Hayley Brown

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Hayley Brown, are you sure that moving there is a good idea?

Psycho dogs often indicate psycho owners. The dogs (which should be put down) are a big red warning flag of the situation you are walking into.

If your intuition / gut feeling seems "off" you should listen to it. Just looking at this situation has my spidey sense going off like fireworks.

First, be safe. Luck to you!

Thank you for the concern!! My inlaws are kind, loving people, they just really wanted "protector" dogs and have encouraged that mentality while training literally nothing else. They are more retired and preppers than homesteaders, so they never thought about the long term consequences for livestock or if we ever moved out there.

We're moving our first truckload this weekend, so we will sit down and have that hard conversation with them.

I am NOT sure if moving is a good idea. But we're young, we have free land, and there's nothing to lose. If we hate it or it's a toxic environment, we can always go somewhere else. But to be honest, I'm scared shitless, we live 1500 miles away currently and this is the scariest thing I've ever done. I might be fixating on the dogs because it is one thing I can't plan until I get there and everything else is all settled.

Jordan Holland wrote: Is this a paid arrangement, or are they allowing you to move there for free? If the former, you might bring the issue up as part of the "contract," if the latter, it may be considered rather poor form to move there and start demanding them to change.

We are moving there for free... but they've been begging for us to move there so we have a bit of leverage. We will have a contract for the land we "rent" to farm on, and may be able to negotiate it as part of that?

Jordan Holland wrote: For the $2000, a fairly large area could be fenced in for your chickens.

This is a good point, but I think I'm more concerned about them being immediately killed if they get out, or god forbid the dogs ever make it in there. We are going to sell broilers, and so if the dogs kill them, they're taking our income. The chickens aren't free-ranging, they'll be in chicken tractors in a 5 acre field. I've seen these demon dogs corner a raccoon and force it to drown itself, so I feel like they'll be smart enough to dig under the tractors.

I'm also concerned because I would like to get a livestock guardian dog (and a family dog that's ours) and I'm worried that these dogs will kill them too. Maybe the inlaws will understand if we just explain all our concerns.

Cade Johnson wrote:it seems reasonable to eliminate them.

Yeah... I think these are reasonable points and maybe they should be eliminated... they're not my dogs. I think I'll have to have a long conversation with the inlaws about it

I'm moving onto my inlaw's property this month, we have big dreams for pastured chickens this year.

They currently have two "cattle dogs" that are actually just "killer dogs". They attack everything that moves except the family. This includes other dogs, coyotes, raccoons, and most of all their chickens. Inlaws had to build a high fence around the enclosure and god forbid if one gets out. They terrorize the neighbors' cattle and I am surprised no one has "taken care" of them yet.

They're 3 years old and hangin' tree is their breed mix. Are they worth training? I found a local trainer that offers 8 lessons in obedience and aggression, but it will cost at least $1000 for each dog. The dogs are egged on by the family currently living there, so I'm afraid that even with training they will just come home and be encouraged to terrorize.

Has anyone here brought "bad" dogs back and made them ok to be around chickens, other dogs, small children etc? I don't want to risk them around our chickens, but we're also hoping to make some babies in the next year, and I want an environment that I can set my baby down, outside, on our own property, without worrying about dog attacks. Any advice with convincing inlaws to get training or get rid of them?

Riona Abhainn wrote:The fact that you don't need to make a bunch of money right away, that you have some wiggle room, is going to help as you experiment and see what works for you guys and what doesn't.  Keep us posted here on permies!

I will keep updated! Glad to find this community. We've been fortunate enough to have land in an insanely fertile place that isn't ours, but we are able to do whatever we want with it. We have 80 acres (about 27 are pasture that's not forested or directly next to the house). We have no rent, we just pay excess utilities if we use the water or electric hookups.

It's an incredible gift, but it's also overwhelming. I feel like a lot of people start small and are able to a work up from their backyard garden. We are totally biting off more than we can chew and I can't wait!!!

Hello!

My husband and I are starting our farm this year, we've got a lot to learn. I'm a little hesitant of committing to selling at the farmer's market, and was thinking of ways I can shake up the the traditional farm income structure.

One idea is a subscription box we sell direct to customers. I'm not a huge fan of the harvest-share aspect of a CSA, but basically a CSA box. We're thinking we can add value from other produce boxes by providing recipes (not everyone knows how to cook okra) or maybe include a grocery list and meal plan for each week.
This could be a good way to build relationships with customers and make income our first year, with a lower risk and overheads.

We are also floating the idea of a "chaos garden" in addition to our more traditional garden plots. Looking at buying seed from green cover, their warm season milpa harvest mix. Has anyone used this kind of garden for commercial harvest? I've seen numbers that even an "ok" yield could be 4,000 lbs of harvest per acre. It takes weeding and it will be work, but it satisfies my permaculture interests and seems like a good experiment.

We don't need much to survive, and we aren't budgeting to make an income for a while, so anything we make more than zero dollars is great.

Would love to hear anyone's advice, warnings, or otherwise.

This sounds great! I'm in SE Nebraska.
May I suggest looking into having the land in a trust and doing 100-year leases within the trust? I have friends who are doing this structure to protect the Co-op aspect of their land.