Bean Run
 

Cleaned and canned beans all day yesterday. 4 bushels of beans = 58 quarts canned. Probably about 8 bushels still in the garden to pick.

http://www.digistash.com/data/026a39...3_p118678.jpeg

American brand canner......20 quarts to the batch.

http://www.digistash.com/data/026a39...3_p118679.jpeg

Re: Bean Run
 

Well, I have to admit that I am impressed. But you're planning on giving some away, I hope. I don't know what I'd do with 58 quarts of canned green beans -- much less the 174 quarts you'll have if you can them all. What's that old time song about the musical fruit?

Seriously, I have trouble forcing myself to open a jar of canned green beans when fresh ones are available so inexpensively at the store. I'm all for being prepared; but I'm having a problem rotating all my preps because until TSHTF I want to live better than that. Anyone else here with that problem?

Re: Bean Run
 

Yes. not only that, bu typically when you buy food for when TSHTF you buy cheap crap which could be quite unhealthy. I'm talking about GMO crops, pesticide laden, over fertilized, etc... Unless you grow it in your own garden like Andy here is doing and you use organic practices you are just setting yourself up for an earlier expiration date eating crap food like that in a non-TSHTF scenario.

I only eat organic foods, no growth hormones in my milk, no pesticides in my lettuce, etc... And I dont know of any survival food web site offering actually healthy food (since obviously it's not as important if you're in a situation that your life depends on any food at all).. so it's quite a tough situation. I rather not rotate survival food at all and just let it expire and when that happens throw it away. It's so cheap anyway

Re: Bean Run
 

Darkside, I think in a mostly similar way. I pretty much have set up to keep SHTF supplies seperate, in the basement , from the ones we use, though I load up on those now as well. My plan though is to load up every year or so by replacing the whole SHTF stock pretty much. At least in terms of canned packaged stuff. The old will take two or three trips in the van and over to a local charity at Christmas time. Survival food , canned , packaged etc., is exactly the type of food the charity drives ask for. I'd rather give food and some other supplies to a locally run , locally targeted charity than write a check to some quasi-corporate beaurocratic one anyhow. This way i don't worry about rotation either. And though I'm not the most charitable guy out there , it's oaky i think to help out with some food and stuff sometimes, especially if you can get a feel for the charity itself and their MO.
The newly purchased supplies will cost more each year , as food prices rise and rise , but I will use the newly purchased receipt to deduct the old supplies for taxes , if that makes sense as I worded it.

Any way , Andy , you're a Bean Baron! Someday I hope to be able to store preps I've grown myself , the way you do , but I need a real estate crash here to help me out a bit. Still looking (and frustrated) for the Panda farm.
How long is the shelf life of your beans you think? Thanks.

Re: Bean Run
 

Rotating a large quantity of canned goods is a bit of a problem. And I've got quite a bit. I did buy a dozen cases of freezdried food with a 30 year shelf life. They contain real meat, not tvp. I look at it as insurance. And instead of spending all my money on silver, I think its a good idea to divide it up on tools, clothes, food, medical, boots and other survival gear for the future.

Re: Bean Run
 

Merlin,

In addition to what Darkside says about organic growning, which I pretty much agree with....I like knowing how my food is grown, how it was treated after it was grown, and so on......my beans aren't NEAR as pretty as the store bought variety, I have to pick thru them to eliminate the ones with a lot of rust spots and bug bites, so they would never make it in the produce section of the store......but knowing that, I have a problem with store bought produce because I also know what it takes to make "pretty" produce.....the fungicides, the pesticides, etc...

AND I totally agree the economics of most home food raising makes it an effort in futility......I looked once at my beef, for example....I can buy whole sirloin tips in the store on sale for 1.49/lb with cutting/grinding free......it costs me way more than that for the entire cut of beef I get from a whole cow, and a lot of that is stew meat, hamburger and lower cut chuck
roasts......I'd be better off, moneywise, to just go buy a freezer full of meat from the store, especially when they run it on sale.

Those beans.....a quart is probably about 3 ---#2 1/2 cans, and you can buy them for less than 50 cents/can I think ( don't know, haven't bought any in a long time )......so say the MAX a quart of my home beans are woth is a buck/fifty, or maybe 2 bucks if you throw in sales tax and income tax on the work it took to earn the money to go buy the beans.....so I raised them, picked them, and canned them......probably 3 days labor, total, in that process ( + tiller cost, fuel, bean seed, land taxes, yada, yada, yada ).....so at a MINIMUM, I no doubt have way more than 2 bucks/quart in them......economic stupidity, without a doubt.

