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So you want to buy a farm?

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Re: So you want to buy a farm?

#171

Post by vram22 »

vram22 wrote: post #160
vram22 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, somewhat at least. Gabe Brown's Dirt To Soil book (haven't read it, but seen some of his videos (~1 and 2 hours length), and my guess is the main points of the book should be roughly the same as the videos. You can see them too, on YouTube). I have mentioned his work a few times in HN comments linked below[1]. Others have, too. Search for those comments by searching for his name in the search box at the bottom o…

I think I read somewhere that he (Gabe Brown) is one of the 25 most influential farmers in the US (at least in the regen ag field, if not overall). Edit: Googled "Gabe Brown 25 influential". First hit: https://www.no-tillfarmer.com/authors/379-gabe-brown#:~:text... .

>one of the 25 most influential farmers in the US.

Correction, if the extract below is true (and emphasis mine):

“Gabe Brown was just named one of the 25 most influential people in agriculture. In the entire world,” says NRCS’ Ray Archuleta. “It is an honor that he is coming to visit NC, and no one knows ecological farming like he does.”

From:

https://organicgrowersschool.org/gabe-brown-lectures-in-west...

Re: So you want to buy a farm?

#172

Post by rjyoungling »

nicbou wrote: post #127

People vastly underestimate how much work "simple" lifestyles are. It's the same with van life. It sounds great in practice, but simple things like showering, defecating and preserving food become very difficult. I suspect that with farming or homesteading, you forego things like financial safety and the ability to take vacations. I value those things a lot. In my opinion, the best way out is a lifestyle business, or…

> Woodworking or motorcycle repair are hard, and the initial setbacks are extremely demotivating.

Out of curiosity, then how did you become a good software engineer? Doesn't programming follow that exact trajectory?

Excellent comment btw.

Re: So you want to buy a farm?

#173

Post by pixl97 »

rjyoungling wrote: post #172
nicbou wrote: post #127

People vastly underestimate how much work "simple" lifestyles are. It's the same with van life. It sounds great in practice, but simple things like showering, defecating and preserving food become very difficult. I suspect that with farming or homesteading, you forego things like financial safety and the ability to take vacations. I value those things a lot. In my opinion, the best way out is a lifestyle business, or…

> Woodworking or motorcycle repair are hard, and the initial setbacks are extremely demotivating. Out of curiosity, then how did you become a good software engineer? Doesn't programming follow that exact trajectory? Excellent comment btw.

In wood working and software time is used by doing it. If you program software wrong you lose time by having to do it again. In woodworking you lose both time and materials.

Re: So you want to buy a farm?

#174

Post by AnimalMuppet »

person22 wrote: post #123
raptorraver wrote: post #40

I'm starting to sell my city apartment this week and we are going to move to the country side to start a small scale farm! I've worked in the farm all my youth and this summer we lived on the place and did some small scale gardening. I don't have any (at least many) false thoughts about how cool and romantic it will be. It will be hard and frustrating at times but waay more fulfilling than the current tech job. We're…

I work full time (now remotely) and live on 32 acres of woods and fields. It used to be farmed but hadn't been for a while when I bought it 12 years ago. My initial idea was to grow produce to sell but it didn't work out. Here are some of the problems I encountered: 1.) Deer - we are overrun with white tail deer. If I don't surround anything I grow with 6ft welded wire fence, it doesn't last a week. I have set up ele…

Can you get (or make) raised beds with a floor under them? That should keep the rodents from being able to tunnel. (Unless they can chew through the floor...)

Re: So you want to buy a farm?

#175

Post by AnimalMuppet »

bluGill wrote: post #161
raxxorrax wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is, but self sufficiency is nearly impossible. To pay for tools and machines, electricity and water you would need to sell parts of your produce. That is hard if you do not scale up to a level to compete with highly advanced industrial agriculture. Of course you could scrap the electricity and get your water from the nearest river, but I doubt many people would want to put up with that.

Self sufficiency is possible if you are given 5-10 acres with no taxes. Even then eventually you will need to trade your animals with someone else just so your breeding stock doesn't get inbred too much. Most people wouldn't want true self sufficiency if they could have it. I admire people who "go into the woods" for years (they are generally more hunter/gathers than farmers); but even as introverted as I am, I still…

> Self sufficiency is possible if you are given 5-10 acres with no taxes.

Where do you get the iron for your implements? Or are you going to use wooden hoes?

Where do you get medicine, when you need it?

Where do you get clothes?

Et cetera.

Re: So you want to buy a farm?

