If I had 75 acres, I'd ________.

[HereSince1628]

Well, I do, in southern Wisconsin. The question is how best to use this little piece of mortgaged heaven that I had intended to live on at retirement but which is challenged by current unemployment. I'd appreciate your creativity...

Its about halfway between Milwaukee and Madison and sits on the south and west sides a high drumlin (glacical hill) with a few acres of wetland, roughly 1/3 is oak/hickory woodland and the rest is currently rented and in alfalfa...

[Kolesar]

1. invite some of my buddies from DU to move in and grow stuff

I mean, like, organic potatos and pumpkins and green beans. Seriously, I wonder how much of my food budget I could supplant by growing my own food.

[HereSince1628]

5. Well, if you skip tropical foods that much area could easily feed

a large family. In fact, it did for about 150 years.

[forgethell]

10. Actually,

you should be able to have a surplus for sale. Probably not enough to make the mortgage, though.

[HereSince1628]

21. True. actually, in a one acre garden I could raise all

the vegetables my family would have eaten being only limited by willingness to preserve the stuff. Even so I had surpluses of apples, cherries, and grapes...and subtracting away the garden and the old farm HQ, which I have sold, there was still the 75 acres to do farming on.

[Droopy]

2. Sounds like your doing all you can

Renting the land out was a good idea. Sorry I can't come up with anything else you could do with it to bring in some extra income. Hopefully the job prospects will turn up for you soon.

[GOPisEvil]

3. I'd just leave it alone.

Especially the wetlands and woodlands. Let whatever lives there enjoy it. This assumes the leased portion of the land produces enough income to allow the mortgage and taxes to be paid of course. I'd use it as my retreat from the world for now.

[DK666]

4. Well....

Paintball field.

Sell some of the trees/wood to craftsman via the internet.


Hmmmm.. Ill keep thinking.

[HereSince1628]

7. That is one I hadn't thought of...

I am supposing people pay to play paintball. Are there standard dimensions for this?

[DK666]

15. Depends on

How you set up the fields. Usually for scenero games about 2 ac. each. Speed ball is about 1/4 ac. Mabey you could partner with a paintball store and just rent the land to them ? BTW it usually costs me about 25-45 to play per day. But then I use about 300.00 in paint and air.

[HereSince1628]

19. I will need to see if there are paintballers in the area.

It sounds like the cost might not be terrible...I am guessing if there were a paintball store involved my costs would be maybe rental of porta-potties, materials to control parking/traffic, and liability insurance. That is similar to the requirements for setting up swap fair/flea markets which I have checked into.

I will have to search the web and local yellow pages to see what is aroung me. Do you have any idea how far people are willing to travel to do that?

[DK666]

20. Travel...

I drive 40-150 miles depending on the field.

[HereSince1628]

22. Well, that gives me a starting point for where to look for

paintball stores...100 mile radius includes the inner ring of the northwestern Chicago suburbs.

[Drifter]

6. end up in jail ...

for growing way too much dope.

Cheers
Drifter

[HereSince1628]

11. LOL...I walk the entire place regularly to be sure there isn't any

A family south of Madison lost its land to a drug seizure because someone outside the family had a crop on their land. I have no idea how that ever turned out.

But being on DU, I have the feeling I'm under surveillance already.

[el_gato]

8. why don't you start farming?

build a cabin and spend your time growning organic veggies

that's what i would do

[HereSince1628]

13. Real honest to goodness farming starts with real money

something of a problem for me at present. I have thought about trying to start some hops vines.

There are still hobby brewers that might be interested...

[Nlighten1]

9. I would start a sustainable farm

I am looking at some land right now to do just that.

[BiggJawn]

12. Move there, farm, and shotgun any ReTHUGs who trespass...

n/t

[SmileyBoy]

14. Build a football stadium!!!

But I'd need about another $400,000,000 to actually build it...

[HereSince1628]

17. In a desperate moment I considered a stock car track...

also an outdoor theater...but both are already in the community.
Re: stadia...Milwaukee looks like it may have an empty stadium already. The Brewers plan to cut player salaries 25% for next year in their own version of Walmartization. But that is another story.

