New here, new there, new to it all.

[Icthius]

Greetings! My wife and I have recently acquired a 60 acre parcel in Berkshire county, MA. It used to be cattle pasture decades ago and used to have a saw mill on the property to harvest from the neighboring state forest. There’s 2 brooks passing through the property from the state forest. Now it’s all young growth trees ( by young I mean 40-50 year old). Our current home( that we moved into in 2020) is about an hour away on 2 acres. Our hope is that as our kids ( 4 and 8) grow older we can spend most of our weekends, holidays and summers at the property preparing it to become our full time home as our kids head off to college. For now we’re just trying to get our bearings, learn the property, determine a site plan and bring in a forestry professional to establish a logging plan. We’re hoping we can make enough off logging to build a pole barn large enough to house a tractor and an excavator so we can begin roughing in a driveway, start digging ponds and establish orchards. Even though this has been something I’ve dreamed about for almost 2 decades it has happened way quicker than I could have imagined and now I feel totally overwhelmed. I look forward to learning from everyone here and am excited about the opportunity I have been given.

 

[Weedygarden]

Welcome from Colorado!

 

[Amish Heart]

Welcome from Kansas

 

[user 4021]

Welcome from SC.

 

[Bacpacker]

Welcome from Tennessee

 

[backlash]

Welcome aboard

 

[snappy1]

Welcome from Mississippi! Sounds like you are going to be busy!

 

[kd4ulw]

Howdy from Indiana!

 

[Peanut]

Welcome from Bama! I live on the farm where I was born... lots of knowledgeable folk here in the forum on a wide range of homesteading topics. Lots of old threads with good info or start new ones.

 

[dademoss]

from ohio

 

[Pearl]

Welcome from Texas! Glad you joined us!

 

[Cascadian]

Welcome from Oregon. It's good that you can take your time and plan. Some mistakes are really expensive.

 

[Sourdough]

Welcome from Alaska.

 

[Alaskajohn]

Welcome from Alaska! Sounds like a very nice set up. You are on the right forum to discuss your dreams and ideas!

 

[Patchouli]

Welcome from Texas.
< see the bluebonnets? They are blooming everywhere on the roadsides here. Sounds like you've got a great plan and hope you stick around.
I'm from back east, mid-Atlantic.

 

[viking]

Hello and welcome from S.W. Oregon. The only things we had when we bought our very raw property was a few sheds and a spring fed water supply that came into two 30 gallon metal garbage cans, we put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears to what we have now, still have project to do but the heaviest work has been done, which at my age is a very good thing. Get things done while you are still young, because at 80 years, gravity is not really fun to deal with, in looking back over the years I have come to the conclusion that I must have been much stronger than I thought I was, I couldn't believe how heavy 90 pound sacks of Ready Mix were in 2019 when I built the anchors for our solar array frame. All the best to you and your family in getting your projects off to a good start.

 

[Morgan101]

Welcome from Eastern Missouri. Lots of great people here with a wealth of knowledge, all willing to share. Don't be shy about asking questions. Several people will be able to offer solutions. Good to have you with us.

 

[Cascadian]

I had an after thought be sure to get a secure storage unit for your weekend stuff. It is hard to beat the secure, dry storage benefits of a cargo container. I don't think anyone has mentioned this before but I have seen lock covers that make breaking in more difficult.

 

[Buffalo]

Welcome from Nebraska!

 

[mu51c10rd]

Greetings! My wife and I have recently acquired a 60 acre parcel in Berkshire county, MA. It used to be cattle pasture decades ago and used to have a saw mill on the property to harvest from the neighboring state forest. There’s 2 brooks passing through the property from the state forest. Now it’s all young growth trees ( by young I mean 40-50 year old). Our current home( that we moved into in 2020) is about an hour away on 2 acres. Our hope is that as our kids ( 4 and 8) grow older we can spend most of our weekends, holidays and summers at the property preparing it to become our full time home as our kids head off to college. For now we’re just trying to get our bearings, learn the property, determine a site plan and bring in a forestry professional to establish a logging plan. We’re hoping we can make enough off logging to build a pole barn large enough to house a tractor and an excavator so we can begin roughing in a driveway, start digging ponds and establish orchards. Even though this has been something I’ve dreamed about for almost 2 decades it has happened way quicker than I could have imagined and now I feel totally overwhelmed. I look forward to learning from everyone here and am excited about the opportunity I have been given.

Welcome...we just bought 20 acres of rural mountain 2 years ago... feel your pain of being overwhelmed. Guessing it all works out in the end at least.

 

[Cascadian]

Just keep plugging along, but don't forget to stop and smell the roses. It felt like we didn't do that for a couple years.

 

[Pearl]

Just keep plugging along, but don't forget to stop and smell the roses. It felt like we didn't do that for a couple years.

The roses are the reason!

 

[rice paddy daddy]

Welcome from NE Florida

 

[Ozarks hillbilly]

Welcome from Mo. I understand where you're coming from. We bought about 2.5 years ago. Start with what you can and make the improvements over time. As others have said, there are a lot of folks here that can give you some advice, I've used it a lot.

 

[Caribou]

Yet another welcome from Alaska.