We're finally living on our land. (very pic heavy)

[FedUpWithIt All]

I waited until we had the solar up to finally write this post. We are finally living on the land we bought nearly 2 years ago. The journey has been (and certainly still is) a crazy one. We cut a road into the rear of our property in February, moved into temporary housing and moved over our chickens, rabbits and goats in the spring and just started working our backsides off.

We started, and are nearly finished with, a 12x14 ft shed with an attached 8x10 chicken coop, grew a 1000 sq ft garden, acquired a LOT more chickens, a pair of geese and a donkey to add to our little farm crew, delivered a pair of surprise baby goats (Molly and Chorley), watched our broody hatch out chicks, canned our own produce, set up our homemade water collection system, got a brand new address, bartered with friends... It has been, in many ways, the best summer of my life. It has been very difficult, fascinating, exhausting and completely wonderful.

BEFORE



AFTER (but still very very far from complete)



AFTER from the south

[MineralMan]

1. Looking good!

When will the building be closed up? Looks like you're on your way.

[FedUpWithIt All]

5. Thank you!

Most of the roof is up and shingled now, the panels are up and running and the roof is collecting about 60 gallons or so during decent rainstorms. We will be finishing up the roof in the next week and then we'll work on closing it up, coop first because i need better housing for the birds now that we've had a broody, as money permits over the next month. :)

[proudlib8134]

39. +1

[femmocrat]

2. Wonderful photos! Thanks for sharing.

All of your hard work is paying off. :hi:

[FedUpWithIt All]

6. Thank you femmocrat!!!

:)

[Raven]

3. Wow! Congratulations. You and your family should be very proud. n/t

[FedUpWithIt All]

8. We're tired. lol

But yeah, we cannot believe we're here. :)

[blm]

4. How wonderful. And I'm crazy in love with that baby goat. ; )

.

[FedUpWithIt All]

10. That is our boy baby. He has a twin sister and she is dainty and diva-ish

:7 She dislikes the camera...very much.

They are very cute babies and they have a very good Mama.

Baby behinds...

[Chimichurri]

7. Very cool! Good luck. I would love to know more about your solar power experience

once you get things up and running.

Very nice pics, btw.

[FedUpWithIt All]

21. The solar is up and running and doing really well.

I bought the components individually. Two 275 Watt panels from Sunelec (online), the charge controller is an Outback MPPT, and the Inverter is an off brand we picked up on ebay. All of our wiring, boxes and cases was provided by me ex-husb. He wired the whole thing (We are so grateful to him). We have recycled batteries that a friend gave to us. Our costs were about $2000.

We will be upgrading as we go but for now, it powers lights and the computer for most of the day, when we have a good amount of sun, and our batteries are not the best. Our needs are pretty low and we are just coming off a period, of several months, where we only had power for a few hours a week, when we ran a generator.

[Chimichurri]

25. Smart. What's even smarter is your scaled-back need for power. Your story is

inspiring.

[thereismore]

9. Looks like you sure know what you are doing! nt

[FedUpWithIt All]

23. We've been reading everything we could get our hands on for years.

But that never really prepares you for actually doing things. Neither my husband or myself had ever built anything or cared for livestock (let alone having ever even held a chicken)before we decided to buy this place. We are mostly learning as we go and there is a pretty crazy learning curve. We "reevaluate" a LOT. But the rewards are great and we're happy to be living life largely on our own terms. :hi:

[thereismore]

26. I admire you. Right on! nt

[femrap]

11. I am absolutely

green with envy. How wonderful. Someday I hope to do what you're doing.

And that goat is adorable. My cousin got a goat....male and as he grew up and the testosterone kicked in, he became mean. Are you going to breed goats? Have goat milk? Goat cheese?

Show us the donkey the next time.

I love what you have done.:thumbsup: :yourock: :applause:

[FedUpWithIt All]

27. I wish you luck with your hopes for the future. :)

Our older goat is wethered and the baby will also be done soon. We are keeping goats for their brush clearing abilities. We are AMAZED(!!!) by their ability to cut through thick bramble and brush in a short amount of time. In the future, we may breed the baby girl as she is part milk goat and with 50 acres of brush and bramble we could certainly do with additions. But that is all future for us. For now it is all clear and build. :)

I promise to put a donkey pictures up soon but for now, we've misplaced the camera charger. :(

[ixion]

12. Congrats!

I moved on to mine in January of this year. Doing pretty much what it looks like you're doing. Glad to have you aboard! :toast:

[FedUpWithIt All]

28. I remember your thread.

I really enjoyed reading it. How is yours coming along?

[JohnnyLib2]

13. Lookin' good!

And I thought people only carried that out in Alaska!

