[Permanently_Baffled]

LOL know what you mean paddy! First thing I did was to completely rearrange my finances to get rid of debt and the mortgage. That took some explaining.

Next stage is to get the garden up and running, its gonna be small , but better than nothing.

I just hope things can hang on 5-10 years, then I can maybe get hold of a bit of land

I'm not looking forward to my post peak rations

PB

[EnviroEngr]

... better get the romance back in there or she'll show you how Praying Mantises do it!

[Madpaddy]

Hi Lads,

Leaf, the wife believe me about PO, we sold our house, bought another, sold one car and changed the other for a diesel - are selling our investment properties etc. she has had enough now though and me spending hours on the net is the last straw. If it wan't this it would be Command and Conquer or Civilisation on the PC for hours on end anyway - at least this is somewhat constructive.

[Permanently_Baffled]

Paddy,

If you dont mind me asking , how are you financing this house with 2 acres that you have? I thought Ireland got expensive recently ?...

PB

[Madpaddy]

PB,

it's 1 acre, cost 470K euros and I have a 280K mortgage. I know, I hear u all say, I'm fucked when rates rise but what can I do. I made up the remainder with profit from 2 houses we sold and I hope to cut the mortgage to 180k when I offload the rest. That will leave me with money to put in solar etc.

I'm rushing off now - more later

[GD]

My wife is with me all the way. Though from time to time she'll say: "The end of the world is coming!" in a p*ss taking kind of way.
She doesn't understand it fully as she's busy studying to be a Nurse (and I don't want to distract her / make her lose her motivation as it's one of the most useful jobs).
I've got my sights set on getting into domestic renewable energy installation. But I've only recently found out about PO (or rather how close it is and its implications) so I'm still gathering ideas about what I'm going to do longer-term.

[Such]

My wife is Belarussian... and lived there during the collapse of the Soviet Union... until about 1999. She knows exactly what to expect, and in fact teaches me.

I didn't really try to tell her about PO... we went to the Peak Oil conference in yellow springs OHio last November to hear Richard Heinberg speak. That was convincing enough. (plus she had seen me downloading and reading lots of academic journal articles off of the University Library web-connection from Campbell, Laherrere, Duncan, Youngquist, Bartlett, van Mourik, Peters, Bahktiari, Stevens, Skrebowski, Bentley, Cavello, Salameh, Smil, Williams, Watkins, Spencer, Simmons, Hallock, Adelman, Cleveland, Chapman, Mitchell, Rosa, Pimentel, Defeyyes, the IEA, and USGS, along with Yergins book and corresponding documentary, The End of Suburbia, Extreme Oil documentary series, and the "Gasoline" episode of Modern Marvels and numerous books and popular magazine articles).

[ararboin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'i')t's 1 acre, cost 470K euros and I have a 280K mortgage.

[Tyler_JC]

470K Euro!!! $470K is a LOT of money. I can't even imagine how much money that is in Euro. (Actually I can, $610K, but the point remains)

I live in an over priced neighborhood in Massachusetts. Basically the whole state is over priced. for 600,000 you can buy 500 acres in Kansas, build a mansion on it, and have enough left over to buy tools and guns. What are you doing hanging on to a piece of property that over-valued? Is there an oil well on it or something? A gold mine perhaps?

[americandream]

Heck I remeber the day you could of got a nice little farm in Sligo for 30k punts. Thats what the EU and the fund for terror has done to Ireland......better watch your back paddy, when the gravy train dries up.....boom!!!

[Madpaddy]

470K is by no means unusual for ireland now. It is very sad. 35K could still buy you a site in the country but I'm 7 miles from work where I am the Maintenance Engineer. My job is very secure being military and my paycheque will be one of the last to go. I reckon at that stage if that happens there won't be any banks left to come looking for the dough.

It's not on an oil well - it's got something even better a deep bore fresh water well and as we all know you can't drink oil - well not safely anyway

[Madpaddy]

BTW: I'm selling some of my less useful organs if anybody is interested

Monthly repayments on that mortgage are €1170 and salary is €3700 and my wife does some internet work from home - she also does magic for kids parties. People will still want to be entertained in the future.

The house we lived in before was in an estate with increasing anti social behaviour. We had to get out of there. We did consider selling everything and buying a property overseas (mortgage free) with loads of land but then you have all the problems associated with that not to mention no job and angry kids etc etc etc .

