I need ideas on what to do with my land. We purchased 63 acres nice acres in WV, we need ideas on what to do with it. We have 20 chickens for eggs and we planted some friut trees and berries and grapes. There are 2 barns in ok shape we need to clean them out. We have 3 ponds, and some fencing. I would like a garden for next year and I know where it is gonna go. I want to grow our fruits, veg, and herbs. I would like to raise some pig and cow for the freezer. We have an income but neither of us have to leave the farm so we are here full time. We have 3 kids and 2 dogs (labs) and cats.

Any ideas will be greatful!!!

-- sonneyacres (jtgt12@ntelos.net), December 17, 2001

Answers

Response to Help, Need Ideas

We have 36 acres in Iowa that we bought 2 years ago. Just got moved out there this year so now the work begins. Our land is kind of 'sectioned', or maybe we did that just so we knew what area we were taking about, but there are timber parts, pasture parts, pond areas, ravines - you get the idea. Anyway, my plan (my dream) is to take each of these distinct areas and create it's own theme with flowers, plants and herbs. Some spots are sunny, some are shady, so each area would have it's own 'look'. I just think it would neat to have different areas, filled with different plants where you could sit and read a book or just watch nature. Then I would like to create paths that kind of wind you around to each area. And no, this idea isn't going to create income and it's probably not 'practical', but it will be fun. Plus, looking at the land as a whole is so overwhelming. When you think about it as split it up into smaller segments it's easier (for me anyway) to work with. Just my idea. Whatever you decide I hope you have fun with it! Stace

-- Stacey (stacey@lakesideinternet.com), December 17, 2001.

Response to Help, Need Ideas

Sounds like you have lots of good ideas already. You may want to tackle what you have and see what develops on the way. That's what is happening with our piddly 3 acres. My husband is still trying to get me to agree to goats, I'm just getting used to chickens! 8-)

-- dena (ddew1962@earthlink.net), December 17, 2001.

Response to Help, Need Ideas

I'd say a greenhouse. You can make them as inexpensive as you want. Need a good place to start seedlings if you want to grow an inexpensive garden and save seeds. Also make sure to plant wind breaks, like trees. This saves your buildings from so much weather damage. You can sort of add a flower area and eventually sell those as well(The previous owner of this farm sold Iris). You can have a fence in your orchard for some grapes. You can have a raspberry patch (in an area that allows for the thorny nasty canes..but yummy!) You could have a "shop" area, for small engine repair, or whatnot. You could grow heritage turkeys(my favorites) :o) You could make another seperate area for a fall garden. You can make trails that are safe for kids to tromp. (The deer like the ones we made) Make a play yard, complete with a low tree house? (Not real high because of injury) Do not want bored kids. :o) Have fun!

-- notnow (notnow@blabla.com), December 17, 2001.

Response to Help, Need Ideas

We have everything you do...a pond, chickens, goats ,horses, garden, and a 20 tree orchard.....on 4 acres. You can do much, much MORE than you think on much, much LESS land. If we owned 63 acres.....I would put aside 50 of it as a natural/wild place and not touch it....except to camp, hike, and hunt.

-- Jason in S.Tenn. (AJAMA5@netscape.net), December 17, 2001.

Response to Help, Need Ideas

And before you make any improvements and / or permanent alterations to your property, be completely sure there are no easements - mineral rights that someone may claim later on. I'm sure you have already done this, but if you haven't, please check and make sure you are able to do what you are planning.

The reason I bring this up is that one of my sisters-in-laws, living in the sticks, decided to build an addition onto their home. They first got the loan, then planned the addition, not realizing that new regulations prevented them from realizing their dream. They were able to use the money elsewhere, but it would have been much better to have found out before jumping in.

I hope everything works out for you; you really sound enthusiastic to hit the ground running. Good luck and please let us know how you make out.

-- j.r. guerra (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), December 17, 2001.

Response to Help, Need Ideas

May I suggest e-mailing me separately for a free e-book copy of my book, "How to Earn Extra Money in the Country." Offer is for anyone; however, those with a hotmail account will need to provide some other address to have it sent. It is in MS Word for Windows format.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), December 17, 2001.

