bigjon
Junior Member
by the grace of god,i have found my mate and am happy!
Posts: 54
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Post by bigjon on Apr 18, 2015 12:45:32 GMT
letting 1/2 my original lot grow up with brush and trees.$350 a day for a dozer to clear.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 18, 2015 13:07:53 GMT
Building too big. Spent 2 years doing a lot of the work ourselves, missing out on time we can't get back with our then 7 & 9 year old. Money spent on a mortgage, instead of adding to the retirement fund.
Get this one right, and everything else is a whole lot easier!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 18, 2015 14:20:44 GMT
Building too big. Spent 2 years doing a lot of the work ourselves, missing out on time we can't get back with our then 7 & 9 year old. Money spent on a mortgage, instead of adding to the retirement fund. Get this one right, and everything else is a whole lot easier! Amen to that!! I have finally learned that less really is more. Smaller garden, smaller house etc = less work, less money spent, but no less productivity because you can really do the small things right. I went to visit a patient yesterday who truly got that concept right. He's not poor in any sense but he built his house small and every inch of it is filled with beautiful high quality artwork. The kitchen is small but the countertops are granite. The living room is tiny - but a huge floor to ceiling wall to wall window looks out over the lake and a top of the line wood stove with a beautiful stone surround takes up the other wall. He also built a small mother-in-law cabin right next to the house. Just big enough for a queen bed and closet and dresser, and there's probably a small bathroom in there and room for toaster, coffee pot. We're moving and decided to downsize the garden to make it look prettier for the new owners. It's going to be 1/4 of it's original size. I used to feel tired just lookign at it and was really relieved when I decided not to have a garden this year. NOw that it's smaller and we can pile the compost 2 feet deep and water it with a single sprinkler.....I'm thinking I might just go ahead and garden until we sell the house. Why not? It will be pleasant.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 18, 2015 15:18:33 GMT
Trying to do everything at once. If I ever tried to do it again, which I'm sure I won't, I would just do chickens and a garden my first year and then go from there. In my first year, depending on how it was going, I might add a couple of angora rabbits for spinning fiber. I don't know if I would ever do anything other than poultry again though.
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Post by manygoatsnmore on Apr 19, 2015 4:49:45 GMT
I regret getting in too deeply, too quickly, too often. I wasted a lot of money, lost animals because I was still learning, and lost trees to goats many times over.
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Post by Rustaholic on Apr 19, 2015 22:06:11 GMT
I wrote about my Folly but really what I should have done was take soil samples and I never would have bought this place.
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Post by farmchix on Apr 19, 2015 22:34:57 GMT
I regret getting out and then having to wait to get back in.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2015 0:41:02 GMT
Now I think of it build a Permanent Shelter first. When we Home Steaded last time we built a Garage, then started a Major Shelter. We started on Shelter twice, kept adding on to the Garage. Lived in the Garage which became a House for 17 years.
Rockpile
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2015 20:11:18 GMT
Starting building a house before we had the money to finish it. Hubby and I had the land and we wanted a small house but had bad credit and couldn't get a loan. So we thought we would build it as we got the money. Stupid Idea. First, Hubby thought he could just read a book and learn to build. (facepalm) Second, we should have saved up enough money to get at least the exterior built and water proof before we started. By the time we got the roof, windows and doors in there was a lot of water damage. Almost a decade later it still leaks and is just barely a shell. Mainly because he decided that he didn't want to live in the country. He wanted to be in the city... near his girlfriend.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2015 23:02:18 GMT
Buying property that is not level and has poor drainage. Not having a second source of water besides the well. Buying a home without a basement.
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Post by here to stay on Apr 22, 2015 23:15:32 GMT
By a small garden tractor that was so originally unpopular that there is no one who would work on it and I couldn't. So it sits in the garage under an ever taller pile of empty feed bags. Seemed like a good idea at the time.
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Post by susannah on Apr 23, 2015 21:22:59 GMT
We've only been here full time for a couple of years, but my mistakes are adding up. First one was not realizing just how different the climate - and growing season - and growing conditions - could be in different parts of the state. I mean, yes I knew it was a shorter growing season up here. But I didn't think things through. For example, I figured "I winter sowed before, and the article I read was from Ontario. So I can winter sow here." Well, many parts of Ontario are warmer than here. Sixty eight days with temps below zero and absolutely NOTHING germinated in my winter sown containers last year. And as for plant varieties themselves - tomatoes that grew easily and huge where I used to live have very little desire to grow up here. And sandy/gravelly soil is so different from clay.
Add in the fact that I didn't know deer really knew hot to fly - well it seems that way. Let's just say my fences weren't high enough and what DID grow the first year was enjoyed by numerous deer. Who told their friends.
Fortunately I've made friends with gardeners and farmers here and am gradually learning what grows well (I had no idea that chives would go absolutely insane, for example. My daughter in law was stunned by how big those plants got). I should have done my research. But at least I'm learning from all my mistakes.
