OH! I destroyed the glass on the cold frame with the weed eater. I took the time to prime the cold frame before moving it. When I moved it, it fell apart !!!

OKAY. I'M DONE B$TCHIN.

I don't really understand your situation, but I'm so sorry. It sounds awful. And being sick could only make it feel worse than it already is. Do you need help? I could come over and help if you live somewhat close to me. I can't remember who lives where. I'm in the Norman/Moore area.

You are very kind. And I apologize. Really. I've been doing a pretty good job of not complaining even though, here, I'm trying to make light of it all. This is something we knew would come to a juncture, but knew not the direction because the other party has been uncommunicative for a very long time. We should have pressed the matter and taken control. When they finally did communicate, they did it all wrong. That much has been in our favor. It's been ongoing since April because of their behavior, but the weather hasn't been very agreeable even though we've had months. It's just life. I haven't been sleeping well because of this cold. That always makes me batty when under pressure. The only solution I really need is to go to BED.

The next time I'm dealing with delinquent individuals, I will grab the reigns so my life will not become chaotic! We are accustomed to a hard life, but one that is uneventful, peaceful and consistent in its own right.

The rain stopped. The sun is shining again. I roasted my home grown peppers and made burritos. I was able to grow maters and peppers! (Dawn was right about their heavenly smell.) I ate and now I'm going to sleep. Things will be much brighter after a nap.

<3

bon

Bon, It's been going on for a long time and I imagine the stress is hitting a peak point.

So, do you mean that if y'all come up with the $1,000 down payment, y'all get to buy the first house after all? Do you still want it? Please be sure you have an airtight signed contract before you give them a nickel.

I hope the nap helped and that you are feeling better now. Sometimes it just helps to vent.

I'd be happy to have 12" of water in my yard, but since our property slopes, the 12" of water wouldn't stay here where I want it.....it would all run downhill. Heck, I'd be happy to have a quarter-inch. I had to clean out my rain gauge the other day because it was full of dirt and dust.

Keep us posted on how your housing situation gets resolved. It will be so much better for your stress level when it is settled one way or the other.

Dawn

Bon the stress is enough to make you sick. And the added loss of garden dreams, I know me too, is downright frustrating. My visions of a full pantry and freezers is fading fast. You will be all right and rise above all the muck and mud and come out shining with those precious kiddos. and one thing keep in mind next years garden will be even better.

I wake up to find thunder, lightening and raining! What's up with this storm that won't move on? hahah Okay, I see the radar. It's just moving through. At least we're out of the drought unless we have a dry winter. I need to check my garden to see what's destroyed.


Bill moved to Cushing a long time ago and bought an old 2 story balloon construction home built in the 20s that sat on a single lot. It's an old flop house for the railway crews. The only good thing about this house is that it's paid for and it holds up to the earthquakes. The original construction of this old house includes a plethora of cross bracing throughout. And I mean everywhere, the floor beams, the studs and even the balloon construction is of diagonal bracing. The cross-bracing, we believe, is why it is so strong. We can tell the city has walked through it from time to time. It is not condemn-able! Most of the houses in Cushing are old and dilapidated and most owners either don't care or don't have the money for repairs - or both. Even for those who have the money, it's just not worth it. The city likes to tear them down and I don't blame them. But they can only do so if the house is condemn-able. Because his old house is solid, they cannot.

So, Bill's living in that house a decade ago and he meets the woman and gentlemen who live across the alley in a yellow cottage on 6 lots.

Eventually Bill becomes entangled with them in a complicated manner. This entanglement involves:

Mr. Ryan, the original founder of the book bindery in Cushing.
Mr. Ryan's daughter and son-in-law who were living in the cottage on 6 lots across the alley from his home at that time. (this house we're in)
Mr. Ryan's sister who is half owner of the cottage. She lives in Broken Arrow.

The cottage originally belonged to the mother of Mr. Ryan, the book bindery founder, and his sister. A family affair.

Unbeknownst to Bill, Mr. Ryan's daughter and son-in-law are ex convicts of white collar crimes and fraud and manipulation in all their affairs.

Mr. Ryan taught his son-in-law how to repair and bind books and handed the book bindery over to his son-in-law who was running the bindery at the time Bill met them.

Mr. Ryan's son-in-law and daughter agree to sell Bill the book bindery and the cottage on 6 lots for a set amount of money. Because they had plans to leave.