There is a great article in the current issue on planning your homestead--wish we had the benefit of it when we first started on this place. I'd sure have placed some things differently, and life would be a lot easier. Sometimes it's hard to look at the big picture, and see down the road, but at least you have some idea of what you would like! Ken's book is really great, by the way! Jan

-- Jan in Co (Janice12@aol.com), December 17, 2001.

Ken's book IS really great and there are some GREAT articles on planning your homestead in the current, newest COUNTRYSIDE!

Start small! Some farmers around here are doing well with U-pick orchards or U-pick berry fields! That might be something you want to consider! But I wouldn't try to do too much at first. You need to kind of work your way into it! We have 25 laying hens, 22 rabbits (mostly Angora); three dogs in two seperate fences and three house cats. We have a big garden every year. We have two grape arbors (so far); four apple trees and two pear trees (so far). This spring I plan to plant two more grape vines, some blackberry bushes, a couple more pear and apple trees, and perhaps a couple of peach trees....

-- Suzy in Bama (slgt@yahoo.com), December 17, 2001.

Hello Sonneyacres,

If you are planning on raising livestock, then I would recommend that you use part of yourland to grow grains, (corn,hay,etc). As it can get pretty expensive to feed a couple of hogs or a cow.

If it is feesible in your location I would plant several acres of christmas trees. They are not too difficult of care for and in a few years you can harvest a heftly extra income.

I am one in the belief that many homesteaders start out with too much to do on their land and wind up not being able to enjoy the country life. If you just add a little to your homestead at a time and get use to caring for it gradually you may have yourself a very independant farm in a couple of years. I started with chickens and now am in the process of raising a couple of milk goats. Next year I may raise a couple of hogs for meat and sell. Take it gradually or you may become overwhelmed and/or discouraged!

Sincerely,

Ernest

-- http://communities.msn.com/livingoffthelandintheozarks (espresso42@hotmail.com), December 17, 2001.

How about some Christmas trees in the mix? Hay is a good crop, and you may be able to rent some acreage to a farmer who already has the equipment needed for a couple of years. (or more.) If you are interested in wildlife and also edible landscaping, consider putting in some areas of shrubs and bushes which bear edible fruits, for wildlife and for you. Do you have a woodlot? Spare or scrub land can be planted to valuable hardwoods for firewood and furniture.

-- seraphima (gardener@com.post), December 17, 2001.

Don't know how close you are to these guys, but you might want to check out their site...

http://www.lightstone.org

-- Michel McDonald (michelm@mindspring.com), December 17, 2001.

When we first moved onto our 33 acres, 23 years ago, we contacted the farm agent at the cooperative extention. After a farm visit, he advised us that we could raise replacement dairy heifers or sheep on our land. And as a side income,to plant Christmas trees. We decided on sheep, now have 50 of them, and also planted 5,000 Christmas trees over a five year period. You need to decide if you want to utilize the land as a supplemental income or as a self sufficient farm just for your own needs. How much involvement will be from your children or spouse? Any type of dairy animals, be it cows or goats require your input 24/7 . Other livestock means you have to be there almost daily. Crops or orchards or even beekeeping are less intense. Whatever you decide on, research it well first, read a lot, ( good books through the library), visit other folks in the area, have your kids join a 4-H club. See what types of animals are at your local county fairs and get contacts that way as well. Just some ideas.

-- Kate henderson (kate@sheepyvalley.com), December 18, 2001.

Any woodland with adequate rainfall, whether it be scrub or woodlot or Christmas trees or forest, can and should grow a variety of mushrooms and maybe other fungi. Can be a cash crop, but at the very least it gives you some luxury food to eat free. There's some chance you could grow other things as well. This has been covered in the "not archives but older messages". One possibility (longer term) is gin-seng, but there are others I don't remember off-hand - golden something, (seal?) maybe".

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), December 18, 2001.

Ponds: What's in them, do you know? You can make a parking area & have a pay lake (small) for public fishing. If your ponds aren't stocked (though they probibly have some fish in them) Fish & Game (I've heard) will stock it for you for free if it's open to the public.

