The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Do you want to be our neighbor?

Everett's house
This piece of land won't put you right next door, but you'll be just over 2 hours away.  Everett and Missy have decided to move closer to town and are putting their 15 acre farm (with house, barn, and several outbuildings) on the market for $195,000.  Visit their blog to see contact information and scads of pictures of the stuff most of you are probably interested in --- they've fixed the place up so that it's beautiful and energy efficient.


Apple trees in bloomWhat they don't tell you is that the farm is ready to grow all of your own food.  There's an ancient vineyard and two mature (and delicious) apple trees leftover from previous owners.  Everett and Missy have the chicken coop in perfect repair, right beside a large pasture ready for your goats, cows, or sheep.  There's also a new no-till garden patch already planted --- how's that for immediate gratification?


Farm houseThe farm is located in a slightly ritzier part of southwest Virginia than we're in, which means more like-minded neighbors (but probably steeper taxes.)  They're also a bit higher in elevation than us, so figure on better apples and worse peaches.

If you've got a bit of a nest egg and are looking to move back to the land without starting from square one, this farm might be just right for you.



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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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I wish we a)had 200k to buy it with and b) that it was in Michigan!
Comment by Katy Wed May 4 13:23:56 2011
Ha! I know what you mean --- I definitely couldn't afford it. :-) But I know some people have a lot more cash lying around than I do and would love such a pretty place.
Comment by anna Wed May 4 14:41:08 2011
Wow, that looks beautiful. While the price is much too steep for me, I'm amazed that it is not much more than some of these horrible box houses in the suburbs. What a dream.
Comment by Sara Wed May 4 19:19:06 2011
That's one of the great parts about Appalachia. You can get a fully built homestead for $200,000, or 58 acres of untamed land for much, much less. (We paid only $600 per acre for our land.)
Comment by anna Wed May 4 19:47:50 2011
I had to laugh, because we are in the same county, when you described the area as the "ritzier" part of SW Virginia. But like our friend told us after we bought our land (that he found for us), This Place will grab hold of you - and indeed it has. I have driven down their road before and I can highly recommend the area. If you don't mind my asking, what county are you in?
Comment by De Wed May 4 21:56:10 2011

Thanks for posting this Anna :-D

Price is relative when it comes to real estate. Something like this where we came from in Denver would run you closer to a million bucks. Seriously, any 15+ acre property with running water (as in a creek, not plumbing) would get that much just for the fact that the water is there. And that's probably without a house! We had a little 750 sq. foot bungalo-style home on a 1/8 acre city lot in a blue-collar neighborhood in Denver that we sold for about the same price as what we're selling this beautiful property for. You're right - that's one thing that is great about living in Appalachia. And there are so many other things too!

Even though we're not in Denver anymore, we feel the price is fair (we're actually just breaking even and that's not including the year of hard labor we put in) and hope the right people come along to love the place and take care of it.

Comment by Everett Wed May 4 22:20:46 2011
Wow
I Love it. I'm looking for land to homestead on BUT my price range is $1k per acre max LOL. And I need something near Richmond, VA because of family. Wish me luck!! :-)
Comment by Crystal Wed May 4 22:36:01 2011

De --- We live in Scott County, where the median income is about 10% less than Carroll County and where 16.8% of the population (vs. 12.5% in Carroll County) is beneath the poverty line. But I consider Scott County slightly on the rich side for real southwest Virginia since our neighboring counties to the west have poverty rates of 20.0% and 22.7%. Folks coming in from outside probably find Carroll County very down to earth compared to mainstream America, but I have to admit that I consider it a bit gentrified. :-)

Everett --- No problem --- people have been drooling over the listing here and on facebook, so it's clearly up our readers' alleys. I think you're totally right that the price is fair. You've put a huge amount of work into the property and it's ready to hit the ground running. And, like you said, if you're not from around here, it's cheap. :-)

Crystal --- That sounds like a tough nut to crack near Richmond, but you might find it if you're willing to choose an ugly duckling property like we did! I don't regret any of the tough parts about our land. In fact, if we'd tried to save for a property where we could drive to the front door (and if it had a front door), we'd probably still be saving instead of eating homegrown peaches and strawberries.

Comment by anna Thu May 5 07:33:56 2011





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