Skills To Pay The Bills
Lately I’ve been wrestling with the idea of buying farmland. Several of my friends have already made the leap and are busy making the preparations I can only dream about.
Currently my wife and I live in an apartment in Capitol Hill and I feel like I’ve done pretty much all I can do in this situation. If I buy land now I will surely overpay for it. If I wait for land to become cheap, I might not have developed the skills needed in time.
After speaking with several friends of mine who’ve done this, it’s obvious that it takes years to learn the kinds of things required to become even somewhat self sufficient.
My other issue is that even if I found a farm that was affordable, my wife isn’t ready to live that lifestyle. I thought that if I could find something fairly close to Seattle, I could drive back and forth to the property while my wife stayed in the apartment enjoying the city. I thought maybe I’d purchase a small property where I could “practice” various farm-like activities. Chop wood, build things, maybe plant a thing or two.
I asked a few friends about possibly sharing the cost of the experiment, and actually got one interested party. Unfortunately we found that it will still too expensive to buy even a small plot of land near Seattle. I was about to abandon the idea completely when I had a thought.
What if I could rent a farm? Looking on Craigslist, I found several properties which could be rented for under $1,000 a month that included 4 or 5+ acres, a farmhouse, barn, woods and an area suitable for growing. (Oxen and plow not included)
Tomorrow I’m headed to Vashon Island to look at one such property.
Would anyone be interested in possibly sharing the cost of a property like this? The farm I’d like to purchase probably costs between $800-$1M+ and in a few years this property could be available at a 70 or 80 percent discount. So paying $12,000 per year to have a place to be able to practice and meet other farmers seems like a fantastic deal.
I’m not interested in living on the property, although I might stay for a few days at a time depending on its location.
Comments?
Thanks,
Chad
December 6th, 2008 at 11:46 am
Chad,
The cost of renting rural lands is absurdly low compared to the price of buying the same. Seems most of the lands of Puget Sound are priced as if for suburban subdivisions, an economic movement that I pray is out of gas permanently.
I think you should act upon this and rent your homestead, Vashon Island is a great place to try, because the local permaculture guild is there along with a vibrant Sustainable Vashon Island group. I also thought that the STN would be well served by have a port of call somewhere on Vashon, so maybe your farm could become a produce supplier for Dave and gang. My best is that you will have partners/associates involved in your farming venture shortly after it is set up.
Oxen and plow is crazy by the way. Tillage can easily be rented by custom farm operators and will be affordable even at $20 a gallon for diesel. However, row crops are not the way to go with small plots in our region. I suggest experimenting with all the low impact gardening methods being promoted in this area. Do reach an agreement with your landlord before you do serious things like planting fruit trees however.
Finally, I want to stress again that the problems with American agriculture are chronic, but not acute or critical at this point in time. Food shortages will not be one of the initial crises of resource depletion. Seven to ten years from now, water table depletion may be bringing forth a different story, but then so will be the stability and familiarity of our world. Still learning and practicing homestead skills has few downsides except less time to watch television. -Joe