Update

To this point, our posts have been background information and not very interesting. As we get closer to starting our farm venture, the posts should become more exciting, as well as informational for those of you that would like to start their own backyard or small acreage farm.

The next couple of posts will include lists of equipment we plan to use in our venture, already owned and/or plan to purchase. We will include estimated costs so that you can budget for your operation as well.

We have already started to purchase materials, with approximately 300 feet of chicken wire for the chicken and turkey runs. This fencing came in 50 foot rolls of 5 foot high fence with 1" openings. We were able to get this fencing at less than $16.00 per roll. We also purchased 300 feet of welded wire fencing for the test garden. This fencing came in 100 foot rolls of 14GA 48" high fence with 2'X4" openings. This fencing costs just under $50.00 per roll. We purchased 60 T-Posts (to start) at less than $4 per post. While we have a fence stretcher, it was designed for single wire fencing and we will be installing a lot of wire fencing so we purchased a different type of stretcher which set us back about $40.00. All in all, we were able to get enough fencing and materials to fence our chicken run, turkey run, and test garden, for under $515.00. As we qualify for the Oklahoma Farm Tax Exemption, no sales tax was charged.

Design for the chicken house and nesting boxes is underway and we hope to be buying those materials in the near future. Our primary issue right now is to keep our expenses as low as possible. We will be discussing more financial and budget issues in the near future so that those following our blog will be able to properly budget for their farm venture.