Progress on my own farm purchase is coming along well. I just received minutes from last Monday's meeting... confirmation that my lawyer did indeed get approval on the two measures he put before the selectmen's board.
And I have my closing date! December 16th!
That will make for a nice Christmas, even if it is frustrating that the #%@!*^! markets are crashing right before I need the cash.
I'll look forward to my next trip up North (Spring, 2012.) I'll be planting trees and perennial food crops by the dozen... if they're available at a nursery at that time of year, anyway.
Planting a 5 foot tree takes a surprising amount of time and effort. And I'll need some luck on the weather. I won't have any water available, and that's usually the first thing a plant needs after it goes in the ground. Yes, the property has a stream. Several, in fact. But they're WAAAAY downhill from where I'll be planting.
It could be a few years before I have have a functioning well on the property, and I don't want to wait that long before getting the trees going.
In Iowa, farmland boom means end of an era for many
By PJ Huffstutter
IOWA FALLS, Iowa | Mon Nov 21, 2011 10:08am EST
IOWA FALLS, Iowa (Reuters) - It took just 31 minutes for Donald Ellingson's family to end an agrarian tradition that had survived more than a half-century, by auctioning off 153 acres of rich Iowa farmland.
Five years after their father's death, Ellingson's three children had grown weary of the demands of running a farm. Their tenant farmer had retired, and finding a new one was tough. The youngest of them was 60 -- too old, they agreed, to return to a life of risky finances and long work days.
Combines and corn were not part of the lives of Donald's eight grandchildren or his 14 great-grandchildren. They live far from here. And given land prices these days, the family agreed it was the right time to let the past go.
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The bidding wars that are now common at farm auctions and inside attorney offices, resulting in a 25 percent jump in land values last quarter, are bittersweet for heirs and aging farmers alike, whose children have fled to the city, leaving them unable or unwilling to shoulder the rising financial risk of a farm.
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The trend is particularly frustrating to a small wave of young farmers, who are returning to the family farmstead to try to enjoy these boom times and escape the languishing U.S. economy.
"If you don't have at least 50 percent cash to put down on a sale, you've got no chance these days," said Wayne Keller, co-owner of BuyAFarm.com, a Midwestern land auction and real estate company. "What kid has that kind of money, when even small farms are selling for millions of dollars?"
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Good article. Read the whole thing here: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/21/us-farmland-idUSTRE7AK0EA20111121
Gold is $1,581/oz today. When it hits $2,000, it will be up 26.5%. Let's see how long that takes. - De 3/11/2013 - ANSWER: 7 Years, 5 Months
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