Worldwide Beekeeping
Sustainable Living => Homestead => Topic started by: DLMKA on June 10, 2014, 11:31:39 pm
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Not a big place but big enough to get myself in lots of trouble. Found 11.5 acres with 6 bedroom old farmhouse with a barn and a couple decent outbuildings and the price was right. 6 acres are in grass/alfalfa hay the house and buildings sit on about an acre and the rest is pasture set up into 6 grazing paddocks. I'll have more room for making and storing bee equipment and can keep some hive on site for queen rearing and any hives that need to be close to home for feeding or whatever. We close July 18. Hoping to have chicks in brooder pens within 3 weeks so we can fill the freezer with chicken before winter. Would like to start with some hogs in the spring unless I can get a nearly grown gilt that can get AI in winter to have piglets in spring. The house is right on a fairly busy road which will be good for selling honey and produce.
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Congrats and good luck!
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SuuWeeet farm house :) Many blessings on your new property ;) 8)
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I like it, space to roam.
Ken
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That is great!! Nice looking place and hope you will enjoy it.
..............now the work begins!
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WOW! Nice looking place! Replant six of those acres into bee pasture. Plant 20 - 30 hives right there. Yep, a nice pig pen, a chicken coop.. and a Horse.. have to have a horse. Every farm has an old horse roaming around just for the day Gas prices permanently hit $5.00 a gallon.. Is the hand pump still in the yard? Have to have a hand pump somewhere out there... when the temps hit 105... there is nothing like ducking your head under that hand pump....... :o OMG thats cold!!!
City folks think that your life is over when you buy the farm.. You know why they "still" think that way? Because the rest of us dont want them city folks to know thats when life really begins!
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Absolutely Fantastic! I am jealous for shizzle. Big ole classsic American Four Square and that vintage barn and lush land....you sir, are going to get in trouble with all that, ha! :)
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very nice! nothing like country living, enjoy!
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Beautiful. Enjoy it.
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Beautiful man!
Sent from my SCH-R970 using Tapatalk
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Thanks everyone! We can't wait to move, ready to get away from lazy, irritating next door neighbors that lack boundaries and can't mind their own business and have to meddle in mine. Kids are looking forward to getting some animals and we'll probably end up with a great pyrenees pup as a flock/herd watchdog.
I don't want anything to do with horses, I don't mind looking at them or being around them, just don't want to own one. We tried hard to find a place tucked back into a secluded area of timber but with some flat, tillable acres but they just don't exist in this part of the country, we have row crop production ag around us so I probably won't be keeping many hives there. There is a bunch of relcaimed strip mine just to the north a few miles, will try to make friends with some landowners up there and have a place to put bees and will be keeping the main apiary a mile from current house. It's 30 miles away but I'll be coming right past it on my way to work 2-3 days a week so I can make regular visits. I also want to keep a relationship with the old man that owns that ground. He has 68 acres surrounded by residential areas but has resisted being bought out and usurped by the city. He doesn't ever want that to happen to his land. I would like to, at some point, have the option of buying it from him.
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we have row crop production ag around us so I probably won't be keeping many hives there.
? Why not? Most of my hives have corn and beans growing within a few feet of the hives. Fence rows, draws, cricks, etc, etc.. lots of opportunity. Maybe not 20 or 30 hives worth, but I'd bet you could manage six to ten there.
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Why not? Most of my hives have corn and beans growing within a few feet of the hives. Fence rows, draws, cricks, etc, etc.. lots of opportunity. Maybe not 20 or 30 hives worth, but I'd bet you could manage six to ten there.
I didn't say I wouldn't keep any. I have a spot right in front of the barn where I want to put some, they'll be visible from the road but behind a gate and electric fence and very near the house. It will be good season long advertising for honey. I'll be keeping good drone mother hives there and doing all my future queen rearing and use the area for mating yard. I have other, more secluded areas where I can keep bees with better forage and sheltered from the wind and spray drift.
