Promise Acre: Our Journey

[promiseacres]

Thanks GB. It's not Broom snakeweed... googled it.. doesn't look anything like that. DH was familiar with whatever this is (just 2 small areas we saw it... one was a neighbor's field) anyways he says this is hard to get rid of as it spreads by spores.. here you go... https://www.thespruce.com/horsetail-plant-aggressively-spreading-weed-4125786 and yes it is poisonous in large quantity.... so horse tail or snake weed.. whatever you want to call it. hopefully we can get rid of what little we have.

 

[promiseacres]

oh and found a 1.8 acre with a small cabin just 5 miles north of the farm for lease/lease to own... Mom wants to go see it. (She's still talking of a single or double wide but with a garage attached, we're trying to talk her into an apt off a garage to the main house, to save $$) So maybe something all her own will be best... told we'd trade her but our place is 10 miles from the new and she wants closer. Her place is showing again Saturday. So we can hope and pray.
I've started getting prices on dumpsters... ugh so expensive to throw away anything... know why many people just dig a hole. Looking at moving trucks too... we spent over $200 in fuel this weekend moving the big things... hopefully we won't have to do that again.
Got our wood burner going finally! feels better especially since it's about 25 degrees as the high today.

 

[Baymule]

On the big roll off dumpsters, they rent by the week, plus dumping whatever you put in them. What you don't want to do is get one, get started, then get sidetracked while the dumpster sits there, racking up daily charges. Depending on the amount of trash you have to get rid of, you might want to make a pile first, get the dumpster, fill it and call for a dump while you start wrecking out the walls and ceilings. They usually take a couple days to schedule picking it up to dump and return it. If all you have is weekends to work on the house, then you want to maximize your dumpster time, it is expensive!

When we bought our place, I came up here, painting, tearing up the floors and putting down new ones. Every time I went home, I carried bags of garbage I picked up. I'd pack the back of the truck or car with trash bags. We had trash service at our old house. LOL

 

[greybeard]

On the big roll off dumpsters, they rent by the week, plus dumping whatever you put in them. What you don't want to do is get one, get started, then get sidetracked while the dumpster sits there, racking up daily charges

I kept one rented continuously from mid 2006 thru most of 2007 for a flat rate each. Keep as long as you want and they bring an empty when they came to pick up the full one. As soon as the dropped the empty, ya write 'em a check. 8x8x40. Had a big door on one end I could drive the small tractor & loader into, but I usually closed the door and loaded most over the top with the front bucket of the Case loader/backhoe combo. When about 1/2 full, I would back up to it, & pack the crap down with the backhoe bucket. Their only rule was that nothing could be protruding over the top edge. You can really get a LOT in one if you load it right.

Thanks GB. It's not Broom snakeweed... googled it.. doesn't look anything like that. DH was familiar with whatever this is (just 2 small areas we saw it... one was a neighbor's field) anyways he says this is hard to get rid of as it spreads by spores.. here you go... https://www.thespruce.com/horsetail-plant-aggressively-spreading-weed-4125786 and yes it is poisonous in large quantity.... so horse tail or snake weed.. whatever you want to call it. hopefully we can get rid of what little we have.

There were several differnt kinds of horsetail listed on thespruce webpage.
Equisetum hyemale is the botanical name for the plant known commonly as "rough horsetail" or "scouring rush."
It is reportedly very difficult to get rid of but I have no personal experience with that variety.
Looks like this & usually grows only in wet areas:


The other common kind, range horsetail, is what we call mares tail here. Kinda looks like dog fennel, if you are familiar with that plant..
Equisetum arvense
2,4d and water or a mix of tricloypr and water will kill it if sprayed early in the summer or late spring. It looks like this:



We also have the giant horsetail or giant marestail here, but not often.

It's treatment is the same as above. I really believe tho, the range horsetail and giant horsetail can be mowed to extinction. Cut it often enough, the rhizome uses all it's stored energy in an effort to produce a new stalk and the rhizome eventually dies.

 

[promiseacres]

Well got all of Mom's farm equipment moved. She's been moving things... We did go ahead and get 5 garbage bags out of junk from the basement, until she gets hers sold we'll just do what we can. If we have need to can fill up the pick up or horse trailer and take the garbage to the transfer station for $1/bag. I am hoping that she'll be more willing to sell her place if she gets moved down here since she's bound to do so. I have a feeling that we'll not be putting our place on the market for awhile... maybe not for another year... I was really hoping we'd be thinking by spring but with Mom not selling hers... ugh. she did let me lower the prices on the horses and seems ok that they can't be moved right away... letting her deal with the problem of her here and them up there... it's been wet and muddy... but better temps.

 

[Bruce]

I'm a little confused (big news there! )
What does your Mom's house not selling have to do with you selling yours later rather than earlier?

 

[greybeard]

I'm a little confused (big news there! )
What does your Mom's house not selling have to do with you selling yours later rather than earlier?

Same here, but I think maybe they had planned on mom selling her place and staying with them at their current (old) place while they fixed up the new bigger place?
I think perhaps finances/budget play a part of it all as well.

 

[promiseacres]

Yes. When Mom's original financial plan to buy the property fell apart and couldn't get a loan by herself we told her that if she could pay payments and come up with the down payment we would cosign the loan. Which led to us getting a "bridge" loan of sorts thru a local credit union. All this was with the plan to put hers up for auction if it wasn't sold by now.... so we then could put money into the renovation with the sale of her place. Now we have the property but that's it... no extra to sink into what it needs. we sell ours and then we would have to move into a house with old moldy plaster and a septic not big enough for 2 people. kind of a big mess. But I just keep telling myself God is in control.
But wondering if we should have just let Mom buy something after hers sold... (for herself byherself)but this farm was quite the deal and a location we really liked...

 

[greybeard]

if she could pay payments and come up with the down payment we would cosign the loan. Which led to us getting a "bridge" loan of sorts thru a local credit union. All this was with the plan to put hers up for auction if it wasn't sold by now.... so we then could put money into the renovation with the sale of her place.

Plus, IIRC, you didn't want mom to be able to bring all her horses with her.
Was that condition for your present domicile or at the new place?

If at the new place, I don't understand.
From an outsider's viewpoint, this just sounds kinda lopsided..
Am I just missing something altogether? If mom was going to provide the DP and make payments, and the sale of her house was going to provide funds for renovation, what was the 'bridge loan' for?

My parents have been gone a good while now..over a decade, but;
A scenario in which, had I brought it to my father, I should probably make sure I was able to outrun shotgun pellets:
Dad, I want this place with more acreage than I have now, with a big barn and an older bigger house that needs a lot of work but I really can't afford it.
If you could come up with the down payment for it, make the monthly payments for it, sell your place to help with the renovation, and move in with me in the new place, then I could make it work, but you can't bring all them cows and horses with you.
He would have whupped me from one end of this county to the other.

I do hope yall all get it figured out to each's satisfaction and 'git 'er done' and moved in soon.

 

[Bruce]

How much work is involved? A month at 40 hours/week? 2 months at 20 hours/week? How much of it HAS to be done before people can live there, even if it is not yet finished?