July 11, 2010. Artemas, Pa. The Farm.

One aspect of life at the farm is the contact with lots of people who are not like us. Most folks we know graduated from College, live in lovely safe neighborhoods and have responsible important jobs. At least to them they have important positions.

Yesterday I had a conversation with Brian dealing with this farm. He loves our farm and he loves the cattle. Unfortunately he never went to College but has worked all his life slaving away to get money from the sales of beans and potatoes. His term. Being very polite, he hesitated to raise the issue, but he wanted to know our long term plans for the farm. His thinking was that with Andrew's move to Mississippi and our cash flow diminished due to our age, that we might begin to think about selling the farm. He would love to be able to buy it. It was brave of him to bring it up and I was pleased to talk about it with him. When we get too old to come here we would love to have him own the place so that is pleasing to us. The problem is the money part. By now the place is very valuable.

Now we must put our brains together to find a reasonable method of carrying this out. He knows three things for sure. 1. His income comes in small but steady pieces, never in one big lump sum. 2. He wants to acquire the property. 3. He thinks that if we plan ahead and allow him to pay us a small amount each month that goes toward down payment, perhaps he can transfer title to him, pay us the remaining dollars for the property and allow us and our family to have use of the Hill House for as long as we wish. It actually is a pretty good plan.

First thing we must do is talk to the boys, then make a plan that will work for both Tammy and Brian and Ken and me. This is an interesting proposition.