Bill doesn't realize the book bindery would never be sufficient to pay for anything but itself, but he loves the work and is very good at it. He's willing to give it his all to make the bindery work . Mr. Ryan's son-in-law shows him the ropes.

I come into the picture after a friend introduces me to Bill. We become fast friends and I decide to stick around.

I meet the couple who lives in the cottage on 6 lots nearby. She invites me to work for her making sales calls. They seem to be doing well. She asks me to call myself a doctor to influence potential clients. She insists I use a british accent. I can do that, but it makes me uncomfortable. I'm not real certain why I'm uncomfortable but it was real, so I go back to the bindery with Bill.

Mr. Ryan's daughter and son-in-law leave for Warsaw Poland and we move out of the old house and into into their cottage per agreement. Then, one night they call us and ask if they can come back. We agree.

We move out. We return to the old home. They return. We return everything but the bindery. Meanwhile, we grow tight with Mr. Ryan, the founder of the bindery. Unbeknownst to us, this pisses His daughter and son-in-law off. They distance themselves from us. Were it not for the economy, we'd still be doing it. The changes Bill made were phenomenal. Nobody knew how many books we hammered out through production. The city thought we were still doing bible repairs. It was awesome. Time would be required for us to make a profit but it was going there. This is the bindery where all the state's libraries had their books repaired.

My point is: Mr. Ryan, the book binder, was impressed though he was retired from book binding. He loved what we were doing. He watched the double expansion of the bindery. He stopped by and viewed in awe when we had ten employees working on a job. We brought his life's work from the brinks of death and into a modern age. And, unlike his daughter and her husband, we did it with pure gratitude.

We were so close that he was grandpa when our son was born. I would have done anything for that man. Tillman Ryan had a knack for motivating people, coming into people's life when it was the worst and lifting their spirits. He believe in god, believe in Jesus and we didn't care much about that, but he was always encouraging without condemnation or belittling. He never looked down upon us for our impoverished state. He saw what we were capable of an encouraged us to look behind stereotypes and be everything that he could see was possible. He held services in his home for a small group on Sundays. That was the only church attendance my husband has ever attended in his adult life.

When our baby piddled around the shop of the bindery day in and day out while we worked. Mr. Ryan would frequently visit us and play with his adopted kids and grandson. It was a complete family affair. Not to mention an all-american dream! We were pulling 50-100 hours a week. We were still poor, but we were productively happy and fulfilled.

Through the course of this time I had to correct and amend things at the bindery. I had to unhook it from the corrupt dealings of his son-in-law. It would appear Mr. Ryan's son-in-law used fake social security numbers while working there. I didn't think much of it as it had nothing to do with me or MY business license. At this point Mr. Ryan briefly pointed out that the his daughter and her husband had been in prison. When they got out, the family let them move into the dilapidated cottage on 6 lots. They fixed it up as the years went by.

In a later year noticed Mr. Ryan's daughter and son-in-law moving out of the cottage. Mr. Ryan told us to move in, change the locks and be happy. We did.

Two years later Mr. Ryan fell in the yard and bumped his head. He died a week later devastating everyone. Mr. Ryan's sister manipulated the ill-formed will and shoed her husband onto the title.

She had a third party contact us and ask for rent. We said no and began to move back into Bill's house. It wasn't that we didn't want to pay for it or to take advantage of Mr. Ryan's generosity. It was because we couldn't afford it. She decided to let us stay because she knew the house would grow into disrepair. That was the only time she was honest with me. For certain, they never returned.

We have been here ever since. She and her husband have never returned my phone calls, never returned my letters, never come by, never asked through third parties, never inquired after major quakes .. nothing for eight years. Meanwhile, it has been the hardest eight years for us. I've never been so poor. If I'd had money, I would have hired a lawyer and dealt with it prior to this.

Suddenly, last April, they showed up out of the blue chest-thumping and said,

When I saw her I reached for a hug and she pushed me away. "You have 30 days. I want to sell it." That's all they said, but one other thing: Basically, in contorted words the old man admitted that they hadn't been around in order to "help us". I guess I'm supposed to act stupid, at this point but I got PISSSED OFFF. I didn't get angry opnely, but I just shut the door. For real. Didn't know what to say at that point. Bill wasn't present, so I couldn't speak on his behalf. There was no paperwork. No eviction notice. Nothing legally standing. My only guess is they were doing drive-by sightings and saw that we had a new(er) truck and decided we were good for the money. People! I swear!!

