Subject: Re: How much land is enough?

From: Andrew Evans <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 20 Feb 1995 16:54:25 -0500 (EST)

I should have said in my initial post that the area we're looking at is 
in the Appalachian region, probably southeastern West Virginia.  Also, I 
too am a woodworker, and I am interested in a lot with enough wood for 
fuel and woodworking.  My woodworking needs will be somewhat light - I'm 
not currently considering drawing significant income from woodworking, 
it's more of a hobby/obsession ;)  My real income will be coming from 
contract computer programming and technical writing, both of which I 
currently do here in the Washington, DC area.  Of course, if I *could* 
draw my income from woodworking alone ...

The estimates of 5-10 acres that I'm hearing are somewhat lower than I 
expected - I've been bracing for something like 20-40 or so.  We will 
most likely not be pasturing any animals, so we don't have that to consider.

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From: [email-masked] (Don Bowen)
Date: Mon, 20 Feb 1995 10:19:35 -0800

>Hmm,  I guess the heating wood needs also depends on home insulation and
>cubic feet of space to heat.  In michigan the warm air act for tenents
>is 68 degrees, 3 ft. off the floor, in the midle of the room. 
>5-10 seems an awful lot for wood needs. It might be easier to purchase/barter
>for heating wood (whats the best kind of heating wood?).  True though
geography has everything to do with it.

        I was also considering income from the woodlot.  I do woodworking
and I worked on a sawmill while in high school.  I was thinking in terms of
taking few good hardwood trees a year and the culls for firewood.  THe
problem is that many woodlots have been logged the good trees removed.  THe
larger area takes into consideration that there would be fewer prime trees.
  
>And garden space will also vary with fertility.  We have a 40 X 50 garden
>but sandy soil, we used half and planted compactly, with 30 tomato plants 
>15 various pepper plants, along with turnips, carrots, and onions, we had
>enough for soups and sauces for canning. (family of 2) lasted all last winter.

        Prime bottom land that has not been farmed to death is a premium.
You have to consider that yields early on will be low so you have to have
more in cultivation.  I do not like having to deal with animals so none of
the plans included animal pasturage tho that could have been a mistake.

>This winter we are just running out of soup base. Oh yeah our well went dry
last
>year, man this constrained our watering and thus our yield. (food for thought).
>(luckily we had a neighbor who allowed us to tap off her water, or else we
would
>have been in a real fix).  Now we have a 100 ft well, (cost; $2200 for
drilling 
>and new pump (20 yrs old) ).

        Water is important.  Land with any sort of year round stream will
cost a premium as will land where there is a good well.  Wells themselves
are a problem.  If others in the area are pumping heavily, the water table
could drop and you will need a new well in a few years.  Sometimes the
underground strata will not allow water to move rapidly so the well volumne
is limited.  Some aquifers with rapid replinshment are polluted from ground
water runoff.  Remember, depth = $.  Another job I had as a kid was on my
fathers well drill.

        Another thing I neglected in my last post is that location should be
an important consideration.  If you plan to make a cash living off you land,
you have to have customers.  In something like a woodworking business, you
can go to your customers but in the produce business, that cannot be a far
distance.  Computer consulting is a job that could be set up anywhere there
is a phone line but there will still be times you have to go to a customer
site.  50 miles is a 1 hour drive in good weather

        For a profitable produce business, one rule of thumb is to be no
more than 50 miles from a city of 100 K population.  At this distance the
customers could come to you.  In this day and age you need customers and
cash.  Cash will pay taxes and buy health and auto insurance.

  Donald E. Bowen           [email-masked]
  Valley Center CA.         [email-masked]

  Software Engineer, woodworker, historian, beekeeper, farmboy
  1936 Farmall 12          1966 Corvair CORSA 140 convertible
  1 wife, 3 kids, 2 acres, 2 cats, 2 dogs, ? projects,  24 hours