Can it be??

I can't believe that a whole month has gone by since my last post. So sorry!

Things have been very busy, I was going round and round with financial questions this summer.  Wasting away my days with indecision. Being a Pisces, it's really hard making decisions. I didn't want to fritter away the life insurance $ on my mortgage payments and bills. Finally I went to see a financial adviser and came away with a concrete plan.

I wasn't real happy about his advice to sell my beloved 40 acres, but I had to agree that it is a necessary step if I want to refinance or pay off my home. In his final days, Stan told me to sell the land too, but I really wanted to keep it.  That was the place where I could go and soak up the big blue skies and see eagles and hawks soaring overhead and let Ozzie run to his heart's content.  It was the place where Stan and I had dreamed of the future together.  It was a beautiful parcel of land, peaceful and quiet -- most of the time.  When the neighbor with 5 kids built a house on the adjacent 20 acres last year, that feeling of solitude was a bit diminished.

This year I was finally going to get a second crop of hay. And nice hay too -- orchard grass, alfalfa and clover.  The sheep will love it!

I listed the land with my hairdresser who is also a real estate agent on Aug. 16. She told me not to expect to get much because land was just not selling these days. I priced it less than I would have asked 4 years ago, but I sure wasn't going to go less than the tax appraised value. Within 4 days of listing, I had two neighbors who wanted to split it and the price was just under my asking price. Okay, I could be creative and split it and do a contract for deed on one of them. But a few days later another offer came through for the entire 40 acres. After much soul searching and feeling guilty about my neighbors, I decided I had to take that offer.  I thought it was all decided until one of the neighbors came up with a plan to get me cash for the whole 40 acres.  That was even better since there would be no appraisal hoops to go through. I signed the agreement on Aug. 31, just two weeks after listing it. I never thought it would go that fast.

The closing was to be in just 11 days, which brings us to today.  Getting all the stuff out of the pole building has been a hassle.  My boys helped out a couple of weekend days, and then my '94 Chevy truck broke down. I got it fixed yesterday, thank heavens! Ozzie and I still have to finish cleaning up the pole barn and haul some loose hay home. The second crop remains uncut in the field. I'll be so glad when I get that hay here in my barn and life slows down again!

On top of the real estate issues, the garden has been quite productive.  I've gotten so many green beans from that 10 cent packet of last year's seeds I bought at the flea market in May.  (I love green beans served with garlic and butter.) Thankfully the ducks and sheep love green beans too, so none of them go to waste. I bought some corn to freeze and now I'm canning tomato juice, spaghetti sauce and salsa.  I don't even want to talk about all the zucchini that seems to grow 2 feet long overnight. The sheep and ducks like that too.

Planting the garden in the old poultry pen was a great idea.  The soil is so fertile. Plus I didn't need to till it up or even weed it much at all.  Next year I will plant in the pen they're using this summer and they will have this year's garden space.

The workload from my job has been heavier than usual in August and September.  This is good for the pay check but bad for peace of mind, although I do love the views while I'm traveling on the job...this is such a beautiful time of year. 

The shearer is coming on Saturday.  He's only going to shear 6 of my longer fleeced sheep and I'm going to have him use a burdizzo to wether two of my crossbred  ram lambs. They have such beautiful fleece.
Fall sheared fleeces will be cleaner than spring fleeces, and I want some shorter stapled fleeces to make into raw-felted fleece blankets.  I can't wait to make some felt again!