To Be or Not to Be

We visited the farm again the following morning to check the farm implements and equipment offered with the land and livestock. Since the Owner was leaving to travel to East London for a few days, there were no further opportunities to visit the farm. We spent a few more days with cousins D,C and S looking at the numbers, doing financial projections and generally exhausting all possible scenarios regarding the farm.

We had a rude introduction to Karoo farming life while we were there. Brother R, cousin S and I went to have dinner with the other cousins A and P (P being D's brother and A being C's sister). We got a call that there was a grass fire on the farm that had been caused by lightening. Happily the lightening had been accompanied by moderately heavy rainfall, and the fire was under control and out within a few hours. The upside thereof was that we got to meet a large number of potential new neighbours!

We left cousin S' farm and spent a few nights with cousins A and P and returned to Johannesburg on the Sunday. Brother R returned to Zimbabwe and I finalized my feasibility studies. When I phoned the owner D, to futher discuss the possible purchase, he advised that a third party had taken an option on the property until 30 November. To say this was disappointing was an understatement! It certainly was irritating. I got Owner D to agree not to renew the option should it expire, and also agree that I would then have right of first refusal. I advised brother R of what was happening, and we settled down to wait for the outcome.