My first appointment of the day was to take an early drive over to the Floyd County abstract office and deliver an abstract of title to them for continuation. The light cloud cover offered some great views of the countryside, but what I found the most shocking, was seeing all the many corn fields that had not yet been picked, and the only reason I could think of, was those farmers were leaving it to freeze and air-dry instead of paying high propane prices to dry it.
Truth be told, many years ago, the farmers would leave their corn standing as long as they could, just so it would be dry enough to send to a grain storage bin. I’m sure many of you older ones remember seeing open corn cribs on just about every farm where they stored ear corn until it was time to shell and then hauled to a farmer’s coop where it would be sold by the bushel.
As a child, my most vivid memory of corn cribs was when standing near one and watching the workers shoveling out those ears of dried corn onto a conveyor which carried them to a sheller. It wasn’t long after they’d got the crib about half emptied when one of the guys would start up a lawn mower and leave it running near that crib, and when the rats would start running for cover, the first place they’d run was under that mower. If the general public only knew how many rats would be in those corn cribs all across Iowa, they wouldn’t even think of eating anything made of corn after the rats had their months of tunneling and feeding in them, and don’t even get me started on rat droppings. My experiences with rats at a very early age, is likely why I despise them with a passion. Oh, and don’t forget, rats were never native to America until our first settlers brought them here on their sailing ships. Once they laid anchor, those stowaway rats would come ashore under the cover of night via the mooring ropes of those ships. So here we are still battling their infestations.
We did finally get word on an appraisal we’ve been waiting on for several weeks, but unfortunately the appraiser must’ve been wearing a pair of tight pantyhose because of the work requirements that are being called for. It did come in at value, but now we have to deal with getting those improvements made. I’m beginning to question some of that appraiser’s reasoning. Oh well, only time will tell.
During one of my showings today, one of the buyers shared a shivering story about a recent accident out in Eastern Iowa where a young woman was driving down a hilly blacktop and somehow hit a farm implement head-on and died. The scariest part, was her husband who was a first responder unknowingly arriving at the scene and finding his wife. The most heartbreaking, was the husband realizing he was on the phone with her when it happened and didn’t even know it because of how bad their cell phone receptions were in that hilly area. What a horrible burden that young man will be carrying for the rest of his life. But, it’s just another clear reminder that we should never be on our cell phones while driving.
I was also informed that the per capita use of drugs in several of those Counties is much higher than our State’s average which only makes sense because of how more rural they are. In these times, the smaller the towns and greater the distance they are from each other, just offers more opportunities for peddling and using. As far as I’m concerned, this drug problem has grown even worse since this pandemic arrived, and now that we have another super-variant of it, we’ll be seeing it hitting our shores. Our Governor had better be more proactive regarding the spreading of it this time around because I feel she did a very poor job when it first hit Iowa. It would be interesting to know what our per-capita Covid-related death rate has been in comparison to the other 49 States.
Another bit of information I learned from today’s showing, is the rise in the number of Mennonites buying homes, buildings and farms in those Northeast Iowa Counties. Unbeknownst to me, they’re now buying homes right it those small towns. I’d heard it before, but again today where they consider all the non-Mennonites as being the “English”. What I’ve often wondered about, is how much if any they pay in taxes because they prefer to only take cash payments when selling their goods such as flowers, furniture, vegetables, and now even puppies which I’d heard they’ve recently found to be another money-making venture. Today was the second time in less than a month my being informed they’re now into puppy farming. Do you think they’re skirting some of our State’s laws regarding the raising and selling of puppies? I had one experience with a pup from a puppy farm, and all I can say is, “Never again.”
The remainder of my day was spent taking calls, working on end of the month accounting, and scheduling appointments. As the afternoon rolled on, it turned out to be quite the pleasant day, but unfortunately I wasn’t out in it as much as I would’ve liked. It sounds like tomorrow will be a repeat, and if so, at least we can say a kindly goodbye to November. When noticing all the Christmas trees in the back of pick-up trucks, I dare say, Christmas will soon be here.
Tonight’s photo is a scan I took of one of the pages out of that abstract I delivered today, and the reason I’m sharing it, is the handwritten entries contained, the names of the streets, and the mention of a boulder being at the corner of one of those lots. Well, by the looks of it, they must’ve moved that boulder three or four blocks north, and created Boulder Park. I can’t imagine how much effort that must’ve been to get that monster moved. That plat was certified in 1869, and now you can see how much larger that town is today.
Tonight’s One-liner is: The public will believe anything, so long as it’s not founded on truth.
