Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We "bought the farm" 3 years ago. Sold everything, moved 1700 miles from the East Coast to the middle of Nowhere, Nebraska. Actually, to be fair, we are apparently 80 miles west of there; a billboard that says, "Welcome to the Middle of Nowhere!" is on a state highway 80 miles east of us. We own 60 acres (considered tiny by local standards) and a 100 year old farmhouse.
Folks 'round here call it a 'hobby farm' or for fun 'the petting zoo'. We raise miniature cows, have a small (13 hands) horse, chickens, and are working on a large garden and orchard. The cows aren't really miniatures, they are full size Irish Dexters, but a lot smaller than the big Angus and Herfords around here. The 'townies' (town of less than 200) let their kids come over to pet and hand-feed our cows. We got the Dexters for several reasons: they eat half of what Angus do, they are intelligent and resourceful, 'family-type' cows for both meat and milk, and they are easy calvers - no pulling. We have steered the two bull calves; the one from last year will be butchered this fall to fill our freezer, the one from this year has been 'adopted' by a local townie for her 4-H project - it will be the first time a Dexter calf will be shown at the local county fair. We sell eggs to our neighbors in the winter when they can't get to the store (40 miles away).DH is a mechanical genius and can make anything work; he repairs small engines for our neighbors.
Why on earth would we do this? 1) We've always wanted a farm and we prefer rural life; 2) we got tired of increasing ordinances where we were; the peach and cherry trees I had in my front yard as well as the chicken coop in the back (on 1/3 of an acre) were ordinanced out; 3) we prefer eating our own food instead of paying for it at a store.
We have wild turkey, deer, and antelope all around us. We like living where we live and doing what we do. We like snow and cold. We have lived all over the country at different times, and we looked at several states and many, many properties before we chose Nebraska. We like chopping wood for the woodstove. We like doing things for ourselves. We like the people and the political climate. We like the cold clear water in the streams, rivers, and lakes, and even that which comes out of the ground. We even like the blizzards, the wild violent summer storms, and the endless winds that blow here. We are far enough out that it is an excursion for people to come and see us, which means we are pretty much left alone by family and 'friends' from back East.
Are we "farmers" or ranchers? No, we don't consider ourselves such, and we have great respect for those who are. We simply wanted a piece of property where we could do what makes us happy, in a place that makes us happy, around people whose company we enjoy. Now, if you'll excuse me - there's more zucchini to process! Plus we and some friends are going river tubing today, if the weather holds...
Good for you, SCGranny! Sounds like you really are livin' the dream. Congratulations on having the courage to strike out and go for it. Nebraska is not a state that I have ever thought much about, one way or the other, but now I want to visit there and see what it's like, thanks to your post.
Good for you, SCGranny! Sounds like you really are livin' the dream. Congratulations on having the courage to strike out and go for it. Nebraska is not a state that I have ever thought much about, one way or the other, but now I want to visit there and see what it's like, thanks to your post.
The best introduction to the 'real' Nebraska is to come out to Valentine in North Central Nebraska and spend a week in the summer. Fly in to Omaha or Rapid City SD (Rapid is closer, 3 hours vs 5.5 on 2 lane, 65 mph state highways) and drive to Valentine. Get a motel room and explore. You'll be amazed - Nebraska is not all 'flat corn country'. Go downtown and meet the folks, eat at the restaurants. Drive out to Merritt Dam and rent a boat and gear and go fishing for bass and trout and all manner of freshwater fish. Cruise up the river in your boat, pull in at the landings and go swimming. (The annual "Star Party" was just this past week; people from everywhere come out and learn astronomy from professors in classes in Valentine, and at night go out to Merritt and look at the stars thru telescopes, and camp out; one of my friends does the catering!) Go to one of the great tube-rental places here and tube the river; it isn't scary at all; even small children do it. Check out the huge river bluffs, the waterfalls, and the Sandhills area, where 'flat' isn't even a part of the vocabulary. Huge ranches out here, dotted with cattle, are impressive and go on forever; rolling oceans of green grass and cattle, spotted with deer and antelope. The silence is amazing and the people are down-to-earth and friendly. Most amazing, though, is the food - real grassfed beef, local produce, even local honey producers. Even the water in the restaurant glass is wonderful; no sediment, no floaters, no additives, and pure as water should be. The bucks are already gathering, and the turkey are huge and plentiful this year (we got all of Oklahoma's rain apparently). A flock of 10 strolled up my near hill two days ago, made my trigger finger itch. LOL
Of course, there's other great places; Lake McConaghy in the south for serious water sports, museums, especially the Museum of the Fur Trade in Chadron, there's always something going on - even famous Carhenge down by Alliance. If a fella or girl walks in dressed in a cowboy hat, chaps, boots, and an old dirty shirt, they are for real - and they probably also have a college degree in business admin or animal husbandry.
