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How many of us were raised where we live now?

Started by loudsam, March 03, 2006, 03:13:16 AM

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loudsam

I've been getting a kind of 6th sense feeling, that lots of the so-called "Baby Boomers" are leaving the cities where they've worked their adult life and heading for the country.  The reason I've been noticing this is because where I live, (I didn't grow up here myself), the market value of property has gone up about 400% in the past 10 or 12 years.  The population has increased accordingly, although not at as big a ratio.

I've also noticed, that alot of businesses are capitalizing on the migration of the Baby Boomers.  All kinds of folks like us are buying tractors and sawmills and all the things that go with living in the country.  We're buying equipment like this, but not neccesarily, (hardly ever), for farming/ranching, in my opinion.

Just wanted to get you other folks's take on this subject.  I don't know if I'm imagining it or not, but, I'm starting to figure that the REAL money to be made in sawmilling would be to provide/sell/build/whatever, the equipment to do sawmilling and the processing of the resultant lumber.

Anyone been thinking along these lines?  This may seem like a redundant subject, (I think that would be the term for it).  In other words;  Maybe EVERYONE has thought of all this already.  Maybe I'm just SLOW!

Bibbyman

Quote from: loudsam on March 03, 2006, 03:13:16 AM
I don't know if I'm imagining it or not, but, I'm starting to figure that the REAL money to be made in sawmilling would be to provide/sell/build/whatever, the equipment to do sawmilling and the processing of the resultant lumber.

I don't think I've figured out your logic.  We've surely spent over $100,000 in equipment for our sawmill operation in the past 12 years but I figure it's a small number compared to the amount of "value added" to the logs we converted to lumber and shipped out.  Then you figure the next guy is going to probably double the value of the lumber when he uses it or processes it one step further and so on the ballance is even bigger in favor of the product produced not the machine sold to produce it.

The products off the mill is a consumable where as the mill and equipment is a capital investment that has some retentive value.

Wood-Mizer is the leader in the bandmill industry and they advertise that they've sold over 30,000 mills world wide.  And that's in the past 22-23 years.  So it's not like they've hit the popularity level of say a DVD player or microwave.

Kind of reminds me of a joke dad would tell about a beggar that sold pencils on the corner.  A guy stopped to ask him how much he wanted for a pencil and he said $1,000,000.00.  The guy replied, "You're not going to sell many at that price."  To that the beggar replied. "I only have to sell one."
Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

crtreedude

I am not a Baby Boomer (too young - barely) but we don't live where we were born. I little further South.

A number I ran across not too long ago was that the average amount of savings that a Baby Boomer has is around 50,000 dollars.  That isn't enough to retire on, but many of them want to retire from what they have been doing. So, moving out to the country and doing something like farming, or something might make sense. As Bibbyman says - it sounds like a lot of people are buying because most of them are probably on this forum.  8)

I know we have a flood of people it seems wanting to come down here as a way to stretch the retirement dollars. Some of them do fine, others make a big financial mistake in my opinion. You have to walk very carefully for about 2 years when you are here. This is a VERY foreign place, but on the surface (because of tourism) it seems not that different. You learn, it is really different - but that is what we like. Nothing against up North, just I get bored easily.  ;) Usually they move here and still need to find someway to make money.

I would assume that there will be a very good market for people who can fix, tune, give advice, etc. on all this equipment. The average city dweller assumes that when something doesn't work - you bring it to the shop. If they tried to fix it, they probably would really foul up. Not sure I would specialize in sawmills - normally there are only a few in every county and many of them are owned by people who know how to fix them - there are more than a few hardy souls on the forum who make their own.  :o

And, of course there is money to be made selling used equipment...  :-\
So, how did I end up here anyway?

Cedarman

Why do you think Woodmizer invested heavily in the bandblade business. They keep selling me blades year after year. And keep resharpening them for a fee.  If blade costs are $.01 per foot of wood sawn, milling 300,000 feet of wood per year gets them another $3,000.00


I live in the country about 150 miles south of the country I grew up in.  Never did like city life.  It is much easier for me to go to the city and fit in then it is for the city folks to fit in the country.  I wish more would just stay in the city.
I am in the pink when sawing cedar.

jackpine

Cedarman, at the company I worked for we used to say that making staplers was probably a break even, low volume business. But making staples, that could go on forever :)

Loudsam, like a lot of other near boomers I moved back to my roots about 6 years ago when I realized money and title were not the answer for me. Those of us who grew up on the farm and moved away took some of that with us and the desire to return never really left. While there is very little money to be made in custom milling , esp. part-time, I wouldn't trade it for my old job ever!

