On August 29, we officially got our agricultural exempt permit for the whole property. It only took us 349 days.
Now we wait some more. This time for construction crews. Cleary Builders, who is doing the pole barn is saying we are on their schedule for February, 2024. We are hoping as we get into colder weather that date will be moved up, but we don’t know.
We are able to start clearing the areas for both buildings now and also clearing out the brush for our new driveway, which we are required to make.
Here is a panoramic view of before:
Trees before
So we got to cutting down pine trees. We have chain saws, so why not. It’s not like it’s dangerous or anything.
Kevin’s old neighbor, John, helped us. We also had the father of one of our lesson students volunteer to help us. He has a tractor with a grapple attachment. His name is Jeff and he runs a beach cleaning service called The Beach Comber. So, if anyone needs that kind of work done, he’s great. Below you will see him in action.
We started by cutting off branches and cutting the trunks into smaller pieces, but then realized, the equipment could handle carrying the whole tree. Much easier.
Yes, we are all totally bad ass.
Here is what it looked like when we were done.
Then the next day Bob Mahoney Excavating came and dug up all the stumps and leveled things some. Also a very good person to use if you have any excavating needs in Illinois or Wisconsin.
Below is after the trunks were removed and everything cleared.
He also cleared brush in front of the road for where our new driveway is going. This is what it looked like before.
This is after.
We now have a pile of trees and brush the height of a two-story building. You can’t burn in unincorporated Lake County, IL until Nov 1 – March 30. So, it sits, for now. And it smells like Christmas when you pass by.
It looks like we are making progress on permitting. Building and Development gave us a partial permit a few weeks ago for the driveway and the Pole Barn. So, we were able to contact the construction people who are doing the barn and at least get on their schedule. Unfortunately, at the moment the date they can expect to start is January, 2024. We are hoping that once fall hits, however, things will slow down and that date will get moved up. Fingers double crossed.
The last hurdle for the Arena was getting Stormwater Management to come out and finalize the boundry of the wetland nearest to it to confirm our building wouldn’t impact the wetlands on the property. Our arena is close to one of them. They came out a few weeks ago. They told us one part of our fencing had to be moved away from the wetland and then there were questions back and forth, but they did finally give us a LONI, which is a letter of no impact.
So, we reprinted the engineering maps with the new fencing boundry and re-submitted those to building and development. So, finger’s crossed (yet again), we will be getting our full Agricultural Exempt permit soon and can move forward with building the arena. Of course, I’ve said that numerous times before and there is always something else.
In other news, our generator that we use to get water from the well died (we don’t have electricity yet). The generator was given to us, so we didn’t lose any money on that end, but we did need to purchase a new one. We haven’t really used her (it) much yet because we are having trouble with our well. (Of course we are.)
The water comes out for about 10 minutes and then stops. That’s a problem when you have to fill two 100 gallon stock tanks. That’s pretty much a problem, no matter how much water you need. So Heumann Well in Johnsburg has been out, twice now to fill our water tank with water, which is very much appreciated, so the horses have water. Heumann’s is trying to get to the bottom of what is wrong, but so far it’s a work in progress. If you need well or water softener work, we would recommend them. They are very nice and work hard to get things right.
Shelter Since we don’t know if we will have our arena before it starts to get cold, we have begun to build a VersaTube shelter for the horses. We got the kit from Menards and Kevin, Rachael and I began work on it two weekends ago, and hope to get it almost done this coming weekend. Or at least before it gets cold. It’s 30 x 12 and comes in a box that isn’t huge, but weighs like 1,000 lbs.
And then you just take the metal pieces and fit them together and screw them down.
This is how far we got the first weekend. Harley likes it.
Versatube sells garages and carports in kits like this too, so if you’re looking for something like this, we are pretty impressed with it so far.
So, in all, we are moving forward inch by inch, the problem is, so is winter and cold weather. If anyone knows of a way to heat stock water tanks without electricity, let us know, as we are currently trying to figure that out, in case we don’t have electric before the temps get down to freezing.
And lastly, Princess says hi. The trees nearby work great as shelter and keep the bugs a little more under control.
We continue the saga of our nightmare with Zoning.
The week before last, Linda Pedersen, the Lake County Council member for the Antioch area, told us Stormwater Mgmt would be out to finalize the location of the wetlands on the property on July 25. This is supposedly the last thing we needed to do. However, the people from Stormwater Mgmt. are telling us we are scheduled for review on July 27, but they are at least a week behind. We’re taking bets on when they will actually come out? I’m guessing it will be way into August.
Rachael has called and emailed Linda Petersen since to find out what is going on, but Linda has yet to respond at all. (For anyone in Lake County, Illinois, when re-election time comes around, might be a good time for some new blood).
Then, last Tuesday, we got an email from the Building and Development part of zoning saying we needed to change something else on our engineering maps.
Rachael called and talked to the Director of Building and Development and they set up a call for Friday. The engineer we use is conveniently out of the country, but the director said if we agreed to the changes they want we could move forward.
