Welcome to 2020!

Happy (albeit a bit late) New Years!

We want to recap some of our adventures from 2019 and share out some of our farm goals this year. When Ben and I first bought our small acreage we came up with a (VERY rough) five year farm plan with our major projects divide up into each season (spring/summer/winter/fall) and each year. We have many (maybe too many) things we want to accomplish before the end of the year. But we are so very excited to turn our little 8.5 acre property into prosperous little homestead. But before we get too far, let me tell you a story 🙂

Over the holidays, we had been thinking about what type of fencing we wanted to use to create some pastures for our (hopefully) many different livestock to graze in safely. We had stopped by a local farm store and took a look at the various round fence posts they had. And they had a fairly good selection of creosote (black) fence posts as well as a wide array of round pressure treated posts. We jotted down some numbers and took some photos and returned home.

A few weeks later, we were walking up from the car to my in-laws house for Christmas festivities, we were continuing a discussion on fence posts we had during the drive over (I swear we’re cool people). And Ben told me: “I’m not sure I want to do pressure treated fence posts.” And I sighed heavily, knowing that this would likely turn into another lengthy dive into which alternative fence post type would be best. But then Ben said something rather enlightening, “You know us, we’re never one to do things traditionally.” And that really stuck me.

We don’t do traditional. We don’t do the norm. We find a topic that interests us and we research it. We research it ALOT. We look at pros/cons. We make lists. We watch videos. We read reviews. We ask people’s opinions. We join online forums and groups. And eventually after many days/weeks/months of research we make a decision. 

And that process is too where our personality differences thrive. I tend to be more of an impulsive actor. I read about a thing, I get super excited and I charge forward into everything all about that topic. I tend to get frustrated when road bumps happen or I find contradictory information to what I think I know. I have the passion to learn new things, but struggle with the patience it takes to obtain a good solid breadth of information. 

Whereas Ben is kinda the opposite. He tends to be more slower, methodically looking into each aspect and reviewing each pro/con individually. He tends to not want to rush into things and sometimes gets held up on finally pulling the trigger and making a decision with all the information he’s obtained. The passion is there as well, but the fear of doing something wrong or incorrectly is there too.

And yet together, in combination, we have a single body which is both super eager about the project, isn’t rash about their decisions and in the end we collectively come out knowing a ton about whatever adventure we’re currently exploring. And with those combined perspectives, I am extremely thankful and grateful to have both sides 🙂 

Now with that sappiness aside let’s recap the projects of 2019 and start exploring some of the projects for 2020. We’re going to be doing a high level overview and then will definitely follow up with further posts/project details as we progress. I’d really like to do a recap each year so we can see how our house and property changes through the years! So without further ado, here’s both a recap of 2019 and a looking to 2020!

2019 Recap

House Updates:

Our New Garage! The one major hold up in buying the house (see Closing on an Acreage) was that there as no garage. We had a single stall garage at my old place, and with our new home we wanted at least a two stall garage so we could both not having to scrap snow/ice/muck off our cars in the winter! We were very excited to have obtained a renovation loan in conjunction with our mortgage payments that allowed us to get cracking on this MAJOR project right away. It still ended up taking most of 2019, but damn are we proud of it now.

Thanks goes out to Mark and his crews at the Tri-County Lumber Store in Jefferson. They have, and continue to do great work! Super easy to work with, extremely Iowa nice and have built us a wonderful new garage and work space -30′ by 30′ with an attached mudroom 10’x10′ for added storage space!

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Our New AC & Dishwasher! Two of the best inventions made in the world. We also got a programmable scheduled window AC for our upstairs bedroom (as it currently doesn’t have heating/cooling run up there — a project for a later date!). There is much evil cackling when we go upstairs into our summer-arctic tundra.

We got Chickens!

Related Blogs: https://www.sunsetcreek.farm/category/chickens/

Eight ladies and one roo who we raised from chicks up into the wonderful egg laying machines they are now. We spoil them with fresh produce, seeds and some meal worms on occasion and in return they produce a wonderful array of beautiful colored, extra tasty eggs for family/friends.

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Tractor:

Related Blog: Our new Tractor Johnny

We got our first real piece of farm equipment. A John Deere 1025R. And while it’s only considered a subcompact, it’s a beast and easily has been able to handle all the work and tasks we’ve asked it. This has included making our chicken pit, trimming trees and plowing snow this winter! Oh yeah, and MOWING FOREVER all summer!

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3D Printing:

Blog Posts: https://www.sunsetcreek.farm/category/3d-printing/

We bought a printer and now can make 3D objects for all sorts of fun projects. We’ve made our fair share of things like toys, dolls, etc. But have also made some useful prints like a wooden dowel jig for getting screw holes in the right place for pocket screws and some various things for our D&D games. Plus a bunch of presents and gifts for family and friends!

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2020 Plan:

• Winter/Spring:
  • Play around with Growing Microgreens
  • Get a Worm Bin (Indoor Composting*)
  • Set up an Outdoor Composting Solution
  • Start a Garden
• Spring/Summer:
  • Install fencing for 2+ pastures
  • Update/modify barn for alpacas
• Fall/Winter:
  • Get Alpacas.

WAIT A MINUTE

GET ALPACAS – OMG, I AM SO EXCITED