We've decided after much discussion with relatives and friends that we are firing our banker dude working on our home loan. What does that mean? It means that we are either going to wait until spring to build or we are going to find an existing home with acreage and divide projects between both lots. There are actually 3 homes in our searches that would be a good place to start looking so probably after the new year we'll start our search for existing homes and put building on the back burner for now.
We may come back to the idea to build and we are going to leave our deposit with the builder we've selected for now. As it stands we wouldn't be moving in until spring or summer anyhow once the house would be built so a few months of clarity would be good for us. We DO still plan to get chickens and goats in the spring despite the fact that we won't have a house out there. I've seen some really nice igloo style goat housing, movable fencing and I think the addition of a milk stand and an "instant" canvas garage might get us started. For chickens we will build a chicken tractor to keep them safe and contained. We only live about 10 minutes away right now so we will be transporting water and spending a lot of time out there gardening so I think it will work.
The nice thing is that we own the land we planned to build on and I think with some creativity we will still make it a farm, even if we are farming from another location too. Ideally if we find an existing home to purchase it will have land of its own. One of the ones on our short list includes 12 acres...so in that purchase we will go from 9 acres to 21 total acres! Holy cow(s)! We may have to start raising grass fed beef to keep that managed. Darn! I "hate" having such high quality problems. :D
I'm reading Joel Salatin's book right now, You Can Farm, and its providing me with some inspiration about farming remotely since in this book he's adamant that you don't even have to own the land you farm on (too late for that one).
I'll keep y'alls posted on what happens next. Wish us luck!
Take a look on 200E south of 500S. There is a house, barn, and I think a chicken house along with fruit trees there and maybe some ground available.
ReplyDeleteI have to wonder if the banker was messing with you since interest rates seem to be climbing back up and he was trying to move you to a higher rate.
I'll have to look over that way, thanks! One of the houses we are wanting to look at is the house I grew up in on the corner of 500s and 100w. Its only 3 acres but its such a short distance from our 9 acres it would be an easy commute for either car, bike or tractor.
ReplyDeleteThat is certainly a consideration and can be a real pain if you have to transport it far.
ReplyDeleteMy Dad was a farmer up until 1965 so I helped a lot from the time I was 10. I think I was on the road with equipment at 10 and driving a truck at 12 on the road. We farmed north of Richmond (Economy, IN) and Florida Station (north of Anderson) until 1955, then moved back to Florida Station and farmed several places there. We moved down on 200E (Range Line to those that been around here a while) but still farmed ground in Florida Station. We owned 126 acres and farmed maybe 500 more so it kept us plenty busy.
I've driven my father-in-law's Ford from Markleville to here a couple of times (tractor is sold now) and it took about 20 minutes so that wasn't too bad. Still, any transport on the road is always a interesting prospect since there are a huge number of drivers with their upper appendage hidden in their anatomy when it comes to farm equipment.
I'm watching your progress with interest. Particularly if you start doing grass-fed beef. There is a guy at our church that is doing longhorns that might be a worthwhile conversation with. Also know a guy that needs horse hay occasionally that might be someone good to know.
Good luck in your hunt. There's 20 acres off of 109 that just went back up on the market (between 36 & 38 but I'm guessing that it could be a tad pricey.