It's now the first week of November and work has begun! The first stage of the drive has been excavated and stone put in. We have made decisions on placement of the fence rows and posts are being put into the ground. Our goal is to have the perimeter posts in place by Spring 2008.
We met with the USDA Grazing Specialist to develop a plan for planting pastures and hayfield in Spring 2008.
We just recieved notification that our seedling order from the Indiana Division of Forestry Nursery has been approved and we pickup 1700 seedlings to plant in Spring 2008.
We are looking at quotes on barns, and are leaning toward building a large barn on top of the ground instead of a bank barn. The bank barn would have been awesome, but the cost per square foot was 2.5 times building a standard pole barn. We will soon make the decision on the barns and go throught the credit process with Farm Credit Services to apply for a construction loan. Our goal is to break ground this winter.
Kristy is on the East Coast taking the New England Cheesemaking course. She just returned from the University of Wisconsin after taking the Cheesemaking Short Course.
It is now getting cold outside but the work is not stopping. We now have a drive going back to the first hill where the barns will be built. Speaking of the barns, we just signed a contract to build a 60x136 16 feet high pole barn on the first hill. This barn will have Mike's studio, a tack/vet room and various stalls for the goats and llamas as well as hay storage. We went with FBI as the builder, we have seen their barns and have been impressed with their work and followup in the planning process. This barn should be built over the winter. The other barn, the dairy and cheese making barn will be 24x72 and ground should break this spring. We have been working on getting the foundation and septic designed so we can get quotes on both.
We met with the house designer and have finalized the plans for the house. The total square footage will be around 2400 square feet with a full basement. The basement will walk out to the south towards the majority of the pastures. The blueprints will be ready in January and we will start getting quotes for the construction with ground breaking in Fall of 2008 or early 2009.
Mike just attended a seminar on farm taxes provided by the Purdue Extension. It was very helpful in understanding some of the changes in tax law concerning farms. The local extension has been a wonderful resource, please utilize your local office.
We also signed up witht the Farm Service Agency (FSA) and Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) and found out that we might qualify for a cost share program (EQIP) that will assist our farm with cost sharing for the fences, pasture planting, lane development for the pastures,and water placement for the pastures. We have applied and will know if we qualify in January.
Posts are still being augered and place in the ground for the exterior fence. More stone will be delivered for the pad for the large barn and the lane on the hill.
We are looking at dairy equipment, cheese making equipment, and basic equipment needed for the barns. Winter will be busy time!
