Maintaining Acreage - What Are We In For?

[fionas]

DP and I are considering a treechange to Woodend and we're going to look at a house that's on 7 acres.

We really have no idea how much effort/time we would need to put into maintaining that. Most of it is cleared with not too much in the way of high maintenance manicured garden by the looks of things and there's a wooded bit at the edge.

DP likes the idea of a ride-on mower but we really have no clue about what we would be in for.

Can anyone shed some light?

[Inanna]

A lot! It's hard work & I only have 1 acre. Basically you have all the wonderful things that a rural lifestyle provides - & the cost is maintenance!

I know quite a number of people who have moved up to where I am & ended up moving back to town. Simply they didn't want to spend their spare time mowing, chopping, clearing and moving trees etc...

When I get a storm it's days of clean up - when a cow gets out it's fun.
We have always paid someone to mow and whipper snip - but really for me I can't maintain this place alone - the house takes up all my time I haven't got the time to be in my too large for one garden.

So, you need to be aware that its a big job. I know that it seemsmainenentce free - but it's just not that way!

so weigh up your need to be rural - perhaps look for a smaller block? Or, if you will resent in time the time it takes to maintain..

[Ginger]

would you be putting any animals on the 7 acres? eg. goats, sheep, horses?

[fionas]

Nope, we're not planning any animals except maybe a special breed of horse that can operate a lawnmower and chop down trees

[Ginger]

your maintenance will be pretty huge then...we have one acre of cleared, established garden and it takes dh 3 hours to mow the lawn and whippersnip. the amount of leaves you have to rake up is enormous. if you can afford it, you can always pay a garden maintenace company to come in once a month and keep it looking great- but this would be an extra cost you would need to factor into your move though.
is the block flat or on a slope?

[Astrid]

Yep maintenance is higher than a normal block. We have had to get some tree work done, then there is mowing and whipper snippering. Then it is a whole other ball game if you add animals to the mix. Finding myself tied to home at the moment as we have young chicks who need regular feeding and checking on with the changes in temps.

Also need to look into other things like is it on tank water, bore water and does it have a septic tank. They are all extra work. Gutters need to be kept clean for water collection and of course for fire safety. Tanks need a clean out every so often, along with the odd top up from a water tanker if there has not been decent rain for awhile. Septics need pumping every so often as well and you need to be a bit more careful of what goes down them and water flow etc. There are also pumps with tanks and bores. These use power, the newer variable speed ones a much cheaper to run. Pumps in general can have problems, so be prepared to pay for repairs or replacements depending on age. Our last bill was over $600.

What is the garbage collection like? Is there one, or do you have to pay for some one to collect it or take it to the tip yourself. That is also extra work. Not so much expense, as your rates should be less if there is no road side collection. The work is extra sorting of recylables, as they have to be sorted right down to type and of course the loading of a trailer.

Really recommend having a trailer with a larger property. That way you know you can take home big purchase, as not everyone will deliver to rural areas or if they do it is on their time and price. Also good for transporting small animals if it has sides.

Check into the capital gains implications on the block, as only the first 5 acres is exempt from CGT.

[Inanna]

I was just going to mention pumps & tanks & water treatment/septic tanks... I've had to buy water twice in the past few weeks at $270 a load! Cleaning tanks & gutters is a big big job...

I love living rurally & I am lucky that I butt up against a dairy farm so I get the feeling of more land without it being mine...! But it's a huge job & not one that you can do on your own working full time without help with maintenance... IMHO.

Fences also need to maintained & that can be costly - you would definitely need a ute or a trailer as Astrid said...

[Astrid]

I love living rurally & I am lucky that I butt up against a dairy farm so I get the feeling of more land without it being mine...!

Same here, 1/2 an acre about to increase to 1 acre, surrounded by dairy farm with a bush block up the road. Fantastic outlook, no neighbours, but without the work of a 50 acre property.

Just remembered another thing. Can be hard to get some tradies, or they just cost more. We are only 10 minutes from the city edge, yet we had to wait a month to get our dishwasher looked at. They either will come out with an extra charge, or you have to wait till they have other work in the area. Some are great and will give you that choice, others, especially with warranty work, make you work to their schedule.

Sounds all doom and gloom doesn't it? Well it is not really, just trade off's. We love it out here, there are no hoons driving by at all hours of the night, no noisy neighbours parties. We still get the odd door to door person, but no where near as many as before. We have koalas in the back yard and frogs living in our veggie patch.

