Your Scribe got an offer over the weekend to sell an acre of land.

Since the offer from Terry the Motivated Renter was higher than I had expected, I plan to pursue the transaction.

Terry must vacate his rental up the (dirt) road. Somewhat of a hermit (though his large, rambunctious dog certainly isn't), Terry doesn't want to leave the area. He has offered to buy about an acre upon which he plans to plop a doublewide.

Pearl Buck, the great American author and oft-China resident, would disapprove. In her books (including "The Good Earth"), she stated repeatedly that the land has lasting value, and it should not be sold or traded.

(An aside: She might have been right but with marauding Asiatic warlords looting the countryside in the tumultuous times she wrote about, what good would loose currency have been anyway?)

So, Pearl, here is my thinking:

- I would be doing a good turn for a neighbor who really wants to stay rooted on our road.

- Terry would be below me on the road, and thus he would pay the cost of bringing electricity down the street. I do not have power, and I am thinking it would be nice. Hooking into an existing line in front of my driveway is a lot cheaper than getting CMP to run the whole line down to your cabin.

- Because my street is a public, tax-supported thoroughfare, the road commissioner would have to improve it so Terry (a taxpayer) can get his car in and out. Each spring it gets washed out, then misshapen by ATVs, lumber trucks and teens looking for a place to neck (An aside: Not much gets done, because of the squadrons of mosquitoes and black flies that patrol the few open spaces where one can park). So the road would be improved, and that would help everyone.

- The town would have to plow down to Terry's, which means I could get into my driveway in the winter.

But back to Pearl . . .

Money is not as important as land. On this I agree with novelist Buck.

But I would be selling just one acre of 18 that I own. And Terry has agreed to place his trailer in a section that is not visible from my "wilderness retreat."

Maybe Pearl Buck would say no.

But Your Scribe says Yes, bring forth that purchase and sales agreement.

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