Our "new" homestead and progress of it...

T

TRaGiK

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Meant to start this post a year ago, and for whatever reason just never got around to it.

Short version of how I got here...

Lived in a neighborhood for ~12 years after the wife and I got married. Was growing tired of the city life, and when a neighbor called the police on me for loud music (that I was playing in my garage, while "illegal" fireworks were going off on 4th of July). Immediately I knew I was done with neighbors, neighborhoods, and city life. Pitched the idea of buying land, building a house, etc...and she went for it. Sold the house within 3 months. Moved in with the in laws for 9 months, in which time we bought 10.4 acres and a double wide. Longest 9 months of my life. Somewhere in this time I sold my dad wagon (Chevy Tahoe) and picked up a truck as I knew I'd need one.

Below are pics and progress. I've got hundred of pics, but not going to bother posting all at this point...just the highlights.


Below is what the property looked like when purchased. Completely wooded save for a road that I believe has been there since around 1900, which I believe predates the main road. This would become my driveway.

About 3 acres used to be horse pasture in the early 2000's, and had been replanted with pines.
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Work begins. Also a LARGE cat track. Game cams from the hunt club ~800 yards through the woods shows a bobcat that appears to be in the 50 pound range. Saw tracks a couple more times after these pics were taken as well.
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After dealing with septic perc issues for a few months, finally got the house going in.

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January 28-ish, after 9 long months with the in laws, it was finally moving day!
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More in the next post...
 
So here's the view from my front porch. A over 200 year old church. The second oldest presbyterian church in my county.

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2 weeks after moving in, I had the crappy deck the home builder built, ripped out and replaced with a 16x16 deck.

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Picked up a tractor at the same time, as it was obvious I'd need one...

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So about now, covid hit. At the time I owned co owned a auto repair shop in town. For the past year, I'd been stressing over the business. After much prayer, I decided to exit the business, and this was the best time for me to leave. Sold my half to my business partner, and took up being a lumberjack for a while. Cleared out a half acre of trees by myself, and skidded them to the road with my little 18hp tractor. Nearly worked myself and my tractor to death (literally). At one point, I was pushing a log that got bound up and sprung back hitting the hood of the tractor (only doing about $800 in damage), and then my face. I got out with a black and blue chin, but otherwise fine.

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After more months than I wanted it to take, I finally was able to get someone out to pull the stumps. This was around January of this year.

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More in the next post...
 
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Something I forgot to mention above is, I removed about 75 trees ranging from 6" diameter pines to 24" oaks. Probably about 25 trees that were 1" to 5" diameter.

After the stumps were removed, this left a lot of ruts and holes. Sitting on a 18hp tractor...a sub compact tractor...with a 48" wide bucket and a 48" wide box blade...I didn't even know where to begin with grading this smooth. Combine that with this being my first tractor, I was nearly lost. With that said, I figured it out and got it done. Lots of dragging the box blade. Lots of running a tiller over it. Lots of roots and sticks picked up and heaved into the woods. IMG_20210306_111425.jpgIMG_20210306_111415.jpgIMG_20210306_115141.jpgIMG_20210306_115228.jpgIMG_20210307_142521.jpgIMG_20210307_142601.jpgIMG_20210311_174740.jpgIMG_20210311_174731.jpg

More in the next post...
 
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While we're on the subject of things that I don't know wtf I'm doing...

Chickens and fencing. Bought a prefab coop (a mistake that I won't repeat) and built a 16 x 32 run. Never built a fence before, and knew very little about doing such...and this fence shows it. But it'll work. Learned a lot on this one.

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Picked up 8, 8 week old pullets. Paid more for them vs chicks, but I figured I'm less likely to kill them by accident.

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Planted 2 peach trees, 3 thornless blackberry bushes, and 17 blueberry bushes (4 larger ones, 13 tiny ones that probably won't produce for a few years)

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Back to the area I cleared. Roughly a half acre. I'll be using it for a garden. Roughly 1/4 of it will be a flower (for pollinators) garden. The rest will be usual garden stuff. Fencing in with t posts and inexpensive vinyl deer netting. Will be 6ft tall, and I hope tall enough to keep the deer out. If it does, next year I'll use actual fencing for it. Currently waiting on another 24 yards of compost to be delivered (on top of the 12 I've already tilled in), so I can plant and then finish the fence.
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Been lots of stuff I've done that I'm not posting about as it's not nearly as interesting.