But HERE is the real crux of the issue, IMHO:

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THERE AREN'T ANY BEANS IN THE STORE ???

Now I KNOW that is a hard notion to concieve of for most Americans, used to going to the produce section in a store, say in Maine, in February and picking out a cornicupula of fruits and veggies shipped in from, literally, around the world.....but I seriously think THERE IS A DAMN GOOD CHANCE the day is on the way when the lights will go out and they lock the doors in those food malls, and when that happens, you have a VERY SHORT window of opportunity to learn how to raise and put up food......this is going to be one area where knowledge, experience and the tools/supplies to do this are going to be worth more than all the MBA's Wharton ever printed.

How do you put a price on that knowledge ?


The window may ALREADY not even exist.....what happens if 10 million people want a canner TOMMORROW.....think they exist ? .....or a million people want 50-100 cases of jars it takes to put up the food for couple people for a year.....think this is in the supply line ?? Or the year or two it takes to get a decent garden spot ready.....lot of people have this notion they will just go out and plow up their lawn ( with what ? ) and throw some stored "survival" seeds out and life will go on.....well, it will....for the rabbits, groundhogs, squirrels and birds.....unfortunately, the guy that used to own the lawn is probably now fertilizer....ahahahaaaaa

If you're "all for being prepared", then get prepared.......half prepared likely won't cut it. :D

Re: Bean Run
 

Great pic, and you still had enough energy left to snap it.

Re: Bean Run
 

I agree.....putting all one's FRNs in silver is sorta foolish, IMHO.

On freeze dried, a tidbit of info:

Those "25 case Mt House deals" Safecastle was running that deal on a while back......they consist of a whole line of entrees, and some veggies, etc. I added up the total calories in the 25 cases, and it came to right at 404,000.

IF you lived on NOTHING but that freeze dried food ( which I think would probably get terribly boring ) and allowed yourself 2000 cal/day, you'd be looking at about a 200 day supply for ONE person. The way I'd actually use that food, for wife and me, is probably something like 1000-1200 cal/day between the two of us ( like a breakfast entree, and a dinner entree, with occasionally something else thrown in ), with the balance of our food coming from fresh in season stuff, canned goods, and whatever critter I could shoot, stab, club or otherwise drag in.....and that 25 cases would last us a year.....maybe more.....

Re: Bean Run
 

And ya know what ? I'd bet the farm those folks had been doing that ALL their lives, knew HOW to do it, and had the STUFF to do it.

Now go poll the "typical" American household.

WAY different story........one with a tragic ending, I'm thinking.

Re: Bean Run
 

ahahahaaaaaa....not last night at midnight......left the last 18 quarts in the canner and went to bed.....just shut the gas off when the process time was done, left the kitchen a mess....( good thing my wife is out of town...ahahahaaaaa ) ..took the pic this morning before I boxed up the jars for storage.

Re: Bean Run
 

Shelf life is 3-4 years easy...probably more, but ours are gone before then.....I've raised enough this year that we probably won't can them next year again, just raise enough to eat fresh.....then back to canning the year after.


Hope you get that farm, buddy......don't wait too long.

Re: Bean Run
 

Totally agree with you there, Andy.

I've been working an organic vegetable garden for 5 years now and I've only scratched at the surface of the massive quantity of farming knowledge necessary in order for one to sustain themselves. Each and every type of vegetable is unique with it's own preferences for sun, water, soil, temperature, soil ph level and so on and so forth. Then even among a particular vegetable like a tomato there are many varieties which can have drastic differences in those preferences.

Because of this, despite what foods you like your land will not be ideal for everything. You are going to have to figure out with good 'ole trial and error what grows well on your particular land, and I really don't think you want to figure all this out while you're starving.

Growing your food is extremely labor intensive and proper tools can drastically cut down time spent maintaining your garden. So you want to make sure you own these tools NOW and you know how to use them. Gardens will also require alot of water, so depending on your climate you're probably going to require a source beyond the rain. You want land with natural water resources present, an underground aquifer being ideal since it will also make great drinking water. Drinking water out of a pond or stream is dangerous.

