Walking with friends, busy weekend ahead

Yesterday evening Mama and I met with the Wycoff family to look at a property that they are interested in. The property is between us and Chico so it is very close by. Larry Mater – the realtor who handled the sale of the farm we now occupy - was the realtor who met us at the property. He remembered Mama right away. Most people do.

The mobile home was not ready for viewing but there was little need. From the outside it looked pretty neglected. The older couple that own and live on the property look like they are years past being able to do anything to maintain the property at all. That and the fact that there were probably ten cats roaming around made the mobile home pretty unappealing. So we walked over the property.

It is twelve acres in total. Not a whole lot bigger than our place but far more overgrown; neglected for many years, but with great potential. As we trudged through the overgrowth to see where the property boundaries were we saw sign of a lot of deer. There was some sign of hogs but not nearly as much as the deer sign. That excited Daniel and James.

We punched through to a small tank that had originally been done with a lot of forethought. It was a large bowl at the very back corner of the property that had been fashioned with a small island in its center. It had some water in it but not much more than the hole that was dug on our property to discard bricks and branches. Some careful groundwork can easily reroute the property runoff back to the tank.

There were several outbuildings which were surprisingly well done. There were small enclosures for pigs or sheep. There was a small chicken coop with a little yard attached to it. There was also a carport that was high enough and large enough to become a good shop at some future point. All in all, a good piece of property to start working on.

There is a lot Mama and I can do to help clean up the property since we have a tractor and several implements that are right for the work. It will add one more property to our routine but all the properties are small and very close. If it works out, it will be nice to get some teamwork involved in our continuing efforts to improve our property and our self-sufficiency; a small group is better than a lone family.

Daniel and I talked about offers as we walked about and as we talked to the realtor found out that we were pretty spot -on with the numbers we had agreed should be right for the purchase. Now he has to get the financing together and get prepared to make the offer for real. That should be coming within a week or so.

Mama and I are going to look at piglets tomorrow morning. If we like what we see we will get two for ourselves and one for the Wycoffs. If they get to buy the place in Chico they will have a place for their hog pretty soon. If not, we will feed it out for them.

After that we are going to the airport to get Jake. We have a fun week ahead.