I saw a meme on Facebook a while back that said something like, "I've never seen real transformation in a person until they got tired of their own crap." I shared it with a comment that I'm almost there.
I'm starting to not like summer much. The last few have been stressful. I'm taking measures now to avoid it next year.
We went to my mom's last weekend for a family reunion. We haven't had one in over a decade, so it was fun to see everyone. When we were driving up, I commented that I'd never thought of Michigan as pretty until I lived in Illinois. Eric agreed, and at some point during the weekend, he started looking for property there. He says he's looking for a bug-out spot but also looking ahead to retirement.
Of course, we disagree on specifics. I'm leaning toward 5-15 acres with trees and water with a target price of no more then $2,000/acre. $1,000 would be better. It's doable there. He also wants trees and water, but he's looking at 40+ acres. He sent me a listing for a 50 acre farm yesterday for $275,000. It already has a house and several outbuildings, and one of the neighbors rents most of the acreage for farming so there would be a little income, but not enough to cover that huge mortgage, which by the way, is bigger than the one we got rid of last winter. *smh* This will blow over. It has every time but one. That one time was because he was desperate to get out from under city rent rates, and I'm happy about that. This time, though, I'm about ready to smack him. I'm pretty sure it's mostly because of allergy congestion (and accompanying low level headache I've had for about a week), and life being too peopley the last two months.
The garden is in high gear. I'm going to have to do something about food preservation this week. Good timing, since I have two shifts at the day job this week, and one next week. My shift leader trainees are doing well.
We won't talk about writing this week. I only worked 2 hours, but I knew that would be the case. There is no way I can work at Mom's. I took the iPad and keyboard in case, but the only writing I did was a few paragraphs for the Model A club newsletter. They wanted stories about people's first cars, and my stepdad didn't know how to put his story about gas line freeze together, so he told it to me and I typed it. My first ghost writing job! :-/
That's about it. I have two weeks to decompress and try to get caught up on stuff before the last summer commitment. The goals are:
Get words in--maybe 5,000 a week? I think that would finished Awakening
Do something with the ripe tomatoes and peppers in the garden. I have several options
Wash clothes
Take one load of donations to the local Salvation Army. Even a little load. Like two bags/boxes
2 comments:
You've had a busy summer with lots of comings and goings. That's bound to be stressful. I completely understand the desire to look for a larger parcel of land. Look at the requirements for maintaining your agricultural tax exemption in Michigan before going after that larger parcel. Without that exemption, the tax burden can be pretty sizeable, and sometimes the determination of what's agricultural use is up to the whim of the tax appraisal office. We had to scramble a couple years ago to convert to wildlife management when the new appraiser no longer accepted our hayfield and unusable woods agricultural designation. They really wanted us to lease for cattle, and we didn't want to do that (because with the pond minimal for drought, someone would have had to haul water among other things). The tax burden on 100 acres goes up pretty darn fast, especially when the new appraiser also appraises at close to market value (which has quadrupled since we bought the place). That hundred acres seems real desirable when you're looking for a bug out place, but if you can't easily keep the taxes down without expending a lot of money, that can be painful.
Good point. I was thinking less acreage because it will be less fence line to maintain.
Minor update: My brother called to get the number for the realtor handling a property we did a drive-by viewing of. The Flint River runs through the corner of it, and the listing says 2/3 of the land is in a flood plain. That wasn't wholly accurate. 2/3 of the land is a swamp and mosquito nursery. He's going to offer an amount that, in my opinion, is insulting with the thought of putting a camper on the high ground and using the land for hunting and fishing. He's not expecting to get it, but the process has increased communication between us.
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