It has been a while!

[pecan]

I have been around reading just not posting much. I always love to check in to see any new pictures you all have posted. I love pond pictures.

I showed my husband the "observation" thread after telling him about Yukon Sweet happy Yukon he hit the jack pot.

Last week our local news had a story about a elderly guy who had 149 chihuahua mixes he had been trying to take care of and finally asked for help as he couldn't do it anymore. Animal control stepped in to rescue them and are going to start adopting them out this Monday. My husband and I are going to adopt one. We are pretty excited. I don't know how excited our spoiled animals are about it though LOL

But the big news is we meet with a realtor tomorrow to see about selling our house!!!

My sister, brother in law and nephews live in SW Utah outside a little town called Cedar City. They have 6 acres, horses and chickens and are only about an hour and 45 minutes from our property. We live in Salt Lake valley in the middle of the city now and are 3 and half hours from my sister and 5 hours from the property. We have been talking about moving down there for a while but nothing serious. Well we just came to the realization we could buy 10-20 acres down there and build our dream home for less than what our house here is costing us. My Boss will let me keep my job and just remote compute in from home for work every day if we move. My husband is a retired Marine who works a "hobby" job so no issues for him to move either.

Sad thing is I just finished landscaping our yard here and put the pond in only 2 and half years ago. It will be sad to leave it and not see everything grow to maturity, but the good news is I can build a new pond and start new landscaping!

My plan is fence a small back yard off the back of the new place and put in about a 10,000 gallon pond all one depth at 4-5 feet deep with a large bog. Then landscape the back yard. The climate is colder down there as they are about 1,000 feet higher above sea level. They are a zone 5-6 and even dryer than we are here so I will have to learn what can grow there and see how that impacts ponding. But warm weather is very close. If you drive 45 minutes south you drop elevation fast and are in zone 8-9, so on cold winter days it is easy to get away from the cold.

We are planning on doing a one level concrete home that will appear to look like adobe. There is a lot of the concrete homes going in down there because with the right design and layout they are extremely energy efficient. The sun naturally heats them in the winter and they stay cool in the summer. Power and gas bills almost go away. We are also going to put in a well and windmill to run the power for the well. Crazy thing is we can do this and cut our mortgage almost in half due to the much higher housing costs where we currently live.

My sister and brother in law own a mortgage company so they are working out the details for us. We are very very excited. If all goes as planned we can start building this spring and move in by next fall. Then start the landscaping and pond dig in spring 2014.

 

[j.w]

Wow Pecan, you are going to be in re-build house/pond Heaven w/ all your new dreams to come. Will be fun and exciting to watch you do it all. Hope you are planning on putting it all here on the forum so we can watch :razz: Oh and will you be taking your fishy pets w/ you or do you have to start all over w/ them also?

 

[pecan]

I will have to start all over with my fishies They will stay here since it will be a year or more before the pond is done. We will sell our house as soon as possible and move into a rental in Cedar City while we build.

It is going to be an entire life style change.

I will surly post a bunch of pictures throughout the process.

 

[j.w]

I sure hope whoever buys your house wants to keep the pond and the fish. I can't imagine anyone wouldn't want your beautiful pond set up! Hope also they will know how to take care of it. Make them join our forum or you won't sell it to them :nono:
It will be hard for you to leave it all behind but you can have a lot of fun doing your new one and maybe do a lot of the things you would have liked to to different w/ the new one and always make it bigger........our famous last words :goodnight:

 

[sissy]

great news pecan and wish you luck with all of it .Vheck into a modular home much cheaper and are built in a factory and wishing I could find a new brother for pee wee .I did find two and we were supposed to go look at them the day he had his heart attack and I lost out :sad: .Wow sad to see all your work go and know been there and it sure hurts after all that love you put into it .

 

[Fishylove]

Pecan it's great to see you! Such wonderful news! So exciting, please keep us posted

 

[pecan]

We got the new pup (he deserved a thread of his own)

I met with a realtor on Monday and still waiting to see if we can sell for what we need to to move. Fingers crossed. We are going down to stay with my sister over Christmas and will look at land then. Hopefully can buy the land by March of 2013. Then everything hinges on selling our house. If we can sell we will put it on the market and begin building spring 2013. If we sell before the house is done (Fall 2013) we will move down there and rent till it's done. If for some reason the house does not sell we will rent it out. If the realtor comes back and says we can't sell for what we want then we will still buy land but try doing everything in 2014 (sell, build, move).

I love our little house and love the yard/pond now but don't like being in the city. I will miss the house and yard though

 

[gardengimp]

It's exciting isn't it? Maybe you could put in a qt size pond at your new place and at least get a small bit of your plants and fish transferred. I'm afraid I would be rigging a portable tank in the back of our van, right next to the dog crates, to move our fish.

