What SS Mistakes Have You Made?

[old fashioned]

I have tons, but just a few come to mind right away:

Don't try to make soap in a chipped enamel pot.
Don't make a monstrous garden just because you got a plow.
Don't buy a glass top stove.
Don't have every form of heat & cooking dependent on electricity.
The pantry is the worst possible place for a chick brooder.
Turkey poults really are suicidal.
Peanuts grow underground.
Don't try to plant an orchard in crappy clay soil.
Don't feed your neighbors cows whole apples. (No, I didn't kill it - managed to yank the stuck apple out of it's mouth just in time.)
Don't taunt the neighbors bull by sticking out your tongue and saying "Nyah nyah neiner neiner" unless you can climb trees with lightning agility.

Apparently you've had, shall we say.....an "interesting" time of it?

 

[meriruka]

I should put out a video of "What not to do when you move from the city to the farm without a manual"

I'd use a stunt double to recreate the 'tractor climbing the wall of the barn because I can't stop it"scene and the 'inexorable slide down the hot metal roof with an open bucket of paint in one hand & a brush in the other' incident as well as the 'putting your ladder at too steep an angle to the house and having it smash you flat to the ground when your back is turned' bit.

Ain't country life grand?

 

[Occamstazer]

Um, the reality of what "free range chickens" truly means. I fed a lot of local wildlife before I started to figure out what I was doing.

Also, capability is great, but some people just aren't cut out for some things. I cannot learn to knit.

 

[lupinfarm]

Same here, long driveway. Ours is a half a KM long with 1 small rise near the barn, and a bigger hill on a curve by the house. The biggest problem is our small parking area, and the driveway is a little on the narrow side but doesn't drop off at the sides. Our neighbour plows it when he has time, but if he doesn't we just park at the end in high snow. The biggest problem is the drifting we get around the barn. Awful HUGE drifts, 4-6ft in height in bad winter weather.

UPS comes up if there is no snow, mail lady NEVER comes up even in good weather, hydro started taking the F-150 out instead of the Ranger to get up our driveway to check the meter (its at the barn, halfway down), and the biggest downside was having to shop around for an oil company because we needed one that had a very small truck. Our propane guy backs a tandem the whole way up the driveway LOL!!

Other biggest thing is the barn is too farm from the house.

And putting in a plot garden. I should have just put in raised beds to begin with.

Don't forget to check the fuel gauge on the oil tank. If it always reads empty, its broken and you will run out unless you're on auto-fill up and it will be cold and all your pipes will freeze and so will the pump which will end up exploding (both of them LOL one is trashed the other is patched).

We have a propane stove/oven
baseboard heater in the laundry room
propane insert in the master bedroom
forced air oil heating in most of the house


Don't buy a house that doesn't have a woodstove. Like us. They're EXPENSIVE to install.

 

[Ldychef2k]

I am not smart enough nor experienced enough to see the mistakes. Or even call them mistakes. I was such a mess before that anything is an improvement.

 

[old fashioned]

I should put out a video of "What not to do when you move from the city to the farm without a manual"

I'd use a stunt double to recreate the 'tractor climbing the wall of the barn because I can't stop it"scene and the 'inexorable slide down the hot metal roof with an open bucket of paint in one hand & a brush in the other' incident as well as the 'putting your ladder at too steep an angle to the house and having it smash you flat to the ground when your back is turned' bit.

Ain't country life grand?

Perhaps a show called "Meriruka's Funniest Home Videos"

Okay so now I have to get offline so I can breathe and see and ease the bellyache from laughing so hard

 

[Up-the-Creek]

My biggest mistake is doing too much at one time and doing too much of it,...if that makes sense? Like a few chickens werent enough,...I had to have 50+ and three chicken houses, and a brood pen, a chicken tractor,...blah,blah,blah,...now I have a bunch of crap with a few chickens. Lesson learned on that,...now its goats. I have kept myself from obtaining any as of yet,...of course I need fencing. I am trying real hard NOT TO PUT THE CART BEFORE THE GOAT,...so to speak . The pig thing,...that went pretty well ,...except my DH brought FOUR home that was sick(greenhorn ). We saved two and buried two,...of the other two we sold one,...one we butchered. Went deep in the hole on that,..plus DH wouldn't listen that they needed a good shelter and Mrs. Piggy tore that all to the ground,...learning lessons. They don't come cheap. Oh and the garden thing,...My motto,..don't let your ideas get bigger than your wallet,..because mother nature can take it ALL away. Best thing you can do is slow down and pick your battles,...hopefully one at a time.

 

[lupinfarm]

My big (and this is BIG) mistake was in thinking that having free range chickens meant that they could wander about at will, and they would sweetly go into their coop at night. NOPE! They roosted in all sorts of places and were vunerable to the coyotes. Out of 24 chickens, I am down to three, and feel their blood on my hands for not providing better for them. I won't be getting more until I have a fully secure and fenced area for them around the coop.

I have 6 free range chickens, they wander around at will all day long and take themselves to bed at night. So do the ducks lol.

 

[Dace]

My big (and this is BIG) mistake was in thinking that having free range chickens meant that they could wander about at will, and they would sweetly go into their coop at night. NOPE! They roosted in all sorts of places and were vunerable to the coyotes. Out of 24 chickens, I am down to three, and feel their blood on my hands for not providing better for them. I won't be getting more until I have a fully secure and fenced area for them around the coop.

I have 6 free range chickens, they wander around at will all day long and take themselves to bed at night. So do the ducks lol.

Mine are like cats...they just do their own thing and I go out and tell them 'good night, sweet dreams' every night as I shut their door. My dog is more work than the chickens!

When we first got the coop, I did have to out them in it every night for the first several days, then they got the hint.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Not placing the house (mobile home) with the back door to the south. All the windows are on the back but 1 in the LR & 2 in the master bedroom. DH wanted to be able to see the driveway, I wanted the winter solar gain & shade during the summer. Boo

Not installing electric fence from the get go.
Letting other people bushhog the back pasture makes you lose fence posts
Putting the former chicken house right in the perfect garden spot. S'okay, it will be a goat shed before too many more moons.
Not starting with raised beds.
Not getting more chickens last year when I had the chance.