Starting out...

What was most intimidating when you first started out?

After decades of dreaming, we've just bought 13 acres in the country. The land used to be a sheep-farm, but the property has languished in the past 5-7 years. Our to-do list is growing by the day!

In solidarity,
MC

Hi M; Welcome to Permies!

I'm not sure you want your post in the cooking forum?
It sounds to me that maybe the homestead and introduction forums might get you some responses. I'll add them to your post

As far as your question.  For me it was going into debt.... I had always paid cash before and suddenly I owed (get this it was 1986) $18,000 oh my !  13 acres with buildings and gravity water was $28,000!
I know, by today's prices my 13 acres is worth over $150,000...  not for sale...

Hey M, welcome to Permies!

I'm also just starting out. Wife and I bought about 60 acres of mixed woods/pasture two years ago, and just moved onto the land about six months ago. I think the most intimidating and daunting task for me is replacing the perimeter fence. I have what I'm guessing to be about a mile and a half of decades old four strand barbed wire fence strung on a mix of steel and rotting wood fenceposts that is in poor condition and all of it needs to be redone. The difficult part of it is almost all of it goes through woods or tree lines with plenty of thorny bramble undergrowth, and aside from the cost of materials, all the fenceposts and new fencing has to be installed by hand. I figure as we save money, maybe once a year I can buy a hundred 7 foot steel fenceposts and new rolls of wire and do a little bit at a time.

Start planting trees and shrubs for what ever reason, then they grow while you think!

Most intimidating?......leaving a lifestyle we knew and understood to jump cold turkey into a lifestyle we knew little about, even though we initially thought we did. It didn't take long for reality to hit, and we knew we were way over our heads. That was intimidating! But you know, we learned as we went. Yup, we made plenty of mistakes, but each one was an opportunity to learn. We lowered our expectations, did lots of experimenting, moved forward by baby steps. And we haven't looked back since. Neither hubby nor I wish to return to our previous hectic "modern" lifestyle.

By the way, it took us 3 years to get our entire 20 acres fully fenced in. A little at a time.

Developing an appropriate design and plan.  Took me about 20 years to develop because of ignorance.  I wish I had known more about permaculture when we started!  But better late than never.  I feel like I'm on the right track now.