We got our Tractor!

I think we did what most people do when they first buy a farm. We bought the least amount of equipment possible because we wanted to save money and figured we can do a lot on our own. Well after only six months with our commercial lawn mower, we realized we needed something that can do more than just mow the grass. We had to upgrade to a tractor. If you own a farm I'm sure you've been through this whole process before. You know you have a ton of different jobs to do on the farm and if money were not an issue you'd probably want a Bobcat, an excavator, a tractor, a bulldozer and who knows what else! Well, while we could probably put all those tools to use somewhere on our farm, there is no way we could afford all that. We did however, do the math and realized one whole years worth of payments on a tractor would be less than one month of renting a Bobcat. We are very practical people so the obvious choice was to buy the tractor. Thankfully we were able to trade in our nearly brand new lawnmower to keep our debts to a minimum.

As for all the things we need to do on the farm, the list is endless, but job number one is to get our ground leveled out a little better and create a designated garden space. In the picture above you can see the two 4x20 foot garden beds we built the first month we moved in. I had a lot of wonderful herbs and flowers from our last house and the new owner didn't have any need for garden beds so she told us we could haul it all away for her. These beds were wonderful for that short growing period but certainly not big enough for all the veggies, fruits and herbs we'd like to grow to feed our family. I am so excited to fill this garden with all our favorite treats! Who's ready for summer? I cant wait!

The second project we need to work on, is our farm driveway, which will be used for hauling loads to and from the farm allowing access to the back without disturbing our home life. We have a lot of dreams for this farm and completing this driveway is the key to making them happen. Operating a farm takes a lot of good quality dirt. The driveway will allow us to get large loads of compost and dirt to the back of our property. Right now our only option for large loads of dirt is to have a dumpster load of dirt dropped in our front yard and hauled to the back. Before we got our tractor this would have had to be done via wheel barrow but even with the tractor this is a very time consuming process. Another reason we need to have this driveway done is for our trailers. The slope of the current driveway is too steep to get up with a heavy load so we usually have to drive straight through the front yard to get onto the road. We have a small camper trailer for our family, but our parents also like to bring their trailers when they come stay at our house. Over the Thanksgiving holiday we had three trailers in our backyard to host our whole family, it was wonderful! We'd also like to join Harvest Hosts  one day and be able to share the beauty of our farm with friendly travelers.

Hopefully we can get the driveway in a usable condition by the time we need to amend our flower field and get it all prepped for seasonal flower production by the end of March. This is a lofty goal and I do realize we are pushing the limits of possibility but why not go for it? If we fail, we will learn, and that's way better than not trying at all.

Thank you so much for your support and keeping up with our journey. This farm has been such an incredible blessing and we are happy to share the beauty with you. Have a wonderful day.

With love,

Annicka