March 2026 Ranch Update: Fin De Siècle

 What a difference a month makes. This weekend:

This is literally 30 days earlier:

This month's visit to Old Home and The Ranch was a surprisingly busy one.  It started with a pick-up and breakfast with La Contessa, followed by borrowing the truck from my sister and heading over to the local Self Storage to rent a 10' x 20' unit - I had put in a reservation the day before, but given my luck, I thought the cost of paying a bit early was more than balanced out by the stress I would avoid by worrying for three weeks about getting a spot - and then not being able to.

Heading up to The Ranch, I started with a quick sweep of the house.  Thankfully the roof seems to have made it through the Winter without leaking (Yay!) and no critters have made themselves felt.  We had spoken to our real estate agent about moving the items in the barn to the now-secured storage locker.  "I know a guy" was his response, and I met said guy.  He looked at everything; his only concern was if anything was fragile. Not a problem I replied, we will have cars.

I then went up to visit my Aunt and Uncle (and cousin).  My Aunt is not doing well:  her last chemo infusion was in November (she wanted to avoid one for the holidays so she could feel okay) and she was supposed to start in January, but a series of infection in her feet have left her unable to restart chemo.  The cancer is aggressively growing and the recommendation at this point is for comfort care.  That said, she was awake and engaged during the visit.

I headed back to the barn, where the Cowboy and Young Cowboy were present.  The barn is mostly cleaned out now as they remove their stuff, which will all be out by 01 April; an estate sale is likely to follow.  The Cowboy, as it turns out, has met the buyer (who came up) and his children.  It turns out that he is actually from not too far away.  The Cowboy seemed to like him; it gives me some comfort that it sounds like someone that will really enjoy living there and will take care of things.

It is odd, of course.  The cattle are all now gone to sale, the horse will be out this week.  There was nothing in the Upper Meadow but a lone deflated balloon slowly tumbling in low winds and a Canadian Goose making a patrol.  The barn and its surroundings are mostly empty at this point.  Of note, we all seemed to carefully avoid the fact that this could be the last time we would meet in a long time.

Most of the contingencies have fallen off.  There was one request for a UV system for the pump and a financing request for replacement of the wallboard in the pumphouse that had molded.  Both will be attended to; we close within 30 days.

This is the time of year that my parents would have loved.  Everything is green but not yet overgrown.  The daffodils are starting to fail, but the irises and local wildflowers will soon start coming out.  The days are warm but the evenings are cool.  The turkeys are out on their rounds.  In years past, the cattle would be in the meadows, dark blots against the green grass.

The Fin De Siècle - The end of an era - rapidly approaches.