I'm new, lost and don't know where to begin

[SomeWhere]

Coming from the big city, well paying job, all the frills money can buy to inheriting a delapadated old house on 25 acres and we now need to 'make our own' instead of buying it. Where in the world do we start?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Hi and

My answer to where do you start - begins with a question.

What are your goals?

 

[bubba1358]

Are you still employed? Making it on your own with a job vs without can impact what's possible. It also affecta your budget.

But again - what are your goals? Do you want to live 100% off tje land starting now? Maybe 3 years from as you ease in? Forget it all, fix it up and sell it?

Or maybe you have no idea, which is cool too.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Maybe its just me, but I think you need to get some good farming advice. You should probably change your reading material to something more suited to you current situation. Hopefully you have some good working tools. I'd guess you should begin by cleaning up a bit....anyone can do that.

 

[baymule]

Start by going to the last page in this forum under all the headings and start reading. Read every last one. Save to your favorites, the links of the topics that really interest or apply to you. Ask questions, we will be more than happy to help you. Also scroll to the bottom of the page if you intend to garden, to www.theeasygarden.com and click on the link. TEG is a sister site and is all about gardening. Between SS and TEG, we got you covered!

 

[Denim Deb]

It would help if we had a general idea of where you are (zone, area of the country ie, southwest, northeast, etc), goals, experience, and what you have to work with already.

 

[SomeWhere]

Oh, so sorry. We are a Christian family of 8. My husband, myself and 5 children at home ages range from 7 to 17. The oldest is 21, married with our first grandchild on the way and trying to make it on their own. She is a receptionist and he is a budding veterinarian. I am a nurse and the company my husband had worked for many years had went thru a major shake-up earlier this year and he chose to take early retirement. We currently live in Los Angeles area. We had done well enough for ourselves over the years that we pretty much bought whatever we needed, but under the circumstances over the last year and reduced income we are having to learn how to do more things for ourselves in order to make those ends meet. Then about a month ago, we learned we had inherited the family farm in New Hampshire from my husbands great-uncle. Come to find out it had once been part of a much larger tract of 160 acres homestead that has since been plotted out. Because of health issues the great-uncle had been in a nursing home facility for the last several years, leaving the house boarded up.
From the information we've been able to obtain about the property, there is a 2-story house, barn and other outbuildings, fruit orchard and gardens. There is a well with old hand pump and a creek running thru the back of the property for water sources, but no electricity or phone directly to the property. Everything is pretty much overgrown and will need a lot of work. We as a family had a sit down meeting and it's been decided that we will be moving up there come this next spring and in the meantime we are trying to learn as much as we can about how to become as self sufficient as possible. Cost of living in LA is depleting our life savings and retirement income on a daily basis so the decision to move was a no-brainer. Our oldest son and his family will be moving with us.
We have a five year plan that goes something like this- the first year will be doing repairs, cleaning it up to find out just what we have and what we'll need. The second and third year will include animals for meat, by-products and reproducing and crops and gardens to not only feed us as a large family but also those animals. The fourth year should be our adjustment year and that is to say that by then we should have a pretty good idea of what we are doing, what needs increased and what needs to be scaled back so that by the fifth year we should be completely or nearly so, self sufficient by living off this land and income produced from it and not having to rely on retirement income or whatever savings may be left. As you can see the first couple of years will be the most expensive because of start up costs and the learning phase. Going from big city life that we have taken for granted, to living like our pioneer ancestors in a matter of a few months will definitely be culture shock for all of us. We haven't even been camping before.

Things we will need to obtain:

chickens-for eggs, meat, restock and income
cows-for milk & by products, meat, restock and income
turkeys-meat, restock and income
pigs-meat, restock and income
a few horses-work, transportation, possibly income
seeds-vegetables, grains, herbs, pasture/hay
canning supplies
grain and meat grinders

Things we need to learn:

animal husbandry
how to garden, harvest, save seeds for future needs
how to preserve the harvest
butchering
how to cook from scratch

--and I'm sure there is a lot more that we will be needing that we haven't even thought of so please feel free to jump right in with thoughts and ideas.

PS. yes, we've been doing a lot of reading here on the forum, books, online searches and obtaining any and all information we can get our hands on. We are trying to learn and prepare as much as possible now because once we move our information resources will be much more limited and when we do move, there is no going back.

