Building a Hobby Farm- from woods to eggs

tiger9297 · Apr 1, 2008

Tony,

I am relatively new to the site, but have really enjoyed reading your thread. I have about 5 acres that is somewhat of a hobby farm. I have a shop, barn, and a fairly large garden. Also have some blackberry vines, and plum, apple, peach, and pear trees. We don't have any animals yet, but I'd like to have a few chickens and a couple of goats. I have two little girls (2 yrs. old and 8 mos. old) and I think they would absolutely love the chickens and goats. We also have a lake across the road I'd like to put a few ducks in. I have 3 small Cub Cadet garden tractors I use around the place. Those little things are absolutely addictive. I have lots of fun restoring and playing with them. Anyway, thanks for your "story". You have made me want to get even more going around my little place. Looking forward to future posts.

Tororider · Apr 1, 2008

Tiger,
I am sorry, you have become another addict. I am not sure what tony is lacing this thread with, but it is terribly addictive. No known cure has yet been found. If you have any willpower left... aww heck with it. Who am I kidding? I got the notice in my inbox and raced here, welcome to to Tony's junkies.

tiger9297 · Apr 1, 2008

Toro,

I've also been reading your thread on chickens!!! My wife is not so thrilled about that. What's not to like about chickens?

tony123 · Apr 1, 2008

Hey guys. Tiger, welcome to the thread. Glad to hear you're enjoying it. So far, the chickens seem pretty easy, so don't wait too long! At some point I'll get to fruit tree questions and hope you can give some input. SCGargoyle (on this thread) is addicted to the CUBS as well.

Toro, again, glad to hear that people are enjoying the thread. I don't lace the thread with anything. The attraction may be that I am a complete novice that is learning about tractors, chickens, gardening, etc. right here for everyone to see. I think lots of folks on the forum are amatuers like myself. And the ones that are pros like to read about newbies and all the mistakes they make!

Got another 16' of garden row prepaired for red potatoes. We'll be putting those in the ground tomorrow evening.

The fence posts are going in little by little. We have a total of about 25 posts in so far. I'm tamping the posts in place with soil, and finding that they aren't as rigid as I'd like. Any suggestions? Will mother nature take care of "tightening" the posts? They are 24" in the ground. I did the corner posts 36" down with one 80 pound bag per hole. They, of course, feel very solid.

The chickens are growing up fast. They are two weeks now. The temps in the brooder are down to 85 degrees. Today was warm enough that we let them out in the yard for the first time. They didn't wander far. One ate an ant off the driveway.

I also have not mentioned that our new neighbors have just moved their horses in. Beautiful! This is a shot from our front porch today. My lab is keeping them company.

Tororider · Apr 1, 2008

Tony, I agree 100%. I love to get advice from all the experts here, but love to read about regular novices like myself.

I am not sure if this will help, but have you thought about watering in the posts to help the dirt settle? I am sure there are others that will chime in, but that was my initial thought.

My oldest and I went out to check on the pullets today and noticed a few worms around from the rain. Didn't take them but a second to realize these were a delicacy. I am really aching to get the pen done so that my son can get in with them and "play" with them. It is a bit hard right now with them being bigger and being in the big brooder. Hopefully this week I can get it done.

My brother in law and sister in law just got a horse property a couple miles from our "hobby farm". It has me thinking about trying to find a cheap horse to have my boys learn horses on. I already have a place to keep them, and I can trade labor for boarding costs. Time will tell, but they are beautiful animals.

scgargoyle · Apr 2, 2008

tony123 said:
Hey guys. Tiger, welcome to the thread. Glad to hear you're enjoying it. So far, the chickens seem pretty easy, so don't wait too long! At some point I'll get to fruit tree questions and hope you can give some input. SCGargoyle (on this thread) is addicted to the CUBS as well.

I'm NOT addicted- I can quit anytime. Really. I can.

Tororider · Apr 2, 2008

Obviously we have yet to get scgargoyle to a meeting yet. As all of us who have attended a tractor by net Building a Hobby Farm - from woods to eggs anonymous, hereafter known as tbnhffwtea, meeting knows admitting you have a problem is the first step.

Toro - Founding member of tbnhffwtea

tony123 · Apr 3, 2008

toro, I have not tried watering the posts in, but that seems like it should help.

My neighbors horses are particularly beautiful, because I don't have to feed and care for them! They are the sweetest too. Most times that I come up my driveway they come over to the fence to say hello.

It's fescue seeding time here again. I bought 150 pounds of fescue and 50 pounds of brown top millet yesterday. The millet is an annual, but is said to shade the fescue through the hot summer. Now that I've got the tiller, I hooked it up and used it yesterday to "scarify" the ground for the seed. I tried to keep it at about a 2" depth, but it was very hard to be consistent with that. Last fall I borrowed the neighbors disc harrow and I think that worked nicer for scarifying. But....we use the tools we have.

So do any of you guys get "the look" from your wives? She doesn't operate the tractor, so she gets the job of raking in the seed. For some reason I get "the look"

Tororider · Apr 3, 2008

I don't get "the look" for using the tractor because ours is at a different place, and she is normally not around when I am using it. I do get it when I want to go out there to work, or when talking about chickens, or fencing the yard, or getting a dog, etc. And man does she have one heck of "the look".

tony123 · Apr 8, 2008

Been getting lots of seat time over the last two days. I'm using the tiller to "scarify" the ground for grass seed. I'm putting down 60% Tall Fescue mixed with 40% Brown Millet. The millet is a warm season annual, that I hope will protect the fescue until fall.

I've finally got my tiller hooked up correctly with the right adapter and top link. It is very picky about the corect setup. Now I'm not rubbing tires at all, and I can tell that the PTO shaft is in a much happier alignment. It is truely butter smooth now. I had to get off at one point to make sure the tines were spinning! Anyway, I set it so the depth was roughly 1-2" and covered the whole property. Took about 4 hours of tilling, but much easier than the alternative. Here's a photo of one part tilled but not seeded yet.

Chickens are doing fine. I made a new brooder with one of the kids old cribs. Works out well, and will house them until they go outside. We have been letting them roam around outside when its warm. Here's a photo of them from this past weekend at 2.5 weeks old.

The veggies are getting there. Don't have a photo of them recently, but will try to get one soon.

Bring on the warm weather! This place might be green before its all over.