…’cos all the bad girls have had me
Amazingly, that’s NOT a DocQuote:)
Going Up The Country
About an hour ago, my Sweet Angel and I got back from a merry little 6 hour, 226 mile jaunt up the middle of California’s wonderful, tho flat as a pancake and not particularly scenic, Central Valley. For those of you with access to maps (online or off) we drove from Sacramento up I-5 to Orland. The purpose was to scope out country property and, more importantly, the prices thereof.
While the drive was pleasant and the weather very nice, we discovered that the rampant insanity of California real estate prices extends even into the sparsely settled areas of the valley and the foothills on either side of it. $150,000 for 10 friggin’ acres of land way out in the sticks with no house? That’s a bit fuckin’ insane. Of course, most of the ads were for houses in towns, which is not what we want. I know there is cheaper property out there (and by cheap I mean UNDER 10K per acre). And Grace and I aren’t looking for prime ag land or a fuckin’ lakeside cottage. We just want 10 or more acres that has a level enough spot to build a house and enough land for a bit of livestock and some raised bed gardens. Oh, and at least a seasonal stream that we can dig a pond along.
Hell, we’d even go a bit more pricewise and buy something with an older house on it. I just don’t want to have to sell my vital organs to afford it. And before anyone suggests cheaper land in some other state, let’s review Doc & Grace’s Nonnegotiable Requirements For A Farm/Home Site…
1: Must be in California or Hawaii
2: Must not be within a mile (3 miles is better) of any other human habitation
3: Must not get more that 3 inches of snow in a 5 year period
4: Must be within 2 hour drive (roughly 150 miles) of a decent sized (population 50K or more)city
5: Must not be an old toxic waste dump
So, anyway, our search will go on. We have a few more years before we’ll be selling this house, so it’s not like an urgent thing. The next time we go out on a jaunt like this, we’ll most likely head towards the coastal mountains (seeing as how the hills/mountains on the eastern side of the valley are infected by Creeping Yuppyism and its related stratospheric property prices). But ya know, if I could have a few chickens and a couple of pigs here in this neighborhood, I might stay a bit longer:)
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