starting a small homestead village, WI

Ten acres isn't a lot of land for 3 or more families, in my opinion. We live in Menomonie, WI, west of Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls. In my opinion, the land around Withee/Owen/Spencer is flatter and sandier than we personally like. But, back in the 1970s when we were newly married and looking for land, we did find some interesting places in the area, but ended up farther south, near Tomah, for 12 years. One good thing about the area you have land in is that there aren't big cities close enough for commuters--we have folks commuting to Minneapolis/StPaul from our area.
A bad thing, however, that there are no big cities withing commuting distance for employment opportunities <G>.

Well you may be right...but we arent planning on big houses. just small ones. It's just me and my hubby. I know where tomah is...my kids went to Black river falls to wisconsin christian youth camp. I lived in Mauston. I am just offering to help others...I know now days, fiancially it's hard for everyone. Pool together resources and have it all comfortably. If others choose not to do this, I will not be upset, we still plan to do it ourselves. It just would be nice to have others and their talents, wisdoms to do it with. I just remember the struggle with kids, no money and not having anything to show for our work...because we have rented all our lives...could never afford a down payment for house and around here, where we currently live house payments are double of what your income is...all jobs are bout $8-10 per hour and houses $150,000 or more for a livable house. Yeah you can get cheaper, but they are falling down and require much work to even walk in the front door. I was hoping to just help out others with this and give someone a chance to have something, because I feel it is the Christian thing to do, to help others. I FEEL and this is MY feelings so please do not get upset, but others are homeless and starving, or do not have the nice things that others have...in other words, I feel it is a sin (in my book) to be rich and not help others...I saw a program (HGTV)where a lady spent $16,000 on having a special runner made for her 14 seat dining room table. I was horrified that someone could be that petty and not think of others. Heck $16,000 is some families yearly income. How could she look at herself in the mirror and live with herself knowing that other families live on that and here she is wasting it on a doiley. Yes, it was nice of her to marry money, but why be so greedy with it?! My intention is to help others, it is the christian way and I hope that someday when I ever need help, some kind person will return the favor. We are not asking for rent on the land, just help in getting the solar panels, well and stuff then they in turn can live for free until they die. 1 investment to get going which they will have to do anywhere they go.

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Some can't find happiness. Some feel pain & loneliness. Every breath is a struggle for survival.

the land is not sandy but rich black soil and already has corn on it...it is very sandy by the dells, mauston area...no sand up there. Clark county has one of the biggest Amish settlements around per state capa. So there must be something good about it.

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Some can't find happiness. Some feel pain & loneliness. Every breath is a struggle for survival.

Good Luck Wehes5!

Anyone with a medical background will have great job opportunities also, there is Marshfield Clinic ( witch is very good) and St. Josephs hospital. Plus many nursing homes and assisted living homes.

There is also Rail Trucking Co, if you like office work or have a CDL or they have training to obtain one.

I"ll just post the Jobnet site so you can take a look for yourselves at the job opportunities in the area. http://dwd.state.wi.us/jobnet/mapWI.htm

thanks everyone for all the support. We are older folks (not wet behind the ears)...early 40's but feel like 90. I am just hoping to help out some young couple who is throwing their money away or living paycheck to paycheck like we did for 1/2 our lives. I wish I would of had a support group like this one. Everyone here is AWSOME and gives great advise. We are always willing to help to a point that we do not allow freeloaders to take advantage of us or least try not to. It seems like we end up with those. We are going to be alittle more careful this time around. We currently have a 60 year old woman living with us. No money for rent. Hubby died and no kids. She was being evicted out of her apartment. Homeless shelter full and low income housing has a 3 year waiting list. She however will have to find another place to live whe we relocate to our land in the spring. I pray that something comes through for her. Thanks everyone!!!

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Some can't find happiness. Some feel pain & loneliness. Every breath is a struggle for survival.

Have a interest e-mail me with a few more details

healthwizard@surfbest.net

emailing you now...

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Some can't find happiness. Some feel pain & loneliness. Every breath is a struggle for survival.

CabinFever----you probably already know it, but, Leinies brewry is only a few blocks from the Mason Shoe Outlet in Chippewa Falls. Have you been to the Leinie's Lodge yet?

wehes5--------lots of sand in Clark county.
If you dig a basement, you may find lots of it------we did.

I called re: the water and sewer permits and he told he there is no sand and our well may have to go 200 feet because of all the rock and no sand...Well that may change things...we may have the opportunity for a sand point well? thanks, haven't been to Chippawa falls yet.

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Some can't find happiness. Some feel pain & loneliness. Every breath is a struggle for survival.

We drilled our well, here in north western Clark County 5 years ago.

Its 180 feet deep and we had to go through lots of bedrock and ended up diong a "fracture" before the water came----but its GOOD WATER!

50 feet from the well---is where the basement was dug--------ALL SAND!

CabinFever is our SOIL specialist------
How come we experience so much variety in our soil?

well what is a "fracture" and how do we find the best place to drill a well..we are even thinking of rain barrels until we get all this figured out...boy talk about a confusing deliema...thanks.

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Some can't find happiness. Some feel pain & loneliness. Every breath is a struggle for survival.

Cabin fever, what do you know about this and have any ideas??

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Some can't find happiness. Some feel pain & loneliness. Every breath is a struggle for survival.