After that call, it was agreed they would give us an interim permit to construct the driveway and the pole barn once Stormwater Mgmt has done their thing. (A week or two or more from now, who knows?) Then once our Engineer finalizes the maps and we resubmit (the 8th time) we can get our complete permits. Assuming Stormwater Mgmt is okay with the location of our wetlands?
Fencing Since we don’t have electricity, we are using solar to power our electric fence. We had a small solar panel connected to a car battery, but most mornings we would go out to feed and it would be squealing cause there was no power. So we just bought this bigger/better solar panel and this morning, no squealing and the fences were still zapping if touched.
The horses don’t bother the perimeter fencing (thank goodness) but the internal fencing around the paddock areas, they do. Having the fences electric is important because we’ve had two horses get tangled in the fences so far. One was Titan and he mangled his leg pretty badly.
One of the reasons we use electric rope fencing is because we thought it would break if a horse ran into it, but it apparently doesn’t break easily and if they get tangled and no one is around to free them quickly, they can get hurt pretty badly. Makes us want to rethink wood fencing, but horses can get hurt very badly on broken wood fencing too. So, keeping it consistently electric, for now, will keep them away from it and less likely to try to escape through and get tangled.
Electric and Well Now that we are pretty sure we will be going into cold weather without buildings, we are wondering about how to get electric to the property (we need a place for a meter and electric panel) and also we need a place to put our well tank. A space we can heat. We are looking at these at the corner of Rte 83 and Grass Lake.
If anyone has experience with pouring a concrete foundation for one of these types of sheds, let us know.
Shelter We also need more shelter, so we ordered one of these VersaTube shelters from Menards. It’s a kit we put together and then buy the medal sides and attach. If it works well, we might buy another one and possibly separate the herd into two herds.
Each herd would have their own shelter and we’d put the old horses and the more gentle ones that get pushed around into one herd with their own shelters and hay; and keep the pushy, alpha type horses together with separate shelters and hay. That way, everyone gets shelter and everyone get’s hay.
So, that’s about where we are now, for anyone who wanted an update. Thanks to everyone who has helped us so far and is keeping us in their prayers. We couldn’t do this without you all.
They say the key to success is persistence. I don’t remember who said it, but I’m counting on it being true.
On September 13, 2022, ZW Ranch bought a property on Crawford Rd. in Antioch, Illinois. We had been leasing the land on Deep Lake Rd.
After we closed on the property, we went directly to the Lake County Zoning office (Building Planning and Development) to apply for an agricultural exempt permit. We didn’t even go home first. We didn’t even stop for a celebratory drink. We went directly to the zoning office and applied. Our plan is to move the existing structure that is our arena and lengthen it and then also build a pole barn for hay and a few stalls as well as a feed and a tack room. We were hoping to have everything at least started in November or December before winter 2022 really set in.
But that was not to be. The first submission to Zoning was given back, with 10 comments for us to address, on November 4, 2022. The main hurdles we needed to get done were:
A Wetland Delineation
We had to show on an engineering map:
Geometric Plan, showing the two buildings on the property, access drive, and locations of future well and septic field.
Grading Plan, proposed grades and any swale or ditches
Erosion Control Plan and details.
Drainage calculations if required by County
Combine field measured topo and County’s topo information into one single drawing. Show the wetland(s) limits on the same drawing.
Those words may or may not seem innocent enough, but they required we hire a Wetland Specialist and an Engineer. And it took over a month to get the data required for those reports, and two months to get the engineering maps revised.
The Wetland Delineation was sent to Zoning December 7, 2022. The updated engineering plans were resubmitted January 17, 2023.
On February 8, 2023 we got 38 more comments back from the engineer at zoning, building, planning and development.
We were told we had to move the driveway so as not to damage a culvert near the existing driveway, which required a permit from the Highway Commissioner.
We needed to apply for 3 permits from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA). Which took two months to get.
We had to get a Flood Elevation Study (BFE) done – costing a lot of money and time.
We had to pay additional fees and a fine
We were also told they couldn’t finalize the wetland delineation until the growing season began, even though our buildings were not impacting the wetlands at all.
We resubmitted around March 8, 2023.
On March 23, we got 20 more comments back from the engineer at Zoning.
We were required to:
Get approval from the Lake County Stormwater Management Commission (SMC). Which takes 30 days.
Clarify many of the points already given
We were asked what green infrastructure measures we were incorporating
A Letter of No Impact or LONI was required for the wetland areas.
They wanted the name of a DECI (Designated Erosion Control Inspector) that we had to hire.
Now we are really scared because the lease where we were renting on Deep Lake Road was up at the end of March. We asked our landlord for an extension to stay through April, which she okayed. This whole time we’ve been paying both a mortgage and a rent payment each month.
We resubmitted to Zoning on April 6, 2023.
The next week the wetland specialist from county came to evaluate the wetlands, now that it was officially growing season. However when the wetland specialist came out he decided there were two other – very small areas that would qualify as wetlands, so our maps would need to be updated and the Wetland Delineation revised.
April 9 we finished all the perimeter fencing that we put up ourselves as county allowed us to at least do that.
