The real estate agent called me this afternoon to say the folks who own the property we want to buy were not keen on our offer. She is going to be out of town this weekend, and they decided to think things over. So, we wait until Monday.

At this point, I'm pretty disappointed just because our offer seemed pretty fair. The land is not a prime hunting parcel (it has homes on two sides of it), and it wouldn't make the greatest building site for a *nice* home. It's just a hay field, for Pete's sake! It's wet in spring (and when it rains), it has no trees, and would only be good to keep as agricultural land. In fact, the guy selling has said he wants to see someone buy it who will keep it agricultural. Hello!?! What the heck are we doing over here?

I can understand their position though. They wanted $2100 per acre, which is a whole lot different than the $1200 we offered. The problem with their price is that the average for undeveloped agricultural land in Ashland County is around $1400. And that's for parcels larger than 35 acres. This is a 33 acre chunk hardly worth a herd of turtles, let alone dairy cattle.

I believe the guy wants to cash in on the land boom that's happening up this way. But for that to work, he needs to stop touting the land as agricultural. Only, it still isn't a great parcel for building/hunting/getting away from the Big City, so it's going to be a tough sell. Oh ya...he also told the real estate agent he's had a lot of people interested in it. Kinda funny that we have been the only ones to actually put in an offer on it then.

My one hope is that, if he doesn't sell to us, he at least gives it to someone who won't just put up a trailer home and drive their ATV endlessly in circles behind our house. If that happens, we'll be cashing in on the real estate bubble, and moving to Nova Scotia with our booty. (I can buy a century old farm in southern NS, complete with farmhouse, barns, apple orchard and 25 acres, for the same price as 10 ACRES of land up here now!).

But wait, there's more...just to show you how ridiculous the real estate climate has gotten up here, check this out. I just found a 40 acre parcel north of Bayfield with a view of Lake Superior (no frontage,not even access...just a pretty view) which is listed for...wait for it... $3,200,000! Absurd!

Well, I'm tuckered, and mildly irritated at this twist of fate. On the bright side, perhaps he'll reject our offer and the land will sit there unsold for a year so we can raise funds to really have a go at it. In fact, I partially hope this happens, because then I can feel less stressed about getting writing business in.

Well, enough ranting...I'm off to dream of fruit trees and swimming holes...