The window for growing crops is limited depending on your area. Don't expect to be harvesting tomatoes anytime in the wintertime! Chances are you live in an area that freezes over during the winter, so you're going to have to figure out how to eat during this time without an active garden. This means you must delve into a whole other massive database of knowledge which is food preservation like the canning Andy is doing. There are also drying, smoking, freezing techniques. Again, each plant will respond differently to the preservation techniques so you have to learn which to use for any particular plant. You can also greatly extend your growing season with a greenhouse, but again, don't expect to just pop up a greenhouse and think well I was growing some good tomatoes in the garden so this should be easy. Wrong! Growing in a greenhouse is a whole other giant well of knowledge... Temperature control is crticial in a greenhouse, and insect infestations in such an isolated environment can be crippling.

Finally unless you plan on only living for one year you will need to know how to save seeds from your plants for the next year. This again, is not as easy as it seems. Each plant has different conditions under which are ideal to harvest the fruit for fertile seeds for the next season.

Ah, sorry for all the babbling I am getting carried away here... Congratulations if you've read this far!

Re: Bean Run
 

Did I ever mention that a quart mason jar will nicely hold $100 face in 90% silver coins?

:tongue_ma:

sorry to hijack your thread Andy

Re: Bean Run
 

now for a bean break

http://www.simonpanrucker.com/beans.html

Re: Bean Run
 

ahahahaaaaaaaaaa......no such thing as a hijack, Ross.....that's good to know !

I fully expect Ihslancer to come along shortly with a scantily clad young lady in Daisey Duke shorts holding a jar of home canned pickles nestled between a pair of melons.

Re: Bean Run
 

Tn...Andy,

You and I are fundamentally in agreement. I'm absolutely positive we could survive on the food in our basement for the better part of 2 years if push came to shove. In reality, I still have 7 quarts left of green beans that I canned last summer, along with home-canned stew, hamburger meat, pork 'n beans, vegetable juice, etc. Then there's hundreds of pounds of wheat, beans, rice, canned dried milk, etc. But the fact does remain that as long as the good times continue to roll, I have to get real creative in the kitchen to make the canned foods appealing compared to fresh store-bought.

In the case of the canned green beans, for instance, I'll sprinkle sauteed almonds or bits of crisp bacon over them. And I almost always throw a chicken bullion cube and some fresh celery into the pot with them when I heat them up. Even so, if you have picky eaters in the household like I do ("I don't like cooked carrots." Or, "I don't care for canned beef stew; can't you make it from scratch?"), you'll find being prepared and minimizing waste to be a real challenge.

Re: Bean Run
 

I'm especially pleased with the scalloped potatoes that I make from home grown potatoes and onions that I've de-hydrated, with powdered milk, salt and pepper from my food storage program, and flour and corn starch. But you guys are right -- the learning curve is steep. Better find out how it's done now, while times are easy, than later when times are tough.

Re: Bean Run
 

I understand....and my appoligies, ... my rant wasn't directed so much at you as the multitude of "keyboard" survivalists I run into that feel because they have a pickup load of light weapons, another pickup load of ammo, and a dozen cases of MRE's, they are set......

BTW, on picky eaters.....my mom had a way of dealing with that..... "The NEXT resturant is just down the road"....... :D

Re: Bean Run
 

Now....THIS POST IS USELESS WITHOUT A RECEIPE !......give it up, man !

Re: Bean Run
 

I am really impressed. How much "garden" did you have to plant to yield all that? That looks like farming to me!

This is pathetic what I will now share, but I got five pea pods off the sugar pea start I set out months ago-- it grew for a while and produced 5 pods and then for some reason, the damn thing browned up and shriveled, why I dont know. The tomato plant next to it's doing ok, I gave em both the same kind of trellis. Why one flourished and the other didnt, I dont know.

My varieties of pepper plants are doing ok, but I shoulda planted em farther apart because lo and behold, the big peppers are on the plants with more room, and the little ones on the crowded ones.

Growing plants is like that-- you set em down and the results come up months later. If you make a mistake months before, the results suck. I got some pepper plants in a spot that was shadier than last year I guess-- last year the little spot produced, this year they havent.

