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Zoophilia who already own a companion/s and own a small farm how hard is it to balance your already existing life plus zoo life

Sponkin628

Sponkin628

Lurker
What I mean by asking this is it hard to balance your lifestyle & zoo life & farmer life all in one plate? I hope to someday own a small personal farm one day but just thinking about how my life would be sounds exhausting
 
It is. It’s hard to get away for anything more than a few hours. Good farm sitters are very hard to come by. Overnight trips? Nope!

It’s also very rewarding. Farm life is very different than city life. Peace and quiet, beautiful scenery, loving animals.

It’s also expensive. A new truck and basic horse trailer can push $150k. Tractors another $50k. Good amount of land is also pricey depending where you are. Vet care can add up especially if you’re not able to do some of it yourself. I figure we spend about $300-400 a month per horse when you factor in hay, vet, farrier, etc.
 
Agreed with Kyhorse, it's very nice, a lot of work if it's just you or maybe two people, but well worth it. I bought older equipment that i don't mind working on, older trucks so it can be cheaper but it's obviously more work. so either way, go for it!
kyhorse said:
It is. It’s hard to get away for anything more than a few hours. Good farm sitters are very hard to come by. Overnight trips? Nope!

It’s also very rewarding. Farm life is very different than city life. Peace and quiet, beautiful scenery, loving animals.

It’s also expensive. A new truck and basic horse trailer can push $150k. Tractors another $50k. Good amount of land is also pricey depending where you are. Vet care can add up especially if you’re not able to do some of it yourself. I figure we spend about $300-400 a month per horse when you factor in hay, vet, farrier, etc.
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I wish. My older truck is falling apart and spends more time being worked on (by an ex mechanic no less) then it does being available to drive. Older trailer…. Can’t sell it lol nobody wants to pay what it’s worth.
 
I can't say that I have a farm, but something like a small ranch. I have a small vegetable garden, a tree garden and a large enough territory to maintain order.
I really like this kind of life, it's quiet, nature, the neighbors are far enough. But there are also challenges, like on private territory something constantly needs repair (the door to the barn, window creaks, truck needs repair, etc.)
Also a lot of extra work... Do you want your beloved to eat home-grown apples in the winter? - go trim the garden and look after the trees.
Do you want her to eat home-grown carrots? - again, go plant them and look after them all summer. And so on with everything.
Not to mention bills for electricity and water... Also work around beloved, cleaning, tidying up, thinking about how to make sure that insects don't bite her (I hate these flying bloodsucking bastards), cleaning hooves every month, preparing hay and bedding, veterinary bills. So there's a sea of work and ALWAYS.
But in the evening you can sit on the porch, look at it all with a quick glance, look at your beloved who is chewing grass nearby, exhale and take a sip of the most delicious beer in the world.😅
 
Sponkin628 said:
What I mean by asking this is it hard to balance your lifestyle & zoo life & farmer life all in one plate? I hope to someday own a small personal farm one day but just thinking about how my life would be sounds exhausting
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I've found no issue, other then exhausted from the constant work, but still plenty of time to enjoy it, I just railed the whether ram tonight and had a good shower, before that I walked with them and pulled down branches so they could eat the leafs on them, the lambs finally got brave enough to join in the feeding frenzy

Life is work, but, doing farming for your self it is more work yes but you chose the pace, and with careful planning some things can coast along for a day or so, like if I am getting sick I will over fill their feed bunk so if I am bed ridden they are not going hungry. dogs I have a free feeding system set up and auto fill water bowl so other then bathroom breaks they are good, depending on year I just leave the door open!

then there is the darker side, if you have live stock you will have dead stock, or some times help them get over the last inch of the finish line, my first and favorite ewe I had to go out one day and help her along, still miss her, Some animals can recover better than others, so there is that aspect you need to be prepared to do.

For me it is sustenance farming, so the lambs have a destiny, it is a careful balance to remain professionally distant from them while treating them with love and respect as to not get attached. So you need to know what you're getting into with that.
 
kyhorse said:
It is. It’s hard to get away for anything more than a few hours. Good farm sitters are very hard to come by. Overnight trips? Nope!

