[Vindaloo]

So, i have a house, an old barn for animals, a pole building for the tractor etc. and a 2 story garage with processing kitchen and workshop.

I have one small outbuilding that was a woodshed with a boiler. I removed the boiler and installed an evaporator for syrup making. What would you add next?

Garden shed - my pole bldg is 600 yards from the house on a property i owned before the farm. Garage too nice. Woodshed is for wood.

Root cellar - min garage temp is 50 with a mini split. need colder and more humid space.

Smokehouse -just have a small electric. Want a real one.

Sauna - warm up the winter months

Heated deer blinds - have one but it belonged to a friend and now he uses it at my place.

Chicken coop - have ducks in the barn for eggs. I shoot dozens of ducks each year so I don’t need the meat. I would like to get meat chickens.

something else?

 

[Solidus365]

Greenhouses?

 

[Mtnman Mike]

Definitely a root cellar then a greenhouse and so on. A root cellar can also be used as very secure storage for many items and it is a great storm / tornado shelter also. Here are some plans, diagrams, photos etc etc. about root cellars > root cellar plans at DuckDuckGo

When I built my underground shelter I used these plans although I added my own ideas such as a walk in front steel door shown in this pic and here is the link which tells exactly how to build this Very strong secure underground shelter > App. A.3: Small-Pole Shelter - Nuclear War Survival Skills

 

[Vindaloo]

Greenhouse is a good one. I was looking at passive greenhouse designs. South facing glass with insulated half buried north walls. Pump air into the ground to regulate temperature.

 

[surfcast]

So, i have a house, an old barn for animals, a pole building for the tractor etc. and a 2 story garage with processing kitchen and workshop.

I have one small outbuilding that was a woodshed with a boiler. I removed the boiler and installed an evaporator for syrup making. What would you add next?

Garden shed - my pole bldg is 600 yards from the house on a property i owned before the farm. Garage too nice. Woodshed is for wood.

Root cellar - min garage temp is 50 with a mini split. need colder and more humid space.

Smokehouse -just have a small electric. Want a real one.

Sauna - warm up the winter months

Heated deer blinds - have one but it belonged to a friend and now he uses it at my place.

Chicken coop - have ducks in the barn for eggs. I shoot dozens of ducks each year so I don’t need the meat. I would like to get meat chickens.

something else?

What is the total acreage of the property, sounds nice?

 

[Vindaloo]

115 acres mostly woods in SW Michigan. I like it a lot. Took many years to acquire.

 

[Alaskajohn]

Sounds like you have the space to add a few more! Greenhouse and root cellar for sure. The sauna sounds nice as well.

One thing that I have learned from running my Alaskan ”homestead“ is that you quickly run out of space for the equipment you acquire to manage the place. The one thing I need to add is a heated space to work on farm equipment when it’s cold. If none of your outbuildings are heated, you might want to consider this.

Congratulations on getting your property!

 

[Vindaloo]

Just the garage is heated with a reverse cycle mini split but everything I have will fit in there now except the boat. There is a wood stove in the pole barn but it is in a drywalled room I used to stay in during hunting season. Without insulation the rest of the building doesn’t heat up much unless I put a torpedo in it. A larger pile barn is in the future plan along with a bigger tractor but I need to get through the home remodel and addition first.

 

[MyPrepperLife]

Vindaloo, I would put the root cellar at the top of the list. Assuming, of course, you're producing or planning to product a significant quantity of root crops.

When I built my house, I built a root cellar into a corner of the basement. It is one of the best decisions I've made.

 

[JDH]

So, i have a house, an old barn for animals, a pole building for the tractor etc. and a 2 story garage with processing kitchen and workshop.

I have one small outbuilding that was a woodshed with a boiler. I removed the boiler and installed an evaporator for syrup making. What would you add next?

Garden shed - my pole bldg is 600 yards from the house on a property i owned before the farm. Garage too nice. Woodshed is for wood.

Root cellar - min garage temp is 50 with a mini split. need colder and more humid space.

Smokehouse -just have a small electric. Want a real one.

Sauna - warm up the winter months

Heated deer blinds - have one but it belonged to a friend and now he uses it at my place.

Chicken coop - have ducks in the barn for eggs. I shoot dozens of ducks each year so I don’t need the meat. I would like to get meat chickens.

something else?

Secure storage for flammable materials a safe distance from other buildings.

 

[surfcast]

115 acres mostly woods in SW Michigan. I like it a lot. Took many years to acquire.

