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| The Head Troll describes the area in Maine where the new Apifera will be. |
Martyn came home Thursday night, opened a beer, and I told him to sit down.
"I bought a farm. It's perfect," I said.
I remember my mom bought a house once when my dad was in Europe on business and she said,
"I have to do it and I have to do it now."
When I showed Martyn the photos of the place, he said, "Wow," and he kissed me.
I have been looking at Maine properties since December. It was still too soon to put offers in, but I had my list ready. One by one, they sold, or I realized they just didn't speak to me. One did, sort of, not the house, but the big barn was okay.
But on Thursday, my Maine friend emailed me a brand new listing, and when I opened the link, I felt it. It was the same feeling when I bought my Portland home, and we all know what that led too. I called the Maine agent, and listened for a few minutes, and said I was making an offer. My friends would go out the next day and look at it. And they did. And it is meant to be, they said it is even more perfect and magical in person. I'm not showing pictures of it...yet. Even as I was putting offers in, there were showings stacking up, and it had only been on 2 days. My friend who found the listing said if she hadn't signed up for hourly notifications from the on site realty site for the area we were looking in, she might not have seen it until the next day and I know we would have lost it.
But wait, the story gets better.
So when my friend, and her father-who is also a friend to Apifera now-when they arrived to see the property with the listing agent, she knew it was his 60th birthday, as I had mentioned it to her. And she brought him copies of my book as a gift-unbeknowdst to me. He loved them and said he was going to show them to the seller couple. He took the books to them, and they immediately said, "They are definitely the people that need to live on that farm," and even though they could have looked at other offers, they chose not to.
I am trying to remain calm, but I am so excited to just be there. I feel like I need to be there as soon as possible. Of course we need a successful close here the end of march and we see no reason why there shouldn't be one, but will be so relieved after closing.
I can tell you this–there are old growth peach, plum and apple trees, a weathered picket fence around perennial and vegetable gardens, a ready made chicken area, woods to ramble in with old oaks, maple and pine-and the ocean coves are on both sides. I can tell tat when I first looked at it, it was like looking at a baby I birthed. The house is a 1760 cottage style, old plank pine with fireplaces and is pure Maine.
The town is called Bremen and it sits between two coves of the Atlantic ocean, convenient to many beautiful places and charming towns. Of course it is not ours until after closing...but is there for us and I feel it wants u and all will be well.
I am giving myself through tonight and then I will go into complete get a move on mode-which means I have so many details to deal with, including hauling the animals, purging, getting this farm ready for the new owners as they will be keeping many of the flock and I want my flock to be all ready for them with shots and feet trims. And any day now, lambing begins.
To say there is a lot going on...an understatement.
I can tell you too that knowing where we will end up makes the leaving so much easier. I was actually having a lot of moments of grief here. It was just becoming so hard, all the goodbyes, all the memories rushing in and out during chores. Now I can think of the new land and house. Oh you will love it, I can't wait to share it with you.
But I have to go now. The Head Troll has a list of questions, Earnest has requested writing tablets, with lines, so he can keep a diary on the road trip...and Paco has many concerns which I fully expected and I need to start reassuring him.
