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Newsletter from Montana - Minnesota
February 2009
Did you know there are hot springs between Red Lodge and Billings just south of Laurel and east of the Clark's Fork? Somebody was trying to drill an oil well and out came hot water at 101F! So there it is, all 240 acres of it and for sale for $ 495,000. Half of the acreage is used for farming, such as wheat and the other half for grazing. There are three springs on the property and two reservoirs, bordering a section of state land.
Two sides of the property are bordered by a county road. There is an abundance of grouse and duck. Mineral rights on 200+/- acres do convey. Actually a total of 890+/- acres is available for $2.9 mio, bringing in ~$ 200,000 a year with a stone quarry and an approved tire disposal site.
The bird hunting in that area is excellent! Actually it is so fabulous that somebody just north of there is raising and training hunting falcons and sells them all over the world. At any rate, you could use the hot water to heat your home, have a swimming pool or even make a resort out of it and make a killing with the income, since you are only 20 minutes from Billings there, which is the largest city in Montana. This acreage is on the highest point in Yellowstone County, so you have views of the Beartooth Mountain Range, the Crazies, the Snowies, the Pryors and the Big Horns. At night you see the distant lights of Laurel, the valley below and the lights of the grooming machines on the ski runs of Red Lodge Mountain, such a deal! There are no trees on the property, but the terrain is gently rolling, let me know if you are interested, I will email you a map.
People from Billings usually drive well over two hours to get to the Chico Hot Springs near the NW entrance of the Yellowstone Park. If you like to live within 20 minutes of the Chico Hot Springs right now, take a look at the 5,600sqft home on 20 forested acres in the mountains near Livingston. The price has been lowered to $ 999,000 and they are now in the process of building a 24'x26' shop, which will match the home with a shingled roof and stucco siding.
Their well pumps 16 gallons a minute, which is an important fact in Montana, since there are so many areas which have no groundwater at all. The people in those areas have to haul water or get water delivered, which is not a situation I want to be in. If there ever is a food shortage, you want to at least be able to have a green house. By the way, Costco has an on-line deal for a 6'x10' greenhouse $600 delivered.
As you drive between Billings and Livingston following the Yellowstone River on I-90, you are driving by Reed Point. Just east of it is a 450 acres ranch for sale with over two miles of riverfront, which makes this a fisherman's paradise. There you have mule and whitetail deer, antelope and elk with a backdrop of the Beartooth and Crazy Mountains. The islands and river bottom are a haven for waterfowl and turkeys. You can enjoy river rafting or just floating the beautiful Yellowstone River. This private end of the road ranch has been in the same family since 1936. The property is bordered by a section of State Land and a large ranch to the north and the south border is the river. Access is year round with phone and electric within a few hundred feet. There are no buildings on the property $ 3.9 mio
On July, 18, 1806, Capt. Clark with ten men, Sacagawee and Pomp crossed this ranch and camped at the river. They had their noon meal while the 50 horses grazed on the banks of the Yellowstone River.
While we are speaking of water, I just listed a
10 acres parcel with Willow Creek running through it, just six miles north of Red Lodge in a private setting and NO restrictions! No water shortage there either. The property is sloping west toward the creek. The hill is part of the alluvial fan system at the NE corner of the Beartooth Mountain Range. The gravel there is 300ft deep and the property not only percolates well, it would also be suitable for an earthbermed home, which are superbly energy efficient, specially combined with a geothermal heating system. At any rate, we just cut a path through the thick stand of willows and aspens down to the water, so you can go fish. Moose and deer live in between those willows, along with the usual water fowl. The property continues on the other side of the creek and all 10 acres are fenced. The higher up you go on the slope, the more you can see of the mountain ranges, the property goes all the way to the top and down the other side, but does not touch the creek to the east.
Back in Minnesota, Mike listed a couple of homes in the small town of Hawley.
The first one maintained the character and craftsmanship of 1919; owned by a local doctor in Hawley, the home has had only three owners since its construction. Each owner has added their own personal touch to create this gem. With a total of over 1,790 square feet, the home is highlighted by the meticulous décor, classic trim, crown molding, picture rails, hardwood floors and 10 foot ceilings. The current owner put in new windows, steel siding, a gas fireplace with mantle and three covered porches. Only $139,000
The second home is a five bedroom home with shop for $125,000. The 2,300+ sq. ft. home has room for all. The large living room features a knotty pine accent wall and a gas fireplace. Other rooms of the home include a kitchen/eating area, two main floor bedrooms (one with a large walk-in closet), main floor laundry, 1.75 bathrooms, and three bedrooms upstairs. The one stall attached garage rounds off this spacious home in a truly quiet neighborhood. The lot is over a third of an acre and hosts a nice deck overlooking the large back yard. The setting is perfect for summer grilling and children or pets. To top it all off, you will have the rare opportunity to work on your projects in the 30 ft. x 40 ft. shop with a concrete floor.
The community of Hawley itself is an exciting community full of many different events year round. One summer highlight is the annual rodeo week. This event includes a full rodeo, parades, car shows, 5k run/walk, and much more. Another popular aspect of the community is the 18 hole Hawley Golf and Country Club. This beautiful course features three practice holes which you can play for FREE as many times as you want! Hawley is conveniently located between the thriving city of Fargo/Moorhead and the tourist town of Detroit Lakes, which features a sandy beach and 400 lakes in close proximity for boating and fishing.