That is awesome good luck, did you acquire another property next to yours ?

I wish I could buy something like that!

 

[Vindaloo]

Yes. My neighbor had an issue where he could not finish anything he started. His wife got tired of it when the half finished half built house and garage were still not complete after 15 years and things that were finished needed fixing and replacement. They divorced. I bought it after selling a small investment property and did a tax free exchange. Mine was 53 acres with no house and his a matching 53 with 9 acres he added on. (Buying more property when you can’t finish your house isn’t too smart but the house was on the property lime and now it is well buffered).

It is a lot of work and expense but I’m going all in. He dug a small pond and left the spoil to grow trees. I dug it out larger and graded. Finished the garage. Foundation is poured for the half the house he never built and I’m finishing and remodeling the other half.

The small buildings are next after the house is 100% done. I love my wife and want to keep her happy.

 

[Vindaloo]

Secure storage for flammable materials a safe distance from other buildings.

Safe yes, secure no. I keep the gas and diesel in the woodshed. Not a lot of value in there that will burn. Lots of wood though so it would burn well.

 

[neiowa]

Smithy? You don't want it inside a valuable shop building.

Firebreaks between structures. It was no accident that farms of a century ago had multiple single use buildings. Today the typical farmer in my area has a new suburban style mcmansion house and 50000ft2 machine shed (with $2million equipment inside), and grain bins for the corn/beans. The only animal is a dog/cats.

 

[ebjr1967]

Greenhouses?

I've seen a few buildings come and go over the years, chicken houses, pigpens, wood shed. The one thing that has remained is the greenhouse, because I love to eat.

 

[[_]ni/\/\og]

Spring? If so a stone springhouse.

 

[Jerry D Young]

1) Power house
2) Utility shed - fuel production (biodiesel, fuel alcohol, methane, charcoal, etc.)
3) Utility shed - open side with enclosed area as fuel tank bunker support (propane fill station, fuel dispenser pump, etc.)
4) Utility shed - solid fuel storage and handling (coal, coke, charcoal, wood pellets, corn, biomass, etc.)
5) Utility shed - trash and waste handling with incinerator, recycling bins, can crusher, large trash compactor, storage bins, dumpsters, etc.)
6) Mausoleum - private burial area with storage for grave tools, and other support items
7) Greenhouse support shed - store items used in greenhouse to leave maximum room for growing and processing area to make items ready to take to kitchen
8) Aquaponics greenhouse - vertical grow aquaponic system with vented rabbit hutches, worm beds, fish tanks, control system, liquids storage tanks, etc.
9) Specialty greenhouse - with good variable temperature areas for temperate, semi-tropical, and tropical climate growing areas for miniature bananas, oranges, limes, coffee, tea, etc. plus large mushroom growing cabinet
10) Icehouse(s) - to store ice made in cold periods using molds in outside racks, and processing area to handle large ice blocks and sheets formed naturally, etc.
11) Outside furnace support shed - houses small solar power system to operate blowers, fans, pumps, etc. for house heating, home hot water, snow/ice melting, etc.
12) Fire protection shed - high capacity fire pump, valving system for intakes for pump and fire fighting water distribution valving system, foam system storage, attached large fire fighting water tanks/cisterns.
13) Wild foods processing shed - with trapping, fishing, transport gear and processing area with tools to butcher, clean, cut up, and get ready for storage game animals and birds, fish, wild eatables, etc.
14) Multiple LP/OP/FP structures - dug in, bermed, and above ground armored positions
15) Armored watch towers with secure high speed evacuation system

Those are all the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

Just my opinion.

 

[Kymudder08]

Do you have a dedicated workshop for woodworking, fixing things, etc? All we have at the farm my in-laws live is a barn with hayloft with an attached “garage” on the side and a workshop filled with junk behind the garage that’s filled with junk at the moment until I clean it out this spring. We do have a small loafing shed for the dogs in their pen. Wanting to add a 14x30 lean-to shed for tractors and my bailer once lumber drops back down.

 

[IAFARMER]

Keep your eyes open for small buildings that can be moved. If they are square and have a good roof, buy all you can get. Stay on top of the owners. I have had two recently that I had made offers on, the owners paid to have them bulldozed rather than take my cash. Go figure. One was 8X16, other 24X24.

 

[Jeb Sturat]

Always have a shed for flammable liquids. At least 40ft. from other buildings