OV9

What Jobbo really needs to do (even though it’s diesel) is buy my Dad’s air cooled Porsche and find a cutter for it -

I did consider an actual tractor but realised I’d basically be left with a small cut area and massive unkempt field margins It’s not Harry’s Farm sadly. Will be good for a decent game of croquet.

We inherited my grandads John Deere and seems to do the job, the farmer over the road bought a very similar one of his own.

I had to put a new cutter belt on it last summer but hasn’t ever needed anything other than the odd oil change.

Q for Jobbo: why no to electric? Unless you’re planning on taking it green-laning/ the shops you’ll always be near a power source.

Plus goats.. I have a desire to buy a small holding at some point. Plus a house with a moat. And a vineyard..

I’d love goats. But you can’t have goats without a donkey. And that starts to become a bit mental when you want to go on holiday

Electric: if I did that I’d just get a robot mower. And I reckon within a couple of years I might. But I have been told I have to get a collecting mower - which is fair - and a lawn tractor with trailer hitch is a useful thing round the garden. We don’t have solar (yet - the back of the garage faces SSE and has plenty of space to fit panels) and electric lawn tractors seem to be about twice the price of equivalent simple petrol ones.

IanF wrote: Mon Feb 19, 2024 9:20 pm
Plus goats.. I have a desire to buy a small holding at some point. Plus a house with a moat. And a vineyard..

We have dogs (ours) and ducks (definitely hers, but I seem to do quite a lot of the care ), but mrs mik has also previously suggested goats / donkeys / alpaca's I don't want a home farm.... She's currently talking about setting up a few bee hives (which seems more realistic in terms of care workload, plus - save the planet etc).

I looked at a beekeeping but decided to not bother as there were so many hoops to jump through. The local bee keepers club wanted me to read a bunch of books, sit their exam, inspect my apiary and location and if that all went well I could pay for some bees to be delivered in 12 months times. Then the price they wanted for the bees seemed to be borderline extortion. I also wanted to use the Flow Hive method for convenience but they looked at me like I wanted to rape and pillage them when I mentioned Flow Hive. Fuck your bees and fuck your planet

Goats are nice, they’re independent, I go in once a month to trim their hooves which is the only essential thing.

For the rest of the month your goats presumably eat their enclosure, your house, car and anything else of value and then escape.

There’s enough vegetation growing in their pasture that they don’t need anything extra. Massive hay rack filled with hay and self filling water trough. And the hay is really just for when it’s raining non stop and they don’t want to go out in the drier months it lasts forever.

Daft question because I'm not really a pet person (even more evident when you read the rest of this post), but what do goats do? If they only need tending once a month, what do you do with them for the rest of the time? Presumably they can't be trained, they're not particularly affectionate like a dog or cat, they just eat things and have weird eyes?

They give you an excuse to get a donkey.

Goats are like chicken soup. Good for the soul.

They also taste really good.

@jobbo spotted, 365 days from now.

Ooh, always wanted some ducks too.

Why do goats need a donkey? Genuine question. Are they not satisfied by other goats?

Re beekeeping, a colleague is massively into it, so any tips required, I'm sure I could ask him.

JonMad wrote: Thu Feb 22, 2024 7:55 am Why do goats need a donkey? Genuine question. Are they not satisfied by other goats?

Just because they seem to love jumping on donkeys and if you're going to keep goats, why not? They're fine without; it just seems a natural pairing.

Fortunately Harry Metcalfe mentioned on his farm videos how expensive alpacas are because I think my wife would like one.

Jobbo wrote: Thu Feb 22, 2024 5:58 am Ooh, always wanted some ducks too.

I can confirm that having a regular supply of fresh duck eggs is a joy Unfortunately they don't lay in the colder months, but we give loads away to friends and family in the summer as we have way more than we could consume ourselves.

Ooh you can have goats cheese too.

OV9, the thrill of milking a goat...

Rich B wrote: Tue Feb 20, 2024 8:03 pm Presumably they can't be trained, they're not particularly affectionate like a dog or cat, they just eat things and have weird eyes?

TIL I'm a goat