Acreage tips from the Fanatics
- Thread starter cdnlngld
- Start date
I think they call that mutton busting
100% agree. I had an acre for 20 years, and when sold it had zero interest in ever having to do that again.
Then after a couple years bought a place with 2 acres. Dammit. Luckily the grass is terrible so it dies in late June and I can skip until September.
If you don't know anything about horses, you probably don't want to mess with boarding other peoples'. Get some chickens and sell eggs to city folk for 5.00 doz. You could rent your pasture out for livestock or hay.
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The AR thing is real. The only horses I’ll work on without cash up front are working ranch horses or my wife’s.
When they say “Doc it doesn’t matter what it costs.” They really mean “I don’t care what the bill is I have no intention of paying it anyway.”
When they say “Doc it doesn’t matter what it costs.” They really mean “I don’t care what the bill is I have no intention of paying it anyway.”
The last I knew to get registered with FSA you need at least eight acres and farm income. You will need a crop history and you will do a conservation plan with NRCS. My home is on 7.8 acres that is separate from the rest of the farm and I was not eligible to put in a conservation program on the separate parcel. Ten acres is the minimum to qualify for ag property tax.
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I was being facetious... mostly. I love living in the country and being able to walk out my front door and pee whenever I want
I do get frustrated with the upkeep sometimes, as you can probably tell.
There is a LOT I do not miss about owning an acreage, but having "a little bit of land" plus the privacy it affords is certainly one thing. Having "a couple acres" I think would be relatively no sweat.
I would never try to own or keep large animals on my property ever again.
Our place always got a big drift between the house and barn, right in front of the machinery door. We could get the cars out easy enough, but sometimes it was a struggle to get the garden tractor (54" blade) out the door.
Also need to consider being able to plow around the mailbox so mail can get delivered. And potentially plowing a path to the nearest paved road. Counties don't plow gravel until the very end. We had about 300' from our driveway to the end of the city maintained street, and a neighbor with a big tractor/loader who would plow a single lane to the highway.
One of the things I miss the most.
I also loved early spring when I had an excuse to burn the ditches. Basically just a reason to play with fire
You have an HOA with no livestock on 4 acres in the country? Wow. I've heard of limited livestock but none? And they allow horses? Hmm. You could probably get away with a dozen or so chickens. They could be "pets".
There's just about nothing I can think of that I would want to do less than constantly dealing with horse people. Be prepared to be constantly dealing with Ritz Carlton expectations with Motel 6 wallets.
Looks like some really nice property. Good luck!
If your into trees (I am), and on a budget and cheap (I am), plant some baby trees now, very small or saplings (which you can get for next to nothing at Arbour Day Society, or other. Consider a few native hardwoods to your area (oak, hickory, etc.) around the house and perimeter of property. You might check with horse or animal requirements regarding trees in their living area, i.e., tree and oak nuts might be a problem for certain animals to ingest, I am no expert. Consider a few maples (Sugar, Red), maybe a few Cleveland Pears (stay away from Bradford Pear).
Lastly, it looks like you have room for a tree orchard! Viewing your property, I would say around your house or the house side of your large horse outbuilding, near a water supply initially. If your will be planting apple trees, stay away from planting them near any cedars (Eastern Red Cedar, Juniper) secondary to cedar-apple rust disease.
Do a little work now, then in 5-10 years you can reap the benefits! You'll be surprised at how big they will be after 10 years even.
You'll eventually come up with something that works for you, but a couple of things I might consider would be renting the horse facilities and pasture out if you don't currently have horses. Horse people being horse people. you'd want a strong lease and stay ahead on the rent. For snow removal, there are a lot of guys with pickups with plows on them that are always looking for work. It's good to have AWD/4WD if you have to get out for work. I suppose you might be able to rent the buildings out for storage as well.
It's a bit of a gray area. The HOA says no buisness to be run from the premissis, but addresses boarding and we have to allow fellow HOA members first crack at the space.
Well if it gets really bad they can eat one of the boarders horses.
Enjoy doing their chores for them when they can't come out due to weather.
