Got back into the farm frame of mind the past couple days and I've gotta say I missed this enthusiasm in myself. It all started when I stumbled across this podcast about a Quebec market gardener who grows and sells a variety of vegetables on his 1.5 acres. The biggest thing that caught my attention was that he's doing it organically, without tractors, and just with himself, his wife and two employees they make a decent living for everyone involved. You can visit his site HERE and I'm seriously considering buying his book.
Seeing that level of success in a place that is similar to my current location fills me with hope. Every where I looked I saw stories from California, Florida, or British Columbia and they usually had over 10 acres. Knowing that it's possible in this climate, and with so little land is..... very encouraging and opens up so many options. It got me dreaming again and with dreaming I tend to get a bit carried away so I started looking at land available for sale to see what kind of price range I'd be looking at in Ontario. Looks like in northern Ontario I can get 75 acres for the same price as 3 acres down here in SW Ontario.... but who on earth wants to live up in blackfly country.(probably why it's so cheap)
After an evening of land hunting, figuring out that I could afford the payments for a $20,000 mortgage on top of my current rent and have it paid off in 5 years when I'd actually be ready to start the farm........ mom talked some sense into me and suggested I save my money with the highest interest rate I can find and let it grow til I'm ready to actually start the farm.
She's right. I know she's right, so I talked to my bank today to see if there was something sensible I could do to increase my interest for my savings for the next 3-4 years. At that point I'd have not only the down payment set aside but also some starting money to launch the farm full time without worrying about trying to work a job at the same time.
Turns out my TFSA(tax-fee-savings-account) has a fairly good interest rate. Mutual funds are no good for such short term investing and things like GICs and government savings bonds only give decently higher interest rates if I lock them in for 4 or 5 years so that's really not going to mesh with my little bit out of each pay check style of saving.
I'm anxious about how LONG every thing is going to take but I have to say that saving up for 2-5 acres is going to be much faster than saving enough for 10-25 acres like I thought I needed/wanted. The main reason I want over two acres is to have room for pasturing animals as well as some woods for firewood. If, when I get to that point, I find an amazing 2 acre plot, I'm not going to let it get away on the off chance an equally amazing 4 acre plot will come along.
So all there is for now is for me to get back into the groove of frugality. It will be a bit harder for me this time because it's personally imposed and not forced upon me by outside circumstances but... I can do this. I've already run the numbers and I know what I need to pay in bills monthly, my personal comfortable levels of pocket money and "buffer" in case a bill is higher than expected, and therefore what I can put in the savings account to never touch for anything not farm related.
The only thing I haven't done yet is send away for my credit report. There may be some things I need to clean up there and the sooner I know about it the better. I just have to wait for my new ID with my new address to arrive and I'll sending for it right away.
The whole point of moving in with mom was living frugally and I need to get back to that idea. I've been negligent with my disposable income and I've been almost literally disposing of it. I'm making a commitment to myself to be better. I deserve it.
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