Day 27 - Neener Neener

While working in cleaning up the yard and other assorted tasks that had become part of my daily routine, I noticed a familiar vehicle in the field next door. Just before closing, the previous owner had piled a plethora of random items just past the property line. For the first few weeks of living on the farm, the previous owner had been there daily, picking through, sorting, selling, collecting, trashing, and burning these items. 

Despite being right next door, we never really acknowledged each other given the tumultuous decline of our relationship through the acquisition process. In our last encounter, he showered us with a few curses, threats, and a real life neener neener. (If you only know what that means, look it up. You won't be disappointed.).

So when he waved me over, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. Luckily, there were no fireworks. We both looked past the previous encounter. Knowing he probably still held some anger and disdain, I certainly wasn't expecting an apology. Acting like the foolishness he exhibited the last time never happened worked just fine for me. 

He wanted to show me a few things he hadn't mentioned before. He told me some basic information about the culvert at the front of the property, the dirt piles on our side of the property line, and the timed lighting system that handled lights on the lampposts and barn. We exchanged pleasantries, I thanked him for the information, and we both went back to our respectives piles of farm treasures. 

It felt good to bury the hatchet. Up to this point, we felt awkward doing anything outside, realizing he was right next door and might respond unpredictable. Given the fact that he still owned the four empty lots connected to our land, we didn't want there to be any hostility or uneasiness between us. Ultimately, we just wanted to get to work on making the farm ours. 

We knew living on a farm would be a shift. We knew life wouldn’t be the same. We knew there would be plenty of work to do. We just didn't know exactly what that work would be. 

In fact, we had no idea.