OT: iso, I've got 55 acres of mature hardwoods (adjacent on 2 sides to where our 2nd home is) -- the three still on the ground were over 100 years old each, but a lightning strike left two of them leaning on the third, so I cut all 3 down last summer and need to deal with them this summer. You would not believe how much wood will come out of just those three trees and I'd estimate I have dozens -- maybe scores more just like them. It was just plain luck that the land my grandfather bought in the 1930s -- half of which was eventually passed down to me -- as well as the wooded land I added more for privacy protection than anything else as the area continues to attract vacation/resort development -- just happened to be located on top of the Antrim shale and I own the mineral rights.
After the virgin timber was all cut down over 100 years ago, this land was just grassy dunes between Lake Michigan and a larger inland lake. Hasn't been logged at all in those 100 years. Part of the farmland (120 acres) also located on top of the Antrim Shale -- which I knew when I bought it for about 60 cents on the dollar at the time -- used to be a Christmas tree operation, but I had it all cleared because it was a rare good quality tract of soil adjacent to fields that were already cultivated and has a good reliable fresh water supply (I've got 3 wells on the farm and two at the house).
I didn't want to get into the christmas tree biz and think the land is better suited to orchards, so now have cherry, apple and peach trees, along with blueberries, raspberries and strawberries -- all except the strawberries are very low maintenance and I hire local high school kids to tend to the strawberries. The entire area is a big fruit producing region so there are a few processing plants and a co-op that buys up whatever I want to sell.
The farm fields have mostly been the usual soy beans and corn, but there's 5 acres set aside for "truck" farming assorted veggies and tubers -- still renting it at the moment, but with the proviso that the parcel be used to see what is viable/optimal to grow there, so trying out different things each year... I'm considering trying a small plot of peanuts just to see.
The SW Ohio land was a 400 acre prime parcel my cousin heard about through the local farmer grapevine of which he is a long-standing member. He couldn't afford it by himself at the time, having just acquired a lot of acreage the year before, so my brother and I went in with him on it, but my cousin works it all as part of his overall operations and we divvy up the proceeds at the end of the year, minus fees, etc. to my cousin for actually doing the work, etc. We bought it on a 10-yr. land contract with the family of the former owner. We plowed (pun intended) all proceeds the first few years back into paying off the contract and paid it off in just 5 years. My brother and I then persuaded my cousin to stop raising livestock (it's so labor intensive and quite volatile) and only grow row crops on it. My cousin is a very clever high tech farmer and has been able to make all of us a nice steady income from the land, not to mention having that resource at hand should the need arise. And now that he isn't dealing with the daily grind of cattle and hogs, he's been traveling with my brother all over the world in the "off season" while a couple of hired hands do the required machinery maintenance and other stuff for each upcoming growing season. |