Do come! It is beautiful here. And like me, you just might never want to leave!
Valentine looks like there is a lot more topography than western Nebraska where our family (uncle's) farm was-(although there is some nice sandhills and rolling hills here and there by the farm) it looks pretty nice, But what are all those dang things over the streets, stoplights? That's the city compared to where I used to spend summers lol. Going in to town was a once every couple of weeks excursion where we actually would dress up a bit- and that was to tiny Gothenburg- actually the closest town down the dirt roads was Brady- where you just parked in the middle of the street (keys in certainly- still running probably) to what ever business in the half dozen buildings on that spit of land called a town. Talk about rural living.
The gentleman farming thing sounds ideal, but I worked a 1000+ acres of corn, alfalfa, wheat, cattle, pigs and everything else under the sun. Being a strapping teenager it was hella fun but as I just hit 50 it definitely doesn't hold any appeal for me now.
My family has some farm/ranchland in Texas, North Dakota, and Missouri that other family members make a living off of, and my grandparents had a ranch in Jefferson County, Oregon, in the high desert. So many fond memories... unfortunately, after my grandfather's death in the early 90's, it fell into disuse (it'd already been pretty dormant for about 10 years before that), and despite my family's attempts to make things better, my grandma ended up selling off most of the equipment to neighbors for a song, or donating it to charities. By the time she passed away earlier this decade, no one in our family was in Oregon or Washington anymore, and the only people willing to take it over were a couple stoner/surfer/hippie cousins from Santa Barbara who hadn't ever actually grown or raised anything in their lives. They're sharp people, they probably could have done it... but the rest of our family would had to have helped them for at least a few years while they got their act together and got a decent crop going or had enough animals to sell at market to show anything for their efforts, and it's not like there's an abundance of work in town, despite the fact that the town (Madras) has experienced a lot of growth in the last ten years. We ended up selling it; I think that the people that bought it were more interested in the land than they were in using it as a farm
Would I, someday, be interested in living in and maintaining a farm again? Maybe. I spent a lot of my childhood down there, helping with the chickens, riding the tractor, etc., and my mom did some amazing stuff with the garden there - we were always eating fresh produce. My grandmother would make amazing smoked jerky that she'd sell.
But, immediately after the farm... we moved to Boston. That was 14 years ago, just over half my life, now. I'm in business, I'm an urbanite. I don't know if I could go back to it.
LOL @ T. Damon! Yes, Valentine has stoplights! It is a town of 2800, the county seat,with a fairground and auction arena, that serves all of the ranchers in the area; it has gas stations, motels, 3 banks, a hospital, several clinics (animal and people), several grocery stores, clothing stores (Young's Western Wear is based out of there and do worldwide Internet sales), even a tiny Radio Shack. Between the ranchers, the summer tourists and the fall and spring hunters, as well as the winter ice fisherfolk, it is a little boomtown. 3 Miles outside of it is wide open ranch country, though!
I don't live there, I live 40 miles from there. And we DO dress up once every two weeks or so and go shopping there!
I am familiar with Brady; they still have football, Bball, and volleyball teams against whom our local HS competes.
MY DH would laugh at the 'gentleman farmer' - back east that means someone else works the property, while the owner lives in 'the big house'. He gets filthy, sweaty, fixes fence, steers the bulls, feeds the cows and chickens, and works from see to cain't see, just like a real farmer!
No way! If nothing else I couldn't stand being so far from everything else. But I have major respect for those who do, and I'm certainly glad some people do it. I try to buy veggies and dairy products from the area whenever I can. It's usually better anyway.
I guess another plus about the long hours and physical work is that you'll be too tired for road-rage or any other type of anger at the end of the day.
The therapist can take a hike, I'm going to sleep and facing the day tomorrow!!!
Not to mention that I hardly ever see many overweight farmers, especially at the hay-farms I typically go to in Utah and AZ.
Nice, beautiful country to drive into a pick it up, then I look at where it's going and cringe.
I'd love to be a farmer or married into a farming family. The last long-standing farms in my family were my grandparents. Both sides of my family were farmers, but my parents left their own farm in their 20s. It's deep within me and something I wish I could do, but I know it's not realistic without any experience, plus farmland is too expensive.
For those that answered yes, or those who answered no because it's just too hard a job like I did, there are farming vacations you can take. It's ideal, you get to experience the farm but hey, when you get tired you can say, OK, I've had enough. Time to sit down with a beer/lemonade or go explore the countryside.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Plus we and some friends are going river tubing today, if the weather holds...
