The purpose of this blog is to keep the world abreast of updates at our little ranch and share little bits of information.
We purchased our property in July 2007. It had a house on it, but was otherwise unfit for horses. All five acres were densely wooded and unfenced. We managed to get two goats to help clear out the weeds and vines. They did a great job. I recommend goats for anyone needing help clearing land. The only problem was that as they ate the vines I found dozens of down trees that now need cleared out as well.In the month before we were able to move in, we had to repaint the walls, replace the carpet, and lay new tile. It was a lot of work and all of the credit goes to my wonderful husband. The old owners smoked in the house causing the walls to yellow and the entire house to smell like cigarettes. We took down the blinds, tore out the carpet, and primed the walls. That's when we discovered the horrible cat pee smell. The smoke smell was so bad that it actually covered the smell of cat pee. So along with priming the walls we ended up also priming the floors.
Painting was an interesting adventure. Don't be fooled into thinking that just anyone can paint your house. We had a combination of family and friends come help us paint and it probably took us longer as a result. Face it, no one is as committed to making your home look nice as you are. It took us as long to go back and fix the mistakes of others as it did to paint.
Part of the problem came from texture on the walls. The texture made it easier for paint to bleed under the painters tape. The easiest way to avoid the problem was to do two or three thin coats of paint rather than one thick coat. Of course, no one else wanted to listen when we explained that to them since they just wanted to get the painting over with and they weren't the ones fixing mistakes. My advice: just hire a professional.
The tile was another story. There was linoleum in both bathrooms and tile at the front entryway. I hate linoleum with a passion, so it had to go. Plus the toilet had leaked in the master bath, causing the linoleum to peel away from the floor. The tiles at the entryway were also popping away from the floor from moisture coming in the front door. We found out that was from a bad seal on the door 
that the old owners never replaced. The wood under the tile was rotten and carpenter ants were living in the insulation below. So, sprayed for ants, replaced the insulation, replaced the wood, and were ready to go on tile. Once again, my husband did it himself. He did a fantastic job. And it definitely looks better than the linoleum.
The front yard was nothing but dirt and weeds. It was the most cleared section of the property. The goal was to fence and cross fence the entire property as well as clear and improve the pastures. That has probably been the most difficult task since buying the property. One big problem is the down trees laying everywhere. We did buy a tractor with a front end loader which certainly helps to move them from point A to point B, but it doesn't help to cut them up and put them in the bucket of the tractor. 
Then there are the hundreds of small trees that still need to be cut down. I do enjoy having a lot of trees though. It keeps the property cool and our energy costs are much lower in the summer. It just makes it difficult to train horses when you have to worry about running into trees in the process.
It took us from September to February to get the fencing finished. We still plan to do more fence, but we at least have a good start. We put a perimeter fence around the five acres and cross fenced so that we have two acres of turn out in the back and about an acre in the front. So far only the front paddock has grass growing, but I'm planning to seed the back soon. We're going to section off the back first so that we can still turn out on part of it while the other part grows. Half of the back will not be seeded because it is going to be an arena at some point.
I'm finally getting some landscaping done in the front. We'll get this place looking presentable one of these days. The next big project is a barn, but we want to finish up a lot of these little projects first. Then we can refinance and hopefully come up with the money for a nice barn in the backyard. If you're gonna do it, might as well do it right.
