Man proposes, God disposes. Part one.

[kansasterri]

This story of my garden may take a bit, as the story is still unfolding, and it will probably take about a year to finish up as I have not finished living it yet. Any ways I THINK it will take a year. And so to the beginning!

I have always intended to be a farmer, from elementary school to my present age of 66. I especially intended to raise livestock, as I found them FAR more interesting than plants. Plants always stay in the ground and might or might not add a leaf every week or two, and that is flat out boring. Yep. Livestock has got to be  the way to go!

And so I attended college- at least I attended the classes that I wished to take- and I worked hard and learned to be thrifty. The only PROBLEM was that every time we got a bit ahead, life kicked us in the teeth. There were health problems, and there were recessions that were followed by the loss of jobs, etc. But, we did do something right: we took seriously  some advice from my husbands Uncle that turned out to be especially helpful. After our car was paid off we continued to put a car payment in the bank every month that we could, because sooner or later whatever we were driving would fatally break and then, if we already had the money in the bank, we could pay cash for the car. That meant that we would not be injured every time we needed to buy a vehicle. As it turned out that saved money was there every time the car broke down and it also paid for part of the down payment of the next vehicle: a Chevy Silverado pickup.

Well, we added odd bits of money like tax refunds and such to our growing savings account, and because that pickup lasted and lasted and LASTED, we eventually had a few thousand in the bank because the darned pickup would NOT develop a major problem that needed an expensive repair. And eventually I started looking at farmland. 

[kansasterri]

Well, land in our area is not cheap, and there was nothing agriculturally usable that we could afford to buy. But I kept looking and a few times a year I would buckle the kids into their car seats (after many years of trying we had eventually adopted 2 little kids), I would hand them new toys to keep them busy and we would go off and look at land. And, we would stop at a McDonalds at noon to eat and let the kids play in the playground, which was fun for all of us.

And we saw property after property: there was the hilly acreage with "2 ponds" that turned out to have 2 horribly stinking ditches that were fed from drainage from the road, there was that parcel that looked fairly good excepting that the next door neighbor had a junkyard, there was that parcel that was under water because it had rained the day before, and there were many, many more parcels of land that had serious problems.

Honestly. People who buy land sight unseen are taking risks that are far greater than I would EVER be willing to take. Sometimes it isn't even the realtors misrepresenting land: the realty office that sent me to the property that was underwater had inspected it during the weather and they had no IDEA that the land would flood! Or, so they said, and I believe them.

Well, we finally did find land that we could afford. It was almost flat, had a lovely little spring fed pond, and I was dead sent on buying it.It was an hour away, but I figured that I could pack a lunch once a week and spend one day a week working on it

Alas, while my husband agreed to it at first he had a last minute change of heart, as he thought it was just too far away. By that time I was desperate enough for land to over look that it was too far away for me to raise livestock. At that point raising and selling vegetables and livestock feed was looking better every day, and I was furious that he had changed his mind. But my husband just said if I could qualify for it without his help that to go ahead and buy it, but he thought it was a mistake and so he would not participate, would not sign any papers, etc. And I was only working on weekends, which meant that my personal income was not very good.

I gave up on the property then. Now that I am older I know that I should have talked to somebody about whether or not I could qualify, as my name was on all of the bank accounts, but I did not know that at the time.

Man proposes, God disposes, though at the time I did not see it that way.

A little over a year later, I stumbled across another parcel of land, as of course I kept looking: what ELSE would I do on a rain Sunday afternoon? And when I looked at the land, it was a gently rolling 5.7 acres of grassland with scattered trees, and there was a creek that ran parallel to the road. There was about half an acre between the road and the creek, with
the rest of the land being on the far side of the creek. And I knew that with water and such a gentle slope that I could raise vegetables on it. Best of all it was only a 20 minute drive from my house. And, when my husband saw it he LOVED it because it was located between 2 smallish cites, which meant that the property values would go up. He considered it to be an EXCELLENT investment. I would work the land as long as I wanted to, and perhaps sometime we could afford to put a house on it and move in.