If you want both hogs & a steer for the freezer, do you really want all that meat or are you shareing (selling) the extra to familey &/or friends? If not you may want to consider a mini breed of cattle. They only come waste high (average) & are easier to handle. Check out www.minicattle.com/minicow/index.cfm as they list about 19 different mini cattle breeds that they reconize (they are a registry).

You can plant a large berry patch (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, & sweet & sour cherries are the most common) for a U-PICK business. Also vegi's like greenbeans, peas, tomatoes, peppers (sweet & hot), cucombers (sp), etc... that produce a lot over an extended season are good for a U-PICK. Or you can have the berries alone as a U-PICK & have preharvested vegi's & other fruit not included as part of the U-PICK (apples, pears, etc...) waiting to be bought when they pay for the fruit.

A greenhouse is always a great investment & it can be made as cheep as you want (most of the time). Start seedlings so you get an earlier start on the growing season (produce for you or for sale earlier in the season & longer growing/harvesting season). Have extra seedlings (vegi's, or flowers) for sale. Most of the time you can start selling from your greenhouse before you will have anything to harvest from your gardens/orchards. Then when the greenhouse plants are gone or business drops off, it's usually time to harvest your gardens/orchards. Sometimes you can use the greenhouse in the early part of the winter (not just poinsettas (sp) for holidays but for growing salad greens). Depends on how much you could grow if this would be worth your time in the winter. Winter is usually a time to rest from the growing season, however money can be brought in by selling extra livestock (though prices on the later will be better in spring then fall/winter).

Hay is a good cash crop as someone always needs it.

You could build a stable (large or small your choice) with pasture/pens & board horses. (I always thought that if I was able to take in 2 or 3 extra horses, what they paid me monthly for board would also cover my own horses feed costs. Specially if I grew my own hay.)

You could set some land off for hunting. Or you could make a campground for both RV's & tents. On campground idea, make sure you provide a pet (pooping) area, showers with the toilets, and a way for people to cook (fire pit, above ground grill like are at many parks).

If you get it done at an inspected facility or get yourself inspected to do this, you can sell frozen cleaned fish/meat. Just have a freezer at your road side stand (with signs). You could offer farm raised deer (not wild), rabbit, pheasent, etc... to everyone (specially to hunters that go home empty handed). Check to see if you need a permit to keep some kinds of stock in your area (ie. deer, wild turkey or mallard duck strains offered from hatcheries, etc...).

You could get more chickens & have a meat bird or egg business (doesen't need to be big). Farm fresh eggs are always good sellers at road side stands.

There are a lot of things you could do with your land. However, the best way to keep making money is diversity. You don't have to go all out on one thing (apple orchards are loseing money if not going out of business, but berry patches are good money makers as there are usually several different berries not just different veriaties of one kind of berry). Also don't go into something on someone elses say so. Check it out, do lots of research, get opinions from several different pro's, & never go into anything blind. That's the quickest way to lose your shirt, & maybe even your home. Always start small & expand from there. For example: If you started a road side stand. You could start with tomatoes, greenbeans, cucombers, sweet corn, peas (both shell & edible pods), sweet peppers & only a few hot peppers. From there you could put out cards asking what people wanted (different type of what you was growing, something you hadden't grown like spinach). You could take this pole for a couple of months to get the most responses. (discard duplecate cards from the same person. They might have forgoten they had already responded or might be trying to shift the vote in their favor) At that time you'd see what food/flower got the most votes, & what verities were most asked for. You'd then put up a sign the next year ????? would be grown (added) selecting 3-6 plants (squash, beets, collards, etc...). Next year you would just have to see how well (or not) it sells, take another poll, & adjust for the next year. After a few years, you should have a large variety & can cut back to adding 1 or 2 if any a year. Mean while, You can be slowly planting a berry patch (so you aren't buying a lot of plants all at once, thats expensive). By the time it matures you should have a good start with them more then ready to try your fruit.

Remember this was only an example. Don't take my word for it, do lots of research. I hope this helps.

Sorry this is so long.

animalfarms

-- animalfarms (jawjlewis@netzero.net), December 18, 2001.