In one box, my onion seeds grew like crazy and I had nice greens the first year and a ton of small onions this year I've been pulling and eating-- agian not having thinned them enough, but the little onions are cute and tasty nonetheless-- but I did the same thing in another box and in year 2 they havent done dick.

Gardening is a lot of trial and error I guess. I have no tutor in this, I have been learning from scratch for three years now, om scratch with no more experience than having planted radishes a couple summers as a kid. Radishes I am growing now that have been fine. But the lettuce I grew this year tasted bitter from the get go even when it was young and tender. Why I have no clue. Variety, soil, moisture, who the hell knows. It is a complicated business and as the man said, you cant learn this overnight.

Hell I remember the first patch of lawn I tore up with a shovel to ready my first garden. It was quite a bit harder than I thought it would be. Year two when I expanded I rented the tiller from the hardware and turned over as much in a tenth of the time and effort, and then again as much for the next year's expansion.

Gardening is a hell of fun with little kids, they are good helpers for fetching crap from the garage, and love to poke the seeds in the ground.

Start a garden, it's one of the best survival skills you can learn and it's going to take a while, many years before you can show a picture like Andy here.

Re: Bean Run
 

My green beans are 3--100' rows.....so 300' all together. Total garden area this year is about 1/3' of an acre. Next year, I hope to re-new a raised bed area I used in the past, ( you can see just a corner of it in the pic below ) and add a small greenhouse to extend my season, and start plants for the outside garden.

Beans are the rows in the fenced area, to the left side.....right against the fence on the left is squash....can't grow beans here without a fence due to the deer.

http://www.digistash.com/data/026a39...1_p118650.jpeg

Re: Bean Run
 

Beautiful!!! That shed at the end of the garden is where I would like to set up camp. You must have a Home Depot labor resource nearby. What a lot of work.

Re: Bean Run
 

The recipe is not my own. I printed it from a web site and can�t give proper attribution cause I�ve misplaced the original. But, in any case:

Basic Sauce Mix

2 Tbsp nonfat dry milk
2 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp crushed dried onions
1/8 tsp black pepper

Scalloped Potatoes

3 Cups dehydrated potatoes
1 Package (6 Tbsp) sauce mix
1/3 Cup nonfat dry milk
3 Tbsp butter or margarine
2-3/4 Cups boiling water

Pour the potatoes and other ingredients into a medium size ungreased casserole and sprinkle the sauce mix on top. Dot with butter; stir in the boiling water. Bake at 400 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until tender. If you are cooking something else at a lower temperature in your oven, adjust the baking time; at 350 degrees, bake 40 to 45 minutes; at 325 degrees, bake 50 to 55 minutes.

The recipe doesn�t call for salt; but I can tell you from experience that you�ll find these potatoes pretty bland without salt. Season to suit your own taste. And, they�re also really good with grated cheese baked on top (we call them �au gratin� then.)

From a survivalist�s point of view, the primary weakness in this recipe is the butter/margarine. I guess, in a pinch, you could use a small amount of vegetable oil from storage.

You can also use the Basic Sauce Mix in something called Skillet Meat and Potatoes Casserole. That's just the scalloped potatoes with browned ground beef and beef bullion added.

I've gotten involved in this kind of cooking because I needed something to do with potatoes and onions rather than just let them go bad in the cellar. After dehydrating, sliced potatoes and onions both store for a long, long time in vacuum-sealed jars. And the recipees above are in no way inferior to anything in a box from Betty Crocker.

Re: Bean Run
 

Yeah Man....I'm the labor source, and here is my "home depot".......some dis-assembly, drying, and re-assembly required.....ahahahaaaaaaa.....

http://www.digistash.com/data/026a39...1_p117219.jpeg

Re: Bean Run
 

Thanks Merlin....that's similar to a ham and scalloped potato we make, though never used dried potatoes before.

I'll have to get out the dehydrator and try some potatoes for the experience....I normally only use it for jerky......but we have a ton of squash this year, and I want to try them dried too.....

Re: Bean Run
 

That's a fine lumbermill you got running there! But that excavator - is that yours too ?

I think I asked you this already but I forgot- how many acres of property do you have?

Re: Bean Run
 

Thanks! I love being congratulated.

