Yes, the problem is we dream these dreams then in the end do nothing only to regret it in old age when we can't do anything about it.
In the 20 years of living the nomad life, I longed to return to Arkansas permanently (I did have land here in partnership with my brother and a house which a roomie held down the fort.) But when finally moving on and becoming an appraiser, I've watched the rural small town home turned into sprawling tentacles where small villages re-incorporated to protect themselves from the sprawl and the rest goobled up in houses, regional airports, and not much else.
When I started appraising, I appraised a dairy farm near Bentonville. All Jersey herd. He lasted another couple of years. It is covered in houses now. There were dozens of dairies and I appraisals of same at least 3 or 4 a year until the late 20th century. I think I know of 2 dairies today. And one is closing this year. The other is sitting on land that would bring $50,000 an acre easy, surrounded by housing additions. Ryan is trying to save a multigenerational farm and live in the house he was born to. Like me, he is too old to start over somewhere else. And not ready to retire. All the poultry farms within 5 miles of him are gone. He will likely be the last dairy in the county. It is tough on my psyche to argue the "HBU" is to cover with houses and destroy yet another couple hundred acres of farmland with grass and trees and old houses (3) replacing with cookie cutters, concrete, and poisoned lawns. The spring on the place will be green and polluted, and city folk cannot figure why. And the dairy industry itself has gravitated to huge dairies with hundreds of cows, milked 24 hours a day, dry lot and fed a strict ration in drier climates to avoid the odor issues or in more isolated places. The 49 cow dairy cannot survive (FYI- 50 or more cows makes you subject to all sorts of EPA regulations over being a CAFO - "confined" animal feeding operation, even if you are running on a couple hundred acres.)
What does $10 million mean to a 65 year old farmer? What good is money? You pay the IRS $3 million. Or do a 1031 exchange for land in Oklahoma? I donno. What do you do? I had a little heart to heart with my niece and nephews. Our farm will be worth more dead than alive someday. It's been in the family since 1854. I said your grandad would turn in his grave if he knew we turned down a ridiculous offer. We can hold out for a few more years but in the end you all three will likely have to make a decision. Don't look back. Sell and move somewhere cheaper or simply forget it. Buy a house in town and kiss the country goodbye. And like those ancestors in Georgia 170 years ago, never go back. It is just a memory now. It is said, when my grandfather's great-grandmother was living she always longed to go "home" to Georgia. But you can never go home again.
