New landowner looking to take care of it with machinery

[polypolyman]

Hello,

I'm the proud owner of a 5 acre parcel of land in southern Colorado's San Luis Valley. I actually bought it on ebay (for DIRT cheap!), not just sight unseen, but having never even seen the west at all in person. After visiting the property for a week to camp, and doing a ton of research on the web, I fell in love with the valley, and as of September I'm now a proud resident.

My plan is to build a house on the lot out of dirt dug from the same, likely within a few years. Although the way permitting works in that county means that I can't really build anything significant yet (like a shed), there are plenty of things I can start working on, like attempting to make something resembling a lawn and not just chico brush, fencing it off so the cows don't eat it all, and maybe even starting to dig and make adobes. Since it's actually impossible to dig the subsoil by hand (I swung a 5lb pick at it, and the tip just stuck in about 3/4"), I'm definitely going to need machinery, and by the time I rent something enough to do all my projects, I'm already over the price of a tractor, and that's without even actually building the house!

Anyway, I'm in a good place for it - the entire valley (just under the size of NJ) has ONE new car dealership (a combination Chevy-Ford-Dodge dealer, of course), and just in the two nearest towns there are four new tractor dealers I can think of (green, blue, red and orange).

So, I'm headed over to the buying section to ask some important questions - it's nice to meet you!

 

[olPete]

Congratulations on your purchase, and welcome!

 

[Clay45]

Congratulations. I would love to see some pics.

 

[mddorange]

:welcome:
To the TBN forum Ployployman. We are glad that you decided to join us here.
Congrats on the land and we will be happy to spend your money for you and tell you what we would do. So be careful and seriously weigh each offer of advice before making any decisions. Do test drives of each of the tractors that you look at to see how it feels and ask a lot of questions.
As Clay said, we love pictures.

 

[TBN Support]

:welcome:

Welcome to the forum. Congratulations on your new land

 

[Wagtail]

G'day Mate and welcome to TBN from Downunder.

Enjoy the site... and building your home. My own house was built using the soil from the property. The walls are "rammed earth".

 

[olPete]

My own house was built using the soil from the property. The walls are "rammed earth".

Did you build your house?? Looks absolutely beautiful either way!

 

[polypolyman]

Thanks for the welcome! I don't have much in the way of great pictures, but these will give you some idea of what I'm working with:

First, the view of Mt Blanca (elev 14350 - oh yeah, the land is already at about 7700). There are mountains no matter which way you look, but this is by far the best. Looks way better in person, especially without a poorly dressed idiot in the way

Here's the view from the back of the lot facing south towards the "road". If you squint, you can just see my car and the tent at the front of the lot:

I say road in quotes because, although all the roads in the subdivision have been graded and such, it's clear that mine hasn't been done in quite a few years - before I put up reflectors, the only way I could tell where to turn was by a little ant hill in the middle of the road leading to it!

Definitely not the prettiest starting point, but it's mine, and hey, it won't be too hard to grade!

 

[Wagtail]

Did you build your house?? Looks absolutely beautiful either way!

Ta Mate. I didn't build it, bought it as a 3yo from the owner/builder... who built it using plans from an "Owner/Builder" magazine. He did very well in the construction and the rammed-earth walls have held up great. The picture is 4 years old, when I moved in, and I've improved on the house since then and over the years.

I bought in '98 and then rented it out until I retired. Good tenants, but tenants do take a toll on the place due to it not being 'theirs'.

The OP will have fun coming up with the design and construction of his place.

 

[olPete]

Ta Mate. I didn't build it, bought it as a 3yo from the owner/builder... who built it using plans from an "Owner/Builder" magazine. He did very well in the construction and the rammed-earth walls have held up great. The picture is 4 years old, when I moved in, and I've improved on the house since then and over the years.

I bought in '98 and then rented it out until I retired. Good tenants, but tenants do take a toll on the place due to it not being 'theirs'.

The OP will have fun coming up with the design and construction of his place.

Sorry mate thought I'd already replied to your post. I'm considering building a killing shed so we can hang our mutton up away from flies etc and let it set. I think this construction method would make not only a great project, but be low cost and superbly insulated to boot. How thick are the walls?