 

[fishin4cars]

Happy to hear this Pecan, Sounds like a similar venture I just took. And your right, it will be a life changing experience. I GUARANTEE!!!! Little word of advice, 1 - take own as few a projects at a time as possible, the more projects that are going on at the same time the more stress and the less fun it is. 2- Seriously, taking care of a big piece of property is rewarding, but it's a two person job and it does take a lot of time. Lot of unexpected things come up that need two people so buy according to what you feel you can handle working. Not so much what you can afford. LOL 3- and this is the biggy, start scoping out REALLY good contractors and get references, the more the better. DO NOT TAKE A CONTRACTORS WORD! seriously, the nicest people maybe do some jobs good and be great to work with, that doesn't mean they will follow all the guidelines set forth. Get pictures or go see jobs they have done, check Angieslist, call BBB, what ever it takes to make sure the contractor you get knows how to handle the job you give them. This might sound extreme but get one like II got and you'll truly wish you had done this step. I promise! Permits and codes are a PITA, but they protect you in the long run, make sure you use someone that follows them to a "T" and knows them for your area and uses them. It costs a lot more to fix after the fact and the contractor isn't always held 100% liable if something is found out of code, you may be held liable personally liable since it's your property. (That's a BIG mistake I made, Thinking the contractor was ultimately responsible, Not always the case, But if your within the allowance of the permits and codes by law he must follow them if your to take legal action ) 4- If your looking for property and want to raise animals, TRY to find one that is fenced, or has a barn, storage or some type of shelter already on it. They all cost serious $$$, they are worth gold when it comes down to budgeting in your total cost. Last, start now looking into small farm tax breaks. LOTS of ways you can save money in taxes by starting a small farm that is designed to make a profit. Many here are using goats and mini animals because you can sell the babies and make money, all you have to do is sell more than what it takes to feed and care. Plan ahead what you want to farm if that is the case and buy enough land to cover that. Some farms need more land, some don't need as much. It's fun, it's rewarding, it's a dream I highly recommend following, and the peacefulness is unmatched, IF YOUR NOT STRESSED TO THE MAX during the building process! Thank goodness we decided on a prebuilt home and didn't go with a custom one. (ALMOST DID!) I honestly believe if I would have I would have had to have been committed to a nut house if I had taken that on too. After a full year we are finally settling down and enjoying the property like it should be. ( Probably because it's winter and no need to cut grass, weed-eat, pick up tree branches, fix this, build that, reroute this, replace that, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. lol )

 

[Jennywren]

Such an exciting new adventure, Pecan. I wish you and your husband well and hope for a very smooth transition.

 

[sissy]

Nothing is ever easy if it were we would all be a little sad as we cannot make it better .We learn as we go through life . :razz:

 

[pecan]

Thanks for the tips Larkin. I am a little overwhelmed at the thought of building. Especially since I have drawn out the house plan I want built so I don't know how that works. I know most builders have plans to choose from. I am sure we will have to pay an architect to properly put the house plan in working order. We also want adobe and I am not sure how hard it is to find someone to build adobe. Cedar City isn't a huge town so I am not sure how many builders there are to choose.. My sister and brother in law own a mortgage company there in town so they luckily know which builders are good ones. But can one they recommend build a custom adobe home, I don't know.

As far as taxes, my dear sweet husband is a disabled retired Marine and Utah provides vets with disabilities property tax discounts. Very nice of the state to offer it. The total tax bill on our house this year was $2200, but the amount we owed with the disabled vet discount was only $89.

I am thinking about raising some animals though. Maybe be a Chihuahua rancher Seriously though we will for sure get chickens for the eggs and maybe some goats for the milk and we can always breed and sell them. Plus goats can be helpful in keeping large pieces of land cleared.

Eventually I want to get some colts from the BLM Wild Mustang auctions they do each spring. Raise them, break them and ride them. I think they would be handy to have on a large piece of land to get around, check fencing etc. But they would also come in handy on the remote property we have near the NV border. Plus the wild Mustangs in the auction are from the area so they would be very hardy to the climate and such. However, that will be a while. It takes a lot of money, out building, trailers etc. to have horses so not right away.

 

[sissy]

CHIHUAHUA RANCHER I can just see that herd them up throw a saddle on there little backs .

 

[HARO]

Roundup time would look like an episode from Keystone Cops!!! :toothy12:
John

 

[sissy]

As fast as they are you would need to run it in slow motion just to see what was going on .It would make for a great movie though America's Funniest Home Movies .