[americandream]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Madpaddy', 'B')TW: I'm selling some of my less useful organs if anybody is interested

Monthly repayments on that mortgage are €1170 and salary is €3700 and my wife does some internet work from home - she also does magic for kids parties. People will still want to be entertained in the future.

The house we lived in before was in an estate with increasing anti social behaviour. We had to get out of there. We did consider selling everything and buying a property overseas (mortgage free) with loads of land but then you have all the problems associated with that not to mention no job and angry kids etc etc etc .

[Madpaddy]

September 1913

WHAT need you, being come to sense,
But fumble in a greasy till
And add the halfpence to the pence
And prayer to shivering prayer, until
You have dried the marrow from the bone; 5
For men were born to pray and save:
Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone,
It’s with O’Leary in the grave.

Yet they were of a different kind
The names that stilled your childish play, 10
They have gone about the world like wind,
But little time had they to pray
For whom the hangman’s rope was spun,
And what, God help us, could they save:
Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone, 15
It’s with O’Leary in the grave.

Was it for this the wild geese spread
The grey wing upon every tide;
For this that all that blood was shed,
For this Edward Fitzgerald died, 20
And Robert Emmet and Wolfe Tone,
All that delirium of the brave;
Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone,
It’s with O’Leary in the grave.

Yet could we turn the years again, 25
And call those exiles as they were,
In all their loneliness and pain
You’d cry ‘Some woman’s yellow hair
Has maddened every mother’s son’:
They weighed so lightly what they gave, 30
But let them be, they’re dead and gone,
They’re with O’Leary in the grave.

[Merlin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', '.')..for 600,000 you can buy 500 acres in Kansas, build a mansion on it, and have enough left over to buy tools and guns.

[Tyler_JC]

I know very little about buying farmland. But I remember someone posting an article that said land (away from a city) was going for $500 an acre. That puts the land cost @ $250,000. That leaves enough for tools, guns, and a nice big farmhouse. I'm not sure about the quality of the land, I assume it wouldn't be great at that price.

[Aisling]

Madpaddy - where in Ireland are you? We're in Meath, near Kells - have 180k mortgage on 1.5 acres with old land commission cottage. Putting an extension on at the moment - hoping to get away with about 60k(plus savings) there, but best laid plans.... We have thought, are we nuts? - himself is a teacher and I work from home so theoreticlly we could live anywhere in the country but there is something to be said for being near family etc, plus the land is good and the weather not too wild. Is a very rural area but the new M3 is due to pass quite close

Himself not too persuaded by the idea of peakoil - kinda trusts me but also leaving it up to me to sort out. I tried persuading him that maybe we didn't need the extension, in order not to get further into debt but he says he'd go nuts without more space, so I let it go, but he is convinced we need to keep costs down so is going to do a lot himself and we're in no great rush. Meanwhile I do the research and stock up on extra tins of beans and tomatoes when I can.

One question for you - you say you have water. We have a well but the pump is electric and whenever the ESB is out we have no water - do you have a manual pump or where would I go to look for one? If I could sort this I would sleep a lot easier. Thanks!! Any other irish people on this board by the way?

[Madpaddy]

Hi Aish,

We're in Cork about 2 miles outside Carrigaline. We just moved in after selling our old place in a housing estate. We have an electric pump also but I'm looking into getting a manually run backup on it. Thought about a small wind turbine but they are too expensive and need maintenance. I'll let you know when I have any success.

First 2 jobs are to put double glazed units hopefully using the exisitng teak frames and install an 8 or 10 Kw Hunter multifuel stove for space heating.

BTW - my sister and family live just outside Rathmolyon, hahaha you probably know them - my brother in laws family are all trad musicians and fluent Irish speakers. Don't know any other Paddy's here but I suspect that Annalivia must be one with a name like that.

[Specop_007]

Potty?
*sigh*
Europeans.

[ararboin]

"I don't know about Kansas, but good farmland in Illinois and Indiana is going for around $3000 per acre, which would put your 500 acres at $1.5 million before you bought the mansion. I've been looking for something in the country. Here in the mid-west it isn't easy. Hard to find anything less than 40 acres for sale. And if it's anywhere near a city (jobs), the prices are very high."



Here's what $149,000 can buy in ND. This one's sold, but there are more like it:

http://www.prairieroserealty.com/hetletve1.htm