November 25-26, 2013

It was a gray and cold weekend (40-30-40), with the slightest bit of frozen precipitation overnight. Given the weather conditions, Sally and Tender chose to stay back in town.

Walnuts

I drove down to the confluence of the creeks and picked up another bucket of walnuts. The creeks were really running and I could tell they had been over the road there, so the farm must have gotten more rain than we had in town Thursday/Friday.

Home Inspection

A prospective Colorado buyer had ordered a home inspection for Saturday morning. The buyer was back in Colorado, so it was just me, the inspector (came out from Bentonville), and his wife. He didn't want to talk or divulge anything, but I enjoyed chatting with his wife. We will see what his report says.

Chicago Firewood

We were driving to Chicago for Thanksgiving and taking Dave and Sarah a load of firewood, so I loaded the truck with their 18 inch (approximately) pieces. I probably have a load and half of these 18 inch logs left.

Rock Outcropping

Weeks earlier Sally had pointed out something on the far slope (undeveloped land to the south) that neither one of us had remembered seeing before. With the binaculars we had determined it was rock, but we couldn't figure out why we had never seen it before. So I decided to hike up there and take a look.

Since the ground was so wet, I didn't want to drive the lower road all the way to the pond. Instead I parked at the bottom of the hill and walked across the field. I took my lopers and went around the pond on the north side on the way up (and the south side on the way back) cutting about 300 cedars. On the far side of the pond I saw several deer rubs. Of course they use my baby pines.


In the thicket before our property line I found yet another downed Cedar from the tornado, a hint of what I was going to find further up.

I had to climb the fence to get off our property, and once up the hill I was climbing over lots of downed timber. That is when I realized why the outcropping had suddenly become visible, there were hundreds of downed big trees all along the slope, undoubtedly a result of the January 29th tornado. I never found what I was looking for, but there were a couple of mini bluffs -- lots of rocks -- I just couldn't tell what we were actually seeing from across the valley.

Turkey Feathers

I followed gum creek back to the truck, kicking up thistle where I found it. At the spit of land between the creeks I found a scattering of turkey feathers. No sign of a carcass, just these tail and wing feathers.

Showing

I talked to Sally after the home inspection, and she told me she had talked to a couple that was interested in viewing the property that afternoon. He was interviewing for a job in Harrison (Pace Industries), they had seen our Zillow ad the night before, and were touring the area to get familiar with the land. They were heading all the way over to Jasper and could come by at 3:30. I called them up and confirmed I would be here and would welcome the chance to show our place. They have 14 acres in Wisconsin and 4 horses. She really liked the uniqueness of the house and he loved the land and appreciated all the fencing that was in place. They wouldn't be able to buy until they sold their place in the spring, but talked renting and owner financing. We'll see.