Gonna be busy

11/7/07 Tuesday
It’s going to be a busy good day. Yesterday we went to see Patrick Duffy, our attorney. He is quite a personable guy, a real pleasure and comfortable to talk to. I was happy to give him the final payment and made sure to let him know how grateful we were he gave us so much time to do so. We discussed the best way to open the business bank account for the farm and then got into the issue of getting my name correct on the estate and particularly getting the oil lease transferred to my name. Patrick called McGillivray, the attorney who handled my grandmother’s estate. He couldn’t find my file so the two of them joked about that a bit. Then they got down to business with Patrick explaining how to fix the name problem. I find it disconcerting that Mr. McGillivray didn’t seem to know how to do this. Hopefully this estate will get settled after two years. Virginia seems to be the hold up.


So I rented the tractor with a tiller so I can start preparing this five acres for next years planting season. When I called and priced rental Metro had the lowest price at $155.00 for the tractor with an additional $75.00 for the tiller attachment. Cool, I thought. $230.00 for the whole shebang. I didn’t know if there was a delivery charge but didn’t think it would be more than $75.00. After all the tractor with bush hog Wally had rented for us ran about $300.00. What a shock I had to be handed a bill for $457.00. It costs $155.00 to rent the tractor and $150.00 to have it delivered. If I had known that I would have rented a trailer or borrowed one. What a hit that is. I called Metro to express my dismay. I told him that he should have been forthcoming about that while at the same time admitting I should have asked about it. He dropped fifty bucks off the bill which we are grateful for, but it is still a chunk out of the CRP money.


So I spent all day tilling. Drove that tractor until 9:30 last night when I finally took a bathroom break. Climbing off the tractor let me know I probably should call it a night. I was so full of dust and dirt from the extremely dry soil that Cherie took a broom to me and made me disrobe and take a bath without touching anything. It was pretty bad. Despite spending all that time steadily working it looks like I only got about half of it done and the tractor is almost out of gas. I’ll be hitting it as soon as I eat some breakfast this morning as they will come to pick up the tractor at 1:00 and for the price I want to make sure I get my money’s worth. Unfortunately I will be billed for any time beyond eight hours. I so look forward to owning my own tractor.




So today Bob Trimble (? I think that’s his name) and Jay will come and install the window. They should be here this morning. Bob runs the Christmas in April ministry but is doing this on his own time and expense. Learning the cost of the window I asked him if we can buy the remaining number of window we need. He said we can discuss that when he comes to install. I am thinking of paying for them out of the CRP money but it is going fast. But still it would be a wise long term use of the money.

Well I’ve got lots to do so see ya later
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The quail are back. Been seeing them alot more

It’s after 5:00 now. The tractor has broken down twice. Last night I noticed that the tiller was rubbing on one of the tires so when I looked at it in the light of day I saw a bolt or clevis pin had fallen out of one of the support braces. I called Metro and he sent one of his guys out to fix it. I think it was Jason I talked to but maybe it was a Russell. Whoever it was he extended my time to make up for the tractor not working.

As soon as it got fixed I went back to tilling. Got most of it done but something else gave way so the blades stopped turning. I called Metro and let them know. “You guys are going to love me” I started that conversation with. I get nervous at times like this, afraid I’ll say something that will be taken wrong or that the other party will think I’m an ass.

I don’t know. I’m pretty tired right now and a bit slow on top of it. Bob Trimble and Jay got here this morning and put the window in. It’s a big improvement and Cherie couldn’t stop smiling and saying “Oh! It’s so nice” and stuff. I helped where I could but mostly stayed out of their way.

It’s 8:00. The tractor got repaired so I should be able to finish tilling tomorrow. Even more tired so will write tomorrow. It was another great sunset.