FREEDOM - sorta!

Freedom from two mortgages!

We still have one. The one on the farm, and that's just fine with us.

Last Friday the lawyer did the closing on our old house, and the new owners are moving in. I checked yesterday and the mortgage and the home equity are both paid off, so all the checks must have cleared and now IT'S OFFICIAL - THE HOUSE IS SOLD! I talked to our lawyer yesterday and he has a check for us for the equity after all the bills were paid - his fees, realators commissions, etc. it's not enough, but it's OK!

Now we can really start doing some of the things we are looking forward to here on the farm.

One of the first things will be a new well, the water here is really low volume, and we fixed some problems with the pump and the volume issue is even more prevelant now, so a new well is in order. The local well driller came over and looked at our situation and he feels pretty confident that we can get good water, and lots of volume for under 2K. No promises, but he's drilled most of the wells around here and he comes highly reccomended!

Then I think I need to have my Amish buddy Freeman look at the roofs on our house and barn as we've had 50+ mph winds a couple of times this winter and I think we're going to need some new roofs. Oh well it'd be more fun to spend the money on whiskey, guns & horses, but what the hell I guess we better keep a roof over our heads!

First order of farm business right now is, it needs to warm up some more and get rid of all the snow so we can start some spring work.

A good friend of ours who is a full time horse logger is coming Sunday to look at the woods and see if we can cut enough out this year to end up with a few thousand bucks to put towards new fences and a couple of good cows to start our cow herd. We'll be looking at registered Angus, with an eye towards buying two 3in1's which is a cow with a heifer calf by her side and checked pregnant. But we have to have cash in hand before we can go looking!

That's enough for now, lots going on here, I've got to go get some work done!

We're here!

It's been a long time since the last post.

It's been crazy, busy and sitting down to write just hasn't seemed to be an option. I am sincerely planning on getting back to chronicling the adventure as it continues!

Just a quick synopsis so I don't forget as my mind is weaker every day :)

Moved in the 4th of July weekend. The sale of our old house fell through at literally the 11th hour when the bank underwriters ran a final credit check and then denied our buyers on some outstanding medical bills.

We had already moved in anticipation of closing, so after thinking about it a little and a couple of "really" stiff drinks, we decided to take the money out of our retirement for the down payment, and keep trying to sell the old house.

So now we're here, pastures are started 1 permanent done, 1 temp, more to come this winter.

Barns are cleaned out (mostly)

We have hay in for the winter.

Half the house is painted (inside)

Most of our stuff is in the house. I need to get my "office" set up as I have guns stashed all over the house and I need to get a better storage setup, of course you still need a few stashed around for handy accessibility!

Now I need to get to work.

Gettin' closer

Well things are moving right along on the sale/purchase.
We have recieved a purchase offer on our place and accepted it! It was several thousand below what we planned on the lowest we'd accept, but in the end we didn't want to lose another summer on the farm for a few thousand dollars. It leaves us enough to pay off our mortgage, home equity, all the associated costs that go with the sale of one house and the purchase of another, and we are going to pay off the tractor, and then we'll have a little left over.
Of course the left over amount won't last long building fence, and doing some basic repairs to the house.
Since we accepted the PO, we have now had our home inspected by a "professional home inspector" and he found things wrong that we didn't know were wrong for the last nineteen years we lived here, but they offered to let us give them a credit to have the work done when they move in, sweet huh? They must have correctly guessed that I fell off the turnip truck last night, because I took their deal, so that we could get the deal done on the house ASAP.
I spent all day today digging up the septic tank to have that inspected tomorrow, as that is one of the requirements whenever you sell a house. It didn't take too long to find the main pump out cover as I kinda knew where that was, but of course I dug in the wrong spot - twice- trying to find the second inspection cover, which they have to be able to access to check the distribution box. I'll post pics the next time I blog, but i'll have 'em on FB tomorrow.
Sunday Cindy and I went by the farm and stopped to visit with the folks we are buying it from for a little while, and we are both getting pretty excited about this!
Cindy checked out the garden spot and there are: rasberries, asparagus, rhubarb and grapes in and we can go over and till up the rest of the garden whenever we want to start planting.
I walked where I plan on putting in my first fences and now have an idea of what I need to start building fence.
We are truly blessed with great family and friends. My friends Terry and Chuck have generously offered to loan us their post pounder for building our fence, which is a huge savings. One of my dealers has offered me the use of a big cargo trailer for our move and is willing to sell us stall panels at a great price so we can get the horses all taken care of!
I talked to the farmer who is currently working the land and after he realized that I wanted to work with him, he has offered me some great advice on planning for the future with our farm.
And to top all of this off, I got a call from a company today with a great product line that may be interested in having me rep for them, which could really help us financially if they decide to let me have the territory!
So all is well here, and our farm is getting closer every day, though I refuse to let myself believe it's mine until the papers are all signed, and the checks are all deposited, but it is looking like that will happen June 1st.
Just remember God is good, and he takes care of us if we let Him!

