When your world consists of finished square feet and you’ve found a way to make that wonderful with beautiful decorating, climate control and all the comforts money can buy, why would you even think about a farm? When your outdoor grill turns your multi level deck into a gourmet smorgasbord, why would you ever imagine a silent, starry night without another home in sight? When your children excel on the soccer field, enjoy sleepovers with dozens of friends and prep for college with AP classes, why disrupt their happy lives with cows and horses, mowing and mucking? Suburbia and all its superlatives can seem “The Life of Riley.” It has become the American success story, but it hasn’t been that long since wealth was instead in the land.
For many people there is a primal pull back to nature, back to the land. Perhaps it’s where true safety abides. All our carefully laid sticks and stones are so easily swept away yet the land remains with the ability to provide food and shelter for our basic survival. Perhaps it’s a subliminal contingency plan. Survivalists aside, there is a feeling that’s hard to describe as one stands upon the land and feels apart from the civilized world yet connected to a larger world that exists, even thrives without us. Perhaps that’s what “grounded” really means and why the Realtors Preamble begins, “Under all is the land.”
Think about it. Fifty, a hundred acres, farm land, woodland, mountain land, a getaway where you and yours re-connect, work and play. You don’t have to go all in, few do. Most of these beautiful farms are run by farmers who have lived here forever and make a living by leasing farms, maintaining them for you while they reap what they sow. The woodlands take care of themselves too, growing more valuable each year and qualifying for low forestal use taxes. Now that land is appreciating once again, it may fit nicely into an investment plan, a gift for future generations that has no equal.
When a challenging day in the office leaves you with a few more gray hairs and a perfect day in the suburbs begins to feel mundane, imagine a world where things grow because the sun shines and your day is governed by the weather and the sunset, where work makes your muscles sore and you can see what you’ve accomplished at the end of the day, where your nosy neighbors are replaced by lowing cows and your outdoors speakers are crickets and tree frogs. Virginia’s Piedmont has a wealth of fabulous farms available to suit every land use and every budget. If you are interested in learning more, call your country property specialist or contact me to out how you can get back to the land.
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