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Post by karenp on Apr 23, 2015 21:46:49 GMT
I would have bought land with more pasture and better drainage. Ditto what Janisr said about wanting a house with a basement.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 24, 2015 3:51:32 GMT
I suppose I could say moving to town, but it was for the best, in the end. Got me to think small, use what was available. Otherwise it would have been too much. Slow and steady recovery. It allowed us to find this perfect property and go off grid, best thing we ever did. Having grown up doing it, I was used to all manual labor, easy if kept small. We didn't need much to make it work and being right down on the ground, we saw things, before they became a real problem. I really have no regrets. It has been a good simple life, just what I/we needed. My big mistake was thinking I needed to farm so big, too much stress on my health, drove myself too hard and I paid for it....James
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Post by willowgirl on Apr 26, 2015 18:14:38 GMT
Waiting YEARS to buy a DR powerwagon! Numb bought one first, and loved the thang, and insisted that I needed one, too (this was before we were a couple) but I didn't listen to him. Didn't think I'd be able to maneuver it in a muddy barnyard.
Finally, after developing tendonitis in my elbow after a few years of trying to clean up after 4 cows with a wheelbarrow and pitchfork, I broke down and bought a used one for $900. Best money I ever spent!!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2015 12:58:58 GMT
Goats. Period.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2015 22:13:46 GMT
The first time we built our loafing shed, we "eyeballed it" and set the corner posts. When it came time to put the perfectly-square corrugated metal on the roof, we were off by about 8 inches on a 12 foot length of shed. Had all that embarrassing extra overhang. But a 3-sided shed is vulnerable to windstorms, so our shame didn't last too long. We're on shed 4.0 now, and it's nice and square, also put together with screws and hurricane clips.
Not long after my dad came to live with us, and he took over the evening chores when the days got short and it was dark by the time we got home from work. He casually mentioned over dinner one night that the horses weren't eating their hay. Cleaned up their bagged feed as usual, but not the hay for 2 days. Went out to take a look, he had given them straw.
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Post by here to stay on Apr 27, 2015 22:33:43 GMT
The first time we built our loafing shed, we "eyeballed it" and set the corner posts. When it came time to put the perfectly-square corrugated metal on the roof, we were off by about 8 inches on a 12 foot length of shed. Had all that embarrassing extra overhang. But a 3-sided shed is vulnerable to windstorms, so our shame didn't last too long. We're on shed 4.0 now, and it's nice and square, also put together with screws and hurricane clips. Not long after my dad came to live with us, and he took over the evening chores when the days got short and it was dark by the time we got home from work. He casually mentioned over dinner one night that the horses weren't eating their hay. Cleaned up their bagged feed as usual, but not the hay for 2 days. Went out to take a look, he had given them straw. He he he- so me. My first goat shed was a wonder of precision. My second was done in a rush when I needed space for a goat soon to kid. Ran into a giant boulder when setting the last corner post and couldn't face trying to move everything else to make it square. And I can tell you that being a couple of inches shy on the roof is acres worse than too much overhang.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2015 20:01:51 GMT
Getting too much going on at once, as I do with everything, it is just my personality. None of my livestock were under cared for but I was always so busy with chores and getting stuff setup and sinking money into everything at once. I got discouraged recently, didn't really plant a garden, quit breeding our rabbits, lost over half of my flock of chickens and haven't added back, I was going to hunt for deer this past season but never did. But I guess on the bright side I have snapped out of it and have increased my beef herd to four Angus/Brangus cows, just recently had a new litter of rabbits and am gonna my best to get something in the ground before it gets to hot, have started fishing in alot of my down time and am detirmined to put some deer meat in my deep-freeze this winter.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2015 21:50:28 GMT
My biggest regret is not starting sooner.
My biggest mistake is, as another mentioned, ever creating a single DIME of debt. It has taken us a lot longer than we'd planned to get out of that hole, but we're almost there...less than 5 years to go (and yes, I'm counting the days!).
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Post by grandmotherbear on May 2, 2015 1:25:28 GMT
My regret is planting centipede grass here at the lake. That stuff crawls UP and into my 4 ft wide containers!
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Post by themotherhen on May 3, 2015 6:03:21 GMT
Biggest regret? Not starting sooner, for sure. I have so much to learn! Which relates to my biggest mistakes (keep in mind please that we moved in Febuary 28!) Not starting herbs first. I had always bought plants in the past and had no idea that herbs take so long to get started. Letting my tomatoes, peppers and marigolds started from seed, mold. Then I got the bright idea to take them outside to dry out the mold in the sun. Well, they did dry out. All of my plants got sun scalded and died. In one afternoon. I cried. Then I replanted. I now have 110 bell peppers, 95 tomatoes of different breeds, 72 marigolds replanted and doing well. I also started 40 cucumbers of various types, 10 cantaloupe, 10 watermelon, 18 zucchini and 54 corn plants. The herbs and lettuce are started also. I have never started corn indoors but I want corn by July 4th! It was too cold and wet to start it outdoors when I wanted to. Hopefully I can redeem my garden from my earlier, foolish mistakes. At least I learned these lessons!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2015 14:27:32 GMT
Easements. Ugh.
