Utility water is too expensive to put in at the farm

[Gale Hawkins]

At least getting water to the bottom of the hill would cut out the long distance hauling. Plus it is not wasted money since you were going to do it at some point.

 

[dcyrilc]

At least getting water to the bottom of the hill would cut out the long distance hauling. Plus it is not wasted money since you were going to do it at some point.

I think his point is that he can't spend what he doesn't have.

I know that feeling this year. After replacing my car and getting a loan to buy the tractor, I only have about $30 left each payday. This is going to be a tight year.

 

[mjncad]

See interspersed.

I think his point is that he can't spend what he doesn't have. Why not? The Gummint does it! GRRRRRRR!

I know that feeling this year. After replacing my car and getting a loan to buy the tractor, I only have about $30 left each payday. This is going to be a tight year. I feel your pain. I now regret buying our 35-acres just before the housing and stock markets crashed. I'd like to build a place for us while we are young enough to enjoy it; but that dream seems to be fading rapidly. We had decent plans to make it happen financially; but it required netting a certain amount from our current place. Now we'd be lucky to sell it before realtor commissions for what we paid for it back in 2000. Add into the mix the stock market crash and we're hosed; but we get to pay on the dirt.[/quote]

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Hearing the Dave Ramsey's of this world talk can be stressful yet I am starting to see we would have been better off to have lived within our means and never borrowed any moneyperiod .

Paying interest on wasting assets (property and and homes seems to fall into that group these days) is a double hit that a six figure income is hard to over come.

The land becomes an excuse to buy equipment. Then we are not happy with that but want big, AC cabs, more weight, more HP and we wind up trading at a loss losing on both sided of the trade.

We each have to ask would we be better to sell the land (especially land not connected to our homes) and equipment today vs. fight an uphill battle that may or may not be winable? Others can not answer that question for us.

Overall incomes are expected to drop while expenses are expected to increase. When the land, CUT's, RV's, boats, backhoe bought with borrowed money become seen as a liability vs. and asset and they get dumped by choice or otherwise we may experience deflation of value of what we own yet cost to live increases.

Spending other's money long term only has one outcome. It may be 5 months or 5 years but the known outcome will happen. Look at CA planning to stop diffent kinds of welfare. What is going to happen when even the SS checks become smaller? The bank of England announced last week the US was in as bad of shape debt wise as Greece due to our out of control spending.

Yes I am in love with my equipment but most of "my" spending today is related to "toys" (equipment that is not generating income). I went in one store today and that was TSC. A year ago I had not been in a TSC store but a few times. Going in one is not going to enhance my retire account but will reduce my ability to fund it as much.

It is time to sleep before I decide to sell out.

 

[jinman]

I will also purchase a pickup truck style 250-300 gallon tank to tote water from my house which is about 40 minutes away. Since I go to the farm 2-4 times a week keeping the large tank filled should be doable.
What needs to be done to support the 1500 gallon tank on the ground?
Why are the black tanks priced higher than the white ones?

I didn't see anywhere in your posts in this thread about neighbors who have water, even the community water. Can you approach one of them about buying water at slightly more than their cost and eliminate your need to haul so far? I have a well myself and would agree to sell a neighbor water on a regular basis if they needed a few hundred gallons. I would not give it to them free, but I would make them one heck of a deal on an "at will" sale contract.

 

[warhammer]

That's a good idea. I have three neighbors that have meters within a quarter mile.

I didn't see anywhere in your posts in this thread about neighbors who have water, even the community water. Can you approach one of them about buying water at slightly more than their cost and eliminate your need to haul so far? I have a well myself and would agree to sell a neighbor water on a regular basis if they needed a few hundred gallons. I would not give it to them free, but I would make them one heck of a deal on an "at will" sale contract.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

If they have similar elevation issues you could also learn how they managed the "pressure" issues.

As the water company if rates go down, stay the same or go up as usage increases?

 

[wvpolekat]

I didn't see anywhere in your posts in this thread about neighbors who have water, even the community water. Can you approach one of them about buying water at slightly more than their cost and eliminate your need to haul so far? I have a well myself and would agree to sell a neighbor water on a regular basis if they needed a few hundred gallons. I would not give it to them free, but I would make them one heck of a deal on an "at will" sale contract.

I actually resell water to the barn behind my house. We have a meter in the basement on the line that runs up there, prob 100 yds. I send her a bill every couple of months.

 

[jbooth]

Almost all the old farmsteads in the area where I grew up had a rainwater collection system. They were call cisterns around here. The people who relied on these collection systems for drinking water had elaborate filtering systems which started with a screen to catch the big debris, a gravel filter, a sand filter and finally a charcoal filter. Almost all were supplied from run-off water from the house roofs. Most of the cisterns were large dug holes lined with rock and then plastered with cement. Since you are mainly interested in stock water your system could be pretty simple. Just kind of a septic tank lateral system only operated in reverse. I think you would be suprised at the clarity of the water after just runing through a bed of gravel and through a perforated pipe and finally to your holding tank.

 

[bjustice]

Put a shallow well pump in the well, connected to a timer which only allows the pump to run an amount of time which is calculated to NOT run the well dry---then set a "well recharge" time to allow the well to recover, then pump again. You should be able to keep your tanks full--unless the well is very weak. This will allow you to build the rest of the system as you can afford it, and will not require hauling or buying items that will not be used in the final system. The timer can automate the whole thing to keep your tanks full.
Bill