Farm for Sale Update

The Poor Farm is Rich with trees
Abandoned van, filled with trash, now gone.

Time marches on...and still no sale and yet, our future looms in front of us...waiting. We continue to show  South Pork Ranch  to interested people, one or so each month. At present there is an investor from Chicago who is weighing out the possibilities of purchasing our farm and then hiring competent folk to mange it day to day.

It would be ideal for those people who so want to do what we are doing but don't have the cash. In the meantime, while investor contacts potential future farmers, Keith and I continue to work on our new place, The Poor Farm.

To date, we've paid for the land, $43,000 for 7 acres and multiple derelict buildings, $500 plus in lawyer fees, had the land surveyed at the cost of $1000, contacted Com Ed for electrical work , will run another $1500, contacted the well people to test and cap the present well , estimates pending. We also toured an Earth Home Model and paid for a book of plans, $25.

It's easy to see how "The Poor Farm" got its name.

If our farm sells soon we'll need temporary housing up there, maybe a mobile home for, we hope, less than $5000. So far we've managed to do it without a mortgage but doing it that way means cutting back in many other areas of our life.

We're happy to do that. This is our lifelong dream and dreams rarely come without hard work.

At least once a week, we spend time on the Poor Farm , walking around and making plans for our future very small home, the pond we will dig, the family graveyard, and picking up trash left by the previous owner.  Most recently using that trash for target practice has proven a wonderful stress reducer. It's great having a place to shoot that is isolated and without any livestock to scare (yet) . Especially when that time is spent with my three grown sons who continue to tolerate their mother, the non-sharp shooter of the bunch.

We are looking forward to the winter when all the high grass dies back and we can see the real lay of the land, how the parcel drains the rain, where best to push a house into a hillside, the ideal location for future gardens, tree houses and root cellars.

Who knew having TWO farms would so dramatically decrease the stress we were feeling with the management of just ONE farm !