If one is looking to grow food that will keep them alive longer than the garden season, then one needs to consider preserving vegetables.
Tn Andy has done a great job at this but at significant cost, as he admits. He has received, in exchange for the extra dollars, very real food and very valuable experience... that I don't have.
I don't know how to can green beans.

I do, however, know how to grow dried beans.
They store virtually forever, don't need a canner and no botulism worries.
I LOVE simple.
Don't get me wrong; I also love the idea of canning beans, but if TSHTF, I'd immediately begin growing massive quantities of beans, eat some fresh and let the rest dry, to be stored.
Henry David Thoreau grew beans to dry and he really understood economy. :D

Re: Bean Run
 

Home canned garden grown veggies taste so much better. In winter we like our canned tomatoes better than fresh supermarket ones picked so green and tasteless.

Good work Andy!

But I thought this thread would be...

"survivalist subsisted on beans... RUN!'

Re: Bean Run
 

What's your irrigation situation? Do you pull all your household and gardening water from precipitation and wells?

Just curious about TN climate...

Re: Bean Run
 

Cool beans Andy... yeah, yeah I know...:D

always enjoy pics and stories from the Tennessee farm.

Re: Bean Run
 

I ran a few sprinkler heads on the garden in May when we had the driest May on record, but normally, rain is all the garden gets.....and right now, we're actually almost getting TOO much rain.

My household water, and any I use for the garden, is from a spring. I do have a drilled well, but haven't put a pump down it yet. I'm thinking I'm gonna go with another storage system ( like my spring.....2 -- 1500gal tanks in a 10x20 block building at a higher elevation than my house ) up the mtn from the house, and use a solar powered DC pump fill the tanks. I ran a 1" line from the original spring, and this time, I think I'll run at least a 2" line to add some firefighting capacity + I'm gonna run some serious irrigation lines permanently to the garden/orchard areas......jeez....like I didn't have enough to do already.

Re: Bean Run
 

Forgot to mention, you may have set the pea out too late....they need to set in cool to almost cold weather, for harvest in early spring, or late fall.....but I've never had much luck with the late fall.....too warm when they are growing.

IF you set them and the tomato at the same time, you're doing good to have gotten it to produce anything, I think...since the tomato, here, I wouldn't set until early May, and peas I would be planting in late February or early March, depending on how early I could work the soil.

Re: Bean Run
 

No, the trackhoe is a neighbor in the excavating business that I paid to come over to help me clear a little hillside above the mill for a future orchard. The bulldozer you can barely see around the building to the right is mine, but too small to dig out the stumps that went with those logs.....at least in any reasonable amount of time.

I have about 100ac.....with one more cleared now. :D

Re: Bean Run
 

Andy--

Where do you get your mason jars from? Is there a cheap online source? I bought a pressure canner and I'd like to start learning soon. The jars at the grocery store or wally world are kinda expensive.

Re: Bean Run
 

I, too, forgot to mention it.

Heat is the enemy of snow peas, or sugar snap peas. Only early spring (as in late winter) and fall are the times for these things, depending naturally on your locale.

Re: Bean Run
 

I'm located in NW Indiana 35 miles SE of Chicago and I plant my peas in the garden around March 15 as soon as the soil is dry enough to work. Peas don't transplant well, so don't bother to start them indoors. I plant double rows (6 inches apart) with the peas planted 6 to a foot in each row. Poke your finger into the soil up to the first knuckle, drop the pea in, and move on. No need to fill the hole. Melting snow and spring rains will drain into the holes and provide all the moisture the peas need to germinate and grow.

Peas are actually quite hearty. This year we had a hard frost after the young plants had emerged and had grown to be about 4 or 5 inches tall. Temperatures fell overnight into the low twenties (F). I was worried sick; but the sun came out, temperatures moderated, and everything was fine.

I've grown peas three years running now and they are without a doubt my most successful crop. If you want a pea that tolerates some heat, plant Wando peas. They're a shelling pea; but they'll continue to produce well into late June when temps around here can easily hit the high 80s or low 90s.

But previous posters are correct. Peas are definitely a cool weather plant. And the beauty of that is that you can plant something like beans or potatoes after the peas come out of the ground. (Actually, I don't pull the pea roots out. Just cut the stems at ground level and leave the nitrogen-rich nodules on the roots right in the soil where they'll do some good.)