The realtor knew a bank that would give a loan on bare land, and the terms the bank gave us was an adjustable loan with $6,000 down and currently payments of $160 a month. And we had that much and more. WOW! And, so, we bought the land.

But, man proposes, God disposes.

I did not feel very well for a week after we signed the papers, and when I finally did go out to my future farm-to-be I was only able to pound a T-post into 2 of the corners. I have always been physically active, but I was not able to carry a stake to the far corners as the T-post was too heavy?!?!? Seriously?!?!? It was only a t-post, for Pete's sake! And back then I could, and often did, carry a 50 bag of feed without straining. (I had a few backyard chickens and so I bought 50 pounds of feed a month). Also the world had turned a funny yellow color, and things were kind of out of focus. Strangest of all, when I got back in the pickup and turned the air conditioner on, all of the symptoms went away and I felt excellent. I was also stoked, as I now had my own FARM, and how good was that!

And so, after a 15 minute break I went outside again, but the world again turned yellow and out of focus, and I felt so very tired. AGAIN!

I decided that that was NOT good. Not knowing what else to do, I decided to go home, sleep it off, and hope that I would feel better soon. But the next time I went out to my farm, I had the very same problem. It was time to go to the doctor.

It took me a year to get a diagnosis. I have Multiple Sclerosis, it can be treated but not cured, and for me the treatments only take the edge off. Many people are barely bothered by their MS, but I am not one of them. And, so, I am now disabled. I am no longer strong enough to carry water from the creek to any seedlings that I might grow, and while my husband had volunteered to run the tiller for me the garden would still have to be weeded and watered, and he was already working 60-70 hours a week. And, to tell you the truth, I really only had to energy to take care of the house and my back yard. So, after a few years of trying out treatments I gave up my dream of being a farmer. I did keep the land, even though the payments and taxes went up, because giving up a lifelong dream is a bitter, bitter thing.

But, Man proposes, God disposes.

[kansasterri]

Twenty? years have since passed, and the kids are now grown and on their own. DH retired last year, and we are now both drawing SS. AND, one of the places that my husband worked insisted that he take his retirement in a lump sum.

We have lived in this world long enough to notice that when the government puts a lot of money into the system, the rate of inflation increases considerably. AND, while we did enjoy receiving the COVID stimulus checks the government has put so much money into the economy that we fully expect severe inflation soon. And so we have decided to invest my husbands lump sum retirement + the COVID money, so that our money does not lose its value. Savings accounts are currently giving less interest than the current rate of inflation, and so we are having needed repairs done on our house as well as partially developing the 5.7 acres. That way our retirement money should hold its value at the very least. Once it has city water and a creek crossing it should not only be worth more, it should increase in value and so the value of our savings will not be inflated away.

And, so we talked to contractors, but, mostly they did not have time for such a small project. They say that good employees are currently hard to find. Still, we have now found a contractor who only has a 6 week wait, that firm has an excellent reputation, and we will go onto the waiting list as soon as we have the needed permits. And DH has volunteered to get the permits and also arrange for city water to go in. In fact we got the needed measurements just 2 days ago, but DH wants to delay getting the permits until the farmer across from us has harvested his beans. Otherwise we will have to pay the farmer for whatever is destroyed by the water company when they run a pipe across his land. And, truly, the soy bean harvest is half done in our area, so the wait will hopefully be less than one weeks time.

Oh, yes. Man proposes, God disposes. Do you folks know how hard it is to get a tractor that is both affordable and in good condition? I have zero machinery repair experience, and so I would need a tractor that is not going to break down before I can learn about All Things Tractor. And those cost MONEY.

But, Man Proposes... You get the drift

Two weeks ago we were taking a drive because it was so very lovely out, and WHAT WAS THAT BESIDE THE ROAD with a "For Sale" sign on it? It was an older tractor, but it really looked GOOD! Not as in beautifully restored, rather, it looked like it had only been very lightly used. It had a 3 point hitch, PTO takeoff, and it was a Cub Cadet. (Cub Cadet had a reputation as being a real work horse, back when they were still making them.) Heck, it was even short enough for me to be able to get into it. So, YES I called the owner

As it turns out, when the gent bought the property 2 years ago the property came with a tractor that had not been used in years. Well, the gent had been raised on a farm, and so he cleaned it up, got it working, and had been using it to bush hog for the last 2 years. The only trouble he had during that time was one flat tire, which he had repaired in town. And he was asking only $6,500 for a good working tractor in gently used condition. He even agreed to accept $1,000 for his Cub Cadet bush hog and snow scraper. See, he has bought a larger tractor and his wife wishes to be a one-tractor household. And to make things even better it is dead easy for me to drive. It is also just barely small enough for me to get into the seat by myself, and my husband has promised to make me a rack to hold my cane.

