Impending Move to Nowhere, Reading Gets Primal


Cover of Where There Is No Doctor by David Werner and available at Hesperian.org

With the move date drawing closer my research is getting more primal. It's been a strange phenomenon, but true. Maybe it's because every time I tell a friend about our plans the first thing they ask is, "Are you going to get a gun?" Ha. It's even funnier when I tell them that I already have guns, plural. More likely, however, it's because I'm subconsciously (and now consciously) reacting to the fact that we'll be living in the middle of nowhere in approximately 6 weeks.

So I was thinking about what to write about this week and really the only thing that came to mind is all this weird reading I've been doing. Last week it was Human Farming and this week it's Where There Is No Doctor (which you can download for free from Hesperian). I suppose it's not much weirder than books on raising dairy goats and managing cover crops, just a little more graphic. People on the subway still give me equally weird looks and pretend not to be reading over my shoulder. If you're listening to Pitbull at full blast on your Skull Candy headphones you cannot seriously be interested in the awesome nitrogen-fixing power of crimson clover.

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Human Farming

No, not farming humans. And no, I didn't mean to say humane. I am talking about the people actually doing the farming. The humans.
 
 
Why is this interesting to me? Because thus far in our research we’ve focused on growing grass, humane animal husbandry, creamery construction, cheesemaking, distribution, etc. When you plan to run a small farm you need to learn a little bit (and sometimes a lotta bit) of just about everything. What gets lost is yourself. At least I've found that to be the case in today’s literature. That was until I started reading an interesting (and free) out-of-print book that focuses on the humans doing the farming. 
 
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Buying Points vs. Higher Down Payment

During the course of buying the farm an interesting question came up about “buying points”. This was our first mortgage so I was pretty curious about everything going on with the banks and inspectors and such. Our lender casually mentioned the option of buying points and then quickly dismissed it as something that no one ever does. In fact, she had only seen it done once. When she said that I got even more interested.

I know not all beginning (or existing) farmers will be able to buy land, but for those who do I thought this topic would be helpful. There's not much good info about the trade-offs between buying points and putting down a larger down payment online, so this is just my own analysis, I'm very welcome to other opinions.

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