New farmer?

Devonviolet

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We have another member @Mike CHS, who lives in Southern Middle TN. Wouldn’t it be cool if you live close to him. :D :fl

There are several members here in NE Texas/W Arkansas. We try to get together once in a while. One of our memberes (Latestarter) recently passed away, unexpectedly and he will be greatly missed. :hit

Joe was one of the first to always welcome new members. Check out his journal at the following link:
Latestarter's ramblings/musings/gripes and grumbles..
He always had something interesting/helpful to say.
 
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Anna j

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Ah! Thank you @Devonviolet, I wondered how that worked. I loved seeing your pictures! Your 5 acres sounds very busy! I do have to laugh, your view on the animals is similar to ours. I started on BYchickens and a lot of them (most maybe?) have named their hens and Roos and have cute, quite large, domiciles for them. We don’t plan to go quite that far, as they are a food source as well. We are in our mid 40s and yes, this land is a full time job. We keep hoping that the land maintenance will slow down but there always seem to be stick clean up, or trees falling, or another trail he wants to clear. We’ve tried to get ahead of the trees and cut ALOT down, but there is always debree. Also, from our main creek that runs through the property there is a lot of trash that washes up. It’s difficult now to think of having time to mess with installing fences and more animals. If you remember, just this last month there was a lot of flooding in TN. Here is the result of ours!
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Baymule

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You have a beee-yooo-teee-fuuullll farm! I love the stream with the rock ledges, I'd be a little kid playing in it when the weather warmed up. I have happy memories of playing in the creek that went through my grandparents land, as a kid.

We have 8 acres, mostly wooded and LOTS of green briar thickets. We cleared out the two front pastures, it was a LOT of work!

https://www.backyardherds.com/threads/i-hate-green-briars.33715/#post-429394

https://www.backyardherds.com/threads/making-a-pasture.36612/#post-516185

We are going to attack a couple of green briar patches on the side, between the house and sheep barn. The horse pasture (what a joke) is wooded with green briar tangles, 2 1/2 acres and a mess. I HATE GREEN BRIARS!

We are retired and having the time of our lives. I am living my bucket list.
 

Mike CHS

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@Anna j I'm a little late in welcoming you to BYH but I have been gone a few days. I agree that you have a beautiful place. You are only about an hour or so from us. We go to the Lawrenceburg area quite often during growing season and buy our bulk produce at the auction in Ethridge.
 

Baymule

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@Anna j I'm a little late in welcoming you to BYH but I have been gone a few days. I agree that you have a beautiful place. You are only about an hour or so from us. We go to the Lawrenceburg area quite often during growing season and buy our bulk produce at the auction in Ethridge.
How cool is that? I see a BYH meet up coming!
 

Devonviolet

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Ah yes! LOVE the stream. But, with all the wet weather y’all have had since last Fall, it kinda goes with the territory. I’vee noticed we have a lot of branch depris around here, these days. Our last two storms came with a lot of wind. The canvas cover on our “garage” ripped to shreds, so DH had to go out and pull it off and put it in feed sacks for the garbage can.

We have a 2nd garaage, so we will use that cover for the existing garage, until we can combine the two frames and turn them into a nice big greenhouse, to start our aquaponics in. Too many dreams and not enough time or energy!!!

This is what it looked like when it was new.
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Shredded cover
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Now
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I want to cut down all the trees around the garage, before we do anything else, though. When I sit in my recliner and look out the window, the garage, where it sits, blocks my view of the beautiful hay field, so I want to move the garage so I don’t have to see a big block of yellow.
 

Devonviolet

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I started on BYchickens and a lot of them (most maybe?) have named their hens and Roos and have cute, quite large, domiciles for them. We don’t plan to go quite that far, as they are a food source as well.
Yeah, from the very beginning, we decided we weren’t going to name the animals that were going to “Freezer Camp”.

For the most part, we don’t name our chickens and ducks. We do name our goats, but with the understanding that the boys will either be sold as bucks (if they are amazing) or wethered and either put in the freezer or sold as meat.

@Baymule wethers all her little ram lambs and names them all Dinner. So, there is no question where they are going. :lol:

We started this adventure, with the intention of being self sustaining. The only way we can do that is to eat what we produce.
 

AmberLops

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Welcome from a fellow new farmer who just moved to middle Tennessee!
It's so beautiful here and the weather is amazing, isn't it?!
I have 50 some acres but only about 2 acres are cleared. I have mountains behind me with tons of wildlife, my own private hiking trails and waterfalls...it's the best...so peaceful!
Your property is just gorgeous. You got really lucky with that!
If you haven't already built/bought a chicken coop...I would recommend making one out of wood pallets!
There are some great ideas online for layouts and plans.
I am collecting pallets right now so I can get some chickens of my own..i want to do some rare, interesting breeds :)
I'm also looking into building a goat shelter out of pallets, and maybe a backyard run for my dogs (I have 2 little pups) and what you can do with pallets is never-ending!
Your dogs are beautiful by the way, love the blue eye!
I have introduced my dogs to my rabbits and they did fine, one doesn't really care for them and the other is overly-friendly and just wants to say hi and get closer ha ha! Not sure how they'll do with chickens...
Where did you move to Tennessee from?
I grew up on a farm in Hawaii and recently moved here after college :)
 

Devonviolet

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Hi @AmberLops :frow Welcome to BYH!!!

It sounds like you have a nice piece of property too. You can do a lot with 50 acres. Oh to be young again, and have the energy to do it all. :old :lol: That’s exciting that you want to do goats. There are a lot of people here, on BYH, that do goats, so you will have some good resources, when the time comes. And of course almost everyone has chickens and/or ducks, and some (like us, @Baymule and @goatfurl) have guineas, to keep snakes and bug populations down, so more resources there.

You mentioned that you have two pups. What breed are they? Depending on the breed, it can be easy or a challenge to acclimate dogs to chickens and rabbits. I would think if you start training pups (with FIRM commands) to chickens, it would be easier to train them, than older dogs. Putting them on a leash and walking them amongst the chickens is a good way to give them access, but pull them back if they get overly rambunctious.

Your pallet out buildings sound like fun. We keep our eyes open for free pallets, but they are hard to come by around here.
 
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