Post by braided-rug on Jun 11, 2007 10:31:23 GMT 10
Small Farm Maintenance & Workshop Skills
By Colin Croucher
Small farm lifestyle living has attracted a lot of interest from a large number of people, many of which have decide to take the step and live the rural lifestyle dream. There is no wonder that so many books have been written to provide ideas and guidance to help the small farmer or homesteader create an income to help them survive and prosper on a small rural holding.
For instance; there are several books available that provide useful information for the small farmer, on all kinds of topics, such as: Farm basics, - Finances & marketing - How to sell your home grown product - Small farm enterprise ideas - How to grow crops - How to raise animals - Alternative agriculture ideas - Small farm management, etc
The shift to the rural lifestyle will mean that small farm holdings will tend to increase approx 17.4% over the next 10 years. To the casual observer, you would be forgiven if you asked the question why?
The simple reason is that: People are just sick & tired of the hassle of city living and the many problems now appearing in society will keep driving the exodus to the small farm lifestyle, which offers true peace and quiet, and a safe haven for your family. But with the move to rural lifestyle properties many city people suddenly find themselves in the situation of having to learn a whole new set of skills, and a new way of doing things, because farm life can be quite different to city life.
Routine farm maintenance can be a real headache for the non-practical person, a basic requirement on any farm is; gates & fences, you need good fences to control stock, and gates to move them from paddock to paddock, ready made gates can be expensive to buy and have installed by a tradesman, but if you possess welding and fabrication skills, & you understand how to install them yourself, the cost will be minimized to the expense of the raw materials plus your time to install them. DIY work will put money back in your pocket.
Investing capital into a farm workshop equipped with quality tools and equipment will repay the initial set-up cost ten fold within a very short time.
The beauty of living the rural lifestyle is the freedom to do things that you may not be able to do in the city; perhaps you have hobbies and interest's that generate excessive noise... a productive farm workshop may fall into that category, but heck, you are saving your self a lot of money building things your self, right, and as long as you don't make noise at really odd hours of the day or night, your neighbours down the road shouldn't mind in the least what you do in your workshop.
If you enjoy rebuilding and restoring old antique oil engines, or other old things for that matter, then a rural location will allow you to collect, store, and restore old engines to your hearts content, in fact you might have several other practical hobbies that you can pursue on your small farm enterprise.
Learning new skills is a lifelong process, if you love restoring old engines, farm machinery, or old tools and equipment, then one of the most invaluable skills to have under you belt is the ability to cast your own metal parts from aluminum and bronze.
The process is not high tech, the tools can be homemade, and the equipment to melt scrap metal can be built from items scrounged from junkyards, or from your own farm, an overview of metal casting could be described as: Using a pattern to make the cavity in a two part sand mould, scrap metal is melted in a simple furnace and then poured into the sand mould cavity, of course there is more to it than that, but if you want to explore the possibilities with metal casting, then feel free to visit our web site to download a free introductory ebook.
To learn more about the art of metal casting, feel free to make a visit To www.myhomefoundry.com The hobby foundry info web site. Download your free introductory metal casting made easy ebook. And read how others have mastered hobby metal casting.
Article Source: EzineArticles.com/?expert=Colin_Croucher
By Colin Croucher
Small farm lifestyle living has attracted a lot of interest from a large number of people, many of which have decide to take the step and live the rural lifestyle dream. There is no wonder that so many books have been written to provide ideas and guidance to help the small farmer or homesteader create an income to help them survive and prosper on a small rural holding.
For instance; there are several books available that provide useful information for the small farmer, on all kinds of topics, such as: Farm basics, - Finances & marketing - How to sell your home grown product - Small farm enterprise ideas - How to grow crops - How to raise animals - Alternative agriculture ideas - Small farm management, etc
The shift to the rural lifestyle will mean that small farm holdings will tend to increase approx 17.4% over the next 10 years. To the casual observer, you would be forgiven if you asked the question why?
The simple reason is that: People are just sick & tired of the hassle of city living and the many problems now appearing in society will keep driving the exodus to the small farm lifestyle, which offers true peace and quiet, and a safe haven for your family. But with the move to rural lifestyle properties many city people suddenly find themselves in the situation of having to learn a whole new set of skills, and a new way of doing things, because farm life can be quite different to city life.
Routine farm maintenance can be a real headache for the non-practical person, a basic requirement on any farm is; gates & fences, you need good fences to control stock, and gates to move them from paddock to paddock, ready made gates can be expensive to buy and have installed by a tradesman, but if you possess welding and fabrication skills, & you understand how to install them yourself, the cost will be minimized to the expense of the raw materials plus your time to install them. DIY work will put money back in your pocket.
Investing capital into a farm workshop equipped with quality tools and equipment will repay the initial set-up cost ten fold within a very short time.
The beauty of living the rural lifestyle is the freedom to do things that you may not be able to do in the city; perhaps you have hobbies and interest's that generate excessive noise... a productive farm workshop may fall into that category, but heck, you are saving your self a lot of money building things your self, right, and as long as you don't make noise at really odd hours of the day or night, your neighbours down the road shouldn't mind in the least what you do in your workshop.
If you enjoy rebuilding and restoring old antique oil engines, or other old things for that matter, then a rural location will allow you to collect, store, and restore old engines to your hearts content, in fact you might have several other practical hobbies that you can pursue on your small farm enterprise.
Learning new skills is a lifelong process, if you love restoring old engines, farm machinery, or old tools and equipment, then one of the most invaluable skills to have under you belt is the ability to cast your own metal parts from aluminum and bronze.
The process is not high tech, the tools can be homemade, and the equipment to melt scrap metal can be built from items scrounged from junkyards, or from your own farm, an overview of metal casting could be described as: Using a pattern to make the cavity in a two part sand mould, scrap metal is melted in a simple furnace and then poured into the sand mould cavity, of course there is more to it than that, but if you want to explore the possibilities with metal casting, then feel free to visit our web site to download a free introductory ebook.
To learn more about the art of metal casting, feel free to make a visit To www.myhomefoundry.com The hobby foundry info web site. Download your free introductory metal casting made easy ebook. And read how others have mastered hobby metal casting.
Article Source: EzineArticles.com/?expert=Colin_Croucher