April 21 we get 16 more comments from the engineering division of zoning office:
We still needed written approval from Stormwater commission
They wanted different colored shading to differentiate things on the map
They wanted us to label things differently
They wanted specifics on how we were going to address the green infrastructure areas we had to create.
We had to pay a review fee of over $200
Our wetland specialist was busy work on revising the wetland delineation and had someone from the Army Corp of Engineering out to verify.
We got the approval from Stormwater and we wrote up a list of all the native grasses we would plant.
Our engineer tried numerous times to get the zoning Engineering division to contact him with specifics on what they wanted for the green infrastructure. After a week and a half he told us basically to read the code, which we had done, but it is not specific.
We emailed Linda Peterson on the Lake County Council and she called and got the county engineer to call our engineer and discuss.
We started drilling our Well on April 25, as we begged for that, as we needed to bring the horses over to the property.
We moved the herd of 19 horses over to the new land on April 30.
We have only two corral shelters that maybe 3 horses could squeeze into if they needed to get out of the weather.
We had to borrow a water tank from a neighbor to put water into as the well drilling was still going on. What was supposed to take about 4 days took more like 2 weeks as they struggled to get water out of the well.
We got our Stormwater Mgmt approval on May 10, 2023.
We sent in the revised Wetland Delineation on May 19, 2023.
Even though the horses were moved, we still paid for the month of May because we needed to take down the remaining fencing and everything inside the arena. We were also trying desperatly to get ClearSpan Fabric Structures to give us a date when they would move the building. We needed it gone by end of May.
The horses are enjoying the property for the most part, but when it rains, they don’t have much shelter.
We resubmitted our revised engineering maps to Zoning May 30, 2023.
The Zoning, Building and Planning Engineer called us on June 15 and we were informed that the wetland specialist was no longer employed with the county and Stormwater Mgmt would be finalizing our wetlands. Meaning they had to come to our property one more time to verify. But everything else seemed good.
June 21, 2023 we got 9 more comments, so apparently everything was not good.
Our engineer was required to create a whole new page of cut and fill diagrams to show a water storage ratio of 1.2:1.
Our wetland maps unfortuanltey didn’t match between the wetland delineation and the engineering maps so we had to fix that. That was our engineer’s error.
Some of the labeling was not to their specifications so we needed to change the wording.
Our engineer worked for three days straight doing the calculations they wanted and we resubmitted on June 27.
Clearspan Fabric company started dismantling our arena from the Deep Lake Rd site on June 22. And it was brought over to our new property and sits in pieces until we get permits to put it up.
So here we are July 14, 2023. We have followed up with both the engineer at Zoning as well as employees at Stormwater Management and no one has bothered to get back to us. So now we are contacting Linda Pedersen again.
When we first leased the property for our ranch, there were no barn or arena-type structures and we needed a horse arena. Since we only lease the land, we decided to go with a structure that could be moved if we ever needed to; and we’d always loved how bright and airy the fabric structures were. We went with a company called ClearSpan and I will tell you, we love it. It’s been four years and we don’t regret getting it one bit.
We went with a 120 feet long by 65 feet wide. We think it is about 36 feet tall. Yes, we wish it was a bit longer and a bit wider, but, each foot cost money and this was what we could do. It has two openings. One on each side. We did not have money for doors that open and close, which has been a little bit of a problem for us, so if you do something like this, try to buy at least one door if possible.
Before anything started, we had to level the ground. We had planned to put the arena in an entirely different spot than where it ended up, but it was too hard for us to get the ground level in the original spot. So, we ended up being closer to the road than we had originally planned.
We also didn’t get a permit before construction started – hand slap. Zoning passed by during construction and tagged us for not having a permit, so construction had to abruptly stop in the middle. And it took weeks to get a permit. So, even if you don’t think you need a permit for something that is considered temporary – you do – at least in Illinois.
Our herd is out 24/7 with no stalls, so the riding arena is also their shelter/barn when we aren’t riding. So once the structure was up, we had to put walls on the insides so horses wouldn’t get hurt. Most riding arenas have a wall like this anyway, even if it’s never used for a shelter.
We put in posts all around the arena and screwed board into those as a wall.
Next we wanted to make a stall area and a tack area on one side of the arena. This side (below) is where we ended us having tack.
This side is a stall area for when we need it.
Next we needed sand. We got torpedo sand which is the cheapest option around here. We needed a lot of sand. About 4 truckloads or approx. 80 tons. Like I said, a lot of sand. The trucks dumped it in there and then we used our tractor and ATV to spread it around.
This was our work area before the horses arrived. That tangled mess is part of our fencing – gone wrong. Now this area is the stall area.
Next we had to add lights, which meant calling an electrician and having them come out and run electric into the arena and install lights on the ceiling.
We didn’t have money for a real garage door who we put up a door ourselves, which was no small feat. Kevin made two wooden doors for the opening and then we used the tractor as a lift to secure them on the runners they rest on.
This picture gives you an idea of the size of the whole thing, once finished.
It was a lot of work getting it all complete, but we love it and It’s definitely horse approved.
ZW Ranch 