2 years + hard work =

We have now been on our farm for 2 years. It has been a fun and eventful 2 years. We went from subdivision life to farm life, it was quite a change. A lot of things have happened the past 2 years and a lot of changes have taken place on our little piece of land. The reason this 2 year anniversary is a big deal is that my goal when we moved in was to have the farm completely set up how I wanted it within 2 years. I know I will always have upkeep and things I want to do or change on the farm for as long as we live here but my hope was to have all the main set up done. By main set up I am talking about all the fences and shelters for the animals done, land cleared, house fixed up, etc. I had a master plan when we moved in of what I wanted to do but it kind of evolved over the past 2 years and things got changed and added to the 2 year goal. I would like to say that I got it all done but I didn't. I am probably within 2-3 weeks of being done, I have a little more clearing out to do and some other minor things. I could meet that goal a lot sooner but it is really hot outside and I don't like to work outside for long periods in this kind of heat. Anyway, I thought I would go ahead and give you all a 2 year before and after overview of the farm and how it has changed. When we moved in it was a raw piece of land, mostly wooded with very little open area, a pond, the house and shop. There was a little bit of really crappy fencing, an old barn/shack thing, and an old chicken coop. It is now a working farm with new barn and chicken coop. I have cleared out quite a bit of land and fenced it completely as well as put in a garden. I have also made many improvements to the house including re staining the outside, repainting the inside and putting in fixtures, and reworking all the landscaping. Here are some pics of the changes that have taken place and I have put links throughout this post to old posts about the improvements I have mentioned.

Here is the chicken coop that was here when we moved in

Here is the new chicken coop I built


Here is the old barn/shack

Here is the new barn we built (with a little help from our friends)


This is the view up the driveway when we moved in

This was taken today, notice the fence, cleared out land, and new gravel.


This is a pic of the west side of the land when I was starting to put of fence

Same place today standing next to the fence


This is the front of the property on the road looking towards the house before clearing

After


Same spot looking down the road before

After


And here is looking at the house before

After, taken today