You’re new farmers. You need one of everything.

After we moved into our home in Havana, Florida, we realized we needed a lot of equipment that we didn’t have and some of it we had never used before. Prior to starting TnF Farms, I assumed we’d take down most of the existing farm stuff return the grounds to woods. We talked about doing some homesteading getting started and figured we’d have a decent garden and one of those cutesy chicken houses from Tractor Supply.

Then the farm bug bit my wife and really sunk its teeth in. One of our neighbors really inspired her to farm way more than I ever imagined. All that existing farm stuff now needed to be repaired and modified to work with the new plan. Then we were off and going. Almost daily trips to Tractor Supply, Home Depot and Lowes, not to mention all the things being bought on Amazon. My dad and his brothers grew up on a farm. When one of my uncles came to visit and see our progress, he chuckled and said “You’re new farmers. You’re going to need one of everything.”

We needed all sorts of animal things

Additional shelters needed to be constructed. Waterers, feeders, medications, veterinary equipment, the list goes on. Some products we tried and didn’t like so a different thing was needed. Fencing and fencing tools. I found out the hard way that fence building is an art. My first fence didn’t last long but I learned from my mistakes.

We visited Tractor Supply so much they knew us by name. I even joked Faith should just get a job there so we could at least enjoy the employee discount. If you’re thinking about a product for your homestead, we’ve probably tried it. Reach out, we can probably give you the pros and cons of the product.

We needed a trailer

I knew we were going to eventually buy a real truck. We came from Jacksonville, Florida suburbia with a Honda Accord and a little Honda CRV. Pricing pickups had me cringing. I tried to postpone the inevitable by buying a receiver for my wife’s CRV and a small trailer from Tractor Supply. I loved my Accord but knew its days were numbered.

The trailer got us by for quite a while. For easy math, it had a weight of 500 pounds. The CRV had a towing capacity of 1500 pounds. That meant that we could drag around about 1000 pounds worth of stuff on the trailer. I’m not one to push things to the limit. But for the first year, and sometimes multiple trips, the little trailer got us by.

The trailer still gets plenty of use. I’ve contemplated modifying it. Because we don’t have very large or heavy livestock, I’m thinking about adding a wood floor, then throw up some walls to take pigs for processing. It also had been great for dragging a bunch of stuff from one end of the property to the other.

We needed a farm truck

If you haven’t visited TnF Farms, we live at the end of a pretty rough road. Since it’s a private road, there is no governing body maintaining it. As everyone is busy, our community’s road gets attention once it’s unusable. A few of our neighbors mentioned that once spring hits and we start to get a lot of rain, my car is going to get stuck and our CRV is not going to be able to pull it out. Sadly, my beloved car was traded for a Ford pickup that guzzles gas like a frat kid chugs beer at spring break.

If you have shopped for a new truck, they are ridiculous. New vehicles are being sold over MSRP. Used trucks are laughably expensive. As a perpetual cheapskate, I wasn’t about to spend $30,000 for a truck that had high miles and was 10 years old. I did end up settling for an older four wheel drive pickup with really low miles and a clean Carfax.

I doubt I could beat a mail truck in a drag race, but it’s dependable and it has cold AC on those hot Florida days. Heavily weighted down, hauling materials and towing, the truck behaves the same. For the most part, the performance doesn’t change and the miles per gallon can’t get much worse.

We needed a large riding mower

My wife was really pushing me to get a rider mower immediately after buying our house. We bought our home in the fall and the grass wasn’t even growing. I didn’t want to have to finance another “thing”. Since it was late in the year, I broke out our old push mower to even out the grass. I did laps around the farmhouse until it ran out of gas. Given the amount of actual grass we had, I barely made a dent.

I’ve had a home in the past with a decent sized lot. So I have had a little lawn tractor. I figured I’d get a little tractor with a 42” to 48” cut. Visiting with some of our neighbors, I was strongly suggested to get a hydrostatic zero turn and to get the biggest cut I can afford. It’s all about time. Obviously using a push mower, it would literally take days to cut all of our grass. Lawn tractors typically only cut so fast and they only get so wide. Where a decent quality hydrostatic zero turn will go quite fast and big box stores offer ones that have a 60” cut.

Spring was coming. My budget dictated that I could afford a 54” Cub Cadet and there was a big box store offering the ideal financing model. So we now cut our grass with a zero turn that tops out at 13 mph and it can cut grass (not perfectly) at that speed. Now we can cut the main grassy part of our property in under 2 hours, not two full days.

We needed a chainsaw

I retired my push mower after one attempt at cutting the grass around our house and went for a riding mower. Since we live in the woods, we quickly realized we needed a chainsaw. Trees constantly drop branches, trees fall over and some of these pieces cannot be moved by one or two people. One of our neighbors recommended a Stihl with a decent sized bar. Me being the frugal consumer I am, I opted for the Ryobi with a 16” bar.

