be tough, and NO HOMESTEAD is going to make it if people show up to eat but not to work, but if there's anyone I would expect to pull through a crisis then it would be you.

ChristieAcres · #43 06/26/13, 01:19 PM

Okay, now I get your point better, Ernie! You are correct that abilities to "rise to the challenges" would be rather beneficial to have and that is where I have an edge over some perhaps. Family and friends would still come first...

There is the rub...

Quote:

...people show up to eat but not to work

This is typically the norm! That wouldn't fly around here, for sure.

**Tiempo** · #44 06/26/13, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BoldViolet

Since I live on the edge of rural and suburbia and do not yet have my own farm... is people showing uninvited to look around a common problem for those of you with farms and livestock?

I've looked out the window to see strangers IN my pasture petting the horses.

**Tiempo** · #45 06/26/13, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Just how dangerous is your farm?

Never underestimate people's ability to get themselves hurt, especially around animals. Many, many years ago when my Auntie Jean (now in her 70's) was a child, she lost the end of her finger to a rabbit.

Ernie · #46 06/26/13, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tiempo

Never underestimate people's ability to get themselves hurt, especially around animals. Many, many years ago when my Auntie Jean (now in her 70's) was a child, she lost the end of her finger to a rabbit.

Heh. I can believe it. After some deep scratches across my hands and arms, I've learned that those placid fat bunnies in the hutch are not to be trifled with.

I now wear welding gloves when I move them around.

Respect the bunny.

sdnapier · #47 06/26/13, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lorichristie

I no longer allow "visitors," and politely tell all requesters that this is my private home and property, not "open to the public."

Everything I want to sell can be taken to a friend's property, which has hwy frontage. They sell whatever I drop off.

You've just broken my heart! Not that I would ever probably get out your way but I was dreaming. Well, please keep the pictures coming.

I do get it though. My friends are now starting to ask: "what's ripe in the garden". Ever feel like the little red hen???

They also tell me they are coming to my house when things happen. I usually tell them I'm a vegetarian and that's stops them cold. They never seem to think about the garden and orchard...duh.

BigHenTinyBrain · #48 06/26/13, 02:23 PM

Previous owners left sign t the end of the driveway "Caution! These monkeys are known to bite!"

People usually sk me about it later, in town.

**highlands** · #49 06/26/13, 03:17 PM

I get about ten requests a week from people who want to come tour. This is our home and our job. We farm for a living so we are working. Tours are a big interruption that take a lot of time. We don't do tours, conferences, seminars, interns or such although I am perfectly willing to give what I call the "Driveway tour" to customers who come buy to pickup their meat or piglets. We're just not open for touring. We're not agri-tourism. I explain that on our web site:

http://SugarMtnFarm.com/contact

By the way, the insurance agent who I just met with yesterday did ask if we do "paid tours". The answer is no. If we did then our insurance rates would be higher. There are also government regulations related to tours that can trip you up so go in with eyes open.

Ernie · #50 06/26/13, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by highlands

I get about ten requests a week from people who want to come tour. This is our home and our job. We farm for a living so we are working. Tours are a big interruption that take a lot of time. We don't do tours, conferences, seminars, interns or such although I am perfectly willing to give what I call the "Driveway tour" to customers who come buy to pickup their meat or piglets. We're just not open for touring. We're not agri-tourism. I explain that on our web site:

http://SugarMtnFarm.com/contact

Oh heck. If I had that many requests for tours I'd set aside every Saturday for "farm day" and conduct seminars in exchange for tips.

Or I'd create a special newsletter for those customers who are buying from you and set aside one day a month for them to come by. Make that one day a month when you have something extra to sell to them.

Bret · #51 06/26/13, 03:30 PM

I offer a free mandatory violin and banjo recital before a guided hike.

DamnearaFarm · #52 06/26/13, 03:35 PM

I'm kinda like Ernie. I like visitors. My visitors, however, are either people interested in a particular animal and are here to buy or learn more about how I do things with that animal. Or else they're interested in this type of lifestyle and want to learn more.
I'm all about education.
A friend and I put on goat care workshops, dairy goat workshops and this fall we're introducing "Rabbits- From Nestbox to Table". And folks pay for these seminars. The farm tour type things are totally free and if I have something to send them away with (particularly if it ties into whatever they're here for) then I do.
I pass out a butt load of business cards wherever I go and it usually pays off in sales of some sort.
As far as kids/adults minding, I explain how to behave on a farm to the kids (if they're little I squat down on their level and look 'em in the eye) and look to mom/dad occasionally to make sure it's getting through and nine times out of ten they parrot what I've just said back to the youngins.
I have to say the funniest thing that happened was the tiny ones that came here a year or so ago. I gave them each a wee pattypan squash to take home. The little boy kept trying to roll his down the hill and the little girl kept trying to eat hers!

