Who Will Be The New Small Farmer?

SpringCreekFarm · Intermediate Crude Joined: Mar 03, 2006 Posts: 835

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buzzard · Tar Sands Joined: May 31, 2004 Posts: 98 Location: skrazo

Well, since I came a bit late to this discussion, I will respectfully bring the subject back on track for just a while:

I am 63 yrs. old. I always refer to myself as a breaking wave boomer having been born in 1944. My wife differs with this and calls me a "Silent" ( see The Fourth Turning by William Strauss and Neill Howe) In any case, since our house burned down exactly three years ago July 4th, I have been planning to move to a more sustainable location on a better piece of land.

We owned 5 acres where we were. I had done all of the work to bring it from a bare piece of land to a livable place which was pretty and productive. (If you can call the desert productive, ever.) We lived there for fifteen years and I knew that it would be our last place because I would be too old and hobbled to do it again.

Then the fire... and a realisation. I had a choice. I could rebuild right there or sell and find a new place. The Real Estate bubble was at its height. Our property would never be more valuable than it was right then. If we sold we could take away enough, perhaps enough to do it again somewhere else and pay cash.

In the mean time my father died suddenly while cleaning the gutters on his house in Springfield, Missouri. So it was back to the Ozarks to spend some time with my mom. While we were there staying in Springfield my wife and I would make forays down into northern Arkansas to look at land. It was just like I remembered it. It was beautiful. But the drive back and forth to Springfield was a killer. So we abandoned Arkansas for southern Missouri. The land was more expensive but more convenient.

We settled on a 21 acre piece which was broken off a larger 80 acre chunk facing the rural highway about 6 miles from a small town. our piece was the one in the back. It was perfect. The reason that it turned out to be 21 acres is that I told him that I needed the pond which sort of overlapped the property line. So he re-surveyed it to include the pond.

We paid cash for the land. We moved a double-wide mobile home onto the place (much too large for my taste 2100 sq. ft.) Drilled a well. Power had to be run for over a half mile. Put in a septic system and we were in business. Yeah, right.

I did something that I did not think that I would do. I bought a brand new John Deere 150 garden tractor with a 54" mower a single plow, a small blade, a disc and a hitch assembly. With all of the rain this spring and summer there is no way that I can keep up with all the mowing. what happens when the gas runs out? As it is I keep 40 gallons of gas in 5 gallon cans stored under the motor home ( which we lived in for 2 years afer our house burned down. Try doing that and see how good your marriage really is).

But, this is all prelliminary to my main point.

I am not only 63 years old, but I also have cardio-myopathy. It is a heart condition which is progessive. It means that there is no cure and that I am on the clock as it were. No one knows how much time that I have. The real kicker is that my wife has one of the most severe cases of fibromialgia that I have ever seen. I am her sole care. I am taking a big chance by doing what I am doing. If I don't finish this before I die, she is up crap creek. And she knows it.

One of the things that frustrates me but also I understand is the amount of time I spend fiddling around in the house putting up chandileers and installing a microwave oven. These things I know do not make us more self-sustaining. I desperately want to be outside laying out an orchard or planning the rainwater collection system. But, I must make her happy or it is all for nought. You see she is doing this on trust only. She doesn't really believe that this life syle could possibly end. She merely humors me and my projects. She sees them as hobbies only. Nothing that could really be important in the future. So I spend time helping her pick out colors for the bathroom and assembling the interminable parade of pieces of furniture that the delivery men who manage to find us leave at our door.

I have known from the begining that I could not do this alone. But I guess I subscribe to the "build it and they will come" school of homesteading. I have a friend back in Arizona where we used to live who is trying to sell her house and wrap up her affairs in order to join us. She is thankfully younger than we are however she is crazy as a loon. I can deal with that. I keep thinking that my son who lives in Santa Rosa might come some day. But, if you lived in Santa Rosa would you leave?

I guess I really only have two points to make:

1. The way I see it, for the most part it is going to be the older of us who do the setting up of this stuff because we are the ones who have the time, money and experience to pull it off. In our case, we pay cash for everything (until the money runs out). No mortgage. No car payment. No credit card bills. No nuthin.

2. No matter how slick we think we are, we can't do it alone. I've for the most part stopped engaging people in conversation about Peak Oil and have begun to attempt to engage contacts that may help me in the future. (By the way, I began making a list of you P. O. bums who live around the Ozarks from this site but I lost it )

That's it. I'm begining this project with no assurance that I will be here to see it to the end. But. I couldn't not try. Rolling Eyes

Buz

"I've been dazed and confused for so long it's not news."
Led Zeppelin+

bobaloo · Heavy Crude Joined: Oct 14, 2004 Posts: 462

Thanks for the long reply buzzard, I can sympathize. I'm fighting a lot of health issues myself including fibro and my wife is a juvenile diabetic so she knows if the balloon goes up she doesnt' have long.

We're working our tails off to the extent we can for the kids, we have two daughters in their early 20's who are very aware but don't have any money to do anything themselves at present. Our goal is to at least set them up with some land and the tools they need if / when things get that bad.

