BauerNick
New member
Hello all,
Just joining the forum after a little lurking over the past months. I currently reside in Columbus, OH and am your prototypical homesteader wannabe, though I have finally taken the first step. I'm currently working through closing on 93 acres in Middle Tennessee (western highland rim), if all goes well i should be closed in next couple of weeks. I hope to move to the property in 2-3 years and plan on developing the raw land in the interim. My interests are in permaculture and sustainable agriculture with an end goal of consumer direct marketed pastured beef, lamb, pork, poultry and niche growables (garlic, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, etc, and eventually berries, nuts, and fruits). Product diversity and function stacking will be key to my plan. I plan on getting started early this spring with a springhouse/spring development and sometime early summer to begin a barn project. Currently I'm in the rough planning stages of a 52x64 monitor style horse barn design, though no horses (or livestock) will be housed in the barn. I'm looking at a 24x64 center gable with living quarters on top with 14x64 enclosed porches on either side to create the monitor type barn look. Front 52x36 will be equipment storage/machine shop while the back 52x28 will be a wood shop. Living quarters on top will serve as my first housing when i move to the property. I plan on beginning construction on a home after I move to the property full-time, with the living quarters eventually becoming a guest house. I will post plans as they progress, they seem to be pretty popular topics (I sure enjoy looking at other projects progress).
As for equipment, the following large equipment purchases I plan on over the next 18 months and hope for input and advice on are: One of a 500cc plus quad or a UTV/gator/mule, used full sized excavator (still weighing viability of this -- will need to pick one up for around 15-16k, I plan on doing extensive and on-going earthworks including multiple ponds, swales, etc), bobcat/skidsteer, and a tractor w/FEL somewhere in the 40-99 HP area. Will definitely be a used tractor, and probably 2WD. I'm looking to spend somewhere in 6-10K for the tractor. The less I spend on the tractor the beefier bobcat I can get. Tractor will be used mainly for general utility work, running post hole digger, pto chipper, pto wood splitter, skidding logs, bush-hogging, etc. No current plan to make hay (I hope to eventually "kick the hay habbit" as Jim Gerrish puts it, and will contract/buy until then. The type of ag I plan on practicing will involve very little need for working soil in the traditional sense, so I won't need a beast to pull a traditional plow, etc. Any light seeding I may do will easily be handled by 40-99 hp or even the quad (think food plots). Probably the hardest workout the tractor would get is if I decide to run a sub-soiler or a yeoman's type plow to do some key-lining.
So I have big plans, and probably will come off as naive to some. That is because I am a complete greenhorn and surely am naive and overly ambitious. I hope to get some quality input and have some valuable discussions to temper some of my ambitions with reality while not yielding to the jaded. I look forward to future fruitful discussions.
Regards,
Nick S. (BauerNick),
Homesteader Wannabe
Just joining the forum after a little lurking over the past months. I currently reside in Columbus, OH and am your prototypical homesteader wannabe, though I have finally taken the first step. I'm currently working through closing on 93 acres in Middle Tennessee (western highland rim), if all goes well i should be closed in next couple of weeks. I hope to move to the property in 2-3 years and plan on developing the raw land in the interim. My interests are in permaculture and sustainable agriculture with an end goal of consumer direct marketed pastured beef, lamb, pork, poultry and niche growables (garlic, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, etc, and eventually berries, nuts, and fruits). Product diversity and function stacking will be key to my plan. I plan on getting started early this spring with a springhouse/spring development and sometime early summer to begin a barn project. Currently I'm in the rough planning stages of a 52x64 monitor style horse barn design, though no horses (or livestock) will be housed in the barn. I'm looking at a 24x64 center gable with living quarters on top with 14x64 enclosed porches on either side to create the monitor type barn look. Front 52x36 will be equipment storage/machine shop while the back 52x28 will be a wood shop. Living quarters on top will serve as my first housing when i move to the property. I plan on beginning construction on a home after I move to the property full-time, with the living quarters eventually becoming a guest house. I will post plans as they progress, they seem to be pretty popular topics (I sure enjoy looking at other projects progress).
As for equipment, the following large equipment purchases I plan on over the next 18 months and hope for input and advice on are: One of a 500cc plus quad or a UTV/gator/mule, used full sized excavator (still weighing viability of this -- will need to pick one up for around 15-16k, I plan on doing extensive and on-going earthworks including multiple ponds, swales, etc), bobcat/skidsteer, and a tractor w/FEL somewhere in the 40-99 HP area. Will definitely be a used tractor, and probably 2WD. I'm looking to spend somewhere in 6-10K for the tractor. The less I spend on the tractor the beefier bobcat I can get. Tractor will be used mainly for general utility work, running post hole digger, pto chipper, pto wood splitter, skidding logs, bush-hogging, etc. No current plan to make hay (I hope to eventually "kick the hay habbit" as Jim Gerrish puts it, and will contract/buy until then. The type of ag I plan on practicing will involve very little need for working soil in the traditional sense, so I won't need a beast to pull a traditional plow, etc. Any light seeding I may do will easily be handled by 40-99 hp or even the quad (think food plots). Probably the hardest workout the tractor would get is if I decide to run a sub-soiler or a yeoman's type plow to do some key-lining.
So I have big plans, and probably will come off as naive to some. That is because I am a complete greenhorn and surely am naive and overly ambitious. I hope to get some quality input and have some valuable discussions to temper some of my ambitions with reality while not yielding to the jaded. I look forward to future fruitful discussions.
Regards,
Nick S. (BauerNick),
Homesteader Wannabe
