The Miller, Missouri fall festival was this past week.
Miller is a small town, but they put on quite a show. There are rides for the kids, several food booths, crafts, nightly musical entertainment, and a parade. The festival continues for four days and is held right in the middle of Miller's Main Street.
This year there was even an Elvis impersonator. I missed that, so I can't report back on how Elvis-y he was.
My husband and I chatted with neighbors and had some dinner. Then I dragged him off to the senior center where the crafts were being shown. He showed his good nature by standing there with a smile as the ladies and I chatted about quilting, old-fashioned mangles and more. Eventually he started to look glazed, and I figured I'd better get him out of there. I bought a quilt raffle ticket and a pair of hand-crocheted slippers and we headed out.
Next stop was a more "manly" raffle booth where we put in tickets for an ATV and a rifle. We spent a bit more time listening to the music and chatting, and then had to head out to put the chickens away.
We didn't win the quilt or any of hunting gear (sigh...). Maybe next year.
I foolishly left my camera at home while we were down there, so I can't show you the Miller festival, only tell you about it. If you're in the area during the first week of September I'd encourage you to come down and check it out. It's a lot of fun and a great way to show support for the town.
The Lawrence County Record is the weekly voice of Lawrence County, Missouri.
Every Wednesday, we all open up the Record to see what's going on. From editorials on national and regional issues, to front-page spreads about local events, to an annual back-to-school issue, and right down to who is having their 90th birthday party, they keep us informed.
Adding to their 134-year print tradition, they now have a website and e-Edition. This is pretty exciting stuff. The Record staff seem to have made a big effort to build a site that's not just a newspaper, but a community information portal. The site looks professional, is easy to navigate, and loads fast.
On the public website, you'll find:
- Some of the stories from the paper. There also seem to be stories from days when the paper isn't published, so it's not just once-a-week updates.
- Ads for local businesses. Just taking a quick look at these is interesting. Go ahead and click a few ads. Click the one for the Lawrence County Historical Museum, for instance. Cool info behind there.
- A very informative Community section. It's still in its first stages but is already pretty nice. There are some great pictures, history and present-day info. Right now, it's focused on Mt. Vernon. That's very understandable, but I'm hoping they might branch out a bit in the future to cover other towns in the county. This is wonderful information for people considering relocating to Southwest Missouri.
- Local events and calendars.
- And more...who knows what will be there tomorrow?
The e-Edition, which is the full paper, is subscriber only (only $1 additional to those who are already paying the paltry sum of $23 per year to have the Record delivered to their house). I'll be signing up, of course.
I'm so happy to have this website as a resource for myself as well as relocation real estate buyers who'd like to find out more about Southwest Missouri. In the past, I've actually mailed a few copies of the Record to prospects. Glad I don't have to do that anymore. Nice job, guys!
You Can't Read the Map If You Can't Find the Map
Modern mapping sites and software go far beyond simple aerials to include topography, geology, soil types, hydrography and much more.
But all that is no good if you don't know where to look on the map.
Finding properties on a map sounds simple...just type in the address, right?
Unfortunately, mapping software misplaces many rural addresses. My own address shows up a few miles from where it really is.
Even if you've already been to a property, rural areas tend to have huge tracts of land that look similar on an aerial. Forests, pastures, fields...add that to a couple-mile address error, and you could be scratching your head trying to find that property on a map.
Let me help you locate your rural dream properties on a Missouri map (or any map, for that matter!)
Location, Location, (GPS) Location...
With patience and the help of your Realtor, you can confidently locate each country dream property.
- If you've progressed to the visiting stage, use a GPS to tag the entrance, a building or another conspicuous landmark and save it. Make sure the tagged spot is in a cleared area that will be visible on an aerial map. Choose an older building to make sure it will show up even in aerials that are a few years old. When you start creating maps based on the GPS coordinates later, your landmark will be a final visual confirmation that you've input the coordinates correctly.
- No GPS? Document the closest road intersections. Then drive from an intersection to the property, noting the mileage and direction. Note any landmarks on the property that will stand out on an aerial map. Ahem, don't forget to note which side of the road the property is on...not that I would ever do a thing like that.
