There is an old saying popular in the veteran community. It is simple, just three words to sum up a lifetime. The phrase is not completely appropriate to this morning’s events. We are selling the farm, which refers to Refuge Farm, the delightful little equine property we have owned for nearly 14 years. When we purchased it, the phrase would have been accurate to the original meaning. You may recall the context from other times. It referred not to actual real estate, although it was accurate. the “farm” included in the phrase was simple enough- a small plot not much larger than a living human that produced a crop of plain green grass. It referred to the burial plot where eternity would witness the annual growth and renewal of the grass above the former owner of the property.

We are selling the property this morning. It has been a tumultuous process from the first realization that there was too much physical effort required to the keep the five acres green, growing, and fences upright around the upper and lower pastures.

Oh well. There is a lot of emotion also contained within the fence-lines. It was purchased in the wake of what they called “the Great Recession” in 2009. That event was a result of some Congressional wisdom that decreed anyone should be able to qualify for a mortgage. It is a lovely thought. What actually occurred was something like the Student Loan mess we are still arguing about. There appears to be no end to the number of Philosophy majors we intend to produce to meet the social need for graduates who can contemplate unusual sorts of things. We had considered adapting the original terms of the short saying about real estate purchases and just scattering our ashes down in the gentle rolling hills of Culpeper.

This morning, a few signatures will settle that, and allow the buyer to “buy the farm.” We will keep you posted on how it goes!

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