 

[bubba1358]

Wow. That's quite an adventure! If I were you, I would invest in some high quality tools now. With all of the work to be done beating back the overgrowth and doing repairs, good tools can be a difference maker.

I'd also break the yearly plans down into monthly plans.

And make sure you water sources are good to go first thing when you arrive.

 

[~gd]

Oh, so sorry. We are a Christian family of 8. My husband, myself and 5 children at home ages range from 7 to 17. The oldest is 21, married with our first grandchild on the way and trying to make it on their own. She is a receptionist and he is a budding veterinarian. I am a nurse and the company my husband had worked for many years had went thru a major shake-up earlier this year and he chose to take early retirement. We currently live in Los Angeles area. We had done well enough for ourselves over the years that we pretty much bought whatever we needed, but under the circumstances over the last year and reduced income we are having to learn how to do more things for ourselves in order to make those ends meet. Then about a month ago, we learned we had inherited the family farm in New Hampshire from my husbands great-uncle. Come to find out it had once been part of a much larger tract of 160 acres homestead that has since been plotted out. Because of health issues the great-uncle had been in a nursing home facility for the last several years, leaving the house boarded up.
From the information we've been able to obtain about the property, there is a 2-story house, barn and other outbuildings, fruit orchard and gardens. There is a well with old hand pump and a creek running thru the back of the property for water sources, but no electricity or phone directly to the property.iS it on a paved road or out in the woods? was the house ptoperly stored Unless it was weather tight it may cost more to repair than new construction. Are the taxes up to date?NH raises most of it's revenue from property taxes and if the taxes aren't paid they will seize the title and resell it. The fact that you think you own it indicates (to me) either that the taxes are fairly current or that the property was considered unsaleable. Time for a road trip to see for yourself. Contacts to make include a real estate agent. the pastor of a church that beleives in your faith. you are going to need friends and the fastest is to go to church. Churches are the backbone of rural life! Village and town Clerks [great sources of hard data and gossip]Also the local post office.Good luck I don't think I would have the guts to do what you are doing ~gd Everything is pretty much overgrown and will need a lot of work. We as a family had a sit down meeting and it's been decided that we will be moving up there come this next spring and in the meantime we are trying to learn as much as we can about how to become as self sufficient as possible. Cost of living in LA is depleting our life savings and retirement income on a daily basis so the decision to move was a no-brainer. Our oldest son and his family will be moving with us.
We have a five year plan that goes something like this- the first year will be doing repairs, cleaning it up to find out just what we have and what we'll need. The second and third year will include animals for meat, by-products and reproducing and crops and gardens to not only feed us as a large family but also those animals. The fourth year should be our adjustment year and that is to say that by then we should have a pretty good idea of what we are doing, what needs increased and what needs to be scaled back so that by the fifth year we should be completely or nearly so, self sufficient by living off this land and income produced from it and not having to rely on retirement income or whatever savings may be left. As you can see the first couple of years will be the most expensive because of start up costs and the learning phase. Going from big city life that we have taken for granted, to living like our pioneer ancestors in a matter of a few months will definitely be culture shock for all of us. We haven't even been camping before.

Things we will need to obtain:

chickens-for eggs, meat, restock and income
cows-for milk & by products, meat, restock and income
turkeys-meat, restock and income
pigs-meat, restock and income
a few horses-work, transportation, possibly income
seeds-vegetables, grains, herbs, pasture/hay
canning supplies
grain and meat grinders

Things we need to learn:

animal husbandry
how to garden, harvest, save seeds for future needs
how to preserve the harvest
butchering
how to cook from scratch

--and I'm sure there is a lot more that we will be needing that we haven't even thought of so please feel free to jump right in with thoughts and ideas.

PS. yes, we've been doing a lot of reading here on the forum, books, online searches and obtaining any and all information we can get our hands on. We are trying to learn and prepare as much as possible now because once we move our information resources will be much more limited and when we do move, there is no going back.

 

[SomeWhere]

Yes, thank you Bubba. You are right. Tools are very important. We are going to be flying out there this weekend to see it first hand and get a much better idea of where we stand with it. We are really getting excited about this new venture. We realize that no matter how much we learn from reading, the actual 'hands on' will be the real lessons learned thru trial and error. We're just trying to keep those errors down to a minimum. We are also getting connected with others that have experience in these types of areas so we can get our feet wet.