Building a Hobby Farm- from woods to eggs

[Defective]

Watch out Tony!

It looks like there's some kind of fuzzy pig critter about to attack your helper in that third picture...

 

[tony123]

hahaha...that's our little Yorkie. He likes to be right in the action.

I left the water on to the garden all weekend and not a single drip or leak. That's good news. I'll cover up the last of the trench now.

 

[philbuilt]

Hey Tony,
Great job on the farm. This has to be one of my favorite threads to read.
5 days and no updates?
help me I need my fix.
Phil

 

[tony123]

Phil, thanks for the kind words. This thread is not as exciting as some, and you may read for weeks to see nothing more than a waterline go in. So I'm glad to hear you find it of interest. I like to think that most readers on the forum are doing pretty simple projects, and I certainly represent those. Thanks for reading.

We have done a little more work. First, the waterline and yard hydrant project is complete. I left the trench open for about a week with water pressure on it, and narry a drop leaked, so we covered it up today and cut the post down to height. We're using two of the "Y" brass splitters. One side of the split will be used for a general purpose hose, and the other side is split for a run to each of the beds. Hope you can see it from the photos. We're putting an electronic timer back at the house. This way, we can operate the watering from the house, and have full control over which beds get water. Each run is now about 120' of soaker hose. I'll need to test and see if I have pressure for the runs to work together or not.

Since the shovel was in my hand, I started playing with the mounds for the vegetable garden. I figured I'd create two mounds in each area, so my final layout will be 200 linear feet of mound. That should be enough space to get my feet wet, if not too much. Here's a photo of Cindy and Ethan admiring dads handywork.

 

[tony123]

As you heard earlier in the thread, SCGargoyle has some property only a few miles from ours. He and I have decided to do some implement sharing. He's been kind enough to purchase a Post Hole Digger for or mutual "enjoyment"! So, sometime in the next week I will have a PHD available to start working on the fencing portion of the "farm". In April, he and I will be doing some fencing on his property as well.

So in the upcoming updates, I'll document a first timers use of a PHD. Should be interesting. Any pros, please comment. I could use your help.

Today I got to work with the chainsaw and started clearing a path for my fence to work its way through the trees (which will bring up many questions I'm sure)

I'm probably going to go with wooden posts (round vs square?) and a 48" tall 2x4" welded wire mesh. At some point in the future we will add wooden rails as budget allows. I'm considering going with a 60" height to keep the chickens contained. Does anyone have comment on fence heights related to chickens? It's not an issue if one occasionally gets out of the fence, so I would prefer to stay at the 48" height if it works 90% of the time.

I've also got to start considering gate types. I'm thinking the metal pipe type with wire mesh straped to it.

 

[tony123]

Question: We have a transformer box on the corner of our property. Would you opt to include a transformer inside your fence, or stop the fence short of it? If I stop short of it, I'm essentially giving up about a 12x12' area. I don't mind it in the fence, but would rather that maintenance folks didn't have to come in my fenced area. Any thoughts?

 

[hudr]

Tony123. I don't know if this has been mentioned anywhere elseI didn't read all eleventy billion pages of this post), but... NEVER call it a hobby farm. If you call it a hobby farm then so will the tax man and the ability to write off certain expenses is one of the key benefits of such an operation.

 

[tony123]

hudr, I'm not sure if I'm understanding you. Are there tax advantages to what I'm doing? I'm pretty green when it comes to taxes. Whatever you call it, this is simply a homowner that is growing a few vegetables, a few chickens, at most a pair of goats, and a pig once in awhile.

Please educate me if this has some benefit. Thanks.

 

[Tororider]

See Tony, you are a farmer. Look how early you were up checking your thread, obviously getting some things done at the farm before heading off to church just to come back and do some more, hehe.

 

[tony123]

Toro, you got me pegged. I was outside clearing the path for the fence line. I was cutting up trees and pulling stumps out, etc. Came inside and the family was finally up and had grits and eggs on the stove.

Now its in the shower and off to church by 10am.

Got some rain coming in today, so I may not get anymore done. But if the rain holds out, I'll be at it again. A farmers work is never done. LOL