Where do I go to buy cattle for my animal pen? I have asked at farms and in shops, and I don't seem to find anyone that sell cows or goats.

You have to tell your steward you want some improvements to your house, animals will be an option. That's the only way.

yeah he added a horse, one chicken and one cow for me.

No sooner did I get the cow then a giant showed up all pissed off.

I wonder where my steward got the cow from...

Ok, I see.
An easy answer to that question then.

Thank you all.

But can I choose anyone to become my steward.
For instance, my current Khajiit follower, Kharjo?

from my understanding (And I have not built a second home to test this) is take a follower to your new home and when your there the option to make them a steward appears. But if you ask them at their "home" there is no option. They have to be taken to your house.

Ok thanks for the tip, but I have now tested different followers who might be possible as steward, and it seems that normal followers can't be steward, but anyone of the housecarls in Skyrim can get this position. That is a shame, because all the housecarls get annoying after a while when they have said "honor to YOU my thane" a hundred times.
I saved, killed my housecarl in lakeview manor(the housecarls seem to turn up at the estate as soon as soon as I have built the house, and is walking around the house(I am thane in all of the holds)), tried to got a couple of my of followers to the estate without getting the dialogue option.
I would really like Kharjo, from the Khajiit caravan to be my steward, but this doesn't seem to work. Is this a bug or just the way it is?
Does anyone have more experience with choosing steward?

Just the way it is. Not all followers can be made into stewards. Seems to depend on which voice actors they called back to voice the new dialogue.


Favorite steward is Illia. Hands down. All she says is "Good morning", "Good afternoon", "Good evening" and "What do you need?" whenever you're standing nearby. It's the least annoying of the proximity banter dialogue, IMO.

Ok, appreciate the info. I may give Illia a try then
Thanks

Well Aussie has just killed off Agmaer, her Heljarchen steward for failing to stay with the house, and failing to defend the place the three times it was attacked, and he made his rare appearances. He stood around doing nothing once too often and got fired the Nord way. The steward position at Heljarchen Hall just seems to be cursed for all my characters, maybe it is time to give Illia a go, I could not bare to kill Vilkas if he also decided the Honningbrew Meadery is more interesting than Heljarchen Hall.


Edit
Actually I just realise Aussie cannot get Illia for some strange reason, even though she did the quest at Darklight Tower. I will try it again, in case it was Braggen with that problem.

Have you already had Illia as a follower on that character before? If so, then this is the problem. If not, then I'm unsure as to what the problem might be.

Illia is severely bugged in that, once recruited and dismissed, she can never be acquired as a follower again because the dialogue option for "Follow me, I need your help." simply drops away. The bug activates once you load/reload a game after initially recruiting her (which is inevitable at some point). So, in my case, I recruited her as a follower and never dismissed her. Fought with her through many levels (she's actually an excellent follower too, which makes the bug all the more unfortunate) and when I decided it was time to make her my steward, I did so.

Now, because of the aforementioned bug, I can never use her as a follower again, but she's my steward now at least, which is ultimately what I wanted.

Both my main characters have had her as a follower now, if I had known she was bugged Aussie could have just pickpocketed the closet key off her. Braggen was the one who could not get her back when he tried. Aussie tried her out as steward, had the same problem, she was dashing of for that Meadery as soon as she was hired, she will not sleep in Heljarchen Hall, so Aussie is off to ask Vilkas. Illia survived the encounter, I just replayed it and never asked her to be steward.

There's the problem.


Or you could have simply removed it from her inventory while she was still your follower. That's how I got it from her.


Okay, now I'm a little confused. You said Braggen couldn't re-recruit her and that Aussie also had the same problem. Except your Aussie character managed to try her out as a steward. How was she able to do so if she couldn't reacquire her as a follower?

As for the meadery problem, this is the second time I've heard of someone mentioning it. I haven't had the problem myself, but I only own one of the Hearthfire houses (lakeview). This sounds like a "bed conflict" between Hearthfire homes.

Aussie had been there but it turns out not done the quest because of the previous problem with Braggen being unable to get her again as a follower, she did the quest, asked Illia to follow and took the key for the closet from her and tried her out as a steward. She had the usual problem so is no use for that house.

Most of the external stewards tried for Heljarchen Hall, have had been tracking off to the Meadery each night instead of sleeping. They are hardly ever at the house, one left real quick and never came back at all. I have had the housecarl from Windstad Manor vanish a few times, but have yet to work out where he goes. Gregor from Heljarchen will also occasionally trek off to the Meadery, Aussie and Braggen have seen him up that way while they were fishing for salmon roe. But at least Gregor usually sleeps at home, and patrols around the house most of the time. I am sick of all these drunks who just outright desert their post. I am sure Braggen did try Vilkas at Heljarchen Hall and he stayed with the house. If it works out, Aussie will finish the Companions questline and see if she can finally get married, Farkas would do as a husband for her.

Reading all of that just cemented my decision to just stick with the one Hearthfire home and not bother building the other two at least until someone on a PC can look at the game files and figure out what might be causing these issues.

I'm used to it. I own a restaurant IRL.

Well you can just make Gregor steward if you get the problem, and actually be able to find your steward, but no I want both characters to have steward and housecarl. Especially as this is the first time either character actually got attacks at Heljarchen Hall, would be nice to actually have someone to help defend the place.

If you ask a failed steward to furnish your home and do not feel like dying of old age waiting for the invisible steward to do some work, you could save the game, find and kill the steward (could take a while), hire Gregor as steward, after he finishes furnishing, load your previous save and you should have your old steward back, with all the furnishings you paid for and Gregor actually did. Worked for me, it could work for others.