Remember those pictures of my neighbor's old cow barn? Well guess what? It's about to be resuscitated. Yep, as of last Saturday, this farm girl got herself a big ol' barn, and 5 - 10 acres to expand her farm on!!
My neighbor came by last Saturday so as to work on the land a bit; check on some old trees, pull down some scotch broom, and see what was new in the forest. While he was here, I asked him for permission to clean out the barn and put it to use again, as well as asking for some pasture. My neighbor was delighted with the idea and has given me full permission to do what I like on the land; rent free. He didn't even flinch at the idea of pastured hogs. LOL.
So now he and I are looking into hooking the electricity back up into the barn. The power lines are there, we just need the electric company to re-install them. Or at least, we're hoping it will be that easy. Meanwhile, my dad is considering ideas to bring water down to the barn from our nearby cistern. My most present task is to get cleaning. That barn needs it.
Today I spent most of my day fighting with blackberries. You see, there's a perimeter fence that runs along the back half of the barn, but it's overgrown by who knows how many years' worth of blackberries. I'm trying to unbury that perimeter fence so that I can make some minor repairs and make it livestock worthy. Once that's done, then I'd like to introduce some hogs into the area to dig those blackberry roots out. I feel good about the amount of work that got done today, though. Before I started you couldn't even see a fence. It took me quite some time just to find it, it was so overgrown. After a few hours, and with the aid of a sister (I knew those sisters were good for something!!), we're now about 2/3's of the way done. I don't know how old that fence is, but it's still horse high, hog tight, and bull strong. Amazing.
Pretty soon I'll start cleaning the inside up. That part is still a bit daunting to me... I may have to call reinforcements in for a day. Many hands make light work, right??
Seeing the farm finally getting to expand is both exciting and terrifying at the same time. I have room now to think about more animals, more possibilities, more ideas... But at the same time that means more responsibilities, more risks, and more stress. It's a trade-off, but one that I accept. On top of thinking about normal everyday tasks and upcoming summer projects that always pop up, I now have to think about the fact that I need fencing, a solar charger, livestock, some sort of predator control (whether that's a Nite Guard or an LGD, I haven't decided yet.), and the fact that time is ticking and the pasture is only going to keep growing in the meantime.
But first things first. Clean the barn out.
I'm breaking ground though, my friends. Goat Song Farm is growing.
6 comments:
Congratulations! I do want to suggest some kind of contract with the neighbor before you put all kinds of time and money into fixing this up. If you are doing this work, you're making it worth a lot more. When you have it done, what's to stop the neighbor to selling it or renting it to someone else. I would really keep that in mind if you are running your water to someone else's property.
Edenhills, No worries; I'm already writing up a contract for this. ;) And our water source is already on our neighbor's property (we have spring rights over there), so the water line would only be traveling a couple hundred feet.
You are amazing!!!
Here at the Wild Ramp Market we have "Community Help a Farmer" Day each month where (too few but enough) people come out and help complete the task. Over the winter they were generally oriented to high tunnel bedding prep and planting.
If you are not aligned with a market yet and can co-opt volunteers that way, contact your local boy scout and girl scout troops. They have badges to work on that can relate to the work that needs to be done and you can get some young energy to help you!
Are you still going to sell Peaches if you now have the space to keep her separated from trampling all of the wee animals?
That is so exciting!!!!!! If it were my barn I'd hang Christmas lights. I did that in my chicken coop and it looks so happy.
Tasha
*gasp* Tasha, I LOVE the idea of Christmas lights! ^_^ What a grand idea! I'll have to look into this a bit more and see if it would be cost effective enough to do... :)
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