What does 4.5 acres plus 12.2 acres equal? Yes 16.7 acres but it also means farm expansion. When we initially moved in 16 months ago we rented the house and about 4.5 acres with it. This included the property containing the house and barn plus an extra pasture on the west side of the barn and two smaller fields on the east side of the barn/north side of the house.

Initially, our landlords (four sisters) were against us using the barn and having large animals. After raising our small flock of chickens and turkeys we realized that if we wanted to grow our farm we’d need additional space and appealed to them late summer/early fall to reconsider, especially since we were willing to purchase farm insurance.

The sisters agreed and we moved forward to rent the additional land. Now there’s a ton of work to do and plans for a farm expansion!

Our priorities are:

• Clean and organize barn.
• Build a couple of stalls.
• Bring our horse Blaze home to save on board.
• Have a small vegetable CSA (Consumer Supported Agriculture).
• Put up our low-cost greenhouse.
• Fix our fence line.
• Get a family cow.
• Plant more pasture.
• Buy our 2013 turkeys.

Other possibilities include:

• Raising broilers (meat chickens).
• Raise a couple of hogs. While we do not eat much pork, having a year supply of bacon sounds really good to us. Plus hogs are fun to observe.
• Raise a beef cow or two for our family’s meat.

We have been busy marketing our farm. We got our egg license in December. Our eggs can be found at a local health food store and at a local monthly Green Market, but we have so much more marketing to do for our CSA and any other products we decide to raise. We do have over 60 people on our e-list and have 20 likes on Facebook. We are excited about the possibilities yet it’s with trepidation that we move forward. After all farming isn’t exactly a profession most people are getting into these days and is even considered career roadkill.

Let’s just say this is another huge step of faith on our part.