Purchase Offer!

Well it's happened, we have a purchase offer that we are going to accept!
The folks selling us the farm have agreed to our purchase offer which means that they will hold the mortgage for us guaranteeing our financing!
Life is about to get really interesting. I am on the road this week on my way to Equine Affaire in Columbus, OH so this is falling really heavily on Cindy's shoulders. I am a lucky man to have such a wonderful wife/partner in this life!
I was almost at the point where I was going to give up, glad I didn't give in to the fears.
Got to get ready and get to work.

Internet Access

Just an FYI, I wrote this on Saturday but didn’t post it till today. Monday at 5:30 eastern time.
Well here I am back in O’Hare on my way home.
After attending a one day sales meeting that actually took about 4 (or 5 if you stretch it) hours!
Fly out on Thursday, meet and great disguised as a bridal shower for one of the young reps who’s getting married. Lots of upsides to that one, she’s a sweet kid and her Dad and I have a bunch of common history, and he’s been a good friend to me – he got me the gig with the clothing company which is growing steadily into a really good thing. The other is the company picked up the bar bill and bought pizza for the party!
Friday we reviewed the line break, talked about how good the company is doing, which I’m really happy about. Then we were done by 1 for the day. Friday night was the annual award banquet at the Denver Chop House, if figures we go to one of the better steak places in Denver on a Friday night during lent! The Maryland Crab Cakes were good though.
Saturday and I’m on my way home. I’ll get home about 4:30 this afternoon, and my bride tells me the draft horses will need hay, so I’ll change and put out a round bale and then I can visit with the love of my life.
Now back to the title of today’s missive.
While walking through the airport I was checking the headlines and news above the fold on the papers in the boxes and saw a little blurb about expanded internet access starting a fight at the FCC – they didn’t use the word fight and I can’t recall exactly how it was phrased, but it conveyed the idea that it was controversial.
I’m too cheap to pay 2 bucks for a New York (or any other city’s daily for that matter) paper, but I do know that it has been one of President Obama’s goals to expand internet access to rural and underprivileged folks.
Maybe Obama thinks that rural dwellers are underprivileged?
Did anyone ask those of us who live beyond cable access if we wanted expanded internet access?
To be honest I’m sure that there are lots of folks living in the country that would love to have high speed available. I’m not one of them.
Personally I get along just fine with my Verizon air card, and I used dial up long after everyone in town had high speed. I do need to be able to access the internet for work, and I also get to use if for play, like this blog and I pay for the privilege of having the air card.
If you need high speed for work it’s just part of the cost of doing business. But I don’t want it too easy.
There are way too many people living outside the village limits, that should move back into town. Back being the operative word here, if you’ve always lived in the country, you don’t expect to have cable tv, sewer lines, city water, high speed internet, etc! You expect to smell cow manure on the corn field next to or down the road from your house between harvest and next springs planting, the neighbors chicken is supposed to crow, he’ll quit when he’s dead. Which is supposed to happen when he no longer is fertile or you want tough chicken for dinner, actually young roosters are pretty good eating, and if you butcher them while they’re young 10 or 12 weeks old is plenty old enough for a fryer. If you live in fruit farming country, it will smell like spray dope off and on all summer. You know that tractors are slow moving vehicles and you shouldn’t pass them on a double solid line, or on the right when they swing wide to the left to turn into a farm driveway while pulling a piece or two of machinery. These and a million other things are common sense to anyone who has always lived in the country. If you are an escapee from town, not so much!
I don’t want street lights obstructing my view of the night sky, I don’t need a cop close by, not that much crime happens out here anyhow and what does most county folks are well equipped to take care of themselves until a county sheriff, or a state trooper shows up.
So speaking for myself, I don’t want or need expanded internet access out here, mainly because I don’t need another reasons for folks who live in town to think it’s a good idea to buy a piece of property in the country, and then ride their 4 wheelers, snowmobiles, whatever across farmers cropland destroying crops, damaging the soil, and generally aggravating me!
I also don’t want them petitioning the town to run the water lines a little further out, asking the cable company to provide access because they can’t get all the local channels on satellite, or suing a farmer because his farm operation negatively affects his enjoyment of his rural lifestyle.
Well it’s almost time to go to the gate, so I’ll post this later today at home, or tomorrow after church. I left the aircard for the wife to use at home, because the hotel we stayed at had free high speed, and I’m too cheap to spend 8 bucks to access high speed here at the airport.
I get to spend my life in two worlds, and it works for me. If I had a trust fund or was smart enough to either make enough when I was young to retire already, or have a business or invention that would make me wealthy, I’d spend the rest of my life a lot farther away from town than I already am. But alas I’m not wealthy in a monetary sense, though I am rich beyond compare in the things that really matter – family, friends, and faith – so I’ll keep living in both worlds and enjoying every minute of it, because this life is fleeting, and shouldn’t be wasted.

