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[Robert Walton <waltonrp AT gmail.com>]

Well, almost. I've made a change and decided to back off the 37 acre
place (27 acres pasture). I don't need all that land and would have to
run a herd of cattle or something to keep those pastures in shape.

I've decided on a 25 acre place with about 8 acres of pasture with
good soil. 3 acres are in big old oak trees and the other woods was
logged about 10 or 15 years ago. The did an nice job and left seed
trees, it's all hardwoods. Some of it could be made into goat pasture
and probably worked into pasture with a few years of goats and cutting
firewood. It has some old fruit trees, grape vines and a farmhouse
built in 1940. House is in good shape, set off the road and shaded.
House is set up for wood heat, one wood stove conveys. There are
several outbuildings and an old tobacco barn that I can make lean-tos
on and use as animal shelter.

I'll need to fence, but the difference in price is big from the other
place. I want to homestead it, not start a farming operation, so this
place is much more realistic. If things go well, I'll be able to pay
off the mortgage I'm taking on with the sale of my current place.

The well is being inspected today. The pump had been off for a while
and I was not comfortable with the amount of water I was getting out
of the well. Seller is the old man that built the house in 1940, he
says that he could run the pump and never run out of water. His well
guy is going to meet him there today to check it out and give me a
report on static water level, well depth and recovery rate. That will
be the deciding factor, the other option is seller pays for a new
drilled well.


Rob - Va