Guys!! Guys!! I GOT IT!!!

[WileyCoyote]

Yup!! Just got the approval letter in the mail yesterday. Hubby and I are buying 60 acres in North Central Nebraska, with a farmhouse built in 1910. The house sits in a town called Cody, pop 135; but the property extends to the north and west outside of town. We will be there signing the finals and getting the keys on May 30. We were able to put more than 1/2 down and will be able to pay it off by the end of the year.

My daughter and I went out there for two weeks the end of March/1st of April. It is amazing. The people are - amazing. The town wants to put in wind turbines so that they can have their own electricity and be more independent. Talk about a bunch of independent cusses... the folk in this area are nothin' but. The land rolls upward from the house, we plan first thing on putting an underground, year-round greenhouse right in the side of the first hill. I have already been told that people will come for miles around for plant starts and fresh vegetables; the 2 acres off to the side of the house has its own water and is already prepped for a garden. The house used to be the area's dairy; the basement is already set up for the cooling storage of milk. (Not a whole lot of milk cows in the area, mostly beef). When I mentioned my idea of a barter store, to trade grain and beef from neighbors for milk and vegies and plants from mine, the townfolk agreed it was a great idea and wondered why no one had ever done it before!

The hunting on my hills is great, too; we have tracked deer already, and the turkeys roost in the trees.
;D ;D ;D
I am so thrilled I cannot stand it!! Trying to figure out now how to post the pics!!!

[msta999]

WOW! What a find. Sounds like a good comunity too. Sounds like it is all going to work out. Congrats!

[Northern_bushrat]

Sounds great, I hope it all works out as you hope! Nothing like making dreams come true, eh?!

[Deberosa]

Good news! Sounds like you have a great project ahead of you. Keep us all posted on progress!

[flatwater]

So when is the move? and send some pictures. Don't ya just love it when a plan comes together.
Flatwater

[RonPaulGal]

CONGRATULATIONS WC! I am so happy for you!

I am planning to sell my condo in the NW suburbs
of Chicago and head to SW Colorado to a small
town of about 600 people. BIG change, but I know
that it will be for the best. I grew up in a town of
500 people, and miss the small town people and
laid back life. I hope to get 5 or 10 acres and have
chickens, rabbits, dairy goat, use solar power and
eventually build a cabin. Will likely be living in a
camper until I can get everything done, but it will
be well worth it. Time to go back to the land, and
simplify my life.

It is so wonderful to be on this forum, learning from
other people who are already living their dreams.
Can't wait for it to happen to me. :)

Dayna

[WileyCoyote]

Thanks, ya'll! Grin. My accent is going to be pretty off-beat there; folks have already asked me about it.

Hubby and I have been planning this for some time; last night we were looking at the pictures (again) and deciding what goes where and how to do things. First thing that has to go in is the underground greenhouse - it won't be up and running til next year but the starts next spring will be good and strong. (Plus since it will be an all-year greenhouse, my current tropicals like the orange trees will slide into it this fall.) Then the chicken coop and moat around the large garden, to keep the bugs out and the chickens busy and fed. There are other things to be done; the house has beautiful hardwood floors under carpet - the old fashioned wide boards - and they have to be sanded and polyu'ed; there is even a bay window, and we've got to figure out how to reopen the dairy door into the basement that was covered up by the additional side porch without tearing out the porch, a tree that has grown into the tack room floor has to be removed, which means more firewood in the box... grin. Some of it is 'summer' work and some is 'winter' work. A few of my friends have offered to come out and trade their miscellaneous work skills, like construction, for a vacation! (No, I'm not counting on them - but nice idea!) Grin. So the next six weeks will be very busy - then the REAL work kicks in when we move. ;D ;D ;D ;D

A writer friend of mine in our capitol city of this state has asked me to do a blog on his server to keep everyone posted on how to do the frugal life... We'll see how that goes, too. Don't want too many people - the very ones I moved away FROM - to think that moving near me is a good idea! LOL

[nancy1340]

WC, and just were are our pictures to look at? ;)

A big congratulations to you and your family.

[WileyCoyote]

:'( :'( :'( :'( :'( I can't figure out the picture poster!
AUUUUGGGGHHHH!!! Drivin me nutz - I even went to the test page for two hours to practice, no dice. Can't get it to work.

So I started a blog and you can go here to look at two of them -
http://recidivistsadventure.blogspot.com/

Maybe you can tell we're excited?

[flatwater]

I went to the blog and what a great looking house.
Flatwater

[nancy1340]

Love the house. I can just see some Boston ferns haning off the porch and white wicker rockers there.

[WileyCoyote]

Thanks.. Grin. Well actually I am bringing all of my daylilies (my stepfather bred every color imaginable for competitions and I got the "culls") and my entire rose garden - mostly hybrids, but some nice English ones too, and all of my daff and narcissus bulbs since they have finished blooming here already. The Azaleas won't make it that far North :'( , nor the peaches or "southern cherries" - but the blackberries and all the rest will. You can't see the little cement pond in front, but that will have my cement raccoon-and-bucket fountain in the middle; with my gargoyle, hunting Indian, alligator, fairies and dwarves on a mushroom, and St Francis wandering around the yard as well. Grin.

[bookwormom]

:) :) :)big hurrah. What is the soil like in these parts?

[wy0mn]

So your packing today & heading for your dream. I'm proud for you.
Pics are great, blue sky heck! Wait'll you see the stars! The Milky Way, seen from here, looks thick enough to stir with a ladle. And I've been told that we occasionally are gifted with the Aurora.
Do you have plans for the wind we let slip by?
Welcome to zone 3b-4 gardening. Anything you learn please pass along.
Lex

[Northern_bushrat]

Looked at your blog...you go, girl!! You two are amazing for staying together for 25 years - that's becoming rare! And bless you for adopting dogs on death row. I wish you guys heaps and heaps of good luck :)