What we’ve learned:

• Keeping geese isn’t a good idea.
• Potbelly pigs are really sweet for 3 days out of the month (during periods).
• Goats, if given an opportunity to do things you don’t want them to, will.
• Chickens will poop on everything, but eat a bunch of grasshoppers and cockroaches and produce really good eggs.
• Neighbors in the country aren’t sweet little old ladies – in fact, loud and obnoxious gun-toters are usually the norm.
• If you don’t do everything yourself, you can’t afford to live out here - these are the things we’ve learned or done for ourselves (not hiring ‘professionals’):
  

1. Plumbing

2. Electrical Wiring

3. Deck remodeling

4. Computer repair

5. Gutter installation and gutter cleaning

6. Household maintenance (flooring repairs, cabinet-repairs

7. Water heater (major appliance) installation, removal, set-up

8. Pond maintenance

9. Fence-building and repair

10. Animal maintenance (generally) besides dogs/cats! (vet stuff)

11. Slaughtering (pig, chickens, goats)

12. Make stuff like chicken coops, small cabinets, etc…

13. Chop down and cut our own wood

14. Tractor work

15. Mowing

16. Pesticide treatment

17. Trapping/killing animals

18. (sometimes) Housework!

19. Rainwater collection systems

20. Dishwasher/refrigerator/ installation

21. Equipment maintenance and repair (sometimes)

22. Stonework

23. Tree trimming
24. Produce our own heat in winter

There's a bunch more, but this is at the end, of course, of a very long day.