Driving less, Next

Even though gas prices have leveled out, the level they chose to stabilize is not very attractive. Even Mama feels the pinch and has promised to drive less. I am not sure how, in a town the size of Amarillo, we can burn through more than a tank of gas per week, but somehow we do. Considering that we usually get +/- 380 miles per tank full of gas and everything is within ten miles of the house – at the most distant point - that’s nineteen round trips to somewhere. Most of those are to get Chase to and from school and she has begun to incorporate her shopping trips into her school runs. But it still hurts.


I really have no right to complain since I have an hour commute. That is not necessarily a gas saving exercise. Besides, we have good friends in New Jersey who also have a large family. They drive a large vehicle of necessity. The father posted the other day that he hates telling the attendant, “Fill it up or $90, whichever comes first.” I am sure that happens more than once per week.

It seems that the farm we were looking at has some problems. That is why it is still on the market at the price we were excited about. I am not a lawyer so I do not know if the problems are insurmountable but I do know they are obvious enough that even interested realtors have shied away.

One of the problems is that the original deed (January 1963) was written with a reverter clause. It states that if any of the restrictions placed on the deed are violated that the property will revert to the grantor or his heirs. It is obvious when reading the deed that several of the restrictions have been violated. Most deal with placement of dwellings. So it looks like the property must go to the heirs and whoever is unfortunate enough to now owe money on the land is still fully liable to the bank for the balance of the note when ownership reverts to the heirs.

You learn something new every day.

So we move on. I am going to do a little research to see if the property is still viable but I will not waste too much time on it. There are other properties out there and we have no clear direction where to buy yet. What is clear is that Mama and I want to have a farm again. It is not a bad desire, but we are not completely sure it is a Godly desire. So we will continue doing what we are doing until it becomes clear what, if anything, we are to do differently.

Meanwhile, our plants seem to be doing nicely.