[Speck Tater]

16. Chrustmas Tree farm

Only have to harvest once a year, and it takes very little maintenance the rest of the year.

[HereSince1628]

18. That's an idea that I have looked at.

Here abouts the cut tree market is dominated by plantation growers from further north...the local market depends on people coming out and cutting their own trees, a farm not too far away is going under subdivision so its a possibility...

BTW like most crops trees really don't grow with no maintenance, after planting there's weed and pest management, and shaping as well.

[Robb]

23. Do you get a lot of snow?

I don't know spit about Wisconsin, but with very little effort you could set up a dogsled track for ISDRA sprint races with that kind of land. Very low impact on the land, good rent -- and if it's a sanctioned race, mushers will come from all over the freakin' country to bulk up on race points. :shrug:

[HereSince1628]

24. Interesting, snow in southern Wi is an uncertain thing..

But, it's generally cold enough, there are plenty of "bunny hill" type ski areas around.

I suppose that there is an ISDRA website? Something like isdra.org?

[Robb]

37. Something like that

Just like that! :)

http://www.isdra.org

[Speck Tater]

25. Build the world's largest all-wood roller coaster.

nt

[HereSince1628]

27. definitely one I hadn't considered

I am guessing it would have to wait for me to win the lottery or find a couple thousand well heeled investors...

[MisterP]

26. wetland and much of woodland as preserve (think globally, act locally),

offer field trips, maybe rent some out, I dunno

[HereSince1628]

29. The wetland will probably have to stay wetland...

getting permission to do otherwise will be difficult...
I actually have conducted teacher in-service workshops on the farm, back in the days when I had the HQ with the buildings.

[rucky]

28. Organic Tundra Farm

not much of a market, but there may be some subsidies in it for ya.

[HereSince1628]

31. If I had tundra I could have...YAKS!!!

,

[amazona]

30. can you grow ginseng?

I was interested in growing this endangered plant but learned I lived too far south. Isn't Wisconsin one of the centers of the farmed ginseng or am I thinking of another northern state?

Goldenseal herb is becoming endangered and is another useful herb that may sell at a good price. Gota Kula (spelling?) the brain herb is supposedly easy to raise also.

What does VERY well in my area is butterfly and hummingbird gardening. Also native wildflowers. You need to outreach to the hummingbirders and butterflyers and at least once a year do a butterfly or hummingbird "festival" on your property. I know a family that does this to the extent that I worry about their security because of the amount of cash they can raise at their hummingbird and butterfly fests. It is quite profitable.

Specialty culinary herbs apparently do well if you can connect with the better restaurants.

Actual food plants, as opposed to the herbs and butterfly/hummingbird plants, do not bring in enough money for the trouble, and they are susceptible to insect pests.

Our local grower often does giveaways where he gives away Monarch caterpillars to children, but he explains to the parents that the caterpillars only grow on milkweed...so only the children who have milkweed in their yard get a caterpillar. This sells plenty of milkweed flowers! He also started a birdwatching trail and butterfly garden on his property.

So far north, I don't know what you would do for half the year -- down here, we have 5 seasons, so land is being worked 12 months of the year.

[HereSince1628]

33. Acres and acres of ginseng growing in Jeffersons Co.

Its intensive...it grows under a shade cover so you have to put in posts and cables to hold it up. But there are folks around me who have done it. Seven years to the first harvest..

I hadn't ever thought about plants for butterflies...along with other things that might be interesting. Thanks.

[Blue_Chill]

32. build old shacks out of drift wood & sell tickets to my "haunted land"

:D

[HereSince1628]

34. If only I were closer to the Wisconsin Dells...

It sounds like a winner!

[htuttle]

35. Sell it to me!

Is it right in the Kettle Morraine? Near the North Prairie and Palmyra area?

Dude, there's some beautiful land in that area. Is the wetland part of the Vernon Marsh? If I were you, I'd find a way to keep it somehow.

(mostly kidding, partly not on the buying it part. Maybe -- if we can talk about a land contract...but that's not going to work if you have it mortgaged)


What would *I* do with it? I'd live on it! I can generate a just-above-subsistence income from home, and I'd spend the rest of the time growing vegetables (and probably spend a good share of effort every season talking myself out of putting in an acre of Good Wisconsin Green...until it's legal, anyway).