[FedUpWithIt All]

29. Thanks JohnnyLib2!

:7

Alaska is just way too :scared: I'm a freezebaby.

[MelissaB]

14. Looks like a slice of heaven

and a whole lot of work.

Congrats!

[FedUpWithIt All]

30. Thanks!!

It is both of the above. It certainly has it's down days (today for instance :( ) but i cannot imagine being anywhere else doing anything else.

[monmouth]

15. How jealous I am of you? Let me count the ways. Absolutely fab...n/t

[FedUpWithIt All]

31. Thanks monmouth !!

It is a good life :)

[DirkGently]

16. Excellent. And great pics.

[FedUpWithIt All]

32. Thank you!!!

I'll put more on as we progress...if i ever find the darned charger for the camera. :)

[Webster Green]

17. Awesome!

That is way cool. You've really got it going on.

Very inspiring! Good work!

[FedUpWithIt All]

33. Thank you!!!

It can be really tough at times but the rewards, so far, have been worth it. :)

[TNDemo]

18. Do you have a blog?

I'd like to follow it. Looks great!

[FedUpWithIt All]

34. We haven't started one yet. It has always been in the plans...

but we haven't had steady access until now. Soon i hope to get one started. I know we love reading any similar blog we can find and when you're looking to do this, that type of experiential info is really helpful. :)

[bvar22]

19. Congrats!

Love the photos!

Y'all sure got a lot done in a short period of time!
Your soil looks rich & fertile.
Welcome to the challenges of Gardening on a Hillside.

Your place is beautiful, and you certainly have the required skills.
My Wife & I took the Leap of Faith in 2006,
and have never regretted it.

In our hurry to "finish" (whatever THAT is) we sometimes overlook the Most Important part,
taking time to sit in the middle (preferably sunset for us), RELAX, & just feel grateful,
without making lists of tasks undone, or scheduling Tomorrow.

Good Luck and Fertility to you and yours.
:hi:

[FedUpWithIt All]

35. Thank you bvar22. It means a lot coming from you.

You and your wife have been inspirational to us over the last few years. So far the garden has been our best ever. :)

Thank you for the advice. We are really working on slowing down, shutting down the internal voice pressing us on, and enjoying each other and our progress more. That really is the single hardest part of all of this IMHO.

Many wishes of happiness and contentment to your family in return.
:pals:

[nashville_brook]

20. these are the best pics ever. love the baby goat...and also, what an amazing thing you're doing.

holy crap. f'n right on.

[FedUpWithIt All]

36. This made us smile. Thank you

:7

[FirstLight]

22. OMG! totally awesome!

I am super jealous, but excited for you :bounce:

Your kids are so very lucky to be learning this as well. I wish I could do this, still trying to figure out the logistic, but someday, ya.

I love the goats and ducks! I have always wanted animals to care for and work with. did you have to teach your selves about everything from the ground up? animal husbandry is not that easy... what kinds of predators do you have there?
I live in the desert, high sierra...so coyotes and bears are a threat to any rabbits or chickens, I think.

wow, just wow...thanks for sharing, keep us posted!
and yes, if you have a blog, please let me know :)

[FedUpWithIt All]

37. We wish you luck with the logistics.

:hug:

We knew nothing about livestock, that didn't come from the net or a book, before moving down here. Most things, sadly, are trial and error. We have been very lucky on the predator front and have not lost a single animal to predators (knock on wood). We have lost animals though. We had to cull a chicken due to illness, lost a few chickens to our daughters' dog and had a irresponsible breeder who sent us chicks that were not able to make it. Other than this, we've been very fortunate...until today. We just found out that we probably will need to cull our two older goats. It is a pretty sad day for us. :(

We haven't started a blog yet but want to set one up soon. We know sources like blogs were one of the greatest sources of real, hands on, info that we could find and we'd really like to add to that pool. :)

[proud patriot]

24. Awesome thanks so much for sharing

:hug: :loveya:

[FedUpWithIt All]

38. ...

:hug: :)

[up is down]

40. Thanks for all the pics!!! Can you post more info on which state it is, how many acres you own, etc?

I am researching into doing the same as you. However I don't know if it's feasible if one is not a carpenter, farmer, etc. So I would love to pick your brain some time!:)

[FedUpWithIt All]

41. We are none of those things and are mostly learning as we go.

We bought 50 acres of recently timbered land in WV. The land was not very expensive and we're hoping to have it all paid off in a couple of years. The financing for everything else is done as it becomes available, which really slows down the work but means we are building no additional debt. We have not used a single credit card.

