Hello again, I guess I haven't updated in a while, but not too much has happened in the last little while, at least, nothing really good.
I finally got a quote from the Septic people...$21,750!!!!!! That is almost DOUBLE what has been previously estimated by this same contractor, and the designer! He was supposed to call me last night to discuss it, but I never heard from him. Not to mention, I'm also paying over $1,000 for the design of it as well.
This really cuts into our cash reserve. That's almost all the money I have! I've got about $28,000 or so, and that has to cover moving the mobile, putting in electric, finishing the woodstove, finishing the water, and then putting in sewer. Bottom line...I'm $10,000 short. I hate this, it really blows, but it isn't the end of the world. We will find the money, and the funny thing is, I may have found it already!
I found out that my pension contributions from my last job will probably be returned to me! That represents about 5-6,000 extra dollars, and then on top of that, I might be able to claim back the GST I paid for the last itself. I was kind of hoping that I could pay down the debt I've already got with that money, but it doesn't look like that's going to materialize. I just need to find a short term loan until I get this money back.
I'm also looking into the possibility of a part time job for a little while, or at least until we're making money off of the land! My understanding is that things will be tight for about a year or maybe a bit less. Then, my pay at work will rise, and I will have some surplus money to start paying down the high interest debt. Once the high interest debt is gone, I can start socking away for the mortgage. I want to have this paid off in 5 years or less!

On another note, I spoke with my uncle, who sells beef in bulk through a website. He charges between $2.49 up to $3.19 per pound for an animal that weighs about 750-800lbs. If each animal takes between 16-22 months to raise, and the cost of production is about $1.10/lb, then the potential profit is between $1.40-$2.00/lb. For an 800lb animal, you could possibly receive $1200! If you processed 10-14 animals per year, that equals $12,000 to $18,000 per year net profit for your efforts. That's pretty good, and that's what I plan on doing next year. I'd like to start with 7 cow/calf pairs if I can raise the money, and start processing beef in the fall of 2010.
I'd also like to start planting some raspberry plants, which will hopefully start production in a couple years. That oughta keep me real busy for a bit!