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March 2012

Farmland price surge leads to even more demand

BOSTON, March 19 (Reuters) – As a teenager in Wisconsin, Perry Vieth spent his summers baling hay in a neighbor’s field. Four decades later, Vieth is farming again. This time, however, the former fixed-income trader owns the land.

“At the end of 2006, I took a look at the markets, didn’t like what was on the horizon and decided to move into hard assets,” Vieth says.

He isn’t the only one betting on the farm these days.

During the last several years, investors have taken notice of the swelling prices and hearty returns that come with productive farms. Individuals and funds are increasingly seeing farmland as an ideal hard asset class.

Farmland generates not only regular income but also capital appreciation and can be used as a hedge against inflation. Another benefit: farmland returns tend to be immune to stock or bond fluctuations, making it a good diversification tool.

“A lot of people like to say ‘It’s gold with a coupon,'” says Chris Erickson, managing director at HighQuest Partners, an agribusiness consulting firm.

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Energy

Net zero homes – do the math

Gary and Bobbie Worker from Portland, had their heart set on an energy neutral home that was as financially-efficient, as it was ecologically effective. “We wanted it to make sense,” said Gary. “And we wanted to approach it from a standpoint of return on investment.” A typical family which clears its electric and water bill and uses an electric car to avoid filling up at the pump, will save more than $800 a month.

Their 2 acres outside Portland has an underground heat pump to heat their space. It also powers AC and ventilation. But they also have an electric car, which sometimes donates energy to the home and sometimes uses it, courtesy of the array of solar panels. At first, they used to see it as a backup power unit but increasingly they depend on the surplus energy it gives them when they drive it home at night after a day charging up in town.
And its proving a worthwhile investment.

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Mobile

Powering your cell phone

I know, I know – how do you call yourself off the grid when you have a cell phone so rooted to your ear that you would need surgery to remove it?

Whatever. We take life as we find it, and in most cases these days that means heavy smartphone usage is the norm off the grid. And that means battery maintenance is crucial to our daily peace of mind. And this info is useful not just to off-grid types but to anyone whose life is mobile but who needs to stay in touch via multiple media whilst they are on the road.

Cell phones and tablets have become incredibly powerful over the past few years, but the batteries, sadly, have not kept up. But there are a few ways to keep phones alive long past their normal exhaustion points.

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Mobile

NPR on Electric cars

How would an electric car work out for an off-grid household?  Remarkably well assuming it could be charged up during visits to the grid.  And the car battery would become an important power source back at home base.

Electric cars have to be integrated into the daily pattern of life, just like off-grid homes. A recent discussion on NPR’s SCIENCE FRIDAY, was most enlightening. “You rapidly learned how to integrate that charging in with the rest of the things you do during the day, one contributer told presenter Ira Flatow:

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Food

Early Spring Garden

It is rare for us to be able to plant our garden before April 15 but, in rather shocking fashion, spring weather is upon us here in Canada nearly a month ahead of normal. So we are getting started early.

For those who think that gardening begins about May 20 we would like to offer some suggestions.
Our favorite vegetables are actually planted as soon as the ground can be worked in spring. We were introduced to Sugar Snap Peas by a friend some years back. He turned us on to how great it is to be eating fresh green peas (shell and all) in late May.

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Energy

US Army seeks off-grid system in Belize

Fort Sam Texas is looking for a contractor to provide it with a  complete and usable 15KW-Hrs Off-Grid Hybrid system.  The specs are interesting as they provide a guide of what any group of individuals thinking of living off the grid might decide they need.

The system consists of: two 5KW Vertical Axis Wind Turbine for a total of 10KW. Each turbine with its own inverter; plus one  5KW solar photovoltaic system and one battery bank suitable for one  day of autonomy.

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Land

Land in Hungary and Romania

Austrian farmers are buying cheap land as fast as they can, but there are 10 million hectares to go, mainly in smallholdings across the country.

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Land

Choosing Land for your off-grid home

Buying land means foreseeing problems with water, septic and solar or wind power. Cheap land may not be a bargain if you need to truck in water

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For sale: Off-Grid home in Eire

Green Valley Properties, a rural property specialist in Ireland, is selling a fully equipped off-grid property in Co Clare for just €99,000. GVP is a great company – it sells land from just a few thousand Euros up to half a million.

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