Randy Coffman

Tj Jefferson wrote:Randy, make an embarrasingly low offer. We got our house that way, with a tractor thrown in. They can only say no. If the house is in serious disrepair in the country, there are few takers. You never know...

That was our plan, but they already received an offer before we saw it, so we couldn't lowball it too far if we were serious,  and a reasonable amount to drop wasn't enough to make up for the work needed. We didn't want to box ourselves into paying more than we were willing just to have a chance our offer was better.

The current owner got it earlier this year from an estate sale with the plan to renovate, but decided it was too much work and wanted out of it without losing money.

We will keep looking.  Hopefully find something with similar productive soil and acreage, but with what we are willing to pay for.

I wanted to give an update,  in case anyone was wondering what we decided to do.

We had a realtor get us on the property,  and I was able to take pictures of the land, which my wife and I adored seeing on location.

The house was in serious need of remodel / renovation / repair.  The cost for the property plus the estimated potential cost to fix the house up was too much for us.

If the house wasn't there and the cost was just the land, we would have put in an offer.  

We will keep looking,  and if we find something else,  I will let you all see it.  Thank you to those who provided guidance and information.

Thank you for that link, Tyler.

According to that site, the following information was found about the land itself

"Anhalt clay, 1 to 3 percent slopes
Mean annual precipitation: 31 to 36 inches
Mean annual air temperature: 65 to 68 degrees F
Frost-free period: 220 to 260 days
Farmland classification: Prime farmland if irrigated "

my ignorant knowledge says that sounds like good soil?

This whole idea is only being explored because we are both 100% committed.  We even talked about how if at any point we want to stop, then we will sell and eat whatever is left, then stop. Investment loss or not.

We plan to calf share and milk once a day. We aren't vacation people.  I don't have the desire to sit around and do nothing after work anymore. I did that in my 20's when I was single.  We have a good time when we work together.

Some further google earthing shows I could get 8ish acres for pasture,  and that leaves a half circle around the back and along the bottom with 2ish acres. It just won't have much room for a good block of raised beds. Maybe that won't matter.

The 8 acres can be made into 32 paddocks.  Then move them every day.

I may start with sheep only first to see how they Do on the land as it is. 1 male 2 female.

Tyler Ludens wrote:Is there a self-sufficiency plan for paying for all of this?  Will you have a home business, or work outside the home?

Without a plan for income to pay expenses, it's going to be difficult to build up such a large and complex operation.  You mention times of crisis and dire straits; the most likely crises any of us will face in life are loss of job and serious illness.  It's important to include those as part of a holistic plan for one's life, in my opinion and experience. It's very difficult to anticipate just what The Fates (or the Great God Murphy) hold in store.

I'll be commuting to work at the start.  Another reason we're looking at this area is because it's close enough to not impact that time.  Working toward getting into a "work from home"/Telework/remote position.   Unless we somehow end up "making money" doing this and more than I would make with my employment, I'll be keeping a job.  The good news is that I don't work many days, just long shifts.  So we'll probably split the chores by my working days, and my days off will be for projects.  I currently work with some guys already doing the same thing I am wanting to do.


....or I can just win the next mega-millions/powerball jackpot lottery (This is a joke......please don't take this seriously.) . Though in all seriousness, if we somehow obtained some large windfall, we are already committed to taking on the journey for this lifestyle since we feel it's worth more to us and our kids than any amount of money.  That's why we're willing to invest into this idea.


Someone asked about Fruit we want to grow- while we're open to growing anything that will work, we'd like to be able to grow the following fruit/vegetables/herbs (and will do whatever companions that would be good for these to work) if possible either out on the land or in the greenhouse/hoophouse:
Apples, bananas, avocados, strawberries, peaches, pears, carrots, tomatoes, spinach, onions, potato, blueberries, garlic, red/green bellpeppers, cucumbers (for pickles!), pumpkins, lemons, black walnut, and I'm sure there's others I can't think of right now.   This is not an exhaustive list, but I would say that using those as the core of what we want to grow would be correct.

I'm guessing if something can't grow out on the land on its own, it would probably need to go in the greenhouse, and at that point a dwarf version of that tree would work best. Otherwise, barring some logical reasoning for having dwarf instead of full size, I'd say outside trees would be the full size variety.

so with the shift to a Dexter cow for dairy (and having a calf to heifer/steer for temporary time frames), and having American blackbelly sheep (permanent 2 females and 1 male?) which would be like 300ish more pounds and then temporary babies, they should have enough space, especially if I just buy hay for the winter months so I don't have to grow any in the beginning (maybe once I have super improved soil I can do it myself).  It looks like there's about 7 acres in the block of pasture on the land (maybe more if I move plans around).

so if that's true, then do the American guinea hogs go near the home? I would like to pasture them as well, and also give them food scraps/extra produce/milk.  Clearly I can't have them hamming it up (oh the puns!) on my pasture that's for the cow/sheep if they're rooting it up and ruining it for the cow/sheep rotation. So am I out of luck there? could they fit into the food forest area in a silvopasture style? Or does it not matter because there is enough pasture to let them go hog wild and not harm the cow/sheep operation?  I would be doing rotational grazing for them as well, unless I want them to do some tilling labor for me somewhere or compost aeration.

I am pretty good about following directions/instructions for things.  I want my first things to do on there to be what kind of "permanent " changes to the land I should do, including things like earthwork and tree planting.  

I really like all the oak trees there, so if from those pictures and hopefully my owns pics when I get a chance it's decided I can just keep them, I will. I just won't let them stop me.

Getting a lgd will be an option.  Not sure what breed since great pyrenees would probably hate life in the Texas summer.

Average rainfall is 38 inches where the land is at. Where it is, the rain comes in bunches with long dry spells usually.  For example, where I currently live, we had almost no rain this summer but when September and October  came you might have thought you were in Washington state for the amount of days and inches of rain. My grass that survived it all perked up though, ha!

A cow is good because we like cow milk and we like beef, as well as pasture management would be good to have the combo of sheep and cow, if we can fit them.

I've raised and trained(dog) different domesticated animals, but no livestock.. never lived anywhere that would let me. I love animals,  which is why it's a big deal for me.

wayne fajkus wrote:Are there animals grazing currently? Its amazing how you can see straight through it at ground level.  If not, they must have been super fanatical about trimming trees and under brush.

I did not see any animals when I went by, but I will probably find out for sure if I can get onto the land.

Sheep breed -American black belly - "ewes are often in the 75 to 95 pound range while rams rarely get over 140 pounds " they are a meat breed, heat tolerant, and ok with rough pasture.

So if I did a dexter cow and American black belly sheep, that should cut down on the pasture required?

Someone mentioned time commitment.   I would hope I could get the whole farm up and going somewhere between 5 and 10 years from the start. If it takes less than that, great, and I will progress as fast as safe, but I'm ok with it taking that long.

I'm really hoping the permaculture designer I hire will have some great ideas for improving and sustaining.

Trace, I have no idea about the water table. Is there a way for me to find out? It may be on the Edwards aquifer but I have no idea.

The pictures attached are from the listing.  Maybe this will help some.