# 4acre horse pasture to home



## acegator (May 31, 2018)

Figured I would start a new Journal as we decided to buy 4 acres and sell our house. The land used to be an old horse farm and hadn't been maintained in several years. The plan is to build a shop with an RV shed and live in a 35ft fifth wheel while we build a small farm house.

Dirt work starts next week, My shop and house pad will be 3ft high, this isn't a flood zone but it's easier to do it now than later. We have a small creek that runs along the side of the property as well.

- Bush hog was able to get about 3 acres but the damn chicken tree's are a little too big so we will need to dozer some of the lot, push down some dead tree's etc. I have not decided what type of grass to go with yet, Bermuda terrifies me with 4 acres and I plan on using a zero turn  , The current grass type is weeds and lots of them, maybe some Bahia mixed in but mainly weeds and lots of chicken tree's that will need to be dozed down and torched to hell and back. There are a ton of oaks on the property, live oaks, white oaks, pin oaks etc.. will be keeping those other than the ones we need to doze down to get into the land.


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

Anxious to follow your progress. I'm transitioning to a large lawn too.


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## acegator (May 31, 2018)

I have been watching your progress beautiful place you have there.

The water meter for my main is 244ft from the house and 484ft from my shop, largest meter is 3/4" plan to lay down 2" pipe.



Ware said:


> Anxious to follow your progress. I'm transitioning to a large lawn too.


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## acegator (May 31, 2018)

The road and shop pad dirt work will start this week weather permitting. I put a deposit down on the shop last week and that will take 8-10 weeks to come in so I have plenty of time to get everything formed up, plumbed, electrical conduit ran and concrete poured. There are a ton of shop/garage options and you can spend a ton of money on just the metal but I opted to go with a prefab unit. I went with 12 gauge metal for the supports, 26 gauge sheet metal on the walls and roof and I opted for a certified building that is supposedly rated for 130mph winds although I don't plan on testing my luck in it. . I grew up on a farm where we ran our own water, electrical and sewage but my advice would be to figure out what you are comfortable with, what your county lets you do but put safety first especially if you do not have any electrical knowledge. I plan on doing all of the grunt work, outside conduit to service line, main/sub mounting, inside conduit and having an electrician tie everything in.

- right side is the fifth wheel shed even though it looks like a giant van
- left side will be living quarters .. if you have never lived in an RV it gets cramped quick


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## acegator (May 31, 2018)

We have been clearing old dead trees a better part of a month now and running many many drains to shed water. Not an optimal time of year to do all of this work but sometimes you have to just suck it up.

- shop pad poured
- house pad will start later in february if not mid feb

We have been running 12" dual wall hdpe pipe in many locations to get the water out to the creek. We had one pipe that totally collapsed as you see below but overall we have had good success getting the water out.. this will need to be repaired today.


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## Butter (Nov 14, 2017)

What is a chicken tree?


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## acegator (May 31, 2018)

It's a Chinese tallow



Butter said:


> What is a chicken tree?


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## acegator (May 31, 2018)

Been quite a while but I have been focused on house building, outdoor kitchen, fence and drainage.

Time to rid the pasture of trash grass and get some good stuff growing

Plans

- Smoke the current lawn with gly/2, 4-d - roughly 4 acres and I will split this into phases
- disc with tractor
- level with the box blade/scraper/ and eventually I will use a skid steer

Seeding with Bermuda - Plan on seeding 90% of the property I just haven't determined what variety yet. I may have to go cheaper with common seed or spring for Monaco but it is 388.00 for a 25lb bag.. haven't determined if it's worth the cost yet.

Sodding - area's around house and possibly 4000sq ft out I will sod, my pad was built 3 1/2-4ft off the ground and I will not attempt to seed that area. That is later in the summer as the house is still being built. I also haven't determined what cultivar I will use for this, Tifway is easier to get in this area so I may go that route..

Just finished the gate and put some cheap solar lights up for now,


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## sam36 (Apr 14, 2020)

For seed, go with Sahara II. Even if money wasn't an issue, I'd still say go with Sahara II. It is a good seed and a cousin of Princess77 and it is cheaper than common, $220 for a 50lbs bag (coated seed so actually 25lbs of seed).

I did a test of monaco and Sahara II last year in my journal. Monaco is nicer, has a better color, finer texture, etc but for me, it is always super slow growing. To the point I'd think common would over take it in a semi-maintained field. Sahara II is quick germinating, and quick growing, but most all of its growth is horizontal, very little vertical growth.

This is 40 days after seeding:

Sahara II:  
Monaco:


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## Ben S (Oct 6, 2018)

Not gonna lie, when I read the first post I thought, "This is crazy." It's looking great though. Very inspiring.


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## CenlaLowell (Apr 21, 2017)

Man I'm thinking about doing this in Central Louisiana needless to say I will probably have some questions for you along the way if you don't mind.


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## jasonbraswell (Aug 18, 2019)

Sahara II is great and worked great for my lawn.
It comes in the Pennington bags at the big box stores.


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## acegator (May 31, 2018)

Anytime



CenlaLowell said:


> Man I'm thinking about doing this in Central Louisiana needless to say I will probably have some questions for you along the way if you don't mind.


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## acegator (May 31, 2018)

Very good info



sam36 said:


> For seed, go with Sahara II. Even if money wasn't an issue, I'd still say go with Sahara II. It is a good seed and a cousin of Princess77 and it is cheaper than common, $220 for a 50lbs bag (coated seed so actually 25lbs of seed).
> 
> I did a test of monaco and Sahara II last year in my journal. Monaco is nicer, has a better color, finer texture, etc but for me, it is always super slow growing. To the point I'd think common would over take it in a semi-maintained field. Sahara II is quick germinating, and quick growing, but most all of its growth is horizontal, very little vertical growth.
> 
> ...


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