Hey guys, what with old house, septic field, well, old vehicles, etc, it often feels like we’re living from crisis to crisis. Tractor and mower always breaking down, thats pretty normal. Then playing catchup… Anyone else relate?
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Yes!! The work never ends!! At least we’ll never want for something to occupy our time…
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Even without an old house always playing catch up!
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To quote Bob Villa, “your house. A lifetime hobby.”
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I understand but from a different perspective •
In spite of new house/ property we have found the newer systems break and are rarely fixed properly in this day and age •
It’s frustrating beyond ! This living crisis to crisis is exhausting !
I wish we had not believed the ‘new’ would be easier • It has been anything but easy ! We should have stayed on the old horse property.
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To quote Roseann Roseannadanna:
“It’s always something” 
Just sold my soul to the Company Store (bank) for a car loan.
Dryer promptly died.
Replaced both washer & dryer as washer was same age, so how long would Murphy’s Law have let that live?
Hydrant in the barn was next in line for a fix.
Then fencing for pastures.
All of the above ate into loan proceeds enough so I had to finance a chunk of the new(er - 2016) vehicle.
So now I have 2 outstanding loans 
BUT:
Hydrant works.
Pastures are scheduled for repairs needed.
I’m driving a newer SUV that did a great job hauling mini & cart to our last drive.
& New W/D both play a little tune when started 
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In the past 5 years I’ve had a new roof, the new roof re-roofed in a spot, a new furnace, two new stoves, a washer, a $21,000 septic system installed, the $21,000 septic system repaired and a nervous breakdown 
.
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My Current To Do List:
Roof leaks - house and garage - got multiple quotes so far. One said we could repair ourselves.
Garage Door spring broke - repairman has fallen critically ill. Vehicles sitting outside for weeks now.
Raccoons above lean at barn
Groundhog burrowing in arena
Need to spread 2 years compost ASAP as I’m running out of space for stall waste dumps
Water Conditioner in House Not Working
Install heat in workshop and tack room before winter
Driveway Needs SealCoat ASAP
Sand Delivery to Arena
Screenings Delivery to multiple areas
and the list goes on. 20 more projects at least.
Maybe swearing will help? (I saw that bumper sticker yesterday.)
Oh and work fulltime and try to exercise two horses.
No wonder I drink a glass of wine every night.
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LOL, my mom got a matching set when she got married in the late 1960s. I remember the washer being replaced, but the dryer is STILL going! I think Dad’s replaced the element a few times, but chug chug chug…
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Crisis to crisis; FUBAR to FUBAR; Flat Tire to CheckEngine Light. And just when you get the last scoop onto the fork, someone comes along and flips the Muck cart. Has it ever been any different?
I notice these things, 'cause I’m The Domestic Mitigation Team : - D “Oh by the way, the XXX just YYYed . . .” Sigh.
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This entire thread made me laugh out loud because it’s just so TRUE. Most people don’t understand. I joke my 150 plus year old house is going to fall down…I just hope I’m not in it when it does😀.
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back in the 1990s we showed with a guy from England, he had brought his horse over to compete in driving events here. He was saying that since their family place in England had “only” been in his family’s possession for nearly 400 years thus the new family in the area , the locals still referred to the place by the prior owners surname
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If I post my list, I might breakdown and start crying. Seriously. Buying a farm that was rented out and rigged every which way till Sunday is not for the weak. A new surprise everyday.
My husband doesn’t stress about it as much as I do. But holy heavens sometimes I have to meditate to gain come mental traction from being overwhelmed.
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“OM.”
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Before we bought our current place, we rented a house built in 1800. The house was on a gorgeous former plantation turned working farm/vineyard on over 1000 waterfront acres. It was a dream come true.
It also killed my desire to ever live on such a property again. Oh my gosh, that place took so much work to maintain. Luckily the owners had an entire staff.
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It has been the year of “fix or replace” around here. I am bleeding money! Hoping we can finish the year without needing to spend money on stuff. New septic system, new/used car because the 2000 model was always needing something fixed. Killed the busiest tractor doing hay in June, just got it back. Mostly labor, nothing actually broken, just had to pull the parts back into alignment and close the transmission back up. Did break the clutch on the old Ford 9N , pieces parts found when disassembled. Had to replace them, but got off pretty easy there, $650. Only gone a week. Usually used on the manure spreader, so having to use the 45HP Kioti to spread was “interesting!”
Hoping my last bigger expense will be spraying herbicide on the hayfield to do in clover and weeds. It appears that having professional herbicide application will likely cost less than doing it myself!! Who would have thought it? So no fertilizer on the hayfield this year. May apply fertilizer between cuttings or in the fall, next year. May need to buy some hay for winter, depending on how cold it gets and if we sell a horse. Not too much hay needed, one or two hundred small bales for my cushion. I THOUGHT we would get more second cutting, but rain mostly went around us. Baling tomorrow husband thinks only 100 bales with such short grass.
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I read somewhere long ago that it’s a process… I keep telling myself that lol The hard part is prioritizing and budgeting and saving for the surprises…
We had a stint of living in town and boarding the horses out and I didn’t like it one bit. It was a lot “easier” but I felt very… displaced. We bought a down-on-its-luck place where we can all be together again and now we’re in the throes of “what now” and “how much will it cost” but I walked out last night in my pajamas and grained the old geldings before bed and the dogs played and cats supervised and the house was welcoming and cozy when I came in and … it’s worth it. We have maintenance in addition to wth were they thinking and tractor repairs and hay hauling/stacking and fence fixing…and I feel so much more normal now it’s ridiculous.
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Just celebrated my second anniversary in my place. Everything was DIY to the previous owners’ level of knowledge. Whatever that was on any given project.
Immediate was mold remediation (trigger word “mold” adds x10 to the cost), new water heater (with a COVID price tag double what the exact same unit cost one year before), and the chimney saw its first cleaning in ages. My Christmas gift to myself was a dishwasher when the existing one died a couple months in.
Now the pressure tank. Oh, and the oven started shutting off in the middle of baking.
$1,000 for lime. Tens of thousands into fencing which still isn’t done.
Then the cleanup. Just under $5,000 in sawyers and a forestry mulcher to clean up dead fall, diseased or leaning trees, brush, and reclaim a couple fence lines. There is are scrap piles, tire piles, a glass dump, outbuildings full of junk, barns full of various agricultural equipment accumulated over decades.
Go to detach the brush hog and find the clutch went out. Yes, crisis to crisis.
Yay homeownership. 
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We built more house than we should have back in 2001. We have a home-built “cabin” leftover that had water damage from a rusted through tin roof and a few neglectful tenants, and then tornado damage to the horse barn and a brand new equipment shed. and and and. It’s tiring.
Old house new house any house any farm its a lot of work. Nothing about my place is manicured. I accept that, finally. It’s safe. I have hay put up. The cabin is repaired. The pollinators have food. It’s going to be ok.
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My name on here, HPFarmette, stands for Helluva Project Farmette.
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