If you want a pea variety that actually has a beautiful blossom, plant the Capucijner pea. It's a purple podded, soup pea variety that has a lovely purple and pink blossom that your wife will love. I grow them out as dried peas and use them in soups the following winter.

Peas... My favorite garden plant.

Re: Bean Run
 

I've run across an online source or two with slightly better pricing than you can get locally, but the shipping then becomes the factor, and unless you are willing to take at least a pallet load, kills the deal.

Best place I found locally was an Ace hardware store.....and I found that by asking the folks at a church who sell boiled peanuts packed in quart jars WHERE they got their jars. I got wide mouth quart jars ( Golden Harvest brand ) for about 7.50/case including rings/lids. I bought 60 cases.

Before that, I'd simply been picking up a case or two about every time we went to the grocery store....they run about 9 to 9.50/case there.

Probably got 80-90 cases of quarts and 20 or so of pints.

When you consider the number of times you'll reuse the jars over the years, the cost of them gets real insignificant.....It's a bit of a bite on the front end, but even if you paid a buck/jar, and use it for 30 years, you're only talking 3-4 cents per use ! Heck, the lids are gonna run way more than that over time. I haven't found anybody that beats Walmart on them, even online. I'll go in about this time of year and pick up a whole case of them.......about 2 bucks for a pack of 12.

You might also look around at garage sales, if canning is, or has been, popular in your area. The jars go for about nothing at these.....just make SURE you closely examine the mouth for nicks, cracks......a little nick in the glass, and the odds are it won't seal.....making it a cheap flower vase or drinking glass :D

Re: Bean Run
 

Wow! I haven't seen that many canned beans in quite a while. Brings back some memories. My family used to always have a big garden when I was a kid and of course, canned way more beans than even a small army could ever eat. I remember sitting out on the porch with my grandpa breaking beans for hours on end. LOL, he can barely get around at all these days, but I called him the other day and thats exactly what he was doing...

Re: Bean Run
 

What the old folks used to call leather britches? (Strung beans dried in the rafters).

It definitely works, but they lose almost all of their flavor (if strung beans are, indeed, what you mean).

Re: Bean Run
 

Good morning Andy, Nice garden you've got this year...I canned only 25 qts of green beans this season.
Here's a little trick I tried ...1 day for picking and prep then I put the beans in a big insulated camper chest cooler and iced them down overnight since it was getting late in the day to start canning.
The beans stayed fresh and crisp, ready to go the next day.

CORN QUESTION
What type of corn did you plant and how do you plan on preserveing it?

Re: Bean Run
 

That's hickory king field corn, and I plan on shelling and grinding it for cornmeal, etc after it dries. This is the first field corn I've grown in a long time, last time was probably 20 years ago, fed to some hogs I raised.....that was a hybrid, seed from the local farmer's co-op.

I wanted to try the hickory king because it's an open pollinated variety, and was curious about yeild. I'm planning on raising some chickens next year and want to use OP corn as part of their feed.....so I'm going to see what the yeild is from this small plot, and try to extrapolate that into how much of a separate area I need to dedicate to field corn.

Also bought a small hand grist mill ( 10lbs/hr )

http://www.aaoobfoods.com/millcastiron3hand_small.jpg

and a hand crank corn sheller

http://www.aaoobfoods.com/cornsheller_small.jpg

Re: Bean Run
 

Hey Andy, how is the terrain where you live. Obviously you got some hilly wooded land there so is that posing big problems with making land available for crops? Is the ground very rocky making it a problem tilling it?

Re: Bean Run
 

I live on the mountain upslope of a small valley.....there is some decent tractor land in the valley floor, but I don't own any. Flat ground is at a premium on my place. It was entirely wooded when I first bought it, and the first year I spent clearing some of it for pasture and house site.

The below pic is an example....that entire grassed area was the same woods at you see in the background. It was a year of dang hard work to doze down, then cut up the wood, then remove the stumps, pick up rocks, sow in grass, etc. I sold truckload after truckload of firewood, and got enough timber off of it to frame most of my house. Started one snowy day in March, 1982 with a chainsaw, and cut a line up that edge of the pasture to the right ( where that little hay barn is now ) and on up behind the pic area until I intersected the Forest Service line, then came back down along the FS line to the left where you can't see, and across the bottom....then started working inward.

