Hobby Farm Families?

[Swamp_Yankee]

Beautiful!! I lived the rural life during high school in the Poconos, not on a farm, but on a small mountain w few neighbors....was so much fun and adventure for me n my brother as young outdoorsmen....something that my boys will never experience. I now live on a 100x100 ft lot in a neighborhood, but the running joke w the wife n kids is "dad is working on the farm" again when I'm outside raking leaves, cutting grass, tending to the garden, fixing n building stuff, etc. Lol. My pal hav Xmas tree farms n that is a neat business!

 

We did "neighborhood" life for 10 years here in Hunterdon and couldn't wait to get out.  Not that it wasn't a nice place with nice folks (we do miss our old neighbors), but we just always wanted our own space, to be able to raise animals without bothering anyone, and to be able to hunt in the backyard.  I grew up the same way you did with a lot of woods adjacent to my parents' place and I wanted the same for my girls.  Again, we only have 2 acres, which normally wouldn't allow for all of that, but we're surrounded on 3 sides by 200+ acres of preserved farmland and we sit a 1/4 mile off of the county road.  For New Year's Eve we're having a bunch of families from our church come over with their old Christmas trees for a backyard bonfire.  Couldn't do that in the old neighborhood!  

[rgw]

did kdp do the septic?

[Swamp_Yankee]

did kdp do the septic?

 

Clark Kuhar Excavating-Kurt Hoffman did the engineering.

[Swamp_Yankee]

Built some warm shelter for the barn cats:

 

 

Most of the straw was courtesy of my neighbor down the lane who wouldn't take anything for it-good folks out here.  In return I'll do the best I can to help take some of the freeloading deer off of his hayfields 

Edited December 30, 2017 by Swamp_Yankee

[Swamp_Yankee]

Found a picture today of what the farm looked like, based on what we know, sometime in the late 1950s/early 1960s:

 

 

All that remains is the house, the barn on the far left adjacent to the road, and the small toolshed (which was once the summer kitchen) in between.  All of the other buildings (the long one on the left behind the barn was a chicken house) are gone, but parts of some foundations remain.  The small building between the chicken house and the house was most recently used as a sheep shed by the previous owner, but he demolished the structures after his children left home and they no longer had sheep.  The foundation is completely intact and there is still electric running to it, so this spring I'll be building a small equipment shed and a chicken coop on it.

Edited December 31, 2017 by Swamp_Yankee

[Rusty]

 

Found a picture today of what the farm looked like, based on what we know, sometime in the late 1950s/early 1960s:

 

That's really cool Yankee.    

[Bonefreak]

Cool!

[Swamp_Yankee]

New Year's Eve party preparations complete!  The hourly forecast is calling for single digits once the sun is down, but we'll have a Christmas tree bonfire and hot apple cider (Melick's from Califon) and whiskey with local honey from Asbury to keep us warm:

 

[Racknfin]

Very cool, thank for posting!

[Rusty]

New Year's Eve party preparations complete!  The hourly forecast is calling for single digits once the sun is down, but we'll have a Christmas tree bonfire and hot apple cider (Melick's from Califon) and whiskey with local honey from Asbury to keep us warm:

 

Yankee knows how to party.  

[Swamp_Yankee]

Yankee knows how to party.  

Couldn't do it like this in the old neighborhood! Happy New Year all!

[Swamp_Yankee]

And a good time was had by all:

 

 

[Swamp_Yankee]

Caught one of my mousers as he was slinking into the barn today:

 

[1957Buck]

To see someone Homesteading in NJ is a good sign that there still are places of bygone days. 

When will you make a Reality Show out of it keep posting as this story evolves it is a Ray of sunshine amongst all the negative stuff we see in NJ.  

When is the Open Housewarming AKA Work Party 

I am on The Historial Commission in my township and see places such as yours disappear all too often, Is there any Historical Values connected to this Homestead. Geoge Washington did not have to have slept there.  Age qualifies. Have any Idea of its beginning ?? 

[DBuck]

Beautiful place. What town are you in and what is Hobby Farms all about?