woodmills1

Well, this seems to be a 2 or more topic thread. :D

To stay on the far from home part.  Grew up in rural NJ, yes there is such an animal as a few members know.  Went to college in Newark, but couldn't wait to get out of the city environment so took a job back out in country, first in Newton then in Hackettstown NJ.  Neither would qualify for city status.  Then moved to W Va........real country (read back to the land living :D)   Then did my masters in Boston, and while I did really enjoy living and working there I soon moved out to suburbia and then shortly even farther to southern NH.  This area has grown considerably in the 24 years I have been here, but managed to find a place that feels like the country.  Don't think I will move again but ya never know.
James Mills,Lovely wife,collect old tools,vacuuming fool,36 bdft/hr,oak paper cutter,ebonic yooper rapper nauga seller, Blue Ox? its not fast, 2 cat family, LT70,edger, 375 bd ft/hr, we like Bob,free heat,no oil 12 years,big splitter, baked stuffed lobster, still cuttin the logs dere IAM

thedeeredude

I was born at our local hospital, lived in a little town for 5 years and then moved the next town over for 14 years been living here.  Once I can move out, I'm heading for the country. 

Corley5

I grew up on this farm in the house where my parents still live which is about a 1/2 mile away from where I'm sitting.  My Great Great Grandfather on my mother's side homesteaded the farm next door.  The offer would have to be EXTREMELY good before I'd go anywhere else.  But Florida for a couple months in the winter isn't out of the question in the future ;) ;)
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Bro. Noble

I didn't grow up on this farm,  but Dad lived here as a child in the 20's.  Grandad's old house is right by our sawmill.  My son lived there for a while and my daughter and her husband are talking about living there and working part-time with us.  Dad's great grandad on another side of the family homesteaded on part of our place in 1848.  I'm like Greg,  plan on staying here :)

One of my grandads sawmilled and the other milked (about 15 miles from here)  so I guess I havn't strayed too far from my roots. ;D
milking and logging and sawing and milking

solodan

Quote from: loudsam on March 03, 2006, 03:13:16 AM
I've been getting a kind of 6th sense feeling, that lots of the so-called "Baby Boomers" are leaving the cities where they've worked their adult life and heading for the country.  The reason I've been noticing this is because where I live, (I didn't grow up here myself), the market value of property has gone up about 400% in the past 10 or 12 years. 

I know what you mean,  property values here have gone up about 500% in the last 4 years.  They are heading for these hills, but most of them have no concept of how to live here. most of them know how to do very little. They have lived their last 20 or 30 years in suburban California. 90% of the population in California lives within 10% of the land. most people live near shopping malls and other modern conveniance. The fact that I own a portable sawmill is completely foriegn to them. Most of these people say "what do you mean a portable sawmill?"  I make lots of rustic accent pieces, and they say "where do you get this wood?" yet the trees here outnumber the people by at least a million to one. Most of them just don't get it, or maybe it is that they don't want to get it. They could rake their own pine needles, but than they would have to burn them, which is another foreign concept. We have free and/or cheap slash facilities nearby, but puting slash in the back of their volvo is not an option. so instead they have some Austrilian guy I know rake their 1/2acre  residential lot for $300.
The guy has no shortage of work, he usually runs 2 or 3 crews a day, that do 2 or three properties a day each. He does ok.
Another thing is that most people here own very small pieces of land, because most of the land where I live is public land. It does not make sense for most people to buy any equipment. They just won't use it much.
However if you own any piece of equipment here, wheather it is an excavator or a hammer, one can stay as busy as he or she wants. But no one is comming here in search to do that, real estate is about $100K per acre of raw land. A real fixer on a 1/4 acre is about $350k. you're still at least 20 minutes from the nearest town of 4000 people, and about another hour to a town of any real size. The weather sure is nice though. ;)

RichlandSawyer

I grew up in a small town about 3 miles from were i live now and that small town is only 8 miles from the state capital so i've had the best of both worlds. Its amazing people in the big city have no idea were i live. they have heard of it but not sure were it is. I'd like to keep it that way too. But it is nice to have small town values but have the convienence of the big city. Because of that baby boomers are starting to discover our little "gods half acre" and the result is a few more half million dollar houses and my property taxes doubleing in the last 5 years.Thanks a lot!!! We are completely surrounded by farm land, the closest neighbor is a quarter mile and keep telling those farmers if you sell any of that land for someone to build a house on i'll haunt you for eternity! This house i live in is a log cabin built in 1856 and its been looking south over this small valley for 150 years i would hate to have the view spoiled by a double wide "modular home" dropped right across the road.
Every log i open up, a board falls out!!!

loudsam

Solodan,  what you said, is exactly what I've been thinking of, only just a little different, (and cheaper), here in Wisconsin.

My point exactly is that;  We are not going to be able to stop what's happening, and we could very well capitalize on the fact that these people are coming and there's no stopping them.  There's millions of Baby Boomers, and in my opinion, their migration to the country/open land, is what's driving the real estate prices.

