So if you had some land?

[eugene]

What would be the best use of it.
My wife and I bring up this subject often as my parents own about 100 acres of land. Its a small family farm in WV that has been passed down through many generations. I would guess about 1/2 of the land is cleared for hay and pasture fields and the other half is wooded. They raise a few cows so we used to get all our meat there but as they have gotten older they have decided they don't want to butcher anymore.
Land in the mountains of WV isn't very desirable as its not good soil and won't grow a lot of crops. My grandfather was the last geenration to be a full time farmer and my father has to drive into Maryland for work because there are almost no jobs around.
They are selling wood now to give them some retirement money and eventually I will inherit the land.
So my first thought is to replant trees to replace the ones the logging company cuts down. With it not being good land I'm not going to be able to start up an organic vegetable business or anything like that and I'm also not going to be able to move there.
I've noticed that here in Ohio there are wildlife preserves where people have donated land to the state for that purpose so I thought about something like that. But then I loose the land that my family has kept for generations and government run things have a tendancy to get messed up a lot.
So I'm wondering is there anything I can do to give back to the environment a little bit?

[Collin McConville]

You could let the land go, and allow it to grow back as it will. So that you still have use of the land, you could keep the house, and use it for a summer/winter retreat. It would be interesting to watch the land slowly reverting back to feral land.

To do this you could also spend some money on taking the house off the grid. Use solar etc. so that it is self sufficent.

Perhaps you could keep a smaller farm running and offer it as a camp for city kids to come to during the summer, so that they can get out of the pollution and see what its like in a rural setting. I am sure there are organizations you could talk to about something like that, just check online, or perhaps someone else could provide links.


Or you could give it to me ^_^

[eugene]

Keeping the house for a summer/winter retreat won't be too doable until I'm retired as its quite a drive from me so its something I can't commute to and from work to. I've actually thought about selling the house and small plot of land around it in the valley and keep the farm land which is on the mountain and build me a cabin there where we could stay for a weeks vacation or something like that. The farm its self doens't have any electricity going to it, just the house down in the valley, they had to pay a lot of money to get it connected years ago when they buit it because it was past the end of the electric lines then.
My problem is its too far away for me to run the farm, its about a 250 mile drive with 50 or so miles being off the highway so its a 4-5 hour trip on a good day (we have to travel through PA which has a lot of highway issues).

[woodtick]

No need to plant the woodlot. Most hardwoods come back through natural regeneration. I assume its a diameter limit cut - all trees over a certain diameter are removed.

Selling the house seems to be a logical choice. Either that or rent it out. Renting has its own hassles, and if jobs aren't real plentiful, neither are good tenets.

You could also rent out your fields. You can keep it in hay. Rent would probably offset your taxes.

I like the idea of building a cabin. Make it off grid, and have a nice place to either pass down, retire to, or both.

[eugene]

I do intend on building a cabin up there, very simple one room, off grid. I'll need to collect rain water as there isn't any running water. There is an old well that was hand dug there which can give a little bit of water. I'm looking at getting a small 12v pump like what rv's use to pump water out and purify it for drinking so I'm thinking I'll put on the roofing that can collect water and let it drain into that well for a natural storage tank. I'm keeping anything electrical all 12v using automotive wiring and electrical parts, some I pull from junkyards, some from ebay, some from auto parts stores. Since there are times when the farm is only accessible by 4x4 I traded my 2wd truck in on a 4x4 truck a couple years ago and put a cap on the back and have it outfitted like a mini RV and now all the equipment I use I can share between it and a cabin. I actually found TH looking for ideas as I was searching for the brake drum windmills and such. Dad had a 1950's Massey Ferguson tractor that is about 50Hp Diesel. It uses about 1/3 of the fuel as the gas tractors they have on the farm so that says biodiesel to me. I'm thinking if I can take one weekend in the spring and plant and one in the summer and harvest and size the field right I can at least make enough fuel to use that tractor for mowing fields or anything else we need.
We used to camp there when we were young and I told my wife about and for years we kept saying we would do it so we finally did it last year and then once this year and plan to more in the future espically with kids, I want to start taking a week vacation there and things like that.
I would just like to do something more, thinks like planting trees or whatever since I have the space. I'm thinking at least planing along some of the roads, there is one place where snow drifts several feet deep so a natural barrier would help with winter access.