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Maybe a tbh or two also? ;)
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I like your outlook on life DLMKA. Beautiful spot with limitless possibilities. 8)
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I like your outlook on life DLMKA. Beautiful spot with limitless possibilities. 8)
As the sole provider for a family of 6 and having had my income taken away due to lay-off back in 2009 my outlook changed completley. I'm looking for ways to make myself resistant to the loss of income as long as I'm healthy. I haven't felt comfortable since being rehired and back in the workplace that I'll have a job next week and I hate that. We've been doing things to provide for ourselves out of need. I'm probably never going to make a living keeping bees but have made some good side income and the plan in motion is to continue to have some bee income. The kids are old enough now that they can help out with things and the two girls are GREAT salespeople.
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Homesteading ~ It's a Good Thing!
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Good for you. Hope my day is coming soon. Meantime I just keep farming 1/3 of an acre...
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Good for you. Hope my day is coming soon. Meantime I just keep farming 1/3 of an acre...
I have a double lot in town now, about 1/4 acre. I went as far as I could and then a little. The chickens were too much for the city officials and made me remove them last year. Pretty sure the animal control guy that came to make sure they were gone wasn't impressed with the pile of feathers I left in the grass. Made good dumplings though....
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Congratulations. That is a beautiful old home and out buildings. We bought 80 acres when we moved back up to Nebraska...that was just to much for us. We are now on 5.5 acres. We butchered 20 meat birds Wednesday have about 60 more as they make weight. The geese have six goslings waddling along as of a week ago. The laying hens give about 9 eggs a day...plenty for us and to sell a few. We had been raising a couple of beef calves every year or so but with calves close to a thousand or so....we are going back to venison. With an occational butcher shop 1/4 beef and hog. If your going to raise hogs make sure you can keep them penned. If they can get out they will. Been there done that. I think you idea of going for the bees is the best....Canning produce also helps. Might consider putting in an outside wood burner to heat with. Saves a lot of spendable income. Just some of the things we have done to be more self sufficient. Tom
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If your going to raise hogs make sure you can keep them penned. If they can get out they will. Been there done that.
Isn't that the truth. I have spent WAY too much of my life chasing piglets and pigs.. ONCE would have been too much... I bury the panels now, AND put telephone poles along the inside of the Panel.. A few steeples through the cattle panel into the pole, and if they start to root out from under the poles I run a strand of electric... Did I mention i really don't like chasing pigs?
We also installed an outside wood burner, but I installed it "IN" the wood shed with an insulated chimney.. I'm here to tell you, when its -20 and the wind is blowing 40 mph that Shed makes a HUGE difference when i have to fill the stove... Thats not to mention a cold November rain or an uncommon blizzard... All I have to do is get TO the shed and I am sheltered while I fill the stove. Buy a size bigger than they recommend.. I fill mine once in the morning and once in the evening.. In floor heat.. getting back into the house, taking off the boots and putting COLD tingly toes on that heated floor is pure bliss.. We have two items left.. a windmill to aerate the pond, and a windmill for power..
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We're mostly moved in, just a few odds and ends at the old house. Lots of unpacking and organizing to do yet. I don't know how we got so much crap in the old house. Going to try to get a garden plot tilled and some fall veggies planted at the new place here in the next week. Have a few clean-up and repair projects to get started on soon. Will need to put a roof on the barn in the next 2-3 years, it's got some leaks and the old roof is slate so no good way to fix it short of a tear-off.
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Would love to see pics of the place :) And a pic of you and your wife in front of the farm house, you with a pitch fork ;)
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Pitchfork an straw hats please!
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We have two items left.. a windmill to aerate the pond, and a windmill for power..
American Eagle Windmill is up and pumping air into the pond..
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Now to figure out the windmill for power.. I thought some good old windmills scrounged from nearby farms.. a dozen or so, with one wire alternators on them to charge batteries would work fine.. wife disagrees...
Any new pics of the farm yet?
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Been here two months. Still getting unpacked and organized. Realize I have some flashing around windows that needs reworked and possible repair to water damage underneath :( Surface drainage around the house and buildings needs work but I can borrow a bobcat from work, I just need to figure out the best way to get the water to go where I want it. We got the garden tilled up and ready for spring, I was going to till again this weekend but broke the rope on the tiller tonight. I need to get a new electric fence charger and sink new ground rods, have about 700' of perimeter fence to install before I can move pigs out on pasture. I just don't trust electric 100%. I'm going to get posts set in the next few weeks before it freezes and I can work the fence this winter as the weather allows. It'll take a few years to get things going and it's a lot of work but I wouldn't give it up for anything, I was never meant to be stuck living in town.
