At the closing this morning of my listing at 216 Meadow Lane, I couldn’t help but tell the buyers, “No matter how bad one’s attitude could possibly be when walking thru the front door of your new home, it’ll soon be turned around once a view of Cheslea’s Creek’s lagoon is visible from your family room windows.” If there were ever a home that communes with nature, that home is certainly one of them. While doing our walk-thru yesterday we saw a mother duck leading her ducklings ashore. I only wished I had my camera with me to immortalize the sight of her leading them in a long regimented line. There was a lolly gagger who ended up getting scolded by her for not following quickly behind. Most people don’t realize that ducks are omnivorous and will eat not only grains, but will consume just about any kind of bug they can catch with their beaks.
When on the farm, we used to raise them along with geese. The ducks and geese never interacted with each other. The geese would be busy eating grasses and the ducks would be ever foraging for bugs—especially crickets and grasshoppers. There was one year that I swear I’d not heard a cricket all that summer. I understand now there’s an oriental duck which only eats bugs in gardens while leaving the vegetables alone. I know they sell them here in the United States where they’re not just a novelty, but also put to good use with the natural vegetable farmers who insist on no pesticides. They use those ducks to keep vegetable eating bugs under control.
Without a doubt it was certainly a scorcher today. I looked at the thermometer once and it read 97 degrees! I think that was a bit too high for it being only June the 10th. There’s no question in my mind that we are seeing the effects of global warming here in North Iowa. I had to make a quick trip to an abstract company in Garner mid-morning and was glad for getting it done more sooner than later with our temperatures being on the rise. When we have these terribly hot and humid days, it’s usually an indication of a storm on its way, and from the look of those dark clouds to the north tonight, I think we may be in for one, and I’m in hopes it’ll not turn raging.
Several days ago I had a conversation with a person who’s quite familiar with many of the real estate agents in North Iowa and the way in which they do business. We happened on a subject by my commenting on how I was turned away from showing three homes in a small Burg not far from here. Whenever I speak of that happening I become quite emotional because it was wrong, wrong, and more wrong for a purported “professional” to turn away another agent with obscure reasons. We both agreed that it’s not me or the other agent that gets hurt, but rather the general public, and that makes it all the more wrong. It’s almost like some have created a sort of realty caste system where there’s no movement upward due to another pushing you back down because of their control over “their” market. It was quite curious today when one of my clients started speaking of politics and my interjecting that there are cloaked caste systems all over the world, and most don’t even realize it. Just think about how you can’t at will rise without permission. That’s a part of a system which has been alive and well for centuries. I’m so sorry to inform all of you that these are the ways of our world because many times it’s never what you know, but who you know. It’s always someone in power who makes a choice to either raise you out of your lower caste, or throw you back, and many times not due to some special talent you have. I hope you all now understand my take on the invisible caste system that’s alive and well.
