My Kingdom for a Plat

When we last left off, the tractor had broken down and we were waiting for the paperwork to do its slow grind through the banking system, held up by the fact that we needed an updated plat since the most recent one was dated from 1920.  We'll get back to the tractor later, but first we'll talk about getting a new plat.

We called a surveyor.  We didn't know any but our builder did, and coincidentally his last name was Marsh (Don) too.  No relation.  I explained our situation and he was able to meet me just a few days later and got started right away.  He told me it would take a few days to complete.  True to his word, he completed it.  I think the sunny 70 degree days that we've had for the last 5 days helped tremendously.

From one parcel to three

The survey shows the total area at 49.75 acres which is larger than the 48.37 acres that we originally thought.  Does the increase entitle us into a loftier status such as "Land Barons" or "Lord and Lady" like on Downton Abbey?  It probably only means higher taxes.

The only possible issue is the current (main) house sits too close to the road (the county road runs through the middle of the property).  Of course when the house was built there was no county road (and no building regulations, either).  When I went to register the new plat, the Zoning Administrator told me that he'll come out and have a look with me next week to help figure things out, knowing that we want to tear down and rebuild on the same spot as the current house.  Hopefully we can be grandfathered in.

I dropped off a copy of the plat at the bank.  They told me it will take about a week to get everything appraised and then another week to get the closing paperwork together so we can start building. We're keeping out fingers crossed.

As for the tractor...  I fixed it...  Myself.  Turns out after explaining the problem to the guy at the tractor shop, he told me what to do to fix it and it only cost me $4 in parts.  WOO HOO!!!  I was up and running on Presidents' Day and also got in several hours of mowing this past weekend.  Sorry I don't have any pictures, but I promise some in the next entry.  I managed to get all of the rest of the open spaces on the farm mowed and am now working on mowing between the trees of the planted pines.  The place looks much larger now that you can see across the fields.

On the other (rental) home front, it's fertilizer spreading time.  Though I don't understand why they picked a day when the wind was blowing directly from the pile of chicken manure to our house.  It was not a pleasant day to be outside...or in our front yard as you'll see from these pictures.

There are chunks flying halfway into our front yard as I took this picture.

He's spreading the love!

Luckily the winds shifted today and it's blowing about 25mph in the other direction.  For that we are thankful.

Until next time...