I have been thinking lately of moving to someplace rural like Alabama and buying a farm (a small one) and growing vegetables, fruit trees and having chickens. I'm thinking of Alabama because I have a gut feeling the tax rate would be low, heating costs, land costs etc would be reasonable and there would be good dirt for a garden.
I open a dialog with any readers. Tell me what you think, know or suggest. My reading of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and the Slow Food Movement have lead me to this path.
Editor's Note (later in the day): I looked on line and the taxes are very low and you can buy hundreds of acres of woods for HUNTING of deer and squirrels. Why would you want to hunt squirrels? Not much in the way of a little farm with an attractive farmhouse and barn. There was a huge house that had 5 bedrooms, lake, in ground pool and it came with a tractor for the 24 acres. The price was pretty high but I thought I could be happy there. Oh, yeah! I do love a pool.
Sorry, but NO to the sheep. They are cute and they do "mow" the grass but I think they might "smell". I don't think I would even have the chickens. They aren't nice and they really do smell. Living near Birmingham and the offices for Southern Living would be way cool. Not really country.
8 comments:
and sheep?
Do you read Melody Johnson's blog? http://fibermania.blogspot.com/
A year or so ago she and her husband sold their house near Chicago and moved to Tennessee. They have a small just for fun farm with chickens and a pond with fish, etc. Seems like the price for the house and land was amazingly cheap (by Oregon standards, anyway) It looks divine.
Yeah, but I can't get pass the feeling that Melody is living the 'weekend house' life, and as to the price of the house? Well you get what you pay for.
My first thought is: on 24 acres you would not have to 'smell' either the sheep or the chickens. BUT, fresh eggs would be great and you could even get into spinning wool and probably make some money in the process. Wouldn't it be great to do organic vege farming and have a small stall at the farmers market, but then everyone who lives in those places probably does the same thing....LOL...Remember also that you are both at an age where you don't want to be futzing around too much with major building repairs or renovation work. Twenty Four acres is a lot of land, why would anyone want to own so much land?....said these were first thoughts.
Alabama is the Deep South. Run away.
Southern states are wonderful. Full of kind and friendly people. Unassuming just genuine. If you're lucky you'll get to move south one day. And you'll thank your lucky stars!!
Oh I knew I'd rub someone the wrong way with my comment. I've lived in Mississppi (and drove an hour to work in Alabama), Florida and Texas. There are many wonderful things about the south and many things that were hard for me to live with. This is true everywhere.
Hey! I lived in Georgia for six of the best years of my life and if it wasn't so full of people now, I'd go back in a minute. My best friend still lives there and I love going to visit her.
I was hoping Alabama, next door, was more like Atlanta used to be. But it sounds like a place people like to go to hunt and fish. I just want a small farm where the sun shines and I can grow fruit trees. So maybe five acres.
I've never lived anywhere except Maine so I can't chime in on this lively conversation of locale, BUT I have read Barbara Kingsolvers book and am reading In Defense of Food now and three cheers for growing your own produce!
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