One 3ac pasture + some cleared area where my house is = One year's work every evening and weekend.

http://www.digistash.com/data/026a39...571_p20919.jpg

My thinking is IF the SHTF, I'd probably do away with the beef cows I keep ( 5-8 at any one time ) and go to milk goats, and chickens, because I suspect you can get a lot more protein for the land required.....then I'd turn about 1/2 that pasture into crop land for corn and small grain. ( I have another 3 acres on around from this you can't see in the pic. )


And yes, the ground IS rocky.

Re: Bean Run
 

That's awesome. I really envy you Andy you had a great plan and have kept to it like a stubborn mule :D That persistence and hard work really looks like it's paid off with everything I see and read about on your mountain retreat. How old were you when you starting this dream of yours?

I hope I have enough time to do something similar. I still don't know where in the U.S. I'd like to try setting up my own retreat but ideally it would be within 2 or 3 hours of where I live now so that I can keep my current job and work on the land on the weekends or something. Only problem is that would make it less than ideal location because it would mean it is within 3 hours of New York City :no_ma:

I'm 27 years old now and don't quite got the money to start yet anyway unless I sold all my PMs and even then with land prices these days I'd still have to get mortgage if I want to have money left over to actually start working the land. Ah such is life. I'll keep working hard earning my FRNs hoping there will be time for me. In the meantime I use the 1/3 acre my parents own to hone my agriculture skills and they love me for it- free fresh veggies after all :)

Re: Bean Run
 

I started "dreaming" of it at about 18...sketching house plans, etc......but the dream didn't become a reality until I was about 30. The US Army took 4-5 years of my time until I was 24, then wife and I moved here to East Tennessee to go to a local school ( she is from the area, I was from up in Southwest Virginia ) We had saved a little money (10k) while I was in service, and used that, with a small loan, (10k) to build our first house, 90% our own labor to save renting while going to college....didn't know if we were going to stay in the area or not, but ended up we did.....I started building houses for a living, and school became a part-time deal. She got a job with a local school system, and we decided this was the place for us......so, we started looking for land.

Just happened to run up on this place, old guy put it in the paper, he'd owned it 30 years, and "always meant to build a cabin up there", but at age 70, decided he never would, so he sold it to us.....75ac for 75k.....and he carried the note on the land. As soon as I saw it, I knew "this" was the place.....the location, the natural features of the terrain, the water source.....you couldn't ask for better unless I could have gotten a bold running year round creek....and that's a rare thing, generally already occupied.

We worked on this place for almost 2 years getting some land cleared ( ALL was in timber ), getting some road cut in, power line in, spring water system built, etc.....then sold our house in town, put a trailer up here for a year while we built the house we live in now, then sold the trailer......then every year since then, it's been work, work, work......and I love it. I'm 25 years into a 50 year project......it's gonna be a masterpiece when I get done.....the NEXT guy won't have to do a thing.....ahahahaaaaaaa

If you live anywhere in or near NYC, I'd get the hell OUT as soon as possible.....and convince your parents to get out as well. IF it gets as bad as I fear it might, you're toast if you don't. I'd like to think we have a fair chance where we live, God knows I've worked on improving the odds, but I'm quite satisfied the folks in city and large urban areas have NONE.....I mean ZERO, if the wheels come off this civilization thing.

So you are definitely in the right age bracket to do this.....PMs are just money......spend it for something you can actually USE man ! And if you have to take a mortgage, this is the one case where I can see debt....it's just too important to delay.....

That land note we had with the guy that sold us the place ? He was 70 when he and we made the note....he says on closing day ( it was a 20 year note ) "Well, I guess my kids will get this.....I'll never live to see it paid off"......We made semi-annual payments to him.....the first one, and ever one thereafter, we accelerated with extra principal.....so, 8 1/2 years later, when I mailed the LAST payment, I called him up...."Hey Lynn.....you still alive ? "

"Well, yeah....I am "......

"WELL THEN YOU WERE WRONG.....ahahahahaaaa.....last payment is in the mail.....send me my canceled note when you get the check".

And we haven't made a mortgage payment in 17 years now, except about 10 years ago, for a home equity line we used to buy an additional 27 ac that came up for sale that adjoins us....and paid that off rather quickly......I just needed a lump of cash RIGHT THEN to do the deal.