One of the intrigues of jumping into hobby farming from say living in a 600 square foot, second-story condo in Irving, Texas -- just as a hypothetical point of departure -- is that even if you're getting started on a pre-existing spread, there are going to be big costs. Luckily we had some funds saved up and luckily we're good at getting by and scrounging for materials on hand.
However, as the seasons change, which they are already very much in the process of doing up here where we've had two hard frosts already, new items come over the horizon that need to be purchased. As I mentioned, we're pretty good at getting by, but there's
frugal and then there's
foolhardy. Last winter I thought I was being frugal by shoveling our 40 yard long driveway and parking spots not to mention all the requisite paths that go along with heating with wood and keeping animals through the winter. This winter I would consider such a strategy folly and thus we are bound and determined to get a decent snow blower before the first snow fall.
Further, the farm we're renting has a great addition off one of the sides, which serves as our rec room, music room, sports and movie room, and library; however, this room gets no heat from the wood furnace which is attached to the central heating. It does have a gas stove, but, as all of you with gas furnaces know, heating with gas is expensive, so last winter the addition hovered between 40 and 45 degrees except when we wanted to watch a football game. This year we're going to buy a wood stove and install it in the gas one's stead. Since we're already gathering a lion's share of wood for the main furnace, an extra cord or two of small pieces to heat the addition and neighboring first floor rooms will be no problem whatsoever. I figure that at the price of gas, the wood stove will pay for itself in one or two years easily.
Snowblowers and wood stoves, we're not clever enough to make from odds and ends on hand, but here are a few pictures of handy and 'free' remedies we've put to use in the past year.
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| Two small pallets + One large pallet = sweet wood rack! |
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| Old utility poles = heavy duty fence posts |
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| Old deck boards = lumber for raised garden beds |
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Olds screens, deck boards, hinges,
and steel roofing = chicken tractor |
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| Old ductwork = cones for chicken bleeder |
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| Ductwork, deck boards and sheet metal = chicken bleeder |
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| Huge old plastic bin = meat bird transport vehicle |
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| Old horse trailer wall = pig-loading ramp |
