You are so right. This has been our biggest issue since starting our small farm is that we don’t know real people. I think actually getting out face-to-face with people is what’s going to sell your products because we have had zero luck so far on Facebook. Advertising in our state, and not one single sale. I think if we had that good base community that things would be so much different. Thank you for putting this out and letting others know the truth.
A plan on paper would be my first.This happens several times through the process. What do you want out of the farm, on paper. Where do you want to be, on paper. Once you find land, where do you want your infrastructure, on paper. Every time you take a step, put it on paper first.
That’s a great start, I mentioned that to some extent in the lists at the end. I have found through consulting that having a strong community connection helps to build a better plan. Thanks for the comment.
I've only watched the first 2 minutes, but wanted to take a guess at what the most important item is. "Living on the land and understanding what it's telling you". That's my guess. I'll edit this after watching the video. EDIT: Ok yeah, community of course! That goes along with living on the land I suppose, so you can meet your neighbors etc. We are in the process of buying 3 acres of bare land and will be building a house. We've met all the neighbors and they have been SOOOO welcoming and friendly, offering us help at every step of the way. This will be our first time living on acreage and we are moving 100 miles away from familiarity (from the suburbs to rural), but we've been trying to visit the area as much as possible over the last few months to get ourselves and our kids acclimated a bit to the area, activities, and community. We have a big logistics issues that I've never had to deal with before; we are selling our house before we close on the land purchase. Where do you put a house worth of stuff when you have no house to move into? :) So we are renting containers and having them stored near the property until we are able to get onto the property. For us, this means we will be living in a 5th wheel. Also a first time experience for us. We have 4 kids, but luckily 2 of our neighbors are also living in 5th wheels while building their houses and they also have kids. So right off the bat we have a good shared community experience. We are also doing this at the worst time of the year, trying to beat the snow while moving onto the land. And the timing of our house sale closing and the purchase of the land closing just happens to land around the same week as Thanksgiving. Which means most places are closed. Plus there's a literal mountain range between our family holiday plans and where our new land is. This means we'll be driving hundreds of miles quite frequently over the passes during the same time we should be focusing on getting ourselves ready for the cold and snowy weather, which will likely have already arrived by then. My Wife and I have put a ton of thought into this, but here's our current plan: -Pack up our current house into storage containers -Buy a 5th wheel large enough for our family of 6. -Finish selling our house, move into the 5th wheel on a neighbors land or hopefully on our land if we happen to close on the land early. -Put in power/water hookups for the 5th wheel. Might do a septic system as well (or at least a septic tank and finish the whole system after winter). -Build Two 10x20' sheds (200sqft and below doesn't require a build permit). One of them will be insulated, power/water, minisplit and will have our washer and dryer and will be my home office (I work from home). Also using this for climate controlled storage -The 2nd shed will be insulated, but only used for storage. -Move our stuff out of the rented containers and into our owned storage sheds. From this point onward our only costs are for the land and things on the land (i.e. no offsite rental stuff anymore). -Finally relax and let the realization that we just made a massive life changing decision wash over us. :) -Start working on prepping the land for garden/farm/etc. Installing a fence for future animals and our dog. Getting ready for spring and so on. There's SOOO much to do though. Coordinating utility installs (excavator, electrician, PUD, well experts, etc), county permits, even things like needing to get an address assigned to the property and a mailbox...clearing land for a driveway, making a spot for our 5th wheel to sit, choosing the location of the sheds and underground water/electricity, plus where do we install the hookups for the trailer. It's shared well and our neighbors have a pressure tank, but do we need one? I have no idea, plus we need to run the piping from the well on their property, under our driveway access, to our land. How does all that happen and in what order? It's a monstrous task to get onto bare land and it would be far easier if we owned the land months before selling our house. Anyway, guess I needed to vent. Thanks for the video you made some really excellent points!
Awesome, depending on how particular you are about aesthetics I would look into buying a 43’ container. You could use it on the lad to store your items then later turn it into a homestead storage shed or something. You should be able to pick one up for $1200-1500. I would not build any barns prior to the house and being on the land a bit because plans change quickly, I understand the need to store the rv.
@@jwmcginnis Yeah we had a 20ft container lined up, but decided to rent instead of buy. We would rather put that money into a shed. The sheds we are getting can be moved later, although it's likely the one we turn into an office will be on that spot permanently since we have to run power/water to it. These sheds will be leveled on blocks, not directly on the ground (i.e. wood flooring, no foundation). No pole barns going up. Just the two sheds, then next building will be the house. We do have a spot planned for a future shop/barn though. Trying to estimate locations so that we can run power/water lines near there initially. Thanks for the reply!
Very helpful! I wouldn't say chickens are the hardest. Ours live in an arched cattle panel structure with a tarp on it. They free-range so, we just have to feed them a little and water their mini trough. The poo composts on the dirt. The one issue is rain. We haven't built proper nesting boxes, so they lay on the ground under an old dog house top. I would much rather have them than pigs. AGH pigs, at least Ours, refuse to stay in any temporary fence and they tear up hog panels. Definitely agree on not getting goats too soon! We had one that would get her head between the fence lines and unplug it. We do plan to get them again once we have a more permanent area to move them in.
You don't need to buy land that's foolish don't even have to buy cows or goats. Lease the land contract the cattle or goat's. Never buy what you can't buy with cash but banks love homesteaders.
You are so right. This has been our biggest issue since starting our small farm is that we don’t know real people. I think actually getting out face-to-face with people is what’s going to sell your products because we have had zero luck so far on Facebook. Advertising in our state, and not one single sale. I think if we had that good base community that things would be so much different. Thank you for putting this out and letting others know the truth.