So, there is now a tractor sitting in my back yard, we have a contractor who will build us a creek crossing so that we can drive the tractor onto the land, and we still need to arrange for a storage shed to be built after the crossing has been built.

Know what? I THINK I am going to be a farmer! I have no idea what crop I am going to raise, yet, and no idea where I am going to sell it, yet, but in a pinch if I cannot eat it or sell it I can always give it to the Food Pantry. Either way, I really think that I am gonna be a farmer.

to be continued...........

[bluefox2]

May the farm gods of our sunflower state bless you with good luck.

[kansasterri]

A mini-update.

To save on $$$, my husband did not want to have the neighbors crops torn up, and so the installation of the creek crossing and the water pipes have been postponed until the neighbor's soybeans have been harvested. That took a bit, as he appeared to be in no great rush to harvest that particular field.

Well, the beans have since been harvested, messages have been left with the contractors, and so now all we need to do is wait for the return calls.

Well, we ALSO need to pick out a shed, so that once the crossing is in we can just make a couple of calls and hope that the shed is erected quickly. I see no reason to set a date to have the shed put up because we do not yet have a firm idea as to when the creek crossing will be up: it is late enough in the year now so that ice and snow might shut down any project at any time. But I am pretty confident that the crossing will be up by next spring.

I have told my husband that I want a middle-buster plow for Christmas. Those things can not only plow a furrow they can also plow up potatos, and then I will only need to walk along and pick up the spuds. That would be awesome.

I have decided that if the tractor does not get to my out of town land, then I will use it to plow a furrow in my back yard and plant something good. I ALWAYS want a big pepper crop, but peppers do not do well for me here and so I must be sensible.

[kansasterri]

A $6000 tractor makes a really, really EXPENSIVE ladder, but it DOES work!

In other words, my husband has not yet submitted the plans for a bridge for our out of town property, and that means that the tractor is still in my back yard instead of being at my out of town property. I am really not as upset about the delay as it has has made expanding my garden incredibly convenient.

I have been able to use the tractor to double the size of our garden at the North end of my one acre back yard. I then planted the newly broken up area to potatos and sweet potatos, and I followed the Irish potatos with black-eyed peas for a second crop for this year. This gave the benefit of giving me some much-needed practice on the tractor, and it was very convenient to just step outside to go to the tractor. This was much easier than doing a 45 minute round trip to my out-of-town property every time I that wanted to practice on it.

And, I found out the HARD way that the tractor needs to be run for about 10 minutes a month to keep a charge in the battery! Which is a pretty good reason to use it, even if it is only to reach the fruit that is 15' off of the ground. (A 6' tall husband, standing on a mower deck that is 3' up, using a hoe to pull the upper branches into his reach.) I have GOT to get around to pruning the top branches to make the trees shorter!

I no longer expect a bridge over the creek this year. But it has been a GOOD year, and I have half filled the 7 cu foot chest freezer that we bought when I started to realize just how much produce that I would be preserving for the winter. The chest freezer  is half-full now, and I expect to fill it the rest of the way just as soon as my peaches are ripe.

[feralferret]

I recently upgraded from a 4 cubic foot chest freezer to a 7 cubic foot. I was amazed at how much more it holds.

I can't complain about the old one. My wife bought it about 40 years ago. It finally needed a refrigerant recharge, but because it was so old it used R-12 Freon which hasn't been made in at least 30 years. So much for fixing it and getting another 20 or more years out of it.

The MS really stinks. Back 30 years ago, a close friend's wife had it. It finally overwhelmed her body.

Please continue you gardening/farming tale.