Savingdogs-Saving the chickens

[Farmfresh]

This is why you REALLY need to learn to sign. I know, I know ... old dog new tricks and all of that stuff but signing can help keep you connected more in places, like funerals.

It has been a hard few days. I hope that you can get some good rest tonight and have a better week ahead.

 

[savingdogs]

Well we got all our hay so that is good, and we got stocked up on animal chow which is great too. I've got all the chickens in the same coop now, moved the little ones in with everybody else because they are fully feathered out. The ugly little EE cockerel is afraid to come out from under the coop. He is finally looking a little bit prettier, not too much though. The rest of my EEs are gorgeous, one is so pretty I think it is a cockerel as well. And I finally have a broody hen, and I don't have fertile eggs now! 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.

The four rabbit kits look excellent! I'll have to take some pictures, they just got their fur. Nana did not have any kits today, her due date, and this is her fourth go-round. I think I'll have to sell her as a pet.

I've also got the dumb duck that thinks it is a chicken, it has taken up broody residence in the coop next to the chicken with no eggs. The duck does have a few eggs, I think five. I don't know why the other one isn't laying. She has been hiding from the drake under the coop too. It is cool under there but it is impossible to retrieve them, I need to figure out a way to make it impossible for them to go under there.

 

[savingdogs]

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.

 

[Dawn419]

Oh sd,

I'm so sorry to hear of your dilema! We wonder about this same thing IF they ever decide to expand our highway. We've been told it won't happen but we saw it go down in TN. Can you say Eminent Domain.

Seems like there's no safe place, no matter what!

 

[savingdogs]

I have to say, that article is not very encouraging nor does it support what my realtor friend suggested. If they gave me "fair market value", that might be extremely low especially considering what my across-the-street home just sold for ((long story regarding that house I won't go into here, but it was an especially abused property so does not represent our road well as far as establishing value). If all we got was what we owe on the mortgage, which is considerably MORE than fair market value, and we owe that to someone, beyond the cost of moving, where does that leave us? Not even a down payment on a new home, and we are not in a position credit wise to do that in any event to get a decent interest rate we could afford a house on, even if we could get a loan. We downsized here due to a foreclosure into an owner-will-carry loan. So once we pay the person carrying our loan off, we would be left with what?

Our entire COUNTY practically is opposed to this, we were all sent letters to allow then to come "survey" and no one signed or returned them and we all put up no trespassing signs. There are actually two groups officially formed to oppose this, and they have lawyers, and we are part of one of them, and we have posted signs for them to "Go away", so I think we have officially begun the process of protesting. There is an article in every local paper about this issue, everyone effected is just as upset about our property values currently, so they must have some sort of plan to shut us all up. The actual price of property in our area is extremely depressed all over, so it is possible we could get the same kind of house for a small amount, but not if all our money goes towards paying off our loan. I don't see how that is very fair, we would effectively be turning homeowners into the homeless so I certainly hope my realtor friend has the insider scoop about how my state handles this.

Our neighbors are LIVID. One built his entire home himself, by hand. Another has a gorgeous, gorgeous home with a view of Mt.Saint Helens out their window (we don't see it). There are two people who bought homes here within the last two years and another one that has built a most elaborate, beautiful garden. Our home is one of the more modest by far, but we have a mortgage we can afford with our income, it seems like they need to make sure we are left in a similar fashion or there will be hell to pay, considering all the steam I've seen coming out of my neighbor's ears!

 

[Dawn419]

I truly hope the article is wrong but as I said, we saw it happen in TN.

The one we know of for certain was when they extended Hwy 56 from Smithville towards Nashville. Tried searching for the exact "new highway overhaul" but came up with zilch so I'm not putting the right words in.

Anyways, we had an aqaurium client who lost their family farm to EmDom due to that highway expansion. The farm had been in the family for generations and "progress" basically said "sorry 'bout your luck!". Our client is a lawyer in the community that this happened in and they came out okay and then some but can you even put a price on loosing your home?

The other two instances that were in the works before we left the area:

1-No word on but they wanted to take a part of her back property to extend the highway and she was still fighting when we quit working for her part time. She tried using every rare plant on her property and the powers that be just kept shaking their heads at her. I just found her phone # and we'll try calling her when we get to moms and see what is going on, if anything.

2-Was our old landlady's son back in TN. We were his direct neighbors and he owns land on both sides of the side road off of Hwy. 111. Well Dollar General Store decided that we needed one of their stores on every "country corner". The corner that they wanted of his has a protcted bat cave on it and he was told to basically except their $ offer or they'd just take it and it would be his loss. The last I heard, there's no store on that corner so I'm hoping and praying that the bats won that argument!

There could be better links for EmDom and I'll keep looking, I just refused to use the Wikipedia one as any one can type info into that.

 

[valmom]

Eminent Domain sucks! Back when I lived in Concord, Mass, they took a lot of property by ED for an expansion of the park. I was far enough away that I wasn't affected, but it brought the issue to the front of my mind. You really don't own what you think you do, in spite of putting your money and sweat into it, and paying the government taxes on it. Sometimes it makes you wonder.

 

[Farmfresh]

My D1's house has a LARGE city easement in the front and a two lane highway in front as well. The easement is plenty big enough that they could make the road 6 lanes if needed. The way this city has grown with new developments all of the time that road gets busier and busier. Still D1's house is on a hill and WITH the easement (and the large trees that we planted on it when I lived there as a kid) she is set back enough that it is still OK.

A couple of years ago however they built a new college and several new BIG housing developments down the road from her. Then she got the letter. They would be widening the road!! D1 pretty much freaked out. We were all disgusted and worried, but the easement has been there for years ... we all knew the day could happen. The dozers came and the workers and the asphalt trucks.

When they were done they had widened her road by just enough to install a turn lane for the housing developments. They also left her with a nice new entry to her drive.

Maybe you will be so lucky.

 

[savingdogs]

No, Farmfresh, they already told us they want the lines to go right over where the house exists if they use this area. They want a huge space on either side that isn't used by people, due to the amount of people who protest being near the power lines I suppose, as well as safety factors. That is why our area looks the most sensible. Their choices are to go through pretty untouched forest area, skirt around us altogether, or go over us. But there is a dam that is part of the power system and our road is the least populated way towards it. There is a resort behind us, but there is a big ridge of mountain in between so the resort will not really be ruined, just OUR road.

It is amazing to us when we chose to move to such a remote spot, we don't even have a county road, yet we are going to be bought out this way. But I think it is BECAUSE it is remote that they may choose this way. Frankly, the other routes would be too expensive because of what the homes cost, and going through the forest on the other route is also expensive. If they use our road, they probably only have to actually knock down about a dozen homes, but ours would be one. Our property is on a mountain and is not level, our home is on the level portion.

My realtor friend said in the ones she helped with in the past, the folks ended up with a better home than they started with. We have another friend in real estate who told us that they sometimes pay off your loan and then also pay off another property so you can move in. That sounds a little too good to be true, I'd settle just for having a comparable property and mortgage and wouldn't mind choosing a different house itself, but we do love this spot and I hate to think of it as a part of a huge power grid.

 

[BarredBuff]

Im sorry!! I hate this, they have been trying to root us up as well but it has died down. I hate it that they can do that. It aint right!