[stg]

I dont like the sound of donating the land.. keep it, your family will need it one day

but nature dont have buraucracy

Is there any ponds there? One of the first things to do is to reopen ponds that has been filled. Or to create new ones.. it helps a lot on every aspekt of biotops.

Some water running thru? get a micro powerplant, sell the electricity to the grid.. do it in balance with nature, let fish get past it, dont wreck to much while constructing.

Greenhouses, you can grow anything in greenhouses. With increasing food prices it will pay of in the long run. And you may grow organic, making your food more rich and healthy.

Grow beans and peas, easy to maintain, just stick it in the ground,, harvest a month later. Ads nitrogen to the ground in a natural way.

Fruit trees and bushes, if you are planting trees, why not fruit. Added benefit for you, and animals if you are not there to harvest. Fruit bushes and trees are for fre, just cut branches from a garden in early spring, stick them deep in ground. It will grow!

Plant trees who are more adopted to hotter climate. Global warming means nature has to move north and up. Help it by planting ambasadours of the species. A more waried forrest is also good. Monoculturers are bad.

Cut the grass on midsummer after flowers have blossomed, let it lay on ground to dry before removing it so seeds can drop. It will favourite a variety of plants and flowers. Insects and many other animals needs this.


Give it to me if you dont have the time for this ,-D

[eugene]

No ponds of running water, its on top of a mountain. the only water there is an old had dug well that was used over 100 years ago. there was a log cabin next to it but it was rotten and falling over when I was a kid so dad buldozed it. Its over a mile to the electric grid so it would cost thousands of dollars to connect it even if I could generate enough power to sell.
There are places down there that have put up windmills but my mother is against those since they kill birds (her words), even though she has a toy windmill in her front yard and the birds are dumb enough to fly into anything as I recall having to reaplce a few windows in their house over the years.

[Tripholiada]

is it all on a mountian??? you could try and make a fish pond or something and grow organic fish. you could also maybe try some organic milk?

[eugene]

Yea, all on a mountain. The issue I'm seeing now with raising cows is you have to be there. So I'd have to hire someone to stay on the farm after my parents have pased away. So I'm thying to think of something that I can do with me being there now very often.

[scbysnx]

having a pond dug definately sounds like it would help, I've been trying to figure out lately if it would be possible to build a dutch style windmill home and it power itself. they're low and pretty slow moving so birds wouldn't get hurt.

[eugene]

How could I have a pond on the top of a mountain (I guess dig real deep) but then I'd have to truck in water to fill it.

[eugene]

Heres a question then. I see a lot of people running biodiesel converted from vege oil. Since its a rural area I don't have fast food restaurants to get it from. So would I grow vegateables to make oil then convert to diesel, or can I grow vegetables then convert to diesel all in one step?

[woodtick]

You'll have to crush the beans in order to get the oil. With corn, I think the oil is in the germ. You would probably be better off growing and selling the crop, then use that to offset the oil purchase.

[Tripholiada]

How could I have a pond on the top of a mountain (I guess dig real deep) but then I'd have to truck in water to fill it.

why could it not fill itself naturally? just let the rain fill it? sorry not familiar with your weather.

What about goats. or sheep? (I'd lean towards the goats, sheep are pretty dumb and can easily hurt themselves....)

[eugene]

You need running water to have a pond. Rain soaks into the ground until the ground is saturated then will pool but as the water filters through the ground it will drain shortly. To capture just rain water you would need some sort of waterproof container, cement, plastic, whatever and even then you might get enough rain in a year to fill a kiddie pool.

I'd still have the problem with sheep or goats that I would have to go down quite often to tend to them in the winter time.

I need to find something that I can do maybe less than one weekend a month for now.