Early Days
I was living in Innisfail, AB. I had moved there for work as a ruminant nutritionist, the dream job, and was renting an apartment right across the road from the office. I had been there for nearly 2 years and the rent seemed to consistently increase. I was already searching real estate websites and checking out places for sale from time to time, but after COVID everyone and their dog wanted to live the simple life on an acreage. The places available within my budget were rough…
When the landlord proposed yet another rent hike, AND with the looming threat of increasing interest rates (which would make it harder to buy anything), I decided to start looking at houses in town and act sooner rather than later.
It didn’t take long before I found a 10 year old house in Blackfalds, AB. Three bedroom, 2.5 bathroom with an unfinished basement. I moved in in April 2022, It was a nice place with more room than I would ever need. This was the kind of place a person could stay forever and be comfortable, there was room to grow a family (with my non-existent husband) and live a very nice life. HOWEVER that just wasn’t in the cards for me.
I have always loved animal agriculture, and continued to feel the drive to one day run my own farm. Money was the problem, so while I waited for my house to appreciate, I continued to work as a ruminant nutritionist. I also picked up a job milking cows on the weekends, and rented out the 2 spare rooms in my house, one through Air B&B and the other to an older man who worked in the area.
One day in November 2022 while at my job, my co-worker told me his friend (a real estate agent) owned 10 acres right outside of Innisfail, a property which used to be a small feedlot many years ago along with some open pasture. The real estate agent didn’t do anything with the land and might be interested in renting it out. That same day I drove past it and decided it was a good opportunity to get started building my farm. There was so much snow I couldn’t even drive in and the fences were clearly in rough shape, but I could see there was a barn, water and power. Good enough.
I called the relator and suggested that I would fence the property and bring in sheep. We discussed rent and after a few days, came to an agreement!
This is when the work began. I decided I was bringing in sheep on the first week of January 2023. This meant I needed to fence an area (which had knee deep snow) and sort out water. Lucky for me, the barn was filled with small square hay bales, all I had to do was pay for them ($7/bale).
I decided I would fence one of the feedlot pens which was closest to the barn. I bought 2 rolls of page wire. I attached one end to the metal post and had to shovel along the fence, then unroll the heavy page wire. I stretched it tight by weaving a piece of rebar through the wire and pulling with ratchet straps.. it worked well.
Clearing snow along the fenceline.
Stapling the page wire to the rails - making it escape proof.
Finished fencing one pen, ready for the arrival of the sheep!
