Farm

My Aunt Sally died a little over a month ago leaving her 4 daughters fighting over the estate. One wants everything sold for the cash and the others can’t buy their sister out – so the lawyer is taking steps to sell it all, including my family’s original homestead farm.

Sally was the wife of my Mom’s oldest brother and as such, inherited the family homestead; my Mom’s birthplace.

It is the same 160 acre farm where I raised my children so long ago when my Grandparents entered the nursing home. My children remember it as a place of simplicity, happiness, and home. Our dog Brutus is buried there. The downstairs doorway in the closet has their heights marked on the inside edge from toddler to teen years. When my Grandparents died I paid rent to Aunt Sally until I moved north following the divorce.

Today I got several text messages from neighbors asking what the price would be. They all want to own it.

But so do I. There is something about that ground. My family staked it out during the homestead land rush. They faced hardships and pestilence, dust bowl, locusts, the Great Depression, and my Grandfather held on to it.

As an old man he told me over and over how he never wanted it to go to anyone out side the family.

I have a buyers agent working for me and I will try to talk to all the neighbors and let them know why I want it and that as the place where I raised my children, it is their ancestral home, too.

I have no use for a farm in Kansas but this is a matter of blood and soil. I can continue the CRP, rent the rest to the neighbors, lease out the hunting rights, and it should be a self-sustaining property until the land values stabilize.

I will hire someone to knock down the dilapidated buildings to lower the taxes and make sure the renting farmers keep the fences up. It isn’t rocket science.

This is about legacy and history and family. I am the only one who is willing to carry out Grandpas wishes and yet – he made all our lives of luxury possible.

I am not sure it will go my way – but I am hopeful.

I hope it is able to work out for you. I love that you want to honor your grandfather’s wishes, that some part of the happiness and love shared there might carry on into the future. You are lucky to have had this place that grounds you, no matter how far away you might be.

It seems to me that the ones who you should be talking with are your cousins and not the neighbors, since they are the ones who will be selling all.

I was semi following this programme and this particular segment sounded interesting. I know there’s a lot of hype re gluten, but to large extent I believe wheat is bad. Now there is focus on molds in coffee. Hope you find a cure for your problem. http://theglutensummit.com/dave-asprey/

I’m sure you’ll find a way to make this land stay in the family.

I hope this-both the pursuit, and the prize-will not make life too difficult for you in any way. Wishing you well with it all.

Do they know it’s you trying to buy it? Would the feuding daughters care?

agamemnon

November 18, 2013

I hope you get to buy it.

I hope you are able to do it. It really would be a shame to let someone else have it and lose all that history in the process.

MageB

November 21, 2013

I so hope you are feeling better. I haven’t been able to get here to find out. So very sorry about the farm. If you can’t buy it all, can you buy out the one sister?

I see ‘beans’ in your list, and they are high in Lectins…cause of inflammation, leaky gut and a host of other ills. Read this: http://www.naturaltherapypages.com.au/article/Lectins Hope you don’t think I’m pushing anything…I’m just interested why someone as vibrant as you could have this mystery problem.

Dancing Queen

November 22, 2013

I know I would feel the exact same way and I do hope you are successful on your quest. Family legacies are so imporant, you cannot put a price on them.

Jinn

December 10, 2013

I hope you get it !!!!!! I so wish I had been the right age and in the position to buy my Grandparent’s farm, Pleasant Valley, when they had to leave it. That place was Magic and there will never be another place like it . I am hoping to make a trip there this upcoming summer to see what is left of it , if I possibly can.