texican · #53 06/26/13, 03:43 PM

Imho, all you have to do to discourage visitors is to tell them to wear steel toed leather boots, full length jeans and long shirts, floppy hat, and bring gloves. We'll be digging up the garden, chopping firewood, digging ditches, mixing concrete, moving boulders, or, if there's nothing else available, we'll be cutting down some timber, hauling the logs to the sawmill, and cutting and stacking boards all day.

I never get any visitors.... for some reason.

Mulegirl · #54 06/26/13, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by texican

Imho, all you have to do to discourage visitors is to tell them to wear steel toed leather boots, full length jeans and long shirts, floppy hat, and bring gloves. We'll be digging up the garden, chopping firewood, digging ditches, mixing concrete, moving boulders, or, if there's nothing else available, we'll be cutting down some timber, hauling the logs to the sawmill, and cutting and stacking boards all day.

I never get any visitors.... for some reason.

This is how we keep extraneous family from visiting. DH's mother and brother were here for a week (to visit the new baby, not that it makes having extra people in the house for a week any less stressful!), and he made them help him with a number of projects my post-c-section condition doesn't allow me to do!

texican · #55 06/26/13, 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ernie

My house has a capacity, but the homestead really doesn't. There's miles and miles of empty land around me. The only thing that keeps me off of it is that the county courthouse has deeds that say I can't walk around out there.

When the SHTF, those absentee landowners and their courthouse deeds aren't going to stop me from feeding anyone who shows up.

Assume these folks showing up will be participating in the workload, and not getting the Holiday Inn treatment (as in expecting room service). I think everyone would appreciate willing hands showing up, as long as they had a strong work ethic and didn't have any griping genes. Be a bonus if they showed up, pulling a tanker trailer full of diesel, or a couple of flat beds full of food, tools, or other supplies. Too many of my relatives expect the Holiday Inn and not the Hardscrabble Green Acres.

Ernie · #56 06/26/13, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by texican

Assume these folks showing up will be participating in the workload, and not getting the Holiday Inn treatment (as in expecting room service). I think everyone would appreciate willing hands showing up, as long as they had a strong work ethic and didn't have any griping genes. Be a bonus if they showed up, pulling a tanker trailer full of diesel, or a couple of flat beds full of food, tools, or other supplies. Too many of my relatives expect the Holiday Inn and not the Hardscrabble Green Acres.

Some of my relatives may be in for a surprise as well.

DSBlack · #57 06/26/13, 07:32 PM

For insurance reasons alone, I would not allow visitors. All it takes is someone hurting themselves doing something stupid to destroy your life and livelihood.

rod44 · #58 06/26/13, 08:20 PM

DSBlack - That is what insurance is for. That is why I have it and can enjoy visitors any time I want. I have never had any problems what so ever from a visitor. Maybe people in Wisconsin are different than other parts of the country???

Ernie · #59 06/26/13, 08:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rod44

DSBlack - That is what insurance is for. That is why I have it and can enjoy visitors any time I want. I have never had any problems what so ever from a visitor. Maybe people in Wisconsin are different than other parts of the country???

Maybe they fall down a lot.

I've never actually known anyone to lose their farm because some visitor got hurt. Can anyone cite documented examples?

Conhntr · #60 06/26/13, 08:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lorichristie

A good thing to remember? All the folks who have happily toured your homesteads know where you live and they will remember during a SHTF scenario...

Quote:

Originally Posted by sdnapier

They also tell me they are coming to my house when things happen.

Ive heard this also. Im a bit of a "prepper" and i get the idea totally. But ive made ALOT of hard sacrifices to get, keep, and maintain this place (as everyone on here tht owns a farm knows) and there is no way someone is getting a free ride. Close family of course, but outside that if someone is planing to use my house as their bug out location.
A. Permission should be asked not assumed
B. They must be bringing a net benefit to me.
Even a small retainer so i can have provisions/supplies for the extra body
Some very useful skills (doctor, vet, real mechanic etc)

But to have someone declare they are going to show up on your doorstep during an emergency (and no doubt with an empty belly and only the clothes on their back), and worse have this be their plan is ignorant. Ive had a few friends get offended and thats life!