The land is in the mountains so we maintain only a small area of it for living space and intend to create a small pasture area (the goats and donkey are already working on clearing the land) and allowing the forest to regenerate using careful grazing and planting (this is future as building right now consumes all of our free time and energy)

This last weekend we installed a solar charged elec fence for the donkey, worked some more on the roof, spread some pasture seed, put up shelves in our little trailer and cleaned and moved our goat pen. :)

[Nick Hermann]

42. Looks great..

How many acres do you have?

I've always wanted to own my land and start living off of it. Perhaps one day when I have the money...

[FedUpWithIt All]

44. Thank you Nick and welcome to DU.

:)

We have 50 acres. It was a little over $1000 an acre. We don't make a lot and are paying for everything as we go. It's tough sometimes because it means we are usually flat broke (every extra penny goes into new projects) and that there are sometime long stalls while we rebuild financing. But the upside is that we are collecting water and electric from the rain and sun, and hopefully, before too long we'll have an energy efficient home heated by the sun and wood.

[biermeister]

43. I smiled so hard that my face hurts

good for you, enjoy

[FedUpWithIt All]

46. Your post made me really happy.

:hug:

[chillspike]

45. Congratulations on your new life

It looks so liberating. I hope to follow in similar footsteps myself soon but upstate ny.

[FedUpWithIt All]

47. Thanks chillspike

I love that more and more people are rethinking the "typical" American lifestyle and moving toward more intentional and sustainable living. It IS liberating.

It was a massive leap into the unknown for us and we're not even certain, at this point, that the effort will pull through to the end, but we do feel liberated. And it is in more ways than are readily obvious. There is a certain emotional liberation that happens as well. We look around, nearly on a daily basis, and ask ourselves and each other, "Did you ever dream we'd actually be here?" The answer is certainly no. Even with all the dreaming, learning and planning in the world, the MOVING is the most incredible part IMPO. And once you take the first steps, the moving continues and it is often overwhelming and confusing, but you just keep moving and hope you find resting places along the way.

Best wishes to you and your own movement :)

[FedUpWithIt All]

48. Here are a few more recent pictures.

Our Buckeye rooster Basil





And some of the flock eating





This is Quimby, his brother Cleophus has beautiful blue eyes.

[lumberjack_jeff]

49. Outstanding. n/t

[FedUpWithIt All]

50. Thanks lumberjack_jeff

:hi:

[lumberjack_jeff]

51. It is an incomparable feeling to have built your own home.

I am a strong believer in the self-sufficient/DIY ethos.

[Name removed]

52. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bvar22]

53. Hi!

I had to check back in to see how y'all were doing.
Looks good.
Great Photos.
Love your young Work Crew, and the menagerie of critters.
Everybody looks happy & healthy.

Y'all getting ready for Winter?
There is no such thing as too much firewood on hand.
Collecting and storing Firewood has become a year round obsession with us.
The Wood Stove is a hungry & demanding Task Master during cold weather,
but is a welcome presence in our household.

Our harvest this year was disappointing due to the Drought/Heat,
but we did better than most, and are grateful.
We have some nice Okra, Field Peas, and late Melons coming in now.
The HEAT finally broke last week, but it is still VERY dry here,
but even worse just to our west in Texas and Oklahoma.


:hi:

[FedUpWithIt All]

54. Thank you.

We are working on getting prepared for the cold. It is a bit daunting a task because we still have so little set up and the area is a pretty cold one in the winter. Worst case, we have a woman who has offered us space in her home while she heads to Fla for a few months. In the meantime, we're going to build a small room onto the trailer and set it up with a small woodstove so we can use the wood that is available all over the place here and try to stick it out as long as it is comfortable to do so.

We had a person come out today and quote the footer pour for the straw bale home we're planning to build. That was pretty encouraging and we're feeling pretty excited to get as much done as possible this fall so we can start building early next spring.

I'm sorry to hear about your garden. It is a magnificent thing you guys do year after year. The weather has been really trying all over (most people here had trouble with their tomatoes and most of us got our gardens in very late due to the uncommonly cold and wet weather last spring.) but it is definitely at it's most extreme in the south right now. The situation in TX has been stunning. I hope there is a reprieve for the area next year.

Thanks for the kind words about my crew and the pictures. I am really proud of all of them and their tolerance of the changes and all the hard work involved. I showed my husband the pictures of the potato area in your garden last summer and he was really impressed and has plans to use yours as inspiration. The man will simply not rest until he grows a bushel of potatoes. :)

[FedUpWithIt All]

55. A few people, on here, had asked me if we had started a blog.

I finally did. It isn't much to look at yet but i wanted to post the link in case anyone is interested.


http://livingadifferentway.wordpress.com/

And again, thank you to everyone for all the kind support :)