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Need pics along the way D ~ such a lovely place and would like to watch it tranform :)
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It'll take a few years to get things going and it's a lot of work but I wouldn't give it up for anything, I was never meant to be stuck living in town.
:occasion14: :agree:
It can seem like a hard life when there is a lot of work to get done in a short time.. but then, there are those times when you CANT do anything, or are waiting to do them... I think those times are the hardest... I might get aggravated when I have a LOT to do.. but then, When I have nothing to do I find myself wishing I could get back at it again..
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Being a retired fire capt. in Springfield, Mo. it's hard to get me to leave the farm to go to the city for anything. The city has doubled in size and the traffic is awful, as for pigs, i used an elec, fence, once they touched it with there nose a few times making them go root there nose in the mud, you can take it down and you can't drive them across where it was until they find out it's not there anymore. :laugh: I got rid of the pigs when my wife said either the pigs go or i go :o i'm not much of a cook so i sold them. 8). Welcome to the world of, i'll get this done today and fix that tomorrow (ya, right) or, well maybe next year will be better. ??? Jack
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"I got rid of the pigs when my wife said either the pigs go or i go :o i'm not much of a cook so i sold them. 8)"
........... :D
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@DLKMA:
That is a beautiful home and barn. The vintage, New England style barn, really tweaks me up. You can do a lot on 12 acres of good land. Pigs and chickens don't require much space and you will have room for a huge garden. We have a local fellow that sells vegetables from a trailer parked in front of his home. If he is not present he just lets people pay on the honor system. He gardens about three acres around his home with one small tractor. He told me he netted about 30 grand a year out of his operation.
Another gal I know keeps chickens on a large remodeled cotton trailer and moves the trailer from hay farm to hay farm. The chickens eat grasshoppers and insects like there is no tomorrow. She had a symbiotic arrangement with several farmers and sells free range eggs galore.
Do some planning and you will have a lot of options on your farm. It is a beautiful place. I wish I was there and younger.
Lazy
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Further to what LS said, there is a keep on Prince Edward Island that has a honey shack at the end of his driveway that runs on the honour system as well, and it bring in an astonishing amount of $$$ in a year (double digit I believe). :)
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"I got rid of the pigs when my wife said either the pigs go or i go :o i'm not much of a cook so i sold them. 8)"
........... :D
I can add to that. One of my middle ages pals lost his wife a couple of years back to Lupus. Some months later he told his daughter he was going to start dating, and he had an interest in Mexican women. She asked why in particular a Mexican woman (he is a tall Swede), and he said he loved all women, but he really liked Mexican food. It reminded me of the above Jack quote.
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"I got rid of the pigs when my wife said either the pigs go or i go :o i'm not much of a cook so i sold them. 8)"
........... :D
I can add to that. One of my middle ages pals lost his wife a couple of years back to Lupus. Some months later he told his daughter he was going to start dating, and he had an interest in Mexican women. She asked why in particular a Mexican woman (he is a tall Swede), and he said he loved all women, but he really liked Mexican food. It reminded me of the above Jack quote.
:laugh: ;D :laugh:
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@DMKLA:
One thing about owning a farm, is that you never get it all done. When I was a boy, we would plant and cultivate our crops, and lay them by. Dad would then take us to the river for a few days of fishing, swimming and just plain fun. He always said, you just have to take some time off because we will never get the ranch in perfect condition, and you won't. There's always something to be improved upon.
As an aside, I once had to put an electric fence around the lower part of my backyard wood fence to keep a digging dog retained. Soon there was a trail about two feet back from the fence, and I had to carry the dog over through the gate. As an experiment, I turned of the electricity to the fence. The dog never tested it. Pigs are very smart, and I bet Jack is correct in that they won't get near the fence in a short time, (think two days).