# We've been preapproved! Help me celebrate!



## Mini-M Ranch (Jan 29, 2010)

Got a call from our mortgage broker!  We've been preapproved for a farm loan!  YAY!


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## ksalvagno (Jan 29, 2010)

Congratulations!


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## Mini-M Ranch (Jan 29, 2010)

THANKS!!!  Who knows how many goats we can have now! AHAHAHAHAH!  And maybe an alpaca or 6.  hehe


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## ksalvagno (Jan 29, 2010)

I'm not THAT far from you and I do have alpacas! 

Good luck with whatever you are planning to do. Setting up a farm is fun and scary at the same time.


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## lupinfarm (Jan 29, 2010)

WOOHOO

                                 

I wish we'd been preapproved for a farm mortgage but we're with a city bank branch so no-can-do. Either way we ended up with 8.38 fabulous acres  that is zoned for horses and the like.


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## PattiXmas (Jan 29, 2010)

Congrats!!!  It is rather exciting becoming a homeowner.  The only sucky part is the taxes and repairs.  We just bought new cabinets and flooring for our house that we have owned for 1 1/2 years.


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## Mini-M Ranch (Jan 29, 2010)

Yeah, we pay taxes, insurance, and flood insurance (that is 4 times more than our regular house insurance) on the house we own now.  We don't currently have very much land.  SO, we are REALLY excited to get some acreage.    YAY!


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## lupinfarm (Jan 30, 2010)

How much land do you have right now Mini-M? 

We're on 8.38 acres, I would have liked more... like 15 acres but it wasn't in our budget and there weren't many... habitable... properties with that amount of land when we moved.


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## Mini-M Ranch (Jan 30, 2010)

Right now we have 2 acres.  We bought this house right after getting married and had no intention of raising "animals"  Last spring, my mother in law bought my kids some chicks for the spring.  It just kind of ballooned from there. lol.

Now we want to get outta here so we can keep more than 5 goats and a few chickens.  I am thinking we'd like about 20 ish acres.  I don't think we could maintain much more than that, but that would give us plenty of room for the goats, chickens, a few turkeys and eventually we'd like to have a few Zebu.


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## hooligan (Jan 30, 2010)

That is so awesome!


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## ChookHappy (Jan 30, 2010)

Wow nice, talk about a dream come true! Have a great time looking for your property! We should be starting up the whole process here in about 3 years.


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## cmjust0 (Feb 1, 2010)

YAY!  

Here's my totally unsolicited, longwinded advice to pretty much any new landowner:

Hop on craigslist or look through the want ads and find yourselves an 8N Ford "Redbelly" tractor, right off the bat.  They were made from '48-'52, and they're still extremely plentiful...that should tell you something.  Can be had anywhere from $1800-$2500, depending on condition, and are worth their weight in GOLD on a smallholding.  

Everything on one is simple to understand...a real "fire, air, fuel" type engine, simple hydraulics, overbuilt cooling system...  They were basically made to be repaired in the field by farmers with nothing but a few screwdrivers, wrenches, and a manual.  The cylinders are sleeved, which means if they wear out, you just replace the sleeves instead of boring it out or replacing the block.  That's why so many are still around...wear it out, rebuild it with new sleeves, bearings, and rings, and wear it out again!

And replacement parts are everywhere.  I gaurantee you could go to TSC and find carb and ignition rebuild kits on the shelf right this minute.  And if you need a part that TSC doesn't have, there's a place out of NC called Just 8Ns that has everything you can think of -- including a lot of expertise that they're often willing to part with, free of charge!

The coolest part is, if you need light implements (blade, bushhog, plow, disks, boom poles, pond scoop, finish mower, etc), it doesn't matter if they were made in 1950 or 2010 -- they'll hook up to an 8N.  It was the first tractor on the market with the 3-pt hitch and full-range position control, then everybody else followed right along till this very day.  

I've owned two, and still have one.  It's a '48 model, resleeved in '06.  Runs like a new one.  I do everything from bushhogging to drillling post holes to turning gardens with an old Dearborn 2-bottom plow on that old tractor..  We raise two gardens, each about 50x100....I can turn one in less than an hour, including the time it takes to hook the plow up..  

Suffice it to say that me and my old tractor would be hard to part.

Ok...so there's my totally unsolicited advice.  Take it for what it cost ya!  


Congrats again.


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