A Little Debt Talkin
July 26th, 2007 by Northern FarmerLooks like the promised rains have come and gone and decided we only needed a tenth of an inch here. That’s all we got and the water sprinkler is going as always in the garden. Tomorrow I should start combining oats, the combine is all ready as of today but that sprinkle shut down combining for the day. That’s ok, cause the air is a whole lot cooler now that this weather front came through this afternoon. Baled second crop hay yesterday, normally,(whatever that is, something from years past), normally we get a few hundred round bales of second crop hay. This year I managed to bale two. Yup, that’s the number two, as in one-two. That’d make a bunny farmer starve! But am I worried? Naw. That’s braggin rights! Now in years down the road I have a good yarn to tell about the drought of 07! Can’t cook moonshine for extra money cause I won’t have enough corn to cook up a batch, what’s a fella supposed to do!
In other word things are going about normal for these last few years. No big deal. We all got good shoes on our feet, a roof over our heads that don’t leak, and the biggy, no debt. Not a plug nickel! If there was ever a testament about being debt free it’s when a disaster strikes. A person doesn’t have to worry at night about how to pay some big never ending bills. Can pack up on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings and head to church and praise the Lord, free people. Now I realize it’s durn near impossible to start farming with no debt. The only way around that is some rich relative heads to gloryland and leaves you with the whole works. But for the rest of us there’s going to be debt. The big thing is once a person has the debt is to pay it down like a mad man. And I can testify that when it’s all said and done, ahead of schedule, life takes on a whole new meaning. Especially the nights, it becomes a whole new sleep. I remember it actually took me a long time to truly realize that it was all over and everything was totally paid for. Its weird how it takes months or even a couple of years for the realization to hit.
There’s always taxes and all the other monthly bills, but when the main debt is gone it’s a whole new ballgame. The freedom is unbelievable! And one thing that really shows through when a person has a strong discipline in paying down the debt as soon as possible, as soon as its paid down you really don’t feel like becoming a big spender. Your ways are set. You’ve become a spendthrift. And I can’t ever see us living like other folks saying we deserve something or anything like that, you know, the popular way of living right now. Naw, in fact a person becomes cheaper and cheaper, and the assets grow and grow. Things get better and better and when tough times do hit, which they do, a person can easily slide through.
Nothing new here, just common sense, a common sense that’s sorely lacking in this day and age. Around here there were a lot of new houses put up over the last five years and I always wondered how all these folks, and some pretty young folks too, how they had so much money. I figured, man this job market nowadays sure must pay better than when I worked out! But she’s coming home to roost folks! More and more I hear of the times so many of these folks are going through lately. The percentage of for sale signs on these five acre wonders staggers the imagination. Reality is coming home. Now in my hillbilly, country bumpkin logic, I could never figure out how anyone alive today could expect to pay of the home debts that these folks were accumulating. It just didn’t compute, so to speak. Now I see, it really doesn’t compute! I figure when they go for a home loan now, and of course everyone has to have a home that is about ten times oversized for their comfortable needs, that they have to give a DNA sample for the mortgage, cause they sure ain’t gonna pay it off in their lifetime! Better lock in another generation or two in the deal, maybe more!
Hard for me to believe is all I can say. No wonder so many are going nuts! I was figuring, take a half a million dollar indebt five acre wonder, compare what we have to them. It’s about a hundred times more than they have, They have a half a million dollar debt, we have a hundred times more than them and no debt. We get looked at as backwards, dumb farmers,………anyone see where I’m coming from on this? We started from scratch, not turn key.It took decades. Real wealth is generated by hard work, sacrifice, and a dream where a person never gives up. Years ago I was laughed at right to my face for being a dumb farmer, yup you heard me, laughed at. Now so many say how lucky I was and they wish they could have just a fraction of what we have. I tell you, luck don’t have much to do with it, it takes work and self control.
I hear that when it comes to the average American that we are in the top twenty percent, maybe higher. Just because we are at that magical place called no debt.
July 27th, 2007 at 11:44 am
Hey Tom, Prayin for some rain for ya all. Funny thing about luck is the harder ya work the luckier ya get. Ain’t that true? The only thing I deserve is what God says I deserve. Nothin less and not one deal more. It is always enough and never too much. Your right on the money. She is comin home to roost. I can smell recession comin just as sure as anything. Signs are there. I predict 2-5 years and she will hit hard. The only way to start farmin and stay out of dept that I can see is work 2 jobs. She is a slow go but I am doing it (kind of). At the rate we are goin I figure my children will have a decent operation in 10 to 12 years. Thats ok though. Everything good takes time. Have not talked to ya in a while.