#176

Post by person22 »

at_a_remove wrote: post #155
person22 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work full time (now remotely) and live on 32 acres of woods and fields. It used to be farmed but hadn't been for a while when I bought it 12 years ago. My initial idea was to grow produce to sell but it didn't work out. Here are some of the problems I encountered: 1.) Deer - we are overrun with white tail deer. If I don't surround anything I grow with 6ft welded wire fence, it doesn't last a week. I have set up ele…

Couple of questions on behalf of some friends who are dabbling with produce on their property: 1) I have heard about how tremendously troublesome deer are, but have also heard good things about the "impossible to purchase in quantities less than a ton" Dippel's Oil ... has that worked at all for you? 2) So the rodents are burrowing under the raised beds and up to get to the roots? I didn't realize they would go that…

I will look into that, I have not heard of it. The problem with a lot of sprays is that they need applied on a regular basis.

Our raised beds contain about 15 inches of soil. The rodents burrow up from the bottom. You can't see them, but there are tunnels all through there. I've thought about putting hardware cloth on the bottom, but again I'm back to how much do I want to spent in order to make growing produce even more expensive.

One other thing I forgot to mention is that you need to be proficient with a gun. A .17 or .410 is adequate. Racoons, are my nemesis. If they get in a coop, they will kill a crap top of chickens and only eat the heads off of them. We free range our chickens and have several small coops they go into at night which we close up. I'm a light sleeper and can hear the racoons drop down on the roofs from the trees. We need the trees and bushes to protect the chickens from the hawks and eagles. Owls are another more minor problem as are the coyotes. Foxes as well. Having good dogs helps a lot.

Also, for the love of god avoid Guinea fowl. They have the survival instincts of a brick. They are also very loud. We bought 30 as an experiment and sold them off to a chef as soon as we could. There were only 12 left at that point.

Re: So you want to buy a farm?

#177

Post by thegjp210 »

tjic wrote: post #118
LunaSea wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would someone need 90K to write a book while already having a profession? Interviewing three people is also apparently worth 5K. And the book's photos are black & white ...

Author of "Escape the City" here. I didn't "need" $90k to write the book. I chose to sell copies of a book, at typical book prices. Thousands of people chose to buy the book. That's where the $90k number comes from. > And the book's photos are black & white ... "The food is terrible...and the portions are so small". The wonderful thing about the free market is that those who want to buy a thing can, and those who don…

Comments like this are why I love HN. Will order.

Re: So you want to buy a farm?

#178

Post by person22 »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #174
person22 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work full time (now remotely) and live on 32 acres of woods and fields. It used to be farmed but hadn't been for a while when I bought it 12 years ago. My initial idea was to grow produce to sell but it didn't work out. Here are some of the problems I encountered: 1.) Deer - we are overrun with white tail deer. If I don't surround anything I grow with 6ft welded wire fence, it doesn't last a week. I have set up ele…

Can you get (or make) raised beds with a floor under them? That should keep the rodents from being able to tunnel. (Unless they can chew through the floor...)

I've thought about raised beds on stilts like houses at the beach. I hasn't made it past the thought process though.

Re: So you want to buy a farm?

#179

Post by AnimalMuppet »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #134
unnouinceput wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're asking the wrong crowd. Go talk to an Amish about this, you'll get a lot better answers.

You might get better answers but probably not optimal ones? I imagine the avoidance of technology leads to inefficiencies that most people would want to avoid. Maybe the permaculture people, or intentional communities that seek to be self-sufficient (as a community); perhaps kibbutzim hold useful knowledge here?

Depends on which inefficiency you want to avoid. Do you want to not use modern machinery, or do you want to pay for modern machinery? Each approach has a cost, in different ways.

Re: So you want to buy a farm?

#180

Post by bluGill »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #175
bluGill wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Self sufficiency is possible if you are given 5-10 acres with no taxes. Even then eventually you will need to trade your animals with someone else just so your breeding stock doesn't get inbred too much. Most people wouldn't want true self sufficiency if they could have it. I admire people who "go into the woods" for years (they are generally more hunter/gathers than farmers); but even as introverted as I am, I still…

> Self sufficiency is possible if you are given 5-10 acres with no taxes. Where do you get the iron for your implements? Or are you going to use wooden hoes? Where do you get medicine, when you need it? Where do you get clothes? Et cetera.

Wooden hoes. No modern medicine either. You have to make sacrifices for true self sufficiency.

For clothing, you grow it. Between Flax, wool, furs, and cotton you can grow something anywhere (except near the poles). Having to grow clothing and shelter more than doubles your needed land area in some places.

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