I've been thinking these people will eventually buy tractors, even sawmills.  They will need all of the implements that go with that kind of stuff, plus, the ability to repair it all.  Also, they are going to need their little plots of 10 to 20 acres, maybe even only 5 acres, to feel like they have some freedom.  I've decided that even though real estate prices has gone way up, I'm still going to start looking for about 80 acres.

I've been able to live wherever I want to live because of the trade I'm in.  But lots of people have felt like they were stuck in the cities because of their jobs, and they're going to be going where the grass is greener when they retire.

UNCLEBUCK

 My dad and mom got married right after high school and grew up in this area here but they couldnt afford to stay on the family farms so they were given 2 paper suit cases the day after they graduated school and were told to have a nice life .  So they went to St.Paul and got jobs and had my sister and I . They scrimped and saved and both worked ,taking turns baby sittin us kids and when I was about 8 a piece of land came up for sale near where they were born and raised so we all went and looked at it in the old station wagon and I sat in back with my big dog as always . 327 acres of land with 1 full mile of shoreline for 50,000$ on contract for deed . We bought it and scrimped and saved and paid it off in 4 years . My sister and I were doing all the farmwork when I was 8 and she was 12 , it was part of the agreement that we all had to try hard so every friday night we would all pack up and head out to the 3 hour drive to the farm . 8 years later we all moved here to a little rundown shack and my folks ended up going back twice to the city for extra money . But here we all are , new shacks on 3 oppossite corners of the farm , a good country town close by , everyone knows everyone , it all turned out good in the end so nobody will ever have to be sent off like my folks had to when they graduated school. They seem tired from it all so my sister and I try to help out all we can and I dont ever plan on sending them to a nursing home . I will take care of them forever as a show of thanks for all the b.s. my sister and I put them through in our younger days ! I sometimes think that is why dad wanted such a big shack as to show all the relatives that he did it his way and they still have those paper suitcases as a reminder of hard times .
UNCLEBUCK    bridge burner/bridge mender

loudsam

Unclebuck, that's a very touching story!  Just goes to show ya what can be done when people put their minds to it.  I'm with you, when it comes to not sending the folks to an old folks home.

Ron Wenrich

Well, I'm a boomer, and I don't know if I entirely agree.  To some extent, there will be some migration from suburbs to the country.  But, that will probably be the ones that were brought up on farms or in small towns trying to get back to their roots.

I'm looking at retirement in less than 5 years.  I am not looking to be buried in the local cemetary.  I will be moving to a more rural locale, but after sawing 50-60 million bf, I don't know if I'll get back to sawing on my own rig.  Too many other things to do.

Boomers have driven the housing market.  They have bought bigger and bigger homes over the years.  But, what happens when they decided to leave?  Will those homes lose value?  Will that suck up some of their savings? 

As for moving, a lot will go the condo route.  Some will go back to the cities, since there is so much more to offer.   Some will move to more sunny locales.  But, I don't think there will be a mass exodus to rural areas. 

I think boomers are going to be on the go.  They will want to be close to major connections. 

Of course, I could be wrong.    :)
Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

wiam

I am the 8th generation of my family to live on this land. :)1785

Will

isassi

I live in the town I grew up in. I was raised here, and my mother and fathers families were both in the area. I have lived in other states, and other towns, but returned to my home town, because I like it here and there is a comfort factor. When I was trucking across the nation, I was in every other state except one, and while I consider think all places have there own qualities, nothing beats home to me. The smell of fresh cut alfalfa, the haze on a wheat field. The smells and sounds of the livestock sale barn....and the fresh earth smell of plowing...small town life (with it's pros and cons), its all here. :)

barbender

  I live in the same area my Dad grew up in, lived here since I was 2. I was born in Wyoming, where my Mom grew up.  Actually have a trailer house right next to my parents place right now, and we have 20 acres down the road 1/4 mile where we are building a house.  I could see myself living in Wyoming, spent a lot of time there growing up, so it seems like home too.  I definately agree with others, there is no place like home.
Too many irons in the fire

mike_van

My 2 kids [twins] are fourth generation on this place.  I'll be 55 in May, no place else i'd rather be.  I hope at least one of them will stay here someday. We're 90 minutes from NYC,  without  exaggerating, whats left of the family farm [where we are] is easily a million $.  Weekend homes here all all the rage, not for us locals though.
I was the smartest 16 year old I ever knew.

