Selling the house

Well, we listed our house yesterday. It's kinda wierd and it produces a fairly generous amount of anxiety for me because now I have to keep the house 'hotel room' clean for goodness knows how long with three kids running around! It'll take awhile I imagine, unless God's just gonna be really good to us and send someone along right quick.

My wife has a new job with Lifeline as a flight nurse and she's going to be stationed in Lafayette, IN. She wants to move closer to her parents so she can be around to help out as they get older. So, we've been looking a lot online. The place near Anderson we looked at won't work for two reasons. 1)It's in Anderson and not nearer to Lafayette (it'd be about an hour and a half drive!), and 2) the appraisal of that house came back a lot higher than anyone thought it would.

So there's a little place in Sheridan we found that sits on 10 acres, has fruit trees already and could be really great. Problem is, the house has two small bedrooms and only 1.5 baths. We'd have to build on at some point, and it would require quite a change in lifestyle until then. But 10 acres! Wow. So we're gonna look at it next weekend.

I had originally thought about posting several longer posts about what I did last summer and all, but that's just crazy at this point. Needless to say, I did a lot of canning!

I've checked, and good for me, I will be able to order chicks way into the summer, so if we get moved by June or July (I hope), I'll still be able to have chickens this year! Call me crazy, but I can't wait!

I'm still knitting. I'm currently working on a shawl for my Mother-in-law. The pattern is called "The Wool Peddler's Shawl" from the book, Folk Shawls, by Cheryl Oberle.

Sheesh, I gotta get off of here and get started on school with the kids... More later.

Farm Sweet Farm?

Well, this is a picture of the house that stands on the 80 acres I most recently wrote about. It has a wrap-around porch on the back. We didn't get out of the car to look around because Melora was afraid someone would yell at us for trespassing. But my sister-in-law did look in it. She says it's rough and needs work, but the woodwork inside is beautiful, and the house has potential. Yeah, I can see that. The property is wonderful. Lots of big trees, mostly oak. Pasture all the way around the place with new looking fence. The posts were straight, the wires were tight. There may have been cattle there within the past several months, but nothing there now. There isn't any one big barn. There are a couple of smaller barn type buildings that were storage areas. But oh, could I see myself living there!

Ok, here's just a sample of how my brain works... I've already envisioned how we could take down the two smaller barns and reclaim the wood to use on a newer, bigger barn, placed in a more accessible location. I've even thought of having a ''Painting Party" to get it painted once it's built. I've envisioned where the garden will go, where the fruit trees will go, where the chicken house will be.... I know, I know, I'm crazy. I got to the point where I asked God to help me think more realistically about this place so I don't go all idealistic and get super depressed when it just won't work out. I didn't want to pray that way, but I did it anyway. Melora said I needed to really pray about it if I was serious about wanting it, because she's not convinced. She liked it well enough, but there are a lot of 'what ifs'. We both know that it would take a miracle for us to be able to afford it at all and then have enough money left to actually fix the house up. Prices, despite the market, are sky high around there.

I tried all weekend to get ahold of the man that owns the place. Melinda (sis-in-law) said they're Christians and really nice people. So, I think what I'm going to do is look him up on the net and write him a letter. Tell him who I am, what I'm looking for, what my dream is, what Melora and I want for our kids, what we want our homestead to be (a blessing)... and then ask him about the property. What's the worst that could happen? He could say "No, it's not for sale," or "I'll take $850,000 for it". Either way, we don't get it. On the other hand.... he could be really touched by my dreams and hopes, and decide he wants to be nice and bless someone. Yeah, it's a long-shot, but nothing is impossible with God. If that's the farm He has for us, it'll work out. Otherwise, I wait and keep looking. No big deal. But we do have a friend who is moving over that way and seriously would want to buy half of it from us to build on.

Anyway, that's where I am with all this. I'm just waiting and trusting. Gonna write my letter soon and send it off. We'll see. (Thanks for reading Keetha!)

80 Acres

Well, my sister-in-law called last weekend and said she was driving through the country. She was on her way home from taking some reference pictures of donkeys to paint a picture for Martha Stewart. Yes, I said Martha. Long story. But it's pretty awesome, no?

