Penniless
Acre-less Acres
Life happens. Our little rented 5 acres is no
longer ours. Don’t rent from people you know no matter what they promise. It
never works out. So, last August Mr Penniless Acres and I began a desperate
search for another place to live. An apartment was not an option for us after
having so much of our own space. Not to mention our 80 pound fluffy white
dog-child. It doesn’t make sense to me to put weight limits on pets. Do they
put weight limits on kids? No. And kids are WAY more destructive than pets. But
anyways, I digress.
We found a lovely older mobile home for $5k in
Kansas. That included the moving price (so we were told). When we drove out there to look at it, I thought
we were in the wrong house at first. It was so nice for the price. It is older
than I am, but the people who owned it had put a lot of work into it. There was
this addition built on to the front of it. (More about the addition and the
pain in the ass it turned out to be in a moment.) The outside siding was new;
the roof was new. This house is going to last another 20 years.
We quickly called the guy who owned it back and
met with him to put down a deposit. We found the ad on craigslist, so the whole
time we were wondering if he was going to take our money, or just meet us and
murder us. You know, there is always that chance. We even snapped a picture of
his truck and license plate so we could at least identify him again if we
needed to involve the cops. He gave us a Bill of Sale and said the title would
be on the way. And that it would be delivered in about 4 weeks. And then we
waited.
And we waited. And we waited. We got the name
of the house movers and called them. They basically hadn’t even known they were
SUPPOSED to move the house. Apparently, the guy, Omar, hadn’t talked to the
owner of the moving company when promising us that $5k included delivery.
So now we own a house in Kansas, on someone
else’s land. And Omar was less than helpful. So We took things into our own
hands. We called around. Found a WONDERFUL guy who was willing to help. Omar
put in the $1k he was planning on paying to move it, and we had to pitch in the
rest. Which was fine. At that point, we just wanted it done. But then there was
the problem of the addition.
This thing was built better than most houses.
It was attached to the roof, and built on the ground. We had to completely
demolish it before the mover would come out. We spent the weekend tearing it
down. And it did take ALLLLL weekend long. We even used the mustang to pull it
away from the house. If you recall the white car thought it was a truck – but we
put a tow ball on the mustang, and now it REALLY thinks it is a truck.
The guy who was going to move it told us it
would be a few more weeks. And then it rained. One of his other jobs got
canceled, and we had the house delivered within 4 days. He also broke two toter
trucks getting it done. But that is another story. He will probably never more
our house again. I think we are bad luck.
We moved it into a campground/mobile home park
WAY north of Springfield. The lots for the houses are very large, there is a
pond in the back, and it is in the country. We have neighbors again, but it isn’t
so bad. I would say we have a half acre lot, at least. Maybe more. We are going
to be putting a garden in. We are going to talk the park owners to let us get
chickens (fingers crossed). We have a deck to build in the front and back of
the house. We have to build a storage shed for all our crap, I mean tools. We
have to get gravel delivered for a driveway of sorts for the cars (and the
motorcycle that is now almost running). There is plenty to get done on this acre-less
farm.
Eventually, we would like to get our own land
again, but I don’t think I was ready for 5 acres. Do you know how much brush
hogging is required to keep pastures from looking like jungles?
There is plenty of space for us where we are
for now. I still have to learn how to grow tomatoes from seeds. I have once
again ruined them. I don’t know what the secret is…. But I will figure it out.
I did manage to get some green beans started, and if they don’t drown from all
the rain, they look like they might be productive this year.
I want to start writing more regularly. We
always have some cool project that we are working on. And we always have some
kind of adventure while doing it. I learned how to rebuild a motorcycle
transmission this spring. Maybe more on that at a later date.