Tom

Yep, been a livin' here since Great Granpappy  rowed over from Scotland.  It's been a long time.  Good thing we got good genes and live awhile.  It was tough at first.  Gettin' here in the midst of all those English convicts that were outposted in Georgia.  Not a good thing.  We had to fight for every inch.  The weather was bad and the water was backed up so bad that we were almost in the Smokies trying to stay dry.   Me and Charlie were sent out to dig a ditch and drain some of the land so we could get back to Florida.  We made one South to Tallahasse that ended up being the Chatahootchee and one to the east that ended up being the Satilla.  Fixed up some smaller stuff to help clear some of the holes to.  You might have heard of the Oconee and the Alapaha.

Then the wars came.  It was a bad time.  I don't know what we'd have done if Great Grandpappy wasn't such a good shot. Yessir!   They called it the Revolution and we were into Florida by then.  The Redcoats couldn't get past S. Carolina though 'cause Great Grandpappy had this long range rifle, see, and he was pickin'em off up around Charlston from a tree stand he had set up in a tall pine tree over by Yulee.

There was this-a war and that-a war and we ended up down in South Florida chasin' the Spaniard offen-a the rock.  We layed claim to most of the land from Ashville to Homestead and was usin' the middle of the State for a front yard till that Disney fella moved in.  We was gonna run him off but things got so cantankerous, what with the Spaniards coming back and the Yankees comin' back.   Seems we found ourselves in the middle of a big city type place.  Been fightin' it forever and can't seem ta win.  All them newcomers are taking over the grazin' land and 'mater patches.  They keep complainin' about their troubles with city folks taking over their bean patch but we figure it all belongs to us.  Most of 'em came traipsin' in here 'bout early 1900's and won't leave. Makes the fishin' and huntin' pretty tough.  All they want to do is make money and go to court.   Now they'r talking bout boomers.   boom this and boom that,  I'll boom 'em.  All worried bout somebody from the city buyin' a farm next to them.  Secede!   Yeah, start yer own country.  That's what we did.   I dug the Okeechobee for a catfish pond and the St. Johns for a drain.  Used to be deer here that would dress 400 pounds but them dang poachers got most of'em.  I think there's still a few back in the middle of the Big Cypress Swamp. 

I'm gonna change party's  Yessir, when Mr. Taft's time runs out I'm gonna vote for somebody that understands the rural life.   I hear there's a peanut farmer over in Georgia that might make a good'un.

thecfarm

I had a house about 15 minutes from where I live now.I was only a couple miutes from a small town,neighbors within talking distance from me.Not a good place for me.I lived there 17 years.I wasn't home much.I spent most of the time where I live now.Read my autobiography for the rest of the story.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

bull

In my forty years I've only live outside of my home town for 5 months, back in 1984 just out of high school.... Built my house on grandpa's farm and other than the camp in Maine don't plan on livin anywhere's else. Altough the taxes here are like a noose around the neck... Im staying.

Bernie

Buck, What a nice thing to say about helping you parents in their age. :)

SwampDonkey

Mom and dad started out at grandfathers place and lived with them for a year. Then they moved next door to a small house for a year and we almost all froze to death.  ::) Then dad bought this place from his uncles, it was great grandfathers place on dad's side, but where grandmother was raised. So here I am on great grand father's farm, well 4 acres of it with the house and barns and orchard ground.  ;D Father had aquired 850 acres over his farming career. This place was a pretty run down spot when father bought it, but we have a $million dollar view from the hill looking across toward out neighbors in Maine. The next door neighbors used to laugh when dad would wrap the house in plastic to keep the wind out in winter. We had lots of wood though and kitchen stove with a huge woodshed full of wood, as well as 8-10 cords of furnace wood to feed that old gravity fed furnace. :D Father later insulated and put new siding and windows in, made all the difference in the world. Those old plasterwalls didn't have much insulation, maybe newspapers. The plaster was held together with horse hair and smeared on some type of lattice work. We tore out petitions and door cases, this place was a house of doors and small rooms.  ::)

Anyway as an observation on the baby boomers. I've noticed alot of them return to New Brunswick that had left and worked away from here 30 or 40 years ago. Cost of living is way below most parts of the country and if you had a good job all your life you can live easy here and travel all over the globe and not have to worry much about the nest egg. In my little farming community, most immigration has been from abroad and there have been 4 I think, all coming to farm, mainly Dutch and Menonite from the west. Farms aren't cheap and right now they aren't selling as hot as 5 or 6 years ago. I don't know of anyone coming from a good job to buy a farm. We have some folks that buy abandoned/growing up farms fairly cheap to live. I've seen quite a few Germans do this, some aren't really of retirement age. But, I think they see stuff on TV and read things that make them believe we are all living off the land in harmony over here, because some soon move on.  You can't live off a small farm here with a couple donkeys and 4 cows and 6 chickens. ::)   :D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

getoverit

I now live on the farm I was raised on, but I did spend about 10 years in the mountains of NC and GA.

Feels good to be back home again :)
I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok, I work all night and sleep all day

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