Anyway, she drives by this farm and is immediately drawn to it. Discoveres that the big ol' house is empty and begins to look around. She immediately calls me. She thinks she knows the owners. I look it up on Google Earth (after my sister-in-law gets the street right so I can find it.) Wow! It's like the farm of my dreams. No it isn't the picture above. But she does know who owns it. The grandfather of one of her art students. She does some checking and gets me a name and number. She thinks the man would be willing to sell but has the feeling he may want to sell all 80 acres together. 80 ACRES!?! There's an old two story house that reminds my sister-in-law of her grandparents' home, fenced pasture (lots of it), many large, mature trees all over the property, and a few outbuildings/barns.

Ok, for those of you who haven't even considered moving in the past year or two, or who don't know what property in central Indiana may be going for (even with the horrible housing market)... Within the past several months, I found 10 acres of land for sale not far from this farm going for $12k an acre! So... 80 acres. And considering that 1/4th of that amount would be more than ample for my needs. It would SO have to be a God thing. But how awesome would it be to have acres of land on three sides of you to buffer you from anyone or anything else. The surrounding land is all crop land anyway. Nearest neighbor? About 1/4 a mile down the road (just like I like it). This place is out in the country about a 10 minute drive from Melora's parents. It'd be 20 to 30 minutes from any hospital Melora might want to work in.

I tried to call the man several times yesterday with no luck. I'll try again today. Of course I realize that even if he wants to sell, the house might not be liveable, the price will be outrageous, and we're in no place to move now anyway. But that property is all I've thought about the past several days. With just a few exceptions (namely the lack of the barn where it ought to be) and no pond, it's pretty close the farm I see in my head... very close! Of course, nothing is impossible with God. What on Earth would I do with 80 acres? I'd use what I needed and just enjoy the rest of it I guess. Maybe use the back 10 acres or so as a hayfield after a few trees were removed. I've been praying for a farm for a good while now. If this is the one God has for me, then He can work it out. Maybe the man will be impressed with my goals, our homeschooling, and our Christian faith. My sis-in-law says they're Christians too. I dunno. I'm trying (against my true desires) to be realistic and realize that this likely won't happen and not to get my hopes up. But it never hurts to call and ask.... We're going to Sheridan today to visit my in-laws and attend the "Harvest Moon Festival" they have. Oh yeah, I'll be driving by the farm.

Land woes

I've been doing a lot of looking over the past months at websites specifically designed to sell farms and land (as well as some that sell other properties). As is the way with American agriculture, there aren't too many small time farms for sale. If there are, they tend to be horse farms, or properties designed specifically for recreational use with just a smattering of pasture.

Of course, none of that matters terribly. With some work, any kind of property can be prepared and used as pasture, garden, orchard, whatever. But it's nice to think you could find a decent house on some property and have one or two things already in place.

Since that option seems to be limited at this point in time (and it's not like I'm even serious about buying right now), I've considered the possibility of buying land and building a home on it. My wife has mentioned how she'd love to have a log home. I could deal with that, I think (seriously!). But then I look at property.....

Anything listed as farm land is rising in price and usually has more acreage to it than I want or need. If there's a property listed as woodsman paradise, that just means there's too much woods on it and it's really not fit for a small farm or homestead... there'd be a lot of clearing that would have to be done first.

Then there's the big strips of land up for sale. You know the kind. They used to be farms or cropland, but the owner is hoping to sell out to some big time real estate developer that wants to turn it into the next "Fox Run", or "Wood Ridge", or "Brittney Chase" with overpriced, over sized houses sitting on 1/4 acre lots, all so close together that you can smell your neighbor's breath when you greet him in the evening when you come home from work. Please. Like there's been a fox there in a decade, or anything close to a 'woods' since the farmer plowed the soil up in the 70's to grow his agribusiness (not to mention how he's plowed down the ridge to nothing)... and like these people are gonna use their Brittney spaniels to chase anything but a ball! Yeah, I guess I'm a little sour.

Folks like Gene Logsdon are my heroes. Gene encourages small farms (he farms 30 acres himself) and says we need more, not less of them. I tend to agree. I want to take my family to the country and homestead. But the way land is going, and a lack of available small farms, it seems like I may need to rely more heavily on the Almighty to provide us the right place when the time is right.

How did you find your place?