"The barn needs to make money"-my husband

[Robin]

The OP has asked for some ideas on what besides boarding could bring extra money to offset the cost of the new barn. I can suggest a couple ideas which may or may not appeal to her. One would be to breed a horse or pony to be sold when appropriate. That would take another stall and would have up front costs for future payout. But it would give her children additional experience in horses that just care for adult animals doesn’t.

If more horses are not desired, are there any high value farm animals they could raise to sell. Some types of poultry can fetch high prices if an upscale buyers market is available. I know some folks who raise particular breeds of turkeys which go to families which want only these for their Thanksgiving or Christmas table. One lady keeps milk goats and provides the milk to someone who makes high end soap. Goats (or sheep) have a fairly short lactation period so milking is not a year round chore. Maybe a talk to the folks at ag extension in your area could provide some ideas.

[mmeqcenter]

Some ideas that shouldn’t require a ton of time but might help offset costs, i.e. appear to “make money:”

Offer one or two of your horses for paid on-site leases
Grow some kind of edible plant to sell to local restaurants/people. Mushrooms, microgreens, etc.
Have space for a workshop and build stuff to sell - jumps, saddle stands, etc. (but this one is hugely time consuming)
Start a garden, and can jams and jellies to sell
Offer storage space for rent
Get some goats and make goat-milk soaps and lotions
Make a good composting system for your manure and sell the fertilizer after it is fully composted (unless you want to use the fertilizer compost yourself)
Get a projector and start a drive-in theatre :lol:

[Jealoushe]

@Robin@DHH

The OP has asked for some ideas on what besides boarding could bring extra money to offset the cost of the new barn. I can suggest a couple ideas which may or may not appeal to her. One would be to breed a horse or pony to be sold when appropriate. That would take another stall and would have up front costs for future payout. But it would give her children additional experience in horses that just care for adult animals doesn’t.

If more horses are not desired, are there any high value farm animals they could raise to sell. Some types of poultry can fetch high prices if an upscale buyers market is available. I know some folks who raise particular breeds of turkeys which go to families which want only these for their Thanksgiving or Christmas table. One lady keeps milk goats and provides the milk to someone who makes high end soap. Goats (or sheep) have a fairly short lactation period so milking is not a year round chore. Maybe a talk to the folks at ag extension in your area could provide some ideas.

To make money breeding you need to invest a lot of $$$$…very risky.

[HungarianHippo]

Ignore trying to make money with the barn or the horses, because on top of the time/hard work that requires, you also would have to put a bunch of time into advertising your services, recruiting clients, etc… When you convert all of that into an hourly wage, you’d probably be below minimum wage.

Just go earn money the most straightforward, efficient way you can: pick up a part time job. There are almost always retail jobs to be had. Or become an Uber/Lyft/Doordash driver. The advantage of those driver type jobs is you can pick your days/hours, and just put in a couple hours after work a few days a week. Or if you’re near a big airport, do a few early AM airport runs before you go to your real job. Maybe you could shift your hours at your real job to start/end earlier, to leave more time in the evening to work somewhere else. Or, talk to your current employer and see if there is a path to a promotion – ask to take on more projects/assignments/responsibility.

You say you’re in the process of building the barn-- what design changes can you make now to reduce its costs? For instance, you don’t HAVE to have water lines installed, you don’t HAVE to have lights in every stall, etc.

[SharonA]

As the OP already works full-time, I wouldn’t advise taking on a new project such as raising goats or vegetables.

If the OP has an employer other than herself, she might consider going to her employer and asking for a raise. Getting paid more to do the work she already is doing sounds like the most efficient way to adjust the bottom line, to me. OP, if your employer is not able to offer you a raise now, ask (pleasantly and constructively) what objectives you could set for yourself that would lead to a raise in three months or six months. Be calm, pleasant, and direct. Do not apologize; do not get stressed out. Simply state that you are a motivated employee and would welcome a discussion about compensation.

[Long_amp_Short_Ears]

I feel like you need to tell him the horror storeies of boarding horss if you need osme let me know, or just scroll fb or the forums here there are plenty. make sure to touch on law suits abaonded horses, horse death you know the real bad ones. Also how if he likes these people he doesnt want to board there horses as usually ends up not a good situation.

I feel you pain my husband has been on the same rant with me…

[Sue_B]

Re: making money on the side…I don’t know how old your kids are, but for years my son sold eggs to friends neighbors and at the local Farmer’s Market. We had about 25-35 laying hens and a couple of roosters that he fed, watered and gathered eggs from every day. Together we would wash the eggs and candle any that had been in the nesting box longer than a day or two (it happens when your kid is just 5 or 6). We re-used the egg cartons and only did very local selling. One summer, my mother and he made egg noodles and sold those as well. All the money he made went into his college account. Sometimes he would sell chicks that we’d raised in the incubator and pullets close to laying age. At any rate, between that and 4H (he raised market lambs), he heads to college next year well-funded You could build a nice coop off the side of the barn maybe?

[Ruth0552]

You both already work full-time and have a vineyard. If he thinks 2 hayburners in your backyard need to help out with the bills I hope he is planning on helping out with the barn chores.

[Rackonteur]

Clueless? Or stupid? It is fine to be clueless about things about which one knows nothing and in which one has no interest.

It is stupid to remain clueless once one takes an interest in a business, e.g., boarding horses for equally clueless people. Self-education is often the provenance of the ignorant intelligent. The stupid just remain clueless because they have no respect for learning or for themselves.

[TheJenners]

Now he magically wants a grand (or not) to fall from the sky. Or your hands. Come on, if the new building which is half his as recall, needed income to pay for itself, this should have been discussed MONTHS ago.

You don’t have an arena yet and he is going to be a manipulate jerk (yes his “sad” is manipulation instead of understanding) then I’d keep boarding where I have an arena already and let him keep the whole damn building - he can make money of it. God knows what he’ll say just before the arena gets done, that it has to be leased part time to people who want to play volleyball?

[PeteyPie]

I’m kind of guessing you are in California if you run a vineyard so here is my advice. Call it a capital improvement:

Do some research on real estate in your area, maybe call a realtor. Find out what the most profitable type of building there is to put on your property and then make sure your barn is built to perform double duty as that kind of building with minimally expensive modifications. I’m thinking of the following types of buildings, but there may be others which the realtor can tell you about:
Garage
RV Garage
Pool House
Wine Cellar
Wine Tasting Room
In-Law or Guest Cottage
Shop
Summer House/Shaded Outdoor Kitchen and Dining Structure
Horse Barn
She Shed
Man Cave

Find out which one would increase the value of your property the most and call your barn that. So for example, let’s say your barn will cost $50,000 and you are planning on having it plumbed with a bathroom. Let’s say a barn would only add $30,000 to an appraisal of your property but a guest house would add $100,000. Then make sure it’s designed with change in mind so that you can covert it for $10,000 or $15,000. Voila! Then tell your husband that you’re building a guest house which you will use as a barn and its construction will add $100,000 to the value of your property, a net increase of $40,000 over your costs, by having this scenario. PLUS, by not converting it right away, you will pay lower property taxes until the time comes to convert it into a guest house.

Or let’s say a horse barn and an RV garage are about equal when it comes to adding to the value of your property but RV Parking is more appealing to buyers. Sell it that way to your husband. Just be sure to make the barn dimensions high enough and large enough for an RV and frame in a door the appropriate height and width.

Be clear that you are not saying that the horses will be paid for with this endeavor because they are your hobby, but the barn will pay for itself and more.

That’s what I told my husband when we bought a small horse property. It’s an investment.