And..... Mother's don't let your children grow up to be ....... -- Sin and Tacos aka Lesbobitca Land

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[> [> [> [> It's dirt farming at it's worst. -- AS, Monday, March 26, 10:38:35am (d207-216-49-87.bchsia.telus.net/207.216.49.87)

No running water of any kind, other than an old well that's full of iron, no services other than electric, no dwelling (the old farmhouse got torn down a long ways back) and I am not sure how many of the outbuildings are standing or even safe...my uncle started leasing it out in the 70's. Can't imagine anyone other than a nearby farmer actually wanting to purchase it. It's a 3/4 section, has a few sloughs and some trees (mostly birch around the farm yard) but other than that, not much else.

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[> [> [> [> [> Don't need a house, buildings nor well if it rains..... -- Lij, Monday, March 26, 08:33:13pm (adsl-99-186-236-116.dsl.bltnin.sbcglobal.net/99.186.236.116)

....... the soil is what matters. Is a section up there a square mile like it is here? I guess it is about so, see:

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/eng9919

So about 480 acres (190 ha.) and maybe 400 tillable acres. I'm guessing at a price per acre up there (soil type, tillable acres, and location - all adding up to productivity - are all factors); but I'd say the farm might be worth at least $750,000. Now down here 480 acres wouldn't go for less than $1,500,000 - mind you that is a LOW-BALL price. Some land has been going for as much as twice that and in Iowa prices have been above $10,000 per acre. That would drive the price of 480 acres up to $5,000,000 OR MORE.

So don't go discounting the old family farm so quick. How far north of the border is it?

. . .

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[> [> [> [> [> [> About 380 kms or so. -- AS, Monday, March 26, 09:54:47pm (d207-216-49-87.bchsia.telus.net/207.216.49.87)

Don't get me wrong, I am sure the farmland is worth something. However the fact that it's completely bereft of water (we trucked it in by the barrel, there is no cistern for storage) means that anyone who has been growing there has been living elsewhere or in a trailer during harvest. I guess a landlord interested in leasing it out may do quite well, depending on how things go with the season-I know it's only because my uncle has a steady income from his Eaton's pension that he can afford to hold onto it so far. I REALLY wish he would sell it now and put some money away for himself then give my mom some, she was born and raised there too but I expect my uncle was left everything by his parents. No-one in my generation except my crazy sister (who helps out my uncle a lot, give her credit for that) needs or expects any money from the sale of the farm, you cannot tell my uncle what to do though and I expect he will hold onto it as long as he possibly can, for sentimental reasons if no other.

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> Ok... so that's about the latitude of Saskatoon then.... -- Lij, Monday, March 26, 10:28:50pm (adsl-99-186-236-116.dsl.bltnin.sbcglobal.net/99.186.236.116)

I know they grow wheat that far north, but yeah, that's on the furthest north limit. Though I have seen some corn growing up at that latitude in pictures on Google Earth.

Was that in Saskatchewan or Manitoba? Seems I remember you saying the farm was in Manitoba. So would that be like near Thunder Hill or Swan River?

Yeah, I was thinking of something in the latitude of Regina/Trans-Canadian Hwy. or south.

...

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> It's in Saskatchewan. Southeast of Saskatoon. -- AS, Monday, March 26, 10:41:06pm (d207-216-49-87.bchsia.telus.net/207.216.49.87)

We used to day-trip there when I was in my teens to do yard maintenance and garden, back when the place was still being run from a distance by my uncle. We grew almost all our potatoes and most of our root veggies there, the ones that could survive being looked after every couple of weeks that is.

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Ok... I think I've been mixing in memories of a friend from Texas A&M.... -- Lij, Monday, March 26, 10:46:06pm (adsl-99-186-236-116.dsl.bltnin.sbcglobal.net/99.186.236.116)

....we were both in the geology department and her family was from a farm in Manitoba. near one of the larger lakes.

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> When we weren't hunting on our land, we did hunt at the nearby lakes. -- AS, Monday, March 26, 10:49:18pm (d207-216-49-87.bchsia.telus.net/207.216.49.87)

Lake hunting is a bit more problematic if you don't have a boat or a dog that retrieves though....lol.

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Looking at Google Earth, that appears to be pothole country. -- Lij, Monday, March 26, 10:52:08pm (adsl-99-186-236-116.dsl.bltnin.sbcglobal.net/99.186.236.116)

Little lakes that formed when chunks of ice melted and formed pothole lakes.

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> We call it "land of straight lines". -- AS, Monday, March 26, 11:00:34pm (d207-216-49-87.bchsia.telus.net/207.216.49.87)

Grid roads-moving to the coast, where the only time you can see for a comparable distance is usually over a large body of water, was quite the culture shock. We used to joke that to drive to the farm from Saskatoon, you drove east for so long, make a right turn, almost immediately make a left and the next full stop was the town the farm is near. Keeping awake at night was a real pain in the ass, they finally got smart and put rumble strips in where highway intersections are to make sure people didn't just drive into a ditch on the other side.

