tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194464193345626705.post7772788100292286667..comments2024-03-09T06:14:15.230-06:00Comments on The Rural Economist & Bringing Rural Back Podcast: An Ode to Dreams, Paperwork, and a Fannie Mae ForeclosureGregg Carter Outdoorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17883555321904190949noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194464193345626705.post-57932392417634701362013-04-13T19:23:54.343-05:002013-04-13T19:23:54.343-05:00Thanks guys for the encouragement. Someone made a ...Thanks guys for the encouragement. Someone made a better offer. Ours was rejected.Gregg Carter Outdoorshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17883555321904190949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194464193345626705.post-15804414204009648272013-04-11T09:16:21.613-05:002013-04-11T09:16:21.613-05:00Good luck. Around here, homesteaders have to cut d...Good luck. Around here, homesteaders have to cut down trees, remove boulders or deliberately cover rock outcrops with topsoil hauled in, so count your blessings. Any soil left is often contaminated with arsenic and mercury from the mines, and so building up a farm is a lot of work. Then there's water. Its very hard to get things profitable, but people do it anyway because they want to live off the grid and without govt intervention. I can respect that. <br /><br />Something I've read about that has potential, someday, is an electric tractor. When solar gets cheaper, you can run it for less than diesel and electric has more torque. This means you can run more acres. Right now that's an extreme home-built kinda thing, but they're catching on in really rural farms. Do a Youtube search for electric tractor for an example or ten. <br /><br />If you have to swap the water heater, make sure you get one with an immersion heater DC electric element so you can use excess solar power to preheat your water. And if you have to rebuild the floors or replace the furnace, give serious thought to radiators and boiler setup, with a very insulated Hot Water Sump, also with an immersion heater coil so you can use PV solar and solar concentrators to preheat the water to heat your house. Its a big savings, since water heating is your major energy cost in a home. PV tends to get HOT, so running a water/oil panel behind it keeps the PV cooler and more efficient (protecting from heat degradation of the panel) as well as providing a secondary source. This is an up and coming thing but eventually everyone will have this on their house. Leaves the natural gas for vehicle fuel and more grid power for business, especially since the Grid is iffy. Its currently nobody's legal responsibility to maintain, so its falling apart. We can thank Erin Brokovich for that. It really is an unintended consequence of her righteous fight against pollution and cancer. Pity the result was utilities got the legal right to abandon America as a consequence, kinda like Obamacare tripled everyone's health insurance rates. Thanks Mr. President! Sigh. Only sorrows multiply these days. <br /><br />I hope you get this property. If not, at least you know what you're in for with the Fannie Mae forms, so can fill them out in advance for the next one. Maybe something better will come along. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17495750074138297818noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194464193345626705.post-58468696923697690522013-04-10T07:53:10.943-05:002013-04-10T07:53:10.943-05:00Best of luck.Best of luck.Mohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07383840888620905503noreply@blogger.com