Paperwork, meeting my boss, the hog trap, FBI, Victoria’s house updates

Mama came to Decatur yesterday to get the application for agriculture exemption on our little property in Chico and was helped in a big way by one of the ladies working in that office. We are now set to receive the exemption which should save us more than half on our yearly taxes. She was encouraged to have gotten that done so easily.

She stopped by the office to give me the paperwork after she was done and since it was about that time we went to lunch together. When we came back my boss was leaving the office headed to Dumas. I stopped him to ask him if he had a minute to meet Mama and he pulled over and got out to greet her. It was a good opportunity to connect faces to names for both of them.

Sunday morning on the way to church we spotted a herd of little pigs in the field across the road from us. There were at least fifteen in the group. I would rather not give them a chance to breed. To that end, Mama had tried to arrange a meeting with one of the men in our church to borrow a hog trap for the last week or more but we were never able to work out the timing.

So she and the daughter-in-law worked out to have the trap put at the front of the property and we would get it when we had the opportunity. Yesterday evening was the opportune time. So when I got home we got Grandpa – who had been weed eating and preparing our garden spot – and we headed out to find the property where the trap was sitting. It was not supposed to be very far out.

The directions were to go north out of Chico and turn left at a blue “Camping” sign, cross the railroad tracks, pass a rundown mobile home and look for a painted white pipe fence entrance. Well, we never did find the “camping” sign to start the path to the farm in question so I had Mama call and see if we could get a road number. After several calls and three U-turns we found the road we needed. The rest was easy. We have the trap sitting in the middle section of our farm. Grandpa is going to rework the trap mechanism today and we will bait it sometime this week.

We (Mama, Victoria and I) went to FBI last night at the church. It makes it a late night for me but the class is very enjoyable. There are fourteen of us in this session, only three of which are men. It is a fun group and will ultimately earn those who finish a full Bible degree. Right now that seems very far away (three years to be exact) but if we can endure it will be well worth it.

We did get confirmation from the title company yesterday that they are working on the title search for the little house and they have completed all that has been asked of them to date. We now need to know if the bank will require a survey – which he seller will pay for – and how long that will take. Mama is trying to close by the 19^th of this month but it is likely to be several weeks later.

Victoria, Grandma and Grandpa are very excited.