New guy here.

Hi!  Newbie here.  Just wanted to introduce myself.  I found this forum, after looking through everything I could find about organic farming, sustainability, homesteading, starting a farm, etc...    I grew up in the city, but my parents were from the country, and I spent most of my summers as a kid and as a teen,  in a small town in Oklahoma.  I consider myself very fortunate to have had alot of exposure to small town life.  My parents always had a garden, and almost all of my friends in OK.  were tied to farming in one way or another.  I used to hide (litterally)  from my parents when it was time to come home from vacations with my grandparents.  So,  now here I am 43 years old, somewhat college educated, spent my adult life so far running heavy equipment, and now I have a chance to do something different.  Three years ago I bought 45 acres in SE.  Indiana.  Approximately 12 acres are field and the rest wooded.    This spring I will be buying my first tractor, and building the barn, which will have an apartment in one side for me to live in.  I hope this hasnt been the longest introduction ever posted on this site, but I just wanted to let you all know about me, because I am really going to need help/advice from people who have been where I am now, and where I am trying to go.    I am looking forward to get to know you all.          jimmy

Welcome Jimmy. This is an awesome site, awesome people. Can't tell you how many times I visited and read articles or watched vids before I joined too.

Welome to the site.  I just joined a little while ago, but I'm having a blast building hugelkulture beds and looking forward to building swales and making bone-sauce and starting guilds this year.  I didn't know what any of that was last month!  ha ha!  I'd recommend reading the oldest posts first and work your way back to the first page.  I'm in Missouri, somewhat close to the climate zone you are in.

Thanks for the welcome,  I havn't done very much to my land so far due to $$$$ and I bought it on a land contract, which has been satisfied, and I now have a conventional mortgage.  I wasn't going to improve it while somebody elses name was on the deed!  My first task this Spring is going to be to get the driveway cut in back to where I want to build my barn.  My first question  is:    What do I do with the frees that will have to be taken down?  There is already an old path that had been cleared some years ago(probably logging).  My plan so far is to use some of the straight timber  for barn posts.  Crooked good wood will go to fire wood.  I don't know if it would be better to rent a chipper then spread debris on the fields  to help build up the soil, or do I need to let it compost first? Or, would it be better to burn, then take ashes and charcoal  to fields and turn into the soil?  What do you all think of my ideas?  Thanks again, GPtech, and
maikeru for the welcome.

You might look into hugelkultur for your extra logs and wood debris:  https://permies.com/permaculture-forums/17_0/permaculture/hugelkultur

If you have room, there's nothing wrong with making piles of brush and letting them decompose naturally, in the meantime they provide homes for critters.    Piling along the contour if your land is sloping can help stop erosion.

Paul, thank you for moving me to the correct forum.  I didn't read down far enough through the different forums.  Ludi,  thank you also for the link.  So far, what I have read there is exactly the info. I was looking for.