What unique problems does your land cause?

Thanks,

My ex-in-laws retired to Mena, AR They're in their second house now, can't remember if this is the 7 ac or the 11 ac lot. I like their place, if I had the money I would think about buying it. It's not that much, just more then what I can afford right now. OH yeah, BTW, I think it might be coming on the market soon. The father-in-law's parents need help and are in NM so they maybe moving soon.

There seems to be some good listings on eBay in SW MO. I like the no building codes for the areas I've seen. I would build to "code" anyway, just don't like needing to pay them for their blessing.

A guy I have worked with once or twice has his family's farm / ranch in SW MO. I've picked his brains from time to time and like what he has to say about the area. Then again, I think he's biased since his family has been on that land for 8 generations??? LOL J/J'ing.

SirDude....this is my little slice of heaven!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...00000100910221

Where else are you going to find something like this?

Nice, thank you for sharing. It does look a lot like the in-law's land. They are just south of Lake Wilhelmina outside of Mena, AR. So I'm guessing it's all part of that same "mountain range"?

Nice area but man does it get hot and humid. You'd think you were here in FL! LOL

i'm a Florida girl, living in Colorado. We have a .much shorter growing season here, arid conditions,little rain and clay soil. Other than that, it's great! Now, if we just had a beach...

That kills me! I can not tell you how much that is something the ex-wife would say. She says "if FL only had Mountains" all the time.

BTW, you located north, south, central, mountains???

Do you miss FL that much or just the beach?

I find beauty in both places, this is tough.

Thanks

WEST Virginia, I don't need to say anything else

But like everywhere, there is downsides and upsides. Until recently I owned 2 farms here. The first I just sold last fall. That one was: beautiful, remote, quiet, great for summer grazing, HILLY, hard to make hay on because of the hill. Far from employment and You could see Spruce Knob, which is the highest point on WV from all over the farm.

The second one, which is 125 acres and we've owned for 3 years now, is FLAT, (a miracle) has 5 ponds, woods but mostly fields, has a view of Mt.Storm, is nearer to more major cities where we can sell our products. Downside- is shaley, so we are working hard to build back up the ground, it was growing great prickly pear cactus when we bought it. Other than that, I love it. Low property taxes, good neighbors, beautiful country, not a whole lot of snow but some. It's hot and humid in the summer but not as long as Florida. The south branch of the North Fork of the Potomac River is nearby as well as lots of other outdoor activities. But still not a lot of employment off the farm. You can work at the chicken plant in Moorfield but the pay is lousy.

I'm in western NY. My only downfall is I'm close enough to the lake to get heavy lake affect snows. But close enough that the lake holds heat also so it dont get blistery cold but for about 2 weeks in mid winter. But it gives for a fun winter snowmobiling sport which we have groomed trails all over the state.
Otherwise this place is perfect. Winds usually light to none.There are little to no bug issues, taxes are low. property is cheap. The soil is perfect, black rich, just enough small rocks for drainage. I didnt hit clay for 12 feet. All you add here is a small amout of lime and the pH is there. We also usually have just the right amount of rainfall to water the crops. The food you grow here is the best.

There are plenty of places that have free gas too. So when winter comes you can heat for free and you get gaswell royalty check$ also. I am in the beginning of building my offgrid place right now. I am hooking to wind and solar power along with a generator for my gaswell.

Another benifit is there is $$ in the area, but not so much that we will be affected by inflation. Its relatively balanced. And jobs plentiful becuz of it.

Our biggest problem is definitely the terrain. All of my land is a 30% slope. I have spent the last few years harvesting rocks as my goats slowly clear their pastures of brush to make the land more usable. It has taken me two years and running to terrace a spot for my garden but it's nearly done. I'm working on retaining walls all around my house to get rid of ugly cutbanks. We also have clay and typically go 5-6 months with no rain which makes driving T-posts and any digging nearly impossible during the summer.

Jason

Nice place Bert. We have a small farm in the Ozarks and your description sounds like our place. The soil is rocky but with compost we can grow just about anything.

One thing we have experienced is that the weather is so unpredictable I am having a hard time figuring out when to cut the hay (our first full year here). Sun, rain, hail, wind, back to sun all in the span of 20 minutes. We have lived all over the world and have found the Ozarks just right for us.

__________________
www.salmonslayer-simplelife.blogspot.com

summer, clay, summer, armadillos, did I say summer?