Guy
July 27th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
Guy,
I figure that my children will be the ones to start farming fulltime, with me footing the bill as much as is possible. Seems that staying out of debt could require multiple generations to get a full farm enterprise going. This is the way Salatins started. Joel’s parent paid for the farm and then Joel was able to build on this.
Jim V
July 27th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
Evening Guy!
I even left a gravity box of oats out for the night as a sacrifice trying to tempt some rain in. Gotta try anything available, desperat times take desperate measures eh!
You hit it, the harder you work, the luckier ya get! Funny how that works. The Good Book says, (in the International Tom Version), to get off our dead butts, stop complaining and get to work! There ain’t no free ride! And a person can’t borrow their way to prosperity! My folks, who watch TV, are telling me that the amount of loan commercials is increasing and it’s getting insaner by the minute. Now they want to borrow for the morgage, second morgage, cars, credit cards, plus “they’ll give you another credit card, plus you can take some of that borrowed money and put it in savings. Uh, am I just a nut or is something wrong with all this? Borrow to put in savings?? I suppose that’ll be the new fashion, show off the savings account! So then everyone will be borrowing so they can have a savings account to show off to all their friends.
Nope, most of the readers of this blog, not all, but most have their head screwed on pretty straight. Most are builders, and sure most are in debt, but they’re building with that debt, they understand debt, they pay off debt by working hard to pay it down while things are building up! There’ll be a complainer every once in a while, but those complainers ain’t worth their weight in used toilet paper and that’s about all the attention they get around here. Almost without exception, a complainer is someone with a me, me attitude. And with that attitude they will borrow for themselves and live the “normal society” way, but can’t figure out how so many folks are truly making it. Because they can’t get the me, me, out from between their ears and get all worked up when they hear of folks at all different stages truly working their way to the good life.
Stop Tom, there I go, almost preaching again. Hmm, I should be a preacher, maybe someday, but that would be a farmer preacher with a Gospel Barn! Yee Haw!
Where was I? Guy, when you drop in I get all excited cause I know what you folks are doing over your way and it just gets me going! Keep on brother and my best wishes to you and your entire family over Manitoba way!
God Bless!
Hey Jim!
You get any rain down your way in that last one? It’s so dry here you wouldn’t believe it! Had one cow out this evening and both me and the neighbor figure that she’s a pretty smart cow getting out where she did. In fact the neighbor suggested to leave her out and let her eat as much as she wants on his land because he was so impressed! No kidding. And after a day in the combine I agreed whole heartedly! I’ll catch her in a few days after she got her fill.
Same here about the next generation, they shouldn’t have the building phase in their generation that the previous two generations had. BUt they’ll be able to make the farm a new generation farm, much more profit because they won’t have the huge building to do. My dream is that when I’m almost ready for glory that this place will be a place of peace and prosperity, (and rain), with a loyal customer base and a very healthy lifestyle. I can see it starting, but it wasn’t my place to be in it totally. The previous two generations were the builders. The next generations will be building too, but they’ll have a firm base underfoot and can tell stories how the farm came into existance many years ago from the previous generations working out and paying it down, building it larger as decades went by. How when things were firmed up after a few decades land deals were aquired because we were ready. Land deals when land prices crashed. A long, long story, but a true one. And you and your family are well on the way!
God Bless!
July 29th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
Tom,
Last Thursday night we got about .75 inches of rain. It will help, but we could have used a lot more. With the high temperatures, things dry out fast. The storms sort of developed over us, so a few miles to the east they got a lot more rain - and some flattened corn. Reminds me of your post on the tough life. It is dry, you finally get rain, and your corn gets flattened. I am feeding hay, hoping that the pasture recovers enough to stop feeding hay. About the only things that are growing well are the thistles and the ragweed. At least the sheep think that the ragweed is good feed. This morning I turned the cows and sheep into a small little section with ragweed, lambs quarters and pig weed in it - plus some shorter grass. I’m trying to make use of every little bit of pasture.
In some ways it is invigorating knowing that you can work on a vision that will take generations to fully complete. At other times it can be a bit overwhelming.
Jim V
July 29th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
Hmmm,
Building. Yes, Building. We know a thing about that here. Been building fences lately… I am in agreement here. Someone in some generation, has to decide to be the builder. There is great physical and financial expense to this, but it must be done. There is no easy route, no short fix, no quick way to freedom!
Many times I am faced with seemingly insurmountable work, and I simply ask myself, “How badly do you want to fulfill God’s calling on your life?” That pretty much helps me over the humps.
Praying for rain here too.,
GFJ
July 31st, 2007 at 5:50 am
Jim,
.75 of rain! WOW, I can’t even imagine it! There’s never anything here at all, just watch it miss on the radar. Getting to be serious here.
GFJ,
Here’s hoping you get a good rain, (about an hour after it starts here), and some things will turn around.