[Paddlewise] Selling the farm (as opposed to buying it)

I suppose you've all heard the old saying about the two best day's in a
boater's life being the one on which he buys his boat and then the one on
which he sells it. I think that the same could be said for a farm.

This morning my wife and i signed the papers on the sale of our family farm
which has been in the family for approximately 3/4 of a generation. The
kids, who grew up on it, are afraid to even visit it lest they be put to
onerous labor. The cats have mostly dispersed and the horses and donkeys
have gone on to new little girls. Last year the labor crew who picked our
orchard's cherries received more than the gross receipts for the crop. While
we are not exactly tired of farming, we are tired of not having enough
money. And not getting any younger (unless you count my immaturity).

Surprisingly (at least to us), the farm turned out to be worth a lot of
money; approximately (and I will translate this into terms everyone on this
forum can understand) 250 kayaks. So when a local fruit corporation offered
us cash we grabbed it and ran. Thus the demise of yet another family farm.
If only we had been big enough to get subsidies.

When I bought the Lake House some 9 years ago my wife was not very happy. In
fact, she refused to spend much time there. So I puttered around the place
decorating it according to my whim (lighthouse and sailing art) with kayaks
stored along the dining room wall where itinerant 2-yr-olds learned to play
queen-of-the-mountain. I had a dock for the kayaks, a yard small enough to
take care of easily, and that rarest of all things: a place where a married
man can choose his own wall decorations.

Then suddenly, when the prices of lakefront real estate went up (even here!)
I was a genius. Go figure.

Even better, now faced with the chore of getting rid of the equipment, tools
and toys that can accumulate when one has, shall we say, sufficient acreage,
we discovered a pole building/shop on an otherwise empty double lot in town
only 2 blocks from the Lake House that was for sale at a reasonable price.
It's even better than the shop at the farm (it's fully insulated and
heated)! I'll have room for my kayaks, woodworking tools, metal working
tools, welder, a ham radio shack, a separate room for my wife's leaded-glass
shop and I even get a built-in hydraulic car lift and two 14-foot doors.
It's got a fenced and gated courtyard that's perfect for parking glider
trailers, campers, sailboats, and trailer boats. Overflow parking!!!

Plus room for my wife to have a big garden. I'm looking even better.

So, to make a long story not quite so long, we have 60 days in which to move
all of our old jun.... er, valuables off the farm. Including ourselves.
Thanks to my genius we have a nice place to move to. And more time next year
to kayak.

There is a downside though... it looks like I'll have to find some other
place to decorate.


Craig Jungers
Moses Lake, WA
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