Moovin' Ridge Farm

Our farm was purchased, early 2014. At first glance, the entire property was less than appealing. It was eroded, overgrown, and just plain ugly. Those were the first three things that came to mind. However, seeing first hand what a positive attitude and a clear vision can accomplish, the healing began. With the helping hand of a new neighbor (now a good friend), all the scrub trees along the severely eroded waterways were plucked out. After the trees were down and cleared, it was now the time to fill in the 5,000’ worth of mini Grand Canyons making up the “Waterways” that traversed the farm. With all the hours spent in the cab of a bulldozer, a mind starts to wonder. It was in those wandering hours that dozer became more like a 14’ wide 32,000 pound paintbrush. When the canyons were filled, the fencing began. Every bit of the fence that encompassed our little tract was evicted from its 50 year stay. The “paintbrush” was brought in to clear out the saplings, trees, bushes, weeds, and the occasional stump had made the fence lines part of their home. Installing 20,000 plus feet of woven wire over the course of 2 years could have a person question their sanity. The answer is yes and several people including myself started to question it daily. In a way, there was a feeling of euphoria at seeing every foot of fence installed. Raw fingertips, sore muscles, sunburns, near heat exhaustion, and blizzards( yes! I even built a fence in snow), poison ivy, and knocking myself out with a post pounder…. But it was all worth it. It can be looked at fondly, now that it is in the rearview mirror. Fence completed, then I moved to water control. The water projects included: 8,000’ of buried waterline, new deep well, lots and lots of perforated tile, and newly dug pond. Now the cattle, goats, horses, broiler chickens, ducks, sheep (coming soon) can all be reached with a 200’ garden hose. Improvements are always happening and time is always short. It is/was all worth it, to get where we are going.