For various reasons we are selling this farm and I thought I would let all of you know in case you know of someone that wants to move to southern Iowa.

We will be splitting the farm into two pieces. The house, buildings and 15 acres and land of 105 acres.

It is pretty well set up for not needing electricity. There are cisterns under a corner of the basement for water collection and a well (doesn't feed the house) that has an electric pump, but all it needs is a handle to pump manually. There is a large barn and a small barn, a shop, plus other buildings.

The farm sits on the corner of a very small town (pop. 700). There is a public school right in town.

If anyone is interested, please e-mail me sunshine_horses@yahoo.com .

-- beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), June 19, 2000

Answers

Sorry to hear that beckie, but I left there also. Mind me asking what town ? I still have a lot of friends there who might be interested. Iowa is a tuff audience to play for--huh ?

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), June 22, 2000.

Joel, my husband & I are planning to buy my parent's place in about 18 months, 20 acres outside of Knoxville, Iowa so your comment caught my attention, I was wondering why you thought it was harder in Iowa. I would appreciate any advice. It's my childhood home and my dad died in January so I'm very sentimental and won't change my mind. I just want to be prepared. Thanks, Lenore

-- Lenore (archambo@winco.net), June 22, 2000.

I never said that it was harder here, Joel Rosen did. I think he was referring to the difficulty of fitting into small town Iowa. Small towns in Iowa run the gamut of being really nice to really nasty, not much different than anywhere else.

We went into farming not wanting to take out any operating loans, so we paid for everything as we went which meant we had no cushion for emergencies and we have had more than our share of those this year. It just makes fiscal sense to take our profit from our farm, get rid of what debt we have and buy another farm with a clean slate.

-- beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), June 22, 2000.

My wife and father were born in Iowa in the same town, Fort Dodge, Iowa. My comment about Iowa was meant to reflect how a small farmer feels in comparison to the 5000 acre farms. It is hard to get involved in farm groups or local discussions because the "real" farmers don't think your comments are worth their time. Thus the --"tuff act to play for" I speak with a strong southern dialect---even in print it comes thru. My accent is mostly Smokey Mountain which is a mixture of North Carolina and Tennessee hillbillies. The minute a Iowegian hears a southern drawl than they consider you ignorant and nothing you say matters. My soul flourishes much better in a mountain setting. I meant no disrespect --Hope this explains it !

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), June 23, 2000.

Joel, When you have organizations like the Farm Bureau that helps only themselves and hog factories, it does get discouraging. We dropped our Farm Bureau membership this year - couldn't stomach their policies any more. We also found out that we could get a much better medical policy for less money by going down the street to a regular insurance broker and buying a BCBS policy from them. Someone is making money off the policies that Farm Bureau suckers farmers into buying through them.

I was born in southeasten Iowa and have a slight drawl which gets worse if I am around someone from the south. I guess I hadn't noticed your particular problem, since 'farmers' won't listen to me anyway because I am a woman.

-- beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), June 23, 2000.

Joel, Thanks for your response. I LOVE a southern accent and know better than to think it has anything to do with intellect. My dad grew up in Missouri and my mom is from southern Iowa, so my own "way" of saying things never quite fit in with the central Iowans. Beckie, I'll make sure I don't jump right into a membership with the Farm Bureau or anything else. I really do love Iowa and can't wait to get back, it's been 11 long years.

-- Lenore (archambo@winco.net), June 23, 2000.

I don't really have a comment on the sale of your farm, except to wish you the best of luck. What caught my attention in this thread was the comment about Southern accents. My family moved from Ohio when I was five and I grew up in Texas. Guess who I sound like? My Texan family. My accent is apparently a great source of amusement when I go back to Ohio to visit family. And y'all (yes, I use that word frequently; so does everyone else I know) are right about it not having anything to do with education--I have a Master of Science myself, and many other people I know with advanced degrees also speak with a Southern accent. Accents are relative--I may sound strange to my northern family, but they sound equally strange to me.

-- Hannah Maria Holly (hannahholly@hotmail.com), June 23, 2000.