I am a country boy who had live in the a small town (read city) for about 20 years. My ball and chain had elderly parents whose health was an issue and she provided the health care.

When able to move I made a bid on a 3 story farm house, with 2 out buildings, a diesel generator, well, etc and 70 plus acres of ground. Located on a private road with one farm. The property is surrounded by national forest and a the one large farm. As a person who hates yard work I allowed the national forest to reclaim about 25 acres that completely surround my small yard of a little over one acre, I have given the farmer the ok to use 40 acres of my property for his hay fields at no cost other than he maintains the private road with my help on an as needed bases. I killed the grass/lawn around the out buildings, generator shed, and the area we park our trucks and cars.

I like the idea of the privacy, having a private shooting range, the ability to get on my ATV and ride to the national forest to do my hunting. The very small yard that takes about 30 minutes to cut with push mower. And the other plus is 20 minutes away the shopping malls and grocery stores my wife frequents.

Given your description of still being in the city limits, you may avoid one of the biggest PITA of rural living - hauling off your own garbage.

We have a septic here at home. We have friends whose daughter had an open house. There septic had a backup on that day, no fun.

We on the other hand. Have had our pumped once in twenty five years. Didn't really need it but see open house story above. For most of the time in our home we have had five people living here.

No real problems with well either.

Jim

quote:

one of the biggest PITA of rural living - hauling off your own garbage.

With careful management, we've tracked our own hauling of such....

It takes about 3 months to generate enough true 'garbage' to make a solid 40 gallon can full; cost to dump: $5.75;

We used to shred/burn/compost yard clippings. Now haul off by the 5x8 trailer load about once a season; 1/2 price for 'pure yard waste' $10.50; there is a spring-time special of *free* for about a week time frame;

we compost kitchen non-meat scraps; have about 30 gallons/year to till into garden;

Recycle possibles of various plastics/bottles/etc. No Charge plus money back for some of it.

Part of the trade off from the rigors of city living---no lines, no traffic, no buses, no congestion. Local town has four (count 'em 4) stop lights.

I asked an assessor friend, he has had 2.75 acres ,for 9 years
he said that if he had
it to do over , he would have built the exact house that he
wanted on 40 acres of tillable ag land.

and then rent it out to pay for the landscaping, lawn care and upkeep
for the three acres of lawn and shrubbery .

We have friends who live on 10 acres.
They have some horses and have an ag exemption.
1 acre is designated as their homestaed, the rest is for growing alfalfa hay.

A local guy comes and cuts the hay, bails it up and they split the proceeds.
This covers most if not all of their ptoperty tax bill.

A nice lifestyle as well.

Thank you everyone. After a few rounds of negotiation, we got the property under contract. Inspections are scheduled for this week. Hopefully everything will go well. Wish me luck

Aerial view:

Good luck with this property. May you and your family enjoy it for a long time.

quote:

Originally posted by kingfish007:
Thank you everyone. After a few rounds of negotiation, we got the property under contract. Inspections are scheduled for this week. Hopefully everything will go well. Wish me luck

Aerial view:

Yeah, you're gonna need a riding mower and remember, not all of them come with cup/can/bottle holders so shop carefully.

Congratulations.

Looks great! I might have missed it but can you have livestock? If so, fence in some and get some sheep and a mule to help with some of the mowing.

quote:

Originally posted by David W:
Looks great! I might have missed it but can you have livestock? If so, fence in some and get some sheep and a mule to help with some of the mowing.

I can have up to 3 horses but don't think I am up for the upkeep... Will probably get another dog though

Looks awesome from the air. We spent all day Saturday looking at houses on 1-3 acres. Definitely a tiring process.

quote:

Originally posted by kingfish007:
Thank you everyone. After a few rounds of negotiation, we got the property under contract. Inspections are scheduled for this week. Hopefully everything will go well. Wish me luck

Aerial view:

Fantastic! What's the building at the back of the property?

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
Fantastic! What's the building at the back of the property?

It's a barn. Will put my car lift in there and turn it into my workshop. I'm planning on adding a driveway at the back gate to the barn.

Fantastic! Congratulations. Looks like you'll really enjoy it.

quote:

Originally posted by kingfish007:

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
Fantastic! What's the building at the back of the property?

It's a barn. Will put my car lift in there and turn it into my workshop. I'm planning on adding a driveway at the back gate to the barn.

Jeez! Looks like you bought Southfork
Congratulations, it looks beautiful

That is lovely

What a beautiful place!
Not to be a downer, but the short dead end at what I am guessing is the S/W corner of the property is a security concern for me. Easy access to your barn and may be out of sight from the house. May be a good spot for a camera!

Why is the fence set back so far from the road?

Beautiful place. You'll love it. If you don't like mowing, put in more trees. Small seedling pines are inexpensive, and grow quickly. I live on five acres.We had some sort of pine blight when I bought the acreage, and all the mature pines in the surrounding area died. We had pine seedlings that started. In a few years, they were about 4-5 feet high. They're bigger now, easily 12-15 feet. My father in law planted several thousand pine seedlings he got from the state on acreage he had to make a Christmas tree farm. I helped plant a couple hundred of them one afternoon. It was never a commercial success, but we got free trees every x-mas when we lived in the area. It looks like a forrest now.