A thorough conversation on financials will kill all plant life within a 30 mile radius.  I can take it because I have an MBA and had my yawn glands removed as a child.  I will not subject you to that sort of TMI (Too Much Information for the humans among us) but instead go from the general to the specific in a gradual manner.  Just as you would not empty your manure pond into your vegetable field all at once, I will feed you financial manure at a rate that can be absorbed.

We bought our 20 acres in the North Valley of California in 2005.  The area is dry and hot in the summer (~104-108 for a few weeks) and dips below freezing at night a few times a year.  It’s a great place for orchards and grazing cattle.  At the time we bought, people were looking for second homes.  We got our place for $150k with no well, septic, or electricity.  Bare land was less attractive to the second homers, so the price per acre was lower.  The next year comparable places were going for $200k.  I haven’t seen any of them moving this year.

We built a 10’x12’ shed the first year there to store materials and to hone our carpentry and working together skills.  That cost about $2,500 in materials.  We rented some tools, like a nailer for $30/day, but most of the other stuff we either had already or borrowed.

These days we rent an insulated 40’ railroad container for $160/month.  It locks and is solid.  If I don’t want it stolen or eaten, I put it in there.

We had to drill a well.  Our well went down 400’, which was about par for the area.  They charge by the foot, and ours cost $7,800.  We bought the pump and materials (pipe, wire, safety line, etc.) separately for $1,200 and put it in ourselves.  We then paid $800 to get it fixed when we screwed it up.

Our vegetables don’t wander off much, but our neighbors’ cows do.  We paid $2,700 in materials for fencing that we put in with the neighbors.  We bought the materials and he brought more cousins.  It was a good trade.

The original surveyor made a mistake marking the land and we got to fix it.  $4,300 for the pleasure.  That one goes into the “Let it go, Drew” category.

The well permit was $222.  We didn’t need a permit for the shed since it was <= 120 square feet.  We did need one for the field shed we’re building right now, but that’s a different story.

We dug the irrigation system ourselves with shovels.  For a 600’ system, tools and materials cost $570.  That includes the drip line, timers, and drip assemblies.

Our beloved generator was $400.  We use batteries most of the time, but the generator runs the well pump and the big power tools after the batteries konk out.

Property tax where we are is about $1,660 per year.

So here is a look at our first year for the major expenses :

Land $  150,000

Well $  10,000

Shed $  2,500

Container $  1,920

Fences $  2,700

Survey $  4,300

Irrigation $    570

Property tax $  1,660

Generator $400

And we hadn’t even put a seed in the ground yet.  This also doesn’t include gas and little things from the hardware store.
We can drink our well water, but that is the end of the amenities.  We do not have a bathroom or shower.  We do not have an RV on the property, nor do we have an ATV or a tractor.  We haul tools up and down the hill by hand or in the back of my Dad’s ancient Montero.

In a later post I’ll talk about costs for CCOF certification; seeds and trees;  and the field shed.  I’ll also talk about the feeling of absolute luxury of washing with hot water and soap in the public bathroom at the local Shakey’s Pizza.  Scary man wants a pizza and a bucket.

I’ve been spending a lot of money turning a grassy field into a productive CSA vegetable farm, and my largest single expense has been developing water on the site.  We have long dry summers here, and while a few crops can be dry-farmed, most need irrigation.  My property doesn’t have a well, but my neighbors Jim & Kim have a well right on the property line that they are generously letting me develop and use.  My system goals were to get 80GPM at 40PSI over about a 1/2 acre at a… Read the rest of this article »

We are off-grid at our farm and we will continue to be so.  That means we collect our water and generate our power on our own.  We have a nice Grundfos submersible well pump that gets us 5 gallons per minute from our well that has its static head (depth of the water from the surface) at 180 feet.  All in all, not a bad bit of engineering.  Put another way, ever try to slurp an Odwalla Carrot Juice through a 180 foot straw?  You’d need some help. The help comes by way of… Read the rest of this article »