It’s also very rewarding. Farm life is very different than city life. Peace and quiet, beautiful scenery, loving animals.

It’s also expensive. A new truck and basic horse trailer can push $150k. Tractors another $50k. Good amount of land is also pricey depending where you are. Vet care can add up especially if you’re not able to do some of it yourself. I figure we spend about $300-400 a month per horse when you factor in hay, vet, farrier, etc.
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Having any kind of life gone? Check

Do I regret it? Not int he least lol!

And ya good point, I could perform surgery with the amount of first aid gear I have on hand, you really need to learn that stuff!

Tractor is deff a nice thing, but not required, just lots of coffee and very hearty meat pies for the calories!

New truck not needed at all, but knowing how to maintain and fix one is!

Land, the more distant it is the cheaper it tends to be! My friend and I just bagged 1xx Acres for what could be called dirt cheap and is ideal. Took lots of searching and it is in the middle of butt fuck no where squared, IMO Ideal for zoo farmers!
 
1Ostwind1 said:
Well, I make homemade wine, but not sparkling😅(using good old methods).
And I want to try myself in something more complex, so I look at different ready-made brewing stations.
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this was all old school as well.

www.northstills.com

Reflux still - Buy, Price, How it works, Design

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offgridk9lover2 said:
look up the term, same in chemistry

You can take it right up to 190 proof in one pass with a very well tuned unit.

I need to make another one, my main column was 4 feet long, and packed with copper scrubbers for the column packing.

View attachment 689481
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Got it, we use this for making moonshine, not wine.

I can describe my wine-making procedure: I squeeze the juice out of the grapes, mix different varieties in different proportions, and leave it to ferment in barrels on natural yeast. It stays like this for about 2-3 days.
Then I drain it from the barrels (to remove the sediment) and pour it into vessels with a water seal and leave it like this for about a month (a couple of days in a dark place, then in the cellar), then I remove it from the sediment again and leave it for another month, then make a final removal from the sediment.
After that, you will also need to remove it from the sediment, but much less often. In about half a year, wine will be ready.
 
1Ostwind1 said:
Got it, we use this for making moonshine, not wine.

I can describe my wine-making procedure: I squeeze the juice out of the grapes, mix different varieties in different proportions, and leave it to ferment in barrels on natural yeast. It stays like this for about 2-3 days.
Then I drain it from the barrels (to remove the sediment) and pour it into vessels with a water seal and leave it like this for about a month (a couple of days in a dark place, then in the cellar), then I remove it from the sediment again and leave it for another month, then make a final removal from the sediment.
After that, you will also need to remove it from the sediment, but much less often. In about half a year, wine will be ready.
Click to expand...
do all that, but last step in you add a tiny charge of fresh sugar and seal it. I add just enough to make it a bit sweet and the yeast makes it nice and bubbly! some times you need to add some yeast corpses back in (or as you call it sediment)

for the distilled (rectified) spirits, if it has sugar it goes into the fermentator!
 
offgridk9lover2 said:
do all that, but last step in you add a tiny charge of fresh sugar and seal it. I add just enough to make it a bit sweet and the yeast makes it nice and bubbly! some times you need to add some yeast corpses back in (or as you call it sediment)

for the distilled (rectified) spirits, if it has sugar it goes into the fermentator!
Click to expand...
I don't add sugar (only right before drinking), because the wine is already very strong (such grape varieties), and if I add sugar, it will "come alive" and turn it into excess alcohol.)
 
1Ostwind1 said:
I don't add sugar (only right before drinking), because the wine is already very strong (such grape varieties), and if I add sugar, it will "come alive" and turn it into excess alcohol.)
Click to expand...
well coming alive is the point, this is what makes your co2 to make it sparkle, and not much alcohol is made as it is all ready toxic to the yeast they just perk up enough to make some gas then die off.
 
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