Thank you for reading my story, I hope that you enjoy it. Mica xxx Yorkshire England
A distant uncle of mine, it had been some years since I last saw him, passed away and left me his farm. A neighbouring farmer was tending to his livestock following his death, and through the solicitor I got a message to him asking him to dispose of all the livestock, I didn't want it on the farm, he could have it if he wanted, but could he at least get it off the farm. I didn't want to be paying for it, just wanted it off the farm.
That apparently wasn't as simple as you would think. There were a lot of DEFRA forms to be filled in, and as I was getting the solicitor to handle everything, the fees were really piling up. By the time all was said and done I had a farm with equipment, no live animals, and all the cash left by my uncle had been eaten up in fees. I had to decide what I wanted to do with it, I had no clue about farming, had no desire to do farming and it was a fair few miles away, so I didn't really want to move and live there, hubby certainly didn't. I decided I needed to go and have a look at my new property.
I arranged to meet the neighbouring farmer, James Galbraith, at the farm at around ten. Even though I had been before, I did struggle to remember the way down the lanes, but eventually I got there, James was waiting in the yard.
"Lucy?" he asked as I got out of my fiesta, a car not really suited to country lanes and tracks, he has a more sensible Range Rover.
"Yes, James I presume."
"Indeed, I am sorry about your Uncle, we got on."
"Thank you, yes I liked him on the few occasions I visited. And now I own this, and I have no idea what to do with it."
"Okay, well, you could do nothing, that is a shame and a waste of good land, but if you are no farmer, you would have no clue and would just end up in debt."
"I assure you; I have no clue. I don't even know what Uncle Steve farmed."
"He had Dexters that he bred for beef. I took that herd and added it to mine as per your instruction. I know that you wanted no payment, but two of the herd were slaughtered and are now jointed and in two freezers in your barn. I felt it right that you had at least something from them. I hope that you are not vegetarian."
"Oh, Lord, no, and that is very kind of you, two whole Dexters, that'll keep me in meat for a couple of years I should have thought."
"Yes, much longer than that and the beef won't really be as good for eating."
"What about the rest of the farm, could I rent out the fields perhaps?"
"Yes, you could, and in fact I would be interested in renting them from you, they adjoin mine and would be a good addition, especially for hay. Your uncle farmed organically and that means that the fields are perhaps less productive in terms of yield but more so in terms of value. Organic farmland is quite sought after, so the one tends to compensate for the other."
"I suppose I ought to try and find someone to give me a valuation and we can then perhaps make an arrangement."
"Yes, that is a good idea, I can put someone your way, he will advise you. What do you want to do with all the equipment and tools and so on in the barns? It is really just the basics, he hired in the combine and the like when it was time for hay, and really only owned an old tractor of his own."
"I think I will leave that here, I can go through it at a later date, I quite like the idea of owning a tractor."
"You might as well, it really isn't that much use on a modern farm, and probably only worth a few thousand to a collector. It works, it just doesn't have the bells and whistles such as GPS that we need on a modern farm."
We chatted a bit longer, he advised me to keep as much locked up as I could, it wouldn't stop the dedicated rural thieves, but it would stop the chancers, he would make sure all the gates were kept closed, and said he would buy new chains and padlocks, and send me copies of the keys so that I could open them if I needed. He asked what I was going to do with the house. I told him I would probably clean it up and use it for a weekend retreat or possibly turn it into an Airbnb, but that was a little scary, I had heard a lot of horror stories about them.
"Yeah, the Airbnb thing not popular around here, it does cause a lot of issues with townies coming and running riot and not knowing how to behave in the countryside."
I told him I understood and that it probably wouldn't happen. After James had gone, promising to send me the Agent details, I went and looked around the house. Two big rooms, one a kitchen diner, the other a sitting room, and a loo and shower downstairs, and three bedrooms upstairs with a bathroom with shower and bath in it. The pace was dusty and needed a good vac, but it wasn't dirty. Uncle Steve had a dresser and a wardrobe with clothes and a box downstairs full of boots and shoes. I decided pretty much all of that would go to charity, I would hang on to the mud boots and the oilskin coats, they would always come in useful, but everything else could go.
The kitchen had the basics, an electric cooker, fridge, washing machine and an old AGA, but the AGA looked pretty much unused, certainly recently. Hot water seemed to come from an Emersion heater, although the AGA looked as if it could heat the water too. I might see if I could get that serviced and up and running. I knew that some of the farm was wooded, perhaps I could fell some of the trees and chop them up for firewood.
Over dinner I was telling hubby Craig about the property, he said that it sounded intriguing, and he looked forward to a time when he could visit, he liked the idea of a weekend getaway for us, especially if a farmer was paying us to use our land. I was telling him about the old tractor and stuff, and he said I ought to take his dad to look, he was knowledgeable and interested in old tractors.
A few days later and I had a free day and arranged to pick Phil up. Phil is my father in law and lives alone now that Craig's mum has passed on, and he was very interested in looking at the old tractor. We drove out to the farm, having to stop and open several gates on the way, and I parked in the barn, well the weather looked iffy, let's stay dry at least, I thought.
"Goodness Lucy, this is a beauty," Phil exclaimed as he looked at the old Massey.
"Okay, well you stay here and do your thing, I am not planning on selling it, it will be too useful here on the farm, and also you can come and tinker with it whenever you like. I'm going in the house to start clearing my uncle's things."
I had bought a roll of recycling bags with me, my plan being to bag up all my uncle's clothes and take to a charity shop. When I had done that I planned to run the vac around. Uncle had an old hoover, I had bought an old Dysan that I had, that could live here, the old hoover could also go to the charity shop.
I guess I had been at it about an hour and had emptied all of the clothes and shoes into bin bags, and decided it was time for a drink. I put the kettle on and made a couple of coffees, I had bought a thermos of milk with me just for this very thing.
"How is it going Phil," I enquired as I took our coffees to the barn.
"I am just ready to see if it'll fire up," he said, "you're just in time."
"Cool," well I had to pretend some interest. To me it was just a useful tool to have about the farm. I had also considered offering Phil to live here, not in the main bedroom, but in one of the others. He could sell his house with all it's memories, give us some money, rather than it fall foul of death taxes later, and have a nice nest egg to live off and buy some luxuries. He could live here rent free, in exchange for keeping an eye on the place for me. I would chat about it with hubby. Of course, Phil might not want to live this far out.
"Right then," he called, "Contact."
There was the sound of the engine turning over, some coughs of white smoke through a pipe that stuck up through the bonnet, and then it roared into life and sat there idling.