You think Chic-fil-a is good?

freedom_in_4low said:
gotta say Chris, I'm a little jealous of you with the homestead situation you've got going on. We talk about getting chickens etc but our land is so wooded and uneven that it's hard to do anything with, without owning earth moving equipment. Sometimes I wish we'd bought something open and flat a little farther west but I was fixated on the fact that we were moving from Colorado to the Oklahoma heat and prioritized shade over everything else. I need probably $5k of dirt work just to make a spot to get anything bigger than a riding mower down into the main part of our yard.
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Before we decided on this high plains property, we were looking at wooded mountain areas in Western Montana. While we liked that idea a bit more, one thing I mentioned to my wife was that the land wouldn't be as usable. Sure, we could probably hunt, but in regards to raising livestock, it would be much more difficult. With 20 acres of high plains, we have a ton of natural grazing for beef and poultry. The soil here isn't great so growing is hard, but we are putting in a greenhouse to take care of that. That will allow us to grow year round and not worry about the weather or crappy soil.

Oklahoma is a hell of a great place to be for growing food. A friend of mine (who happens to be a farmer) recently moved there for this very reason. I did a lot of research and ultimately what made me choose Wyoming was the dry climate (very low humidity), mild winters (in comparison to many places), and the lowest population density in the United States (somewhere around 545,000 people in the entire state). Also, as mentioned previously, Eastern Wyoming is great for livestock since you've got good natural grazing for a good part of the year. Prices are fairly reasonable here too.
 
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Chris said:
Before we decided on this high plains property, we were looking at wooded mountain areas in Western Montana. While we liked that idea a bit more, one thing I mentioned to my wife was that the land wouldn't be as usable. Sure, we could probably hunt, but in regards to raising livestock, it would be much more difficult. With 20 acres of high plains, we have a ton of natural grazing for beef and poultry. The soil here isn't great so growing is hard, but we are putting in a greenhouse to take care of that. That will allow us to grow year round and not worry about the weather or crappy soil.

Oklahoma is a hell of a great place to be for growing food. A friend of mine (who happens to be a farmer) recently moved there for this very reason. I did a lot of research and ultimately what made me choose Wyoming was the dry climate (very low humidity), mild winters (in comparison to many places), and the lowest population density in the United States (somewhere around 545,000 people in the entire state). Also, as mentioned previously, Eastern Wyoming is great for livestock since you've got good natural grazing for a good part of the year. Prices are fairly reasonable here too.
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Wyoming wind sure is something. Some really lovely areas though.
 
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freedom_in_4low said:
gotta say Chris, I'm a little jealous of you with the homestead situation you've got going on. We talk about getting chickens etc but our land is so wooded and uneven that it's hard to do anything with, without owning earth moving equipment. Sometimes I wish we'd bought something open and flat a little farther west but I was fixated on the fact that we were moving from Colorado to the Oklahoma heat and prioritized shade over everything else. I need probably $5k of dirt work just to make a spot to get anything bigger than a riding mower down into the main part of our yard.
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Have you considered buying a dozer to use and then sell it afterwards?
 
Rickyd said:
Have you considered buying a dozer to use and then sell it afterwards?
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yeah, that's definitely a possibility. Seems like something that probably wouldn't depreciate much just for the kind of hours I would need it for. I just need to do some research to even know what to pay for one so I wouldn't take a bath at resale.

My FIL is a commercial masonry contractor and is considering buying a skid steer to replace the one he's been renting continuously for a year+, but he likes the convenience of not being responsible for the maintenance and repairs...if it breaks he just calls and they come pick it up and bring another one. I also probably need some excavator work, as I have a lot of sloped areas that could be more useful if they were flat and supported by retaining walls.
 
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Chris said:
Yep, the wind is something to experience!
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At least you guys have some time to get acclimated to it , before the horizontal white stuff is added to the mix .
Remember the cost of Freedom is more important , than 75F. , low humidity , and no wind . ;)
 
ColoJeep said:
At least you guys have some time to get acclimated to it , before the horizontal white stuff is added to the mix .
Remember the cost of Freedom is more important , than 75F. , low humidity , and no wind . ;)
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More or less that’s what I told my wife. In Arizona we would suffer through the summers. Here we will suffer through the winters. Either way you always end up trading one for another.
 
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ColoJeep said:
At least you guys have some time to get acclimated to it , before the horizontal white stuff is added to the mix .
Remember the cost of Freedom is more important , than 75F. , low humidity , and no wind . ;)
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The nice thing about the white stuff out here (at least down Utah way) is how powdery it is. Very unlike the heart attack snow back east. And I will always choose single digits and sun over mid 30s with slush and perpetually overcast skies.
 
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Chris said:
More or less that’s what I told my wife. In Arizona we would suffer through the summers. Here we will suffer through the winters. Either way you always end up trading one for another.
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I'd take Wyoming winters over Arizona summers every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Most people I know down here think I'm nuts for saying that but I've been through enough Colorado winters to know that even though the temperature number looks worse, it's far more pleasant than the "mild" winters we get here. I think of a "western" 0°F to 100°F being equivalent on a comfort basis to an eastern 30°F-85°F.

I can always put on more clothes; I can only take so many off without ending up on a list. I can warm a space with fuels found in nature, but cooling a space requires sophisticated equipment and electricity.
 
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We raised 200 chickens to butcher and got 4 dozen eggs a day.

Every spring after school got out my neighbors and aunts would come over to butcher for the day. 8-10 of us got through the 200 and divded them between 4 families.

We butchered a hog and a steer every year and had a 1/8 acre garden with another 1/8-1/4 acre of potatoes.

The cow produced around 1-2 gallons of milk a day.

We could have made our own flower, but stored wheat and oats for next year's seed.

It comes back to me when cutting up whole chickens or larger cuts of meat.
 
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freedom_in_4low said:
I'd take Wyoming winters over Arizona summers every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Most people I know down here think I'm nuts for saying that but I've been through enough Colorado winters to know that even though the temperature number looks worse, it's far more pleasant than the "mild" winters we get here. I think of a "western" 0°F to 100°F being equivalent on a comfort basis to an eastern 30°F-85°F.

I can always put on more clothes; I can only take so many off without ending up on a list. I can warm a space with fuels found in nature, but cooling a space requires sophisticated equipment and electricity.
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Yep, last summer when we had 45 consecutive days of 115 degrees I told my wife that was the last straw. I'd rather deal with he cold. I can always add layers but I can only remove so many.

People also fail to take humidity into consideration as well as wind chill when they look at temperatures. Both can have a dramatic effect on the way it "feels" outside.

Also, if SHTF every single person in Arizona (at least in the valley) is dead without air conditioning. It's so hot there you simply couldn't survive the summer without A/C or water (which is scarce these days).
 
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