Is it any wonder my lips are in a state
of constant fever blistering?
I get cold sores when I'm stressed.
Overly tired.
Sunburned.
And it appears, when I travel too much.
The one that popped up LAST week during
the trip to the ranch with Linda is in the
final (peeled yesterday) stages.
This morning my bottom lip is sporting
a nice new baby cold sore.
Complete with itching and burning.
Grrrrrrr.
Because, you see, yesterday Kyle and I
made a "run" up to the ranch
in his new car!
What a great little car that is!
Comfy, nice COLD a/c,
plenty of leg room.
(not to mention a back seat and a
hatchback so LOTS of storage space)
and 40+ mpg!
The whole 400 mile trip cost him $30!
SWEET!!!
The purpose of the trip was multi-faceted.
Partly for Kyle to have an opportunity
to be on the property without either Linda
or Ronnie (the gentleman who was the manager)
or D, the old owner. Just him. (And me)
Also he wanted to get some measurements
for where he wants to put the cow working chutes, etc.
And there was a tractor in the neighboring town
he wanted to take a look at.
We started with the tractor, mostly because he wanted to.
hahahahaha
It's a pretty nice tractor!
2017, less than 400 hours on it.
Clean.
Enclosed cab with A/C and ready for a radio.
(has speakers, just needs a head unit...)
(I have no idea what I just said, but its
what Kyle said... lol)
Anyhow.
We drove up, saw it out on the lot so walked
over and poked around. Got inside and checked
out everything, including the new car smell
still in there!
Then we walked into the dealership,
asked to speak with Michael (who has been talking
to Linda's daughter Gina - who lives in Logan)
and he just handed Kyle the keys and said
go give her a run!
I stayed in and chatted with him.
Discovered that we have been hanging out
in the "old" part of town.
Chiefland (the town we were in) has a "new"
part! Who knew! Complete with a Super WalMart,
actual restaurants and fast food, etc.
We still like the charm of the "old" part,
but its good to know Kyle won't have to drive
30 minutes into Gainesville to get groceries!
(There is a Save-A-Lot right there in Bronson
that he will probably get his groceries from,
but other stuff like oil for his truck, etc can come
from Walmart...)
Anyhow.
He drove the tractor around for a bit,
came in and said, I talked to the Boss Lady
and she said "We'll take it!"
Mission accomplished!
He has a tractor!
They will deliver it for him, unless he wants
to drive up there with his trailer.
I imagine he'll just have them deliver it so he
can get started mowing.
The property NEEDS it!
Ronnie has quit doing anything but driving
around, counting babies and checking the
water troughs to make sure they are staying full.
(There are multiple wells on the property,
each pasture has its own giant waterer, with automatic
floats in them so they stay full, but with all the
summer storms we have been having this summer,
the power sometimes pops on one of the wells
and you have to go back and pop the breaker.)
Of course with all the summer storms, the
troughs are staying full on their own anyhow.
After buying the tractor, we headed to the property.
The cows and their babies were all the way
in the BACK of the property in a 22 acre pasture
that was leased out to a guy who was growing
peanuts on it. He was killed in a car accident
last year, so the land is just sitting there.
Lots of peanut plants growing, but also lots of other
random weeds and stuff.
It's pretty tall.
And perfect for hiding new born calves.
We know there were 11 on there last week,
but we could only count 8.
I'm pretty sure the rest of them were just
hiding from us and our UTV.
But we didn't want to chance "rounding them up"
in that tall "grass" and running over somebody.
So we called it 8 and moved on.
See the babies?
Yeah, me neither.
Those are all Mamas you can see.
I just can't get over how pretty the property is.
And GREEN!
This rain is awesome!
The pond was a good foot higher than it was
just last week. But the hole its in is HUGE,
so there's no way it can flood.
Well...
I guess it could... if it rained for 40 days
and 40 nights.
But otherwise, I think we're safe.
Linda and I left the UTV in the hay barn
last week, so we just hopped in.
Well, first we had to remove some wild life
and dry off the seats...
Shall we name her Charlotte?
Or get some Raid spider killer.
She had several friends.
They are called banana spiders.
And they are BIG.
She was actually the smallest one.
Kyle carefully removed the edge of her web
from the UTV and then we drove away.
Fast.
hahahahahahahaha
We spent about an hour just driving around,
checking all the fence lines,
driving into each pasture,
several of which we hadn't even been in before!
Drove around the old windmill (it still works,
just has been unhooked since they have electric
wells, but good to know he has a backup system
in case of a longer power outage - ie: hurricane...)
It is on one of the only low spots on the property
and was surrounded by several inches of water,
one of the only spots on the property we ran into flooding.
The property is significantly higher than the neighbors.
Some of the other properties around us were pretty flooded,
but except for around the windmill, theirs is good.
He got a good sense of what he wanted to do
as soon as he gets up there.
First order of business - MOW.
Then there are a lot of BIG oak trees all around
the perimeter that haven't had any attention
paid to them in a good many years,
they need to be trimmed up so he can get the
tractor under them.
And there are some fences that need some minor repairs.
And of course he needs to build the
cow working pens and chutes,
but he is still trying to plan out what he
thinks will be the best way to do it.
Since he isn't going to use metal panels
like what Ronnie had, he is going to build
permanent stuff with wood, he needs to be
pretty sure what he's doing before he does it.
Meanwhile, I know you are wondering about his house.
Yeah.
Maybe the source of all my stress induced cold sores.
Turns out the county the property is located in
has some ridiculously picky laws. Even on giant
pieces of privately owned land.
And a tiny house violates each and every one of them.
Who knew!
Here in our county (and in nearly every other county
in the state) you are free to do whatever you want
on agricultural land.
But Levy county?
Nope.
So the "house" has become the "office"
and will move to the property in the future.
And will have to be taken off the trailer and
installed on the ground.
Meanwhile, Linda is going to have to get a
mobile home for him to live in until she
decides what she wants to do for permanent
housing. Neither of them are very fond of the
mobile home idea.
But it will have to do for now.
And the sooner, the better.
He can't live on the property until the county
signs off on whatever he is living in.
And there are no other places to live that are
closer than Gainesville. (there is one motel in
Bronson, and I wouldn't put my worst enemy there.)
And it is actually cheaper to drive back and forth
from here (thanks to his little car) than it is to
stay up there. (naturally)
So.....
back to the drawing board a little bit.
We were supposed to look at a mobile home
in Ocala yesterday, but ran out of time.
And as Kyle said,
it doesn't really matter what it looks like.
Buy it, get it on the property and I'll live in it.
(He has considered the tent option, but I'm sure
the county wouldn't approve of THAT!)
(grin)
Meanwhile (again), Linda has gone up to
North Carolina (or South Carolina... I can't ever
keep those straight...) to visit her daughter and
celebrate her granddaughter's 2nd birthday.
Thank goodness for phone calls.
And texts.
And picture sharing.
Ain't technology grand?
Nice to be able to go on with your life
but still be in touch so nothing gets messed up.
Meanwhile the neighbor has a bunch of cows
in a field of stuff we can't identify.
Looks like cattails.
But it's not as beefy.
I have no idea what it is!
But the cows seem to like it....
Better get on with my day.
Looks like more rain here,
and I need to get some feed for my horse.
*Buddy gets special feed cuz he's old.
So is Andy, but Buddy's teeth are falling out,
and Andy doesn't seem to have lost any of his...
No comments:
Post a Comment