__________________
US Army veteran, military retiree spouse, and military; civilian; British NHS; and VA doctor.

Appalling levels of poison ivy make it impossible for me to touch my dogs in the summer without washing my hands afterwards. And having no rocks is a weird but occasionally annoying problem.

Otherwise, I really like our place in mid Missouri.

We live on a farm between Colorado Springs and Pueblo. Yes, I miss Florida. I grew up in Jacksonville and still have family there. Never made it farther south than the glades though. 3 of my kids were born there. Given the opportunity, I would move back in a heartbeat but the hubby is a 5th generation Coloradan and loves his mountains. So, I acclimate.

We live in the flood plain in the river bottoms. Enough said I think to figure out the uniqueness to this arrangement.

We have a walk out basement for a reason, its also a water run out basement!

__________________
"We spend money we don't have on things we don't need to create impressions that won't last on people we don't care about."
~T.Jackson

My site.

High water table, I live in a swell. It used to be marsh. Lots of mosquitos that will suck you dry withen minutes of stepping outside. We can get massive amounts of rain sometimes and big ol storms (had one early the other morning...the houhd was so scared she kept jumping into the shower to be with her daddy, though she hates water!). Usually LOTS of wind. I can't grow anything tall that isn't a sturdy tree. I have heavy clay but it's improving.

__________________
It's not that I don't like mankind, I just like nature a whole lot more.

We're in the PNW.
Pros. Mild climate. You can grow just about anything.Beautiful scenery, both mountains and salt water. Lots of hunting and fishing. You don't need a lot of land to have animals and a garden.
Cons. It rains, a lot! Property costs big bucks and taxes are high. Lots of people are moving in so lots of development of farms.Also as we say here, you need a permit to spit.

When we moved here 36 years ago it really was our idea of heaven, but time marches on, sadly.

Our little 6 ac. farm is mostly on a slope. With the very wet spring we have had it makes water run off very interesting. Proper ditching and building terraces make it all good. We have found you can really make some nice layouts for yard, garden, pastures etc. this way. Most of our work has been done with our 1948 8N and a 5' scrape blade. Still a lot to do but it's coming along.
The soil is mostly clay but compost from stable clean outs is slowly improving that.
It doesn't matter what your land is like. If you want to do it bad enough, you'll figure out a way.LOL

Hank
http://www.doublemfarmandchuckwagon.webs.com

When I looked for farmland in West-central TN one of my requirements was flowing water. Well I bought on both sides of a goodly sized creek. Both a blessing and a curse. I've spend more trying to stop creek bank erosion than I paid initially for the acreage I first purchased. However, it paid off during this past '500 year' flood. I have very little bank erosion, mostly drift wood and debris affecting fencing. One place down the road has built up gravel bars in their fields now.

Wonderfully interesting thread, SirDude! As much for the on-going inventiveness of folks as for the geography lessons.
Recently I met a California retired lawyer in the library. He was using the free wireless to see google earth map photos of various for sale properties he found interesting. He was specifically looking for properties like Ken's with a creek because he wanted to be off grid using flowing water as his main power source. He hadn't thought of the erosion problems! He was going to Pennsylvania that afternoon, having narrowed his countrywide search to Virginia and Pennsylvania. (I don't know why he excluded West Virginia and Maryland).
When you make up your spreadsheet, here a few categories to include taken from the syllabus of "Exploring the Small Farm Dream" so you don't do too much reinventing the wheel:
"Expressing Farm Dreams and Evaluating Goals

Researching the Landscape

Assessing Resources & Risk

Decision-making and Identification of Next Steps

Field Trip(s)

www.smallfarm.org
Then, Facilitated independent study - clarify next steps

Here in Caswell county, NC, very few problems. rarely gets under 20 degrees in the winter, rarely gets over 100 in the summer. Almost every sort of non-tropical fruit or vegetable will grow. A full 6 months between frost dates. The men are all helpful and well mannered, and the women are all good looking and really friendly. Dogs don't bite, but fish do. biggest problem??? It's just too nice to bother doing much work.

SirDude-only thing we raise in the summer are sweet potatoes, bananas, malabar spinach, chaya, and foot long beans- if the bugs don't get em first. I am trying to nurse the mamlabar spianch along a few more weeks. The calabaza grows fster than the fungi kill it we start getting fruits in fall. Some butternut is growing too. Skeeters LOVE me and the heat gives me asthma. Think I will have to become a snowbird soon.
We have sugar sand but have paid for good soil, manure and peat for the pots and raised beds.