The last two months of summer passed in a blur for me, and now I look around and fall is here! I do enjoy the fall weather, even though sometimes my allergies do not. Today is a very rainy day with a flash flood watch in effect, so there won’t be much happening around Pure Water Hollow outside today. I am amazed at how dark it is outside as I sit in front of this bright glow of the computer monitor! Every now and then I hear a deep rumble of thunder. Days like this always seem to put me into a reflective mood, and sometimes I feel like writing.
I did go out to open up the chicken coop this morning, getting rather damp in the process. I waited later than usual, giving the rain a chance to slack up a bit, which it did. When it is pouring out, there is no use in opening up the coop since they tend to stay put in the dry coop anyway. But they do prefer to get out of the coop if it is not raining too hard. The coop is up on cement block pillars, so when they exit they can still stay dry and scratch around in the dirt under the coop.
I threw some corn out in the yard and some under the coop. It is interesting to see which chickens prefer to eat out in the yard, and which ones want to stay dry. The Light Brahmas all stayed under the coop in the dry with King Arthur, but Abe Lincoln and the hens that follow him around didn’t seem to mind eating out in the drizzle. Some of the hens stayed in the coop and others came out, went back in, and came out again. I guess they couldn’t decide what was best. They liked the protection the dry coop afforded, but they also wanted those golden grains of corn that was without.
Sometimes I’m like those hens that can’t make up their minds as to what is the best course of action. I just passed through such a time, concerning buying some land down the road. It just about drove me crazy, going back and forth about the benefits of having the property compared to the sacrifices we would need to make to purchase it. Plus it was going to be auctioned off at the courthouse, so I went through days of waffling in my mind concerning how much my high bid would be, if indeed we wanted to bid on it.
The land was just a mile from our homestead and consisted of two tracts of land, one for 56 acres and one for 73 acres, more or less. Unlike our homestead, much of this land was flat enough that we would have been able to clear it and have some wonderful corn fields and hay fields. It would be some major work, but I could definitely see the wide open corn fields! This property also contained much saleable timber that could be logged and sold.
I wish I had counted up the hours we spent in researching the deeds and the possible liens against the property, hiking over the property, and talking to various county officials at the offices of the circuit clerk, PVA, and county attourney as well as to neighbors who knew more about the property in question, and to a couple of other attorneys who knew about the case.
The day of the auction, there were still some troubling aspects about one of the tracts of land that we could not resolve; we could not find anywhere in the records about three of the heirs, two who each owned a 1/10th share and the other who owned a 1/5th share of the land. If they have retained their interests in the land it would mean that this tract of land would only contain a 3/5th ownership at the sale.
After much prayer for wisdom and guidance, I came to the conclusion that the land would be a valuable asset, at the right price, even with the questions about the one tract of land. We went back and forth in our minds about the amount to bid, similar to the chickens going in and out of the coop. We came up with a figure that we could afford, but we hoped the price would not even go that high.
To make a long story a bit shorter, we did not get the property. We did not even place a bid. The bidding started out at $5,000 and there were several folks bidding against each other at those low bids. Most folks we had spoken to speculated that it might go for $20,000, but before too long the bidding had risen above $30,000 and before much longer the amount was more than we were willing to bid.
It was interesting to see the serious bidders gradually fall away as the amount continued to raise. It finally came down between two older gentlemen. One was a fellow who had already bought 10 years of the delinquent tax bills on the property. He stopped at $68,000 and the other fellow got it for $69,000.
After the auction, we spoke to the gentleman who was out bid. He had done much more research on the property than we had done, and he said that there is $200,000 worth of timber on that property, but if they can’t find who owns that 2/5th share of the ownership (that we had also discovered) they will never be able to log it. He also told us that the access road into the property is not a public road, and if they can’t make a deal with someone, the property is really landlocked. He seemed to think there would need to be more legal actions filed and thousands of more dollars spent, and still might not ever be completely figured out.
We are satisfied that the Lord kept us out of a big mess we could have made for ourselves. Nonetheless, it was a fascinating learning experience, concerning not only the legal workings, but also in the spiritual realm. God allowed us to stay in His "coop" of protection and at the same time gave us enough sense to keep out of the rain. How easy it is to over-rule His best plans for us and go our own way, following our own wants and desires. Sometimes those golden grains of corn are not worth getting soaked over!
Now we can re-focus our attention back to the things that we need to do right here on our own property at Pure Water Hollow. There is much I would like to do before winter.
I could catch up on so many things that have gone on these past two months, but since I am not planning on spending all day here on the computer, I will limit my thoughts to just a bit about the hogs.
Our hog lots need to be adjusted some before winter. We already put down concrete in the pig sty in lot number two in an effort to give the pigs a dry place to sleep. The previous occupants of that lot had dug such a hole in the sty that it had become a constant pond of soupy mud. We need to put the self-feeder under a roof in that lot and also fix up a waterer. We also need to tighten everything on the feeder and make sure it is in sound condition. I then plan on moving the feeder pigs in that lot by themselves, so they can have access to all the feed they want as they grow to butchering size. Currently they are all in lot number one together with Nellie and Sally. Nellie and Sally tend to eat all the food and I’m concerned that our feeder pigs won’t be as big as they should be come December.
In the front lot will be our two future mama sows and the new boar. We don’t want them to get too big, too quickly, so we will have them in the lot where we can feed them rationed amounts. Right now the new girls are in the barn, but they will enjoy being in a lot with more dirt.
We purchased the two new girl pigs on August 12th for $50 a piece from a friend. They were born on April 8th, so they were already 4 months old when we got them. We have named them Crimson and Scarlett. The boar we are going to keep with them was born June 5th. I think the children have named him Boris, but I’m not sure if it will stick. We plan on letting them breed and see if they give us a couple new batches of piglets this spring.
We are keeping Sally and Nellie just until we are sure that Nellie is not bred. If she doesn’t have any sign of milk by the end of October, we will know that she was not bred.
There is much more to do before winter, and there is much more that I could catch up on that has happened these past two months since I last recorded anything here. But alas, my desire to reflect and write at this moment has begun to wane.
It is still raining outside, but there is much to do inside the house today and everyone else is now working on various chores. It is time for me to leave this computer and see what I can do to help.
Hopefully I will be back here to update again before another two months blur by me.
God bless,
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 comments
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Schatzi on October 1, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Just checking in to see how everyone is doing at Pure Water Hallow Homestead? Hope you have all had a blessed summer.
Connie
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MRS C on October 28, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Ah yes, there is nothing like a rainy day to motivate us to slow down and ponder over things… I greatly enjoyed your blog entry and would like to encourage you to update us more. You have a talent for writing (second career??) and I loved reading about your homesteading efforts! A great motivator for those of us who are new to this… We hope to see you blogging more… Happy homesteading!