We have two and a third acres here and you may dig one place and be sand then go over two feet and hit clay.

That sounds like something I would like, but my husband and I are in our 60s and too broken down to be of help. One thing I might suggest is to build a common house where you will have a kitchen for everyone to use, where you can do canning and putting up meat and so forth. Also use it for a rec. room. Because if you have three or four families you will want to be able to visit and fellowship with each other. Maybe do potlucks once a week.

Also you could set up a craft room where the residents would have a place to sew or do craft (maybe to sell.) If they will be living in small houses they may not have room to do that stuff in their homes.

Good luck on your project.

AWSOME idea Ruby...I never thought of that, that is AWSOME idea...I love it!!!!!!!!!! Thanks again. You are an Angel!

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Some can't find happiness. Some feel pain & loneliness. Every breath is a struggle for survival.

About 15,000 years ago giant earthmovers from way up north scraped up rock and soil, ground and mixed this material up, and then dumped it on Canada and the United States. The technical term for these giant earthmovers is "glaciers."

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This is the government the Founding Fathers warned us about.....

Not sure if that was Dry wit or sarcasm, Cabin.
But, yours seems to be a typical Minnesota attitude.

I thought maybe you could offer some insight and share some of your knowledge. Forgive me for making any assumptions.

We know a few people with big titles who sit behind a desk and lay down the rules for the rest of us.....without ever setting foot out in their "field".
I didn't think you were one of those........................so maybe its just that you're bored with us-------------or, maybe its 'cause you can't see past those 3 Super Bowl trophys we have here in WIS.


wehes5.....
I guess I'm not surprised at the large swings we have in our local soil types because I've heard before that Clark County has more variations than most counties.

What does surprise me is that who ever you called about soil type would declare that there was no sand ------- heavens, when you get down around Willard and North Mound it's nice fine sand everywhere.

But then, perhaps whoever you called KNOWS more of the specifics about your particular 10 acres.

The "well fracture".
After drilling 180 feet we hit a fine trickle of water---not enough to serve our needs. So, the well driller, set off some sort of explosive deep in the well to "fracture" the rock--------the fracture apparently reached a larger vein because we now have plenty of water.

Well it sounds good to me. I've already decided that I've got to get back to Colorado. I just cannot take it any more.
I should have NEVER come back to Kentucky.................only thing is, alot of people would be afraid to build a home on someone else's land.
Unless they got some sort of "you can live here until you die" paper from you.
Never been to Wisconsin....imagine it's pretty COLD there.

Ouch!

Gee whiz, Tallpines, I gave you the short answer and here I find out that you wanted the long answer! Sorry!

The great variety of soils that we have in Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, Michigan, etc. are, for the most part, due to the glaciations that occurred about 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. The immense force of these mile high blocks of ice moved across the Canadian Shield, scraping, gouging, and removing rock as they went. The enormous weight and pressure of these glaciers ground the rock into a variety of size particles, from clay size to silt size to sand size and on up to pebble, cobble and boulder size. When the glaciers retreated, these mixed up materials were left behind. Some of the material that was mixed in the glacial ice was deposited directly below the glacier. This mixed material is called “till” and is usually dense and has textures ranging from sandy loam to clay loam. Also, right at the point where a glacier stopped are areas called “moraines.” Moraines are composed primarily of the rock and boulders that glaciers pushed out ahead of it. When the glacier retreated, this jumble of rocks and boulders were left in a ridgeline that was roughly the shape of the front of the glacier.

IN some areas, due to the action of glacial melt water, the soil/rock mixture was sorted or “classified”. In other words, trillions of gallons of glacial melt waters carried the rock, sand, silt and clay away (downstream) from the area where the glacier had stopped. The glacial melt waters were responsible for many of the variety of soil parent materials that we have today. Since rock and sand is heavy, it settled out of the melt water right. This parent material is called “outwash” and it gave us our gravel pit, barrens and sandplain areas. The lighter particles of soil, like silt and clay, were carried farther downstream with the melt waters. These fine particles settled out of the melt water when the water stopped moving and formed humongous glacial lakes. These glacial lakes finally dried up and left us with very flat land having clay soils…like the Red River area of NW Minnesota.

Finally, there are many areas in our States than have soils that were deposited by the great winds that blew during the glacial periods. These winds deposited many feet of silt usually in areas at the front of the glaciers (such as SE Minnesota). These wind blown parent materials are called “loess” and gave rise to silt loam texture soil.

Ah geez, I better stop now. I could go on and on. Hopefully, this gives you some idea why we have the variety of soils that we do. Of course, there are many other factors that effect the type of soil in a given area besides glaciation….like climate, precipitation, relief, vegetation, etc….but glaciers probably had the greatest impact here in the northern part of the USA.

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This is the government the Founding Fathers warned us about.....

Cabin I liked the short version. Glaciers....Got it

Hi. OK, I am new to the On-line talking thing so bare with me. BUT...My husband and I live in Steven's Point and hope to be homesteading within a year or two. I want to sell Hostas as my income and we haven't bought land yet. There are so many people who may want to Co-op with you for organic food, yet not live there. What do you think about neighbors who help with construction, gardening, animals, yet live elsewhere. (I hate the idea of using gas and harming our enviroment, but ...???). Then when we have a place, you can help. Bartering at it's best.