Love this take.
A plan on paper would be my first.This happens several times through the process.
What do you want out of the farm, on paper.
Where do you want to be, on paper.
Once you find land, where do you want your infrastructure, on paper.
Every time you take a step, put it on paper first.
I thought #1 was have a plan. Reasonable, detailed and flexible.
That’s a great start, I mentioned that to some extent in the lists at the end. I have found through consulting that having a strong community connection helps to build a better plan. Thanks for the comment.
Excellent video, information, and quality content. Very nice. Thank you.
I been working on my fencing for the last 10 years I all way adding more post. Well telphone poles I'm getting for free my thinking over kill on post
I've only watched the first 2 minutes, but wanted to take a guess at what the most important item is. "Living on the land and understanding what it's telling you". That's my guess. I'll edit this after watching the video.
EDIT: Ok yeah, community of course! That goes along with living on the land I suppose, so you can meet your neighbors etc. We are in the process of buying 3 acres of bare land and will be building a house. We've met all the neighbors and they have been SOOOO welcoming and friendly, offering us help at every step of the way.
This will be our first time living on acreage and we are moving 100 miles away from familiarity (from the suburbs to rural), but we've been trying to visit the area as much as possible over the last few months to get ourselves and our kids acclimated a bit to the area, activities, and community.
We have a big logistics issues that I've never had to deal with before; we are selling our house before we close on the land purchase. Where do you put a house worth of stuff when you have no house to move into? :) So we are renting containers and having them stored near the property until we are able to get onto the property.
For us, this means we will be living in a 5th wheel. Also a first time experience for us. We have 4 kids, but luckily 2 of our neighbors are also living in 5th wheels while building their houses and they also have kids. So right off the bat we have a good shared community experience.
We are also doing this at the worst time of the year, trying to beat the snow while moving onto the land. And the timing of our house sale closing and the purchase of the land closing just happens to land around the same week as Thanksgiving. Which means most places are closed. Plus there's a literal mountain range between our family holiday plans and where our new land is. This means we'll be driving hundreds of miles quite frequently over the passes during the same time we should be focusing on getting ourselves ready for the cold and snowy weather, which will likely have already arrived by then.
My Wife and I have put a ton of thought into this, but here's our current plan:
-Pack up our current house into storage containers
-Buy a 5th wheel large enough for our family of 6.
-Finish selling our house, move into the 5th wheel on a neighbors land or hopefully on our land if we happen to close on the land early.
-Put in power/water hookups for the 5th wheel. Might do a septic system as well (or at least a septic tank and finish the whole system after winter).
-Build Two 10x20' sheds (200sqft and below doesn't require a build permit). One of them will be insulated, power/water, minisplit and will have our washer and dryer and will be my home office (I work from home). Also using this for climate controlled storage
-The 2nd shed will be insulated, but only used for storage.
-Move our stuff out of the rented containers and into our owned storage sheds. From this point onward our only costs are for the land and things on the land (i.e. no offsite rental stuff anymore).
-Finally relax and let the realization that we just made a massive life changing decision wash over us. :)
-Start working on prepping the land for garden/farm/etc. Installing a fence for future animals and our dog. Getting ready for spring and so on.
There's SOOO much to do though. Coordinating utility installs (excavator, electrician, PUD, well experts, etc), county permits, even things like needing to get an address assigned to the property and a mailbox...clearing land for a driveway, making a spot for our 5th wheel to sit, choosing the location of the sheds and underground water/electricity, plus where do we install the hookups for the trailer. It's shared well and our neighbors have a pressure tank, but do we need one? I have no idea, plus we need to run the piping from the well on their property, under our driveway access, to our land. How does all that happen and in what order?
It's a monstrous task to get onto bare land and it would be far easier if we owned the land months before selling our house.
Anyway, guess I needed to vent. Thanks for the video you made some really excellent points!
Awesome, depending on how particular you are about aesthetics I would look into buying a 43’ container. You could use it on the lad to store your items then later turn it into a homestead storage shed or something. You should be able to pick one up for $1200-1500. I would not build any barns prior to the house and being on the land a bit because plans change quickly, I understand the need to store the rv.
@@jwmcginnis Yeah we had a 20ft container lined up, but decided to rent instead of buy. We would rather put that money into a shed. The sheds we are getting can be moved later, although it's likely the one we turn into an office will be on that spot permanently since we have to run power/water to it. These sheds will be leveled on blocks, not directly on the ground (i.e. wood flooring, no foundation).
No pole barns going up. Just the two sheds, then next building will be the house. We do have a spot planned for a future shop/barn though. Trying to estimate locations so that we can run power/water lines near there initially.
Thanks for the reply!
Very helpful! I wouldn't say chickens are the hardest. Ours live in an arched cattle panel structure with a tarp on it. They free-range so, we just have to feed them a little and water their mini trough. The poo composts on the dirt. The one issue is rain. We haven't built proper nesting boxes, so they lay on the ground under an old dog house top. I would much rather have them than pigs. AGH pigs, at least Ours, refuse to stay in any temporary fence and they tear up hog panels. Definitely agree on not getting goats too soon! We had one that would get her head between the fence lines and unplug it. We do plan to get them again once we have a more permanent area to move them in.
I don’t necessarily think chickens are the hardest, they are just not my favorite. Thanks for your good comment and thanks for watching.
You don't need to buy land that's foolish don't even have to buy cows or goats. Lease the land contract the cattle or goat's. Never buy what you can't buy with cash but banks love homesteaders.