Any farmers?

Read the book "Everything I want to do is illegal" (http://www.mindfully.org/Farm/2003/Everything-Is-Illegal1esp03.htm) from the library or something. It is a good example of what prevents folks like us from ever actually selling anything useful from our little farms (that reside in our heads for now) but I am with the general though of this board, a few hundred acres, a few cows/pigs/chickens/goats and enough kids to help keep it running, and I'd be a happy man, money or not.

My eventual plan is to just have a small family farm nothing on the scale of the big industrials or what others in my family have. I'm figuring mostly grow things to help sustain the family sell a bit of the over flow. Grew up working on a horse ranch so more than likely that would be our main livestock aside from a few head of cattle to have a nice rotation of fresh butchered beef each year. Crops would be mostly things that we would eat and sell at the weekend farmers markets when we had extras. Maybe some chickens but neither of us are huge on eggs so most of those would get sold.

Around here you can go to the roundup auctions for the kiger mustangs each year and those are more than likely what we would raise. They are what we had at my old job and they are beautiful horses, some even have stripes on their legs, very cool. Though initial stock would likely come from my uncle.

I would setup a shop for my cars and to do my leather work. In the house I would setup an office that was my "digital dark room" and more than likely an actual dark room in the basement. There would of course be a barn for the farm equipment. More than likely a small bunk house as well for when my rowdier friends come to visit.

I would be looking at around 100 acres or so I figure. Not that I have thought about this much.

Sounds great, can I come live with you?

I have two brown thumbs and eight brown fingers. Everything I have ever planted has croaked. I'll stick working with something I understand to make money to buy food with.

But I'd still like to have a big chunk o' acreage somewhere just so I could ride dirt bikes without some jerk telling me I coudn't.

Lesley wrote: Sounds great, can I come live with you?

Fine by me Lesley though my girlfriend might have a few words about the subject lol.

However she has said I can have all the car projects I want (without putting us in the poor house) as long as she has a horse and a Jeep . Which is alright by me because I figured a Jeep and a 1 ton diesel truck would be needed to help out around the farm. Jeep for going out across the property when horse back isn't an option and the truck for pulling car and stock trailers. Once kids are in the picture something with more seating would have to get in the mix.

Oh I have also played with the idea of putting in a small dirt kart track.

We have 40 acres and lease about 30 to my farmer buddy. It gives me a bit of room to ride my bikes, and generally do whatever we feel like We usually have about a dozen hens for eggs, and once a year do up some meat birds. We have some 9.5 lb birds in the freezer right now. I'd like to raise some goats, and maybe some rabbits, but my wife doesn't know what to do with them in the kitchen.

suprf1y wrote: We have 40 acres and lease about 30 to my farmer buddy. It gives me a bit of room to ride my bikes, and generally do whatever we feel like We usually have about a dozen hens for eggs, and once a year do up some meat birds. We have some 9.5 lb birds in the freezer right now. I'd like to raise some goats, and maybe some rabbits, but my wife doesn't know what to do with them in the kitchen.

Once goats get into the kitchen, it's actually pretty easy. You see, they eat pretty much anything, and don't sit on chairs, so they can just dine on leftovers you throw on the ground. Do this often, though, or else they will eat the furniture and the drapes.

Rabbits are tougher - they eat primarily veggies. I would set them a plate and put raw veggies on it which they can eat whilst scampering about the table. Rabbits can differ too, so you may have some rabbits that like celery and some that like carrots, for example.

Oh, you meant you wanted to eat those animals? Huh... I dunno then.

I got a plan. It involves retiring and starting a hobby farm to make some money on the side.

hmmm.

I've always wanted to grow some chickens when i get some land... I'm not sure if i could be a flul fledged farmer, though. Like somebody else mentioned, it's a time sink and not necessarily profitable.

I actually gave these folks a call to see where I could pick up their mag locally and they sent me a free copy of backyard poultry (and countryside & small stock journal as well!). It's a pretty interesting magazine, and I get the feeling that there's an overlap between the mindsets of grm and their mag.

http://www.backyardpoultrymag.com/