Check all the paperwork, read it over, make sure any agreement re: easements is spelled out in painful, intricate detail.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 13, 2015 3:49:07 GMT
Thank you for all of the great replies!!!
I've REALLY enjoyed this thread!
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Post by whisperwindkat on Jun 14, 2015 10:48:17 GMT
Another biggest mistake...trying to make a badly built old barn work instead of bulldozing it, preparing the site properly, and rebuilding properly.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2015 13:49:48 GMT
Another biggest mistake...trying to make a badly built old barn work instead of bulldozing it, preparing the site properly, and rebuilding properly. Don't feel bad...I think we've all tried to refurbish something that probably should have been trashed.
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Post by karenp on Jul 3, 2015 14:17:11 GMT
The first time we built our loafing shed, we "eyeballed it" and set the corner posts. When it came time to put the perfectly-square corrugated metal on the roof, we were off by about 8 inches on a 12 foot length of shed. Had all that embarrassing extra overhang. But a 3-sided shed is vulnerable to windstorms, so our shame didn't last too long. We're on shed 4.0 now, and it's nice and square, also put together with screws and hurricane clips. Not long after my dad came to live with us, and he took over the evening chores when the days got short and it was dark by the time we got home from work. He casually mentioned over dinner one night that the horses weren't eating their hay. Cleaned up their bagged feed as usual, but not the hay for 2 days. Went out to take a look, he had given them straw. I quit buying straw for a while and went with shavings because DH couldn't tell the difference. He has the hang if it now.
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Post by Otter on Jul 3, 2015 14:22:38 GMT
Buying a fixer-upper.
We bought this place that was basically raw land, with a shop building. We thought it might be a bonus, as we could put everything just where we wanted it, and if we had lots of money and lived in a place where contractors actually showed, it might have worked out.
But, as it was, there was just no escape from anything. No peace anywhere, just a project literally everywhere you looked. Inside, outside. There was no task that didn't take 3 times as long because we had to either deal with working around construction or lack of construction - all of which we had to do ourselves. Even when we didn't want to, like it took me TWO YEARS to get someone to actually show up to be paid to run a stretch of fence.
Every place needs fixing, but when everything needs fixing, it can take the heart out of you.
The other MAJOR mistake we made also relates to place, but is cultural. We all know to research climate and growing seasons, but if I'd done what no one wants to do and rented here for 2 years, I'd never, EVER have bought here. We think that America has perhaps a few quirky, regional differences, but no, it goes beyond that, to completely different cultures. And, when I thought about it, it made sense. If this was Europe, I'd be at least 3 countries away from anywhere I knew. None of us want to rent. We want to plant fruit trees and build chicken coops right away. But for me, for a move to a new region of the country, it was a mistake.
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Post by whisperwindkat on Jul 3, 2015 15:07:07 GMT
Buying a fixer-upper. We bought this place that was basically raw land, with a shop building. We thought it might be a bonus, as we could put everything just where we wanted it, and if we had lots of money and lived in a place where contractors actually showed, it might have worked out. But, as it was, there was just no escape from anything. No peace anywhere, just a project literally everywhere you looked. Inside, outside. There was no task that didn't take 3 times as long because we had to either deal with working around construction or lack of construction - all of which we had to do ourselves. Even when we didn't want to, like it took me TWO YEARS to get someone to actually show up to be paid to run a stretch of fence. Every place needs fixing, but when everything needs fixing, it can take the heart out of you. The other MAJOR mistake we made also relates to place, but is cultural. We all know to research climate and growing seasons, but if I'd done what no one wants to do and rented here for 2 years, I'd never, EVER have bought here. We think that America has perhaps a few quirky, regional differences, but no, it goes beyond that, to completely different cultures. And, when I thought about it, it made sense. If this was Europe, I'd be at least 3 countries away from anywhere I knew. None of us want to rent. We want to plant fruit trees and build chicken coops right away. But for me, for a move to a new region of the country, it was a mistake. Ditto this...when everything needs fixing and something always needs fixing it does take the heart out of you.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 4, 2015 17:09:35 GMT
We made so many mistakes over the years as well. The biggest has to be taking on too much at once without having the time, equipment, money, and knowledge to do it properly. A bigger mistake would have been not doing any of it so still a win. We moved off of the original homestead to the 'burbs a few years ago. No more animals but now we have the time to dedicate to doing projects the way we want. Miss the animals but visit friends that have them often enough to make up for most of it.
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