Our Journey to the Farm: Part 6

To help us make a decision about whether or not to put in an offer a particular piece of land, my man and I took 7 days of silence from the topic. We prayed. Thought it over. And those 7 days passed by slowly. My man worked his regular hours. I kept gardening, harvesting, preserving and cooking. But finally, the day came. We decided to talk it over down below the greenhouses, where we kept our tiny ‘barnyard’ of animals.

 

The Conclusion Is…

Sitting in the cool grass, we watched our turkeys graze in their pen. And we talked. He presented his thoughts and “sense.” And I told him mine.

The conclusion was… yes! We both felt peace with moving forward, with making an offer. But there was a catch that neither of us understood. We’d both felt “wait.” Wait until late August or early September.

Weird, I know! But we both had the exact same thought. And so, we stood by it.

 

Making An Offer

The first week of September came ’round and we called the owner. Because his asking price was just beyond what we could manage, we make a lower offer. He countered us and we told him we’d try to make it work. But he had to remember: our offer was subject to financing.

Before the bank would consider funding us, they needed to know the land was approved for a septic system. With the owner, we started searching for someone to run percolation tests.

My man and I were living in an odd state of being. Excited, yet holding our hope in check. The entire thing was dependent on the bank! We honestly didn’t know if we could afford to pay what the owner had asked. And so, we waited.

A septic company was going to run percolation tests shortly. And then? We hoped to have an answer by mid-fall.

 

Waiting for Percolation Tests

Life resumed it’s normal pace. The late summer days stretched into autumn. The owner was still trying to get a company to come out and run the tests. We kept waiting for a word from him.

Hunting season arrived. My man and I both harvested deer and filled the freezer once again. 

Slowly, autumn faded out. Winter covered the land. And because the ground was frozen, testing was delayed until spring. Our offer still stood. But now, we had to wait!

My man and I both felt a bit…frustrated. We’d tried to go about the process in a wise manner, always looking and planning ahead. We’d asked for God’s direction regarding everything and had landed on (what seemed like) a definite answer. We’d saved for this, labored long and hard, had put so much effort and energy into it all!

Why?! Why had we both felt that we ought to wait? Hindsight seemed to say that if we hadn’t waited, we wouldn’t be in this awkward situation. But what could we do?

Nothing. We simply had to wait.

 

Determined to Finish Well

My man and I were tired, weary of holding to such a tight budget, of taking on extra work, of planning, thinking and preparing. But we were determined. When those tests came through in the spring, we wanted to be ready to cross the finish line.

So we headed into our third winter in the valley, strengthening our money-saving resolve, hoping that this was the last lap of the race. We could keep denying ourselves for just a while longer. We could do it. For the sake of being prepared, we could do it.

Slowly, our third winter in the south passed us by.

Click here to get part 7!