# 207 - Can We Buy the Land Next Door>?

Deputy Dave and I have decided to TRY to buy small strip of land next to our land in the country, it's only about 1.5 acres, but it would make a huge difference to our overall homestead. This little strip of land would put us directly against a little county road...making it much less expensive and easier to drive into our property from the main county road than it would to be forced to run our own road deep into our property. The best thing about possibly acquiring this land is that it would allow direct access to our property, this access would partly be on the county dime instead of on our dime with having to build and upkeep an extensive private road.

It's complicated, but that little piece of property could really be an excellent purchase.

We've already approached the seller of this land and made our first offer. I guess we will see what happens over the next couple of weeks. My fingers are crossed and I'm saying my prayers and knocking on wood, all at once. Of course, the prayers are the most efficient, along with our pro-active actions toward buying the land.

This week in the city, it's all about getting the house ready for potential showings this weekend. The "For Sale" sign is in the yard, there's no going back now. Each day, I spend time in various rooms of the house and go through all the drawers, the closets and dressers so I can remove old things and old clothes that do not need to travel with us to our new home. Those things are going into a growing garage sale pile.

This morning, Deputy Dave had large pallet of grass dropped off by the Garden Center. They pulled down our street in their huge rig with pallets of grass lining the bed of the rig, then the driver unloaded his forklift to pull down the huge pallet of grass. He whipped that forklift around and delivered the pallet of beautiful green grass to the backside of the driveway, closest to the backyard, Yippee!

The sod will be laid in the backyard to make it thicker, more level and beautiful. Truthfully, we're undoing chicken-damage. It's true that chickens will help keep a garden clear of bugs, but chickens will also keep a garden clear of EVERYTHING. Between their constant destructive pecking, their jumping to clamp down on a high vine, their chicken feet and claws digging into earth for hundreds of scratches per day...the yard is toast.

At least having chickens has taught me that they will NOT be allowed in our veggie garden and they will not be allowed near the house. I want the chicken coop close enough to the house to easily walk to and from it every day, but not so close as to invite them for yard destruction. There's no doubt that having acreage will help to reduce the impact on our land from the chickens, but I'm sure there will be an entire new set of lessons once we are moved to the acreage.

Tomorrow, I'll be adding some flowering plants into the flower boxes that flank our concrete mailbox near the curb. I'm harvesting some plants from one of my pots that has flowering spreaders. One day, I might have a place to grow all of my seedlings, cuttings and fabulous plants in a little green-house. I think I'll hang a sign outside the green-house that says, "No Chickens Allowed!"

It will be so easy to walk inside the humid little space and to select a newly growing plant that would be perfect at a specific part of our land. I plan on consistently growing veggies from seedlings, as I've always done from childhood and to propagate decorative shrubs and trailing plants and, and, and, all kinds of things I'd LOVE to grow but don't have the room for here in the city!

These are my yogurt cups now being repurposed
to be little seed-starters. They work beautifully.

 What a life! I can only imagine how great it will be to have dirt under my fingernails more often! I can only imagine what it will be like to have parts of my yard fenced off JUST FOR ME TO ENJOY!!!! Ahhh, the joys of cross-fencing!

Having a greenhouse will certainly help us saving money on our plants and give us year-round growth assistance.

A garage sale box...another way to make a little bit of
money on a pile of old stuff.

Since the sign is in the yard at our house, it is lighting a big fire under all of us, spurning us to hurry and wrap up each little job in the house so it can ready for showings. This weekend, potential buyers will be considering our house as THEIR NEW HOUSE! I'm nearly finished with the entire upstairs and my master bedroom. It's coming together. I'm super picky, so that little part of my character tends to drive everyone nuts, except for Deputy Dave, he understands me and is even more picky than myself.

I guess you can't avoide a bit of carnage when moving.
The lamp-shade didn't make it.

Stefie and Brice had come home for the weekend; it was great getting to see the kids in person. But, on Sunday, as they readied to leave the house, they gathered their belongings and stumbled upon the "For Sale" sign firmly planted in the front yard. Deputy Dave had gone outside to stick the sign in the yard, a clear violation of our comfy-zone. Eeek! Stefie felt instant shock. Even though she's known that this day was coming and we've spoken about it repeatedly, it's still hard to actually see happen. I've warned her, but it didn't seem real until she saw the sign...it hit her hard and made her sad. A melancholy mood set in as she began to remember ALL of the wonderful times she had at this house, so many good times.

Then, her boyfriend Brice tells me, "I don't think I'm ready for this; I LOVE this house."

I was cracking up.

That evening, Stefie drove off to go back to San Marcos while saying, "I don't know how much longer I'll have a room at that house; my room that I love, I've got to say good-bye to it."

So, I had told Stefie over the weekend, "Since you have stayed serious to your academic studies and are always a good kid, I want you to still have your own room in the country cabin, you can decorate it as you please.

She gave me this big, cute smile and said, "Mom, I'm not a kid anymore, but thank you because I'm not quite done with needing to have my own space at home with you and dad."

I tell  my daughter, "Take your time baby. Take your time and keep working hard so that you may indeed head the direction of your passion...to work as a Child Life Specialist in Houston's Medical Center. Once you are finished with your studies, we can figure out what to do from there."

Then I added, "And take a look in the mirror, you are super teeny-tiny, so that must really mean that you are still our little kid!" I had to laugh while Stefie gave me one of "those" looks.
But, I think about her trying to finish this semester away at college, while knowing her parents are doing their best to get their house sold and I know it is stressful for her. I know she wonders about how she'll come home for weekends as we're building a cabin and about how she will find time to visit us and her boyfriend's parents who will suddenly live two hours apart instead of mere blocks away from each other. It will be different.

However, I reminded her that her father and I are trying our best to move away from the Southern end of Houston because of the heavy industrial area that surrounds us...these chemical plants and refineries with the many "Shelter in Place" scares we have had with chemical releases over the years are NOT something I want to pass on to my future grandchildren. I'd rather share fresh country air, farm animals and wide open spaces.

Meanwhile, it seems as if everyone in the family is rather sad about us selling this house. My sister is kind of in the dumps about it, feeling as if we're going to be living too far apart. But, I reminded her today that we can all meet in Houston a couple of Sundays per month to eat at a fabulous restaurant and enjoy some time together. And, they can come to our farm and enjoy some front porch sitting.

Our lives are changing. That is a certainty. Moving to the country full-time will be a strange experience. Going from being surrounded by neighbors to living in a rural area with no neighbor in sight will be a bit odd. However, I know that the leap will pay off. The land needs a LOT of work. Years of work. It won't be an over-night delightful transition, it will take someone living in that part of the forest to make it inhabitable and your homestead is not an easy undertaking.

Good thing is...Deputy Dave and I are such a good team that I am assured of our ability to tackle this incredible opporunity of a lifetime. I'm ready for the ups and downs to come with this experience. I feel like a pioneer, no matter how many times a pioneer has done their own thing, the next to come along is left to their own abilities. Good thing we have technology at our disposal. However, on acreage, that technology is not always as accessible. Yes, it will be interesting to move out there in the woods.

I'll be getting internet service FIRST THING! Then, I can blog in the dark to all my blog buddies and share with you every creepy sound I hear. If Big Foot visits me, I hope I have my camera ready because I will IMMEDIATELY put up a post with my new furry friend!