On a warm, sunny, lazy summer Sunday afternoon, what better to do than daydream away about how to make life better for yourself and your family. That is as long as you stay within your monetary limits.
But certainly not my husband, as he is browsing through the newspaper and sees a farm for sale. Living paycheck to paycheck is for the birds! So…..why not purchase a farm large enough to make a living for our family?
My husband had grown up on a farm and although my father owned several farms, I knew little about farming for a living. Never to be deterred by obstacles, when I wanted something, I bit onto his idea as if it were mine!Now we take stock of our financial situation. Well…..we have no cash! Two hundred dollars in the bank is no money! But, wait a minute, I just remember hearing my father say his attorney could buy anything without a down payment!
Monday morning I give that attorney a call. I explained to him our financial situation, tell him we want to purchase a farm that is not currently on the market and we don’t know who owns it. He gives us an appointment to see him at his Marysville office.
He knew who owned that farm, knew the owner wanted to sell, and had an offer already written when we arrived at his office. The farm was one hundred forty three acres with a large one hundred year old house and barn with several smaller buildings.
Our offer was $16,000 with $3000 down, assume a mortgage of $11,500 and $1500 to be paid to the owner $500 a year for three years. It would be a “Land” contract, and we would get the deed in three years. It was September 1947. I really should tell you that because of the price.
After explaining everything to us, he looked at me and said, “You can get the $3000.” I knew he was referring to my father. I said , “My parents are in Arizona.” But I didn’t tell him there was no way I would ask my father for $3000! He told us, “The owners are Dorothy and Bernard Gray, who live on a farm south of Richwood.”
He then followed with, “When you go there this Sunday afternoon take both your little girls and each of you hold one on your lap. They are very strong family people.” Oh sure, these little run about girls! Easy!!!!!!
What a delightful couple Dorothy and Bernard Gray turned out to be. After agreeing to everything in our contract, Dorothy said to her husband, “I think we should give them our half of the cash crop this fall, they will need it to get them through this first winter.” The farm was rented by a local farmer. Then Dorothy looked at me and said, “Your parents are going to be surprised when they come home from Arizona and learn you just bought a farm.”
It didn’t occur to me until later that our attorney and the Grays were friends, and everything had been agreeable with them before it was ever drawn-up. He had even told them where my parents were.
On arriving back in Ohio, my father soon went to visit his friend Len Hornbeck. That is when he learned, “Your daughter Florence bought a farm.”
Well…….he soon came to see me with a proposition, “I’ve talked to Rocky Pyers and he said he could get twenty head of Holstein heifers breeding age from Wisconson for $3000” and would I accept them as a gift? Then he added,
“You are going to need a steady income or I’m afraid you will lose your farm.”
After hesitating a moment,”Yes I will accept them.” Finding he made progress with that he then added, “And I can get you 125 Leghorn pullets four months old and just ready to start laying eggs so that you can sell a crate a week. Then you will have an egg check each week and a milk check twice a month.”
In the mean time, I’m floating around on cloud nine!!!!!!!!!! While he is thinking “So far so good.” And followed with, “Rocky said you had ordered $400 worth of sheep from him and I would like to pay for them.”
You over stepped your bounds that time Daddy, but what I said to him was, “We have already made arrangements to borrow that money from the bank. If I let you pay for them that will hurt my credit rating, I can’t do that.” We had borrowed the $3000 from the bank on a note with my husband’s father co-signing. My father had no idea how we had managed to buy that farm and I never told him.
My father was disappointed, but as I said before, I was on CLOUD NINE!!!!!!!!!
That first winter was rough. But four of those Holstein heifers were with calf and were soon in the milk line with others to follow. Also, when they were delivered, there were twenty two heifers instead of twenty. We built a milk house, a milking parlor, soon followed by added loafing area to the forty foot high barn. Building one silo after another until we had three, still more added loafing area, three grain storage bins and a large machine shed.
We cleared the land of all those small buildings since after one year we went to an all dairy farm, building our milk line to around seventy cows. Since it soon became “Who is gonna help Mom milk?” I refused to build the herd beyond seventy cows!
Last but very important to me, we remodeled the house and built a two car garage.
I must tell you about a couple shopping trips my husband made over those years. Returning from Columbus he came into the house and said, “I bought each of us a present” then followed with, “A ring with three diamonds for you and a diamond ring for me!” What a lovely thing to do!
Another time as he came in from shopping, “I bought two new big tractors with cabs, one for me and one for you!”
JUST WHAT I ALWAYS WANTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FRF ♥