SO? We dumped our tiny cash holding into Bill's old house taking advantage of the fact we have more than 30 days and waited for their return.

Too cowardly to speak with us, they hired Arhberg, the local lawyer. Stupid! Arhberg comes by on a Friday afternoon with a legitimate eviction notice and tells us they want us to buy the house. I notice the paperwork is done up so that we accept financial responsibility for years past rent. "Per Mr. Ryan's love for us, they wanted to let us have first dibs on buying it outright." Meanwhile, Ahrberg is stunned by the reality that we're not stupid. He was shocked that I took the time to read the notice. Seriously, I get tired of the stereo types! He was equally shocked that we knew the house was a POS and were ready to move. Ahrberg acts nice, just mislead by the attitudes of these people. Now, he seems to want to be rid of his clients asap.

In truth, we can afford the payments on this lot. No biggie, but we dumped every dime we had into Bill's house because of the misunderstanding and have nothing for the down. We've tried arguing this point, but they're assholes. I dunno. I don't think it's unreasonable, really. We're just poor. By the books, we're no longer poor but a decade of neglect is EXPENSUV

To make matters worse, Bill's boss was waiting on materials to come in so he put all employees on a few day's furlough until it arrived. Another kink! At this time, I haven't any work. Really, I don't have time to work as I'm busy moving. You see my dilemma here?

The cottage on six lots is now in poor shape. As I've mentioned on other threads, it's not holding up to the quakes without foundation repair. It's not cost-prohibitive to put money into it to repairs and maintenance. We had a friend come out and give us estimates - more than the whole thing is worth to repair.

Amazingly, it is more sensible to repair Bill's old house !!

Because it's my garden, we want to go ahead and buy the six lots. If we don't, it won't sell off or it will sell off into different hands and left to disrepair. It's so bad, it cannot be rented. It's not safe. We're fine, because we're knowledgeable. It's just how things are in Cushing with these old homes on cheap land.

I think everyone would agree, the best to own is us. We want to keep it, maintain it and grow on it. We will begin gutting the house and re purposing the materials into the other house. Slowly, over time, we will dismantle the cottage.

That's the plan, anyway. Only thing standing in our way is the $1000 down. We're looking for a loan for that much. (credit probs) We looked into the local loan shark places and the interest is to high for the payment spreads. We'd be locked into payments that never get completed, etc. etc. We haven't anything to sell. We sold everything off over the 8 years to survive.

Amazing, isn't it? LOLOL

Update: We're putting our feet down. We gave notice of intent to purchase. We're going to push the envelope and make them wait.

At this point an eviction would only be for pure malice. We think any judge looking at eviction papers would think the same. I'll tell the judge personally, if I must.

The lot in question will be my zone 4 and 5 permaculture!

Madam, u r an inspiration. Truely.

I'm grateful for everyone's patience !

I just landed another writing gig. BOOM

IT'S ALMOST DONE!

What kind of writing are you doing?

I write copy - content to convert to sales. Focus is on automotive engines and major components.

Congrats on the writing gig, Bon!

Rootin' for you Wewoka-way, Bon!

We have also secured a small loan. Breathing room! We'll contact and try to close this week.

I cannot stop with the permaculture dreams! "Lessee, I need a swale and berm here, a line of shrubs, there, a pecan tree, understory fruit trees... .oh wait. It's not a done deal yet!" hahaha

yay! Keep us posted.

They agreed! It's ours! WOOT

Yay Bon I am so happy for y'all. Dreams coming true. Plotting planning graphs charts lists oh my!!! : ) :) : )

Did you know your name autocorrected is Bonus ?

Lessee, I need a swale and berm here, a line of shrubs..... LOL Ima turn into a permie nut!

Yea!!! Congratulations on winning a long hard and frustrating fight. Victory is sweet.

Yay, yay, yay!!! So happy for you, Bill and the kids. Congratulations! Your long struggle over that house has come to a conclusion. It's about time! Now, onward and upward and you can focus on living your lives.

Thank ya!!

When all was said and done - after bill made the down - the lawyer spoke up. He was the original lawyer used to handle the old man's affairs after his passing including alterations to the will. He's a judge, now.

Over the last couple of weeks they were wanting to sell it out from under us when lawyer reminded them of the original arrangement and the old man's wishes.

I'm glad this happened this way.