OP
EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
On the horses, I'm not very involved in the whole thing other then getting the land ready for them. The longer they stay where they are at, the longer I have to finish the fence and build them a barn. I have 99 posts left to drill on the fence, the barn is still just an idea and the pasture is a mess from clearing more trees to open it up. When done, they will have five acres of mostly grass and a dozen or so shade trees. The barn is going to be more of a loafing shed with a storage room for supplies and feed. We want them to be able to get out of the rain if they want, and to be able to hold them if that becomes necessary.
Link to pics of the horses https://www.facebook.com/EdwardDavidWalker/media_set?set=a.10204325416358226.1313824209&type=3
I'll start a thread on the barn/loafing shed once I come up with a plan. We are still reading what we can find online. Any suggestions on what works and what doesn't would be appreciated. My current thought is to make it 12x36 with two stalls enclosed on three sides 12x12 with a swinging gate on the front that can be opened all the way and secured against one of the walls, or closed when needed and then a 12x12 enclosed room. Pretty simple and easy to build
The exotics will be pets in the sense that we will buy them and keep them on our land behind an 8 foot deer fence. We will provide food for them and make sure they have fresh water. We will do what we can to make their habitat beneficial for them. There will be no petting or interaction with them. Since 30 acres is such a small area for them, we will be limiting how many animals we have. We will also get animals that are primarily grazers like elk, fallow deer, axis deer and maybe oryx, blackbuck, addax or something like that. Some animals can be bought for a few hundred bucks as yearlings, others start out at several grand each. We are not wanting to be a breeding facility or raise them to sell, so the high dollar stuff is not going to happen. We wont have both sexes in there. With the deer species, it will be males only. Depending on what antelope we chose, it will probably be female's only. One of the terms that I like to remember is "not to create Noah's Arc" People who do this tend to want to get a couple of everything. That was my first inclination when I decided I wanted exotic pets, but after reading up on this and talking to those who have them, it's better to have just a few species that you really like that will do well in my climate.
The trailer is probably going to cost more then I want to spend, but I think having one trailer that does it all is going to be better then several trailers.
Eddie
