If I was going to head for the hills, it would be to the Smokies or the Black Hills. Unfortunately, most of them are already full up. As to selling the farm, I expect any year for the local government to repeal the Greenbelt laws, which would raise our property taxes by around $75,000 per year, at which time we would be forced to sell. That’s the traditional method around here for turning farms into suburbs.

the Grit

Good for barbed wire and CCTV contractors.

There may be less hills to head for in the future. The ‘preparedness’ community in the US is building up a head of steam about the “Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act” currently under consideration by the House of Representatives. This Act proposes converting more than 28,000,000 acres (45,000 square miles) in the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming into “designated wilderness areas.”
The affected land currently has roads and is open to public use. However, if the wilderness area expansion passes then public access use will be severely restricted. All roads will be blocked off or removed, and hunting and wood cutting will be illegal. A “wilderness permit” will be required for camping or backpacking in these areas.
Good news for environmentalists, bad news for anyone currently living there or anyone intending to “head for the hills”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascension_Island

1820 Grit. That’s impressive but, if the farm is getting surrounding bit by bit by urban sprawl it would seem economic to cash in or, turn it into a city farm for school visits.

If I was you I’d head for them hills. Hell, you could even sell a slice of your farm for a bit of cash & purchase a nice wee cabin up in those forests. Remember the cool mountain breeze in these increasingly hot summers will feel mighty good.

I would except for the family ties to the land. It’s been in my wife’s family since 1820, so the habit is kind of hard to break. I know that doesn’t sound all that old in Europe, but around here it’s like the dawn of history

Hi Pete,

I used to feel that way about Europe. I have, however, changed my mind to the extent that I would like to tour Scotland and Italy.

the Grit

That’s OK, they don’t stock Prada either

First it was the admission of urban sprawl. Now its airplane noise pollution as well. You should be moving on up some mountains to get away from those urban types.

I posted about that a while back. I also mentioned, some time last year, that the only thing holding back the push for our Government to jump on the Global Warming bandwagon was to convince Big Business that there was profit in it. Personally, if people want to curb their guilt by giving me money to either not cut down trees that I had no intention of felling, or for burning the wood to heat my home in winter that is going into the fireplace regardless, I say thanks

We don’t have Costco, we have Wal*Mart. If you want fancy stuff, you have to drive into Memphis. Or, you can order it off the net and FedEx will bring it out the next day This, I should point out, rarely fails here, since we are the main hub, which is a real pain at times. When the wind is blowing in the wrong direction, our farm is in the flight path, one jet every three minutes between 11:00 PM and 2:00 AM. Nasty.

the Grit