Being deep in the woods, that same neighbor giggled upon seeing my new chainsaw and asked if it was my wife’s. We enjoy a relationship like Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg share in Zombieland. So my defense for my (wife’s) chainsaw was “Well, it was on sale for under $200. It came with its own case and a bottle of two stroke oil…”

Doing tree work on our property, side by side, a large Stihl vs a small Ryobi, there is no comparison. If you’re that hero suburban dad in Jacksonville, the Ryobi chainsaw will get the work done cleaning up after a storm. My Ryobi cuts through most trees and since it is a lighter saw, you can use it all day processing logs for firewood without fatigue quickly setting in. All in all, it seems you need more than one chainsaw because they can be a little temperamental. So then next one will be bigger and more powerful. We’ll see about it being a Stihl.

We needed a side by side

I came from a world of sport quads. At one point in my life I had 2 Yamaha Raptor 700Rs. One was kind of stock – for guests. My main machine was an all-out widow maker. For the ease of moving to Florida, toys like these went up for sale. If you asked me back in the day, I would have told you a side by side was about the dumbest waste of money. Just buy a small pickup.

Then I rode and drove some around the Florida wilderness with side by sides. My cousin had a very sporty one that was just a blast. Another buddy had a utility one that pretty much was unstoppable. They don’t have the neck snapping speed or get the air of a sport quad, but they are very handy and fun in their own way.

We use our side by side every day. They sip gas if you don’t drive it like you stole it. We can maneuver to places that a truck can’t go. The four wheel drive is incredible as in, you don’t get stuck unless you go somewhere you shouldn’t have. They have good power for farm work. And that dump box. You can load it up with feed and take it to a far part of the pasture with a parade of animals behind you. Need to go far from the farmhouse to fix a problem? Fill that side by side with tools and get’r done.

We needed a tractor

As crazy as it sounds, I had never driven a tractor even though I grew up in South Dakota. We found living on our little Florida homestead required machinery that a shovel and a wheel barrow just can’t do in a reasonable amount of time. Many times I called neighbors asking if I could hire them to tear up some ground. Move some dirt from one place to another. Then since we maintain our own road, we have to smooth and fill our part.

Once I got the hang of using a tractor, I was able to borrow one of the neighbors for a little bit. Usually it also involved some kind of trade that amounted to some tinkering on the machine or an upgrade. I added a very loud horn to one neighbor’s tractor for herding livestock. It’s so loud, we can hear from our house.

Reality set in and I accepted we needed a tractor of our own. Everyone had their recommendations. Do I buy new or used? Tractors can be a little more complex of an investment. You need to get a brand that has good support for maintenance, repairs and parts. You need to make sure you get one that uses common mounts for changing out equipment. I ended up going for one of the compact tractors from South Korea. It checked all my boxes, had some really great reviews and it has yet to disappoint.

We needed accessories for our tractor

Tractors are great, but they don’t do a whole lot except pull without all of the extra tooling. We wanted to roll all of this into one purchase. Our tractor had to come with a front end loader. But we also wanted forks to pick up and move things. I’ve seen the grapples used for making quick work of branches. So a grapple too. Then will still have to maintain our road. Better throw in a box blade. I would have loved a backhoe, but we just couldn’t swing it.

We now need more shelter for all that farm stuff.

Our farm came with a couple of out buildings. When we moved in, I figured we’d never even need them. Once the farming bug bit, we now have our buildings overflowing. I’ve priced pole barns and metal buildings. We’ve talked to couple companies and we’re hoping to build something in the New Year. Equipment and materials hold up a lot better when they are out of the weather. I also know I’d sleep better at night knowing some things were behind closed and locked doors.

Have you been bit by the farming bug?

If you’re just interested in better quality food, it would be more efficient to just buy your farm goods from somebody already doing it. Food prices are out of hand and admittedly, higher quality food costs even more. If you want to do like we are, as I’ve discussed above, it’s not going to be a cheap venture. Contact us if you’re interested in an unpaid farming internship to get a taste of homesteading, and to see if it is for you. Depending on your farm plan, you can add equipment as you grow. You don’t need to buy everything upfront. There are a ton of things I’d love to have, but the budget doesn’t allow it. The items I’ve highlighted were acquired over 2 calendar years being purchased outright or financed. Watch on all those payments. Too many can get you in trouble.

Having a farm or homestead, you have lots of little mouths depending on you for water, food, shelter, protection from predators, and vet care. Vacations don’t happen without somebody to watch your farm. Veterinary bills can get expensive fast. You need to be prepared to identify problems and do some of the minor vet work yourself. What goes in all those little mouths comes out. I will be blunt: you’re going to scoop poop if you have farm animals. You have to keep it cleaned up so your animals stay healthy.

If you have to work a full time job in addition to being a farmer, you’ll rarely see a break. It seems a day off means the next day is that much more hectic. Something needs to be worked on, all the time. If you have a passion for working hard, you’ll see the fruits of your labor and it will be quite rewarding.