The 80 acres lakefront in New York Mills (that is a really quaint town), can now be had as a short sale for $ 140,000 (was $ 184,000). This property adjoins a 40 acres lake with excellent deer cover and outstanding waterfowl habitat. Multiple semi-enclosed deer stands are located in strategic spots throughout the woods. The property also hosts platform deer stands and a hunting shack. The rustic shack includes a wood-burning stove and sleeping quarters similar to a small camper. Look at the deer sign in the pictures and you will see deer rubs and trails scattered throughout the property. This would make an excellent home site, if you like to have wildlife in your backyard.
If you like
productive farmland with lakefront near Detroit Lakes, there are 1005 acres for sale for $2,850,000. You don't have to buy the whole chunk, the owner will just sell parts of it also, or he would lease it all back for a 5% return on your investment. The land produces around 200 bushel/acre corn (200,000 x $4 = $ 800,000 gross income).
Here you can check on the prices for corn or wheat.
Or maybe you would like to have a small farm on 12 acres with enough timber to last you the rest of your days for fire wood and an artesian well that spouts water into your home and barn without a pump? Here you could live independently from the world, raise a few animals and grow a nice garden. Just $ 125,000 with a 5 bedroom home, shop, garage and barn in a secluded setting surrounded by large farms, but less than an hour from a nice town, lakes and recreational activities.
Would you like to try your hand on organic farming? The Rodale Institute offers a 15-hour online program at no charge with an introduction to the National Organic Standards and how to make the transition to organic production. Even if you just want to learn more about how certified organic farming works, this course will do the trick!
I just read in the book "Animal Vegetable Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver that before we sprayed our crops with pesticides we lost 7% of the production. Now we spent billions on pesticides and are loosing 13% of our crops to bugs. Also our farmers are in some sort of a pickle, they buy engineered seeds which are weed killer resistant. But the plants from these seeds will not reproduce, so the farmer cannot save any seeds for the following year; he has to go back to the seed company and buy another batch of engineered seeds for the next crop. Because the farmer used the weed killer, no other seeds will grow there. My husband, a confirmed city slicker like myself trying to turn country bumpkin, put some soil from a commercial fields into our garden, and that's how we found out that nothing will grow…
From an economic point of view, organic farming has been one of the fastest-growing sectors of agriculture for more than a decade - by 20 to 24 percent annually since 1990 - and allows farmers to reap up to three times the profit margins of non-organically raised meat and produce. (U.S. sales of organic food and beverages grew from $1 billion in 1990 to nearly $17 billion in 2006, and the Agricultural Marketing Service expects this trend to continue.)
"The hallmark of an alternative farming approach is not the conventional practices it rejects but the innovative practices it includes."
~National Research Council, Alternative Agriculture
Prior to the mid-20th century, agriculture was generally smaller in scale and was largely organic-based. Farmers and gardeners utilized cover crops, animal and green manures, and other natural means of managing the fertility of the soil, thereby also limiting the effects of pests and diseases on their crops by encouraging a healthy and balanced ecosystem.
From the Second World War to the conflict in Vietnam, chemical manufacturers produced a surplus of chemical nerve agents, ammonium nitrate (used in explosives), and various defoliants that soon became the pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides of the Green Revolution.
The publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in 1962 spurred the environmental awakening of the 1970s that gave rise to early sustainable agriculture efforts. These, in turn, evolved into the organic agriculture and food movements of today. Now farming with chemicals is being questioned more carefully as people begin to realize that - to put a twist on Newton's third law of motion - what goes in must come out, somewhere and sometime.
The transition to organic takes three years. It takes three years before soil starts to work right and five years before it's good.
Most vineyards grow their grapes "green" - here is an article about it in the Star Tribune.
Vineyard owners plant lots of flowers and other plants which attract insects that in turn devour pests that would like to devour grapes. Other plants, including weeds, grow between the rows of grape vines. Everything in sight, other than the grape vines, which continue growing for decades, is plowed into the soil to provide food for the vines.
So, while our food growers are doing a good job getting converted, what about the golf courses? Actually to grow grass seeds for golf courses instead of food turned into quite the cash crop for many farmers. I always thought if I move into the country there will be growing food all around me. Not so. The corn grown for processing is totally inedible. You can cook it for hours, it will never get soft. The thousands of acres of soy beans, they are not edible. And grass seed crops for golf courses? That is not even fit for animal feed. In some parts of our country the farmers now have enough knowledge to not plow the fields anymore. So far we lost about one third of our topsoil by wind and rain, mostly because the fields were left without vegetation to hold the soil in place.
While I am learning all of this, I am raising chickens with top hats. They are the cutest things. There are the Spitzhauben from Germany and the Polish, which originated in Holland. We also have Cochins, which have feathered feet and four Peacocks to protect our little flock from furry and winged predators. Of course our chickens are all spoiled, they have a roomy chicken coop which is heated and insulated with big windows to the south and when the weather is nice they have a big fenced in yard to roam in. If you would like to order some exotic or rare breed chickens, we ordered ours from the McMurray Hatchery and the Spitzhauben from the Cackle Hatchery.
Those little fluffballs arrive in a card board box via US Postal Service. The hatchlings do not need to eat or drink for a day or two after they pop out of the shell, so they can safely be shipped. How nutritious the eggs are, depends on what you feed your chickens. Among other grains, we feed ours flax seeds, which puts Omega 3 into the eggs. In winter they enjoy alfalfa hay and in summer they like fresh grass clippings along with fresh fruits and vegetables.
Well, everything will turn green on St. Patrick's Day, hope to see you soon!
:-)
Best Regards,
Dorothea Lowe, Broker
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