6 Acre Dream

So…I promised to post a description of how our little farm found us.

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Larry and I moved to a lovely arts and crafts styled home in August of 1996. We loved our new house…it faced Clear Lake and had a wonderful and gigantic maple tree in the back yard.

Because our dining room chairs were wobbly, Larry asked around for a person who might be able to repair them for us. Lowell was the recommendation. He lived 3 miles north of town and had the reputation of working miracles with hand tools. Probably before we even had our moving boxes unpacked, Larry hauled a couple of chairs out to the “farm.”

When he came home, he asked me to get into the car and drive back out. “You have to see this place.” Now what!! I climbed in and rode along. Seems like quite a bit of marriage is “riding along!”

We drove up to the little white farmhouse on the hill…and he was right. It was a lovely little place. He quietly told me that he would love a place like that. And that was that.

Fast forward about 18 years when “oh my gosh!” we noticed a For Sale sign as we passed by on our way to church. Uh-oh. I was in trouble. Larry might have made an offer that very day…but moving was totally not on my radar. I LOVED my house. So we didn’t move fast enough and SOLD went up before we knew it. Weird thing, we were BOTH incredibly disappointed. I was sure the new owner would tear the house down and build new. It was such an old little house.

Well, they didn’t. They started painting the exterior and I felt a little better. At least someone was going to take care of it. I was starting to feel like the place was an old friend I guess.

Then the miracle began…another For Sale sign went up and this time we were of one heart. We dared to dream together but it was such a long shot! Agreeing that we would NOT buy a house without first selling the one we already had, we put our home up for sale and made a bid on the farm that was loaded with contingencies. We spent more than one sunny afternoon walking the property and placing the outcome in God’s hands.

There came a day when it seemed everyone was interested in it. It looked like the only way to buy the place would be to take matters into our own hands and go with 2 mortgages. How many times have I put entrusted something or someone to God’s hands and then grabbed it back again?

The prophet Isaiah records the night that Jerusalem was surrounded by 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. There was absolutely no way that they would survive the battle that would certainly be engaged the next morning. But Hezekiah spent the night in prayer to the One True God. Did God strengthen the men in Jerusalem to fight? He could have. But instead, the city woke up that morning to the strangest of sights. Every single soldier lay dead. No one in Jerusalem had lifted a finger to defend themselves. The Angel of the Lord did it all for them while they slept. That’s the kind of God who made us. We claimed that truth and waited on God.

Within 48 hours our home on the lake had sold for the price we needed to get. And it sold for cash! It happened so fast it almost took my breath away! By the end of the week, the financial arrangements were approved and we were walking the property as the new owners!

Now we are on the journey of learning how to care for it. We’d like to restore some of the old buildings and archive as much as we can about its history and the history of the family that lived here for so many years.

 ^{Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”} 

^{Joshua 1:9}