Nothing says “beginning farmer” like counter top, outlets, and cabinets. But, truth be told those are a huge part of our farming venture right now because with out those things it really would be “like” the pioneers. And, those are the things that I have been working on the past few days out at the farm. We put the cabinets in a little while ago, but just this past Monday we threw the counter tops down and really got after the wiring (with some help from friends of course). I have got to say that I’m really excited that we now have outlets where there just used to be wires sticking out, and that we can now plug stuff in and leave the breakers for those circuits on! Hey, I even used the switch to turn the hall light off last night…
But, really it is doing tasks like I did today (and the help of a great community of believers committed to serving each other) and others involved in our home building that has made farming on 40 acres possible for us. While it isn’t a lot of land it is a great start (better than many are able to start with), and if we weren’t constructing a house we wouldn’t have been able to afford this much land. Scrimping and saving since we were married, having family and friends that are willing to help, and our own sweat equity has made this dream possible.
For example, a 40 acre farm, with a house and some buildings, in a county south and west of here (where land is a slightly lower) is listed for $225,000. I know that might sound good for some, but in our area and with our budget (remember … just one paying job in this family) that is out of the question. In fact if we just go a few miles to the east of our place there is a chunk of bare land listed for $160,000. That is for 40 acres of a similar timber to tillable ratio as our farm.
So, it seems that counter tops, outlets, cabinets, and a whole bunch of great friends are really valuable when it comes to a beginning farm. In fact I would say the great friends willing to help are more valuable than any “beginning farmer” loan that we didn’t qualify for or any other governmental assistance.
