The GOAT goat thread (Lizard blogs their farming adventure)

I don't know what to expect yet myself so can't tell you either. I've been wanting my backyard farm for years now. Since at least the time my daughter was a toddler. Spontaneous planning isn't something I'm especially good at, I need to sit with an idea and look at it from different angles. Some times for a long time. And life like to happen to plans, so I don't get super attached to them. But I'm getting to point in my life that I feel like I can't pull on the little separate pieces of hopes and dreams and ideas together and make something.

Last spring I was finally sick of renting, especially since my mother is my landlord and she's. Not. A great person. We started looking at housing in town, but prices are crazy. Anything in our budget that wasn't completely run down was being snapped up by cash investors to flip. Everything else would have been a full reno. I love getting to work with my hands and I grew up helping my own parents fix run down house to rent and flip, but there is no way our budget was going to allow for getting a mortgage then continuing to rent while we take months and spend even more money just to get something bare minimum of livable.

We found some places at the top of our budget and got out bid each time we made an offer. And I got sick of it. And even as we kept going I kept thinking I want a farm. I've known I wanted a farm for this long, I want my goats, more chickens, rabbits and alpaca, and Eris wants turkeys and Liam wants a horse. Jordan has talked about emu almost since we met. I want my farm and I'm not getting younger or gaining time. So I'm at the point now where the conclusion is fuck suburbia, I'm going to buy some land. And if I have to commute to work for a while before I figure out different alternatives then fine.

This is. A log? A record, a place to bounce ideas, and a place where other people can watch, learn, make suggestions. idk, I need to put it all in one place that isn't bouncing around in my mental echo chamber.

Tomorrow we're going to look at a property I found on Craigslist, about 3 minutes south of Springdale, WA. It's. Farther out than I wanted to be, almost a full hour commute to work, but it's 9 acres, already has a good well (22gpm), flat and sparsely treed, highway frontage. The guy owes 49k on his loan and he wants to sell it for the value + 10k which is fucking amazing? Everything in that price range closer to town doesn't have any improvements, and drilling a well yourself is always a gamble. You could drill 60 feet and hit 30 gpm or keep going down and not hit anything until 700 feet. Or not hit anything at all. And you still have to pay for it, something to the tune of $30/foot. Except for that drive, this land is a really, really good deal, and honestly, since my goal is eventually getting all my income off the farm.... I'd be crazy not to at least consider it.

Wish us luck I guess?

 

Many luck wishes! We hope to be finding a "homestead house" in the next few years too, so I'm always eager to learn from others' experiences.

 

Oh, best of luck! I hope the land works out, and if not, that something else that does comes up soon. I don't know if I'd want something so intensive, but I do want to have those kinds of skills, at least some basics.

 

I've been watching every homesteading Youtube channel there is for the last three years and I'm just. Done waiting. I can't say "someday" anymore, I know what I want to do.

 

Drove by this supposed 9 aces is actually a 2 acre and 7 acre parcel that are being sold together. Found it on the county assessor's site and it's a weird skinny triangle shape. Not as great as I would have liked and I think that bumps it down to the bottom of the list especially when I look at it compared to the Richard Lane property which is 10 acres square, nicely treed with timber old enough to be selectively harvested, down the road from a small lake and only 30 minutes from work.

 

I started making a spreadsheet and I'm going to blame @keltka You've infected me, I need spread sheets for everything now.

 

Spreadsheets are so good!!!!

(I'm from a family of engineers, we made spreadsheets to better collect all the information to decide what to do with our summer vacations)

And that Richard Lane property sounds lovely :)

 

The Downside on the Richard Lane is that it's down a dirt easement and there's no improvements on the property. That's probably looking at another $20 - 30K of work. I really like the location and the layout though.

 

Hmmm gonna call on this one tomorrow I think....

 

for anecdata: as someone who's commuted almost an hour to my university for three years, it's really not that bad, especially if youve got some good audiobooks or engaging podcasts :>

 

:D :D :D :D :D I'm still available for sheet commissions if you need anything extra done to them!!!

and seconding @rats on the commute stuff, my partner uses it as a chance to get caught up on her listening

 

since living on campus i've become SO behind on my podcasts.........

 

The main problem behind commuting is we have three kids and only one vehicle and I don't drive currently (never got my licence. Keep meaning to fix that). I love podcasts, but Jordan needs something that keeps him awake in the morning lol.

Ideally, I can find something that allows me to work remote, and eventually a good chunk of income can come from what I produce (products, online content, agratourism, etc), so the commute wouldn't be long term.

 

I now have a spining wheel! Coworker snagged it from a yard sale years ago and intended to fix it up to resell, but they never got around to it, and they didn't want it to go neglected anymore so they gave it to me! It's missing a couple bits, but those are really easy to replace and I have it, it's mine!!!

 

Spent $15 in replacement parts. WOO!

 

Spokane is currently snowing, winter's last fuck you before it will let go. Tomorrow is supposed to be mid 40s and sunny, climbing into mid 50s by next week with clear skies the whole way through.

Going to go look at that 9.7 acre strip on Sunday at noon, so woo! It's actually a couple minutes south of the Richard Lane property so I might go swing by that one again since the snow will be a bit more cleared out and I might be able to explore it a bit.

 

Still need to find a tension knob that fits, the one it came with is for the new style Ashford traditional and is too big. It looks like this one takes the old style, which would date the wheel to being at least pre 1975 because that's when they switched. It's older than I am. I found a place that carries the old style online which is another 11.50 plus shipping. Whiiiich. Eh. Might see if I can sand down the one I have to fit first. But the flyer bearings are replaced and the whole thing has gotten a first coat of tung oil.



I should have taken before pics because this wood was pretty dry and the difference between the unoiled and oiled wood is kind of amazing. It def sat out neglected in a shed or garage somewhere for a while. Thorsty wood slorped that first coat up, gotta add a second one tomorrow, then maybe a third. Tung oil should harden into a protective layer once it's finished curing.

 

Did I spend a good 30 minutes standing over a trashcan with a tension knob an a sanding block trying to get it small enough to fit in the stupid hole last night? I sure as fuck did. It's all put together now though!

So... now that I have the wheel, should I get some fiber to go with it?

 

guard llama?? guard alpaca?? to go with alpaca rabbits?? :D :D :D :D

 

I don't have the space yet, but alpaca are definitely in the future...

I got a blog post published with community chickens today! I think this officially makes me a professional blogger.
https://www.communitychickens.com/give-roosters-a-chance/