In the Market?

Real estate should be sold differently out here. Rather, I think it is sold differently out here, but that should have been stipulated on internet listings that can be viewed across the nation.

A house is just that. Four sides (or more, if you're a fancy house) a roof, water system (if you're lucky, apparently), floors, a kitchen. I'm sure you can see one in your head. A house is given its merit by the type of flooring, how many square feet lie between the walls, what type of curb appeal it has, its proximity to major highways, industry, grocery stores.

Before moving to this house, our understanding of "neighborhood" was someing completely different. Our neighbors were right next door. And my, did we have some wonderful neighbors. Sweet people who were encouraging and nice.

But the web of support that a neighborhood in Iowa provides is, well, quite remarkable. It should be listed as an asset on the sheet (or a liability, depending on your particular neighbors!). Beds:3, Bath:1.75, Sq.Feet: 2015, Neighbors:Excellent.

Sure, a safe neighborhood is nice. You don't want to worry about getting mugged on your way to the grocery store. But if that is not your immediate concern, then the type of people you will be surrounded with for the next number of years should be highly considered.

Because until we moved here, I had no idea the depth of support that a neighbor could provide.

This winter, one neighbor, on his birthday, brought over his grain wagon filled with 100 bushels of corn and parked it in our machine shed because we had run out of corn the day before. This same neighbor (without prompting) plowed our driveway after two notorious storms this winter.

Another neighbor hurried over when we had a feed truck stuck in our side-yard. Just, you know, dropped everything he was doing and spent a few hours helping me with a mid-day dilemma.

And who could forget Neighbor Mike, who did this, and this. And many more things that I have yet to list on this small internet space. Yesterday he drove his tractor over and ran a disc and a harrow over our "old" garden. Our HUGE garden that will now be made back into hay ground. I will explain that a bit more in later posts, but the important thing is that he spent the better part of an afternoon driving back and forth over this third of an acre, smoothing it out. Then, he and Phil spread pasture mix seed on the ground. When he was done, I brought him a few cookies and asked him what we could pay him for all of this work.

In his gruff manner he paused, tilted his head and said "Lady, you can't afford me." With that, he got back up on his tractor, waved goodbye to Ryan, gave Phil and I a nod, and headed back to his place, 4 miles West.

A friend recently asked me if we would consider moving to a different house in Iowa (like, one with fewer problems). When I thought about this later on, I realized how important this whole sense of community is to our survival out here. Our house is not just "4 bed, 1 bath, 1 torn up bath, one partially effective kitchen." It's also Within Tractor-Driving Distance of Farmer Mike. I've tried, but can't quite find a local house that stands up to that kind of competition.