- GPS tags or the intersection method won't show you the property boundaries, so try to get a plat map and aerial with the boundaries marked. Ask your Realtor (me!) for these items. You can get them from the county if you're local. Few of the rural counties around here have plats or aerials online at this time, though Lawrence County where I live does. Go, Lawrence County!
Remember, do not enter the land without a agent accompanying you. If you're just driving by, tag the entrance. Even empty land often has neighbors keeping an eye out for trespassers.
Are You a Dreamer?
If you're at the armchair dream stage, maybe you're not comfortable calling a Realtor yet. That's fine. When you see a potential dream property on the internet, you can use a combination of the address, driving directions on the listing, and any small aerial or plat that might be included, and find the place by trial and error. It won't work for all of them, but it will work for some.
My husband and I did quite a bit of this armchair dreaming before we bought our 40 acres in Southwest Missouri. We considered garden suitability, water features, distance to towns, and more.
Playing with maps was a big part of what brought us to Missouri to buy rural property. We could see the terrain, the combination of forest and open, the good road system, the amazing number of streams.
Besides, sitting there in our comfy chairs trying to figure out the exact location of each rural property became part of the adventure. We weren't ready to buy...we just wanted to dream.
OK, I've Pinpointed a Location...Now What?
All right, take your GPS coordinates, your nearest landmark, the nearest town + directions, or whatever you have, and go forth to your mapping software or one of these sites.
Our favorite mapping site for Missouri is the Missouri Map Room. This University of Missouri site lets you easily make layered custom maps. Just click on Missouri Interactive Maps to get started.
You can use addresses, lat/long, county, township/section/range and more to find the property you're looking for. Once you've found it, you can add an amazing amount of information from aerials to agriculture to demographics to healthcare to topography. You can zoom in and out, add and remove layers, and more.
For detailed information about dirt...excuse me, "Soil"...you can go to the USDA's Web Soil Survey page and click on the big green button to start making your maps.
Go check these sites out. They're amazing.
Do I Really Need to Know All This?
Yes! Or at least some of it, depending on your needs.
If you bought a house in town, you'd want to know about the schools, the stores, healthcare and how well the neighbors behind you take care of their place, right? This is the same thing on a larger scale.
Don't wait to think about the things that are important to you.
Perhaps the area you're considering for your dream home is almost completely vertical, has soil that won't support a garden or is more than an hour from the nearest hospital. You might even travel to the wrong area of the country, looking for a combination of factors that simply aren't there.
Perhaps you see a listing that seems perfect. Map it, and find out more.
Is it a quarter mile from the railroad tracks? Maybe you love the rumble of trains. Or maybe you don't.
Does the listing say "secluded"? Map it, and see if it's secluded enough.
Exactly how much of this listing is wooded, and how much is cleared? Map it!
Does the stream mentioned in the listing run into a bigger river? Map it!
Do they grow a lot of crops around here? Map it!
Have fun with your maps. Today's wonderful maps are a great part of educating yourself about property. When you're ready, I'll be glad to help you turn those dream maps into a dream home here in Southwest Missouri.
Last week, I visited the University of Missouri's Southwest Center Agricultural Experiment Station. That's quite a mouthful, so I'll just call it the Center.
The Center has been around since 1959. Their mission is to perform continuing agricultural and horticultural research on an 898-acre site just south of Mount Vernon, Missouri.
For the last 46 years, they've held an annual public Field Day, and this was my first one. I had a wonderful, educational time.
Various professionals from the Center, other branches of the University, and other universities made short educational presentations and gave tours covering a variety of topics. The general areas of discussion were Beef, Dairy, Forage, Horticulture, and Grapes. Questions were welcomed.
This was a great opportunity for me. My husband and I grow and enjoy a large home garden and are starting a tiny orchard. We definitely wanted to check out the horticultural information. I also try to learn whatever I can about local agricultural production so I can do a better job of presenting local farms to buyers and for sellers.
The very good turnout included students, cattle ranchers, dairy farmers, hobby farmers, vegetable producers and home gardeners. Everyone seemed to be having a good time and learning a lot. We even got a little sunburned after the clouds cleared up.
