Well enough about funerals!
Read a disturbing newspaper article yesterday, it is looking more and more like we will be bought out by the power company. They let us know over a year ago that they were "considering" our road as the route, and they have been narrowing it down. We had heard from a neighbor that our route was "off the table" but yesterday, the official word was out in the paper. Our route is the only one that looks logical of the options they have left, and we don't believe they are truly considering the other two.
Sigh.
I have a realtor friend who tells us she will get us "more house" for what they give us for this one, and that people in our situation usually come out better, that they pay you to move and such as well.
We are sooooooooooooooo irritated. We are in a very defensible, remote spot here and we have all the animal enclosures created and set up. The house isn't good, but I can't imagine we could get one much better for what this one is worth, especially at the new value. My realtor friend says they have to give us what we OWE not what it is worth, so we should get "more house out of it", but none of this is in our master plan, we planned to always stay here.
I adopted my little foster dog Harry to a person who I had volunteered with in dog rescue, very nice lady, and she has become my good friend now, and I babysit the little dog from time to time. She is my realtor friend. So I do think she would be sympathetic to the needs of a dog fostering family with a mini-farm.
But it sure is an unsettled feeling having the government have the power to just come in and tell you that you must leave. Most of the people in my county are opposed to this, it does not even benefit our state, it is to serve the needs of California, Portland and Canada and all we can hope for is that choosing the least expensive alternative will raise our electric bills the least. But they caused the entire county to have a drop in property values, as they sent letters of intent to "evaluate" the routes to many, many more homes than it could possibly effect. Everyone stopped investing in their homes, especially people who were going upside down on their mortgages. We had just bought this home but the following year it had dropped 20,000 in value, and the year after that another 10,000. So a home we bought three years ago is now worth 30,000 less. But several people walked away from their mortgages when they heard about this, and the house across from us sold for a mere 35,000, which made almost all the other homes here drop in value tremendously again, I worry we are going to hear that the value drops again this year. At least it means our taxes are less, but when we need to find a replacement home, I sure hope my realtor friend is right.
If anyone has any expertise or experience in this please let me know, we are starting to be concerned that they really will take this place from us.
If we could turn this into a positive for us, I would not be unhappy finding another place to settle. All around Washington are places much like this so this is more a huge annoyance than a cause for depression, although hubby is taking it hard. But I would not have chosen something quite this remote had I known that I would become unable to drive, but nothing short of a government order would have convinced Hubby to sell.
I have three purebred Buff Orpingtons left, an adult hen, the broody one, and two fledglings, one is a roo I'm pretty sure. I was thinking of giving them a space to themselves. Then I'd just have 19 hens and two EE roos (currently cockerels) in the other coop, and one cockerel for the stew pot (don't need a mix roo). I think that would be a pretty good ratio. For now while it is summer and they barely go inside I think I'll leave them all together, but the three I put up front can clean my veggie garden up for me in the fall. 
