...so, with the Earth's population cresting 7B this year I started thinking my family should invest in some farmland.  And if the sea level is going to rise as well, it better be a farm high up in the sky, in terms of elevation.

Funny enough I found a guy that is interested in trading his 100acre farm in Colorado, for our joint in Ft. Lauderdale, and I'm giving it serious consideration...

Quote
Description: This is 98 acre farm/ Ranch located between Cedaredge and Delta in Colorado Grandfathered water rights, Lush, Irrigated fields with great alpha hay production 150-200 ton annual. This property has Good barbed wire cross fence with gates. Tongue Creek goes through the entire property and runs year round and is outlined with Oak and Cottonwood trees. Along with excellent views of the Grand Mesa from a 2 bedroom 1 bath home With large kitchen and oversized bathroom with in-door jacuzzi tub. Property includes 3 wells that can suport 9 homes w/ one acre gardens. 50x100 inslated steel building with waste oil heater ,20kw back up generator, complete shop w/air comp, welder, vehicle lift all eqp included! . Plenty of room to use for horses,cows, or to store all the farm equipment that is included worthover $50,000 If you add it all up 50k eqp - 125k 50x100 shop/barn -2bd 1ba home 100k -this is less than 6k per Acre .You can not find fenced Irrigated land with 3 wells for 6k per acre! Look around this is the Best Deal on the Market! Eckert is located between Delta and Cederedge off Highway 65.

...any thoughts in general?

Beautiful farm and countryside. 

You a bit of a survivalist, dogboy?  I've been reading on SHTF situations.  This farmland, combined with your arsenal would be pretty valuable if something goes wrong.

Farm land may be a very good idea.  I suggest you do some searches for climate change predictions for different parts of the US before buying.

does look lovely. Hard work though. Especially a mixed smallholding.

>This farmland, combined with your arsenal

...'Exit Strategy', meet 'World'. It looks like a regular old farm ...but upgraded with a buried network of machine gun turrets:)

Worst case:
You can't eat devalued cash.  Gold is good because it's liquid, but is not an end in itself. Fancy cars, bikes, houses, stocks, bonds hold some value... but at some point you have enough.  I remember when the Earth had 4.6B people on it.  Something is going to give at some point. Anyway, my only question is, 'is it big enough?'.  Seriously.  Could you live off that land/water/space if unemployment really did go to 50% for 10years and they were raping and looting like in the New Orleans flood, shooting at the choppers? Sounds extreme but 'what if?' The reality is things could get ugly quick.

High tides:
The water is literally rising at my place in FL.  In 50 years, it may very well be under water.  Sounds funny but I think its going to happen.  Every year I've been here the highest tide was an inch higher than the previous year.  I couldnt imagine a hurricane surge at the same time.  That doesn't mean I can't sell it by then, but still... imagine things really do go to hell.  Our biggest cities are on the coast. Lots of farmland that would also get swamped if we had a rise in sea level.


...Either way, I just can't see how farmland will go down in value. And Colorado isn't a bad place to be, although I wouldn't plan on moving there... just get it set up properly, and let someone else actually work the ground.  Just a place. Another investment. But with a bomb shelter on it:)

>I suggest you do some searches for climate change predictions

I did, and as expected they were all over the place.  I decided at 5000'+ in the middle of CO I was safe(?) from sea level issues and tsunamis, but if we have a polar shift, or the oceans stop flowing, or Yellowstone erupts... well, I tried:)


'is it big enough?'
...honestly, I don't think it is.  I think you need more like 1000 in that country.  Maybe some lakes or rivers, trees, game, etc.  But the properties are just about the same $ value and a swap is very doable.  Maybe I'll leave the benz and $50k cash, and grab that Toyota I see hanging around the shed, like a barn cat....

QuoteIt all depends on your personal "worst case scenario". If your envisioned worst case is an economic depression similar to that of the 1930s--with a relatively intact infrastructure--then you might conclude that there is no need to relocate. (You can just "stock up" and stay put where you are.) But if your worst case is a full scale whammy--such as a terrorism campaign that levels cities and/or causes a long term grid-down societal collapse, then you will probably want to move to a remote, lightly populated farming region with plentiful water.

- http://www.survivalblog.com/retreatareas.html

Yellowstone = fucked up

There is a phrase I like "buy land, they have stopped making it"

You can get free land in Kansas.  For real.

Had some long talks yesterday and funny enough my father didn't seem that interested in the trade aspect, and overall thought maybe a much bigger place in the Carolinas... something that costs 1/2 as much per acre and we have 5-10X as much of it, overall... would be better.  He is looking for a mild, long growing season and while the idea of trading is interesting, it's not necessary.

Basically, a totally different place than this one.

I understand his thoughts.  He'd rather be in an area where he has plenty of water, not one with rights to a scarce resource.  Forest, fields, lakes, streams, something going on 1000 acres.  Land like this (I think) is more in the $2-4k/acre range.  The issue is many of these 'plantation' style farms are being billed as high class horse farms, so I think they are going for a premium these days... or whatever the re-established premium is these days... somewhere between $2-6M, which is too much (for us) to sink in a backup plan, that we probably aren't even going to visit too often.

>>>Had some long talks yesterday and funny enough my father didn't seem that interested in the trade aspect

i think your father is right dogboy

Well, a few more thoughts on the subject...

Since that uni-bomber guy said in his survival blog, "Unless you are among the uber-rich and can afford to buy an elaborate fully hardened bunker with HEPA filtration deep in the Smoky or Appalachian Mountains with a five year food supply, then I firmly believe that you will be safer west of the Missouri River", I did a little research on a company featured in Wired Magazine who specialized in building fully hardened bunkers with HEPA filtration systems: http://www.bomb-shelter.net/ ...and I found some nicer property deep in the Smokies.

Prices aren't as cheap as I thought, though.

just to digress for a moment on this subject......

do you know something that we don't like an early warning sign from the sky or maybe inside information from some government source or have you always suffered from paranoia ?

Oh yeah - Go Mick go!

>have you always suffered from paranoia ?
well, 'crazy' is an infinity defensible position:)

eheheh the reality is, just like the 'who's buying Gold thread', I'm just interested in where people are putting their dollars these days.  Gold, stocks, bonds, land, etc.  Granted the bomb shelter is a little over the top, but good farmland sure as hell isn't.  We already have commercial and residential property.  We have a fairly diversified portfolio.  But if everything really went to hell, it's all paper.  So, like with most things, I'm half joking... and half as serious as a heart attack:)  But 10:1 I'm going to initiate a land purchase this year.


>do you know something that we don't

We are projected to be pushing 9B in 2045. Hell, adjusted, those water rights alone maybe worth the asking price now.  The mighty Colorado River doesn't even get the sea anymore.  By 2045 I could imagine people in California paying me not to use the water so they could have more downstream.