After selling my half of the shop I co owned, my wife has encouraged me to NOT return to work. So I'm taking up....homesteading? Farming? I don't know what to call it exactly. My plan with this garden and chickens is to both feed my own family and can a bunch of it, donate as much as possible to a local food pantry, and to sell enough of it to cover the cost of seeds this year. If I can manage this myself this year, I'll probably triple the size of the flock of yard birds and the garden and see if I can make a small profit next year, while still donating a lot to the food bank.

I've worked harder doing this than I ever have working on cars, but I'm having the time of my life with it!

I'll update this thread as I have stuff to post if there's any interest in it.
 
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Very cool! Those little Kubota's are workhorses! I had a similar mishap with my BX24...took it to a friends house to dig a footing for a HAM tower, ended up leaving it there for a week, he tried to lift his tower and place it on a stiff-knee.
The tower slid off and busted the hood and dash.....nearly $900 worth of replacement parts!
 
Thoughts:
The foundation under that doublewide looks fantastic.
The deck looks even better.
That tractor doesn't look big enough.


TRaGiK said:
my wife has encouraged me to NOT return to work. So I'm taking up....homesteading? Farming?
Click to expand...

It's called "retirement"
 
Snal~ said:
Very cool! Those little Kubota's are workhorses!
Click to expand...

Thanks! It truly is. It'll do far more than I expected.

GoWolfpack said:
Thoughts:
The foundation under that doublewide looks fantastic.
The deck looks even better.
That tractor doesn't look big enough.




It's called "retirement"
Click to expand...
Thanks. The tractor isn't big enough. 90% of the time, it's perfect. 10% of the time, I really wish it had a bigger bucket, more HP, and more weight.

I hesitate to call this retirement at my age. I'm only 40.
 
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TRaGiK said:
Thanks! It truly is. It'll do far more than I expected.


Thanks. The tractor isn't big enough. 90% of the time, it's perfect. 10% of the time, I really wish it had a bigger bucket, more HP, and more weight.

I hesitate to call this retirement at my age. I'm only 40.
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Yep, I loved mine for the first few years due to the fact that it is only 4 feet wide. Which allowed me to get into treed places with my 36" brush cutter very easily. Now that I have those areas pretty much maintenance free I wish I had a larger tractor.
Best add-on for mine was a homemade thumb for the backhoe. I can pick up a pretty good sized log and let the BH hold it while I cut it to firewood chunks. Saves my back and keeps the chainsaw out of the dirt.
 
Keep it Rocking!!! Living the Dream, is a labor of love!! Look into Native perennials (lobelias, golden rod, cardinal flower, bottle brush buckeye and more .....) paw paw is great for fruit also, Bees, Free-ranging those chickens (some will die sometimes), and Perennial Food plots like asparagus, and strawberries are fun.
That stuff can really make a difference. Also legume cover crops (clover), and other food sources for the wild critters ya might wanna eat sometime.🖖
 
This truly is living the dream for me. I wanted a couple acres out in the country when we first got married, but we couldn't afford land where it was convenient for my wife to drive to work at the time. At this point, my wife works from home full time, so commuting to RTP wasn't an issue anymore. And the kid was just about to get her driver's liscense when we moved in, so carting her around was about to end as well.

When we first started looking for land, I was looking for 2 to 5 acres, as we really couldn't afford much more than that...or so I thought. After searching for a couple months, I found this spot. It is as far from the city as I can be while still remaining in Lee County, and in the least likely to get annexed part of the county. It's closer for me to go to Carthage than it is to Sanford. And 15 minutes further to Wake County than almost anywhere else in Lee County. All that to say that this is basically the least desirable (for most people) and least populated area in Lee Co. The land I found had been listed off and on for 5 years, and incorrectly listed as commercial property. Made the land owner an offer for 25% less than asking, and he accepted. The price of 10.4 acres was substantially less than tax value, and less money than most 5 acre lots I'd found elsewhere.
 