There was definitely something for everyone. Here's just a sampling of the 20+ wide-ranging farm and garden topics that were addressed:
I made it through several of the horticulture and dairy tours and sessions. There just wasn't enough time for anything else! The morning horticulture sessions were very well attended. I was very impressed both with the helpful presentations and with the crowd. At the end of each presentation, people asked good questions, others chimed in with helpful answers from their own experience, and the experts did a great job of coordinating it all, giving their own answers and clarifications.
My dairy sessions were as part of the final group, so there weren't that many people in those sessions. That was OK with me since I was just trying to soak up the basic information. I'm not sure I could have processed any additional input!
If you are anywhere near Mount Vernon, consider finding out more about the Center. You'll find them on the web at http://aes.missouri.edu/swcenter/. They offer seminars throughout the year on various topics, plus they're a great source of information. I already have a followup email in my inbox with some solar greenhouse information that I requested.
Another of my favorite Missouri garden and farm information spots on the web is the University of Missouri extension service, http://extension.missouri.edu/. Click on "Programs by Topic" on the left-hand side, and you'll find a wealth of information.
So mark your calendar for early next September. Whether you're a new or long-time Missouri gardener, a hobby farmer, or a full-time farmer, come on out and have a field day at Field Day!
If you've been living in the city all your life, you may not have thought too much about where your household water comes from. Out of the faucet, right? That's what I used to think, too.
Once you start planning to buy property in rural Southwest Missouri, there's a little more to it than that. Unless you live within reach of the rural water districts extending around the local small towns, you're going to be getting your water from a well.
Well Basics:
There are some basic well questions you'll want to ask when you're buying rural property. Start with these:
As always, check the seller's disclosure statement too.
Note: Don't drink water from vacant properties! See "Shocking a Well" below for why this is important. If the well is old and shallow, or the owner doesn't know much about it, I wouldn't sample the water there either.
Shocking A Well:
If the rural property you're purchasing is vacant, you'll need to plan on having the well "shocked" and the water tested.
Shocking a well is adding chlorine, turning on all the taps to carry chlorine through the system, and then allowing it to sit in the pipes overnight to kill any nasty things that have grown in there while the water has not been used.
The next day, the chlorine is run out of the system and the water is sampled and sent off for testing.
Sometimes systems have to be shocked twice. More than two bad tests? You may be looking at drilling a new well, or at installing a water-treatment system.
Even if the home is currently occupied, get the water tested anyway, for your own peace of mind.
Give Yourself Enough Time:
The well-test process takes time. Consider this: You schedule a well shock, the next day they put in the chlorine, the chlorine sits overnight, they sample the water, the sample gets mailed away for testing, it's bad, you start over.
Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on the inspection clause of your contract. So you must start the well-testing process as soon as the contract is signed, and make sure that your inspection clause includes enough time to complete it. I recommend a minimum of two weeks.
Other Ways to Find Out About the Well:
In a given rural area, there are probably only one or two well-drilling companies. If the current owner doesn't know much about the well, ask your Realtor who the local drilling company is. If you or your Realtor contact that company, you'll find that they probably drilled the well. Even if they didn't, someone is sure to know the details. That's the beauty of living in the country. No luck? Call the DNR (see below link).
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has a lot of useful information as well as records of all contractor-drilled wells from 1985 forward: http://www.dnr.mo.gov/env/wpp/wellhd/index.html
Your tax dollars have also brought you the following very helpful general well information from the EPA: http://www.epa.gov/privatewells/index2.html
Don't Be Shy, You're the One Who Has to Drink The Water:
Water is crucial, so address this topic right away with any property you're considering.
Don't be afraid to ask questions. After all, a well is a topic you may not be used to dealing with. Be polite, be pleasant, be honest about what you don't understand.
Don't be nervous about having a well. Just get it tested and make sure you know as much as possible about it. I was very concerned about the idea of well water before I moved out here, but now I'm a convert.
Our water tastes great. It travels a total of less than 2000 feet from one of the best aquifers in the country, through pipes that we control, straight into my drinking glass. It doesn't get any better than that!
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