Pops

See, the old fart contingent is rearing its gray head.

Though not well represented on these boards, it seems I might have been on to something for once…
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Make a plan and work it:

buzzard · Tar Sands Joined: May 31, 2004 Posts: 98 Location: skrazo

benzoil

azreal60

Hey, I'm not a no show. Hell I think I'm even a bit young for generation x. What's the cut off date on that anyway?

I want to be a farmer, the question is, where am I getting the land. If I can find that, I'll be more than halfway there.
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Azreal60

snowshoegal · Tar Sands Joined: Oct 24, 2006 Posts: 99 Location: Canada

<--- Rural Gen X'er here.

Azreal, Gen X is generally considered to be those born 1961 - 1981. IMO Henry Rollins, comedian Bill Hicks, and author Douglas Coupland epitomize the earliest phase of Gen Xers. I think 1981 is a little late to be Gen X. Right now I cannot think of anyone born that late who fits the descriptions offered on wiki and elsewhere.

azreal60

Well I'll be, I made it by a year. I almost was a 1979er, but my mom didn't wanna hurry. Anyway, so yes, I guess I have to say us Generation xer's are here, we just in some of us don't yet have the resources to be rural. I mean, my god, the land prices where I live are still pretty crazy.

I was actually going to think about going to canada. I've seen 100 acre lots there for 35 thousand. I mean, hell, that's like a 100 to 1 ratio to what it is here. Here a 100 acre lot often goes for 3.5 million or more.

What part of canada?
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Azreal60

SpringCreekFarm · Intermediate Crude Joined: Mar 03, 2006 Posts: 835

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Grautr

strider3700

I agree with pops that it's likely to be the gray hairs that make an attempt at being the new small farmers. The reason is really simple. They are the only group with the resources to do it. To be a farmer locally you have to either already own your land outright or be able to purchase it for cash or close to.

Our land prices have shot up the last few years thanks to people doing the same thing Pop's did. They decide it's time to get out the city maybe retire so they sell their home off for a massive profit and move out here to pay cash. When you sell your 3 bedroom 2 bath detached with a small yard in the city that in 1980 you paid $200,000 for 1+ million it's easy to drop 500,000 for 10 acres with a house and barn on it.

My generation sits back and sees a $300,000 average house price with absolutely nothing under $200,000 and realizes that if they're in a house already the best they can do is trade straight across. If they aren't in a house they're screwed. In the mean time word gets back to the big city that land here is cheap at only half a million for an "estate" and more gray hairs come.

We're now reaching a really funny point. The gray hairs are complaining that they can't get the services they expect. The services aren't available because the businesses aren't staying open as much. The businesses are closed because they can't get people to work in them. They can't get people to work in them because the people can't afford to live here on the wage offered. The people can't afford to live here because housing is through the roof due to the gray hairs.

Eventually prices have to come down or wages have to go up. As it currently stands everywhere that pays minimum wage or close to it has help wanted signs and a lot of my generation or younger is moving away to get better living conditions.

So yeah we won't be farmers we can't afford to try.

As to azreal60's post about cheap land in canada - Take a long look at the conditions around that land. I was watching a history show about the 1870's depression up here and the people that moved to manitoba and saskatchewan to homestead and get a fresh start. A lot of those old homesteads are available because the land was poor, the conditions where brutal and there was nothing there to support them. They mostly gave up or died in the end. I seriously doubt I'm as tough as they where and wouldn't want to be relearning everything when oil runs out up there.
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shame on us, doomed from the start
god have mercy on our dirty little hearts

Pops

PrairieMule

Yikes! Where are the ranchers? Will everyone "GO VEG" in the next 5 to 10 years when TSHF?

I became aware of the generational shift in farmers/ranchers 8 years ago from a article in Texas Monthly. Its scary when you take a hard look at the average age of the farmer/rancher and see fewer replacing those slowing down.

At 37, I am doing "This little thing on the side" (ranch hand) to have the capacity to take up this mule's yoke on the family ranch or god forbid-someone elses place.

To those under 40 like myself, I'd encourage them to track down their county agent and network. There are a lot of old salts out there willing to pass on knowledge in exchange for your strong back.

In the last 5 months this trenderfoot has learned how to castrate a bull, appraise a cow via body score, and start a operation with a real business plan.

There is still time, but not much...
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In other words, it's a huge sh*t sandwich, and we're all gonna have to take a bite.-from Full Metal Jacket

Ludi

In my opinion, ranching will be vital for those trying to make a living and care for large tracts of land without access to large farming equipment, especially in the prairie states - they will need to return those acres to grass and maintain it with livestock.

In my area all the ranchers are 70+ years old, trying to hang onto land that's been in the family for generations, or retirees who bought a tract large enough to run cattle. Only very rich folks can afford to buy a real ranch out here anymore, most of those that sell are broken up into smaller tracts (yes, I'm guilty of buying part of same).

In the future, folks will either need to graze goats or sheep, or bust down the fences between the "mini-ranches" so they can graze cattle. Or let the land grow up to brush, which its doing anyway.... Mad

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