Looking good and you have put in a lot of work! Having worked with heavy equipment and clearing trees you have for sure put the little kubota threw some tough times! No great way of clearing land and clean up of roots and filling stump holes without a lot of work and time to do it right and looks like you have gotten the hang of it.
 
BatteryOaksBilly said:
You should be proud of all your work and especially at such an early age.
This should give you a L O N G time to appreciate a good life.
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Thank you. And I sure hope so. My dad wanted a place outside of the city with a few acres for a few decades. He finally got it when he was around 68 years old...and passed away 2 years later, barely getting to enjoy it while he was on this earth. I wanted to make sure I got to enjoy it longer than that (well...I didnt want to die of "old" age in 2 years anyway).

"Retiring" at 40 wasn't planned at all. But as I said, the wife didn't want me to return to work, and did a few things to make it so I didn't have to.
 
I found when your living this way you are only technically retired, because you typically work harder and longer in a day than most people in the work farce.
The work is much more rewarding though, in my humble opinion. Like any endeavor though, there is no escaping the good days and the bad ones.
 
Bloodyhands said:
I found when your living this way you are only technically retired, because you typically work harder and longer in a day than most people in the work farce.
The work is much more rewarding though, in my humble opinion. Like any endeavor though, there is no escaping the good days and the bad ones.
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Absolutely. I co owned the shop I was at for almost 11 years. The last few months if it was the worst, but the last 3 years was bad for me. I hated everything about owning the business and what goes along with it, and my attitude was starting to show.

My worst days now are better than my best days at the shop! Some days still suck, but I still love it!
 
I know you are busy and such but that cat track might need a little more attention ... especially around the chicken coop. A couple game cams to see what’s actually out there ... even besides what left that track ... like possums, coons, etc. You might wind up running a hot wire around the top off the enclosure if climbing critters come calling.

A little suggestion for deterrence lighting ... we have 3 solar powered motion sensor light packs we can just hang from trees, fence posts, side of building, etc that are one piece self contained units that work well without any running of power or such. It hangs on two screws so you can rotate them around if you like in a minute or two ... especially if you already have the screws in from previous use. They will light up the night ...

 
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Ive had game cams out here since just prior to moving in. Haven't got pics of any cats, and the tracks disappeared a couple months after we moved in.

I've seen fox with my own eyes, as well as on the camera, along with possums and racoons. So I know I'll likely have an issue at some point. Motion lights are on my list of things to install. Didn't think of a hot wire at the top of the run, but that may be something I need to do.

The coop itself IS secure. I don't see anything getting into the coop itself.
 
If the birds are roosting in the wood section you will likely be ok. I have had something pull the wire off a coop and take my birds before, but it was quail and not chickens.
 
Got the big raised bed planted today. Tomatoes, bell peppers, and hot peppers.

This planter I actually built last year using cedar trees from my property. Moved it a couple weeks ago into the garden area that didn't exist when I originally built it.

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Planted the two stock tank planters 4 days ago with bunching onion sets, garlic, and yellow onions. Yellow onions and garlic is sprouting already today.

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Nothing really picture worthy today, but...

Got 12 more yards of compost delivered today (12 more due tomorrow) and tilled into the garden.

Planted 130ft row of mammoth sunflowers and ~320ft of corn (multiple rows). Also transplanted a couple more pepper plants and tomato plants. Should have everything planted by Thursday, and finish the fence on Friday.
 
TRaGiK said:
Thank you. And I sure hope so. My dad wanted a place outside of the city with a few acres for a few decades. He finally got it when he was around 68 years old...and passed away 2 years later, barely getting to enjoy it while he was on this earth. I wanted to make sure I got to enjoy it longer than that (well...I didnt want to die of "old" age in 2 years anyway).

"Retiring" at 40 wasn't planned at all. But as I said, the wife didn't want me to return to work, and did a few things to make it so I didn't have to.
Click to expand...

Lucky SOB. But that also means you made some good decisions and married the right woman. Congratulations and enjoy.
 
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