Construction and Building a Ranch

Now this may not be the case for everyone out there but at The Norsemen Ranch these two skills have a parallel relationship. Since taking on improving this property it could never have been done without the primitive knowledge of construction. It has saved us thousands of dollars and saved us time and energy in almost every aspect. Growing up my family, especially my father, he was always involved in construction of some sort. To this day my brothers and I still laugh, there is not a more beautiful house then the one that my father is selling. Not kidding almost every house we have lived in it seemed after it was remodeled from top to bottom, my father would immediately sell. In some ways we joke that his hobby is projects.

The truth is I am not that different. There is a constant desire to improve, build or renovate something. I do have more of a desire to have hobbies, you give me an excuse to go fishing or camping, you just might not hear from me for a few days. That said, building any type of ranch can be quite expensive if you are constantly hiring people to build your barns, coops and sheds. It does not matter how elaborate or large scale your ranch may be this adds up. Include the cost of animals themselves, feed and so forth and you better have a significant source of income or good luck staying in the black financially.

My father may not have realized it and neither did I until I was living here full-time, how much knowledge he passed down to me. Also, owning and working on this property has taught me so much more then any book, professor or college has ever taught me. Frankly, school is the biggest waste of time in modern history. Not to mention the money you'll pay or borrow and good luck paying that back over the course of the next 30 years while struggling to make more then 40k a year. Some people may get mad at me for saying that but just so you know this is coming from a guy who flunked out of college once and set the record for lowest GPA at the school he was attending. Then re-enrolled, then graduated summa cum laude with the second highest GPA in the university. I then went on to get straight A's and graduate summa cum laude again in my masters program. I even wrote my thesis on the expenses of college, how the skills you learn are not beneficial and do not set you up for the real world. But hey, most kids nowadays walk away from college knowing how to party, lose their morality, cannot live on their own and do not work in the field they studied which, sounds like a wise choice.

Before I digress too much the truth is owning property, fixing things yourself and learning the importance of hard work is some of the most rewarding and knowledge gaining experiences anyone can have. In the course of my short time here I have learned the skills necessary to be a carpenter, mechanic, plumber, electrician on top of the animal husbandry that I have taken on. Oh yeah, and all the land management that comes into play in the course of a few years I have gained knowledge that is irreplaceable. It has saved us from going without power longer then necessary, (since moving here every year I go a minimum of a week without power due to a storm or freezing cold).

I have built structures on my own that I never considered I would build both for other people and for us. I have been a part of or oversaw the construction of at least one structure a year since I have moved here. This has included two houses, an addition, a shop, a chicken coop, and an office building. This type of knowledge has allowed us to build chicken tractors, additions to coops, gardens, renovate a trailer, refurbish steal benches and much more.

The mindset that comes in with construction is a constant problem solving mentality which comes into priority when dealing with livestock of any kind or if you have a garden. You can watch videos and read books all you want but there is nothing more beneficial then dealing with it first hand. I am not suggesting that videos or books are pointless. I am always reading a book and I am very quick to look up a video to see if there is a better way to do something. Most of the time I take a little from the book, a little from the video and alter it to fit what works for our ranch. That's the beauty of things, nothing works the same for everyone else. I have followed suggestions for my chickens, dogs, horses, and garden etc. Sometimes it works but most of the time it results in me altering it to fit my animals. The reason is they are all different.

We have three rescue dogs and zero livestock dogs. My wife is used to livestock dogs. For any of you that know the difference, you cannot treat a livestock dog like a rescue and a rescue, well to put it plainly, is best as a companion. We have a horse that is the clingiest animal you will ever meet. Leave her alone and she will destroy everything to get near another animal or you. I listened to a bunch of other people about what to do with her. It resulted in her kicking out one of my house windows! Still, one of the strangest things I have ever had to deal with was she destroyed a chicken run to just be by the chickens but I give her a companion and show her some attention and man she is about as calm as can be. Maybe I had bad advice or maybe things just didn't work with this horse as it does with others. As I should mention upon receiving her she was abused and neglected which did play a role in her behavior.

The point of sharing this is, everything that I have done on our property has helped me think "outside the box". Working with animals makes you think differently. Working in construction makes you think differently. There are always problems to solve, nuances to adjust to and different ways to do things. We save thousands of dollars every year because we do almost all of the maintenance, repairs, construction and animal care ourselves, while also running a few business' to stay financially stable. The fact is, without construction we would not have a functioning ranch and without the ranch we would not have a construction business. They go together and probably always will. I cannot guarantee that you may enjoy construction or that you may enjoy ranching but I can guarantee that if you want to work the land and "ranch", learning construction skills will only help you in every aspect of your day to day operations and vice versa.

Check out a few pictures below showing a garden bench that was restored. A gate door that was made from a picnic table that was falling apart and a trailer that is in the process of being restored. All of which have combined necessities of the ranch with the construction mindset.

Next post stay tuned for a few comical stories of my joyful experiences in winter and the poor timing of events.

Garden Bench