Exciting News!

Ok then. Here it is. We bought a farm last week. Well, at least it used to be a farm. The buildings have sadly been a victim of neglect and pilfering for the past decade. Walter, being a man who can see "POTENTIAL" (By the way, this is a wonderful quality to possess, something which I (Pam) did not receive as abundantly!) saw past its neglect and has great visions for our new property. Since September when we learned about the land, we have been praying for God's guidance about this and we feel so blessed with His answer.

Ok, the particulars: It is 58 acres between St. James and Rolla on Little Prairie Lake. The old farmhouse on it burned down about 10 years ago, but it still has several outbuildings. Most notably, the large barn on it had the front half converted to a restaurant in the '90's, The Jesse James Hideout, and from what I understand it was a great place to eat catfish for quite a while. I suspect some of you reading this have probably even eaten there. The farm also in its recent history has had a horse barn, campground, rodeo arena, golf driving range, mud pit, bar, stage, dance floor, and a used car lot. The restaurant was closed about 10 years ago, and not much has been done since then, other than the previously mentioned pilfering. It has had a rough past, but we are hoping that with some TLC (in the form of gutting out the restaurant, tearing down the garage, and general cleaning up) it will have a beautiful future. It also has a modular 2 room office building, gazebo, pavilion and very nice hay field.

You may have noticed I said there was no house. This is only a minor inconvenience to a visionary. Basically, this just translates into WORK! We only need to sell our house before we can begin to build a new house there. And, naturally, our house is not exactly "move-in" ready. Our current project is to finish trimming the basement windows. This was not finished when we moved in 8 years ago, and now seems like the perfect time to finish it. Also, the basement needs "real" flooring, as opposed to the used carpet we laid down there several years ago. Otherwise, lots of painting, sorting through stuff, cleaning up, etc. So, if you know of anyone looking for a house like ours, just let us know.

Jenny will be posting some "BEFORE" pictures soon! I say before because we are hoping it won't stay in its current condition for long. Please don't be too shocked at the pictures - a shovel, crowbar, wheel barrow and dumpster should take care of a lot of the mess :-).
Posted by Pam