Random thoughts for the day

As I write this I am sitting in the Chicago airport waiting on my next flight which will take me Denver for a sales meeting. By the time I post this I’ll be in Denver
I make 4 trips a year to Denver for sales meetings for the clothing company I represent for as we call it line breaks. This one is for Holiday 2010 Oct, Nov, Dec 2010 releases. I’ll leave here and start calling on accounts throughout my territory booking orders to ship in that time frame and writing fill in orders to restock the customers jeans that they sell every day. The booking orders are for fashion goods, which are tops, and limited release fashion jeans. This is a fun job, and a hell of a long ways from anything I ever thought I’d be doing as a kid growing up on the farm!
This company can be a big part of my financial salvation. Right now it barely pays it’s way, but I’ve more than doubled the business with them in the year I’ve carried the line. When I double the business again it will be a money maker.
I am the only independent rep in the US that this company has, as all of the other reps are what we call dedicated reps in the industry, in that they only carry one line and have a contract to sell that line exclusively. Being a dedicated rep usually has the benefit of guaranteed income (normally a draw against commissions), and benefits. As my area doesn’t have the volume to support a rep, they have agreed to hire me as an independent, which is what I prefer. Selling western tack and western wear in the northeast is kind of a tough row to hoe, but I enjoy the challenge of being self employed. Though I have considered going back to a corporate job lately as 2009 was so miserably tough on sales, but I’m still holding out, and may have a great opportunity in my immeadiate future.
A major company in our industry recently called and asked for my resume as they may be interested in hiring me as an independent to carry their line also here in the northeast! This could potentially add another 20 – 40K to my gross for the year! With major growth potential for the line. If I can add this line to my line up of companies that I represent I could get back on track to be where I need to be for gross earnings! Of course I called one of this companies top sales reps who’s been a good friend for years and told him I’d be interested in repping the line if they’d like me to (I already knew that they didn’t have a rep up here right now and it was really hurting their sales), he made a couple of calls and within the hour I got a call from their HR asking for my resume.
God is really good to us, because we really need a shot in the arm financially right now. We are a couple of months behind on a few bills, and it is incredibly stressful on a relationship to have bill collectors calling, and just always being behind the 8 ball.
Throw into this mix the uphill fight on trying to buy a farm when things are this tight and it gets a little tough at home!
Speaking of the farm, we have someone looking at our house today, so I am praying hard that they want to buy it, and that Don and his sister will be willing to take a chance on us by holding the mortgage!
Of course when all of this started early in 2009 all of our bills were paid and we had some money in the bank. But I’m too hard headed to give up! As a good friend of mine once said “you’re just another thick Mick!” of course he’s a hard headed Irishman himself, so he knows of what he speaks!
Of course one of the things that will help to make you successful as a salesman is unflinching optimism in the face of hopeless odds!
We are a LONG way from hopeless, we’ve just hit a bump in the road and we’ll get by it OK. Some days it’s really hard to remember that though.
Well enough for now, as the plane will load soon, I hope.
As I now have at least a couple of folks that read this, I feel like I’ve gained immensely in my wealth of friends. I will endeavor to keep faithful to my original post and let my words fall where they may, and share with you my unadulterated feelings. I feel sorry for any of you who have muddled along this far with my sad attempts at chronicling my thoughts.
Adios from Chicago!
Ok now it’s hello from Denver!
Since I finished up in the Chicago airport, when I arrived in Denver I had a couple of calls to answer.
The first from my buddy at the company I sent my resume to last week, no news yet, but it’s looking good.
Then my sister in law/real estate broker called and the folks who looked at our house yesterday, liked it and want to put in an offer!
Now we will really have to get down to the nut cuttin’ to see if we can get the financing done.
Lots to think about, enough to keep me up most of the night thinking.
But now it’s time to get ready to go to work for the day.
Adios, again.

Yesterday morning I was out in the driveway fooling around with my good saddle horse. He hasn't been ridden in a couple of months, so I had him out to brush him, tack him up and lunge him a bit and call it a day. When my friend Al drives by and see's me so he pulls in to visit and I was shocked!
Al is in his mid 80's no spring chicken, but has always been in really great shape, better than most guys half his age. Well when he got out of the truck, he was shakey and looking kind of frail.
He was in the VA a few weeks ago for bladder stones, and then he got some kind of bug, and it has really aged him, and it is a hard thing to see.
I don't want to let myself think of the road Al is on, the same one we all travel, but he is farther along it than I.
There are so many who have already gone down that road, my older brothers, Dad, Mom, so many. Some days the only way I can bear the loss is the knowledge that they are safe in Gods arms, and I try, but fear I fail at living a life that will allow me to be with them again someday.
When Al was here he mentioned that he was hauling horses for the Amish today and I offered to ride along and help him if he needed it, and of course he said he didn't, but then last night he called to tell me he was in the ER and they were checking out what was going on, and asked if I'd take his trucking job, so I'm off to move horses, and pray for my friend while I'm at it.