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> LOL.... I think I'll stay south unless global warming becomes a real issue... -- Lij, Monday, March 26, 11:13:24pm (adsl-99-186-236-116.dsl.bltnin.sbcglobal.net/99.186.236.116)

Much the same down here except for my county because it is one of the oldest. Before they surveyed the Northwest Territory (Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota), they handed out 400 acre donations to the French settlers at Vincennes for supporting George Rogers Clark during the Revolutionary War against the British who had forts at Vincennes and other colonial towns. Those donations were laid out not on N-S & E-W lines like the township and range sections, but on NW-SE & NE-SW lines. Makes the county rather unique. But with other colonials who came to the area from the original 13 after the war and staked out claims on "lots" which were generally smaller pieces of land, the county is a real mish-mash of land-lines.

...

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[> [> [> [> [> Wow.... I just looked online at some properties in Saskatchewan.... -- Lij, Monday, March 26, 10:09:15pm (adsl-99-186-236-116.dsl.bltnin.sbcglobal.net/99.186.236.116)

For instance.....

Town: Central Butte
Municipality: RM of Enfield No. 194
Province: SK
Land: 276 acres
Taxes: $621

Description:
276 acres � slightly rolling topography; 261 cultivated acres; no bush, some sloughs; Average New Scale Assessment 43,880 / 160 acres

Cn$621 taxes on 276 acres?? You must have high income tax because that is downright cheap money for property taxes. On my 615 acres in the river bottoms I pay over $11,000 in taxes per year to the state government. It didn't used to be that way, my taxes have more than doubled in the last decade (and that under a republican administration for the most part).

They are asking Cn$130,000 for that acreage. Even if you just count the tillable acres that is just Cn$500 per acre. I may sell out here and move to Canada. I can become a real land-baron up there. When my mother died the appraisal on her 100 acres was $3500 per acre. Of course, you're probably growing wheat year in and year out, or maybe some rape for oil up there. And productivity may not be the same as down south. But man....
...

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[> [> [> [> [> [> Productivity is variable. The winters are loooooong. Yes, income tax is high-Universal Health Care has to be paid for somehow. -- AS, Monday, March 26, 10:27:11pm (d207-216-49-87.bchsia.telus.net/207.216.49.87)

Wheat, canola, mustard, rye....those are the grains that first come to mind when to comes to the area around the farm. Drought, flood and hail are the secondary crops.

Our neighbour to the south lost his farm a while back thanks to trying to support himself and his two nephews, who had ambition but not a lick of business sense. A few bad years and Don had to sell out-I think he took what was left and moved to Calgary to live near his sister. His land was mixed farming, he supported a couple dozen head of cattle and grain but lived in town, since his cattle could be watered from a dug-out. Too bad, he loved his life but was trying to do right by the boys and paid for it since he never married and had no secondary income from a spouse, which seems to be the way a lot of farms make a go of it these days.

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> Yeah, that far north sound like it would be a real challenge... -- Lij, Monday, March 26, 10:30:55pm (adsl-99-186-236-116.dsl.bltnin.sbcglobal.net/99.186.236.116)

.....a person would have to be dedicated to it.

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Winters as low as -50 with the wind chill factored in. Summers anywhere from high 30's to mid-teens. -- AS, Monday, March 26, 10:46:41pm (d207-216-49-87.bchsia.telus.net/207.216.49.87)

The hunting is good (duck and geese), I imagine there is some fishing in the lakes around that area. Amateur softball in the summer, curling in the winter, snowmobiling or atviing depending on your cold/dust tolerance. Shopping is probably just the local co-op and a few hardware stores,drug store,etc Most small towns have lost what business they had to the big box stores in the city, mostly because very few kids have stayed in the community to set down roots of their own.

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Much the same here. But at least every county has a main town with shopping so you're never more than about 20 miles away... -- Lij, Monday, March 26, 10:54:00pm (adsl-99-186-236-116.dsl.bltnin.sbcglobal.net/99.186.236.116)

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> So, I took a look at the village's community page. And yes, it's now a village, not a town. -- AS, Monday, March 26, 11:07:13pm (d207-216-49-87.bchsia.telus.net/207.216.49.87)

What services they have, the only ones that are not single listings are that they have two beauty salons and two restaurants. One credit union, one grocery store, one medical clinic, one general store, etc. Wow, depressing. Reminds me of Sparwood....

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Lemme guess..... -- Lij, Monday, March 26, 11:16:34pm (adsl-99-186-236-116.dsl.bltnin.sbcglobal.net/99.186.236.116)

Meacham?

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> No. Further east. -- AS, Monday, March 26, 11:27:38pm (d207-216-49-87.bchsia.telus.net/207.216.49.87)

It was never exactly a convenient trip....packed in all our food for the day trips, no bathroom (just the outhouse, LOTS of spiders since it was used so little) and you worked up a good sweat only to have no way to even rinse off before the drive home. Boy, those moist towelettes we take for granted now sure would have been a treat back then!!!!