Welcome to "The Gods Are Bored," blue as the Wild Pacific on a rainy New Jersey day!
Since I got a full-time job, I've been pondering the possibility of buying out my family members and owning the family property on Polish Mountain outright. Just now the 76 mountainous acres are one-sixth mine.
My uncle and cousin are living there right now. My cousin had a realtor come out from Cumberland, Maryland. The gig is up, dear readers. The farm is worth almost $200,000. Why? The views. The size. The location, just a two-hour drive from all those deer-blasting Washington lobbyists.
I can't afford to buy the farm. I will never be able to afford to buy the farm. Well, let's never say never, but let's say BIG FAT PROBABLY I'll never have the dough to buy the farm.
Okay. So there are two things I could do. I could wallow in self-pity, weep and wail, or I could ask the faeries to help me devise a Plan B.
ATTENTION ALL FAERIES: ANNE NEEDS A PLAN B TO EASE THE PAIN OF LOSING HER BELOVED FAMILY FARM! FRONT AND CENTER!
Puck: Neither a borrower nor a lender be. Take the money and go on a spree! Why should I have to say anything more? You're 55 miles from the Jersey Shore!
Anne: (weeps) The Jersey Shore? That's my consolation prize? @#$@##@$!
Princess: Trees and stones, bucks and does... that place is a dump. Buy some new clothes!
Anne: Geez, no wonder the fairy tales always make faeries look flip. Come on, faeries ... I'm crazy with grief!
Puck: Crazy with grief. She needs some relief! Let's go to Wendy's. Where's the beef?
Princess: She wants a barn full of rusty old tools. With her share of the booty she could buy a few jewels!
Anne: For the very first time in my life I'm actually looking forward to an afternoon of teachers' meetings. Gosh. I think I'll go early and sit in the auditorium. Puck. Princess. Thank you ever so very much for your help ... NOT!
Host of Faeries: We want chocolate! We want chocolate!
Some days, everything that can go wrong does go wrong. Ah well, according to my handy Mayan calendar, this is the week of the Vulture. Flap, flap. Self-pity is crap.
10 comments:
I have no great suggestions but I do feel your pain having been there myself about 13 years ago. I am truly sorry.
Could we, like, maybe try a little....I don't know....MAGICK? We Wiccans swear by it, don't you Druids?
I would consider using magick to own my farm to be too selfish a use of magick.
$200,000 or $2,000,000? Jusr clarifying.
It might be helpful, at least from the Magic standpoint, to reconsider your thinking of it being selfish. Yes indeed, YOU want the farm. Perhaps for your children, their children? An investment for your family's future? How about to keep it out of the hands of developers that will take 76 acres at reasonable commuting distance from the city and change it in to something unrecognizable and Earth-hurting? Maybe for the Earth Spirits that live there and could be easily displaced and, even more easily, underappreciated?
Maybe it's not ALL self-serving and the calling of the Magic would maybe be a possibility after all?
Two hundred grand. But my husband is right. The magick will work itself out. Someone will have to hassle around and get the place listed, etc. etc. Then there will have to be customers. Luckily the farm is not close to I-68, so it has no use for high-density development.
Hmm - Would the Nature Conservancy or some other land group be willing to buy and preserve the farm? Say, with a proviso that currently living family members (including the Heir and the Spare - and their partners and kids) have permanent access to the farm (and ability to stay in the house- as long as they don't interfere with the operation of the property and they agree to help out)?
Then, you'd have the best of both worlds - the money and the preservation of and access to the farm.
And, by the way, maybe the fairies aren't the best entities to call on in this type of situation.
All the best.
Ok - after some more thought - how about a co-housing situation? You get to keep the farm house, you get to determine how many homes are built, and, collectively where. You can set it up so that, collectively, agriculturally related uses have to continue. Collectively, the group can decided on housing design. You might be able to require that solar panels and residential wind turbines be used to help keep the property off grid. I'm sure that if you google co-housing, you'll come up with a bunch that you can talk to. Also, the one I do know a little bit about is Cobb Hill in VT.
Another thought, who says it's sell everything or nothing? How about you work with some nonprofit based land group to find a developer who is ecologically conscious. As a part of the deal you get to keep the farm house, some acreage, and you control the development process by choosing the developer, and, by having put conservation or other type restrictions on the property before putting it up for sale. You could determine the number of houses per acre, the placement, require permanent open space, etc.
So, I think there are many creative things that you can do the would give you some of what you want, but also control what happens to the land. And, that it be done with respect and care.
Have you gone there to talk to the land,.tree and other spirits to see what they have to say?
Please be more hopeful. And, remember, the family can't sell it without you're signing off on it. So, maybe a bunch of research is needed so you can sit down and talk to the 5 other owners about it.
Many blessings.
If the land is worth more than 200,000 and developers want it, it sounds like it's worth more than 200,000. Get it appraised and get it established that it may be worth more and get a loan. If there is serious mineral rights or oil or coal it would be more valuable and the bank would consider that a good investment.
if i ever win the lottery i'll buy it for you
How many readers do you have? If we each sent you $10, would that be enough for a down payment with monthly payments you could afford?
Just a thought.... You could name a tree after each donor....
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