[Trillian]

And you have to make sure you take care of any noxious weeds that your acreage may grow as they can be a real problem when people who think that a plant that grows a pretty flower or looks pretty in their garden let it get out of control and spread to neighbouring properties. Check with the local council or rural lands protection board/LHPA and find out what plants are a problem in that area and if they have a list of what you can and cannot grow. Lantana for example is a very pretty plant, but if let grow wild it is a huge noxious weed issue.

[~Raven~]

My parents found maintaining their acre and large house to be too hard so they sold it. It took them 25 years to get it and by that time the "slaves" had grown up and left home so do it now while you have the extra hands

[Astrid]

Just something else. Maintenance is a bit about attitude. When we lived in suburbia DH hated mowing, now he enjoys it, same with gardening. It is his wind down time after working in an office all day. Things like raking leaves etc is exercise. When I lost a fair bit of weight last year, it coincided with when I was doing a lot of garden maintenance. So whilst the maintenance can seem to be a negative, you can turn it into a positive. Of course though, there are days when you just don't want to do it like anything else.

[fionas]

I know what you're saying Astrid. I find pruning/weeding our current backyard fiddly. Not much room between plants whereas somehow mowing a big area seems more rewarding and relaxing. I think DP would be happy mowing too - quick results and not much skill/gardening knowledge required.

We're also looking at another one on Sat that is on a three quarter acre block so that sounds much more manageable!

[Smoke Jaguar]

Oh, man, how daunting...I recently agreed to look again at 100 acres+ properties after I thought we'd agreed to downsize our vision to about 30! DP reckons he can take care of fences when he buys a portable sawmill (he hasn't even seen one in operation yet, so we can't count on this!), and that 50 head of steer will be very low-maintenance...but he's going to keep working and I'm supposed to raise our two children, contemplate a third and somehow finish my current degree and look at a fourth year (to actually make this study count toward a qualification...) as well as help look after 100 acres. Considering all I wanted from a move to acreage was to keep horses without having to agist (agisting only one horse now, but want my kids to ride and DP wants to have a horse but only if we own land), it's a big ask!
Just last night an acquaintance was telling me that maintaining her 12 acres was difficult, with just horses on it. And today another friend was saying that she gets help (cash in hand) to maintain her 40 odd acres that she keeps goats on, and sometimes the goats make mince meat of fences - if goats do that, we're going to spend a lot of quality time fixing cattle fencing...
That 6 acres of land in Tonimbuk is looking REALLY attractive...!
Sheesh, reading this I feel I've waded in way over my head...

[Astrid]

Goats are much harder on fencing than cattle. Our fencing keeps the cattle at bay, but the goats have this way of finding one small hole and then trying to make it bigger. Could have cried when one got into our veggie patch and took out a 1/3 of the corn.

[Trillian]

Maya, if he thinks that he is going to be able to contain 50 head of cattle, and steers at that, with timber fencing then he is in for a shock LOL. Cattle are fence wrecking buggers and he will find it very very hard to keep up with maintaining fences because they push up under them all the time. Plus there is NLIS (National Livestock Identification System) to worry about where all your livestock has to be ear tagged and you will have to have this if you are to sell livestock at market (which I assume is the plan because there is no point in having steers otherwise) as well as a property identification number and keep all the correct paperwork as well.

[Smoke Jaguar]

I knew we should have stuck to horses and nut trees

[Inanna]

I can vouch for cattle being shockers with the fences... I often have a jersey in my front garden munching my lavender...

My friends up the road got a "hobbyfarm" she's an optometrist - they run 80 head of cattle so not much but her DH has a 7 day a week job on his hands. The noxious weeds, the feed, the maintenance of the animals and fencing. It's a big job. They have nuts too...

I would definitely rethink the big block if it's not going to be a full time job for one of you...

[Trillian]

LOL Maya. 10-15 years ago it would have been an awesome idea and a lot of small-acreage farmers did quite well out of it, but there is so much new legislation now and laws that have to be adhered too that it isn't as simple as it used to be and that is without the full time job of maintaining them. Plus there is also the animal husbandry as well - you need to make sure that they are vacinated and drenched for worms and liverfluke etc and if you choose to do it organically you need to be able to have enough spare paddocks to rotate them to stop worm infestion and reinfestation and 100 acres is too small for that.