August 15-16, 2014

It was hot, humid and dry -- low 90s and low 70s. We had a showing scheduled for Saturday, so I was anxious to get out and mow, but Sally was babysitting all day. We decided she would just come out on her own later.

Boots

Chris gave me these boots when the National Guard issued him the new tan (sand) camo ones he would take to Iraq. They have been my farm boots for 8 or 9 years. They worked well even though they were a little big. As you can see, the sole is separating on one so I am going to go ahead and dump them. One more chapter closing on the farm.

Mowing

Wanting to get everything cleaned up for the showing, I was anxious to get the mowing taken care of. I filled the mower with gas and headed for the pond. In the process of mowing across the dam I could tell something was wrong. Maybe I hit something (when don't I), but it started really gouging the cut on the inside of the left blade. It has been doing this for a long time and I could never find the problem. Now it was serious. By the time I got over to the side of the pond I could tell that I would not be able to continue. I reluctantly disengaged the blade and drove back to the house. This picture shows what I found. The deck had rusted and weakened such that the two inside bolts had nothing to hold on to. When the belt was engaged it pulled the top of the spindle toward the middle lowering the inside arc of the blade.

I didn't even have the tools to remove the plastic cover over the top of the spindle and its drive pulley. I thought if I could offset the pull of the belt on the spindle I might be able to get at least the front yard mowed. All I could come up with was anchoring the spindle to the outside using wire. I fought with this for a while and then tried it out. No better at all. I went back to work, finally putting some boards under it and using my weight to somewhat correct the misalignment, and then tighten the wire as much as possible. It was good enough. I got the front and side yard mowed, and even managed to use it to do the spring and front and back of the barn.

That left only some weedeating to tidy things up a bit, although the grass looked awful with lines and gauges through it.

Showings

Friday night I received a message that another interested party wanted to come out Saturday. The first couple was scheduled for 10:30, and since this was there second time out I wanted to give them priority. So I scheduled the second family for 1:30 to 2.

The 10:30 showing was with a couple from Houston, the couple that had seen the place on their own 3 weeks earlier. We had been out that Saturday, but we did not find out until we were home Saturday evening that they had left a voice message that morning asking to see the property. In spite of the high temperatures (hottest weekend of the summer) they had come out on their own, hiked down from the cattle guard, and looked around the place on their own that Sunday. They had even made it all the way down to the pond. We had some e-mail exchanges since, and here they were coming back. I thought it was very promising, but I have learned not to get too excited.

They flew in this time and left the kids at home (we found out they have nine children between them). They are interested in using the place for vacations and as a get away – like us, just from farther away. The first order of business was to show them the house. Actually we just let them walk through it on their own while we hung out outside. They really did not come prepared to hike through the fields and woods (no long pants and boots), but they did hike around back and up the bluff. I met them there after putting on my boots, but we just returned to the house. Since they had already seen the spring and barn, I offered to drive them around the fields. We first went up top and drove out the ridge, then down to the pond, up to the southeast corner, back across the dam, through the lower field separating the creeks, up into the back pasture, along and below the north facing bluffs, down and across Plume creek, and back to the house. There was some discussion around price and other particulars, an offer, and a promise on our part to get back with them after our second showing.

The afternoon showing was with a Rogers couple and their two teenage children. They were wanting a place to keep horses, serve as a weekend get away, and possibly a place they could rent out at times. We could immediately tell it was not right for them, but showed them around politely (as they were being). The daughter, the one with the horses, walked to the spring and barn barefoot.

We counter offered with the Houston couple, they accepted, they drove back out, looked at the barn again, and they left with a partially filled out contract. They had already discussed a loan with Farm Credit out of Harrison, and were confident about being able to get financing. Actually, they were even going to have her parents make the purchase. We exchanged more emails including the partially completed contract, and had an executed contract by Tuesday. I returned for a very quick trip Thursday afternoon to let an appraiser walk through the house and take some pictures. The loan seems to be approved and there is talk of closing on the September 8th. Wow!