[HereSince1628]

No, its in Jefferson Co.

and I think its pretty. Very pastoral, scattered drumlins rather than glacial moraine, which is about 10 miles to the southeast

Selling is sort of the last thing that I want to do, though it may ultimately come to that.

[HereSince1628]

36. Things I had contemplated...

A gallery for statuary...sort of a car lot for selling big pieces of art.

Rental site for picnics/family reunion

Garden Center for ex-urbanites.

Chip & Put par 3 golf course

New-Age Cemetary...burials and ash scatterings in a prairie restoration.

Nordic or Karelian Wooden Church (cemetary took my mind to funeral services and churches)

"hay market"...farmers market/flea market

Organics for home/small breweries growing hops, sprouting malt

"farming" antibodies for research labs.

[toddzilla]

38. build a giant r/c car track!!

this wouldn't work in the winter without a building, but a big r/c car track generates revenue if you do it right. not cheap to start up though..

[HereSince1628]

39. I hadn't thought of that...

and thanks for the pictures...where are these?

[toddzilla]

49. these are from st. louis

but there are tracks all over the world.. we race carpet indoor during the winter, but we get 30-50 racers every weekend during the summer/fall months. It's a very expensive, but fun hobby. three horsepower in an 8 pound vehicle .. goes about 40 mph!!


you may want to check for hobby shops in the area, my club pays 300 a month for use of our indoor building.. i'm sure you could get a few hundred for the use of an acre or so..

[ProudGerman]

40. Build the worlds most powerful Pumpkin chucker

and have a ball every day for the rest of my life.

I really like that paintball idea, people spend loads of money on paintball, as the poster who mentioned it already attested to. In the vein of "extreme sports", and outdoor skate park could be cool too. If there's a strong skateboard/BMX community in your area, leasing some land to a shop or two that specialize in that sort of thing could be an idea too. Who knows, maybe one day you'll host an ESPN Xtreme Games event and rock festival rolled into one.

[HereSince1628]

42. I am not aware of an extreme sports community, but it may exist

in southern Wisconsin. I suspect there is something of a generation gap at work in that...

I have contemplated trying to host an event for "horse people" I am aware that the English riding folks have some gaming events over closed courses and they literally travel hundreds of miles to participate in such things...Also being that the hill is sort of concave its easy to see everythingn in about 40 acres without interruprion of trees or intervening hillside...

[BigMcLargehuge]

41. attract several hundred loyal followers

for a lifetime of drunken baccanalia

[HereSince1628]

43. If 100 came with $1K each I could swing that!

,

[scarlet_owl]

44. If it were here in Illinois, I would turn it into a

restored prairie. Illinois was covered in about 80% tall grass prairie before the settlers came (at least from the sources I have heard). Now it has less than one-tenth of one percent of original prairie. Prairies are so beautiful and they are such important ecosystems.

[HereSince1628]

45. Originally this land was probably a hardwood upland with

a tamarack swamp in the lowland. There are still some tamarack swamps in the vicinity.

Currently the wetland is sedgy apart from my tamarack plantings. Sedge meadow is one of the most endangered habitats in Wisconsin.

[onebigbadwulf]

46. Make a giant paintball field

Make some fat cash.

[HereSince1628]

47. DK666 had a similar idea...its something new to me, I have to

check it out...particularly the issues of protecting myself from liabiilties. Fences are barbed wire, groundhogs dig holes, trees have low lying limbs. If people are running around focused on other things they could get hurt. If I were to do this I would have to protect myself from litigation. Still its something new to me.

[MrSoundAndVision]

48. Start a socialistic community for the homeless and the lower class

Invitation only, and I'd work my ass of trying to get grants to start a community service program actually subsidized by a public institution, maybe not directly related to the community, but lending some public image to the project so the damn government doesn't come in and shoot all of the children and pregnant women, or burn the place down. On second thought I don't want to die.

I don't know, I guess I'd stop paying rent.

[midnight armadillo]

50. permaculture

check out this book:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=2TRPX3NKUL&isbn=1890132527&itm=1