Two weeks to go until the solstice. This means four weeks until it’s as light as it is today. I keep track of such things, obsessively. Unusual things take my mind off such things, a good thing, indeed.

Last night the phone range and I answered it. It was Tom, the realtor, who is now in charge of finding a new owner for Jim’s place. Tom is older, wears a baseball cap, talks with a slight hint of a southern accent. When he talks, he goes on for a long time, so its best to have nothing else to do, or else you will feel bad about cutting the conversation short.

Jim’s family had hoped to part company with Jim’s house by October. This didn’t happen. It took them some time to get the place cleaned out. Two online auctioneers took on the job. The first auctioneer gave up a few weeks after starting. The second auctioneer was up for the task and held an online auction.

They impressed me as being deadbeats. They would start fires in the yard and burn things. The yard was soon a muddy mess. A number of the workers smoked.

The second auctioneer was not discriminating when it came to Jim’s possessions – the workers tossed a lot of Jim’s possessions in several dumpsters and made several trips with the dumpsters in tow to the dump. Pete, who did some dumpster diving, found a few things of worth and said that Jim would have been bothered by the fact that they parted company with perfectly usable items.

Shadow with Jim's crane

Semi in front on Jim's house

It slowly dawned on Jim’s family that they could get a lot of money for this place. This was after the shock of Jim’s death and the shock of having to deal with so much of his crap wore off. They weren’t happy with the first or second realtor but were okay with the third.

I don’t know how Jim’s family found Tom. He’s a genuinely nice guy. One day, when we were gone, the horses got off the property and he brought them back for us. Says he loves horses. Says we have right nice horses.

October first came and went. This was the family deadline. There were, early on, several offers, and later on, one offer. The property is unconventional, being off the grid ‘n all, so the down payment cost is fairly high.

My friend Becky is a gardener – Jim gardened for years, and he left some beautiful raised flower and vegetable beds behind. This place would suit Becky well, but she is attached to her Sutton off the grid property, and perhaps for this reason she isn’t interested in investing time and energy in getting the cash together to pay for Jim’s place.

Jim left a crane behind, one that he used to build the place. He bought at an auction at Ron Mistler’s place, a local cowboy. Tom has been intent on getting it out of the yard. There’s a huge semi and flatbed trailer parked in front of Jim’s property – the crane is to the left of it.

Because there is so much snow, neither the crane nor the semi is going anywhere until spring. The guys will give getting it off the property a go because this is what guys do.

Next: 337. 12/8/22: The Ranger Report