I’m just going to write quickly about this because a few people who have called or stopped by have asked if we are “sustainable”. 1st thing that comes to mind is the phrase “I WISH!”
Sustainable means that the farm provides for our family and is our income. Joe does have a full-time job outside of being a farmer while I stay at home and do all the “home stuff”. We purchased 32 acres in Loudoun County right at the time when real estate was actually moving pretty quickly.
To give you an idea (just very basic here)… a $500,000 mortage would mean a monthly payment of around $6000 with a 7% interest blah blah blah (I hate all that stuff). So I would need to sell over 2000 dozen eggs a month just to pay for the mortgage! UGH! Yeah I know – but it gives you a rough idea of what it would take to be sustainable in this location. It’s not feasible if you just purchased.
Yes I know some places are doing it – but most likely they purchased before the real estate “boom” here and prices were actually reasonable. Families who have been around for awhile are here, working the farm and able to do it. I can understand that and personally I respect that. But a farm like ours probably won’t be completely sustainable for about 15 years I would guess….. and who knows what will happen by then – but I do know Joe will have retired at that point from his regular job. Never know – maybe he’ll spend all day out on his tractor or maybe by then we’ll be able to take a vacation!
‘Til next time……
