Top farm mistakes I’ve made so far

Save yourselves from making the same ones

1.      Goats. They’re cute. They’re sweet. They’re easy? I got the first goat because I needed a companion for my retired mare (Skye) when I trailered my gelding ( Murphy) out. Turns out my mare hated the goat and scared the goat.

So I decided to get another goat to keep my first goat company because she was lonely and then I was going to use them to clear some areas of the farm that had thorns/weeds /etc.

Well I got the 2nd goat and they are SO sweet and cute. BUT they hated/loved?! My toddler.

He was the perfect height for them to toss around. Might have given my child some trauma there.

I also left them loose occasionally because they wouldn’t stay in the fence with horses and then their pen was kind of small so I thought boy they’d love some fresh grass. They just went to the neighbors whenever any person was outside because THEY LOVE PEOPLE . I happily pawned them off to a friend who needed some land areas cleared.

these goats started out as a lot of fun! they followed me everywhere , aggressively. like waiting outside the window and the porch constantly smelled like goat poop

you can't see the fear in my toddlers eyes here but they loved to push him down

the goat did load like a pro though

2.      Not keeping the chickens up in their pen. Not putting sand down in their coop instead of dirt/straw/shavings/etc. Sand is easy clean up and keeps the mice away. I’m now scared to go in there and clean it out because only mice live in there.

I didn’t keep the chickens in their pen because freedom and free range is the way I think they would be happiest?! Except when something kept killing them. They lived for many, many months out happily free ranging but then something found them. And we would lose one every couple days. Out of 26 we have 2 left (1 rooster, 1 hen)

free range chickens with no fear, oops

3.      Not keeping better accounting the first year of having the farm.

Getting all receipts for all work done on the farm. I did a fairly good job but definitely could have been better organized.

Filing taxes took so long because I didn’t start early enough and this was even with my sisters (finance guru) and an actual CPA.

Don’t be like me, keep your records and get the most write off possible in the least stressful way.

save your money for this :)

4.      Building a outdoor shelter with 3 walls FIRST. The horses have used this shelter maybe 5-10 times. They’ve been out during the intense rain, snow, etc. They just like the trees-- it’s wild.

Building that shelter was SO HARD and sweaty and stressful. I don’t regret having this shelter because it is super strong, safe and a nice to have but I would’ve distributed the money differently and put 2 other shelters up for the money this cost (& we even got this on a deal because Rob designed it and we built it ourselves . I think about $3500ISH)

it doesn't look tall, but it's TALL. Sturdy. Cozy. Mostly un-used.

I really like these shelters and these are easier and cheaper to build. Photo cred Katellig.

5.      Expecting things to get done on my idealistic schedule and feeling so demotivated and overwhelmed when I realized the scope was so much bigger than I originally planned.

I.E. My fence to get done I called contractor after contractor to set up meetings and I would get people to come out and they wouldn’t show up and finally I got someone to come out.

Or building the shelter we would get a little bit done every weekend but it ALWAYS took longer than expected (me because I didn’t know how to build this , each piece was super heavy and SO is not the best at explaining what he wants and trying to do this with a toddler toddling around. And etc, etc.

The best piece I read about owning a farm is the to do list is never ending and you have to be able to sit on the porch at the end of the day to drink a tea and enjoy even knowing that mile long to do list is on your head. I say this here to remind myself of this.

this drive was $5,000. We have already expanded this drive to make it wider and get the trailers a parking spot for a few more grand. And this took way longer to get done than expected.

That's it for now, stay tuned for another fail post the longer we run this farm!

Happy trails,

-A