Congrats! Welcome to the new life!

You will be fighting the battle of wanting to do ALL THE THINGS at once. It’s part of the fun!

Best to start with? What’s your housing like? Get that comfortable first. You don’t want to be outside working in heat and not have a way to rinse off!

After that, in order:

Gate across any and ALL entrances. You might have ATV trails people are used to and have to deal with cutting off access.

No Trespassing signs. Everywhere. Minimum every 500 ft , I prefer 100 ft apart so no excuses. And paint every post or tree you can reach with a purple area (easy on the trees though). Texas has the purple post law.

Fence. Fence. Did I mention fence? Even if it’s 3 strands of plain wire on T posts. Get something up. Otherwise you’re going to have trouble with hunters etc (probably).

Do NOT build permanent buildings yet. You need to go through at least one full cycle of seasons (a year), preferably two. Otherwise that perfect barn spot may turn out to be a retention pond during rainy season. So next up…temporary animal buildings. Get a bunch of mobile home anchors and strap them down against the winds. I use carport canopies and overlay an extra tarp to protect animals a lot.

Get an area around the house (whatever living area you have) that’s fenced etc for family/dog/etc use. I like 2×4 no climb fence because then the area can also handle anything but chicks and ducklings if needed.

Gardening-If you’re not used to Texas, start a garden in pots. You’ll need time to learn the weather. Hold off on big gardens at least a year if possible to learn shade/weather.

Plant fruit/nut trees since they take years to establish. Look around and see what has survived locally and start there.

Pretty stuff. Put something up that’s “pretty” and makes it feel like home. Otherwise you’ll be there for years and realize it looks like what you bought still lol. Seriously..bird bath, flowers, wind chimes, something. Helps on the hard days.

Get your water supply run-even if it’s just hoses. Carrying buckets of water sucks the enjoyment out of animals and plants.

After that…keep planning! LOL. I’ve changed my plans a dozen times in the last year alone after finding things out. Like oh….the entire back half of property I can do a swimming pool by digging down a foot sooo can’t put fruit trees anywhere back there. Or oh…the electrical line for the house is probably right where I was thinking of a garden so need to move that . Etc!

One HUGE tip: DO NOT bring home any animal that you do not already have a pen or cage set up for! Trying to throw together a pen while you’ve got 4 auction goats tied to a tree will end in issues for you and the goats. Oh, avoid auctions if you don’t know animals 100% and don’t have a quarantine area.

Low effort to also do:

Join local Facebook groups, nextdoor groups, etc and lay low and watch.

If of that mind, look around for a church and start going so you can find one you like.

Read through local Craigslist listings before buying stuff, you might find someone selling it cheaper.

I made a dream list of animals when I first started and now have almost all the animals on my list (in 2 short years). I don’t recommend this unless you already know how to take care of them…otherwise you’ll be redoing the pig pen while chasing the goats out of the rabbit barn. Oh wait…you might be doing that anyway (haha). One new (to you) animal species per year is what I’d go with. And keep in mind things like cornish x meat chickens may not represent the rest of the species in terms of care. For instance, Pekin ducks are huge and messy and loud…but buff, rouen and runners are half the trouble.

Since it always comes up, I have: Rabbits (show and meat), Chickens (eggs, I hate plucking), Ducks (eggs and meat), Geese(lawnmower and future goslings), Goats (fun and future milk/kid sales), Pigs (future breeding for meat, small breed), and other pet species. Only thing I’m missing is fish but that’s a much later thing (I have to build net cages for them after discovering the softshell/snapper turtles love my pond). Another hint is decide on the purpose of the animal before even building a pen.