The Farm House

East side of the farm house

Welcome to my blog about selling our farm and certified organic meat business. For an overview please read the column on the right, or  for specifics on all other areas please use the search tab in the lower right of this blog or simply look at the list of posts by title.

Aerial view of the house with the small
brick garage to the south. Garden plots
in the lower right.

Now, the house; built in 1885 it is strong and sturdy with 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, kitchen, living room, large dining room , office and full unfinished but very useable basement.

The living room measures 13ft x 14.5ft with 9 ft ceilings.
 It has its original narrow planked hardwood floor
as do the homes office and dining room.

The homes red roof was new in 1995, all the downstairs windows were replaced as well. The upstairs consists of 4 bedrooms and a full bath with washer and dryer. A five foot wide staircase leads to the second floor.

The kitchen was remodeled in 2010 with new paint, flooring, appliances (which are included in sale) light fixtures and updated wiring. The cabinets are original and in excellent condition.  A custom built breakfast table was construvted around the old chimney and comfortably seats four.

The downstairs bathroom was remodeled in 2009 with tile floor and  large shower. Two sinks were installed to make it easy for little ones to wash hands and brush teeth.

The carpeted master bedroom is a spacious 19 by 13 feet with one closet. The walls and ceiling were professionally replastered and repainted in 2007. The window frames and door are all original hardwood.

The north end of the master bedroom

The south end of the master bedroom

The Wee Garage

This wee garage was original to the house when first built. It serves primarily for storage now but at one time appears to have been used as a summer kitchen and/or wood workshop. The walls are brick and the roof was redone in 1998. The red steel is striking and pulls the garage together with the other red and white buildings. The north side is planted with well established and prolific Hosta plants and grape vines. The east side has a shaded, raised flower bed filled with more hostas, columbines and Snow-on-the-Mountain ground cover.

Future owners could easily give this quaint building new life as a writers hideaway, greenhouse, shop, craft studio etc...as it sits just a few feet from the main house.

The 10 Acre "Yard"

The listing includes the 10.88 acres which surround the farms main house. Rectangle shaped the "yard" includes 2 acres of pasture on the north currently occupied by the current owners horses, a tack shed and a large 3 sided horse stall.

To the east the acreage is fenced for pastured hogs and cows. The property's large red barn sits at the far south end of the property. The West side involves a older chicken house now used to shelter hogs and calves as well as several resting food plots.

      Below is an aerial view of the property taken in 2007.

To the right is the house , the front porch is facing east, On the north side are food plots and two fenced acres which are out of sight. Just to the south of the house is the small garage original to the farm, very suitable for an artist's studio, garden shed, greenhouse, summer kitchen or extra storage with some remodeling. In the center of the photo is the combination machine shed and shop. To the west of the machine shed is a tiny feed building and further west behind that , the medium sized grey building , the original chicken house now sheltering hogs and calves.  Towards the upper left of this photo is the main livestock barn with the milk parlor on the east side.

Surrounding the 10.88 acres of property which is included in the sale is an additional 40 certified organic acres available for rent. The current owners have maintained theses 40 acres and used for livestock pasture for over 10 years. The neighbors who own the 40 acres are very willing to discuss a continued rental agreement with the new owners.

There is convenient water access throughout the farm via several pumps, making it easy to supply water to gardens and livestock.



What is "Certified Organic?"

The 10.88 acres included in the sale of this property as well as the 40 surrounding acres owned by a neighbor and rented to the present owners for livestock pasture, has been certified organic since 2009. This means that the entire amount, 50.88 acres has not been treated with any pesticides, herbicides or other disallowed substances since 2006.

Currently certified organic by MOSA (Midwest Organic Services Association) located in Viroqua, Wisconsin, the farm was last inspected in September 2011. This certification includes all the livestock born on the farm since 2009 which is approximately 80% of the livestock.

When a grower or processor is "certified organic," a USDA accredited public or private organization has verified that the business meets or exceeds the standards set forth in the USDA Organic Rule. In addition organic livestock standards prohibit the use of synthetic growth hormones such as rBGH and the routine use of antibiotics. Additionally, all animals must be raised in natural living conditions appropriate for their species. The animals are fed only organic feed, and the processing for all meat, poultry and dairy products must meet organic standards as well.

The Machine Shed and Shop

The farms machine shed is a Wick building built in 2005 . Floor to bottom of ceiling rafter measurement is 16 foot. Total building size is 81 by 45 feet with the shop portion measuring 45 by 24 feet. The shops concrete floor utilizes hot water heat. The shops walls have 6 inches of insulation and its ceiling has 11 inches. The garage portion of the shop has two bays with automatic doors and above the shop is a large storage area or loft.

The Big Red Barn

The north side of the Big Red Barn

Built in 1998 the main barn measures 85 by 65 feet. Portions of the barn came from the original barn built in the late 1890's. When the property was purchased by the current owners that barn was too unstable to be safely used to house livestock. Instead it was dismantled by the current owners  and since much of the wood was still in good shape it was used to build the new barn.

Aerial view, please accept our apologies for the
fuzziness. The bird we attached the camera too was
nervous and forget to focus the lens.

From the floor to the bottom of the rafters measures 14 feet . A large hay loft within, is capable of holding up to 1300 regular sized bales of straw and/or hay. Inside and along the north wall are several box stalls of varying sizes. In the middle of the barn had large, hand built free stalls for the dairy herd allowing each animal a clean dry place to rest during the day if it chooses to be indoors instead of outside. An additional 8 by 21 foot area with concrete floor, houses the milk parlor (with 4 milking stanchions), a small office/storage room and a tank room with a 500 gallon stainless steel bulk milk storage tank.

The Livestock; cows and pigs and horses oh my !

The majority of the livestock at South Pork Ranch will be included in the farms sale. Exact numbers and types/breeds  will depend on the final negotiations between the owners and the buyers

The pigs on South Pork Ranch are mixed breeds and spend their days on pasture, coming up near the barn for feeding of extra raw milk. They are rarely confined and allowed access to outdoors at all times of the year. Sometimes when small groups of weanling pigs are being trained to electric fences they may be kept in smaller paddocks which still allow them plenty of room to roam and act like pigs. Once trained they are set loose into the larger pastures.

Our dairy herd is a mixed variety of Holstein, Jersey, Short horn, Brown Swiss to name just four. Calves are kept in hutches with room to move freely until they are weaned at age 2-3 months and then big enough to fend well for themselves with larger cows in bigger pastures. They are fed daily by the owners, touched and checked for any health problems which are extremely rare here due to the organic methods used to care for them.

Female calves are often used for replacements in the dairy herd while male calves are most often used for beef production.

The mature dairy herd is a quiet, tame group who are used to being handled by real people, not just machines. They enjoy being milked and will produce healthy, wholesome milk for many years due to the low stress atmosphere. Their milk is regularly tested for bacteria and other pathogens and those test results are available by request. The resulting raw milk is then sold to a large number of private customers who come directly to the farm as required by Illinois State Law. The raw milk is also fed every day to the farms feeder milks which results in a fine tasting pork sought after by many.

Due to the farms organic status, pesticides cannot be used to control any insects such as flies . Therefore the farm "employs"  several poultry breeds such as ducks, chickens, peacocks, turkeys  and

guinea hens to manage these pests. Many members of this winged pest control team will be included in the final sale inventory.